Artificial intelligence is the most exhaustively covered technology since the dawn of the internet. As any tech editor will tell you, it can be challenging to find stories about AI that are not merely new but big.
So when our editorial director, Jill Bernstein, forwarded me a pitch from journalist John Pavlus, who wanted to write about a mad scientist attempting to stomp out hallucinations and other gen-AI nonsense from Amazons cloud security/ chatbots/robots/agents, I said yes in seconds. (He actually used a more pungent term than nonsense, but for decorums sake, Im keeping that to myself.)
And then I braced myself.
The pitch promised to explain the abstruse formal mathematics behind neuro-symbolic AI, a totally different kind of AI that is not based on the kind of large language models that power ChatGPT and just about every other AI product that has infiltrated our lives over the past three years. The mad scientist was Byron Cook, who heads up Amazons automated reasoning group.
Reader, I trust your intelligence, but this sounded like heady stuff. My concern was not that the piece wouldnt be smart or interesting. It was that you might need to be Byron Cook himself to understand it.
I neednt have worried. Ive worked with countless reporters over my three-decade career, and many of them dazzled me with their brilliance. But Im not sure Ive worked with anyone as gifted as Pavlus at translating the difficult into the digestible, let alone the delightful. See his story, Amazon’s hallucination hunter.
This article closes out our third annual AI 20 package. For this years list, global technology editor Harry McCracken and senior editor Max Ufberg set out to identify the unheralded scientists and ethicists, CEOs and investors, and Big Tech veterans and first-time founders of the AI universe, as McCracken writes in the introduction. Household names, theyre not. Yet theyre already changing our world, with much more to come.
You may have noticed that Ive now spent nearly 300 words touting our AI coverage without using the word bubble. That was intentional, and a bit superstitious. Do you have any idea how nerve-racking it is to produce a quarterly print magazine, in the age of AI, amid one of the frothiest stock markets in history, hoping that the tech reporting will hold?
Because of course its a bubble. The question is when it will pop, and how loudly, and how long it will take for the market (and the industry) to recover and settle into a more sustainable trajectory, with costs and revenue in alignment and real value returned to shareholders. A bubble can be a bubble and still be revolutionary, as we learned after the dotcom crash of the early 2000s.
Not everyone agrees, of course, especially the publicist, gadfly, podcaster, and mini media mogul Ed Zitron, who has become famous predicting that AI isnt just a bubble but a colossal fraud. He makes his case to McCracken in Meet Ed Zitron, AIs original prophet of doom.
When Levis CEO Michelle Gass was in Japan last summer, she and chief product officer Karyn Hillman wandered down the street from the brands store in Tokyos trendy Harajuku neighborhood to a small, unassuming vintage shop called BerBerJin. They took the stairs down into its cavernous basement, where it keeps racks and racks of its best denim finds, and began the slow, laborious task of searching for treasure. A couple of hours later, Gass walked out with a pair of 1947 vintage 501s and an even rarer 1952 trucker jacket.
We tried on so many, many pairs of jeans, Gass tells me over coffee in her San Francisco office in September. You appreciate the nuances and beauty of denim, how it ages and how its worn. There are these incredible finishes that come as a result of people wearing it for 70 years. Its so special.
Its the kind of experience that can only happen in Japan. When American Levis factories began modernizing their denim production lines in the 1960s and 70s, Japanese collectors came to America to buy up as much vintage and deadstock denim as they could. (Japanese manufacturers bought the antique shuttle looms, sparking homegrown brands like Big John and Studio DArtisan.) Levis created its Levis Vintage Collectionnew replicas of historical designsin the country in 1996. Recently, Levis cemented the relationship further, launching its Made in Japan Blue Tab collection, a premium line of trendy takes on classic Levis designs, last February.
Gasss success in striking vintage gold in Tokyo last summer is also symbolic of a larger trend for the 172-year-old company: Most of its consumers are now outside of the U.S. This has been a blessing for the bottom line. At a time when U.S. retailers have been roiled by tariffs and global supply chain challenges, Levis is outperforming its peers, posting 14 consecutive quarters of direct-to-consumer channel growth. Its a level of consistency its competitors undoubtedly envy; Gap posted its first annual revenue increase since 2022 last year (1%) after years of flat sales and declines.
Forty years ago, international sales accounted for just 23% of the companys annual revenue. Now that figure is close to 60%. The increase is noteworthy, given how low the U.S., as a country, has plunged recently in international esteem.
According to recent Ipsos surveys, the opinion of America as having an overall positive effect on world affairs has fallen in 26 out of 29 countries over the last six months. Only 19% of Canadians see the U.S. as a positive influence, down from 52% six months ago. The aesthetics of America from the past are not the aesthetics of America for today, says University of Michigan marketing professor Marcus Collins.
In September, Levis leadership in the U.K. acknowledged as much, saying that rising anti-Americanism as a consequence of the Trump tariffs and governmental policies could drive British shoppers away. The company avoided much of the impact from tariffs in 2025, thanks to a diversified supplier base across 28 different countries and minimal exposure to China, with less than 1% of its goods sold in the U.S. manufactured there. But its not immune: Gass said in October that the company will be raising prices on some of its products next year.
But the companys success overseas shows that though the brand of America might be strugglingriven at home and distrusted abroadthe quintessential brand of Americana that Levis represents is thriving. Sales in foreign markets are generating double-digit year-over-year sales growth for the company. In a July interview with CNBCs Jim Cramer, Gass said the brand is on fire in Europe, especially among younger consumers, pointing to Paris, Barcelona, and Milan.
Gasss vintage shopping spree reveals something else as well: that the woman at the helm of Levis grasps the intimacy of the relationship between people and their jeans. Fit, color, wash, agethey all add up to something ineffable for the wearer: identity. Merging heritage and quality with values of inclusivity, Levis is the ultimate ambassador for a certain kind of classic American cool, earning its spot on this years list of Brands That Matter.
Since arriving at Levis two years ago, Gass has been rewiring the company into what she calls the worlds definitive denim lifestyle brand, with a target of $10 billion in annual revenue, a significant jump from the $6.4 billion the company generated in 2024. It entails growing the womens category (from 40% today to 50% of total sales); accelerating the companys direct-to-consumer business (currently about 47% of sales); streamlining its manufacturing supply chain; and expanding its brick-and-mortar footprint of 1,200 owned and operated stores by 250 locations over the next five years, particularly in high-growth regions like India, Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand. This will better help the company control the consumer experience and how wholesale partners market Levis.
Our brand is actually bigger than our business right now, says chief marketing officer Kenny Mitchell. Levis has a market cap of $8.36 billiontiny compared to an American retailer like Nike ($107 billion). Its small even compared to Lululemon ($21.19 billion), a company with higher margins and a more developed DTC operation. (Denim, a more mature market than athleisure, has traditionally had lower margins and more competition.) Our job, Mitchell says, is to get our fair share.
