It’s a challenging new world. One that artificial intelligence constricts and expands. Where employers grapple with remote work, DEI initiatives, organized labor. And employees demand culture, coaching, and growth — but not without balance and flexibility.
Work/25 provides a way forward. Live virtual sessions. Experts in artificial intelligence, talent management, human resources, workplace culture, labor relations, and work design. Real, actionable
strategies that you and your team can use to overcome today’s most pressing workplace challenges. Save your seat today »
This event will include live translation and closed captioning.
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What You’ll Get
Livestream access to eight expert sessions
On-demand access to all sessions
Downloadable synopsis of each session with key takeaways
Free download of MIT SMR article pack on the new world of work
Free three-month digital subscription to MIT SMR
Certificate of attendance
I got more out of this four-hour event than three days at a coaching conference.
2023 Summit Attendee
All the speakers were great. I took pages of notes and downloaded all the handouts.
2023 Summit Attendee
Amazing value! Very interesting presentations and useful insights.
Institute Professor, MIT, and 2024 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences
Marvin Boakye
Chief Human Resources Officer
Cummins Inc.
Karen Brown
Author of The Leaders You Need: How to Create Diverse Leadership Teams for a More Dynamic, Resilient Future
Lynda Gratton
Professor of Management Practice
London Business School
Elizabeth Heichler
Editorial Director, Magazine
MIT Sloan Management Review
Ravin Jesuthasan
Senior Partner & Global Leader for Work, Skills and Transformation Services
Mercer
Thomas Kochan
George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management
MIT Sloan School of Management
Hila Lifshitz
Professor of Management
Warwick Business School
Abbie Lundberg
Editor in Chief
MIT Sloan Management Review
Sharon K. Parker
John Curtin Distinguished Professor
Curtin University, Australia
Nick van der Meulen
Research Scientist
MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research
Kaushik Viswanath
Features Editor
MIT Sloan Management Review
A virtual summit covering the most pressing topics at work.
Artificial Intelligence Digital TransformationDiversity, Equity, and InclusionSkill BuildingTalent ManagementTransformative LeadershipWork DesignWorkplace Culture
Sessions
10:00 A.M.
Welcome
Abbie Lundberg, Editor in Chief, MIT SMR Elizabeth Heichler, Editorial Director, MIT SMR
10:05 A.M.
AI and the Future of Work: The Promise and the Challenge
Hila Lifshitz, Professor of Management,
Warwick Business School, and faculty associate at the Harvard Laboratory for Innovation Sciences
Artificial IntelligenceDigital Transformation
AI’s transformation of the workforce ecosystem and the way managers and teams create and capture value create major opportunities as well as significant challenges. Prof. Lifshitz will share insights from her pioneering field research into AI’s application to knowledge work processes and discuss how to avoid the risks derived from using AI in the workplace while adopting it to enhance productivity and creativity.
Artificial IntelligenceDigital Transformation
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10:35 A.M.
Redesign Work to Prevent Burnout
Sharon K. Parker, John Curtin Distinguished
Professor, Curtin University, Australia
Work DesignWorkplace Culture
Burnout is running rampant. This hits organizations hard both in terms of lower productivity and higher talent churn. “Fix-the-worker” strategies do little to resolve stress caused by long hours and unreasonable workloads. Explore a new model for improving work design that can help you make real change.
Work DesignWorkplace Culture
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11:05 A.M.
Why Building Mastery Is Critical to Talent Management
Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management
Practice, London Business School
Skill BuildingTalent Management
Rapid changes in technology and business conditions
will require many of us to reinvent ourselves over the course of our working lives. But as we pick up new
skills and discard outdated ones, what valuable core competencies are we building over time? This session will
explore the concept of mastery and how to better support it for your team.
Skill BuildingTalent Management
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11:35 A.M.
10-Minute Break
11:45 A.M.
Presenting sponsor Leading the Skills-Based Enterprise
Ravin Jesuthasan, Senior Partner & Global
Leader for Work, Skills and Transformation Services, Mercer
Skill BuildingTransformative Leadership
By focusing on skills over jobs, leading companies are
reinventing themselves to ensure a more agile, resilient, and flexible AI-ready future. In this session,
Jesuthasan will share ideas from his recent book, The Skills-Powered Organization, and how successful
organizations are getting value from a skills-based approach today.
