SPEAKING.COM: Why do you say “simplicity is the most powerful force in business”?

SEGALL: Because I can! I think we can all agree that every human being is born with a preference for simplicity. We all choose the simple over the complex—and this is a preference that can be monetized by any business.

Customers react positively to simpler products, simpler services, simpler websites and simpler marketing. Employees are more motivated and fulfilled when they’re not burdened by complexity.

Steve Jobs demonstrated these things in the most spectacular way by guiding Apple from near-bankruptcy to “most valuable company on earth” in just 14 years. Of course, Steve had many talents, but at the core of his business philosophy was his love of simplicity. You could see that in Apple’s products, packaging, marketing, retail stores, internal processes and even its corporate structure.

That said, being simple is not simple. As Steve himself put it, “Simple can be harder than complex … but it’s worth it in the end, because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

SPEAKING.COM: Why do you think simplicity can be so difficult?

SEGALL: I believe it’s because simplicity is such an obvious, seemingly instinctive thing that many people take it for granted. They assume if something’s simple, it can happen on its own, but it rarely does. If we don’t make the effort to create and nurture simplicity, complexity quickly grows through the cracks. It takes the form of unnecessarily complex products and product choices, confusing websites, squandered resources, and internal processes that grow more tedious, frustrating, and even destructive over time. Too often, as companies expand, new processes and workarounds take the place of fresh thinking and employees who work in complex environments tend to become demoralized or de-incentivized.

SPEAKING.COM: What are the signs that your company has crossed the line from simplicity to complexity?

SEGALL: There are two sides to the simplicity story—what customers experience and what employees experience.

It’s important to assess complexity in both places. The best way to do that is to look through the eyes of others. As a customer, see how you feel about the entire customer experience, from advertising to purchase to learning and using the product or service. Ask yourself one critical question: is the experience so good that you’d actually tell friends, family or colleagues about it? If not, why? For example, if the buying process seems confusing, it might be that you’re offering too many choices, which can actually backfire, freezing customers into inaction.

As an employee, do you have a clear vision of the company’s mission and values? Are you frustrated because internal processes are too long and complex, or involve too many opinions, or require too many levels of approvals? If you can’t get a good picture of that yourself, ask your employees. Trust me, when it comes to making things simpler, they’re more than eager to help.

SPEAKING.COM: What was “simple” about the way Apple as a company operated in comparison to other organizations?

SEGALL: I had an interesting experience in contrasts. At one point, after working in the Apple world for many years, I moved across the country to work on Intel’s marketing and it was a shock to my system. I had become used to working in a world where the goals were well-defined and product strategies were simple, as was the process of creating advertising. In the Intel culture, nothing came easy. We spent more money over a longer period of time, and ended up with work that was noticeably of lesser quality. Years later, I returned to the world of Apple, and it was as if a thousand-pound weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

One major reason it was simpler to work with Apple was that the ultimate decision maker was involved in every major project from the very first briefing. At Intel and many big companies, that person might not appear until the very end of the process. At that point, a thumbs-down means that weeks or months of work have been wasted.

Apple was also unique in the way it gave responsibility to “small groups of smart people.” Small groups feel a sense of ownership in a project and become emotionally invested in a positive outcome. In other words, they’ll work crazy hours for the company’s success if necessary. However, in many big companies, project groups can be overpopulated to the point where progress becomes difficult and people feel like cogs in a wheel.

Smaller is always simpler—and often far more effective.

SPEAKING.COM: Steve Jobs is one of the most covered and artistically depicted business figures in modern history. What have some of those depictions gotten right about Jobs’s professional side and what have they perhaps omitted or misconstrued?

SEGALL: Most of the articles, books and movies about Steve put his personality first. They highlight his quick temper or his often brutish behavior. All of us who worked with Steve would agree that he had those traits, but we’d also agree that this wasn’t the “whole” Steve. He was far more complex. I don’t condone his negative behaviors, but I can offer a little insight.

First, his outbursts weren’t as frequent as most people imagine, given the press. When he did have an outburst, it was triggered by something specific—an unexpected setback, substandard work, disappointing design, needless complexity, a deviation from Apple values, and so on. His flaw was that he was so passionate about these things, he couldn’t control his temper when obstacles were thrown in his path.

Overall, working with Steve was unlike anything I ever experienced elsewhere. It was simultaneously surprising, exciting, inspiring and even fun (yes, he had a great sense of humor). And of course there was a bit of danger mixed in, because there was always pressure to perform, and you knew what would happen if you didn’t.

Another of Steve’s positive attributes was accessibility. I could call him any time, day or night, in the office or at home. In fact, my favorite interactions with him were our late-night conversations. That’s when we’d go over ads or scripts, talking about concepts and details, right down to particular choices of words and phrases. Steve was an excellent writer, and his opinions often led me to make changes. On the other hand, he could be swayed by a good argument, so I never felt that he was “micromanaging;” he just wanted to make his opinion heard. It felt like we were collaborating to make the best possible product—which is how Steve interacted with his engineers and designers as well.

How he found the time to pay attention to so many things in a day is something I will never understand. Bear in mind that at this moment in time, Steve was working three days a week at Apple and two days a week at Pixar, where he was also the CEO.

SPEAKING.COM: You have a keynote called “Working the Steve Jobs Way.” What are some principles of Steve’s management style that anyone can adopt—and what are some aspects that maybe only worked for him because of his unique level of talent?

SEGALL: Over the years, Steve managed to retain the mindset and energy of a young person building a business. No doubt, his way of running a company would have been shunned by most big-company CEOs.

I think Steve’s philosophy can be traced to the days when Apple operated out of his father’s garage. He loved entrepreneurial adventure and he hated bureaucracy. In Steve’s thinking, committees were poison, small groups of smart people could accomplish anything, and great ideas needed to be nurtured and protected.

None of these things are out of the reach of any smart business person. The reason we don’t have more Steve Jobs types in the world is that Steve was unique—a charismatic blend of visionary, artist, humanist and businessman. In rebuilding Apple, he had another big advantage—he was the founder who embodied Apple’s values, and he was returning to reignite the company’s spirit. He had license to revolutionize and a personality that could seemingly allow him to accomplish things by sheer force of will.

You and I don’t have these advantages. Trying to emulate Steve Jobs’ personality isn’t likely to get us too far. Yet we can still embrace the principles that helped Steve guide the rebirth of an iconic American company.

SPEAKING.COM: Now that you can look back, what do you see as the critical turning points for Apple?

SEGALL: There are many key moments in Apple history—the first Macintosh, iMac, iPod, iPhone, and so on. For me, one moment towers above all them. It wasn’t a product, it was a philosophy.

Steve believed that it was important to “do fewer things better.” He demonstrated that in a historic way on the day he unveiled the first iMac. At that time, Apple was making more than 25 distinct products—desktop computers, laptops, laser printers, scanners, cameras, Newtons, you name it. None were exceptional, yet together they were eating up Apple’s resources for R&D and marketing. So, minutes after he introduced the iMac, Steve announced that Apple was literally killing all but two of its many products. He put a simple four-box grid on the screen, and explained that from that day forward, Apple would make only four products—a home and pro version of a desktop and laptop. Only the home laptop was missing, and he promised that it would arrive soon after. Not only did he eliminate most of Apple’s product line, he also killed dozens of products that were then in development.

This was Apple’s “fresh start,” and it changed the company in the most profound way. There would be no more mediocre products. Every Apple product would be a leader in design, quality and functionality. Steve believed that people would pay more for a product if they perceived it was worth the price. By doing fewer things better, Steve turned around a dying company and established a philosophy that would guide Apple into a new future. The rest is history.

SPEAKING.COM: How has Apple changed since the passing of Steve Jobs?

