Aug 20, 2026
Amy Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, posed this question during her main stage session at the 2026 ASAE Annual Meeting.
Her challenge was to move away from expecting leaders to have all the answers and instead think more like scientists.
Bring questions. Set direction. Experiment. Make smart, small bets. Learn from what works and what doesn’t.
That kind of thinking requires community. People need to feel safe enough to ask questions, challenge assumptions, try new approaches, and acknowledge when something isn’t working. Organizations also need the resilience to learn quickly and try again.
That connection resonated with us at Talley.
From advancing foresight as a fourth fiduciary responsibility to developing a human-first approach to AI governance and helping associations grow in emerging markets, we are often working in territory where there is no perfect roadmap.
Sometimes leadership is less about having every answer and more about being clear on purpose, creating space to experiment, and learning your way forward.
For associations driven by purpose, community gives us the opportunity to navigate uncertainty together.
Do you have the safety and resilience within your organization to try different solutions, fail quickly, learn, and try again?
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