OUR EVENTS
What are we up to?
In addition to bi-weekly virtual gatherings, our HFoW community holds quarterly summits in New York City, with each summit focusing on a specific dimension of the human future of work. Take a look at our past summits:
Human Future of Work
Working group & community
OUR STORY
What does the business world need right now?
Across industries, change has never come faster—and it’s rewriting the playbook for how leaders, institutions, and cultures must evolve.
As business leaders, we work tirelessly to innovate products and processes. But what if the most vital innovation of all pertains to people, and the way they work together?
Business, at its core, is deeply human. Organizations thrive when they honor the inner life of their members. That’s why we founded this community in 2024: to advance not just the future of business, but the human future of work.
What are we doing about it?
The HFoW community gathers for biweekly focus group sessions online and 2-3 in-person summits every year. With our collective talents, perspectives, and platforms, we aim to advance our understanding of “the big questions” in the world today, close key knowing-doing gaps, correct our thinking on issues where research has been flawed, and accelerate knowledge-building in areas where research is inadequate.
Furthermore, we seek to create bright spots for the business world and humanity at large, develop incubation platforms, and inspire transformative shifts within our organizations—and beyond. Through all of these efforts, we build deep connections and meaningful growth partnerships with one another.
Summit 1: Human Future of Work Launch Summit
May 24, 2024, at McKinsey New York Experience Studio
Hosted by Mentora Institute, Randstad, Valize, and Emeritus
As the pace of business accelerates and disruption becomes the norm, organizations are also grappling with a steady erosion of institutional trust. In this environment, anchoring the future of work in the human experience is not just important—it is essential. At the heart of every enterprise lies its people, and the most enduringly successful organizations are those that never lose sight of this truth: sustaining a human-centered focus is their greatest differentiator.
Special guests
- Rita McGrath, CBS professor, founder of Valize and author of Seeing Around Corners (2019)
- Keith Ferazzi, consultant, and author of Never Eat Alone (2005)
Summit 2: Creating a Future-Forward Design
Sep 24, 2024, at IBM Watson Astor Place
Hosted by Mentora Institute, Randstad, Valize, and Emeritus
Sharing our respective histories of organizational mishaps and pitfalls accentuated the impact that organizational design has on employee outcomes, company growth, and impact. By putting pen to paper on how to build the aspirational organization of the future, we identified small experiments and rapid innovations that we could quickly set up in a fast-fail-feedback environment to keep pace with modern disruptions.
Special guests
- Stephan Meier, behavioral economist and author of The Employee Advantage: How Putting Workers First Helps Business Thrive (2024)
Summit 3: Individuation & The Human Spirit
Feb 25, 2025, at Columbia University
Hosted by Mentora Institute
Emphasis on the collective and typecasting individuals often leads to an oversimplification of individuals’ strengths and potential. The human spirit is one that should be nurtured not only on a collective basis but on a personal level. Individual commitment and conviction within an organization has a tremendous impact on culture and business outcomes. By reframing differences as unifying strengths, our members explored new pathways for the future of work—asking, in particular, how emerging AI tools might help us better measure sentiment and belonging in our organizations.
Special guests
- Ian Rottenberg, Dean of Religious Life at Columbia University
- Paul Ingram, Kravis Professor of Business at Columbia Business School
- Michael Bazigos, former Accenture executive, Columbia Teachers College professor
Summit 4: The Inspired Organization
Sep 16, 2025, at McKinsey New York Experience Studio
Hosted by Mentora Institute
The Human Future of Work is not just about new technologies or agile structures—it’s about building cultures where people bring their full selves to the work they do. This requires two shifts: 1) Evolving our leadership assessment tools to move beyond fixed typologies toward personalized narrative inquiry, and 2) Reimagining the employee experience in an age where meaning, belonging, and adaptability matter more than ever. At this upcoming summit, we will explore ways of creating and sustaining a truly inspired organization.
Special guests
- Dean Carter, former CPO at Patagonia
- Mark Levy, former CPO at Airbnb
- Michael Bazigos, former Head of Organizational Science at McKinsey & Co.
OUR COMMUNITY
Who are we?
The HFoW community consists of senior executives in Human Resources, Leadership and Development, and Talent Management from leading organizations across all industries. In addition, our events feature inspiring guests who resonate with our community’s commitment to leading change with heart and rigor.
Hear from some of our community members:
“With the pace of change in technology, especially in AI and generative AI, it is more important than ever to focus future of work on what’s
uniquely human—creativity, ethical judgment, understanding of context as well as emotional and social needs. Working with technology, these uniquely human qualities will help us accelerate innovation and productivity and, at the same time, mitigate and manage unintended consequences and unforeseen risks.”
Bin Wolfe
Ernst & Young, Global Deputy, Talent
“Even the language we used about this work, ‘[Human] Future of Work’—it’s an investment in shaping the way that we will learn how to really lead in the changing dynamics of our world.”
Ray Dempsey
Dempsey Inclusion Group, Founder and Barclays, former Chief Diversity Officer
“If we have leaders that can really understand who they are, what their purpose is, how they show up, what their preferences are, what they need to learn or develop, where they failed, and if they can be vulnerable and open about that—then they’re going to model that for their team.”
Kristine Lalonde
Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, VP of Talent Management