Live Online Workshop · June 4, 2026
We're Not Alone
(In Being Confused)
A Business Leader's Guide to Disclosure
The government is releasing classified UAP files. Your staff is already talking about it. Someone in your organization is going to look to you for how to feel about this — and right now, you might not know either. That's exactly what this session is for.
Register Now →Only 50 seats — we're running on Demio and that's the cap. If this session fills, we'll open a second one.
The Leadership Lesson We Keep Forgetting
We think we know how people will respond to something unprecedented. Then we're surprised when they don't.
We learned this the hard way during COVID. It didn't just challenge our health systems — it fractured teams, broke trust between leaders and employees, and exposed every organization that hadn't had the conversations before they were forced to. Leaders who assumed their people would respond "rationally" found out, often in the worst possible moments, that they had no idea how anyone would actually respond. Not because people were irrational (that's relative) — but because many organizations waited too long to start asking questions and thinking through the implications.
UAP disclosure is a slower fuse. The cultural moment is building over months, not days. But the social and organizational dynamics are almost identical. Some of your employees are already tracking this story. Some have deeply held religious or philosophical worldviews that a government acknowledgment of non-human intelligence would fundamentally challenge. Some will simply feel unmoored in a way they can't articulate. The organizations that had difficult (and yes, awkward) conversations early — that normalized uncertainty and gave people a language for it — handled COVID's disruption better. The ones that waited didn't.
Start with one honest question: What does your crisis or emergency plan look like when the crisis isn't environmental or economic — when it's purely psychological? What happens when your people aren't dealing with a fire or a recession, but with a fundamental shift in how they understand the world? How do you lead in that moment, and in the days that follow? Is this something you can hand off to Comms? To HR? To your EAP? Or is this one of those moments where it lands with you — and only you?
"This workshop won't have all the answers. Nobody does. But it gives you a framework, a language, and a room full of people working through the same uncertainty as you. That's where readiness starts — and it matters whether you're leading from Barrie, Birmingham, or Brisbane."
Is This For You?
We built this for leaders who will be looked to — because this isn't a communications problem your Comms department can solve for you.
Coaches and HR professionals
You will have these conversations whether you prepared for them or not. Clients and employees are going to bring this to you. The question is whether you've thought through where you stand before they do.
Owners and leaders of small and mid-size organizations
You don't have a crisis communications team. You don't have a 50,000-person buffer. Your reaction becomes the organizational response, immediately. That's a different kind of pressure — and it calls for a different kind of preparation.
Leaders who are personally uncertain
You don't know what you think about this. You might find it fascinating, unsettling, or somewhere in between. You're also the person 20, 50, or 200 people will look to. That gap between your uncertainty and their expectations — that's what this session works with.
People who want to think this through with others
Not a lecture. Not a briefing. A structured conversation with other leaders navigating the same thing. That's why we kept this to 50 seats — so it can actually be that.
Participants leave with a clearer personal framework for thinking about this topic, a grounded understanding of what has actually been confirmed (and what hasn't), and practical tools to help them open the conversation in their organization — before the news cycle forces it.
Why Now
The facts, briefly — because they matter, not because we're going to dwell on them.
- The disclosure process is happening through U.S. institutions — but the cultural, psychological, and organizational implications reach every team in the world. Canadian, British, Australian, and other leaders face the same questions. The leadership challenge is identical wherever you sit.
- A formal U.S. executive directive in April 2025 instructed the Pentagon to release previously classified UAP records — putting disclosure on the institutional calendar, not just the conspiracy radar.
- Legislative mandates now require the Pentagon to brief Congress on UAP intercepts dating back to 2004. These are not voluntary gestures. The timeline is not speculative.
- Steven Spielberg's "Disclosure Day" — a feature film about the cultural and psychological impact of government acknowledgment — is scheduled for June 12, 2026. The week after this workshop. Cultural saturation is already building.
- Psychology Today, policing institutes, and emergency management organizations are now publishing professional guidance on disclosure preparedness. The professional class is treating this as a planning issue.
A Question Worth Sitting With
AI is already disrupting your people — psychologically, not just practically. How is disclosure different? Or is it just more of the same?
Your team is already navigating AI. The fear about what automation means for their jobs, their identity, their sense of professional value. Some people are thriving; some are quietly terrified; most are somewhere in between, watching you for signals about how to feel. That psychological disruption is already in your building.
Now layer disclosure on top of that.
These aren't entirely separate conversations. They're both asking the same questions, underneath: What does it mean to be human in this moment? What does the future actually hold? And does the person in the leadership chair have any idea what they're doing? The leaders most at risk aren't the ones with wrong answers. They're the ones who haven't acknowledged the questions exist.
