Your Brain at Work

In the session, David and Emma will discuss the most significant challenges leaders faced this year—from overwhelming complexity to the constant pressure for innovation, all while navigating the questions of how and where to use AI. Discover how NLI's work, including our NeuroIntelligent Leadership Enhancing System (NILES), has evolved to help leaders overcome these challenges through seamless integration of coherent insights. David and Emma will also reveal their predictions for what to expect from 2026. Get exclusive insights into the key trends and shifts that will define the organizational landscape next year. Walk away with a set of strategies and habits you need to adopt now to prepare your people and leaders for success in the new year.

In a world defined by accelerating change, overwhelm, and complexity, traditional models of leadership development are outdated. Now is the time to consider your 2026 strategy – one that moves from a series of disconnected events to a simple, scalable, and science-backed blueprint for real transformation.

Leaders don’t just need AI, they need a leadership AI that creates an ecosystem of coherent insights that makes them smarter and more effective. Join us for this week's Your Brain at Work, featuring NLI’s CEO and Co-Founder, Dr. David Rock, and VP of Solutions, Rachel Cardero, as they discuss how a leadership AI should be designed. The future of leadership AI is both predictive and coherent. It’s designed not only to support leaders in the flow of work but also to deliver predictive “neuro-intelligent nudges”— personalized actions based on what it has learned about the leader and their colleagues. A leadership AI should help overcome the challenges leaders face before they happen through seamless integration of coherent insights. This is the future of NILES, our NeuroIntelligent Leadership Enhancing System. Join David and Rachel as they reveal how neuroscience is shaping the newest version of NILES — and what exciting developments are on the horizon.

Today’s leaders are constantly trying to keep up with the complexity of the organizational landscape, all while making smarter decisions and driving their teams towards innovation. Join us for the next edition of "Your Brain at Work Live," where Dr. Emma Sarro discusses how NILES, the NeuroLeadership Institute's AI leadership coach, is set to revolutionize how leaders face each of these challenges. Most AI chatbots are designed to spit out answers like a simple search engine, which research shows only dulls our thinking. NILES is designed to generate moments of insight, sparking motivation to act, creativity and growth. In this session, you’ll discover the scientific foundation of NILES and how it can guide leaders to tap into their innate creativity, facilitating moments of insight that lead to transformative solutions. Drs. Rock and Sarro will discuss the science behind insight generation, pulled from over twenty years of coaching experience and peer-reviewed research. They’ll share how NILES is already driving leaders to insight in every conversation, increasing their critical thinking, creative problem solving, and strengthening their EQ. Don't miss this opportunity to discover how NILES can be your partner in achieving smarter, more effective leadership.

In this episode of Your Brain at Work, we unlock the secrets to embedding effective and resilient habits. In today’s environment of accelerating change and overwhelming demands, building strong habits – those that become default under pressure – is more crucial than ever. Organizations need strategies that work quickly and scale easily, and are more helpful than telling people to rely on repetition. For over 25 years, NLI has been embedding habits quickly and at scale in organizations, transforming cultures in the process. Whether you're looking to build your own new habits or lead your team through transformative change, we’ll cover the strategies and key insights that help you succeed. Discover how to leverage the power of neuroscience to create lasting, impactful habits that support your goals and withstand the pressures of modern life. In this session, Drs. David Rock and Emma Sarro, will explore the latest neuroscience research on why the right habits are so important to build and how to do it in a way that sticks.

