Leadership Adaptability and Learning Agility with Houri Tamizifar at Cynuria

Today's guest, Houri Tamizifar, Co-Founder and CEO of Cynuria Inc. and Inc. 5000 honoree (Rank No. 2502), joins the show to discuss the growing importance of Leadership Adaptability and the evolving role of AI in education. Houri shares why college students must proactively build AI skills and collaborate with faculty to stay ahead of rapid technological changes shaping the workforce. She highlights how clear communication and a culture of trust are critical for navigating organizational change and driving innovation. Houri also urges CEOs to lead with empathy, prioritize employee well-being, and create environments where teams feel empowered to adapt, grow, and thrive in a shifting job market. Episode Highlights & Time Stamps 2:34 Introducing Huri Tami Zafar 6:03 AI and Learning Solutions 10:14 Understanding Learning Agility 12:01 Advice for Students on Learning 14:52 Leadership Principles for Growth 19:18 The Role of Core Values 21:16 Defining Business Adaptability 26:12 Empathy in Leadership Leadership Adaptability & the Future of AI in Education In this episode, we sit down with Houri Tamizifar, co-founder and CEO of Sinuria, for a candid conversation about Leadership Adaptability and the fast-growing influence of AI in education and training. Houri opens by stressing why college students can't wait for AI to simply "show up" in their curriculum, because in most cases, it won't. She encourages students to take initiative, seek out AI learning opportunities, and collaborate with their professors so they're prepared for the technology-driven workforce they'll be entering. Host Gene Hammett adds a leadership lens, pointing out that adaptability isn't just about being flexible; it's about communicating clearly and guiding teams with confidence when technology and industry trends change rapidly. Both he and Houri shine a light on how organizations that embrace innovation and curiosity will be the ones that stay competitive. Building Learning Agility & the Role of AI in the Job Market Houri shares her long journey in the education sector and how it inspired her to launch Sinuria, a company grounded in neuroscience-based training and human capital solutions. She also introduces her new startup focused on using AI to support instructional designers—making learning design faster, sharper, and more impactful. It's a reflection of her belief that the learning industry is evolving quickly, and organizations must evolve right along with it. The conversation then shifts to AI's growing impact on the job market. Houri explains that companies are already leaning toward hiring people who not only understand AI but are also willing to work alongside it. She highlights learning agility, a core value at Cynuria, as a must-have skill for employees who want to grow, stay relevant, and help their organizations maintain a competitive edge in a constantly shifting landscape. Trust, Culture, and Leading With Empathy Houri dives into one of her strongest beliefs: that a culture rooted in trust fuels innovation. She describes Sinuria's intentional hiring process designed to find people whose values align with the company and explains why giving employees room to think creatively and operate from their strengths leads to stronger results. She also addresses the very real human side of change. Adaptability doesn't always come naturally, and employees often feel anxious as new technologies emerge. Houri emphasizes the importance of leaders communicating openly, offering support, and creating environments where change feels less intimidating. As the conversation wraps, Houri offers heartfelt advice to CEOs: lead with empathy. Understand what your people are facing, prioritize their well-being, and give them the time and space they need to adjust as the world of work transforms. In her view, adaptability isn't just a leadership skill; it's an act of empowerment that helps teams not only navigate change but thrive because of it. Key Takeaways Leadership Adaptability is Non-Negotiable: Effective leaders must communicate clearly, guide teams through constant change, and foster a culture that embraces innovation. AI Skills Are Becoming Essential: Students can no longer rely solely on traditional education—proactively learning AI tools and engaging with faculty is critical for future career readiness. Learning Agility Drives Success: Organizations increasingly prioritize employees who are curious, flexible, and willing to adapt to rapidly evolving technologies. Trust Fuels Innovation: Building a culture grounded in trust empowers employees to think creatively, collaborate deeply, and perform at their best. AI Is Reshaping the Job Market: Companies are leaning toward hires who can work effectively with AI and understand how to integrate it into their roles. Empathy Is a Leadership Advantage: CEOs and leaders who prioritize employee well-being create more resilient and adaptable teams. Change Requires Communication: A transparent, supportive approach makes it easier for employees to navigate new technologies and shifting workplace expectations. Empowered Teams Thrive: When leaders give people space to use their strengths, creativity, and voice, organizations become more agile and competitive. Resources & Next Steps Ready to take your leadership energy to the next level? Explore free training and resources at training.coreelevation.com https://training.coreelevation.com/ to help you identify energy leaks, strengthen your leadership presence, and elevate your team's performance. 🌐 Explore More: training.coreelevation.com https://training.coreelevation.com/ 🎧 Listen to the Full Episode: Growth Think Tank Podcast https://growththinktank.com/