"Will this replace me? What am I for?"
Identity, relevance, economic fear. Already in your organization. Already affecting how people show up. Already asking something of you as a leader that you may not have fully prepared for.
"Is anything I believed about reality accurate?"
Existential disruption on a different axis. Potentially touching religious worldviews, philosophical foundations, and the sense of shared reality that a functional team depends on. Compounding what's already there.
What You'll Walk Away With
Concrete things — focused on you as a leader, not on your organization's crisis plan.
01
A personal processing framework — before you can hold space for others
You can't lead people through something you haven't started processing yourself. We use tools from the CEO Cadence framework to help you find your own footing first — what you actually think, what you don't know, and how to be honest about both without losing your credibility.
02
Language for the actual conversations — the scared employee, the skeptical board member
Not a communications plan. Specific words for a one-on-one when someone brings this to you and you're not sure what to say. A way to hold that conversation without dismissing them or amplifying their anxiety. Honest, grounded, human.
03
A way to think about the fractures that might show up — without needing to know where each person stands
Religious fractures. Identity fractures. The employee whose worldview this fundamentally challenges. The team member who's been "into this" for years and now feels vindicated in a way that's disruptive. Here's the hard truth: you can't survey your team on any of this. Religious and philosophical belief is personal information — you won't know who is affected, or how, until you're already in the moment. This session addresses that directly. Your readiness can't be built on information you'll never have. It has to be built on your own stance, your language, and your capacity to respond well to anyone, regardless of what you don't know about them.
04
Your personal action plan — built with other leaders in the room
Structured breakout discussions, then a one-page takeaway you'll actually use: three questions for your next leadership conversation, one communication principle, and a clearer sense of where you personally stand. Built in the session. Yours to keep.
Participant Resources — Free Downloads
Two practical documents sent to all registered participants before the session. Open in your browser and print or save as PDF.
Workshop Outline
Ninety minutes. Five blocks. Real conversation, not a lecture.
15 min
What's Actually Happening — The Shared Foundation
A fast, factual briefing on the public record: what has been confirmed, by whom, on what timeline. We establish shared ground before anything else. Participants who arrived skeptical and participants who arrived certain leave this block with the same factual starting point. No fringe sources. No speculation.
15 min
Where Are YOU? — The Leader's Personal Reckoning
Before we talk about your team, we talk about you. What do you actually think about this? Where does your uncertainty live? What do you believe, and what don't you know? The CEO Cadence framework on leading from genuine uncertainty — not performed confidence — applied to a scenario nobody has a script for. This is the block most leaders say they needed most.
20 min
Your People's Human Reactions — What to Expect and How to Respond
The religious fracture. The employee who's been convinced for years and now wants to talk about nothing else. The person who's quietly terrified in a way they can't explain. The skeptic who's contemptuous and communicating that in meetings. We work through each type of reaction — not with generic communication advice, but with specific approaches grounded in how real leadership relationships work. Crucially: we address the information paradox. You can't ask your team where they stand on this. Religious belief, spiritual worldview, and philosophical foundations are personal — most people won't disclose them to a manager, and you shouldn't be probing. That means your readiness can't depend on knowing who will be affected. This block builds the stance and language that works regardless of what you don't — and can't — know.
15 min
Breakout Discussion — With Other Leaders In The Same Boat
Small groups. One question: "What's the scenario in your organization you're least prepared for — and what would it look like if you were?" We kept this to 50 people so this conversation can actually happen. Group debrief follows. This is where the real insight usually shows up.
15–20 min
Your Personal Playbook + Q&A
We build the one-page action plan together. Three questions for your next leadership conversation. One communication principle you can use immediately. A clearer sense of your own position. Q&A is woven through this block — not bolted on as an afterthought at the end.
About Your Host
David Johnston
Executive Coach · Author, CEO Cadence · MBA, CHE, CEC
David Johnston is an executive coach based in rural Ontario, Canada, whose practice focuses on the inner dimensions of leadership — the psychology, the identity work, the emotional architecture that determines whether a leader performs or merely survives. His book, CEO Cadence: The Inner Work of Becoming a Cadence-Based Leader, draws on two decades of leadership and coaching CEOs and senior executives across healthcare, utilities, manufacturing, and other sectors. Chapter 10, on the isolation of leadership, is freely available on this site — and it's directly relevant to this session.
