2026 ACG WI | David Schonthal, Professor of Strategy, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Kellogg School of Management

Join ACG Wisconsin for an extended session with David Schonthal, Professor of Strategy, Innovation & Entrepreneurship with Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where he will explore what it takes to open people’s minds to innovation and new ideas.

No matter how cool your idea is or how compelling your strategy is, there are forces inside human beings that make them resistant to new ideas. Unless you address these psychological barriers and forces, your innovation efforts will be stifled.

Join Professor David Schonthal as he discusses his book, The Human Element: Overcoming the Resistance That Awaits New Ideas.  Specifically, he will offer his insights about the four headwinds, or frictions, that stand in the way of a new idea and how to disarm these forces of resistance:

-  Inertia - Does the idea represents a significant change from the status quo?

-  Effort - How costly is the implementation of the change or the idea?

-  Emotion - What negative or undesired feelings does our idea cause in others?

-  “Reactance” - How pressured does the audience feel to change?

At this luncheon, Kellogg Professor Schonthal will explore how to get people to say “yes” to new ideas.  It is more than just adding value, features, or benefits, it’s also about the other half of the equation:  addressing the “frictions” that work against achieving our innovation goals.

This enhanced program is a joint event with the Kellogg and Harvard Business School alumni clubs from Wisconsin. We have extended the event agenda to allow more time to network and hear from our guest speaker.

This is a great learning opportunity, and members and guests are encouraged to bring their teams and colleagues to attend.