Silicon Valley Executive Education (SVEE)

The Future of AI—the kind of AI that acts autonomously on behalf of users to achieve goals—has the potential to profoundly enhance the Executive Education business in several ways. If you work for a University-based program like Duke Corporate Education, Wharton Executive Education, Kellogg Executive Education, UC Berkeley Executive Education, Stanford GSB Executive Education, MIT Sloan Executive Education, etc. here's how it could change it for the better: + Hyper-Personalized Learning Paths + Agenic AI can analyze an executive’s calendar, job role, business challenges, and performance data to proactively curate and sequence learning content, projects, and coaching—creating a dynamic, evolving curriculum tailored to their current context and future goals. Instead of offering generic leadership modules, an AI might notice a COO is negotiating a major M&A deal and recommend a real-time crash course in cross-border negotiations and post-merger integration strategy. + Real-Time Application Support + Executives often struggle to apply abstract learning in the flow of work. Agenic AI could act as an always-on thought partner, offering prompts, scenario planning, and nudges in high-stakes moments (e.g., preparing for a board meeting, dealing with team conflict). “I see you’re about to meet with your regional heads. Would you like a quick brief on their last quarter’s performance and suggested coaching points based on their 360 reviews?” + Coaching at Scale + Human executive coaches are effective but limited by time and cost. Agenic AI can offer first-line coaching—reflective questions, feedback synthesis, behavioral tracking—freeing human coaches to focus on deeper issues. Example: AI can prompt daily leadership reflections, track communication tone over time, and suggest micro-behavioral experiments to improve executive presence. + Continuous Capability Mapping + Rather than annual talent reviews, agenic AI can maintain a live map of executive skills, gaps, aspirations, and industry shifts—helping L&D leaders align investment with strategic needs faster. “Across your VP cohort, there’s a growing gap in AI governance literacy. Here’s a just-in-time learning intervention plan.” + Custom Peer Learning Networks + AI can autonomously identify peers inside or outside an organization facing similar challenges and set up micro-cohorts, virtual case study discussions, or even short-term exchanges. “You and two execs in non-competing firms are all tackling agile transformation. Want to join a 3-week shared learning sprint?” + Measurement and ROI Tracking + By connecting learning to behavioral change, business outcomes, and team engagement, agenic AI can finally help L&D quantify impact in real time—not just via surveys, but through dashboards linked to enterprise KPIs.

Sharing for reach. If you're a member of the Executive Development Community (EDC), please DM Robert David for additional insight. https://lnkd.in/gPbNSmtn

"The world always needs better leaders, but it needs better followers even more. People who can recognize virtue in others, who can support principled decisions even when they're costly, who can distinguish between leaders worth following and performers worth ignoring." #stoicwisdoms

Want to know who succeeds the most and the least in today’s world of work? According to Adam Grant, it’s the same type of person: Givers. Grant lays out 3 interaction styles: Givers: Help more than they get Takers: Prioritize their own gain Matchers: Believe in tit-for-tat fairness We all use each style at times, but most of us have a default. Here’s the twist: Givers are found at both ends of the success spectrum. They’re the least successful… and the most successful. The difference comes down to how you give. The givers who fail? They burn out. Say yes to everything. Get taken advantage of. They give without boundaries. But the givers who succeed? They help strategically. They know when to say no. They protect their energy so they can keep giving. Matchers and takers succeed too but not as often. Why? Because matchers limit generosity. And takers? Eventually people catch on. In the long game, generosity wins. You don’t have to choose between kindness and ambition. Be generous. Be smart. Give without keeping score just don’t forget to protect your time.

As AI becomes more prevalent in the workplace, directors and managers are noticing a decrease in entry-level hiring, which in turn threatens the talent pipeline, writes Dr. Cornelia C. Walther, a visiting scholar at the The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Because AI can replace entry-level tasks, junior employees are losing opportunities to develop skills through repetition and mentorship. This is coinciding with one of the largest retirement waves in modern history, which can create a knowledge gap that could hurt long-term organizational growth. #knowledgegap #aiworkers Full Story: https://lnkd.in/dxd9Ch3H

What’s really changing in leadership right now? Not new tools or job titles, but how we think, decide, and connect. In this new article for Emeritus, we identified and explored 10 leadership trends that will define the next generation of impactful leaders. Read the full article: https://emrt.us/robert #FutureOfLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #LeadershipTrends #ExecutiveEducation https://lnkd.in/dvKxD8iA Dave Poritzky - Bhushan Heda - Ashwin Damera - Chaitanya Kalipatnapu - Robert David

As Debbie Wooldridge highlights, this question changes everything: "How can learning drive our business strategy?" instead of "What training do you need?"