David is not a UAP researcher. He doesn't have a position on what's out there. He's a leadership coach who noticed that a slow-motion, officially-sanctioned disclosure is creating a gap that leaders haven't been prepared for — and who recognized the CEO Cadence frameworks as exactly the right tools for that gap. The same inner work that makes a leader effective in a crisis, in an identity transition, in a moment of profound uncertainty — that's the work this session draws on.
He holds an MBA in Leadership and a Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching from Royal Roads University, and is a Certified Executive Coach (CEC) and Certified Health Executive (CHE).
"I'm as uncertain as anyone about where this leads. What I'm not uncertain about is what happens to organizations when their leaders aren't prepared to hold space for something they don't fully understand."— David Johnston
Registration
Free. 50 seats. June 4, 2026.
Live Session
Free
No cost · registration required
- 90-minute live workshop on June 4, 2026
- Breakout discussions with other leaders
- Prep Brief and Facilitation Guide — sent before the session
- Personal action plan built during the session
Session Recording
$27
CAD · available after June 4
- Full session recording — watch anytime
- Both downloadable resources included
- 30-day access window
- Perfect if you can't attend live
Private Team Session
A private version of this workshop for your leadership team. Scheduling is flexible — not limited to June 4. We'll connect in advance to understand your specific context. This is a conversation, not a keynote.
On The Record
These are not fringe voices.
"What is true — and I'm actually being serious here — is that there's footage and records of objects in the skies that we don't know exactly what they are. We can't explain how they moved, their trajectory."
Barack Obama 44th President of the United States · CBS, May 2021
"I've talked to the pilots and they know they saw something, and their radars locked on to it… I don't know what it is. Are we alone? Personally, I don't think we are."
Bill Nelson NASA Administrator · Former U.S. Senator · June 2021
"Some of the phenomena we're seeing continues to be quite puzzling, and I think there's a very strong interest in our military and intelligence community to try to understand what it is that may be out there."
John Brennan Director of the CIA, 2013–2017 · December 2020
"There are things flying over military installations, over military exercises, and other places, and we don't know what it is. It isn't ours."
Marco Rubio U.S. Senator · Chairman, Senate Intelligence Committee · 2021
These statements are on the public record. The leadership question this session addresses isn't whether disclosure is real — it's what you do, and how you lead, when the people in your organization start looking to you for answers.
Questions
A few things people ask before registering.
"How do I know which of my employees will be affected by this?"
You don't — and that's not a gap you can close. Religious belief, spiritual worldview, and philosophical foundations are deeply personal. You can't survey your team on any of this, and most people won't disclose it to a manager even in a trusted relationship. The signal won't appear until someone is already in distress. Your readiness can't be built on information you'll never have. It has to be built on your own stance and your capacity to respond well to anyone, regardless of what you don't know about them. The practical posture: assume the room always contains someone for whom this is significant. Signal that the conversation is available without pressuring anyone to have it. You don't need to know who needs it for that to work.
"Do I need to believe in UFOs to attend?"
No — and that framing is exactly what this workshop pushes back on. The session is grounded in confirmed public record: legislation, executive directives, institutional responses from credible officials. You don't need a position on extraterrestrial life. You need some curiosity about a documented policy shift that's already influencing how employees, boards, and clients are thinking. That's the entry requirement.
"Isn't this just another AI disruption conversation?"
Partly — and that's the most honest framing for it. If AI is already creating psychological disruption in your organization (and it is), disclosure operates on the same axis. Both call for the same leadership capacity: the ability to hold space for genuine uncertainty without performing false confidence or becoming paralyzed. If you're already navigating AI with your team, this is directly adjacent work.
"I'm not American — is this relevant to me?"
Completely. The formal disclosure process is moving through U.S. institutions — that's where the documented mandates sit — but the organizational and psychological questions have no borders. Canadian, British, Australian, and other leaders face the same team dynamics. The leadership challenge is identical wherever you lead.
"How many people will be in the session?"
Maximum 50. We're on Demio and that's the platform cap for this event. The size is deliberate — small enough that the breakout discussions are real conversations, not performative exercises. If this session fills, we'll open a second date.
"What if I can't make the June 4 date?"
Register for the free live session regardless — you'll receive the prep materials either way. The full recording is available for $27 CAD within 48 hours of the session, and it includes both downloadable resources. Watching in the days immediately following, while the material is still current, is a reasonable alternative to attending live.
Free Self-Assessment
Are you ready to lead through disclosure?
Before you register — or instead of registering — take 5 minutes with these 10 questions. Honest results, immediate, no email required. Find out where you actually stand before the conversation arrives uninvited.
Take the Free Self-Assessment →10 questions · Instant scored results · Free · No signup