SEGALL: Given that Steve Jobs was unique, I don’t believe Apple can ever be the same without him. The question is, can it still be great? By all accounts, Steve did a superb job of burning his values into Apple’s DNA, so that it could continue to thrive without him. In his last days, he encouraged Apple’s leaders not to guess what he would do, but instead think in line with the company’s values.

How has that worked out since Steve passed away? Honestly, it’s been spotty. Employees might avoid asking “what would Steve do?” but it’s natural for customers to ask and in recent years, Apple has given people good reason to wonder. Some key products have gone neglected for uncomfortably long periods. Software quality has been questioned, ads have become more ordinary and announcement events are less exciting.

This is disappointing to me, but it’s not exactly surprising. It’s tough to replace Steve’s judgment and taste. In addition, the competitive landscape has changed dramatically, and audiences have become bigger and more sophisticated. 20 years from now, I imagine Apple will be an entirely different company, just as Disney changed so radically in the decades that followed Walt’s passing. Time marches on, customers evolve, opportunities arise and obstacles appear. That’s business. I’d like to believe that Apple’s most cherished values will remain intact and it won’t lose its ability to delight customers with things they never imagined.

SPEAKING.COM: You’ve written that Steve was the most demanding client you’ve ever had. What is your advice for people who are working for a demanding client or boss, particularly when that person in unhappy with the work you’re doing?

SEGALL: I learned one very important lesson in my first years in advertising, and I believe it even more today. That is, business is about relationships, and relationships create trust. If you don’t have that kind of relationship with your client or boss, you will forever be pushing the boulder uphill (or failing to push it at all).

You can’t expect to build this relationship until you have a few victories under your belt. That client or boss needs to see the evidence before they can believe in you. Also, you need more than business skills to succeed with difficult clients and bosses: you need people skills, and some of the brightest people struggle with that. I’ve known brilliant creative people who flamed out because they were incapable of creating positive relationships that moved business forward.

Unfortunately, sometimes you must deal with people who are immune to positive relationships. To them, you will forever be an order-taker. They’re not interested in joining forces to do great things. If you’re in a situation like this, you need to be happy for whatever victories you might achieve. If you are to succeed on a grander level, you’ll likely have to do it elsewhere.

SPEAKING.COM: You are the person responsible for that iconic “i” in the name of so many breakthrough Apple products. What was your inspiration for this and how were you able to convince others that it would be a winning move?

SEGALL: The concept behind the very first iMac was “the easy way to the internet.” Remember, back in those dark days, getting onto the internet meant that you had to buy a modem, find an internet provider, go through a configuration process, etc. iMac was designed to make it easy. You’d just power it up and follow the prompts.

So the name iMac didn’t take too much digging—i for internet and Mac for Macintosh. Of course, nothing came easy in the world of Steve Jobs. He harshly rejected the iMac name once and then not-so-harshly rejected it a second time. It was only after he put the name on a model that he started to warm up to it. As he would later explain, he thought it looked great on the machine—it was short, simple, and gave the radically designed computer some personality.

Naming any product is tricky. As this story implies, it is unwise to be locked into your first reaction. Imagine how you might have reacted if one of your people brought you the name “Google.” It’s pretty goofy, yet it turned out to be one of the most memorable and identifiable names in business history. The debate over names is both intellectual and emotional. One of our arguments to Steve in support of “iMac” was that the i could be a foundational element for future product names. Imagine that! But at that point, Apple made only computers. We weren’t envisioning the full potential of that little “i.”

SPEAKING.COM: Your first book, Insanely Simple, focused on Steve Jobs and Apple. What was the motivation to write your newest book, Think Simple?

SEGALL: When Insanely Simple was published, I started to speak about the principles of simplicity behind Apple’s success. It was gratifying to see audiences eager to apply these principles to their businesses. Following my speeches, many asked, “Where do I start?” I then realized that I needed to dive deeper into my topic. Understanding the principles is one thing—putting them to work is another.

Think Simple was my way of closing this loop. I interviewed more than 40 business leaders in different countries and different industries to talk about the power of simplicity. I wanted to learn exactly how they put simplicity to work in their companies. I wanted to know what was missing in their business, and how simplicity helped solve their problem. My goal was to inspire readers to action, shining a light on the methods used by business leaders in very different circumstances. My research convinced me even more that in a complex world, simplicity is a powerful competitive weapon—and learning from others’ success is a wonderful way to create one’s own.

To bring leadership and marketing speaker Ken Segall to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post Lessons Learned from Working with Steve Jobs by Ken Segall appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: Would you please describe some ways leaders can keep their mojo and get it back if they lose it?

GOLDSMITH: Mojo is that positive spirit toward what you’re doing now, that starts on the inside and radiates to the outside. It’s very important, for leaders to take some personal responsibility for maintaining their own mojo. I’ve done some fascinating new research with my daughter, Dr. Kelly Goldsmith from Northwestern, and what we found is by simply asking six questions everyday that all begin with the words, “Did I do my best?” people end up with a very, very positive change in their mojo.

These six questions are:

1) Did I do my best to set clear goals?

2) Did I do my best to make progress for achieving my goals?

3) Did I do my best to find meaning?

4) Did I do my best to be happy?

5) Did I do my best to build positive relationships?

6) Did I do my best to be fully engaged?

What we’ve learned is that by challenging ourselves everyday, we can really build our own mojo, without waiting for the rest of the world to give it to us.

SPEAKING.COM: What are a few of the 20 annoying personal habits that get leaders into trouble?

GOLDSMITH: I was interviewed in the Harvard Business Review and asked a question, “What is the number one problem of all the successful people you’ve ever coached?” And my answer was “Winning too much.” What does that mean? If it’s important, we want to win. If it’s meaningful, we want to win. If it’s critical, we want to win. If it’s trivial, we want to win. I have a case study I use in my book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, that illustrates what this means.

Say you want go to dinner at restaurant X. Your husband, wife, friend or partner wants to go to dinner at restaurant Y. You have a heated argument. You go to restaurant Y. You then have two choices:
Choice 1:, you can critique the food and point out how your partner was wrong and how this mistake could have been avoided if he or she had only they listened to you. Or you could make choice 2:, you can shut up, eat the stupid food, try to enjoy it and have a nice evening.

Then I asked my clients, “What would you do?” “What should you do?” Well, almost all of my clients said, “What would I do? Critique the food.” In other words, they wanted to win. What they didn’t seem to realize was that by proving they were right, they essentially risk ruining a very nice evening; they also risk losing a chance to connect meaningfully with their partner.

Peter Drucker taught me a wonderful lesson: Our mission in life is to make a positive difference, not to win and prove we’re right all the time.

The second annoying habit is called “adding too much value.” What does that mean? A young, smart, enthusiastic go-getter comes to us with an idea. We think it’s a great idea, but rather than saying, “Great idea,” our natural tendency is to say, “That’s a nice idea. Why don’t you add this to it?”

The problem with this tendency is the quality of the idea may then go up 5%, but the person’s commitment to execute it may go down 50%. Effectiveness of execution is a function of the quality of the idea and one’s commitment to make it work. Often, we get so wrapped up trying to improve the quality a little bit, we deflate the motivation to commit to it.

Another one of the habits I talk about is playing favorites. Avoiding favoritism. We all think that we don’t play favorites, but I’ve interviewed many people in my classes, and I ask them a question. “How many of you have a dog?” And then they say, “Yeah, I have dogs.” Then I say, “What family member gets the most unqualified, positive recognition? Your wife, your kids or your dog?” And in most cases, it’s the dog.

Why is this?? Without meaning to, we tend to devote more attention to people who devote attention to us. The dog doesn’t talk back or complain or argue, which engenders more positive feeling toward the dog, which in turn, motivates us to treat him well.

So, to summarize, the most annoying personal habits I talk about are playing favorites, not adding too much value, and winning too much.

SPEAKING.COM: What are a few of the most important competencies for global leaders?