Mitchell was on vacation in Paris to celebrate his wifes 50th birthday in early 2024 when he started to hear the rumors: When Beyoncés new album, Cowboy Carterthe follow-up to her chart-topping Renaissancedropped that March, it would include a track titled Leviis Jeans.
He immediately called Gass, who was barely three months into her CEO tenure. (She had been hand-picked for the role by her predecessor, Chip Bergh, after spending five years running Kohls and 16 years before that at Starbucks, eventually overseeing the European, Middle East, and Africa business.) It was the biggest gift, she recalls. I really could not believe it. Like, how in the world, or the universe, did this happen?
Beyoncé clearly harbored affection for the brand, which had offered sponsorship support to Destinys Child in the early 2000s, featuring ads with the group wearing Levis Low Rise Jeans. (She also famously wore a custom pair of Levis cutoffs during her Coachella set in 2018.) For Gass, the song was a double win: Not only did it position the brand at the center of culture, it also offered a direct appeal to women, a critical component of Gasss growth strategy for Levis. She and Mitchell formed a team to brainstorm a joint campaign they might pitch to Beyoncé, if they got the chance.
Levis is known for a lot of good things, but agility hasnt necessarily been one of em, says Mitchell, a veteran of McDonalds, Gatorade, and Nascar, who joined the company in June 2023 from Snap. The quick response showed whats possible, he says.
Levis chief marketing officer Kenny Mitchell [Photo: Vincent Tullo; hair and makeup: Roland Brummer; set design: Peter Christensen]
When the album came out in late March, Levis quickly changed all its social handles to include the extra i. (Fans were excited, too: The brands posts attracted 3 billion impressions within a month of the albums release.) Then Mitchell called Beyoncés team at Parkwood Entertainment; theyd seen the social swap and loved it, which led to talk of an official collaboration. Between September 2024 and August 2025, the parties would release three lushly produced video ads, all of which drew on the brands history while re-situating Levis within contemporary America. In a company press release to announce them, Beyoncé described Levis as the ultimate Americana uniform.
Beyoncés embrace of Levis was unique, but stars have been aligning themselves with the brand since the 1930s, harnessing its working-class, Western roots to signal, and burnish, their own rebellious, down-to-earth image. John Wayne in Stagecoach. Marlon Brando in The Wild Ones. Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock. James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. Elizabeth Taylor in Giant. A pair of 505s adorned the cover of the Rolling Stones album Sticky Fingers. Bruce Springsteens 501-clad backside graced the cover of his 1984 album Born in the U.S.A. (in a photo shot by Annie Liebovitz).
President Ronald Reagan, no marketing slouch himself, liked to wear Levis while working on his ranch. He often talked about America being the shining city upon a hill, a beacon for the rest of the world. Over the decades, that light has been a swoosh, the golden arches, an apple, a Coke bottle, and, yes, the iconic little red tab that identifies a pair of Levis.
Mitchell recently returned from India, where he was visiting with two new Levis brand ambassadors: musician and actor Diljit Dosanjh and Bollywood star Alia Bhatt. I cant think of a lot of brands that have that dimension, he says of the variety of international cultures baked into its partnerships. Levis direct-to-consumer sales in Asia, including India, grew by 14% in Q1 2025.
When Gass delivered the undergraduate commencement address at her alma mater, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), in Massachusetts, last May, she spoke about growing up in Lewiston, Maine, and the jobs she had before college, including working at a bread factory and bagging groceries at the local Shop N Save.
Sitting in her office on the seventh floor of Levis headquarters on a September afternoon, with a stunning view of San Franciscos Bay Bridge, she smiles thinking about those old jobs, especially being a bun sorter at the bread factory, she says. It was for Burger King buns, no joke, that would come down the conveyor, and youd have to make sure that they were all lined up properly, toss the bad ones, and make sure it didnt get jammed up. I had a total I Love Lucy moment with hamburger buns that was really true. Buns were flying everywhere.
In her speech to WPIs graduating class, Gass, whod received a partial scholarship to attend the school, charted her path from chemical engineering major to leader of an iconic brand like Levis by identifying five principles that were instilled in her during her time at the school in the late 80s: Ask the question; Its science and imagination; It will be hard; The right distance between two points may not be a straight line; and Consider the impact.
Asked today how these principles apply to her work, she offers an example that illustrates principle one. Early in Gasss tenure as a marketer at Starbucks, in the late 90s, the company was still using red and white straws, like every other fast-food joint. She asked the question: Why dont we have green straws, to match the companys logo? That question prompted a company-wide look at small branding opportunities.
Years later, after her almost 10-year stint at Kohls, Gass became Levis president in 2023, under then-CEO Bergh. While touring stores and offices around the world, she wondered, Where are all the denim skirts? Shouldnt Levis be the destination for the best denim skirt, like the 501 of a denim skirt? she recalls asking Bergh. It seems so simple, but it was not part of our core line.
Chief product officer Karyn Hillman [Photo: Vincent Tullo; hair and makeup: Roland Brummer; set design: Peter Christensen]
The strategy she and Bergh developed for transforming Levis into a fuller denim lifestyle brand entailed expanding the womens category beyond jeans, which means skirts and tops.
Karyn Hillmans office is packed with five different racks of clothing samples, which she uses as inspiration for new products. Wearing a pair of vintage 1950s mens 501s, a brown leather jacket over a chambray blouse, and boots, the Levis product head exudes the companys denim lifestyle ambitions. She is positioning the brand as something of a personal stylist, helping shoppers make good-looking decisionsthe logic being, who knows what goes with 501s better than Levis? We have to keep answering that question day after day, Hillman says. Why would you buy that top, and why from us? And what makes it ours? As of Q3, tops comprise about 22% of the companys overall business, up 9% that quarter year over year.
Meanwhile, Gass unified regional product teams within one group focused on design and merchandising, which helped Hillman and her team develop functional new materials. A new line of denim thread called Thermodapt, for example, can now be found in certain jeans and jackets (like the 501s and trucker). Thermodapt contains hollow-core cotton yarn designed to wick away moisture, trap warmth, and improve breathability in the heat. Its something increasingly important to customers in a warming world, especially in Asia.
The rest of the denim lifestyle planwhich also involves bolstering the companys direct-to-consumer business, opening fully owned brick-and-mortar stores (particularly in Asia), and simplifying its supply chain and manufacturing operationshas involved difficult decisions. Last year, the company discontinued its sub-brandDenizen, originally launched in 2010. It sold another sub-brand, Dockers, for more than $300 million to Authentic Brands Group. These moves reduced staff in the companys headquarters by 44 people. Closing a production factory in Poland and a distribution center in Kentucky eliminated nearly 1,000 other jobs. One of the most important jobs of a CEO is resource allocation, Gass says. Now Levis is more focused.
