Lauren Hoffman
12:45pm - 1:45pm
Rough Ridge Room
In today’s dynamic and often unpredictable organizational landscape, HR professionals play a pivotal role in empowering managers to build high-performing teams. Trust, engagement, and psychological safety are the cornerstones of effective leadership, enabling managers to foster environments where individuals and teams can thrive. Team trust—the belief in the reliability and integrity of team members—serves as the foundation for collaboration and risk-taking (Costa, Roe, & Taillieu, 2001). Coupled with engagement, defined as the emotional and cognitive commitment to shared goals (Kahn, 1990), trust enables teams to align and navigate challenges. Yet, it is psychological safety, a climate where individuals feel safe to express themselves without fear of judgment or reprisal, that unlocks true innovation and connection (Edmondson, 1999).
For HR professionals guiding managers, learning to adapt to unfamiliar environments is critical. Just as navigating the wilderness requires embracing discomfort and uncertainty, managers must adjust to shifting team dynamics, emerging challenges, and organizational change while maintaining cohesion and purpose. The wilderness experience—rooted in collaboration, adaptability, and resilience—offers a powerful metaphor for leading teams through complexity.
Drawing from personal experiences in wilderness programs, this keynote equips HR leaders with guiding principles to help managers cultivate trust, drive engagement, and build psychologically safe environments. By developing these skills, managers can strengthen team connections, foster adaptability, and lead with confidence through any terrain—whether in the boardroom or the wild.
Learning Objectives
Understand the power of trust
Creating psychological safety
Adapting to unfamiliar environments
Practical tools for team connection and growth