GOLDSMITH: We wrote a book called Global Leadership: The Next Generation. In it, we discuss some of the most important competencies for global leaders. They are:

1) Global thinking, really getting out of that domestic mindset and thinking globally in terms of “What are the global implications of life from my business?” And even if you don’t compete globally, you probably have global suppliers or global connections.

2) Cross-cultural appreciation. Diversity is not just in the United States. Diversity means diversity of cultures and different people of all different sorts.

3) Technological savvy. That doesn’t mean being a technologist. What it means is understanding how new technology is going to impact your business.

4) Building alliances and partnerships. That’s reaching out across your organization to people from different backgrounds and from all levels of the organization. It’s much more important today than it’s ever been.

And then finally,

5) Shared leadership. Peter Drucker said, “The leader of the past knew how to tell. The leader of the future will know how to ask.”

These five qualities are different for the leaders of the future than in the past. There are many other competencies for the future that are important – such as vision and integrity – but these are the five that were considered the difference between the future and past.

SPEAKING.COM: How can leaders best adapt to rapid change?

GOLDSMITH: I suggest that leaders have a dialogue with each of their direct reports every couple of months to deal with six basic questions.

Question one is “Where are we going?” The leader can say, “Here’s where I think we’re going. What do you think?”

Question two is “Where are you going?” The leader says, “Here’s where I think you’re going. What do you think?” Because you want alignment between two ways, one between how the leader sees life and how the direct report sees life and the big picture and the small picture.

Question three is “Are you doing well?” The leader says, “Here’s where I think you’re doing well. What do you think?”

Question four is “Where can we improve?” The leader provides suggestions and then asks the direct report, “If you were the coach for you, what ideas would you have?”

Question five is “How can I help?”

Question six is “What ideas will help me improve as a leader?”

These are the six basic questions for coaching that I recommend.

In between check-ins, especially during periods of rapid change, the direct report needs to be given the message, “If there’s ever ambiguity, confusion, lack of clarity, please talk to me, because if I as a leader take responsibility to do my job every two to three months and then you take responsibility to do your job, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t communicate directly and clearly.”

SPEAKING.COM: In your newest book, Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts… Becoming the Person You Want to Be, you examine the emotional and psychological triggers that cause us to react in preset ways. How can people break that cycle and enact a meaningful change?

GOLDSMITH: The typical reaction is to a trigger in our environment. The trigger leads to an impulse and this impulse leads to behavior; the issue is that the behavior is often inconsistent with the person that we want to be. We become driven by the trigger.

For example, let’s say you’re driving, and your passenger says, “Look out! There’s a red light up ahead!” That may trigger us to get defensive because the passenger has startled us or seems to be questioning our driving. Our impulse may be to get angry and yell. In my book Triggers, I teach people to breathe in moments like that, to become aware of what’s going on and realize you have a choice before you exhibit behavior.

I have a case study where a gentleman sent me an email, and he said, “I just want to send you an email today and say thank you. Yesterday, I was having a terrible day. My wife called. She was talking about the bad day she had. I was just getting ready to point out how her problems pale into comparison to my own. Then I remembered your class. I stopped, took a breath and said, ‘I love you. Thank you for all you’ve done for our family.’ I spent $25 and bought her some flowers and told her I loved her.”

He went on to say, “That was the best $25 I ever spent. I just wanted to say thank you today.” Well, that’s what the book Triggers is about. It’s about breaking the cycle where we’re not really driven by the world around us. We create the person we want to become.

SPEAKING.COM: How can organizations help develop high potential leaders?

GOLDSMITH: I think it’s very important to identify high potential leaders, and then to put high potential leaders on a really clear program where their focus is to achieve positive long-term change in leadership behavior. Some of the companies have done a great job of this.

For example, GE has every one of their high potential leaders identify key stakeholders, develop a follow-up plan, and measure improvement. They have produced some fantastic results.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some of the key components of a successful top management transition?

GOLDSMITH: I wrote a book called Succession: Are You Ready? published by Harvard Business Review about this topic, and there are three things that I focus on helping CEOs do during the transition period. One, CEOs need to obviously keep running the business because they are still the CEO. Two, they need to focus on developing the next leader. And three, which is seldom talked about, they need to focus on creating a great rest of their life, because if they focus on creating a great rest of their life, they’re ready to let go when it’s time. If they don’t, they often look at kind of a black hole of meaninglessness, and the transition doesn’t work very well.

SPEAKING.COM: Do you think the world is developing leaders that will be able to meet the economic, political and scientific challenges ahead?

GOLDSMITH: The answer is neither yes nor no. The world is developing leaders; there will be challenges, so leaders will do a more or less good job of meeting these challenges. I think, we can always say things are awful or things are wonderful. It just depends on your perspective of life.

I would say the goal is just to develop better leaders. Now, the question to me is not “Can we develop leaders?” but rather, “Can we develop leaders more effectively?” The answer to that question is definitely yes. I’ve done a research study with 86,000 people which shows that if you work on developing leaders, they develop a plan, they follow up, they measure, they can become much more effective.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some of the unique challenges and opportunities for women in leadership?

GOLDSMITH: I’m often asked, “What is the difference in leadership feedback between women and men?” And the answer is the average woman it seems is getting better feedback than the average man as a leader. Not a lot better, but better. Women tend to have one issue more than men. Women are harder on themselves. When coaching women, I say much more often, “Don’t be too hard on yourselves” and “You cannot be the perfect everything for everybody.”

One of the things I recommend for women is to not be ashamed or afraid of promoting themselves. If they believe in themselves, if they believe in what they’re doing, they shouldn’t be ashamed or afraid to really try to get ahead in life, to move for higher and higher positions. It’d probably be good for the companies in the world.

SPEAKING.COM: You’ve been the author and/or editor of 35 books. Which books are you the most proud of and why?

GOLDSMITH: There are three books I highly recommend, and they happen to be connected. The first is my book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. That book has been translated in 30 languages, sold over a million copies, and is about interpersonal relationships. I’m proud of it because it really helps you improve interpersonal relationship. The second is my book MOJO. MOJO is about intra-personal relationships, i.e. how you view yourself. The third book is my book Triggers; Triggers is about extra-personal relationships; that is, how we deal with the environment around us.

I like these three books because they look at behavioral change from three different perspectives, one, interpersonal, two intra-personal, and three, extra-personal.

The fourth book I’d recommend is my book Succession: Are You Ready. I think that’s a great book. It doesn’t apply to everyone, though. That one is limited to an audience of key executives who want to develop a successor in large organizations.

SPEAKING.COM: Who are a few current leaders in any field you most admire and why?

GOLDSMITH: Three come to mind, and I’ve coached all three of these people. By the way, even though I was in theory their coach, I’ve learned far more than them than they’ve learned from me.

Number one, Frances Hesselbein. Peter Drucker said the greatest leader he’s ever met was the CEO of the Girl Scouts. She did a spectacular job of turning around the organization, now runs the Hesselbein Institute, has 20 honorary PHDs, is the winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and is a fantastic leader who really taught me the value of servant leadership.

Two, Alan Mulally, who was ranked in Fortune Magazine as the number three greatest leader in the world last year and was the CEO of the year in the United States. He led the turn around of Ford Motor Company from near bankruptcy to huge success, probably one of the greatest turnarounds in the history of America in the last decade, and just again, a fantastic leader and a great person.

And the third one would be Dr. Jim Kim, new president of the World Bank. His mission is eradication of extreme poverty on earth. One of the most dedicated, selfless people I’ve ever met in my life, he is really a brilliant man. He is an M.D. and Ph.D. with honors from Harvard in Anthropology.

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To bring Marshall Goldsmith to your organization to help your leaders become more effective, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com.