Levis will need that focus to navigate a landscape that is increasingly volatile. Last summers controversy surrounding American Eagles campaign with Sydney Sweeney (Genes are passed down from parents to offspring.... My jeans are blue) is a prime example. When social reactions objecting to the slogans eugenic undertones went viral, the right pounced. President Trump called the American Eagle ad fantastic and the hottest ad out there. American Eagle decided to do absolutely nothing, sticking with the campaign. In September, the brand reported that between the Sweeney spot and a Travis Kelce collab soon after, it had attracted 700,000 new customers and boosted the stock price, but Q2 comparable sales still slid by 3% compared to the year before.
We are operating in a very complex environment, Gass says, but what gives me great confidence to navigate this time is that we have so much history and heritage around our values.
The company began when Levi Strauss, a German Jewish immigrant, worked with tailor Jacob Davis to apply copper rivet reinforcements to tough denim in 1873, making the first manufactured waist overalls. Its social efforts began soon after that. Strauss started endowing college scholarships for women at the University of California, Berkeley in 1897. The company operated racially integrated factories in California during World War II and opened one of the first integrated factories in the Southin Blackstone, Virginiain 1960, four years before the Civil Rights Act outlawed workplace discrimination. In various marketing campaigns over the last few decades, Levis has often depicted itself as offering something for everyone. In a 2024 campaign, it called itself the unofficial uniform of progress.
Earlier this year, as corporate DEI programs were being shuttered, suppressed, or de-emphasized to avoid undue negative attention, Levis did what it has always done. The company launched its annual Pride product collection, sponsored Pride events in San Francisco, and continued its donations to the Stonewall Foundation and the Trevor Project. In April, a conservative think tank called the National Center for Public Policy Research formally submitted a proposal to shareholders calling for the company to consider abolishing its DEI program, policies, department, and goals. More than 99% of shareholders voted to reject the proposal.
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We did advocate for our position on diversity and inclusion, Gass says. We did maintain our Pride sponsorship. This is who we are. And in times like these, its important to be consistent. Its the right thing to do, its part of our history, but its critical for business. Having a diverse workforce allows you to make better business decisions. Ive seen that time and time again.
In August, Levis released a multimedia campaign starring Grammy-winning musical artist Shaboozey and chef Matty Matheson (who is also an actor and producer on The Bear) that exuded full-on, sun-soaked Americana vibes with a surrealist twist. Like Beyoncés commercials, theirsquirky odes to the Western shirt, 501s, and the trucker jacketevoke the history of Levis and of the American West. But theyre filmed through a modern lens (and maybe on shrooms?), blurring the line between heritage and hipster.
Shaboozeys music does something similar, straddling the disparate worlds of country and hip-hop. He is a Black artist drawing acclaim in a genre largely dominated by white artists and audiences, and his success is a living example of how expansive Americana can be. Its knowing where youre from, not being scared to journey into new territories, he says, and understanding that at the center of everything, its the same heart, soul, and spirit of whatever it is you represent. I think for Levis, across any decade or trend, the soul and the heart remains the same.
Shaboozey says hes been collecting Levis denim for as long as he can remember. Ive bought and sold and spent way more than I should on jeans, he says. It is part of my whole brand. My Twitter handle has been @ShaboozeyJeans since 2016.
He was thrilled earlier this year to visit the Haus of Strauss, the nondescript bungalow near the Chateau Marmont on L.A.s Sunset Strip that opened in 2022 as a place for artists, stylists, producers, managers, and others in arts and entertainment to check out the denim brands best and even get customized pieces. (There are now outposts in Paris, Mexico City, Tokyo, and London.) If you see Ryan Gosling in Barbie wearing a Levis vest, it wasnt a paid sponsorshipits because of the relationship with his costumer. Or artists come through before Coachella to pick outfits. Its an investment, CMO Mitchell says, but its a part of how we stay connected to culture and subcultures.
Beyoncé is a tough act to follow, but the NFL has gifted Levis with another potential megawatt moment: Super Bowl LX. The game will take place at the Levis Stadium in San Francisco in February, and perhaps even more importantly, so will the Super Bowl halftime show. It will be broadcast to more than 180 countries, with a total worldwide audience of more than 200 million. Once again, Mitchell says, We will be in the center of culture.
The scheduled performer? Bad Bunny, whose politics of inclusion align with the companys values, and who has drawn public scorn and ridicule from conservatives all the way up to President Trump and Mike Johnson, who disagree with his politics and lack of English lyrics.
The spotlight will offer a powerful opportunity for all three partiesBad Bunny, Levis, and America itselfto assure global audiences that there is still a lot to love on these shores.
And its a high-profile chance for Levis to grow its business to be as big as its brand, finally. Gass believes it can be done; 172 years of history give her confidence. We know who we are, were clear in our values, and we always want to be on the right side of history. Plus, she says, At times like these, consumers go to brands that they recognize and trust. Levis is one of those brands.
Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is no stranger to Levis products. At the 2023 Grammys, his pared-down outfita Uniqlo tee and Levis 501sdrew rhapsodic reviews from no less than Vogue. Will he sport a Blue Tab Canadian tuxedo on the 50-yard line?
Im not going to break any news, Mitchell says, but I think your instincts are good.
The smartest financial move I ever made was to stop contributing to retirement savings. It may sound counterintuitive, even reckless. Dave Ramsey would have stress dreams about this article, but it may be time to get a divorce from your 401(k).
Heres the truth: You actually dont need millions to retire.
Those retirement calculators love to spit out impossible numbers: $3 million, $5 million, sometimes more. Numbers so big they make financial freedom feel like a five-decade slog.
Heres the part they leave out. Most people following the save for 40 years script never hit those numbers. They keep working and waiting, but theyre aiming for a moving goalpost.
And this isnt about only money. Its about decades of your life you dont get back.
The real shift isnt stockpiling a fortune someday, but creating passive income now. You dont need millions. You need cash flow. Changing your perspective on that changes everything.
Why the ‘retirement number’ is a mirage
Heres the dirty secret about those retirement calculators: Theyre built on a foundation of mediocre returns.
Financial advisers love showing you diversified portfolios earning 2% on treasuries, 4% on bonds, maybe 8% to 10% on index funds if youre lucky. Then they compound those small numbers over 40 years and tell you thats the path to freedom.
But what if I told you I routinely invest in small businesses earning annual returns of 32% or more? Same dollars, radically different outcome.
The $3 million to $5 million magic number isnt magic at all. Its a moving target designed to keep you paying fees to Wall Street. Inflation pushes it higher. Lifestyle creep makes it bigger. Market volatility makes it unpredictable.
And heres the part Wall Street doesnt mention: The longer your money stays parked in their products, the more fees they collect. Its not a conspiracy; its a business model. Their incentive is to keep your money locked up for decades.
What $120,000 taught me about real wealth
Early in my investing journey, I had a choice with my $120,000 of life savings. I could do what most people do: Put it into bonds or index funds, let it grow slowly, and maybe, decades later, it would turn into something meaningful. At 4%, that money would earn about $400 per month. Id be waiting 30 years before I could really use it.