Skill BuildingTransformative Leadership
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11:55 A.M.
Most Diversity Programs Don’t Work — Here’s What to Do
Instead
Karen Brown, Author of The Leaders You
Need: How to Create Diverse Leadership Teams for a More Dynamic, Resilient Future
Diversity, Equity, and InclusionTalent Management
Too many executives approach diversity, equity, and
inclusion as a set of programs designed to target underrepresented populations rather than as a method for
discovering and capitalizing on the talent they need to achieve business outcomes. This session will present a
field-tested framework for unlocking leadership and management talent in your organization while achieving
improved diversity outcomes.
Diversity, Equity, and InclusionTalent Management
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12:25 P.M.
Lessons From the Culture Champions
Donald Sull, Professor of the zpractice, MIT Sloan and Cofounder, CultureX Marvin Boakye, Chief Human Resources Officer, Cummins Inc.
Workplace Culture
In research involving more than 1,000 large U.S.
employers, Don Sull has identified the key ingredients that go into building a culture that produces both
exceptional business results and a world-class employee experience. Companies that achieve such results are
culture champions. In this session, Sull and Marvin Boakye, CHRO of culture champion Cummins, will share
insights and actionable advice.
Workplace Culture
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12:55 P.M.
10-Minute Break
1:05 P.M.
Bring Your Own AI: Harness Business Value
Nick van der Meulen, Research Scientist, MIT
Sloan Center for Information Systems Research
Artificial IntelligenceDigital Transformation
Employees increasingly rely on Bring Your Own AI
(BYOAI) to boost their individual productivity. But to get organizational value, leaders must transition from
ad hoc GenAI tool usage and grassroots innovation to scalable GenAI solutions that address strategic
objectives. Explore how to navigate the GenAI innovation process, development decisions, and vendor
partnerships to realize business value.
Artificial IntelligenceDigital Transformation
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1:35 P.M.
Effective Approaches to Managing Organized Labor
Thomas Kochan, George Maverick Bunker
Professor of Management, Emeritus at MIT Sloan School of Management
Transformative Leadership
Interest in unionization has surged among U.S.
workers, and a growing number of strikes and strike threats have affected operations in several industries.
Management has traditionally adopted an adversarial approach to organized labor, resulting in work disruptions
and months-long standoffs that benefit no one. In this session, we’ll explore constructive approaches to
managing organized labor that can yield better outcomes for all stakeholders.
Transformative Leadership
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2:05 P.M.
The Impact of AI on Work and the Economy
Daron Acemoglu, Institute Professor, MIT, and 2024 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences
Artificial Intelligence
As companies wrestle with AI investment decisions and implementation strategies, understanding the technology’s true economic potential is crucial for effective planning. Drawing from his groundbreaking research, Professor Acemoglu will help separate AI hype from reality, offering practical insights on where the technology can deliver genuine value in their organizations. In this fireside chat, he’ll discuss why current AI applications may yield more modest returns than expected, how leaders can identify the most promising use cases for their workforce, and why focusing on reliable, task-specific AI tools for key professionals like technicians, health care workers, and customer service staff may be more valuable than pursuing broader AI initiatives. Leaders will learn how to avoid common pitfalls in deployment and identify the kinds of problems and contexts that are best suited to tackle with AI.
Artificial Intelligence
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2:20 P.M.
Closing Remarks
Abbie Lundberg, Editor in Chief, MIT SMR Elizabeth Heichler, Editorial Director, MIT SMR
Register Now To Receive:
Register Now To Receive:
Livestream access to eight expert sessions.
On-demand access to all sessions.
Downloadable synopsis of each session with key takeaways.
Free download of MIT SMR article pack on the way forward.
Elizabeth Altman is an associate professor of management at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, research affiliate at MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy, and guest editor for the Future of the Workforce at MIT Sloan Management Review. She has been a visiting professor at the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) and visiting scholar at Harvard Business School.
