Big ideas
Keynote presentation by Eleanor Winton, futurist and co-author of The Disruption Game Plan, exploring sustainable performance in the age of AI.
Welcome to our post-symposium summary of the "Big Ideas" session from the Performance Leader Symposium 2025.
Big ideas
Our keynote speaker was Eleanor Winton — futurist, strategist, and co-author of The Disruption Game Plan. A foresight and innovation expert, Eleanor built KPMG’s Future Institute and now helps leaders sharpen strategy, elevate performance, and create value in a rapidly changing world.
Keynote: Navigating Disruption - Embracing Uncertainty as Opportunity
In this thought-provoking and engaging presentation, Eleanor guided attendees through the challenge of thriving amidst unprecedented uncertainty. Rather than viewing uncertainty solely through the lens of risk, she reframed it as a landscape of opportunity for forward-thinking professionals.
The session was structured around four key elements:
- Understanding uncertainty and its current prevalence
- Developing a future-focused mindset
- Exploring disruptive case studies from other sectors
- Identifying opportunities for innovation within professional services
Key takeaways
The World Uncertainty Index revealed that current uncertainty levels exceed even those experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eleanor challenged attendees to shift from a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) mindset to a BANI (brittle, anxious, non-linear, incomprehensible) perspective that better reflects today's reality.
The presentation highlighted three types of curiosity essential for navigating uncertainty:
- Epistemic curiosity – developing deep expertise
- Diverse curiosity – seeking broad perspectives across sectors
- Empathic curiosity – understanding human motivations and needs
We worked through three powerful examples of disruptive thinking:
- Line bikes – demonstrating how disruptors often leverage existing infrastructure while shifting risk to incumbents
- Whiskey acceleration – showing how innovation can challenge fundamental assumptions about time and value
- AI efficiency – revealing how resource constraints can drive unexpected innovation, as seen with DeepSeek's energy-efficient alternative to ChatGPT
Actionable Insights for Professional Services
The presentation concluded with practical frameworks for prioritising initiatives based on vision alignment and execution capability. Eleanor emphasised that employee engagement with organisational vision has dropped dramatically (from 76% in 2016 to just 38% in 2022), highlighting the urgent need for professional services firms to create compelling futures that energise their people.
Questions?
If you have any questions or comments about any of the above, please reach out to your Client Success Manager or contact us via our website at PerformanceLeader.com