Meet the world’s smartest leadership coach, NILES, NLI’s Neuro Intelligent Leadership Enhancing System. Designed to make leaders smarter, faster. In today's tricky environment, leaders are under pressure to do more with less, juggling multiple responsibilities with limited resources. What leaders need is an AI tailored to meet their specific challenges. One that provides in-the-moment support, offering insights that are both easily digestible and immediately actionable. A leadership AI should both enhance leaders’ decision-making making, stress management, and help them boost their teams’ engagement and productivity. Unlike generic AI tools, a leadership-focused AI needs to understand the constant overwhelm leaders face. Join Dr. David Rock, CEO and CoFounder of the NeuroLeadership Institute and Rachel Cardero, Vice President of Consulting and Solutions, on the next Your Brain at Work, as they discuss what a leadership AI needs and how NLI has responded to this need with its own leadership AI – NILES: Neuro Intelligent Leadership Enhancing System. Attendees will experience NILES in action. Drawing upon over 25 years of using neuroscience to develop leaders and drive performance, NILES is ready to revolutionize leadership.

Organizations are facing a complex landscape of challenges and potential crises, driven by rapid technological advancements, shifting economic conditions, and evolving global events. Frameworks such as VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) and the more recent BANI (brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible) are used to understand the challenges of navigating complex and unpredictable environments. Organizational leaders face the outsized responsibility of helping their teams prepare for and approach these challenges while maintaining high performance. As we consider the role leaders play in the success of their teams and organizations, what skills can help them drive performance and inspire great work amid challenges? Join Drs. David Rock and Emma Sarro as they discuss the right mindset to lead in a crisis and the necessary skills all leaders need to maintain productivity and efficiency, reduce uncertainty, and increase relatedness.

AI agents are continuously evolving in ways that increase their potential to support our work. Not only can they synthesize long meetings and moments later provide you with key insights, ideas, and actions, they can also write your emails, plan an upcoming conversation, and make difficult decisions for you. However, does AI actually improve your ability to do these things, and is the output better than what a human could do alone? For example, even though you have the meeting notes, will you actually understand what was discussed and be able to make good decisions from the summary? Will it help you identify the right path forward and give you the motivation to take steps that might be challenging? Research shows that if we rely on AI too often or use it in the wrong ways, it could actually dull our thinking. Join Drs. David Rock and Emma Sarro as they discuss what “better” thinking means from the perspective of the brain and how AI can be used to get there. Learn the key behaviors that can turn AI from merely a tool into a collaborator.

Conventional wisdom suggests that if you want people to participate, you need to mandate it. However, this can easily backfire. What research suggests is that if you want people to participate and get the most out of this participation, you need to make it compelling. Getting people to fully engage in learning, transformation or even just to attend an important organizational event is a central challenge for HR or talent functions. During times of intense change, this can often appear to be less important, when in fact, it may be even more critical. If you’re looking to achieve something beyond just compliance, you need to design in a way that compels people to fully participate and engage – a challenge when most of us are busy and overwhelmed. In this timely conversation, Drs. David Rock and Emma Sarro will explore insights from both science and decades of practice, including the non-obvious downsides of making learning mandatory, and three areas to focus on when making experiences truly compelling.

Uncertainty surrounds the future of DEI. Many organizations plan to continue their DEI work, yet they’re likely to face a number of challenges along the way. To be successful as we evolve our work, it's important to understand why DEI efforts became a priority in the first place, and whether they’re important enough for organizations to address in other packaging. What are the short- and long-term impacts of rolling back the work? Although DEI programs are sometimes politicized, limiting their effectiveness, there are several reasons why organizations need to address certain quirks of the human brain to achieve their best. Join Drs. David Rock and Emma Sarro as they discuss the core brain processes that make DEI work indispensable. A focus for this discussion will be our cognitive biases — mental shortcuts we’ve evolved to make decisions quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately, cognitive biases can also cause us to make poor decisions that negatively impact our employees and business. We’ll explore the major biases that affect our work and how to mitigate them to make better business decisions.

Organizational survival in the midst of accelerating change and complexity depends on employees' sense-making, adapting, and taking risks. Psychological safety can effectively facilitate each of these processes. In fact, psychological safety is the critical foundation for high performance, as it acts as the accelerant for both employees and organizations to innovate and push boundaries. Join Drs. Brigid Lynn, Director of Research Design and Emma Sarro, Senior Director of Research as they discuss its particular importance now, the indicators that can signal environments lacking in psychological safety and the challenges organizations face when working to create environments that foster robust healthy debates. This promises to be a rich discussion that is both science-based and tactical as they offer tangible strategies for organizations to create the innovative and exciting environment that psychological safety enables.

