Leading in a Changing World: What We Learned in 2025 — and Why 2026 Marks the Opportunity for Renewal

By Stuart W. Thomas| Dec 1, 2025

After another year of the Leadership Exploration Series (LES), I’m coming away with two overwhelming impressions—both pointing to one conclusion: 2026 must be a year of renewal. Not just for organizations, but for how we work, lead, and strengthen the systems that hold us together. First, we are living in a moment of unprecedented possibility to reinvent how we work. Second, we are doing so amid growing fragmentation and declining agreement on how the systems we’re redesigning should be governed. If that isn’t the perfect setup for 2026, I don’t know what is. 

Act I — Preparing to Lead Over the Next 25 Years (April) 
We kicked off the year by zooming out—way out—to the year 2050 and taking a broad look at global changes. Participants bravely explored trends in geopolitics, demographics, technology, climate, and workforce design. In other words, we started the series by jumping straight into the deep end of the pool. The big "a-ha"? The future is not something to react to — it's something to prepare for. Preferably with a willingness to let our assumptions be stretched in unexpected directions. These conversations hinted at something bigger: that renewal begins by looking far enough ahead to choose our trajectory intentionally. 

Act II — The Talent Revolution (July)
In July, we discovered together that careers are no longer ladders. They're more like jungle gyms—complete with swinging ropes, the occasional trap door, and the firm possibility of ending up somewhere totally different than expected. Workers now switch jobs, roles, and identities more frequently than any previous generation. Many value purpose and flexibility over traditional status markers and increasingly expect leaders to serve as strategists, coaches, and ethical stewards. The future of talent isn't just about filling roles — it's about creating the conditions for growth, adaptability, and meaning. As people redefine their relationship with work, 2026 presents a chance to rebuild cultures that support growth, purpose, and human sustainability. 

Act III — The Nature of Work (October)
Our third session brought us face-to-face with the accelerating realities of AI, advanced automation, platform economies, climate disruption, and shifting worker expectations. Work is transforming faster than our corporate and governmental 'brains' can fully process, and the trends show no sign of slowing. We learned that the workforce will shrink in many countries, global talent networks will become standard, and productivity will rise sharply through human-machine collaboration. Yet woven through these insights was a concern: our ability to build new technologies is far outpacing our ability to govern them responsibly — a gap widening every year. Innovation is exploding, but the guardrails are lagging behind. If 2025 exposed the cracks between innovation and governance, 2026 offers a chance to begin repairing them. 

Act IV — Business Evolution (November)
The finale tied everything together through a simple but powerful framework: how we create value, how we organize, and how we sustain trust. As we explored each dimension, something profound emerged. Healthy organizations and healthy democracies, it turns out, run on the same operating system. Both require trust, transparency, shared purpose, and the willingness to hold systems—and ourselves—accountable. It became increasingly clear that the same qualities that strengthen workplaces also strengthen civic life. In other words, good organizational leadership and good societal leadership may not be as different as we once assumed. 

As we look to 2026, the question is no longer how leaders cope with change—it's how we renew the systems, relationships, and leadership practices that will carry us forward. We've spent years doing that. Now the real question is how we lead in ways that strengthen our organizations, our communities and the broader society. The upcoming 2026 series, Leadership for a Stronger Future, will explore how leaders can drive innovation while guarding against harm, how trust is built and rebuilt, and how organizations can become engines of civic renewal rather than just engines of productivity. It will also examine how we stay human in a machine-accelerated world and how we anchor ourselves to values when everything around us is shifting. 

Renewal is not just a theme—it's a necessity. After years of rapid disruption, declining trust, rising complexity, and strained systems, leaders have a unique opportunity to rebuild with intention. Renewal is about strengthening what works, redesigning what doesn't, and reconnecting people to meaning, purpose, and each other. 

If 2025 taught us anything, it's that the future is coming fast—but so is the opportunity to renew it. If we use 2026 as a starting point to rebuild trust, reconnect people, and redesign the systems we depend on, we won't just shape the future—we'll heal it. And if we do our jobs well, we won't just build better organizations; we'll help build a stronger, more connected, more resilient society. It's a remarkable outcome for a series that started with a simple question: "What's changing, and what does it mean for us?" As we step into 2026, we carry forward a renewed sense of possibility, purpose, and perhaps a renewed sense of connection. We're going to need all three — and maybe a little luck. 

Stuart Thomas is a career consultant and the founder of Arrow Performance Group, a Colorado-based organizational development firm. He is a seasoned strategist, facilitator, and organizational designer. He brings decades of experience helping communities, organizations, and leaders strengthen trust, connection, and engagement. His work focuses on building cultures of inclusion, resilience, and shared purpose – across sectors and across divides.

Stuart’s approach integrates systems thinking and research on social capital, organizational development, and democratic renewal. He has led workshops, strategic initiatives, and community collaborations across the nonprofit, government, and corporate sectors.

Learn more or connect at Stuart@ArrowPerformanceGroup.com.