2026 Small Giants Summit by Liam Goetz

The Small Giants Summit is based on the teachings of the book written by Bo Burlingham in

2006, Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big. The Summit began in 2016 and continues each year to bring entrepreneurs and business leaders together to discuss how to build purposeful organizations that prioritize people and culture within their organizations.

The 2026 Summit was held in Detroit, MI, and had the overall theme of “Navigate”. The Summit explored how to intentionally navigate a rapidly changing business landscape without jeopardizing an organization’s purpose.

Day 1 – Evening Only

The first day of the Summit is dedicated to networking and getting a chance to interact with other “Small Giants” in an informal setting. Dinner and dessert were provided at The Brakeman in downtown Detroit. For a few hours in the evening, participants were able to converse with each other and make new connections or explore past connections without a structured model. This allowed for real conversations without the awkwardness of prompted dialogue.

Day 2

Bright and early, participants made their way from respective hotels to the inspiring One Campus Martius building for a day of networking, presentations, and collaboration on real problems within participants' businesses. The focus for the morning was on showing up as your best self to be the best boss, coworker, or vendor for your organization. Tactics such as “Feed Forward” instead of feedback were utilized to change the narrative from analyzing past mistakes to the development of future-oriented solutions.

Continuing with the theme of Navigate, Sana Gabula presented on Navigating Change through the use of the Bridges Transition Model. This began with defining change as the external event and transition as the internal emotional journey experienced during change. This model is structured in three phases:

Endings: Identification of what one is losing.

Neutral Zone: When the old is gone, but the new isn’t fully operational yet.

New Beginnings: Release in a new direction with understanding of purpose and role clarity.

In the New Beginnings phase, the Bridges Transition Model teaches to savor the change and to not anchor in the wrong thing. Instead of anchoring in a title or role, it is taught to anchor in skills.

The second day ended with again a dinner and networking event alongside the introduction of a new cohort of Small Giants Hall of Fame Members.

Day 3

Day 3 started with a real example of a company, Ace Metal Crafts, navigating organizational

change. The insightful panel included two representatives from Ace Metal Crafts, as well as a

facilitator asking guided questions on techniques used to bring differing company cultures under one roof. Representatives from the company defined how it isn’t a one-time solution but an ongoing challenge to strive for the culture they want. A major theme within the panel was transparency from upper management throughout the organization.

This led directly to the next speaker, Scott Jeffery Miller, and his talk on mentorship both within an organization and outside of the organization. Miller talked about mentorship and identified the differing roles a mentor can take on. This included roles such as Connector, Questioner, and Validator. His message included that mentors will likely jump between roles often and should not fall into only one role throughout the life of the mentorship. He also cautioned against having a mentor be a direct report, as this degrades the authenticity of the mentoring.

The third day ended with a keynote presentation from the Small Giants President, Jean

Moncrieff. Moncrieff's presentation explored the systems he implemented to transform his

business from an all-encompassing piece of his life to an asset that serves him. He took the

lessons learned from this and joined the Small Giants Community to assist other business owners feeling the same way.

The conference ended with light networking and an exploration into the Small Giants Summit 2027 in…Chicago!