During times of intense uncertainty and change, leaders are often called upon to navigate their team through challenges, provide clarity in the face of ambiguity, and make critical decisions under pressure. In the midst of the chaos, leadership development may be deprioritized, when in fact it is more important than ever. Skilled, well-equipped leaders can ignite their teams' performance and foster organizational grit and resilience. What are the key skills that leaders need to mobilize their teams when facing change? How can we provide leaders with the right tools to develop those necessary skills? And how can we get leaders to engage in the learning – one of the central challenges for HR and talent functions? The NeuroLeadership Institute has developed and refined a neuroscience-based leadership development program that has proven effective in increasing engagement and learning. Join Matt Summers, NLI’s Global Head of Leadership and Culture, and Dr. Emma Sarro, Senior Director of Research, to explore the fundamentals of leadership development, the key skills needed to handle uncertainty and change, and the various ways this learning can be scaled and delivered.

Join the next Your Brain at Work Live as Senior Director of Research, Dr. Emma Sarro and Global Head of Culture and Leadership, Matt Summers walk us through the current state of accountability, why it needs to be a priority for organizations to foster and NLI’s research-backed behavioral framework that supports each of the three essential habits of proactive accountability. They’ll describe the critical behaviors through the lens of the latest research and how it directly applies to the workplace.

Join us for a deep dive into the foundational research of what drives humans to connect with each other, to feel a sense of togetherness, and in contrast, what creates division.

Join us for an episode that dives into the core science that makes these conversations difficult on both sides, and how to use that science to improve them.

Leaders can generally be categorized into one of two types: servant and authoritarian. We'll discuss what drives people to develop into each type of leader, the differences in their belief systems, and importantly, how their brain processes differ. The NeuroLeadership Institute has spent the last 25 years leveraging neuroscience to understand how to develop better leaders, and we do so with organizations in three impactful ways. In this episode, we'll walk through each, from specific customized pathways to a set of leadership principles, all of which are designed to scale and embed fast.

Listen to a special episode of Your Brain at Work as David Rock interviews comedian Ben Gleib on the importance of bringing humor to the workplace and how to do it well. Humor is arguably one of the easiest ways to boost employee satisfaction, engagement, and productivity, especially in times of uncertainty, stress, or crisis. Ben and David discuss the three proven tactics for safely bringing levity and humor into the workplace and why they work so well, from a neuroscience perspective.

Getting leaders to engage in learning is one of the central changes for HR and talent functions. During times of intense change, this can often appear to be less important, when in fact it may be even more critical. Yet, how can we engage busy, goal focused leaders in deeper thinking when they already feel overwhelmed? In this timely conversation, explore insights from both the science and decades of practice, including the non-obvious downsides of making learning mandatory, and a set of three focuses for making experiences truly compelling.

Feeling overwhelmed? You’re not the only one. With the rate of organizational change at an all time high, you’re having to work with more information than ever and under more pressure to perform. It’s nearly impossible to be effective in this type of cognitive overwhelm. On this episode of Your Brain at Work, Dr. David Rock and Dr. Emma Sarro will share how building habits of self regulation can be the key to navigating the challenges of overwhelm in today’s complex world. They’ll dive into the underlying neuroscience of our threat system and how to effectively dampen its response with emotional regulation strategies that both individuals and teams can build. Learn the tangible strategies that can help you and your team regain focus.

Join Dr. David Rock for a special episode of Your Brain at Work live as he interviews Damien Mander, an Iraq war veteran turned environmentalist and founder of Akashinga, an anti-poaching foundation. His story is a unique one that highlights a profound personal transformation when he traveled to Africa and was faced with the challenges of the world’s wildlife. He founded the International Anti-Poaching Foundation, which focuses on ranger training, operations and integrating modern technology into conservation. He now shares his passion for conservation, the lessons learned and the nature of our priorities in an uncertain world. This is not just a powerful story, but one that has strong connections to how we view and develop our leaders today. Join us for this incredible episode!