Instead, I bought a small business that was already earning $150,000 a year. I made a few simple changes, tightened operations, hired a virtual assistant, improved SEO, and that same business had grown by nearly 40%.
That one decision changed how I think about investing forever. Once you see cash flow hitting your bank account in real time, waiting for retirement at 6% earnings stops making sense. A few investments pay back your income entirely.
Since then, Ive repeated and improved that model over and over, not just with my own capital but with investors I work with. We buy existing businesses selling for three to four times earnings, translating to annual returns of 32% or more. And unlike stocks or bonds, those returns dont sit on a statement. They generate cash flow starting in year one.
Compress 40 years into 5
Heres the most important lesson Ive learned: The difference between traditional investing and high return cash flow investing isnt the return, its the time.
Traditional retirement thinking locks you into a 50-year plan. You keep saving, hoping compound interest will eventually catch up with your life goals. Cash flow flips that script. It lets you start living off your investments almost immediately.
I started this approach back in 2017 and bought, merged, and managed eight companies. After perfecting the process, I helped other investors and operators do the same. None of us waited for a magical retirement number. We built predictable income streams that paid our expenses, and with those returns financial freedom is available in under five years.
What surprises most people is this: You dont need hundreds of businesses to create substantial passive income or diversification. A portfolio of 8 to 10 uncorrelated small businesses can deliver 60% to 80% of the diversification benefits of thousands of stocks, without watering down returns.
The future of financial freedom
Building wealth isnt about chasing a number. A net worth target is a someday goal, and someday often never comes.
Cash flow is about today. Its about building predictable income that pays your bills and funds your lifestyle now. Its about having the freedom to pursue meaningful work while youre still young enough to make an impact.
Financial freedom isnt a number on a screen. Its a system that pays you month after month and gives you back the decades most people trade away.
The retirement lie costs you 30 years. Cash flow gives them back.
Joseph Drups
This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc.
Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy
Enterprises have often dreamed about AI systems that can reason across their most sensitive data, execute multistep tasks, and explain their logic while remaining inside a highly governed environment. Snowflake and Anthropic are betting they can finally crack the code.
Through a multiyear, $200-million expansion of their agentic AI partnership, the companies plan to deliver an operational control plane that uses Anthropics latest Claude models, such as Sonnet and Opus 4.5, to power enterprise intelligence. The announcement landed alongside Snowflakes Q3 earnings for fiscal year 2025, which showed the company maintaining strong momentum. Snowflake reported $1.21 billion in revenue, up 29% year over year, driven by $1.16 billion in product revenue. The company now operates at a $100 million AI run rate (year to date) while adding a record 615 new customers.
But as the race to dominate enterprise agentic AI accelerates, not everyone is convinced that Snowflakes momentum guarantees staying power. Snowflake is still in the early innings of seeing if the traction will stick, says William Falcon, founder and CEO of Lightning AI. For a database like Snowflake, theyve hopefully learned from others mistakes and invested in Anthropic to try and avoid similar problems.
That skepticism frames what makes Snowflakes approach so interesting. Instead of treating AI as an external service that companies must funnel their data toward, the company wants the intelligence layer to reside where the data already lives. Its philosophy is to bring AI to the data.”By deeply integrating Claude into Snowflake Intelligence and Cortex AI, weve collapsed that sprawl into a single governed environment where the model runs directly where a companys data already lives, securely with full business context and without ever moving that data or introducing risk, says Vivek Raghunathan, senior vice president of engineering at Snowflake.
The hallmark of this collaboration is a new class of AI agents capable of multistep reasoning on governed corporate data through Snowflake Intelligence, the companys enterprise intelligence agent powered by Claude Sonnet 4.5. Under the hood of Snowflake Intelligence sits Cortex Agents, the Snowflake Horizon Catalog, and a layer of semantic models.
Analysts can ask complex questions in natural language, developers can build intelligent agents without stitching together infrastructure, and business teams can get deep insights with citations and traceability. In practice, the integration means a business user can ask a natural-language question, such as What is driving churn in our Northeast customer segment? and Claude will determine which datasets are relevant, write and execute the SQL, and explain how it arrived at its conclusion. In highly regulated industries such as healthcare, financial services, or life sciences, that combination of deep reasoning with end-to-end governance is especially transformative.
In regulated environments, here’s the answer isn’t enough. You need here’s how I got there, says Katelyn Lesse, head of API at Anthropic. In areas like financial reconciliation, companies routinely juggle data from disparate systems that rarely align cleanly, with exceptions that demand human judgment. Lesse noted that earlier approaches either overlooked this nuance or relied so heavily on manual review that any promised efficiency gains disappeared. Claude can work through those discrepancies and flag where it’s uncertain, which is just as important as getting the answer right.
A larger bet on enterprise transformation
Enterprises can also design custom multi-agent systems, with Snowflake Cortex Agents serving as the scaffolding for production-ready data agents powered by Claude. These agents can retrieve, interpret, and reason across structured and unstructured data with greater precision and efficiency.We don’t see or access customer data because Claude operates within Snowflake’s security perimeter, so the customers data stays private, Lesse added.
Raghunathan notes that Snowflake uses Claude internally across engineering, sales, and operations. Developers rely on Claude Code to accelerate development and code production cycles, while its sales teams use a Claude-powered assistant to unify data across the organization and shorten deal timelines.The companies say that early customer results are already showcasing what an enterprise built around AI agents might look like. Customer communications platform Intercom now uses Claude through Snowflake Cortex AI to power its Fin AI Agent. Likewise, Simon Data, a composable customer data platform, uses Claude on Snowflake to unearth patterns that conventional analytics overlooked, while maintaining governance across customer datasets.
A growing competitive frontier
The race to dominate enterprise agentic AI has intensified pressure across the technology landscape. Snowflakes rising AI revenue has seized market attention, but experts argue that its strategy, while meaningful, does not fundamentally reshape enterprise AIs competitive frontier. Gregor Stewart, chief AI officer at SentinelOne, believes the Anthropic alliance strengthens Snowflake but does not vault it ahead of rivals.
Databricks has a stronger internal team and just as good relationships and arrangements with the frontier labs. In some ways, Snowflake is just catching up to them, he adds. I see hyperscalers using models and generic compute to build one-size-fits-all assistants that lack the specific business context residing in the data layer. In contrast, Snowflake is positioning itself as the governed brain where the actual work happens, rather than just the infrastructure where the model runs.
The positioning, AI where the data lives, is the philosophical gulf separating Snowflake and Anthropic from Databricks, Microsofts Copilot ecosystem, Googles integrated cloud stack, and AWS. The companies are betting that enterprises will increasingly favor systems that minimize data movement, maximize security, and deliver reasoning directly within existing governance boundaries.
