Transform your leadership approach with Ari Gunzburg’s “5 Keys to Greatness.” A recap of his Innovate 2026 keynote on embracing discomfort, managing risk, and leading with resilience.
At Innovate 2026, keynote speaker Ari Gunzburg challenged nonprofit CFOs to “get uncomfortable” and gave them five keys to greatness that spell G.R.E.A.T.: Give, Reason, Engage, Amazing, and Tenacity. His message: growth happens at the edge of discomfort, so stay present in a crisis, set specific, achievable goals when the path is unclear, and take one small step outside your comfort zone today.
At the Innovate 2026 conference in Washington, D.C., in May 2026, keynote speaker Ari Gunzburg, a professional speaker and book author, challenged attendees to stop seeking the safety of their comfort zones and instead, to embrace the transformative power of discomfort.
“It’s nice to be comfortable,” Gunzburg said. “But what’s not possible when we’re comfortable? Growth. We’re unable to grow when we’re unable or unwilling to get uncomfortable.”
Gunzburg’s message served as a timely reminder to Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and other nonprofit financial leaders that the most significant breakthroughs often happen at the edge of uncertainty, and that being able to get uncomfortable with change is now a leadership necessity.
For specifics, let’s look back at Gunzburg’s anecdotes, his “G.R.E.A.T.” framework and how we at JMT Consulting took his remarks to inspire us for the leadership challenges ahead:
Resilience Under Resource Constraints
Gunzburg started by taking the audience back to his youth and the 11-day Outward Bound trip he took. It was on a 32-foot boat packed with 12 people and no escape from the elements. The “luxurious” bathroom accommodations the organizers gave them? A bright yellow bucket at the front of the boat.
“I got to cross that one off the bucket list,” Gunzburg said.
But what does this all have to do with CFOs working in nonprofits? Plenty. These CFOs have to manage organizations where resources are scarce, and “luxuries” are non-existent. As a result, they often must turn to creative, sometimes gritty solutions to achieve their nonprofit’s mission.
Gunzburg noted that the Outward Bound philosophy, developed by co-founder Kurt Hahn, was designed to put people into places of artificial challenge to prove that “there is more in us than we know.” For us, this translates to the resilience required of a CFO during a mid-year funding cut or a sudden shift in grant requirements. Gunzburg reminded us that when we are forced to “go with the flow” in uncomfortable conditions, we discover organizational capacities we didn’t know existed.
Scuba Diving and the Art of Risk Management
Gunzburg then recounted his first experience scuba diving, recalling that he had a leaking mask that triggered an immediate sense in him that he was drowning. “My mind started going a million miles a minute,” he said. The story enabled Gunzburg to convey his next lesson: That CFOs in nonprofits need to be able to recognize the difference between panic and presence.
When “water starts filtering in” while scuba diving, the natural instinct is to bolt for the surface, but Gunzburg’s instructor taught him to settle in, clear the mask, and focus on the regulator.
“As I was able to settle in and calm my mind and stay,” Gunzburg said. “It opened a new world of possibilities. When you are scuba diving, it is so clear that you should be focused on what’s happening right in front of you and nothing else.”
Just think: In risk management, the “leaking mask” is rarely the thing that sinks the organization, but the resulting panic can take our focus away from the nuances that could actually bring us down. Gunzburg’s experience highlights the need for leaders to remain present and focused on realities rather than on letting the mind wander to catastrophic “what-ifs.”
How Clear Goals Help Us Navigate the Darkness
Gunzburg’s third anecdote took attendees into pitch-black tunnels at an indoor caving gym. He was tasked with navigating two miles of caves, found himself wiggling through tight openings, and had to choose which opening to take, all without a light.
“I got 15 feet in,” he said, “and I couldn’t tell which way to go.”
We might all feel this way at some point, particularly during strategic planning. We know that the goal and answer to achieving it is out there, but we don’t know which way to go.
Gunzburg found his direction by identifying a specific, achievable goal. As he explained it: “I get to the point where I’m like, I’m not going to be able to explore the cave like I thought I was going to be able to do it, but at least I could get something. They had a zip line as an escape and the way to get to it was through a gate. If I get there, I could feel like I did in the cave. I made getting to the gate my goal.”
This story inspired us to think about reframing goals and identifying specific, achievable ones to help us find our way out of the darkness when we don’t know how to achieve our end objective.
A G.R.E.A.T. Framework that Ties It All Together
Of course, Gunzburg included additional stories throughout his keynote, including one about his fourth-grade teacher handing over his car keys to a neighbor whose vehicle wouldn’t start so they wouldn’t miss their vacation. He used these stories to introduce a different word at various points in his talk, each one printed on a different key.