In our next episode of Your Brain at Work Live, we are continuing our discussion around the leadership development trends of 2025 – this time focusing on the increased demand for critical thinking in the workplace. NLI’s Vice President of Consulting, Practices & Product, Rachel Cardero and Senior Director of Research, Dr Emma Sarro will discuss what’s behind the growing call by organizations for more critical thinking and other analytical skills in both their employees and leaders. In addition, they’ll discuss the ways that critical thinking enables organizations to thrive, from strategic decisions to its use of AI, and importantly, the underpinning neuroscience – the essential cognitive skills and mindsets that can increase critical thinking in others.

With all the ‘noise’ surrounding political pushback, legal challenges, and a volatile social climate, it's hard to separate what’s true from what’s trending. Join DEI expert Janet M. Stovall, CDE, and legal scholar Kenji Yoshino next Friday the 31st at 1:00pm EST for a critical webinar that cuts through the noise and equips you with the essential truths for navigating this complex landscape. They'll guide you through: - The political landscape, separating policy from politics to uncover the true impact of current political actions on your organization. - The social reality, distinguishing between performative allyship and genuine DEI commitment. - The legal outlook, unpacking the evolving legal framework and the role of the Supreme Court. Gain the clarity you need to: - Mitigate risks and ensure your DEI efforts are legally sound. - Build organizational resilience in the face of uncertainty. - Foster a workplace where all employees are empowered to deliver their best.

Join us for a special episode of Your Brain at Work, recording live from Davos, the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Geneva, Switzerland. This event brings together top leaders from across the globe and across disciplines, involving political, business and cultural leaders. Dr. David Rock, who will be in attendance, will share his reflections on the event, this year themed, “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age”. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear his thoughts, live!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized the organizational landscape. Not only does it provide organizations with a means to cut costs and enhance the quality of services, it can also optimize processes, productivity, and efficiencies, at scale. Despite the breadth of opportunities, organizations are still struggling to reap the full potential of an AI-fueled workforce. This is because reaching its full value requires companies to rewire how they work. On this episode of Your Brain at Work, Dr. David Rock and Dr. Emma Sarro discuss the challenges leaders face when working to implement AI into their processes and how to leverage neuroscience to turn challenges into opportunities. They’ll also discuss how a deep understanding of human cognition and the science of change management is the foundation for an AI-strategy that creates the right type of human-AI workforce that enhances productivity and innovation.

Your Brain at Work Live is kicking off the year with a new season and a look at the latest trends to watch in leadership development, a spin off of David Rock’s latest article published in Fast Company. We closed out the year with the staggering realization that change around us is exponentially increasing – 33% in just last year alone. From the volatile state of hybrid work to AI transformations and global polarization, change is likely to continue into 2025. In order to keep up, leaders have had the challenge of adapting just as fast and many are struggling, with 71% of CEOs reporting suffering from imposter syndrome. Whether leaders are able to meet the future challenges head on and turn them into opportunities depends in a large part on their development. This session will explore the key tools to leadership development, from the individual mindsets to embrace to the cultures that can be embedded.

Upended work conditions, increased pressure on organizations to perform and the exponential pace of change has put the spotlight on the need for accountability. Our own research has revealed that despite more than 90% of employees agreeing accountability is critical, 97% of managers and employees find it difficult to create. In many organizations, employees view accountability with fear, blame or punishment, a culture of punitive accountability that hinders growth and learning. However, while accountability provides the structure, direction, prediction our brains crave and organizations benefit from; the key is to do it with the brain in mind. Join Dr Emma Sarro and Dr David Rock as they explore the behaviors and expand on the neural underpinnings that embody a culture of proactive accountability, empowering individuals and teams to be accountable, fostering an effective and innovative environment.