A Step Ahead

A Step Ahead is a seminar series designed to help senior leaders, teams, and grassroots change agents anticipate and respond to the future.

The series does this by curating a space for you to:

Step back from day-to-day pressures to explore a topic that is timely and relevant for leadership
Tune into the lived experience of sector leaders and change agents ‘beyond your normal bubble’
Reflect on the implications for your own leadership journey

Each season of A Step Ahead is anchored in a headline that has been carefully selected based on insights from the Agents of Change initiative to be relevant for leaders who wish to get on the front foot of change. This headline is then broken down into three themes which build on one another, taking participants on mini-journey over a four-month period.

Autumn 2026

We Can Do This!

On 17 June, the London Stock Exchange hosted an event entitled We Can Do This! Guidelines for Leading in a World without Answers. The event featured preliminary findings of the 2026 Mindful Exclusion Governance Report (coming out in November), and explained how the megatrends are changing the rules of boardroom decision making. This A Step Ahead season, we have decided to expand further on the three pillars of effective decision making that were identified and explore their relevance for both personal transformation and systemic change:

Compounding Growth - 13 October 12:00-13:30 BST
The volume and speed of changes occurring make it harder than ever to stay focussed. It is tempting to retreat to your own version of the status quo. However, those who fail to engage with emerging risks and opportunities will soon be left behind. Those who find their balance on the Tightrope of Focus will achieve compounding growth.
Collective Power - 13 November 08:00-09:30 GMT
Growing levels of polarisation and cynicism are taking a toll on stakeholder trust - at both a personal and institutional level. Being authentic increasingly feels in conflict with stakeholder sensitivity. Those who find their balance on the Tightrope of Trust will have access to collective power.
Innovation that Lasts - 4 December 08:00-09:30 GMT
In the current environment, the speed of decision making also matters, and those who fail to disrupt are likely to be disrupted. However, the interdependence of new frontiers and complexity of factors to account for makes this particularly challenging. Those who find their balance on the Tightrope of Decision are more likely to create innovation that lasts.

For each of the three themes listed above, we will seek to understand:

What the underlying Tightrope looks like in practice
How one goes about finding balance and achieving this pillar
How this pillar translates into personal transformation and systemic change

Throughout the season, we will reference data-driven insights from the 2026 Mindful Exclusion Governance Report, brought to life through authentic anecdotes.

Speakers for Autumn 2026

Charmain Brenyah

Commander

Metropolitan Police

Geoff Godwin

Chief Operating Officer

HDI Global

Michele Turner

Head of Global Bus. Resilience

Marriott International (US)

Paddy Linighan

Chief Sustainability Officer
Clyde & Co

Ram Chanderasekaran

VP Workforce Solutions
Kyndryl

Spring 2026

Shifting Your Relationship with Future You

The megatrends are changing the trajectory of what comes next in the business sector and for society as a whole. To be on the front foot of change, both personally and professionally, it can be helpful to connect the dots between our present state and the future state that we want. In this season, we explore three components of this process:

Rediscover Your Roots - 1 April 16:00-17:30 BST
Despite what changes in our lives, certain things remain constant. This includes our core strengths, values, passions and aspects of our story that have shaped our identity. Rediscovering our roots can help us to stay anchored in the midst of change, and enable us to consciously nurture the growth of these roots in healthy ways.
Step into the Fog - 19 May 08:00-09:30 BST
Stepping into fog can feel scary... and it can also be exciting. When there is no roadmap, there are certain principles that allow us to find our way through uncertainty with greater motivation and skill. Awareness of these can help us feel more connected to our future selves.
Connect with Future You - 2 July 16:00-17:30 GMT
Having a stronger sense of our roots and a feeling more equipped to navigate uncertainty make it easier for us to imagine our future selves. However, it is still important that we make time to actually do so - so that we can be inspired by possibility, savvy in mitigating risks, and ultimately have more agency in shaping what comes next.

In this season, we will become more aware of how we currently relate to our future selves, and explore what shifts will help us to feel more confident, anchored and impactful in the midst of uncertainty and change.

Speakers for Spring 2026

David Wilson

Head of HR

Golden Star Resources (Ghana)

Geraldine Sharpe-Newton

NED, Former Comms Executive & President of the Media Society

Lovey Dashottar

SVP, Chief Sustainability Office

DBS Bank (Singapore)

Neil Carberry OBE

CEO at CIPD

Former CEO at REC

Rain Newton-Smith

CEO at CBI (Confederation of British Industry)

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Ruairí Cosgrove

President at The Chartered Governance Institute UK&I

Autumn 2025

Integrating Competing Priorities

Our Agents of Change roundtables from earlier in the year suggest that many leaders are being challenged to find balance in the midst of competing forces. This has implications for:

Decision Making Focus - 2 October 08:00-09:30 BST
It is increasingly challenging for leaders to take the long-view given the pace of change, the steep learning curve required to keep up, and the sense that business survival is at stake - but to not do so makes business failure more inevitable in the future.
Stakeholder Trust - 29 October 16:00-17:30 BST
Across the business ecosystem, stakeholders (customers, investors, employees, etc) have stronger and more polarised opinions about what they expect from business leaders - aligning with one side is increasingly perceived as betrayal by the other.
Personal Responsibility - 5 December 08:00-09:30 GMT
Aspiring Agents of Change may feel disheartened by forces beyond their control and their limited capacity to address multiple issues at once - when it is unclear how to take ownership without losing personal balance, it is tempting to hide behind the status quo.

In this season, we will discuss competing priorities across all three of these dimensions, and explore the processes required for effective integration. Click here to find out what else we are offering this autumn.