With an admonition to “listen deeply and humbly” and “stay in anything-can-happen-ness,” Ann M. Drake told the 2026 graduating class of Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University that their true value going forward might come more from the questions they ask than from the answers they believe they should have.

“Predictability is not where we are living right now,” Drake told her audience as she delivered the keynote address at Kellogg’s commencement celebration in the Welsh-Ryan arena in Evanston, IL, on June 14, 2026. Instead, she said, we live in a time of “continuous discontinuity” when long-range planning must often take a backseat to in-the-moment responsiveness. Operating in chaos can be deeply unsettling, she acknowledged—especially to people trained to manage people and processes—but it can also be a source of potential and possibilities.

Drake addressed a capacity crowd of students, family, faculty, and well-wishers in her remarks. Kellogg’s 2026 graduating class includes students representing a wide range of programs, from traditional MBAs to graduate degrees that integrate business and management skills with law, healthcare, AI, design innovation, and more.

A graduate of Kellogg herself in 1984 with an EMBA, Drake shared that her own career took many twists and turns before spending thirty years in supply chain management, a field “which, if it’s about anything,” she said, “is about snatching order from the jaws of chaos.” That experience taught her about making decisions even when information is incomplete and uncertainty is rife. 

Yet if we can remember that our hunger to feel smart and in control comes from a human drive to matter, said Drake, then we can more easily accept our vulnerability and reinvent ourselves when faced with continuous discontinuity. “Things slouch toward coming apart,” Drake said. “Matter likes to redistribute itself. Life will keep reorganizing itself—and you. Instead of fighting it, ride it toward new versions of yourself and your mattering. Keep staying curious. Keep allowing.”

And, she added, noting that one of the most valuable things she gained from her time at Kellogg was friends and allies she still trusts and relies upon, “when chaos rears its head in your life, I hope you will reach out to take the hands in this room.”

“I leave you with this mantra to repeat to yourself,” she said. “Everything’s working out perfectly—just not the way I planned.”