The post Leadership Success with Dr. Marshall Goldsmith appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

Fun, insightful holiday quotations…

The three stages of a man’s life:
1. He believes in Santa Claus
2. He doesn’t believe in Santa Claus.
3. He is Santa Claus.
(Unattributed)

Gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.
(Oren Arnold)

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.
(Calvin Coolidge)

New Year’s Day. A fresh start. A new chapter in life waiting to be written. New questions to be asked, embraced, and loved. Answers to be discovered and then lived in this transformative year of delight and self-discovery. Today carve out a quiet interlude for yourself in which to dream, pen in hand. Only dreams give birth to change.
(Sarah Ban Breathnach)

I don’t need a holiday or a feast to feel grateful for my children, the sun, the moon, the roof over my head, music, and laughter, but I like to take this time to take the path of thanks less traveled.
(Paula Poundstone)

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.
(Mae West)

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.
(Hamilton Wright Mabie)

Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things.
(Kurt Vonnegut)

May this Festival of Lights bring blessings upon you and All Your Loved Ones.
May the Lights of Hanukkah usher in a better world for all humankind.
May Love & Light fill your home and heart at Hanukkah.
May happiness fill your home as you celebrate the Festival of Lights.
(Unattributed)

New Year’s Day is every man’s birthday.
(Charles Lamb)

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.

So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.
(Neil Gaiman)

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring-not even a mouse:
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
(Clement C. Moore)

You don’t leave the people you love alone.
(Patricia, Grey’s Anatomy)

Great things are done by a series of small things put together.
(Vincent Van Gogh)

See the light in others, and treat them as if that is all you see.
(Dr. Wayne Dyer)

If you want to make peace on earth, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.
(Moshe Dayan)

How many families, whose members have been dispersed and scattered far and wide, in the restless struggles of life, are then reunited, and meet once again in that happy state of companionship and mutual goodwill, which is a source of such pure and unalloyed delight; and one so incompatible with the cares and sorrows of the world, that the religious belief of the most civilized nations, and the rude traditions of the roughest savages, alike number it among the first joys of a future condition of existence, provided for the blessed and happy!
(Charles Dickens)

I wish you a merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year;
A pocket full of money
And a cellar full of beer,
And a great fat pig
To last you all the year.
(Old English Song)

“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas… perhaps… means a little bit more.”
(Theodor Seuss Geisel, “The Grinch”)

There was the little boy who approached Santa in a department store with a long list of requests. He wanted a bicycle and a sled, a chemical set, a cowboy suit, a set of trains, a baseball glove and roller skates.
“That’s a pretty long list,” Santa said sternly. “I’ll have to check in my book and see if you were a good boy.”
“No, no,” the youngster said quickly. “Never Mind checking. I’ll just take the roller skates.”
(Unattributed)

It is the firends you can call at 4 a.m. that matter.
(Marlene Dietrich)

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
(Friedrich Nietzsche)

Calvin: Well. I’ve decided I do believe in Santa Claus,
no matter how preposterous he sounds.
Hobbes: What convinced you?
Calvin: A simple risk analysis. I want presents. Lots of presents.
Why risk not getting them over a matter of belief?
Heck, I’ll believe anything they want.
(Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes)

The joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others’ burdens, easing other’s loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of the Holidays.
(W. C. Jones)

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exists, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.
(Francis Pharcellus Church, responding to a letter to the New York Sun
in 1897 from 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon asking, “is there a Santa Claus”)

No, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus. But important lessons and a sweet tale that makes glad the heart of childhood live on, at least until our imagination creates something even better.

Your eagerness to know is wonderful! Have you ever scooped up a lost nickel, only to discover that it is a quarter? Santa is like that, a thousand times over. No, there is no Santa outside imagination. But why you were told about him is much better than if he were really real.

Santa is a playful fantasy full of hope and happiness, inviting you down the challenging path to true adulthood. Yes, he embodies good will and generosity and inspires children everywhere to appreciate the difference between Naughty and Nice. But there is so much more that you and your friends are just now glimpsing, hidden behind the tale’s knowing wink.
(Greg Perkins, The Objectivist Center)

The holiest of holidays are those
Kept by ourselves in silence and apart;
The secret anniversaries of the heart.
(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.
(Unattributed)

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
(T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding)

In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it Christmas’ and went to church; the Jews called it Hanukkah’ and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say Merry Christmas!’ or Happy Hanukkah!’ or (to the atheists) Look out for the wall!’
(Dave Barry)

Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel,
I made it out of clay;
Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel,
Now dreidel I shall play.
(Unattributed)

A three-year-old gave this reaction to her Holiday dinner: “I don’t like the turkey, but I like the bread he ate.”
(Unattributed)

As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December’s bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same.
(Donald E. Westlake)

A Holiday candle is a lovely thing; It makes no noise at all, But softly gives itself away; While quite unselfish, it grows small.
(Eva K. Logue)

What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus? Claustrophobic.
(Unattributed)

The [Kwanzaa] holiday, then will of necessity, be engaged as an ancient and living cultural tradition which reflects the best of African thought and practice in its reaffirmation of the dignity of the human person in community and culture, the well-being of family and community, the integrity of the environment and our kinship with it, and the rich resource and meaning of a people’s culture.
(Dr. Maulana Karenga)

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.
(Shirley Temple)

The one thing women don’t want to find in their stockings on Christmas morning is their husband.
(Joan Rivers)

I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included.
(Bernard Manning)

And in our world of plenty
We can spread a smile of joy
Throw your arms around the world
At Christmastime.
(Bob Geldof & Midge Ure)

Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies.
(Erich Fromm)

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. Wishing you happiness.
(Helen Keller)

Every night, when I go to sleep, I die. Every morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.
(Mohandas Gandhi)

No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change.
(Barbara De Angelis)

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.
(Anne Frank)

And So This Is Christmas;
And What Have We Done?
Another Year Over;
A New One Just Begun;
And So Happy Christmas;
I Hope You Have Fun;
The Near And The Dear Ones;
The Old And The Young.
(John Lennon)

The post Happy Holidays and Here’s to a Prosperous, Healthy and Fulfilling 2019! appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: How did you get involved with hosting the NBC TV show fitness competition series Strong. How were you chosen as the host for this and what was your vision for the show?

REECE: The acronym for the show is ‘Start To Realize Our Natural Greatness’, so right away I was attracted to the idea. I think the producers were looking for somebody who embodied some of the ideas that they’re exploring with the contestants. Quite frankly, I had never lobbied so much in my life before to get a job. This job is something that I feel really passionate about.

The idea behind the show is, “Hey, these people are doing pretty good in their lives”… but they have either lost an edge that they feel they had, or maybe they are looking to acquire this better side of themselves or push themselves further. Another really exciting part about the show is that people can’t phone it in to get the contestants saved or eliminated. The competition isn’t based on this snarky, “Oh you’re voted off.” It’s really about a test of preparation, training and going through physical challenges with their trainer. That’s how they stay or go and I think the producers were looking for somebody who’s already been through that training process in their life.

I always desire to keep improving myself through movement, eating well, and having that conversation about, “How can I be a better person?” In Strong you see some inspiring people who are doing that. The show’s an example of where our culture is right now. If you’re looking at Tough Mudder and CrossFit and even the Ninja Warrior challenges, we as a culture are saying that weight-loss is certainly important, but there’s another message also which is, “Can we be our best selves? Can we be strong? How do we maximize who we are and aspire to do that?”

SPEAKING.COM: What is The Balance Project and why is it important?

REECE: The Balance Project is something that Balance Bar has dedicated a lot of effort towards. When their team goes out to talk to people, especially busy women, there’s this reoccurring conversation that 83% of Americans feel balance is important, but none of us feel like we are in that sweet spot.

