Leadership for the inflection point
AI and quantum are expanding what leaders can know, model and do. The challenge is knowing where they matter, how to use them well, and what decisions to make because of them.
The Leadership Intelligence Circle is built to help senior leaders do exactly that. A deliberately small six-month cohort combining practical AI methods, stronger decision frameworks, and hands-on work with a live quantum platform.
Cohort capped at 25. The Circle begins 12 November 2026 at Stanford University.
The outcome
Technology is creating more intelligence than any leadership team can absorb. The challenge is turning that intelligence into decisions that are better informed, more fully considered and made at the speed the moment requires.
See emerging capabilities, market shifts, weak signals and risks earlier.
Interrogate competing interpretations, test assumptions and understand second-order consequences across the organization.
Translate insight into decisions, experiments, governance and strategic action.
Bring human judgment, responsibility and clarity to decisions that technology alone cannot make.
Sense, make sense, act — framing used with the permission of Dr. John M. Olson, Maj. Gen. (Ret.), U.S. Air Force, Co-Founder of Outcome Inc and Chairman & CEO of AXIONS Corporation.
The foundation
The Circle draws on Leaders on Purpose research into how CEOs, boards and teams navigate disruption, build resilience and create long-term value under pressure.
That research is combined with practical work on AI, quantum, governance, security and leadership, and with direct access to people working at the frontier of consequential change.
Why the Circle exists
Research published in Harvard Business Review has shown how AI-assisted thinking can converge toward conventional answers unless leaders deliberately introduce different perspectives, anomalies and challenge.
Some of the most consequential signals sit in the anomalies: the customer behaving unexpectedly, the problem solved in an unfamiliar way, the signal dismissed because it does not fit the model.
The Circle helps senior leaders challenge consensus when the evidence warrants it, see what the dominant interpretation may be missing, test what matters before acting, and bring judgment to decisions technology alone cannot make.
The work
The Leadership Intelligence Circle gives senior leaders practical strategies and frameworks for evaluating where AI and quantum genuinely matter, seizing the opportunities, navigating the risks, and translating new capability into decisions, experiments and long-term value.
Two threads run through the work: the broader geopolitical and long-term implications of the decisions technology is enabling, and the inner leadership this moment requires.
Practical methods for using AI models inside real strategic work: generating competing interpretations, testing assumptions, surfacing anomalies and challenging consensus answers. The emphasis is on better insight, not simply faster answers.
Structured methods help members look for convergence, divergence, anomaly and what must be verified before action. Guest practitioners bring their own approaches to the same work.
Hands-on time with the Dynex quantum platform. Learn to recognize a computational challenge that may benefit from quantum, and see selected cohort challenges taken into deeper exploration.
The objective is not greater technological fluency for its own sake. It is better decisions, sharper experiments and clearer strategic action.
The quantum difference
Quantum is usually taught to executives as something to understand or prepare for. In the Circle, members get closer to the work itself, building a practical understanding of what quantum is, how it differs from classical computing and AI, the kinds of problems it is suited to, and where it may create real business value.
Working with Dynex, the cohort then applies that understanding to real challenges drawn from members’ businesses. A small number are selected for deeper exploration on the Dynex quantum platform, and the full cohort follows those projects from business challenge through problem formulation, quantum exploration and validation.
Members see what quantum can actually do, where it is useful, where it is not, the types of applications it can support, and what it takes to move from possibility toward application.
No quantum background is required. Not every challenge will turn out to be a quantum problem. That is part of the capability members build: learning to recognize where quantum may materially change what is possible, and where it will not.
Bring a problem. See how quantum changes the search space.
Responsibility at speed
As capability expands, so does the consequence of getting decisions wrong.
The Circle examines the questions CEOs and boards increasingly need to answer around governance, security, data, accountability, human oversight and the unintended consequences of optimization.
The goal is neither acceleration at any cost nor paralysis through risk. It is the capacity to move with confidence because the right questions, controls and accountabilities are in place.
The human advantage
More intelligence does not automatically create better decisions.
Leaders still have to decide what to optimize for, which trade-offs are acceptable, when the evidence is sufficient, who carries accountability and what future they are actually trying to create.
The Circle develops that human capability alongside the technological one: judgment, composure, curiosity, courage, the imagination to see what to build next, and the ability to lead others through uncertainty. Coaching support is woven through the six months to resource that work.
The room
The Circle is deliberately small because the value depends on trust, participation and the composition of the room.