• 0:00Speaker 00

  And if I were to give advice to college students right now as they're moving forward is that even if they're not teaching you these skills in the classroom, go and get it yourself or have the conversations with your college professors because they have to. They need to integrate this into their curriculum right now or yesterday because it really, as you're graduating within six months in a year, three or four years from now, the technology is advancing so quickly that you're already going to be behind if you don't have the AI and all the skills.

• 0:38Speaker 01

  Welcome to Growth Think Tank. This is the one and only place where you will get insight from the founders and the CEOs of the fastest growing privately held companies. I am the host. My name is Gene Hammond. I hope leaders and their teams navigate the defining moments of their growth. Are you ready to grow? Today we talk about leadership adaptability. In today's fast moving world of technology, AI specifically, adaptability is much more of a need than ever before. Now you may think that everything's always changing and you're correct and you probably are pretty adaptable. But the question is, how do you lead adaptability? Leadership adaptability is not just about

• 1:20Speaker 01

  your comfort level with change and embracing innovation and technologies and the things that are that are shifting, but it's about how do you communicate with others and get them to buy in, get them aligned, get them committed to a new direction. And as we move into new phases of business and marketplaces and AI is certainly going to be a big factor in all that. Leadership adaptability is a critical component to your success.

• 1:50Speaker 01

  When I decided to have this episode, I was looking at different companies that showed and really had some experience with leadership adaptability. And we found the co-founder of Signuria. They've been on the Inc. 5000 list and they've had a lot of impact in the learning development area, learning solutions, and really creating the kind of learning experiences that people can not just learn for knowledge, but can bring that back into the work as skills and level up their confidence around those skills. All that being said, today, we have that CEO co-founder. Her name is Huri Tommy Zafar. I had to look at my notes to make sure

• 2:34Speaker 01

  I get that right. Huri and I talk a lot about leadership agility or learning agility, and also leadership adaptability inside of our companies. She talks about the importance of core values and why they're such an important element in our culture, especially if we're looking to be adaptable. All the things that you want to know about leadership adaptability are in this episode, or maybe most of them, not all of them. But I'll cap this off with this. There was a recent article that came out. McKinsey and Company has a CEO division, and they were doing some research on CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. And one of the

• 3:16Speaker 01

  main things that came out of that just today was the need for leadership adaptability. And so, this is very well timed. And so hopefully you will lean into today's episode, take some notes, and see how it works for you. My name is Gene Hammett. I'm a CEO coach. We do leadership development, helping managers become leaders. We primarily work with companies in growth mode. They're dealing with a massive amount of chaos. But for some reason, the model of leadership that they've been using is no longer working. If you're curious about what that really means, I invite you to join us in the latest training we have. Just go to training.coreelevation.com. That's my company name. If you want to learn to lead

• 3:58Speaker 01

  differently. If you want to stop working harder, then join us for that free training live in person. And there is no replay for you. But if you'll come, show up and really be involved, you'll get a lot out of it. Just go to training.co, elevation.com. Now here's the interview about leadership adaptability with Huri. Huri, how are you?

• 4:19Speaker 00

  Doing well. How are you, Jean?

• 4:20Speaker 01

  I am fantastic. And I'm glad I got a chance to to ask you your name and the correct pronunciation because it's not as easy.

• 4:28Speaker 01

  Um, we're going to dive into an incredible interview about leadership, but I would love for you to tell us about your company. And I want to make sure I get this right. Signuria?

