Theme: Ambition 2026 – Designing the Next Chapter  

Ambition 2026 is a 60-day applied lab designed to help participants craft a coherent and future-aligned ambition for the year ahead. The work integrates three focus areas: personal evolution, professional trajectory, and the integration of the two into a unified action plan. 

We are living in an era when traditional ambition has fractured. Old scripts of success, status, and scale are fracturing. The challenge of this moment lies within self-authoring personal direction with an acknowledgement of the realities of our world and the marketplace. Ambition is an intentional practice to design a course of action aligned with personal and professional considerations.  

This lab exists to reimagine ambition as a regenerative force that aligns who we are, what we do, and the worlds we are helping to shape. Through guided inquiry, experimentation, and reflection, participants will 

• Reassess their relationship with ambition and its underlying motives 

• Translate their insights into a 2026 Ambition Architecture that expresses purpose, focus, and execution pathways 

• Integrate personal and professional intentions into a coherent direction for the year ahead 

Philosophy 

Ambition is one of the oldest human drivers of progress, yet in times of transition it must be constantly redefined. In a world shaped by accelerating change, systemic instability, and expanding possibility, ambition is a required practice necessary to chart a path that is seemingly changing by the day.  

The philosophy of Ambition 2026 is grounded in the idea that ambition is a form of self-authorship. It's how we design intent, direction, and identity within a rapidly transforming landscape. When ambition is self-authored, it anchors us in what inherently moves us creative a regenerative force that shifts from external validation to internal coherence. 

By integrating personal and professional domains, participants move beyond compartmentalized action and into a unified focus, where ambition and every action we take is intentional. 

Within the discipline of Human Innovation, ambition represents the bridge between imagination and execution. It's the space and place where ideas become embodied and how individuals align their own personal evolution with the transformation of the systems around them. Ambition 2026 provides the structure for that translation to occur. 

Guiding Principles 

1. Self-Authorship 

Ambition begins with authorship. Participants are invited to define success and direction through their own lens rather than inherited expectations. Every exercise, reflection, and experiment reinforces the practice of choosing alignment over external approval. 

2. Integration  

Personal and professional domains are treated as one synthesized field of expression. The Lab helps participants dissolve the boundary between who they are and what they do, creating coherence between inner intention and outer execution. 

3. Depth  

In a world obsessed with acceleration, Ambition 2026 slows the process to reveal depth. Participants are encouraged to craft ambition that is grounded, sustainable, and regenerative rather than reactive or performative. 

4. Experimentation  

Ambition is designed and refined through practice. The Lab provides a space for live experimentation, allowing participants to test new directions, decisions, and structures in real time and learn from the outcomes. 

5. Reflection  

Insight is useful only when it becomes embodied. Each reflection within the Lab is translated into tangible next steps ensuring that awareness becomes manifested and intention becomes measurable action. 

6. Contribution  

Ambition extends beyond advancement and focuses on living a good life. Participants are guided to align their personal and professional ambitions within a larger field of meaning and impact, ensuring that growth serves both self and the systems operated within. 

Scaffolding 

Phase 1: Orientation and Provocation (Days 1–10) 

The Lab opens by grounding participants in the provocation that defines this project: What does ambition mean now, and what does it mean for me? Participants assess their current relationship with ambition, mapping inherited scripts, active motives, and unrealized drives. Through guided reflection and supportive coaching, they begin to see ambition as a new space to design, create, and invent new possibilities.  

Phase 2: Inquiry and Discovery (Days 11–25) 

Participants explore the three primary dimensions of ambition: personal, professional, and integrative. Structured prompts and supportive coaching guide them to identify tensions, alignments, and emerging opportunities. Weekly dialogues introduce frameworks from the discipline of Human Innovation such as self-authorship, coherence, and agency, helping participants reframe ambition as a living system that unfolds over time. 

Phase 3: Experimentation and Design (Days 26–45) 

This phase converts insight into execution. Participants prototype elements of their 2026 ambition architecture, testing real behaviors, commitments, and strategic shifts in daily life and work. Feedback loops support learning and development, and one-to-one sessions help refine direction and execution models. The goal is to convert insights into concrete design principles that can guide the coming year. 

Phase 4: Synthesis and Articulation (Days 46–55) 

Each participant consolidates their learnings into a written and/or visual artifact: the 2026 Ambition RoadMap. This document captures their purpose statement, focus areas, behavioral principles, and strategic pathways. Synthesis sessions reveal themes, emerging archetypes, and new definitions of ambition relevant to the Great Transition. 

Phase 5: Integration and Commitment (Days 56–60) 

The Lab culminates in a closing forum where participants present key insights, commitments, and next actions. Integration prompts help translate intention into ritual, ensuring the 2026 ambition becomes embodied through daily practice. The experience concludes with a shared reflection on how personal ambition contributes to the broader evolution of work, life, and society. 

Approach 

The approach for Ambition 2026 is to guide participants through the design, development, and execution of a coherent personal and professional ambition for the year ahead. This Lab has been created as a space to design an approach and a plan that is coherent, powerful, and clear. 

At its core, the Lab integrates foundational capabilities from the discipline of Human Innovation including agency, self-authorship, adaptability, and coherence into a unified framework that participants can carry forward throughout 2026. Each phase of the experience builds toward the creation of a personalized Ambition Architecture, a living system that connects purpose, focus, and execution into one continuous and unfolding plan. 

Ambition 2026 functions as a practical field for applying Human Innovation principles to real-world goals and transitions. Participants are not learning about ambition conceptually; they are practicing how to design and embody it. The process moves from exploration to experimentation to execution, ensuring that each participant leaves with a clear strategy and a tested model for living it out. 

Within the Human Innovation Institute’s ecosystem, Ambition 2026 represents a bridge between capability development and life design.  

Outputs 

The primary output of Ambition 2026 is the creation of a personal ambition framework that participants can use as a compass and a design system for the year ahead. This framework is captured as a written and visual artifact called the 2026 Ambition RoadMap, a living document that integrates standards of care, defined focus areas, and actionable plans. 

Each participant’s Ambition RoadMap will include: 

• A clear articulation of standards of care across the most important and consequential human concerns 

• Defined focus areas for personal and professional development 

• Behavioral and strategic principles that anchor daily action in long term outcomes 

• An implementation rhythm that connects vision with consistent practice 

The RoadMap is designed as a living system, meant to evolve over time. It can be revisited, adapted, and expanded beyond the Lab serving as a strategic framework not only for 2026, but as a reusable architecture for future cycles of growth and recalibration. 

Participants leave with a tangible framework that guides their next chapter, while the Institute gains insight into how self-authored ambition can serve as a foundation for regenerative leadership and human development in times of transition.