The Balance Project is a project dedicated to publicizing, on the internet and through different messaging, different actions people can take to feel balanced and get balanced, whether it’s making time to exercise, little tricks for eating better, or ideas about how to play more with your family. The project addresses things that we all struggle with and that constant calibration of, “How do I have enough time for my work, to take care of my family, to take care of myself AND to enjoy that?” You can hit all the marks in life, but then realize, “Yeah, but I’m also trying to remember the fun factor, the enjoyment factor.”

Quite frankly, in my experience as you go through The Balance Project, the biggest thing you start to learn is that you’ll never hit balance. I liken it to happiness, where it isn’t about, “Oh now I’m happy. I’ve arrived at happiness.” It’s just something that flows in and out through the course of the day and if we can hit it here and there, that’s pretty great.

I think the Balance Project’s about shifting that perspective of balance, too, that it’s not a destination. You always should be in the moment, which is one of the hardest things in the world to do. In getting balanced there’s no perfection, there is no sort of, “I have it all figured out.” It’s about being comfortable with, “How do I work through that constant moving target and process, and feel okay about that?”

SPEAKING.COM: Could you describe your fitness program HIGHX, and how it differs from other exercise programs?

REECE: HIGHX, I always joke, is a fitness program I created by accident. My family lives six months of the year in Hawaii. My husband Laird is a surfer so we go there in the winter for big wave season. The same weather that brings snow in the Midwest actually brings these low-pressure systems that in turn bring large waves.

I was always training in California with my close friends. I joke that a lot of them have ADD -they’re busy women, they can’t concentrate – so I had already started implementing some elements of HIGHX in that training. We moved back to Laird’s native island of Kauai and I said to my eight friends in Kauai, “You guys, I’ll bring my stuff to the community center. I’ll train you.” Pretty soon members of the community were asking me if they could join and it turned anywhere from 70 to a 100 people. I charge everyone a dollar so that they were covered by my insurance. But what I did say to them is, “Hey listen this makes this a dictatorship. It is not a democracy.” And so, through this sort of ultimate classroom I got to work with men and women, people ages 18 to 65, and HIGHX was born.

HIGHX is a high-intensity explosive circuit training. You’re at a station for three minutes. You do an explosive move for 30 seconds, you recover for 30, and then you’ll switch. Maybe from there you’ll go on to something where you work on your balance, then resistance training on you lower body, and later on something with your upper body.

The style goes back to this notion of people saying that they have no time, they don’t know what to do, they get bored, or their body gets accustomed to something. HIGHX workouts on the other hand are always changing. The program is very much so an all in one workout, especially for people who are busy. If you are de-conditioned and you’re just getting off the couch you can do it; you can modify. If you’re highly conditioned you can push yourself either through greater reps or higher rep count.

The most important element for me of HIGHX is you’re on a team and you’re in a room full of other teams, so it creates that accountability, motivation, and inspiration that is necessary for achieving long-term success. Once we turn the music on, I demo all the moves, and you don’t stop moving until the work out’s complete. It’s challenging and difficult, but it’s completely doable, there is a little bit of fun, and you will show up on certain days for your teammate if you don’t feel like showing up for yourself. I would say while there’s no one answer to fitness, this is a very solid answer to being pretty fit.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some of the ways busy people can integrate fitness into their overloaded schedule already?

REECE: Well, I always say if you want to figure out ways to put fitness into your schedule, first of all you’ve got to figure out why it is important to you. Everything has to have an important ‘why.’ For me personally, I decided for whatever reason a long time ago that besides my friends and family, the most important thing that I have is my health, so I needed to take care of it. I always say, I don’t want to lose my health in order to appreciate it.

Second, look at your week and find the days that have a little more give and flex. Some days you know top to bottom you’re stacked: why would you create pressure to put fitness there and then not be successful? So on the days you know you’ve got a 30 minute window, a 45 minute window, you schedule it, you write it down, you plan it out and you treat it like everything else on your schedule.

If you can do it with another person, your tendency to cancel or flake out drops tremendously, because you now are accountable to another person. I think putting that system in place is really helpful for long-term success.

Finally, it takes work. There’s no way around that, but find something that you don’t mind working at because if you’re just doing things that you hate and you feel tortured by, inevitably you can’t be consistent.

If you can start with those four elements, then, it’s a solid way to start.

SPEAKING.COM: There seems to be new nutrition advice and diets coming out daily these days. Can you share us some tried-and-true tips for eating healthy?

REECE: Diet for me is a very personal thing. For example, you have people who say, “Hey, I feel better eating vegetarian or vegan” and then conversely you have people who feel better and more energized eating animal protein. There are only a few things I know to be universally true. First of all, we should eliminate most of the things that we drink with the exception of water. I think all of us could drink more water.

People can have their coffee in the morning, but it’s better if we can avoid loading it up with artificial sweeteners. I don’t really think caffeine is the end all, be all. I don’t think it’s that bad for you. I think drinking it too late in the day is tough because it disrupts your sleep patterns, so keep it earlier.

Secondly, I think people should experiment with eating foods. Let’s say if you’re trying to figure out, “Should I eat more of a vegetarian style?” Eat that way for a week. How do you feel? How are you sleeping? Do you feel tired? Do you feel energized? Get in touch with it that way.

Another rule for me is to eat as close to the source as possible, whether you eat animal protein or vegetarian. I don’t think you can go wrong if you’re eating foods that are as close to their natural source as possible: the fewer processes they’ve undergone from their origin to the point that they enter your mouth, the better. Thinking that a one sized diet fits all is not realistic. We all come from different places, different genealogies, and physiologies. We’ll all have different ways to success, and it’s really important for people to figure that out.

The other thing that I know is true is you can’t go wrong by eating less. We have a tendency, especially in our culture, to overeat. We don’t actually probably need as much food as we all eat. Our plates are very big so, just minimizing our portions a little bit is really helpful. If you go out to eat, eat half your plate right away and maybe take half to go, because in the end we eat what’s in front of us.

Eating is also about connecting to food and understanding why we’re connecting to food. Do I grab food because I’m depressed? Did I grab food because I was bored? Substitute those habits with something else more productive like going for a walk or calling a friend. Start to recognize that we use food for everything: for celebrations, for sadness, and so forth. The key is trying to figure out, how do I keep food as something that I am really using to nourish my body while making allowances for celebration.

Beware of mindless snacking, though. We have to be careful of high calorie, empty calorie, high sugar snacking. A good rule for parents to teach their children is “Eat your sugar. Don’t drink your sugar.” So, if my kids are going to a birthday party and they want to eat some chocolate cake, but then they want to have a soda with it, I say, “Listen, both have the same amount of sugar. Why don’t you drink water then, and enjoy the chocolate cake?” It’s important for them to realize that those beverages that we grab and drink so easily are loaded with sugar. Even the natural juices and such will get you. In fact, it’s said that Americans drink 20% of their calories.

Some helpful ways then to eat healthy are recognizing our relationship with food, eating as close to the source as possible, eating foods we enjoy, and eating in a way that is reflective of what makes us feel good.

SPEAKING.COM: You have said in a recent interview that, “I’m interested in how women can get some version of having it all,” what does having it all mean to you, personally?

REECE: “Having it all” is a moving target. You can have it all, but just not all at the same time. It’s unrealistic to think that you can do that and do that perfectly. It’s about the ‘all’ that’s in front of you in your life at that moment. Let’s say, for example, you’re single – maybe “having it all” is great relationships with your friends, having more time to train, and kicking butt in your career. Then maybe you go to another phase in your life where you meet someone you would like to be in a relationship with, and so “having it all” becomes being in a career and a relationship. Later on that might progress into another situation where you decide you would like to add children, so maybe “having it all” at that moment is a family and trying to take care of yourself.