• 4:36Speaker 00

  Yes, you got it. Congratulations. So I will tell you a little about Signuria. And we have also started another company this year. It's a startup model. So Signuria has been around for about 10 years. I founded Signuria after having worked at Booz Allen, Hamilton, PWC, and actually, prior to that, being a high school teacher and working in the K 12 space. And Signuria really is a culmination accumulation of all that experience that I've had over the years and supporting our clients of federal government, nonprofit, and the private sector and commercial space to bring them human capital and learning

• 5:17Speaker 00

  solutions. So when I say learning solutions, I know oftentimes we think about training, but we really think about the neuroscience and instructional design aspect of a training, which is also what we have dovetailed into our startup, which is an AI powered solution that's going to really accelerate and support instructional designers in the future.

• 5:41Speaker 01

  Well, this is fascinating, because I respect what you guys do, because I think a lot of people try to do it as layman, and they don't understand the nuance, they don't understand the research, they don't understand how to do things. And I'm glad that there's people out there like you, because it's not my forte. And it's no surprise that your company has grown to the to be on the Inc. List.

• 6:04Speaker 01

  You mentioned the AI thing. I'm kind of curious as this relates. How is the AI shifting over the next three years? And how organizations will create these learning solutions for their employees?

• 6:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's such a great question. So we saw their writing on the wall really towards the beginning of this year, and we realized that our industry is going to be completely changing. So in the next three to five years, we really will see agentic solutions embedded in every workflow, every solution, every role that you have. And so we really need to accept the technology that's here. I know there's a lot of fear around AI replacing our jobs. And yes, it will replace some aspects of our role. And just like we saw with the internet, just like we saw with the cellphone, this is an evolution of the technology.

• 7:01Speaker 00

  And so, you know, just like any good change management initiative that we have, we need to really support people in understanding that there is fears around it, but to shorten that curve in accepting what's coming ahead. But we will definitely see every industry transformed, some roles perhaps that are more repetitive, right? Some of the entry level positions, we're definitely going to see evolving. Again, I don't like to say eliminated, because it is over the years. I see our interns coming in from even the interns that we had about five years ago to the interns that we have today.

• 7:44Speaker 00

  They're more savvy in certain aspects of technology than the ones even five years ago weren't. So roles are always evolving. And I think we're simply seeing an acceleration of that evolution faster than we have before. So yes, it's an exciting world, but yes, brace yourself because things are changing.

• 8:04Speaker 01

  I said this about six months ago, and I do believe I'm correct in this, that if you have a, if you had a job opening for a role and entry level or not, but that person was not comfortable with AI, you would pass on that that person, especially if they're in a knowledge-based role. If they're in maybe a blue collar, construction, you know, plumber, electrician kind of thing, hands-on, maybe you can get by with that. But are you seeing that with your clients? Like, are they, you know, I know within your team, you wouldn't hire someone who has an aversion to AI.

• 8:40Speaker 00

  Absolutely. Yes, both on our team, as well as we're seeing Fortune 500 companies, CEOs that I'm speaking with, that truly is the baseline, right? Like, that is a must-have in order for you to get over that first hurdle, to be hired and to be really acknowledged and and want to pass into future phases of the recruitment process. So we we see it firsthand. I mean, it also speaks to the person's ability to have the foresight, right? Like, if you already know, have taken the time to develop yourself, you have the foresight to know that this is essential for your future. You have been able to learn, right?

• 9:23Speaker 00

  It shows us that you have the learning agility, which is a really one of our core values at Cineuria. If you don't have learning agility and able to constantly be increasing your knowledge and skill sets and abilities, that's something that we're all gonna lose that competitive advantage. So, yes, it's a baseline, but it also just tells me so much more about who you are as a person and the other skill sets that you have. If you've already picked up whatever might be a course on Coursera, or just taught yourself, or jumped on Lovable, to be able to to code and do those kind of things. So, yeah, it it's such an interesting topic because

• 10:06Speaker 00

  I think it sets the pace for that, sets the tone for that person.

• 10:10Speaker 01

  Huri just mentioned learning agility. I want to kind of chime in here for a second. You know, a lot of people think that they're pretty good learners. But when's the last time you actually looked at how you can upgrade how you learn? Learning agility is about the acceleration of your ability to take a new concept and put it into play. And not just understand it from a, I read about it and I can tell you what I read. But how are you using it? How is that, you know, making an impact and working in the value of your company? If you don't know that, then you haven't really scratched the surface on learning agility. And so, you know, I use these analogies all the time, but I am a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

• 10:56Speaker 01

  And many people think that my journey of learning is over. But there's a saying in black belt or in Jiu Jitsu, that once you receive the black belt, that's when the journey begins. It's hard to understand before that because I spent 14 years learning the positions, the moves, the control. And I had to deal with injuries and all of that stuff being at my age. But after 14 years getting a black belt, I started to understand that the journey begins not, you know, when I started. It's truly starting over again in a new way of mastery. And learning agility comes into my thought process all the time about what's the best way to learn?