Enterprises have been burned by AI projects that demanded new infrastructure, new skills, new risk, and delivered unclear ROI. Snowflakes revenue run rate validates that ease of adoption beats raw capability, says Ian Riopel, CEO of Root. Against Databricks: intelligence in SQL beats build custom pipelines; Against Microsoft and Google: AI in your existing flow beats adopt our new flow. The reality most vendors miss is that enterprises aren’t looking for another platform to master, they want 100 times the efficiency with the same knowledge and access their employees already have.
If that thesis proves correct, Snowflake and Anthropic may be constructing more than a partnershipan architecture for how enterprise software will work over the next decade. In that vision, agentic AI doesnt sit beside business systems; it becomes the operating system. And both companies are intent on owning the moment when enterprises decide to make that shift.
Our AI strategy is inherently open. We support models from several leading providers so enterprises can orchestrate multi-agent systems without being locked into a single cloud or model provider, Raghunahan added. This is what makes Snowflake a true AI control plane.
Nearly a quarter of American workers didnt take any of their vacation days this year. Thats according to a report published in October from FlexJobs based on a survey of over 3,000 U.S. workers. Despite workers being more burnt out and disengaged than ever, many refuse to take time off.
Could unlimited PTO be to blame?
Its been well-documented that unlimited PTO may not be the generous gift workers are led to believe. A recent skit from TikToker and comedian Jacob Capozzi assumes the role of the guy who invented unlimited PTO to highlight some of the reasons why.
Capozzi poses as an executive who wants to incorporate something more interesting to get people to want to work here. One coworker suggests more competitive pay. Another chimes in, what if instead of limiting their time off, we removed the limits entirely? Cue foreboding music.
During the past decade, unlimited PTO has emerged as a popular benefit in which companies allow workers to take time off at their discretion (pending manager approval). Sounds great, right? Wrong.
If I gave you my debit card and told you you could spend up to $20, Id bet my life savings youd spend $19.50 without hesitation, Capozzi explains. But if I were to tell you in that same scenario you had no limit. How much would you spend? The answer is probably less.
If we give them 25 days a year, theyll take 25 because its theirs. But if we give them infinity, theyll hesitate, the executive in the skit explains. Theyll work harder. Burn out faster. And best of all, we dont have to pay them out for unused vacation days.
There is now no vacation cap at 7% of U.S. employers, according to the Society of Human Resource Management and in data shared with the Wall Street Journal. This has jumped significantly from a decade ago when, in 2014, just 1% of companies offered unlimited PTO as a perk.
Still, a Harris Poll conducted last year found 47% of American workers feel guilty taking time away, and 49% get nervous requesting time off. Rather than deal with the smoke and mirrors of unlimited PTO, one in 10 applicants said they wouldn’t bother applying for a role if it offered it as a benefit, when surveyed by Adobe Acrobat on the biggest red flags in a job listing.
Just realized that i always brag about my company having unlimited PTO but in my 2 years here ive only taken 10 days off my god im right where they want me arent i, one commented beneath Capozzis video, which has more than 2.3 million views.
Don’t forget if you use too much you’ll be letting your team down, another added. You want to be a team player right?
On the other hand, many are taking the unlimited PTO policy at face value and are more than happy to use it to their full advantage.
This only works in America. Nobody feels bad about taking time off in the rest of the world, one comment suggested. Im so glad I dont relate to this, Ive lost count of how much pto I used, which is the whole point of unlimited pto, another wrote.
Not me gang, sitting at almost 40 days this year, another wrote. Yall be safe tho.
The hype train on corporate purpose keeps steaming down the tracks. I have written about it before and tried to be positive. But I feel the need to be more constructively critical. If everyone has been convinced that they need to have a corporate purpose, lets at least have it be a useful one. I try to contribute to that goal in this Playing to Win/Practitioner Insights (PTW/PI) piece. And as always, you can find all the previous PTW/PI here.
The hype train
The articles and books on corporate purpose just keep coming. For example, in the past month alone, Harvard Business Review published four pieces on purpose (one, two, three, four). And the books keep coming, whether David Gelles Dirtbag Billionaire, Ranjay Gulatis Deep Purpose, or the somewhat earlier Corporate Purpose: Why It Matters More Than Strategy by Shankar Basu.
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There is lots of sensible stuff in the articles and books. However, there is a theme across them that is most explicit in Corporate Purpose: Why It Matters More Than Strategy. It reminds me of the logical problem in my least favorite business book everExecution, which argues that execution is more important than strategy and then proceeds to include strategy as a subcomponent of its definition of execution. In this (il-)logical construction, if there is anything useful at all about execution outside of strategy, it will be more important than strategy by tautology.
In similar fashion, if you think corporate purposewhich is clearly one of your strategic choicesmatters more than strategy, you have no idea what strategy is.
The general view being put forward in the purpose arena is that having a societally lofty corporate purpose is the most important thing a company can doand largely guarantees success or at least is strongly correlated with success.
I dont buy it. I dont see it as a helpful view.
Integration is the key
The same thing worries me about purpose as worries me generally about the first box of the Strategy Choice CascadeWinning Aspiration. Visually, it is the first box. And management teams and boards get excited about diving into it first. They often spend massive amounts of time on determining their Winning Aspiration and in due course nail it down and etch it in stone.
But their chosen Winning Aspiration not infrequently lacks integration with the other four questions. That is how you end up with insane aspirations like WeWorks infamous to elevate human consciousness. I dont know what that has to do with leasing office space, even if it is funky space! A Winning Aspiration of that sort is worse than nothing at all.
And that leads to my concern about the corporate purpose hype train. Purpose is just another name for that first box. You can call it vision, mission, purpose or aspiration. It doesnt really matter to methough I think having one of those four is better than having multiple ones (which I have argued before). And because of the hype, I fear that the outcomes will be unconnected and unrealistic because companies have been convinced that if they have some lofty save-the-world purpose, they will succeed. So, make it bigger and better!
No. The absolute key is integration. The five choices on the Strategy Choice Cascade need to fit with and reinforce each other. The only way that happens is if each of the five choices is flexibleand customizes to the others. If the five choices independently are inflexibly locked and loaded on, you will have a bad strategy. That means if you start by setting and locking on a lofty purpose, it is unlikely that you will be able to realize that purpose because you wont be able to make four other choicesWhere-to-Play (WTP), How-to-Win (HTW), Must-Have Capabilities (MHC), and Enabling Management Systems (EMS)that bring the purpose to life. Chances are, your purpose, regardless of how lofty, will end up looking nave and unrealistic, like WeWorks.
Instead, you need to toggle back and forth between the five choices to build the fit and reinforcement until such time as you have a purpose on which you can reasonably expect to deliver. If you care about having a lofty purpose and you do the hard thinking work, you should be able to achieve a nicely integrated Strategy Choice Cascadewith a purpose about which you can be proud.
