The Capacity Advantage: How Leaders and Teams Absorb More Without Breaking
In person. Off the record. With executives carrying the same load.
Location: NYC
Thursday, October 15th, 2026
5:30 PM - 8:00 PM (ET)
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"We do not rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems."
— James Clear, Atomic Habits
Every organization is asking people to absorb more. Most expect them to work out how on their own. Very few invest in actually expanding their capacity.
So people absorb the load at the expense of their personal lives. Some reach for AI and know they're only scratching the surface, because nobody has time to slow down and rethink how the work runs.
Asking individuals to try harder buys you a quarter. Changing how the work is designed is what lasts.
Session Leaders
Dr. Waajida L. Small
Chief Human Resources Officer, Trinity Church NYC
Waajida leads human capital strategy at Trinity Church NYC, covering leadership development, organizational effectiveness and talent management.
She is the founder of Capital Conscious U, a leadership development firm for women leaders, and the author of several books on leadership and career advancement.
She holds a doctorate in Human Capital Management and is a Certified Human Capital Strategist, Certified Purpose Leader and Certified Professional Coach. She works on what it takes to build workplaces where people carry more without burning out.
Michelle Hodges
Senior Director, Commercial Capabilities, Moët Hennessy
Michelle leads commercial capabilities at Moët Hennessy, where she built the sales enablement function and sits on the change leadership team that carries the commercial business through major transitions.
She is also the founder of Michelle Hodges Advisory and an advisory board member at the University of Tennessee. Her work has been recognized with the LVMH North America DEAL Leadership Award. She works on freedom within a framework: enough clarity about what is expected that empowerment does not turn into overwhelm.
Featured Panelists
Robert Haddow Beaven
Partner, changeforce
Robert brings 20+ years spanning leadership development, executive advisory and commercial leadership.
As Co-Founder and CEO of Octahedron, he built an organizational intelligence platform, developed with behavioral scientists and used by more than 1,000 teams globally, that measures trust and alignment at the team level rather than running another static survey. He previously spent nine years on the executive leadership team of a national workplace consulting firm partnering with Fortune 500 organizations.
As a Partner at changeforce, he works with organizations at critical junctures to build high-trust teams that outperform under pressure.
Mica Vaipan
VP Product, Tech & AI, changeforce
Mica brings 15+ years of professional experience spanning entrepreneurship, executive coaching and leadership development, M&A, product development and AI.
As the Founder of RunYourself, she has developed a scalable program backed by an AI-powered platform that enables leaders and managers to strengthen their coaching skills so they can scale themselves.
As VP of Product and AI at changeforce, her work sits at the intersection of behavioral change, organizational performance and AI.
What the Panel Will Get Into
Drinks, a candid panel, open conversation, then more drinks and bites. Three questions the panel will get into:
Where capacity breaks at the leader and manager level
Most leaders were promoted for personal execution excellence and default to it under pressure. We look at how organizations change these limiting behavior patterns.
Getting teams to use AI to scale capacity
The hard part of AI adoption is rarely the technology. It's the human barriers: the fear factor, helping people feel the practical benefit, and making space to learn while the work keeps moving.
The practices that expand capacity
Fewer and better meetings. Clear prioritization. Explicit expectations. The operational habits that make room instead of consuming it.
Who This Is For
Senior leaders responsible for how their organizations perform when the pressure rises:
Executives leading through restructuring, integration, or rapid growth, where demands on people are outpacing the systems supporting them.
COOs & Business Unit Leaders
Carrying operational targets with fewer management layers.
CHROs & Chief People Officers, Head of L&D
Rebuilding leadership capability for flatter structures.
CEOs & EdTech Leaders
Scaling product, sales, or delivery teams without breaking what got them here.
Superintendents & Chief Academic Officers
Running districts with more mandates, more state reporting, and no more staff to absorb it.
Leaders from these organizations have joined our past events:
Event Overview
5:30 - 6:00 PM
Arrival & Drinks
6:00 - 6:10 PM
Welcome & Opening Remarks
6:10 - 6:40 PM
Panel Discussion
6:40 - 7:00 PM
Q&A + Insights
7:00 - 8:00 PM
Drinks & Networking
What the Evening Is Actually Like
You will spend the evening with practitioners who design behavioral performance architectures for organizations at critical junctures, alongside peers navigating the exact same capacity limits inside their own firms.
Off the record, because what gets said in a room like this isn't what gets said from a stage.
We're keeping the room small so the conversation stays candid.
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