MnCMN Change Summit - Unlearning Before You Change (Virtual)

October 22, 2026 4:30 PM - 6:30 PM (CDT)

Description

Every change effort enters an organization with a history. Over time, teams build habits, structures, assumptions, and cultural norms that help them operate. Some of those patterns may have served the organization well in the past, but they can quietly compete with new strategies, systems, processes, and ways of working.

In this virtual Change Summit, Amy J. Wilson, founder and Chief Culture Futurist of Culture Shift Studio, will help change practitioners look more closely at the organizational patterns that may be getting in the way of meaningful change. Using the Pattern Shift Wheel and the Unlearning Cycle, Amy will introduce a practical approach for identifying what may need to be noticed, named, challenged, chosen, and practiced differently before change can take hold.

This session will explore how unlearning can help change leaders:

• Recognize the hidden habits, structures, and cultural norms influencing current change efforts
• Understand why new initiatives can struggle when old patterns remain unexamined
• Diagnose stalled change through the lens of organizational patterns, not only individual resistance
• Identify practical entry points for helping teams shift from what used to work to what is needed now

What you’ll learn

Participants will leave with:

• A new way to examine why change initiatives stall
• Practice identifying the patterns competing with current change work
• An introduction to the Unlearning Cycle: notice, name, challenge, choose, and practice
• A practical starting point for helping change move beyond intention and into adoption

Who should attend

This session is designed for change practitioners, transformation leaders, project and program leaders, HR and OD professionals, communications and training partners, and anyone responsible for helping people and organizations adopt new ways of working.

Whether you are leading a major transformation or supporting change across a team, function, or community, this session will help you look beneath the surface of change work and identify what may need to be unlearned before something new can truly take root.

Speaker:

Amy J. Wilson

Amy J. Wilson is a Culture Futurist and Founder of Culture Shift Studio, a culture change consultancy that starts where most change efforts stop: with what needs to be unlearned first. With more than 15 years in innovation and culture change, Amy is a former Aspen Technology Policy Fellow and White House Presidential Innovation Fellow whose work has taken her to the UN, JFFLabs, Stanford, Google, and the World Bank. She holds certificates from Stanford University, Cornell University, and General Assembly, and is a Prosci Certified Change Practitioner. She is the author of Empathy for Change and creator of the Pattern Shift Wheel and the Unlearning Cycle. Her forthcoming book is The Shift That Sticks: Why Leaders Must Unlearn Before They Can Change.

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