• 11:38Speaker 01

  And there's many different modes and you're going to learn in different ways. I'm going to learn in different ways. But questioning and reading and leaning into how to learn better will make you better at all the things that are important to you and meaningful. And this could be at home, this could be at work, this could be in your hobbies, like my Jiu Jitsu. Whatever it is, learning agility is an important part of the process. Back to Huri. I'm fascinated by this. I know we've got a different thing, but I have one more question that relates to this because I don't know if you have children or not, but I have a high well, he's in college right now, first year and really proud of what he's doing. But what advice would you give to those young students that are going through college right now as

• 12:21Speaker 01

  it relates to learning in AI in a workforce that will be different than it is today, three or four years from now?

• 12:29Speaker 00

  I do have, I have two kids and they, you know, they have no choice. They're learning AI with us because my husband and I are in the business together and we talk about it all the time. And I think my younger, well, my daughter gets a little bit sick and tired of it sometimes. But what I have learned with my son, who's in high school is that he's, well, certainly you can use that, use AI or LLMs to write papers. The deep research that he's able to conduct is really saving him a ton of time. And if I were to give advice to college students right now as they're moving forward is that even if they're not

• 13:08Speaker 00

  teaching you these skills in the classroom, go and get it yourself or have the conversations with your college professors because they have to, they need to integrate this into their curriculum right now or yesterday because it really, as you're graduating within six months in a year, three or four years from now, the technology is advancing so quickly that you're already going to be behind if you don't have the AI knowledge and skills.

• 13:39Speaker 01

  I won't bore you guys with my thoughts on it. Very similar. And I will just say this, that, you know, four years from now, you should be able to not know, not only understand what you studied in school, but understand how it's complemented through AI and how it can be amplified. And you bring those ideas to the workforce because I don't care what your industry is, if you don't bring a way to use AI in your profession, your knowledge. You're probably going to get passed for that opportunity. But if you're, if you're sharp enough to bring these ideas, I, I, I don't want to throw any of the schools under. We went to a lot of really top level schools. My, my son chose Georgia Tech.

• 14:20Speaker 01

  And I will tell you, I'm glad he did because it was the only one that when we asked the AI question last spring or whatever, when he was interviewing, two, two springs ago, that they had an answer. Others were like, oh, we're sitting back waiting. We're watching, we're researching, we're watching. And Georgia Tech said, we're embracing this. It's evolving very fast, but we are not going to ignore this. And so.

• 14:44Speaker 00

  Absolutely. We're going to be, it's co-intelligence. We're going to be co-creating all the way and partnering with AI. So there's no way around it.

• 14:52Speaker 01

  I love that. Let's switch gears, Huri. I, um, you made the ink list. You know, one of the questions I've asked thousand times probably is what leadership principles has allowed your company to, to grow to where it is today?

• 15:08Speaker 00

  Sure. That's such a great question. I think the basis for a lot of what we do and the success that we've had is trust. It really is one of the first elements and within our core values. And that shows up in so many different ways. It's interesting because we did a few years ago, we had a workshop around trust and what it means. And it's really interesting to, you know, really dive in and understand how people perceive trust. But it shows up on a day to day basis between leaders, employees and vice versa. And we really take the time to, to hire individuals who we know are smart, kind,

• 15:53Speaker 00

  aligned with our core values and can keep up with us as this whole world is, is shifting and changing. And we get out of their ways. I mean, we go through that rigorous hiring process and set them up for success. But it's amazing when you trust them and get out of their way. The things that they create and the cool ideas that they come up with and the passion and that intrinsic motivation that a lot of times you don't see is really born. The other thing that has really helped us is identifying their strengths along the way. And I know you can understand that Jean as a coach is really listening and understanding

• 16:36Speaker 00

  what people's strengths are and trying to create opportunities for them. We're a small business, but you can always find opportunities for people to really demonstrate their strengths, carve out areas where you can grow even as a company. It's interesting how we've been able to add capabilities within our business because I've seen certain strengths within employees within our business.

