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As the founder and chief curiosity officer of The Leadership Experts, Nora Burns has redefined what it means to understand workplace culture from the inside out. During her keynote at the 2026 CSI National Conference (Oct. 7-9 in Phoenix, AZ), she’ll share that knowledge with the AECO industry. |
A former Fortune 200 leader, Nora has led teams through complex challenges, transforming companies from the boardroom to the front lines. But Nora’s true game-changer? The Undercover Project™, an independent research initiative in which she went incognito, applying for over 350 jobs and working frontline roles at Fortune 500 companies as The Undercover Employee™.
Nora didn’t rely on titles or boardroom credentials; she got down in the trenches to experience firsthand what employees really think about hiring, culture, and retention. She’s heard the raw, unfiltered truth that frontline workers won’t tell their managers.
Now, Nora is on a mission to help organizations connect the dots, bridging the gap between leadership strategies and real-world employee experiences. If you want to attract top talent, build a thriving workplace culture, and retain the right people, Nora’s your secret weapon.
Tell me more about yourself, your presentation, and especially some of the things you’ve experienced or heard that inform your "Conversations That Prevent Conflict" title.
Before I ever picked up a microphone as a professional speaker, I sat on the other side of the leadership table as a Fortune 200 executive, leading teams through complex change. What I’ve never stopped noticing and being curious about is how different a company looks from the boardroom versus the front line, breakroom, job site trailer, loading dock, etc.
What consistently informs my "Conversations That Prevent Conflict" presentation is how small, everyday exchanges—a supervisor explaining, or not explaining, why a schedule changed, a hand-off between two people doing different parts of the same job, a line like “corporate wants it done this way” with no reason attached—either build trust or quietly erode it. I’ve watched carefully designed training get skipped or rushed because the person delivering it was under different pressure than the person who designed it. And I went through a workplace process that was technically compliant on paper but still made employees feel expendable. None of that shows up cleanly on a budget line. It all eventually shows up in rework, turnover, or mistrust.
Before this keynote, I spent time on calls with CSI members, hearing your industry’s version of these same dynamics firsthand, because I wanted this to be built for this specific room.
Why is this such a timely topic right now?
Because the cost of miscommunication is compounding faster than most organizations can see it. We have so many communication modalities that we all too often lean into technology and think that sharing information and communicating are the same, and they most definitely are not. Access to information and understanding of information are two very different things.
What can attendees expect to discover during this presentation, and how might it help them—both professionally and individually?
I’ll pull back the curtain on my Undercover experiences. Attendees will hear the stories, concerns, fears, and reality of the conversations taking place when leadership steps away. Communication insights are doubly beneficial as the same traps we fall into professionally are often the same ones we fall into personally. Upping the ante on our understanding of the team dynamics will help in the workplace and beyond.
Can you share a glimpse of what that might include?
The Undercover Candidate has meant applying for and interviewing at more than 350 jobs across industries. These interviews were across the country, across industries, and across the organizational chart... frontline roles up to director of operations and all points in between. Home office, satellite office, job sites, remote work.
The Undercover Employee took it further: 15 months working frontline jobs inside well-known companies without revealing my background. The initial plan was to work three jobs over 12 months and have clean breaks between each. Yeah, that project plan went sideways, fast. Ultimately, I worked for five different big brands, up to three at one time. It was inevitable that, just as I was about to leave an organization, something interesting would happen and I’d want to stick around to see how it navigated the most recent challenge.
What kind of skills and confidence might attendees expect to gain from spending this time with you?
They gain the confidence to ask the "obvious" question out loud, because I show them how often the most valuable insight on a project is sitting behind a question nobody wanted to be the first to ask. And they gain the confidence to have a slightly uncomfortable conversation early, on purpose, because it's far cheaper than the version of that conversation that happens after a mistake, a walk-off, or a resignation letter.
Is there anything else you would have liked me to ask?
I will share that I welcome attendees to contact me before, during, or after the event with questions, comments, and emotional outbursts related to the material.
There’s still time to register for this once-a-year CSI experience—including Nora’s must-see presentation. Save your seat here.