Leading in a RUPTured World: Building Adaptive, Resilient and Compassionate Leadership for the Now and the Next

In the aftermath of the pandemic, as the global landscape continues to shift under our feet, there’s a deep and natural craving for certainty. Yet, paradoxically, the only constant today is CHANGE and uncertainty itself. Leaders are being called to perform a seemingly impossible balancing act—to acknowledge the volatility, risk, and ambiguity in the world around them, while simultaneously projecting grounded optimism, adaptability, and calm confidence. This deeply immersive session, “Leading in a RUPTured World”, offers a powerful new lens through which leaders can reinterpret complexity—not as chaos to be feared, but as the raw material for reinvention. Drawing from real-world leadership scenarios, emotional intelligence, and systems thinking, the session equips participants with tools to lead not despite disruption, but because of it. *RUPT stands for: Rapid, Uncertain, Paradoxical, and Tangled – an acronym coined by CDC to describe today’s radically altered leadership terrain.

The Oratory & Objective-As the world moves from “new normal” to “no normal,” many leaders still try to navigate this strange terrain using outdated mental models. But traditional blueprints—rooted in control, authority, and certainty—are no longer reliable. Instead, we must cultivate adaptive, relational, and regenerative leadership. This session is designed for the zeitgeist—to energize depleted leadership mindsets, reframe ambiguity as opportunity, and equip participants to face this paradigm shift not with fear, but with foresight and fortitude. Participants explore how to lead without authority, influence across boundaries, and become gardeners of trust, rather than gatekeepers of performance. This is not a leadership upgrade; it is a leadership metamorphosis—an existential imperative for organisations that wish to stay relevant in the RUPT world. Here’s the shift:

• From being the “know-it-all” to becoming the “learn-it-all.”
• From managing for efficiency to leading for resilience and emergence.
• From holding people accountable through control to inspiring through purpose and psychological safety.

Desired Outcome for Participants- Organisations and leaders who have experienced this session report marked shifts in both mindset and method. Ultimately, this session transforms not just how leaders act, but how they think, feel, and connect. It is a rare opportunity to rewire leadership at a time when the world needs it most—not for survival alone, but for thriving in the unknown. Tangible outcomes include:

• Greater emotional resilience and decision-making clarity under pressure.
• The ability to engage and inspire teams remotely and across distributed ecosystems
• The creation of leadership cultures rooted in compassion, agility, and systemic thinking.
• Improved capacity to scenario-plan, pivot quickly, and lead with practical optimism.
• A redefinition of success—not just as performance, but as sustainability, purpose, and people-centric growth.