Each cohort is curated for range across sectors, geographies and forms of expertise, while remaining intimate enough for members to work on real challenges rather than perform for an audience.
Admission is selective. A title alone is not enough.
The people
The Circle is joined by senior leaders, researchers and practitioners confirmed session by session so the room stays current. A sample of the contributing bench:
Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, where he leads the AI and Sustainability Initiative. Former Director-General of the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Major General (Ret.), U.S. Air Force. Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Outcome Inc; President, CEO and Chairman of AXIONS Corporation. Spent nearly a decade at NASA, served two years at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and was the first U.S. Air Force Chief Data and AI Officer. Architect of the Sense / Make sense / Act framing used throughout the Circle.
Co-founder of KONUX, the German AI scale-up transforming railway infrastructure, named by the World Economic Forum as one of the world's most innovative companies. Created more than half a billion euros in shareholder value before 30. Founder and CEO of RHISE AI (Lucie app) and World Economic Forum Agenda Contributor.
Founder and CEO of Dynex and Mission Leader of Dynex Moonshots, advancing quantum and neuromorphic computing from technical possibility toward industrial-scale application. Named a Fast Company 2024 Technologist of the Year; Dynex received the 2025 BIG Innovation Award and was a 2025 SXSW Innovation Awards finalist. Works with Circle members on where quantum capability may change the economics of their sector, and where it will not.
Co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival and founder of Dragon Camp AI. Writing partner of Clayton Christensen and co-author of Disrupting Class. Three decades studying how anomalies become industries, the lens he brings to the Circle.
Co-Founder and CEO of Leaders on Purpose. Author of FutureFit (Bloomsbury Academic). Over a decade of CEO research on how leaders navigate disruption and build long-term value.
Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Leaders on Purpose. Designs the research, methods and member experience across the Circle, and works with members on their live strategic questions.
A full list of contributors is confirmed session by session. The specific bench for each cohort is shared with members on acceptance.
Where it begins
The Circle begins in person at Stanford University on 12 November 2026, bringing the cohort together around the live questions, decisions and challenges that will guide the six months ahead.
The opening is designed to create both a horizon view of what is changing and an immediate working agenda for each participant: what matters now, what deserves attention, and where action can create advantage.
The arc
From the Stanford University opening to the closing roadmap. Two live touchpoints per month across three phases, each with its own shape and focus. Running through every session: the broader geopolitical and long-term implications of the decisions technology is enabling, and the inner work of leading well through sustained uncertainty.
Leadership in the Intelligence Era.
What is moving from the margins to the mainstream. Plus an informal gathering in Davos for members already attending.
Where emerging capability creates genuine commercial advantage.
The inner work of leading well when the ground keeps shifting.
Where new capability becomes something a leader actually commissions.
Technology, policy and the geopolitical field around every strategic decision.
The Leadership Intelligence Roadmap, closed in person at the IMF & World Bank Spring Meetings.
The exact sequence and guest contributors are confirmed session by session so the program can stay current as technologies, markets and the questions facing leaders evolve.
What you leave with
Across the six months, members examine emerging technology and governance from multiple expert lenses, building the insights, tools and frameworks to make better decisions and understand where new capability creates real opportunity.
The work is grounded in the live strategic decisions members already face: market signals, emerging technologies, AI-assisted analysis, multiple expert perspectives, governance implications and peer challenge.
By the Washington closing, members leave with tested assumptions, identified uncertainties, sharper decision criteria, priority experiments or questions for their board, and a practical roadmap for the work ahead.
In concrete terms, members leave with:
The offer
Twelve live touchpoints across six months, combining senior peer exchange, insight into emerging technologies and market shifts, and practical application.
Stanford opens the Circle in person. Washington closes it. The ten working sessions in between are live virtual, two per month.
Investment
Membership is a single fee covering the full six-month program: the Stanford University opening, the Washington closing, all twelve live touchpoints, applied AI work, hands-on work with the Dynex quantum platform, governance and leadership sessions, and curated peer exchange across the cohort.
The value extends beyond the sessions: proximity to emerging intelligence, technologies and ideas before their implications become obvious.
Admission is by invitation and conversation.
Please get in touch to discuss fit, timing and the questions you would bring into the Circle.
The invitation
The Leadership Intelligence Circle is for senior leaders who want to sense what is changing, make sense of what matters, and act with judgment while others are still trying to understand the terrain.
Request a conversation
A short note is enough. The Circle is admission by invitation and conversation, and we read every message personally.
Write to team@leadersonpurpose.com, or use the form below.