The future of your career, your team, and your organization is shaped long before decisions are finalized. It is shaped in the conversations that come first.

In this session, Andrew Sykes from the Kellogg School of Management and Habits at Work explores how language does more than describe reality. It creates it. Through stories and real examples, Andrew introduces the idea of speaking your preferred future into existence and examines how intentional conversations clarify direction, align people around a shared vision, and mobilize action over time.

Building on that foundation, the session then moves from insight to application with a moderated panel featuring leaders from Workhuman, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and the Arizona Cardinals Football Club. Panelists will reflect on pivotal moments in their careers where conversations shaped opportunity, strengthened or tested trust, and influenced outcomes, offering lived examples of the concepts Andrew introduces.

This session is a reminder that the future rarely arrives all at once. It begins quietly in conversation, in moments where someone chooses to name what could be, even before there is proof. By weaving Andrew’s perspective with real stories from the panel, attendees are invited to listen differently, speak more deliberately, and leave with a deeper awareness that the words they choose today help shape what becomes possible tomorrow.