The notion that I can be the perfectly fit, super mom, at every game, at every PTA meeting, I’m the CEO who works 14 hours a day, and I’m in the bedroom with my lover eight hours a day, is probably not realistic. So, “having it all” is sort of saying: “Where do I want to put my energy? What feels right?”, listening to that and trusting that, because it’s going to differ in each individual person’s life. It’s up to people to understand and honor where they’re at in that moment, and what feels the most important. Go for that, because we do get pressure from outside, and then we think, “Oh, I should be doing this, this, and this.” Yet if we can listen to our inner voice, even though it is scary, I don’t think we can go wrong, because it is our life.

SPEAKING.COM: Do you have some tips you can share for balancing career and family?

REECE: This is a moving target so I’ll give you an example. Right now we mentioned that I am now hosting the Strong show, so we’re shooting for 10 weeks. Well, guess what? This is taking more effort and energy than normal. My husband has stepped in and is helping more with the girls because I do have a little bit less bandwidth there, but having said that, after shooting, I will be dedicating more time to my family.

I think it’s also a timing situation. For example, the last 12 years I have really been here for my husband and my children, and now, my girls are a little bit older; they’re a little bit more independent. This is an opportunity that’s coming to me right at this moment, and I think even collectively, my whole family is understanding, “Hey, we’re going to support mom in this.” My husband’s attitude is, “I’m going to support you on this, because if it’s good for you, it’s good for everybody.”

Career and family balance is difficult and I feel like I fail at it all the time, I feel like I’m never with my kids enough, or I’m with them too much, but I have sort of come to understand that it is something we don’t master. Sometimes I have to get it down to the fundamentals: “Are the girls safe, are they fed, are they clean, are we here, are we loving them?”

Giving advice on this is impossible because it’s a very difficult thing to do, and a process that’s one of the ultimate teachers of life.

SPEAKING.COM: You’ve had a really great marriage to professional surfer Laird Hamilton for nearly 20 years. What marriage advice would you give your own daughters on their wedding days?

REECE: Again, advice is a very personal thing to each individual. My three children are all very, very different. First, I would encourage each of my daughters to understand what makes them happy as a person. The expectation that another person’s going to come in and make you happy is not only unfair, it’s unrealistic so I would say to each young woman, “You have to identify what makes you happy.”

Second, I would always encourage them to do their best to make the marriage better for the other person. Going into a marriage thinking, “What can I get?” is tricky. Going into a marriage thinking, “What can I do for this other person?” and hoping that you have chosen a partner that has the same attitude, is really important. I would also, for my daughters, say not to take things personally. I would always encourage them to express their feelings, and as they got older and more mature, to do it in a kind of matter-of-fact way especially to a man. Saying, “When you do this, I didn’t love it,” is better than nagging.

Also you shouldn’t blame your spouse, because people get defensive. Saying, “Hey, when this happened it hurt my feelings.” is more effective than saying “You’re this, and you’re that.” Above all remember that your opportunity to do the best you can is when you’re in the marriage, not after.

So I would encourage my daughters just to start there; obviously, their personal journey into their own marriage will be very different than mine. In fact someday I’m sure I’ll learn something about marriage from them.

SPEAKING.COM: You have had great success in many areas of your life, what do you attribute your overall success to?

REECE: I think my success first of all is rooted in a couple of different things. My fear of failure and my understanding and appreciation of opportunity live very close together so I think that’s one. Number two, I’ve learned through athletics and through some other things that everything’s hard work, and hard work is a part of the process just as failure is. For example, when you’re going to accomplish something, you will fail; that is a part of the process and you can’t let that shake you.

Part of success is understanding, “Hey, I’m going to bust my butt. I’m going to understand who I am, and what my strengths and weaknesses are.” If I’m not good at something I’m not going to kid myself.

The ability to learn plays a part as well. For example working on this new show, I say to the people around me, directors, producers, “What’s not going well? Tell me. I’ll work on that.” Work on your weaknesses. I think that has been very helpful for me personally on my quest to trying a few different things and having a level of success at some. I think I’ve had a lot of grace or good fortune or blessings, bestowed upon me, as well.

SPEAKING.COM: You have given to many meaningful causes. What are some of the ones that are the most important to you and how do you think we can get more people involved with good causes?

REECE: Myself individually, and my husband and I collectively have done a lot of things for the environment, children, and children’s health. While people talk about children as our future, in general they deserve a chance. They have the right to have their health, their safety, and a clean environment.

We try to teach our children that service is a part of life, just like work and like everything else because that mindset creates a balance. Service is sort of like brushing your teeth or showering; it’s not only good to do but it’s also good for us. It keeps us grounded and it’s a part of being a human and being connected to humanity, because when you reach out to someone, the day that you need a hand you might be lucky enough to have someone reach out to you in return. I even joke with one of my daughters, who’s a little more insensitive, that even if you just look at service like it’s good for you, you should help someone out. It’s the ebb and flow of life and it’s really important.
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To bring Gabrielle Reece to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com.

The post Fitness, Nutrition and Life Balance with Gabrielle Reece appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: What are the most important changes happening in the way we learn and work that people need to know about?

MCGOWAN: We are moving from the third to the fourth industrial revolution, which is a shift from set expertise-based occupations built from stored knowledge to portfolio-based careers grounded in learning agility and adaptability. In this transition, we can no longer rely on the old model of transferring codified knowledge and predetermined skills to create a deployable workforce. We must develop a workforce driven by purpose and passion to fuel the required life-long learning with highly developed uniquely human skills such as empathy, collaboration, creativity, and judgment, armed with digital and computational literacies and the ability to rapidly learn and adapt.

The simple analogy for this transition that seems to resonate most with individuals is the difference between an application that runs on your phone and the operating system itself that allows all applications to run. In the third industrial revolution, education was analogous to downloading a single function application that was sufficient for your career arc. Now the change rate is faster while the career arc is longer so you need to focus on the underlying operating system and its ability to run many applications—because that is the future of work—learning and adapting through many work experiences.

SPEAKING.COM: How can workers prepare for this paradigm shift in the job market?

MCGOWAN: I believe it really comes down to identity. If you define yourself entirely by what you do today, you may be trapped in that definition tomorrow when conditions change, potentially rendering that identity obsolete.

I believe that individuals need to move from titles to taglines. Titles tell you what one does today while taglines tell you what they can do through many titles—and, more importantly, why they do it. This is a shift from focusing on what you do (title or role) to how (your unique abilities and enabling capabilities) and your why (your purpose, your passion, your motivational spark).

Identity is tightly tied to resilience. A joint study by the University of East Anglia and the What Works Center for Wellbeing in England found that recovering from job loss can take twice as long as recovering from the loss of a primary relationship. An identity bestowed by a third party via a title or credential is left fragile by that third party, where an identity that is internally validated and adaptive is more resilient to change.

SPEAKING.COM: What can people do to develop an agile mindset?

MCGOWAN: First, agile learning is a mindset as opposed to a skill set. In the future of work, skills will be added and deleted like applications on your phone. A mindset that is steeped in learning agility and adaptability will enable you to learn, unlearn, and relearn.

An agile learning mindset is comprised of three parts:

1. Agency – the understanding that learning is your responsibility.

2. Learning agility – the ability to learn and adapt which comes from knowing yourself and your learning styles, combined along with uniquely human skills that are difficult to automate such as empathy, creativity, judgment, and social intelligence.

3. A value creation or entrepreneurial outlook that seeks to add value.

Where it was once sufficient to focus on “doing a good job”, now one must understand how the entity they work for creates value and, more specifically, how they contribute to that value creation.

SPEAKING.COM: What do you think companies’ roles should be in equipping employees for the future of work?

MCGOWAN:Whether individuals in the future engage in work as employees, consultants, or contingent workers, it is the best interest of an organization to make talent development their number one objective. We once defined companies by their outputs, notably brand and products/services. That worked well when the change rate was slower and products, services, and business models lasted much longer. Now with accelerated change, we must focus on the inputs, which are culture and capacity.

