The Chaos Advantage: Turning Uncertainty Into Strategic Edge

Co-presented by:

Bill McEvily, Professor, Strategic Management, Rotman School of Management

Zayna Khayat, Adjunct Professor, Health Sector Strategy, Rotman School of Management

András Tilcsik, Professor, Strategic Management, Rotman School of Management

From wildfires to market shocks to healthcare gridlock, today's leaders aren't just managing through change - they're managing through constant disruption. So how do you build a strategy when stability is the exception, not the rule?

Join Rotman professors Bill McEvily, Zayna Khayat, and András Tilcsik for a look at how to lead — and thrive — in a world defined by unpredictability.

Topics include:

• : In uncertain times, trust is your most valuable currency. Bill McEvily explains how organizations can earn, rebuild, and protect it — especially when everything else is in flux.
• Zayna Khayat explores the forces reshaping Canada’s healthcare system — from aging populations to AI — and what it takes to make changes in a sector long overdue for reinvention.
• : Strategy shouldn’t be static. András Tilcsik shows how the most resilient organizations plan for surprises by building systems that flex, pause and adapt.

Bill McEvily is a Professor of Strategic Management at Rotman and the Jim Fisher Professor of Leadership Development, where he teaches courses on social networks, strategy implementation and organizational theory in MBA and Executive programs, and courses on organizational theory in the PhD program. His research explores social networks as an organizational and strategic resource. Professor McEvily has published research articles in leading academic journals in the fields of management, psychology, sociology, and economics. Thomson-Reuters named Professor McEvily to its list of “Highly Cited Researchers” in 2014 and again in 2015.

He is currently an Associate Editor at Annals of Academy of Management and has previously served as a Senior Editor at Organization Science and as guest editor for special issues of Management Science and Organization Science. Prior to joining Rotman, Professor McEvily was on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University and he earned his Ph.D. in Strategic Management and Organization from the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Zayna Khayat is adjunct faculty and Executive-in-Residence in Health Sector Strategy at the Rotman School of Management, teaching in the health MBA stream, the global executive MBA in healthcare and life sciences, and Executive Programs. She serves as health futurist in residence with Deloitte Canada's healthcare practice and advises companies including virtual healthcare company Teladoc Health, virtual care company Teladoc Health, Kudos, Public Health Agency of Canada, Novartis Canada, and Canadian Agency for Drugs & Technologies in Health.

Previously, she was Future Strategist at SE Health, co-authoring "Future of Aging." Her experience includes roles as Innovation Sherpa in Chief at Netherlands' Radboud university medical centre and leading Health System Innovation at Toronto's MaRS Discovery District, focusing on accelerating healthcare innovation adoption.

András Tilcsik holds the Canada Research Chair in Strategy, Organizations, and Society at the Rotman School of Management. His book Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It (New York: Penguin Press) received the National Business Book Award in Canada and was named a book of the year by the Financial Times. The United Nations named his course on organizational failure as the best course on disaster risk management in a business school.

This event is available to attend in-person only.

Rotman Events is committed to accessibility for all people. If you have any access needs or if there are any ways we can support your full participation in this session, please email [[email protected]] no later than 2 weeks in advance of the event and we will be glad to work with you to make the appropriate arrangements.

• The event will be hosted in Desautels Hall at the Rotman School of Management (105 Saint George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3E6).

• Refunds will only be issued for cancellations received in writing NO LATER than 24 hours prior to the event. Please email [email protected] for processing.

Questions: [email protected]

Event Venue

Rotman School of Management, 105 Saint George Street, Toronto, Canada