Patrick Leenheers is co-founder of WITHIN. For over thirty years he has worked with leaders navigating system change: where imagination, strategy, behaviour and technology collide. Not the kind that fits a roadmap, but the kind that asks something unexpected of the people leading it.
With his partner Franklin de Bekker, he developed The 8 Crafts — a set of capacities for leading into the uncertain and uncontrollable.
On complexity, judgment, and what AI cannot replace
When knowledge is free, human judgment is invaluable.
You are driving something that matters. And it is not moving fast enough. Everyone agrees something should change. Nothing really shifts. The harder you push, the more resistance you get. More dependencies surface. The problem keeps changing shape. Nobody trained you for this.
In this hands-on session, Patrick and Franklin drop you into a simulation. You will feel — not just understand — why straight-line problem-solving does not work in complex systems. You will find out what this means for your situation, and what it asks of your leadership.
Then the second part. AI now analyses and prototypes in minutes what used to take days. We are fundamentally shifting from a knowledge economy to an intelligence economy. The question turns personal: what is your contribution when the tool can do the heavy lifting? How do you direct and steer AI without handing over the judgment that should stay yours?
You will leave with a sharper read on your own situation — what makes it complex, and what that asks of you. And a more honest relationship with AI: using technology as a powerful engine, not borrowed judgment.
Your ticket gives you full-day access to all sessions, workshops and networking.