Simply put, culture is the operating principles of an organization expressed externally as the brand. Capacity is the organization’s ability to respond to changes and challenges. Capacity is an ever-expanding set of capabilities. Products and services are evidence of capacity. For example, if you look at the top 5 companies today by market capitalization – Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and Alphabet (parent company of Google) – they are all digital companies, but upon closer inspection, they are all learning companies. Everything they produce and sell as some form of a product is merely a data enabled vehicle for learning. They win because they learn faster than their competition.

It is not about the Sisyphean task of hiring the latest skill set while firing the outdated capabilities. We have hit a change curve too fast and steep for that model to work. It is now about screening talent for learning agility and adaptability and communicating that learning is part of work. Those who learn fastest will win.

SPEAKING.COM: What are your thoughts on human labor becoming obsolete due to advances in AI and robotics?

MCGOWAN: Certain types of human tasks will be outsourced to history as they always have been. We have seen a decline in both physical and cognitive routine labor since the 1980s. What is different this time is rather than technology tools assisting cognitive tasks, technology will soon replace routine cognitive tasks.

This does not mean technology will consume jobs but rather advances in technology will reshape jobs. Individuals will need to think differently about their contributions and with each task relinquished to technology, we must reach up or across to learn new skills and use technology to extend human potential. No matter how sophisticated the tool, it is just a tool. Tools need humans for meaningful value creation.

SPEAKING.COM: NPR reported this year that 1 in 5 American workers are contract workers. Many economists predict that ratio will rise to 1 in 2 within the next decade. What are the implications for the future of social structures and public services in a society where so many people are working without benefits and job security?

MCGOWAN: Over the past few of decades we have shifted risk from the entity to the individual. For example, the defined benefit of a pension became the defined contribution of a 401 (k). Technology has enabled unprecedented freedom of space and time but this flexibility has not always been met with sufficient security.

I believe we need to unbundle and reconstruct the social safety net so that individuals become free to engage with multiple entities and entities become free from carrying costs of labor when it is not needed or not productive. In order for this to work, we need a robust social safety net that provides health care, retirement planning and benefit pathways, risk mitigation through some type of unemployment benefits, and a very robust system or systems for life-long learning. Keeping a broad and stable network of highly trained talent is in our collective best interest.

SPEAKING.COM: How are other countries preparing for this coming shift in work and education?

MCGOWAN: Some are ahead of us on universal healthcare and access to education, and that certainly gives them the advantage to be more nimble. We tend to look at old indicators like education levels or education test scores and while it is true we need more workers with higher skills and experiences, we may be tracking all the wrong academic metrics as most focus on predetermined skills. That which is easy to measure may also be easy to automate and we may see a decline in value as technology advances into cognitive domains. I would seek to see who leads in creativity, adaptability, and entrepreneurial behaviors.

SPEAKING.COM: What steps can higher education institutes take to prepare students for the future work scene?

MCGOWAN: I have worked for more than a decade on this very challenge. Higher education needs to move past the codification of existing skills and predetermined knowledge to focus on creating agile and adaptable individuals with high learning agility and entrepreneurial behaviors. I believe it is less about anyone skill set and more and more about developing enabling capabilities and a sense of agency such that individuals understand they are responsible for life-long learning.

Most higher education institutions are stuck in the credentialing business focused on throughput and rankings. What we really need are higher education institutions that seek to be part of a robust system of lifelong learning rather than targeting 18 to 22-year-olds primarily for static credentials. This will require partnerships with industry, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies to entirely new business models with broader levels of access and shorter lengths of engagement.

SPEAKING.COM: How do you think our educational system will change within the next 10 to 20 years?

MCGOWAN: I believe we will have fewer individual institutions competing with each other and more networks of institutions through mergers, alliances, and, of course, closures. The new ecosystem that will emerge will include corporations and nonprofits. I hope individuals will interface with this system more like a gym membership where you visit frequently to stay in cognitive shape. The current model of higher education where they treat students like a customer (student) for four years and a cash register (alumni giving) for the balance does not work now and will not work into the future. The academies have a great deal to offer but they need to shift their mindset away from solely conferring degrees and credentialing existing knowledge transfers to focusing on enabling life-long learning with open and broad partnerships.

SPEAKING.COM: Could you tell us about the book you’re currently writing?

MCGOWAN: Chris Shipley and I met in 2015 in Australia where we were both speaking on different aspects of the future of work. Since then, we have been writing and speaking together, bringing together our complimentary perspectives on that future. Chris brings her deep history in Silicon Valley startup culture and I bring my experiences bridging talent development from academia and industry.

We both agree that the future of work is learning and adapting, which requires a tectonic shift at the entity and a molecular level change in the individuals. We are collecting those perspectives and a catalog of writing and thinking into a concise book for business leaders who are guiding their teams to the future of work. Our book will be a quick read grounded in single frame visuals to help the readers understand the essential context of the change and how this time it is truly different. Leading in the future of work will require a focus on uniquely human skills augmented by rapidly advancing technological capabilities to solve some of the world’s toughest challenges.

To bring futurist and future of work speaker Heather McGowan to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post How to Adapt to the Radically Changing Workplace, with Heather McGowan appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: You come from a family with 5 generations of retail experience. What are some lessons about retail that you’ve learned from your family business that are still important for today?

HAWKINS: It has always been and always will be about the customer and their experience. It was true back when my great-great grandmother started the store as a roadside produce stand, and it’s just as true today.

Many businesses get caught up in innovation — the latest in AI, the newest mobile technology, what’s happening with crypto currency — especially with the increasing pace of innovation and new technology constantly in the news. You don’t need technology for technology’s sake. Done right, technology works for people. Right now there’s an incredible opportunity to use all these emerging technologies to further real customer relationships at scale.

SPEAKING.COM: Most people think the Internet has dramatically changed retail, but you say that fundamentally, retailers are doing the same thing they’ve been doing since the mid-1900s. Could you elaborate on that?

HAWKINS: The fundamentals of retail are exactly the same for the vast majority of businesses in the space. Basically, products are manufactured, shipped to a regional depot, shipped to another warehouse, sent to the store where customers pick the items up off the shelf and checkout (~95%), or they’re shipped directly to the customer after checking out online (~5%).

A lot of the technology you see in market today is either in addition to everything the business is already doing or it’s making something the business is already doing more efficient. Overall, we’ve just ended up with a more efficient version of the same thing that was happening during the advent of modern retailing.

There are now technologies that enable retailers (or any businesses) to go to market in entirely new ways with entirely new business models. Computer vision, autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, and connected products are changing the game; redefining what retail has traditionally looked like.

SPEAKING.COM: You believe we’re on the brink of a commerce revolution. How do you re-imagine the way we do retail and who would benefit from the changes you envision?

HAWKINS: It’s the consumer who’s ultimately going to benefit here. I grew up in my family’s supermarket and I remember knowing our customers’ names, likes, and dislikes. I even remember dropping off groceries on our way home from the store to customers who couldn’t make it in that day — and that was before delivery was a “thing”.

However, retail scaled, and many businesses lost sight of the customer as the business became more product-driven and more focused on volume.

The future of commerce is actually a return to a customer experience much closer to how it used to be, but having it happen at scale with the use of technology. It’s AI alerting store personnel to customers’ names. It’s big data helping the retailer understand what customers like and forecasting what they might like based on their purchases or what they’re searching for online. It’s autonomous vehicles delivering products to our homes. It’s interesting, responsive, creative brick and mortar environments with interactive screens and community spaces because even with all the technology available, people are gregarious creatures craving human interaction. It’s a seamless, hassle-free, visual and voice based customer-centric model ahead; a silo-less, universally shoppable world that’s filled with lifestyle-branded pictures and personalized products tailored specifically to a customer’s desire. It’s products and experiences that are created specifically relevant to the customer’s needs and lifestyle, where anything you want is virtually available or easily accessible with the touch of a finger or (literally) the blink of an eye.