Sustainability is the goal
A critical aspect of any great strategy is sustainability. By this I dont mean the narrow goal of environmental sustainability. I mean a strategy that is built to last. We like and admire strategies like those of P&G or Lego or Apple because they are successful across generations. That doesnt mean they are immune to crisesthey are demonstrably notbut that they have the strength to get through the crises and renew themselveslike Apple in 1997 and Lego in 2005.
I believe that the only strategies that are sustainable are strategies that are good for all the parties involved. If your strategy requires you to abuse your employees, rip off your customers, hurt the communities in which you operate, and/or skirt societys laws and regulationsit wont last. It may be profitable for a time, but in due course, one or more of these constituencies will successfully undermine it.
For sustainability, you need employees who thrivewhich I wrote about earlier in this series with Zeynep Ton. You need customers to truly benefit from your existence. You need communities that are delighted to have you as part of them. And you need to make society a better placewhich I also wrote about earlier in this series. Any company has the ability, as I termed it in that piece and in a longer Harvard Business Review article earlier, to improve the civil foundation of society through innovation designed to make the world a better place.
If you do these things, it is much less likely that anyone will fight you or undermine you. You will get the benefit of the doubt. Competitors will be inclined to go elsewhere and/or compete differently. And the ecosystem around you will help you evolve positively because the players in it have the desire to see you prosper.
If a corporate purpose integrates seamlessly with the other Strategy Choice Cascade choices, resulting in a high level of fit and reinforcement and it helps the company pursue a sustainable strategy, it is a strong positive feature. And I support that kind of corporate purpose as an integral part of strategy (which I view as fitting into the Winning Aspiration box of the Strategy Choice Cascade).
E.l.f. Beauty example
Wildly successful e.l.f. Beauty provides a great example of a constructive and strategic corporate purpose, which is: To create a different kind of beauty company by building brands that disrupt norms, shape culture, and connect communities through positivity, inclusivity, and accessibility. That Purpose/Winning Aspiration choice is perfectly integrated with its other strategy choices.
Those choices include a WTP focused on millennials and Gen Z, who find the e.l.f purpose highly appealing. It includes a HTW focused on providing premium quality cosmetics and skincare products at extremely affordable pricesto achieve the accessibility purpose. The MHC include low-cost sourcing, and both understanding and supporting the community of e.l.f. enthusiasts. The EMS include management approaches that enable “moving at e.l.f. speed,” in keeping with the needs and demands of the customer community the company serves.
The strategy, including the purpose, shows the hallmarks of sustainability. Employees love working there and being part of the diverse, inclusive community inside the company. Their retail partners love e.l.f.s focus on their productivity, not just e.l.f.s own. The customer community loves them, including e.l.f.s commitment to clean, vegan, and cruelty-free products, and its willingness to challenge industry norms and shape a more inclusive and positive culture in the beauty world. Competitors mainly choose to compete elsewhere or in different ways rather than challenge e.l.f. head on.
Sustainability can only ever be proven over the fullness of time. But thus far things are looking positive for this integrated, sustainable approach to strategy and purpose.
Practitioner insights
A corporate purpose wont help the world just because it is lofty. Purposes would all be loftier than they are today if it was easy. It isnt. Like all strategy choices, the choice of Purpose (or Winning Aspiration, whichever term you prefer) entails making hard and creative choices.
When making your purpose choice, aim for sustainability through integration. Never consider your purpose choice independently of the other four key choices. Consider multiple draft purpose possibilities and build Strategy Choice Cascades for each of them. Only then choose the purpose and remaining cascade choices that give you the best shot at the holy graila sustainable strategy.
If you do it that way, I will applaud your purpose. I wont fear that you have simply boarded the corporate purpose hype train!
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Below, Jane Marie Chen shares five key insights from her new book, Like a Wave We Break: A Memoir of Falling Apart and Finding Myself.
Jane is a leadership coach, public speaker, and cofounder of Embrace Global, a social enterprise that developed a low-cost infant incubator. She has been a TED Fellow, an Echoing Green Fellow, and a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. Her many honors include being recognized as a Forbes Impact 30 and receiving The Economists Innovation Award.
Whats the big idea?
Like a Wave We Break is a story of self-discovery. When achievements define us or serve as an escape from hidden scars of trauma, we do ourselves and others a disservice. Pushing onward from a fractured foundation can break a person and limit their leadership potential. Self-compassion and self-worth are found not by running ahead, but by looking within. Such a journey is the incubator of lifes biggest breakthroughs.
Listen to the audio version of this Book Biteread by Jane herselfbelow, or in the Next Big Idea App.
1. Our wounds can drive us until they break us
I grew up in a home with physical violence. As a little girl, I often felt powerless. That sense of powerlessness became the engine that unknowingly drove much of my life. When I was a graduate school student at Stanford, my team invented a portable infant incubator for premature babies. Unlike traditional incubators, our technology could work without constant electricity. It was designed to be used in remote parts of the world.
We turned the idea into a company called Embrace and set a goal to save a million babies. After graduation, I moved to India, where nearly 40 percent of the worlds premature babies are born. Over the next few years, we did product development, clinical testing, figured out manufacturing, and then we finally launched the product.
It was so rewarding to save lives with our incubators. One of the first babies we saved was in China. We donated a few incubators to an orphanage in Beijing and they rescued a two-pound baby that had been found abandoned on a street. They kept him in our incubator for weeks, and he survived. Seven months later, I visited this orphanage and held this baby in my arms. Stories like his kept me going. Over the next few years, I gave my life to this mission.
Seven months later, I visited this orphanage and held this baby in my arms.
Our work was recognized by President Obama, funded by Beyoncé, and covered by global media. On the outside, it looked like a success story, but what fueled me also eventually broke me. The powerlessness I felt during my childhood had given me purpose, but it also drove me to complete burnout. After a decade of insurmountable setbacks and obstacles, Embrace nearly collapsedand I did too. Through it all, I learned that achievement, even when rooted in purpose, can be a survival strategy or way to outrun our pain. Our wounds can give us extraordinary drive, but if we never face them, those same wounds can consume us.
This is a trap I see many leaders fall into. On the surface, it looks like grit or vision, but beneath, there may be an unconscious attempt to fill an inner void. Leadership can carry shadowsburnout, perfectionism, control, hunger for validationbut when we do the inner work, we stop leading from fear. We begin to lead from wholeness, and that shift makes leadership far more sustainable.
2. Healing starts with feeling
When Embrace nearly collapsed, I didnt just lose my company; I lost my entire identity. Everything I had poured my soul into for a decade was gone. I felt utterly broken, and because I dont know how to do anything halfway, I bought a one-way ticket to Indonesia and launched a healing quest. I tried every healing modality I could find. I did a 10-day silent meditation retreat in the jungle, where I sat cross-legged for 14 hours a day, and no reading, writing, exercise, or even eye contact was allowed. I surfed epic waves, chasing adrenaline in the ocean just as I had once chased it in my work. I tried psychedelic therapy. I even did a frog poison ceremony, burning holes in my leg and vomiting so that there was nothing left inside me.