• 17:03Speaker 01

  Hooray just said something really incredible. I wanted to put a spotlight on it. Get out of their way. If you hire someone that you believe is smart, that you believe is talented, that has experience, then your job is to get them to the point where you can get out of their way. Now, there may be an onboarding period. There may be a period of two months or four months or six months for some roles. But you, the, the goal is to get out of their way, not to do it for them, not to do it with them. And if you still have in your brain that every employee that's been with you over six months, you need to control what they're doing, how they're doing it, then you're missing the point. You're not truly leading this team. If you're trying to control things, it doesn't really do it.

• 17:48Speaker 01

  You're focused more on the efficiency and not on the growth of the people. You're certainly not focused on their connection to the work and their ownership. Now, I, I know these are a lot of big words, but if you're trying to control them instead of empower them, you're missing the opportunity to lead. Now empowerment without accountability doesn't work either. So you want to make sure you have both of those in place. If any of this stuff is kind of curious to you, you wanting to go deeper into it. I mentioned the training earlier. I'll mention it again. Go to training.coreelevation.com. It's absolutely free and for you. Just lean in, be willing to learn new aspects of leadership.

• 18:31Speaker 01

  Back to Huri. Huri, you mentioned core values. I will just be honest with you. I know you kitten list all the podcasts we've had, but over 800 with founders like yourself from the Inc. 5000. And we have had so many of those conversations talk about the importance of core values. But yet, when you look at companies and they will say, oh yeah, we have them. And I go, well, what are they? And they're like, oh, I need to look them up. Or, I don't know, I'm not sure what they are today. It's a real good sign that they're not really using, they're not operationalized. They're not bringing it up in the conversation. Where did you pick up the need for having core values as it relates to building the culture

• 19:16Speaker 01

  and the team that you want at your company?

• 19:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. You know, in my first year when I started Signoria, I picked up Simon Sinek's book, Start with Why. And that was the best decision I made because it always has grounded me. It has grounded everything that we do at Signoria and really helped us to very easily identify our core values. And so every time we're unsure about either bringing on an employee or having a specific client, it is such a grounding exercise to refer back to our values.

• 20:02Speaker 00

  And we assess during our recruitment process, every one of those candidates based on those core values. And so it's essential. It's part of our reviews. And on a day-to-day basis, we use the terminology on a regular basis. It's not just like it's happening during your reviews or you just hear about during the onboarding program and you forget about it. But we practiced it, like learning agility I talked about earlier. There is no way. They hear me talk about learning agility and trust all the time and quality and other values. So it really is important for us to live and breathe it every day.

• 20:45Speaker 01

  Well, I'm going to go a little bit deeper into your leadership principles and adaptability. And it's really good timing. McKinsey and Company, the first time, the articles maybe have been out for a little while, but I just saw it this morning. And I know you haven't had a chance to really dive into this yet, but I'm going to give you my take on it, is one of the key principles of CEOs running successful organizations is the need to be adaptable and create adaptability at scale across their companies. And so that's one of the things that has made you guys successful. What is adaptability in a business context so that we get on the same page around that?

• 21:22Speaker 00

  Sure, sure. Yes, adaptability can show up in so many different ways. One is from a business perspective and the vision that you create and of course, how your team adapts to that vision. And this is such a great time for you to be asking this question because we've gone through, we've adapted quite well, I would say, this year. At the onset of the year, again, we saw the writing on the wall and we saw, heard so many stories about the problems that our clients were having and how can we do this faster? How can we develop this training, you know, in shorter round of time? We're not meeting the needs of our customers.

• 22:04Speaker 00

  And we went down a path that was unfamiliar with us. I'm not a techie, right? We, we went down the path of really learning everything there is about AI from a technical perspective and creating a model that would enable our future clients to bring all those learning experiences to their customers, internal customers, much faster than they have before and personalize it. So it's really exciting for us to be able to say, yes, we've been, you know, I've been in business of consulting for a significant amount of time, about 20 years.

