Purpose Summit at Civic Hall
"The opportunity now is to connect the players that are already doing the work, and help them build something more durable, sustainable, and persistent. That's what rebuilds trust between people and the institutions meant to serve them, and between people and the technology. Tech can take friction out of the system. It can't substitute for trust.”
That was my closing line at the inaugural Purpose Summit at Civic Hall earlier this month on the panel "The Workforce We're Building Toward."
The premise we kept returning to: the W-2 used to bundle income, healthcare, training, identity, retirement, and community. As the firm fissures, those things have to live somewhere else. The question is where, and who anchors it.
A few other thoughts from the conversation:
- We need a trust infrastructure inside any institution working on rebundling: persistent communities live or die on whether members actually talk to each other.
- AI absorption inside a workforce is messier and slower than the headlines might suggest.
- The institutions doing the work of rebundling already exist. Per Scholas, Fedcap, the building trades funds, platform cooperatives, training intermediaries. They all need capital, legitimacy, and connection more than they need new ideas.
If you're in a position to fund, underwrite, board-serve, or connect any of them, make that move this month!It was an honor to be part of the inaugural 2026 Purpose Summit at Civic Hall earlier this month!
A huge thank you to Amar Bakshi (Andus Labs), Ketaki Sodhi, PhD (Moody's Corporation), and Yelena Mammadova, Ed.D (Microsoft) for their insights and perspectives on AI and how we can lean into and lead through the changes AI is presenting.