With each experience, I hoped that maybe this would be the magic elixir that would fix me, but my real breakthroughs didnt come in the jungle, ocean, or during a ceremony. They came when I stopped running and finally turned toward the grief I was avoiding. This was way harder than it sounds, especially given that I trained myself not to feel anything to survive my childhood. As Bessel van der Kolk writes, The body keeps the score. Trauma isnt just in our memories. It lives in our bodies. Healing required me not to do more, but to feel moreto turn toward the pain Id spent a lifetime outrunning and to meet it with compassion.
Our feelings are data. They carry so much wisdom.
We live in an escapist society that offers endless ways to numb, be that through work, achievement, substances, or self-help rituals. You might be listening to this podcast as an escape, but true healing isnt about chasing the next fix. Its about learning to sit with ourselves, and this isnt just personal; it applies to leadership. Our feelings are data. They carry so much wisdom. When we can slow down enough to notice and honor them, we make wiser choices personally and for the people we lead. Leaders who can feel are leaders who can truly connect.
3. Resilience comes from self-compassion
For most of my life, I thought resilience meant powering through. If I was tired, I kept pushing. If I was afraid, I doubled down. I believed grit was strength, but that belief is what led me to burn out. On my healing journey, one of the most transformative frameworks I encountered was Internal Family Systems (IFS), which teaches that we are all made of a multitude of inner parts:
Protector parts that drive us to achieve control or push harder so that we dont have to feel pain.
Exiles are the wounded parts that hold emotions like shame, fear, or loneliness.
The Self, with a capital S, being the calm, compassionate core of who we are.
One of my protectors was the warrior within who was willing to fight every battle. Someone nicknamed this part of me, Janis Khan. Another protector was the overachiever, the part that kept me working to exhaustion. That part had won my life for decades. When I began turning toward my parts with compassion and curiosity, I began asking, What are you protecting me from, and what are you afraid of?
Beneath these protectors, I met the scared little girl who felt like she was never enough. For years, I had abandoned her. Slowly, I turned toward her. I told her, You are enough exactly as you are. For the first time, I met her with love. This practice changed everything.
Real resilience is about cultivating self-compassion so we can meet life with authenticity and courage. When we are kind to ourselves, we are more willing to take risks, stumble, and even fail because we know we will still be okay. As leaders, this matters deeply. If we wan to create psychological safety for others, we first need to create it within ourselves. Only then can we build teams and organizations where people thrive.
4. Our biggest breaking points can become our biggest breakthroughs
When Embrace shut down after 10 years, I reached the lowest point of my life. I was having panic attacks. I was depressed. There was a part of me that didnt want to be doing the work anymore because I was so burned out. Another part of me saw the collapse as a failurethe death of everything I had worked so hard for. But the unraveling of Embrace ended up cracking me open. It forced me onto a healing journey. For the first time, I had to confront the history that lived inside me. I would have never chosen that path if the company hadnt collapsed.
For the first time, I had to confront the history that lived inside me.
One of the teachers I had the opportunity to learn from was Tony Robbins, who often says, Life happens for you, not to you. I really believe these words. The adversity I faced growing up and the powerlessness I felt as a child became the foundation for my purpose, and the collapse of Embrace became the doorway into my healing. We often think of challenges as obstacles to overcome or detours from the life we planned, but sometimes they are the teachers we need. My most painful breaking point turned out to be the catalyst for my deepest breakthrough.
5. We are worth more than the sum of our achievements
For years, I believed that if I just worked harder, achieved more, and saved more lives, then maybe I would finally feel like I was enough. But no award, recognition, or headline ever quieted that inner voice of self-doubt. When Embrace shut down, I had to ask, Who am I without my mission, my work, my title? I think its a question many of us are facing now because of AI that is capable of doing our jobs faster and better than us. We live in a culture that defines us by our output, but we are enough just as we are.
We each carry an innate worth beneath all that noise of titles and social media likes. We each carry an innate worthiness that cannot be taken away. Having an unshakeable inner sense of worthiness gives us the resilience to face whatever life brings. The collapse of Embrace freed me from the prison of equating my worth with my achievements, and as a result, opened me to a life that feels fuller, freer, and more authentic.
In a miraculous and serendipitous turn of events, Embrace was saved. It continues as a nonprofit, and this year we reached a million babies saved with our incubators. That goal we set nearly two decades ago. I am so proud of this milestone, but it no longer defines all of who I am. My worth is not in headlines or metrics. Its in the simple truth that I am enough, just as I am. You too are enough, just as you are.
Enjoy our full library of Book Bitesread by the authors!in the Next Big Idea App.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
A majority of those expecting a holiday bonus this year are planning to check out once the check clears.
According to a recent survey of 2,000 American workers by AI job application assistant JobHire AI, 59% are maybe or definitely expecting a bonus this year. Among them, 48% are already job hunting or planning to quit after their bonus is paid, and another 20% are considering leaving in the new year.
The job market often sees a lot of activity following the holiday lull, as many spend the break reflecting on the previous year and setting goals for the next.
This year, however, may see even more aggressive job -hopping, as many workers have become more financially dependent on their year-end bonusmeaning more are hanging on to a job they dont want until after its been paid out.
From Bonus to Baseline
According to the survey, 27% of workers say their annual bonus is essential for their household finances and another 42% say it helps a lot.
The survey highlighted that something that was previously used as a retention tool became more like a way to delay resignations, says JobHire AIs CEO Artem Zakharov. Workers have come to view the bonus as a financial lifeline, but not a reason to stay.
Overall, 68% of survey respondents admit to having stayed at a job longer than they wanted just to collect their bonus before leaving in the past, and many say theyre planning to do the same this year.
When you expect to receive a huge part of your compensation package in one quarter, once that transaction is complete, there is no more incentive to stay, Zakharov says.
In a survey conducted earlier this year by online job platform Monster, 95% of American workers said their wages havent kept up with rising costs, and 56% were actively searching for a higher-paying job just to keep up. At the same time, 69% struggled to find work in a slow job market.
With a new year usually comes new budgets, explains Monster career expert Vicki Salemi. Companies may have frozen their headcount until year-end, so January opens up new budgets, and they may start posting new opportunities.
Will there be jobs to hop into in 2026?
Workers also demonstrated a lot of interest in changing roles this time last year, but struggled to find work due a slowdown in the market, and the situation hasnt improved much since.
We saw job hugging this year, where people were less likely to leave their full-time job because they were concerned about job security, Salemi says, adding that new hires are often the first to get let go in whats referred to as last-in, first-out. Even if they were unhappy there was trepidation, because if they went to a new job they could be in the first round of layoffs, so that created a holding pattern across the ecosystem.
Though its been a slow year for the job market overall, there are some pockets that are trending in the opposite direction.
It’s been a tale of two markets, says Laura Ullrich, the director of economic research for online job platform Indeed. From a macro point of view, it’s a low-hire, low-fire environment, but if you look under the hood, some sectors like healthcare and leisure and hospitality remain relatively strong.