Altman’s research focuses on strategy, innovation, platforms, ecosystems, future of work, and workforce ecosystems. Her research has appeared in Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Academy of Management Annals, Journal of Management Studies, and other international journals. Prior to academia, Altman was a Motorola vice president.
Elizabeth J. Altman
Associate Professor of Management, Manning School of Business
The HCL Digital Experience Platform can help you engage your employees with powerful personalized content and applications that increase collaboration, job satisfaction, and retention rates. See how a B2E DXP can accelerate your employee experiences.
Abbie Lundberg, Editor in Chief, MIT SMR Elizabeth Heichler, Editorial Director, Magazine, MIT SMR
The Leadership We Need Now
James R. (Jim) Detert, the John L. Colley Professor of Business Administration, University of Virginia Darden School of Business
AI’s effects are not limited to automation and worker displacement: Artificial intelligence can augment human performance, expand access to decent jobs, or undermine worker autonomy and equity. In this session, we’ll discuss AI’s influence on designing work, supplying workers, conducting work, and measuring work and workers. Through the lens of workforce ecosystems, we offer a comprehensive look at how AI affects the practice of management.
Elizabeth J. Altman, Associate Professor of Management, University of Massachusetts Lowell David Kiron, Editorial Director, Research, MIT SMR
AI’s effects are not limited to automation and worker displacement: Artificial intelligence can augment human performance, expand access to decent jobs, or undermine worker autonomy and equity. In this session, we’ll discuss AI’s influence on designing work, supplying workers, conducting work, and measuring work and workers. Through the lens of workforce ecosystems, we offer a comprehensive look at how AI affects the practice of management.
Ethan Mollick, Associate Professor of Management, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; and author of Co-Intelligence: Living and Working With AI and the One Useful Thing newsletter
Join us for a conversation with Wharton professor Ethan Mollick on the practical ways in which generative AI technologies can be deployed by workers, managers, and organizations to unlock productivity and new possibilities. What sorts of applications are generative AI ready for, what kinds of experiments should organizations be running, and what precautions should they take as workers use it to aid their jobs? In this Q&A, hosted by MIT SMR features editor Kaushik Viswanath, we’ll discuss how to get the most out of AI as a coworker.
Smarter Strategies to Beat Employee Burnout
Melissa Swift, Vice President, Workforce and Organizational Change Acceleration, Capgemini Invent; and author of Work Here Now: Think Like a Human and Build a Powerhouse Workplace
Burnout continues to plague organizations as both leaders and employees grapple with the impact of decades of work intensification and the realities of hybrid work. A host of superficial tactics have proved unsuccessful. In this session, we’ll address surprising evidence-based strategies to conquer burnout once and for all. Learn what you and your team can do to truly refresh and reenergize a tired working population.
DEI Leadership: What It Takes to Achieve Real Change
Malia C. Lazu, Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management; Founder and CEO, The Lazu Group (The Urban Labs); and author of From Intention to Impact: A Practical Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Corporate America doubled down on public pledges to support DEI after George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, but it’s difficult to see where the promised changes have made an impact. Even organizations with the best intentions have struggled to create real change. To move from intention to impact requires changing traditions and culture in the face of pushback and resistance. In this session, you’ll learn new approaches to evolve systems that support a more inclusive and equitable workplace.
Peter Cappelli, the George W. Taylor Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Human Resources, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
How useful will large language models be in the workplaces of today and tomorrow? Despite their capabilities, LLMs are much more complicated to implement than we typically acknowledge, and many of the tasks that seem ideal for them can already be automated using other technologies. LLMs are just as likely to create new work as they are to take over existing jobs. Learn how organizations’ reliance on humans will change but won’t diminish in the age of generative AI.
Zeynep Ton, Professor of the Practice, MIT Sloan School of Management; cofounder, Good Jobs Institute; and author of The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, & Meaning to Everyone’s Work
Companies that suffer from poor customer service, high employee turnover, and low productivity often have a broken management system that includes insufficient people investment and poor work design. This talk will highlight companies that profitably fixed these deficiencies to create a competitive advantage. Such results require a shift in thinking. Learn what that entails, from relying on “rigorous” analyses of cause and effect to recognizing interconnectedness between people, their work, and their ability to serve the customer.
