About the Program
What is The Impact Initiative?
The Impact Initiative is a 6-month leadership development program offered through HR's Leadership Academy. AI is one of several topics we explore — but it's the one reshaping every other topic, so we give it serious attention. This isn't a technical bootcamp — it's a reading-and-discussion journey through the ideas, debates, and practical skills that will define the next decade of leadership.
Roughly 10 supervisors and managers meet monthly to discuss carefully curated readings — from foundational research to practical guides for leading through change. Each month builds on the last, moving from “what is this?” to “what do I do about it?”
How It Works
Monthly Readings
Two to three readings per month — essays, papers, lectures, and one book. Each is chosen to give you a different angle on the same big question.
Group Discussion
Monthly sessions where we dig into the readings together. The goal isn't consensus — it's developing your own informed perspective.
Progressive Depth
We start with foundations, move through competing visions and risks, debate the big questions, then get practical. Each month builds on the last.
Looking Forward
In Month 6, we turn everything we've learned into a lens for the future — what's accelerating, what's still ahead, and what it means to lead well through it.
About the Instructor
Most AI training teaches prompts.
This one teaches discernment.
Rod Davenport is the CIO and one of the instructors in HR's “The Impact Initiative.” The real AI gap isn't access; it's judgment — especially when the tool is fast, persuasive, and occasionally wrong.
We'll do just enough tech to build shared mental models, including a quick tour of AI history: symbolic AI, what changed with machine learning, and why transformers changed the game.
Then we'll spend most of our time on what leaders can't dodge: what should be automated, what must remain human, how trust gets earned (or lost), and how to use AI to amplify good intent instead of scaling bad habits.
Walsh College Partnership
The Impact Initiative is offered in coordination with Walsh College, bringing academic rigor and institutional support to what is fundamentally a practical leadership development experience.