Together, the first letter for each word formed the acronym G.R.E.A.T.: Give, Reason, Engage, Amazing, and Tenacity. Specifically:
- Give: Gunzburg emphasized that “giving is living.” He reminded the audience that while budgets might be tight, “presence is one of those few things that doesn’t actually cost anything in the budget.”
- Reason: This is the “defined purpose.” Gunzburg challenged CFOs to ensure that their finance teams feel the pull of their organizational mission: “You already chose work that has meaning,” he said. “The question is: Does your team feel the same pull? And if they don’t, can you communicate that better to them?”
- Engage: Being present in the moment is a key leadership superpower. Gunzburg used a brief yoga exercise to demonstrate how we can quickly shift our state of mind by simply being “in the moment.”
- Amazing: This key focuses on a positive mindset and the power of reframing. Gunzburg mentioned Charles (Chuck) R. Swindoll, who said that what matters is how we see the world. “If we see it in a positive light, then it will be a positive experience and if we see it in a negative light, it will be a negative experience,” Gunzburg said. “We have the option to say, forget this negative lens and let’s look at things in the most positive way possible.”
- Tenacity: Gunzburg defined this as the persistence to keep going when doubt creeps in. “That is how people have changed the world,” said Gunzburg. “Think about the people whose names we all know, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the list goes on, because they were able to harness perseverance and persistence.”
He argued that these five ideas are the essential keys for getting “more out of your work and out of your life.”
A Call to Discomfort to Find Your Greatness
As the keynote concluded, Gunzburg’s final challenge was simple: Commit to taking one small step toward your own journey to greatness today. This might be different for each of us. It can be anything from advocating for a riskier but potentially high-payoff investment, having a difficult conversation with a board member or an employee, or simply engaging more deeply with the people who report to you.
“I hope that everybody here will get uncomfortable together with me in pursuit of your own best self,” Gunzburg said.
We hope this article serves as a reminder that greatness is within reach. It requires us to lead our teams through uncertainty with courage and curiosity, refusing to settle for the comfort of the known when the “more in us” is waiting to be discovered.
Let’s use these five keys to unlock the greatness within our organizations and in ourselves. It’s time to get uncomfortable. And if you need support wading into uncharted areas, particularly for systems integration, workflow process design, and ongoing US-based support, give us a call.
After all, since our start, we have helped 2,000+ nonprofits meet their sustainability and mission effectiveness goals by delivering finance, development, and productivity solutions.
And we’re always happy to jump on a call, even if you just have a few questions or have never worked with us. Just think: We see every nonprofit as our client and come to work every day looking for ways to better serve those who are helping others.
We recognize that you need to focus on your mission and constituents instead of your software. And that’s where we can come in to help make you more effective and streamlined.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Ari Gunzburg’s five keys to greatness?
They spell G.R.E.A.T.: Give (being present, which costs nothing in the budget), Reason (a defined purpose your team feels), Engage (being in the moment), Amazing (a positive mindset and the power of reframing), and Tenacity (the persistence to keep going when doubt creeps in).
Why should nonprofit CFOs get used to being uncomfortable?
Because financial conditions facing nonprofits have rapidly changed, from mid-year funding cuts to sudden shifts in grant requirements. Embracing discomfort allows the CFOs in these organizations to respond to this uncertainty with curiosity and resilience rather than with fear, which could then lead to discovering new capabilities in themselves and finding ways to strengthen the overall nonprofit.
How can nonprofit CFOs manage risk without allowing fear to drive decisions?
CFOs for nonprofits should distinguish between panicking and being present. When a financial or operational crisis occurs, CFOs should resist the instinct to immediately react to every possible “what if.” Instead, they can pause, assess the facts they have, identify the most immediate risks, and focus on addressing those risks.
How can CFOs lead their teams through uncertainty?
Start by connecting your team to your organization’s mission to help them focus on why they work for a nonprofit and then give them clear, achievable objectives. When the path forward isn’t obvious, breaking a large strategic challenge into smaller goals can provide direction and generate momentum.
What is one practical way a CFO can step outside their comfort zone?
Take one deliberate step toward achieving a difficult goal or capitalizing on an uncertain opportunity. That could mean proposing an investment in new technology, reengineering a financial process, initiating a difficult conversation, or anything else that goes beyond your comfort zone. Be thoughtful. Don’t pursue risk for its own sake. Rather, you should aim to recognize where staying comfortable could be preventing growth and then focus on that area or areas.