Microsoft just dropped a learning bomb, and it’s seismic. They’re hiring a Director of AI-Era Skilling Transformation. The title alone tells you this is big. The remit? Build a Copilot-powered, real-time learning system that cuts time-to-competence in half and triples upskilling velocity at the company. Folks, this is a full-system L&D and skills rethink. I believe the job posting can move L&D and the Talent team far beyond the anachronistic LMS and skills repository. It certainly goes well past the ridiculously insufficient AI-infused modules we see today in various talent and learning platforms. I haven’t talked to anybody at MSFT (yet!) but it looks as though they are taking aim at the skilling, upskilling, and reskilling that happens *inside* the work, not around it. Here’s a likely scenario at the company: 1) A MSFT product team ships new functionality. 2) Copilot knows who needs what, when, and how deep. 3) Skilling turns into a living layer that guides, supports, and evolves. 4) L&D then stops being an order taker—it’s in the flow. It’s bold. It may even be about time. Too many L&D functions are still optimizing for the past. Content volume. Completion rates. Kirkpatrick. Order takers. Static journeys that lag behind the actual work. This role seems to flip the L&D script to what I have been yammering on about for years: L&D must shift from solely producing content to providing JIT context, from instruction to in-the-moment insight. Every CLO, Talent Officer, CHRO, and P&C professional should study this posting. Not as a job they wish they had, but as a potential harbinger for what their function needs to contemplate. This could be a genuine inflection point for L&D and P&C. Should I apply? Go ahead. You can here: https://lnkd.in/gUGnf8dN

"Thinking about educational models before we head back to school in September" - Rita McGrath at the Columbia Business School: "Many of the features that characterize our educational system have been with us so long that we barely even notice or remark upon them. When was the last time you had a serious discussion about the usefulness of grouping kids in the K-12 world by their ages, with time-bound clumps of learning at 45 minutes or 60 minutes, with a teacher leading lessons from the front of the class, with mastery measured by test scores and in which everybody pretty much moves to the next level, whether they can genuinely apply the material to practical problems or not? Schools were designed for the times – people were moving into factories, when being able to understand what was going on and sustain effort for a long time was valuable. As some critics have pointed out, schools were not designed for learning, they were designed to instill discipline. But, there are some super interesting new models emerging across the educational landscape that are worth paying attention to. With AI, there are opportunities to try out a whole lot of ideas and learn from the ones that work.    One I think is truly fascinating is the 2-Hour Learning model, pioneered by MacKenzie Price at Alpha School in Austin, Texas. The approach uses AI-powered tutors to provide personalized 1:1 education, allowing students to progress with concept-based mastery at their own pace. A third grader learning at a 6th grade level in science? No problem. A 5th grader struggling with mastering a set of concepts – let them take the time they need. What makes this model transformative isn't just the compressed academic time—it's what students do with the remaining hours: developing life skills, pursuing passions, and engaging in hands-on learning experiences. But even better than the academic performance (most students score highly on standardized tests and other metrics) is that they love school. And who wouldn’t want that for their children?    In the higher ed sector, I’m further intrigued with the program offered by the Minerva Project which similarly emphasizes self-directed learning on the part of students. In both cases, teachers go from being lecturers to being more like coaches, and application is emphasized over knowledge transmission. At Minerva, students also exposed to a global environment, taking courses in 6 cities across the globe." 

July is Executive Educator Appreciation Month at Silicon Valley Executive Education (SVEE). Who has made an impact on your career or had you re-think how you approach a challenge? As Leadership expert Karen Walker writes: "Time is flying but July is the perfect moment to pause, reflect, and realign. In fast-moving environments, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. But effective leaders know the pitfall of momentum without direction."