Executive Education Series: Brains Under Pressure

Executive Education at the Lucas Center

Executive Education is ACCELER8 2.0, advanced learning for entrepreneurs and leaders who've moved past the fundamentals and are ready to tackle the specific challenges that come with growth and complexity.

These aren't networking events, lectures, or motivational talks. They're working sessions where you'll develop new capabilities you can use immediately. We focus on one skill at a time, going deep enough that you can change how you operate.

Brain-Based Leadership Series

Leadership isn't just about what you know or what you do. It's about understanding how people's brains work, including your own, and using that knowledge to make better decisions, build stronger teams, and create environments where people can think clearly.

This four-part series grounds leadership in neuroscience and behavioral science. You'll learn why people resist change, what triggers defensiveness, how stress shapes decision-making, and how to design systems that work with human nature instead of fighting it. Each workshop connects brain science to real leadership challenges you're facing right now.

Workshop 2: Brains Under Pressure

This 3-hour workshop focuses on what happens to thinking, decision-making, and behavior when people are stressed.

You'll learn how the brain's threat response works, what triggers it in yourself and others, and why people who are usually capable can suddenly struggle to think clearly or make good decisions under pressure. We'll explore the neuroscience of stress, look at what happens in high-stakes moments, and work through strategies for recognizing when brains are in threat mode.

By the end, you'll understand how to lead effectively when everyone's operating at their limits, how to create conditions that help people think more clearly under stress, and what you can do to manage your own brain when the pressure is on.

Others in this Series

This series has four 3-hour workshops. Leaders can attend any or all of them, as each is treated as a stand-alone course. We'll offer one each quarter.

• Workshop 1: Brain-Based Leadership Fundamentals (class already occurred)
• Workshop 2: Brains Under Pressure | What happens to thinking, decision-making, and behavior when people are stressed. Learn to recognize threat responses in yourself and others, understand what triggers them, and lead effectively when everyone's operating at their limits. (this workshop)
• Workshop 3: When Growth Gets Complicated | Understanding what happens in people's brains during collaboration, conflict, and organizational change. We'll dig into common growth challenges like Founder's Syndrome, explore why change efforts fail or succeed, and learn how to create environments where teams can think clearly and lead conversations that build trust instead of triggering defensiveness. (Summer 2026)
• Workshop 4: Building a Brain-Friendly Culture | How to design systems, processes, and interactions that work with how humans do. Creating sustainable behavior change, building habits that stick, and developing organizational practices that support the way people think and operate. (Fall 2026)

Your Facilitator

Dr. Ande Noktes has been working with leaders and organizations for over twenty years—helping them navigate change, build stronger teams, and develop the capabilities that make growth sustainable.

As CEO of the Lucas Center, she works alongside entrepreneurs as they prepare for moments that matter: investor pitches, board presentations, community conversations, and the kind of discussions that open up new possibilities. She's seen what helps people find their clarity and confidence, and what gets in the way.

Her background spans philosophy, business, and public policy (MA, MBA, and doctorate), with research focused on how people actually make decisions, not how we think they should. That brain and behavioral science foundation shapes how she teaches: understanding what helps messages land, what builds trust, and how we can communicate in ways that connect.

She's also a runner, which has nothing to do with leadership except that both require showing up consistently and pushing through when it's uncomfortable.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Lucas Center for Entrepreneurship