Leading Through Change is a one-day executive course from the University of Otago Business School, held in Queenstown.
It's built for senior leaders who are taking their organisation through AI-driven change — not technologists, and not people looking for another tools workshop.
The core idea: AI transformation happens at the organisational level, not the individual one. Two-thirds of whether it actually changes how a business works comes down to manager climate, incentives, workflow design and psychological safety — not how many people have been "upskilled." You can't train your way to that one person at a time.
The day is anchored by Professor Kristine Dery (MIT CISR, Macquarie, honorary professor at Otago), who opens with her Future-Ready Workforce diagnostic, followed by live interviews with senior NZ people-leaders on what's actually working. It builds to a stance drill, where each leader names their organisation's current position, where it isn't being held, and their first moves — pressure-tested by the room. Every leader leaves with one concrete change to their organisation, designed to still be running three months later. As much as the content, the room itself is the product: a small, senior cohort building real relationships over the day, not just sitting through slides.