• 22:46Speaker 00

  And being able to adapt and go into a completely different business model has taught me more about leadership this year than I would say probably the last five to 10 years of my life. So I encourage anyone who is looking to take a risk because it really is when you're adapting, you're taking a huge risk in business and everything that you do in life. Um, but it is, it's so critical for you to, to adapt with changes that are going to be confronting you as a leader.

• 23:22Speaker 01

  Let's take that just a step further, like adaptability in, in the, the role of CEO. We get it, right? Cause we've been there. We know that we have to have our head up looking at things like AI. Uh, because if you ignore it, if you just put your head down and do the work, something's going to shift and you're not going to see it. But adaptability within the employees is sometimes harder. I mean, some people are more naturally attuned to change and whatnot, but for the most part, people see changes is disrupting the, the, the way it's always been, which is a good thing, but they, they have an animosity to it. How do you as an organization continue to, to get the adaptability, go deeper into the organization?

• 24:07Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's so funny that you bring that up because yes, we have been facing a lot of that this year because we've changed direction. We really are changing our business model. And so we see that the team struggles at times. There really is, there's a lot of pivoting. That's my new term of the year for sure, pivot fast. And so the, the entire team needs also pivot and realize that if you've got this wonderful, beautiful project plan or a great plan in place from a marketing perspective, we really need to pivot because we learn so many new, we have so much new data that, that comes across as we're working with our potential customers

• 24:49Speaker 00

  as we are running a human centered, um, method of collecting data and making sure that our software is going to to align with our customers. And so that is constantly shifting. And so everybody really needs to be on board. ensure that they're adapting, they're changing their approach. They don't always like it. I can see it. I can feel it. Um, but it is, I, I encourage them also to embrace it because it is, it, it's part of growth. Right? We are all growing together and we're there for one another. And I understand that the communication and, and really being there to help them comprehend the change.

• 25:31Speaker 00

  And the reasons for that have always been helpful for us for any change that we've had to go through.

• 25:38Speaker 01

  I am very curious about all the work you do with leadership development. You're doing it at scale with organizations. I'm also very curious about how you get your companies to, you know, to, to change that business model because it is hard. When, when there is resistance and whatnot, but I want to give you a kind of a broader question, like of all of the things that we could really share with an audience of CEOs, growing their companies, hoping their employees will be adaptable, hoping their employees will, you know, accept a new type of learning, whatever that may be. What do you wish you could, you could, you know, whisper into the ears of CEOs that they don't seem to get, but you wish they could really understand?

• 26:20Speaker 00

  Yeah. Put yourself in the, the shoes of the employee, really care for them, empathize with them. Try to feel um, the struggles and the challenges that they're going through. We're seeing people laid off and, and an unprecedented pace and people are scared right now. Um, we're seeing AI also taking some jobs and roles evolving. Um, and so I encourage CEOs and leaders to really care for their employees. And it's difficult because you are in the thick of it. You're handling, you know, crisis after crises,

• 27:02Speaker 00

  putting out fires. But if you take about 10 to 15 minutes of your day and really think about putting yourself in the shoes of those individuals, giving them some flexibility in their day as well, giving them some time off. Um, I think that will go a long way.

• 27:20Speaker 01

  Well said. I, Huri, I really appreciate you being here, sharing your wisdom and sharing all your insights around leadership. And I really appreciate it.

• 27:29Speaker 00

  Thank you, Gene. It's a pleasure.

• 27:31Speaker 01

  Wow, what another fantastic episode for you. Hopefully you took notes. Hopefully you've got something that you can apply in your business. And maybe it's a question that you're not quite sure how you stand up and you want to bring that to your executive team. So anything that you're discovering in any kind of content, but you know, in this episode, I would encourage you to go to your executive leadership team and have a conversation about leadership adaptability and go, are we adaptable enough? Or how can we be more adaptable? What is the need here? What do we, what opportunities are we missing out? There's a bunch of questions together, but hopefully you get the idea that it's not over just because you've finished the episode, that if you take that into conversations

• 28:11Speaker 01

  and dialogue with your team, you'll get much more of an understanding about this and see if you need to go deeper with it. If I can help you in any way through CEO coaching or leadership development, make sure you reach out to me, [email protected]. When you think of growth and you think of leadership, think of growth, think, think. As always, live courage. We'll see you next time.