After spending time with our Novartis Culture Leadership Advisory Board (C-LAB), a diverse group of thought leaders from science, business, academia and sport helping us shape our culture journey, I came away thinking about a different question:
What do we want AI to do? And just as importantly, what should stay firmly in human hands?
One theme kept resurfacing: as AI accelerates change, leadership becomes less about having all the answers and more about creating the conditions for people to lean into that change. Often, it's many small shifts over time that can have the biggest impact.
Here are four that stood out to me.
1. From friction to flow
When trying to solve a challenge, our first instinct is often to add rather than subtract. A new process. A new tool. A new initiative.
But many of the conversations at C-LAB pointed in the opposite direction.
Sometimes the most powerful shift is choosing what to stop.
Reimagining work should start with removing friction, not adding complexity. It requires us to create focus, make priorities clearer, and stop work that no longer adds value.
So, how do we identify what needs stopping? At Novartis, we believe the people closest to the work are best placed to improve it. That's why we invited colleagues across the company to share the frictions they face and their ideas for making work simpler, faster and more impactful. Listening to those ideas, and acting on them together, is how we'll create new ways of working that help us make the most of emerging technologies and deliver even greater impact for our people, our business and, ultimately, patients.
We also recognize that people don't just need new technology. They need a clear picture of where they're headed and why it matters. Leadership today isn't about pretending to have every answer; it's about helping people make sense of change and creating enough clarity for teams to move forward confidently, even when parts of the path are still emerging.
Sometimes the most powerful thing a leader can do is decide what not to do. See what happened when Deepak Bisht asked some of our C-LAB leaders what they are letting go of.
Stop adding meetings to create more clarity and energy
What if reimagining work starts with stopping?
Not adding another meeting. Not creating another process. Not making teams move faster without helping them focus better.
2. From control to trust
When the world around us is changing fast, it can be tempting for leaders to tighten their grip on control. Yet our own experience shows that new ways of working only scale when people feel trusted to experiment, contribute ideas and challenge assumptions.
Building trust isn't about lowering standards or reducing accountability. It's about creating the conditions where people feel confident taking ownership and trying new approaches.
If we want to see real progress, we need to normalize intelligent failure.
As a pharmaceutical company, innovation is our lifeblood. Meaningful innovation requires experimentation, and experimentation inevitably comes with failures along the way. The goal isn't to avoid failure at all costs, but to learn from it quickly. Leaders help make that possible by creating environments where people feel safe to share failures and turn setbacks into progress. How? By sharing their own failures and learning out loud, together.
This is especially important as AI becomes more integrated into how we work. As technology helps us move faster, the leader’s role in creating space for dialogue, applying human judgement, critical thinking, and thoughtful decision-making becomes even more crucial.
At the same time, unbossed leadership means recognizing that there isn't one right way to achieve an outcome. Rather than prescribing every step, a leader’s job is to create clarity on the destination, trust their teams, and empower them to find the best path forward.
Hear C-LAB member and Olympic champion Dominique Gisin reflect on her own experience of moving from control to trust in this conversation with Sujata Vaidyanathan.
Building trust in a diverse leadership culture
Do I really know what success looks like?
As leaders, we often act with the best intentions: sharing our experience, offering guidance, and helping others avoid mistakes.
3. From knowing to learning
The pace of change means expertise alone is no longer enough. The leaders who thrive won't necessarily be those with the most answers. They'll be the ones who help others learn, adapt and grow.
At Novartis, we want our people to feel equipped for the future, not intimidated by it. We want them to understand where we're headed and how they can help shape what comes next.
It's about equipping people to be part of the journey.
This isn't about having every answer today. It's about building the confidence, skills and mindset to keep learning as the world changes around us. A world where curiosity becomes a strategic advantage and learning isn't a separate activity from work, but part of how work gets done.
Hear how C-LAB members are helping teams learn faster together in this conversation hosted by Jose Marcilla.
What helps leaders learn faster in a world that keeps changing?
As AI reshapes how we work, our culture will be shaped by the small practices we repeat every day: the questions we ask, the room we create for learning, and the courage to move from certainty to curiosity.
4. From individual effort to collective impact
Finally, we explored how organizations need to normalize experimentation and make learning more visible. Not individual experimentation happening in isolated pockets, but shared learning that helps entire teams move forward together.
“Experimentation" can mean very different things to different people.
Simply saying "the future of work" doesn't mean we're all picturing the same future.
That's why storytelling and role-modelling matter. Leaders need to help people understand not only where we're going, but what that future means in practice for them and their teams.
That means answering two questions. First: Where are we headed together? And second: What does that mean for me and my team?
People need both. They need a shared sense of purpose and possibility, but they also need practical examples they can connect to their own work. Helping people understand what the future means for them individually—and how their role interconnects with colleagues, teams and the broader organization—is what turns individual growth into collective impact.
As AI and new technologies transform how work gets done, the opportunity isn't simply to make individuals more productive. It's to help teams learn faster, solve problems, and create greater impact together.
The opportunity ahead
When I reflect on our conversations at C-LAB, I'm optimistic.
Not because we have everything figured out, but because the discussion wasn't focused on the next technology trend. It was focused on something deeper: how we create the conditions for people to thrive, learn and deliver meaningful impact in a rapidly changing world.
As work evolves, culture and leadership remain two of our most powerful levers. The future will be shaped by leaders who create clarity where there is complexity, trust where there is uncertainty, and connection where there is change.
None of us has a complete picture of what the future will look like. What matters is that we're willing to learn, adapt and shape it together.
Because meaningful change rarely happens all at once. It happens through small shifts that build over time.