Outside of those sectors, Ullrich warns, the desire to find a new employer in 2026 might be high, but the opportunities remain limited.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployed job seekers are taking an average of 27 weeks to land a new full time role, up from 25 weeks last year.
People may have the desire to switch jobs, but I doubt were going to see a big increase in quits if hiring isnt increasing at the same time, she says. With the level of uncertainty we have in the economy, its unlikely people will leave their job without another job lined up.
Job-Hoppers Will Need to Get Creative in 2026
Those looking for a new job once their annual bonus arrives may find few opportunities in this market, but there are ways to tilt the odds in their favor.
For example, Ullrich says those desperate for a new gig in 2026 may want to pivot their careers toward one of those booming sectors.
For example, tech firms may not be hiring as many software developers, but there is a need for tech skills in the healthcare sector.
Because some sectors are doing well and others arent hiring as much, think about how the skills that you have can be applied to a wider array of sectors, she says. Applying them in new ways could be very valuable in this labor market.
Those who know they want a new job in the new year might also want to start their search now, even before receiving their year-end bonus.
This is a great time for job seekers to start looking, rather than waiting until the first quarter, because there are significantly less applications so theres less competition, says Monsters Salemi. Some companies also have fiscal year budgets that end in January, and if they don’t fill this job the budget goes away, so there are many companies eager to hire right now.
Though it could mean forgoing the annual bonus, Salemi says it may be worth making the move now, rather than risk getting stuck for another year.
For most leaders these last five years have been ones of great volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Political dynamics, economic shifts, massive layoffs, strategy pivots, technology disruptions, and more are shaping how we lead and what we can accomplish together. Leading through uncertainty is no longer a mere possibility, it’s core to the job description.
Times of uncertainty call for fast executive decision-making with limited information, good enough risk assessment, and repeated pivots. I know this because I led a global philanthropy network while the world shut down in 2020. During those initial months, I relied less on staff input to determine our direction, despite deeply valuing a culture of co-ownership. My choices as an executive during this period had to be fast and decisive to keep us afloat, but also had significant ramifications.
While I was able to effectively pivot to help our organization survive the crisis, I noticed that the staff who previously had driven programs now lacked ownership and motivation to move things forward. They deferred to me when I needed them to own their expertise. They didnt have audacious goals that matched our big North Star. They didnt bring ideas to brainstorms on how we could further innovate.
At the time this frustrated me; I was exhausted and burnt out from managing the crisis without much support and I desperately needed my board and staff team to step up.
What Ive learned since is just how common this is. After a period that requires a more top-down approach to decision-making, organizations and leaders rarely snap back to a high agency and collaborative cultureeven if thats what they value. Why? Because teams have become conditioned to defer to others to make decisions, and we exist in a culture where this is the norm.
What leaders need to do is find a way to reinvigorate that distributed leadership as quickly as possible after the initial crisis management. How we lead during these moments can set us up to become more nimble, adaptable, and creative. Given the continued volatility we are all experiencing, leaders who can embrace uncertainty as the time to share and shift power will find themselves better supported and prepared to navigate ongoing turbulence.
Here are three strategies I have observed and learned to use with boards, staff teams, and leaders as soon as possible after or during periods of uncertainty to help organizations move through the crisis while deepening a culture of shared agency.
1. Disrupt any top-down culture creep
If your crisis management plan or campaign requires a tight-knit group of leaders to make decisions, look for ways to redistribute that power as quickly as possible.
This might mean delegating some of the lower risk decision-making opportunities to team members and fully getting out of their way. You could also try taking yourself out of the picture temporarily to help disrupt the well-grooved habits that people might have in relying on your input. Leaders who step away for a week or two off while putting in place an interim leadership structure often come back to find that their teams have rebuilt more trust and agency.
One executive I worked with faced a strategic crisis at the same time as their pre-planned time off. While some leaders might have cancelled their vacation, I encouraged the leader to take that leave. They put in place an interim leadership team, created a point of contact for the Board to rely on if things escalated further, and quickly distributed power and authority. Now, the interim leadership team continues to be an important brain trust, supporting a more distributed approach to decision-making. The new relationships and capacity built during that crisis moment have helped the organization adapt as circumstances continue to change.
Its important to remember that top-down leadership is the culture were swimming in, and it is the obvious choice. Distributed leadership requires active planning, focus, practice, and a counter-cultural approach. When done well, strategic leadership redundancy allows for organizations and leaders to be more nimble and resilient.
2. Re-orient to story and purpose
Crisis often narrows our point of view to daily or weekly operations. Leaders, however, need to quickly get back to being the chief visionary officer. Teams rely on leaders to provide this perspective, inspire them to connect to each other, and work towards a shared purpose.
Over the years, Ive talked to numerous teams during times of crisis and transition. One thing that I hear is that leaders have to default to being doers during this time, despite the fact that their genius lies in being storytellers, visionaries, strategic dot connectors, and community builders. When I talk with the people around these leaders, a common thread is that people want to feel inspired and connected to the vision that brought them to the work in the first place.
Look for opportunities to remind people of your shared values or help connect them to the bigger picture of where they are going. When you tell the story of what you are building together, you refocus and reenergize people to bring their best selves in working toward your shared North Star.
As leaders, its not always easy to prioritize this kind of vision and value-setting work. It might seem more frivolous than the clear tasks and list of items you can easily check off. But over my 20+ years in social change and public sector roles, Ive seen that executives who lead with this kind of visionary approach first are the ones who are able to build teams of people enthusiastic about navigating uncharted waters.
3. Engage openly in learning and reflection
Uncertainty necessarily moves many leaders into a control-oriented mindset. However, navigating uncertainty and sharing power over a long period of time requires curiosity and a beginners mindset.
Reject your knee-jerk reaction to have all the answers. Instead, model holding uncertainty and curiosity to the people around you. Admit where you have learning edges and acknowledge the questions youre holding.
Anne-Laure Le Cunff, neuroscientist and author of Tiny Experiments, shares this wisdom: Leaders need to optimize for curiosity by creating an environment where its safe to experiment and learn in public. When teams see their leaders openly sharing their learning process, including the missteps and uncertainties, it creates psychological safety, which encourages everyone to embrace their own curiosity. This is how you can create a virtuous cycle of continuous reinvention.
Curiosity is also power-sharing in practice. This shifts leadership from being about I share answers and direct people around me to complete tasks to I identify questions from my perspective and enable people to come together to experiment, learn, and find solutions together. From here organizations get better results and can navigate uncertainty with more relationship and trust.
Together these three practices help break down any unhelpful power dynamics, create trust, and reinvigorate teams to co-own and co-create. Better yet, leaders who implement these practices before a crisis will find themselves well-equipped to navigate uncertainty with creativity, clarity, and courage.
Good leaders can use their power; great leaders know when to give that power back.
