Calgary summit explores how pressure, performance and brain science are reshaping leadership

Tammy Arseneau, founder and CEO of Cortical, hosts the Leadership at the Speed of Science Summit on October 1, 2025 in Calgary. – Photo by Paulina Ochoa for Digital Journal

Calgary’s Oct 1 summit brings astronauts, scientists, and executives together to examine what neuroscience is teaching business leaders about clarity, adaptability and performance under pressure.

In the world of elite sport, training under pressure is a given. Military teams simulate chaos before ever stepping onto the battlefield. Astronauts rehearse emergencies underwater until every reaction becomes muscle memory.

In business? We send leaders into complexity with a slide deck and a pep talk.

That disconnect is at the heart of Leadership at the Speed of Science, a one-day summit focused on leadership, performance and applied neuroscience. Taking place Oct. 1, 2025 at the BMO Centre in Calgary, the event explores how leaders can build clarity, adaptability and decision-making capacity under pressure.

The event is produced and hosted by Cortical Consulting & Coaching in partnership with the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, and it brings together scientists, astronauts, athletes, and executives to ask a provocative question: What if leadership failure isn’t a skills gap, but a systems failure in how we prepare people to lead?

“We have entire industries built around leadership development, but most of them ignore what stress actually does to the brain and body,” says Tammy Arseneau, founder of Cortical Consulting and the summit’s creator. 

This summit is meant to confront that gap directly.

Stress isn’t a side issue in leadership. It’s the condition leaders are operating in. 

From economic volatility and social pressure to AI disruption and workforce fatigue, stress is shaping how people make decisions and connect with others. It affects clarity, adaptability and communication and leaders often don’t see the impact until something breaks.

With rising complexity, leadership isn’t just about strategy. It’s about clarity under pressure.

The numbers haven’t moved, but the pressure has

For decades, studies have shown that most corporate change efforts fall short of their intended goals. In some cases, fewer than half fully succeed. Despite new technologies and evolving leadership models, the outcomes have barely shifted.

At the same time, stress among leaders is rising sharply. 

In 2025, global research from LHH found that 56% of executives experienced burnout in 2024, up from 52% the year before. Nearly half of companies reported losing at least half their leadership team in the same period. 

A separate report from DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast also found that 71% of leaders are experiencing significantly more stress since stepping into their current roles.

Yet the leadership conversation often swings between two extremes. On one side is performance coaching. On the other is crisis response.

“Why do we wait until someone breaks down to talk about stress?” Arseneau asks. “Military personnel, athletes, astronauts. They’re trained to operate under pressure. Why don’t we train leaders the same way?”

Arseneau’s shift began when her son experienced a mental health crisis. While researching to support him, she became immersed in neuroscience and started to see patterns she had missed in her own leadership career.

“I wanted to understand what was happening to him,” she said. “Not just the diagnosis but what was happening inside the brain. The more I learned, the more I started to see how those same systems show up in the workplace. We ask people to lead through pressure and uncertainty without understanding what it actually does to their thinking, behaviour and capacity.”

This curiosity led Tammy Arseneau to found Cortical Consulting, a Calgary-based firm focused on organizational change and effectiveness. Cortical works with companies facing real-world complexity, helping leadership teams make sense of change, strengthen decision-making under pressure, and build the cultural resilience needed to adapt and perform.

“Change isn’t just about systems and strategy,” says Arseneau. “If you don’t understand how people respond to pressure, resistance or ambiguity, your change efforts may be harder or take longer than they should.”

What Cortical offers isn’t a checklist or a set of tools. It’s a space for leaders to reflect and build capacity.

“We’re not here to hand out toolkits,” Arseneau says. “We’re here to create space for insight so leaders can think differently about what they’re carrying, what they’re asking of others, and how they show up when it matters most.”

Arseneau is quick to note that neuroscience is not a replacement for what experienced leaders already know. It’s an added lens that can deepen our understanding of how humans function under pressure. 

“We don’t need to replace everything we know about leadership,” says Arseneau. “We need to deepen it, especially when it comes to how humans function under pressure. Leadership development has come a long way. But when leaders understand how stress affects how they think and react, and how their teams are navigating change, they’re better equipped to lead through it.”

The Leadership at the Speed of Science Summit takes place on October 1, 2025 in Calgary.

A practical way to think differently

“We’re not here to hand out toolkits,” Arseneau says. “We’re here to create space for insight so leaders can think differently about what they’re carrying, what they’re asking of others, and how they show up when it matters most.”

The event is designed for executives, senior leaders, HR professionals, entrepreneurs, and anyone responsible for performance in high-stakes settings. 

The speaker lineup includes astronaut Chris Hadfield, former Irving Oil CEO Kenneth Irving, neuroscientist Dr. Matt Hill, science broadcaster Jay Ingram, and a range of athletes, coaches, and business leaders.

The format is built for contrast. The morning features live, unscripted conversations about how stress shapes leadership. The afternoon shifts into small-group workshops led by Olympians, neuroscientists, and operators who have built businesses in uncertain conditions.

“This is for the leaders who want to understand themselves better and lead differently,” says Arseneau. “Not just to support others, but to actually perform better themselves.”

Arseneau challenges the way leadership is often taught. Many development programs focus on ideal behaviours, but those often fall apart when the system is overloaded and the person in charge is already stretched. If leaders don’t understand how stress shapes decision-making, connection and presence, no amount of training will hold up when the pressure hits.

“It’s not a problem to solve. It’s a reality to work with,” she says. “And if we can lead with that in mind, I think we’ll finally get somewhere.”

Leadership at the Speed of Science invites executives, HR leaders, changemakers, and individuals navigating change to explore how new insights into human performance can help leaders guide their organizations through complexity and deliver results when it matters most.

Digital Journal is the official media partner for the Leadership at the Speed of Science summit. Tickets for the October 1 event are available now.

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