AI, Burnout, and the Future of Work (Live Podcast Recording) | Improving - Lakeside Center on Bde Maka Ska
Cultural Experiences
Don't Tell Me What To Do! with Everdare Advisors
Social Media Breakfast is handing the mic to
Everdare Advisors
, and we’re not wasting the opportunity on another “future of work” conversation that forgets the people who actually do the work.
Join Nancy Lyons and founding advisors, Alison Gretz, Cynthia Bauerly, and Kelly Groehler in person, with Shawntera Hardy joining remotely, for a live recording of a new podcast: Don’t Tell Me What To Do!
This episode is a human-first intervention for a moment when too many orgs are chasing AI efficiency while their humans are quietly burning out, checking out, or wondering if they matter.
We’ll talk about what it really takes to center humans as technology reshapes work: psychological safety, belonging, work-life harmony, and cultures that stop treating people like “resources” and start treating them like the point.
Expect honest stories, practical provocations, and a few lovingly-held feet to the fire. Because “transformation” isn’t a brand refresh. It’s behavior. It’s leadership. It’s culture.
Alison Gretz
Innovation, Design & Product Strategy
Alison has spent her career at the intersection of innovation, design, and product, where ideas either become real or fall apart. At Target, she led product design for experiences like Drive Up and mobile payments, fundamentally changing how customers interact with a brand. At Shutterfly, she built a new Creative department and photo studio offering in the middle of the pandemic, bringing clarity and structure to a moment defined by uncertainty.
She has led large, global teams and built new functions from the ground up, always grounded in a simple but critical question: how do we make this actually work for humans?
With her expertise in design thinking, facilitation, and coaching, Alison builds shared understanding across roles and levels. She helps teams move from misalignment to momentum. AI and automation promise speed, but without the right systems, they simply amplify what is already broken. Alison helps organizations slow down just enough to get it right, so they can move forward in a way that actually sticks.
Cynthia Bauerly
Systems Change & Complex Leadership
Cynthia has navigated complex systems change under real public pressure. Not theoretical complexity. Not a case study. The actual breaking point, with actual stakes, with the media watching, constituents depending, and the margin for error thin.
As Chair of the Federal Election Commission, she navigated the fallout of Citizens United, fought for transparency in a system millions depend on to be fair, and built consensus across some of the deepest political divides in the country. As the longest-serving Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Revenue, she led 1,400+ employees and managed $20 billion in annual state revenue.
She did not just manage the numbers. She reshaped the culture. She redesigned systems around the people doing the work and the people being served. Cynthia is known for asking the question that cuts straight to the core, unlocking courage and creativity when it matters most. She brings hard-won wisdom, a human-centered perspective, and the experience of having actually done the hard thing.
Kelly Groehler
Strategic Communications & Storytelling
Storytelling is how humans understand the world, and most companies are still struggling to get it right. When leaders think they are being clear but their teams disagree, the resulting disconnect does not just slow things down. It erodes trust.
Kelly is a strategist who has worked across global brands, industries, and stages, operating at the intersection of communications, storytelling, and stakeholder strategy. She has advised the C-suite, built communications functions from the ground up, and led in high-stakes moments where what you say and how you say it carry real consequences.
At her core, she is a visionary storyteller who understands how people engage today. She knows that AI is a tool - a store-bought pie crust that will never be the finished pie. Kelly helps leaders answer what matters: Are we telling the right story? Is it reaching the right people? And are we building trust, or just chasing visibility? Because culture is not what leaders say. It is what people believe and do after they hear it.
Shawntera Hardy
Risk Navigation & Inclusive Systems
Shawntera operates at the intersection of disruption, public policy, economic development, and organizational complexity. She has led critical work across government, business, and nonprofit sectors, helping massive organizations navigate change with a deep bias toward inclusion and tangible outcomes.
Development (DEED), she managed over 1,400 employees and a multi-billion dollar budget. She understands how to move large, complex systems forward without leaving people behind.
Shawntera brings serious credibility in systems change and risk navigation. She knows how to assess the landscape, identify the hidden friction points, and build frameworks that allow organizations to innovate safely and inclusively. When the path forward is unclear and the stakes are high, Shawntera provides the strategic clarity required to act.
Nancy Lyons, Founder & CEO
Nancy Lyons is a tech founder, strategist, Emmy-winning speaker, author, and irreverent truth-teller who has spent over two decades shaking up the status quo of work, leadership, and culture. She does not just talk about building better workplaces. She has lived it, led it, and helped others do it too.
As a co-founder of Clockwork and Tempo, and the best-selling author of Work Like a Boss, Nancy brings real-world experience and straight-up practical wisdom to every room she enters. She is not interested in "best practices." She is here to help leaders unlearn old behaviors, own their power, and lead with radical accountability and a deeply human-centered mindset.
Nancy started Everdare Advisors because she saw a gap in the market. Companies are buying technology to solve human problems, and it's breaking their people. She assembled a collective of leaders who know how to fix these very human problems in our AI-enabled world.
Schedule
8:00 am - Networking/Coffee & Breakfast (bagels, cream cheese, & bacon)
8:25 am - Welcome/Announcements
8:30 am - Presentation
Information Source: Social Media Breakfast - Minneapolis/St. Paul | eventbrite