As the shift takes place, as customers start to expect more and more of these services, there are just incredible opportunities for retailers, brands, investors and tech companies alike.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some examples of the untapped potential you see in regard to retail and technology?

HAWKINS: I think the major opportunity here is using technology to create new experiences and refined business models. Amazon Go (their computer vision checkout system in a new convenience store format) is a great example of that — shoppers no longer need to deal with the headache of checking out. Autonomous vehicles with a shopping selection onboard is another example of using technology to meet the customer where they are or wherever they want to be.

Another is the potential of further developing IoT-enabled appliances that reorder and replenish themselves via automated delivery based on usage patterns. Retail doesn’t have to look like a slightly better version of what we already have — technology is opening up the door to new ways to go to market that the world has never seen before.

SPEAKING.COM: Are we moving toward the end of brick and mortar stores or could they make a comeback?

HAWKINS: There are some interesting facts here. In the last few years we’ve seen more stores close than ever before in history. In the last few years we’ve seen more stores open than ever before in history. I actually believe brick and mortar has more opportunity than ever. The right environment attracts people and there’s huge potential to be developed here.

There’s something going on here that has nothing to do with stores. A lot of people get down on stores — and it’s easy to do when looking at pure-play eCommerce. The simple fact is this: for more than 100 years we’ve specifically put stores around people that buy stuff. It’s not the stores that are a problem – it’s how they’re coming together with technology to service the customer. When that is done well – online, in-store, or via any channel – that is where it makes a difference.

SPEAKING.COM: What can retailers do to compete with Amazon?

HAWKINS: I don’t think I’d opt to compete with Amazon unless I was a clear top-tier player in my market, and even then I’d think twice about it. Differentiation is key. That said, there are a couple of things to do.

Before anything, businesses must build a culture that not only embraces change and innovation, but creates it. Having an organization that is hungry for innovation and constantly seeking new and different ways to service the customer will continually be in the right place at the right time for new opportunities. This is so critical, not just to compete with Amazon, but in general, so we’ve developed an entire workshop to ignite innovation thinking inside businesses.

With a culture that’s geared for innovation, there are 3 main things to do:
• Be in the innovation conversation. Connect with venture groups, accelerators, incubators and others that have a pulse on what’s coming.
• Bring in outside voices. Bring in experts from parallel fields, customers that either love or hate you, entrepreneurs in other industries — people that can stimulate thinking and connect dots between previously unconnected ideas.
• Take action and share the results. Pilot as much as is feasible and be transparent with your clients, partners and even customers.

SPEAKING.COM: How can businesses overcome resistance to change within their company?

HAWKINS: It’s a great question and something we spend a lot of time on. The key is to start to shift how the world occurs — there isn’t a resistance to change itself — there’s a resistance to stepping into the unknown and a resistance to potential failure. As the business culture can both support or even reward taking risks and develop toolsets for team members to embrace the unknown, an eagerness for change starts to emerge.

SPEAKING.COM: What does Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods mean for the grocery industry?

HAWKINS: There are obviously implications to grocery here as well as the retail industry as a whole. It means that the business is changing and technology is going to be at the heart of that change.

The opportunity here is that I’m seeing record amounts of investment dollars and tech startups creating new commerce technologies. I’m looking at over 1,000 companies a year at this point and it’s a fraction of what’s out there. Retailers and brands have a chance to harness a lot of these tools economically with cloud and processing being more accessible than ever.

SPEAKING.COM: What is your advice for people who are thinking about starting a small retail business?

HAWKINS: Start with your customer. Understand who they are and what need you’re fulfilling for them better than anyone else. Understand the experience that the customer wants and how you can create that for them. And understand the tech, operations and necessary financing to do so. There’s always opportunity — in fact more opportunity now than literally ever before in human history. Just make sure you’re improving the customer experience rather than simply adding something else.

SPEAKING.COM: What does CART do and who is it for?

HAWKINS: CART is a platform that connects emerging technology solution providers with retailers and brands. We look at hundreds of tech companies from all over the world and bring them into appropriate programs, events, and campaigns for the retailers and brands looking to try something new.

We’ve also developed an Innovation MasterClass that gives businesses and their team members access to creating innovation thinking and a hunger for change inside their organization to embrace all the new tech that’s available out there. It’s a great add-on to certain keynotes and works really well for businesses of all sizes.

To bring retail sales keynote speaker Sterling Hawkins to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post Driving Retail Innovation, with Sterling Hawkins appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: What is the difference between influencing people and manipulating them?

JOLLES: As strange as this sounds, very little. In fact, the real difference does not impact the actual process and comes down to one word: intent. If the intent is to change some one’s mind in order to help that individual, you are ethically influencing behavior. If the intent to change some one’s mind is to help the person who is utilizing the tactics, that is manipulating behavior. There are many other litmus tests to this particular question, but that’s the easiest and most obvious.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some of the most common mistakes people make when trying to help or guide others?

JOLLES: The easy answer is we talk too much and we listen too little, which seriously impacts the trust we are trying to create. But I think the biggest mistake we make is not staying on top of the problems we uncover. Rarely are others who desperately need to make a change, unaware that a problem exists. Rather than ask more questions and go deeper into the problem, we tend to want to offer a solution and fix the problem as fast as we can. We’re left scratching our heads and wondering why there has been no change and our client is still “thinking about change” but not executing a change.

SPEAKING.COM: You address the importance of meeting someone where they are in the decision cycle. However, sometimes, by the time someone moves from one point to another, it’s too late or much more difficult to solve a problem. How can you convince people that there is a problem that they need to resolve when they aren’t at that stage yet?

JOLLES: That’s what trial closes are for. In the past, trial closes were used to direct others to an ultimate close, but not here. Clients go through three critical decision points, and trial closes that line up with these decision points allow us to take the guesswork out of where a client is within his or her decision cycle. This doesn’t mean we can’t move a client back through the cycle if need be, but it does mean we can stay intelligently lined up with the client.

SPEAKING.COM: What is an example of how you can get someone to “discover” a solution for themselves rather than just presenting the solution yourself?

JOLLES: Fundamentally, needs don’t just fall from the sky. The problem shapes the need. When we ask questions about problems we fix well, we can get someone to “discover” a solution for themselves.

SPEAKING.COM: You say today’s salespeople are trained to adopt an “order-taking mentality.” Could you please elaborate on this and explain why it’s a problem?

JOLLES: We tend to dramatically over-train salespeople on product, and not process. When all you’ve been taught is how a product works, your only value is to regurgitate product information. If a client has already taken themselves through the decision cycle, this works well. Unfortunately, that represents about 7% of the actual prospects out there. In fact, about 79% of the population knows a problem exists, but feels no urgency to address it. Those are the prospects we should all want to talk to, and feature dumping solutions to these individuals will not move these prospects to change.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some of the steps companies can take to correct order-taking mindsets in employees?

JOLLES: Well, you’re getting this from a trainer at heart, but for goodness sakes, process train your sales force. Keynotes are wonderful for waking up the sales force and seeing if you have the right speaker and the right process in place, but real, live training, with role-plays, case studies, and sometimes simulations create cultural changes. You correct “order-taking mindsets” with repeatable, predictable processes.

SPEAKING.COM: What are a few actions salespeople can take to build trust quickly?

JOLLES: That’s the easiest question on the list. Ask questions, and listen to the answers. Don’t tell your story, don’t fix any problems, and don’t offer any solutions. Just keep your questions open, begin with the end in mind, and listen.

SPEAKING.COM: Part of your book, How to Change Minds, emphasizes the importance of building trust through listening, and for that section, you asked people about behaviors they found negative in others who were (supposed to be) listening to them. What were your most significant findings?

JOLLES: Interestingly enough, one answer was so overwhelming, the next nine in total did not equal the number of votes the first answer on the list provided. “Interrupting me when I’m talking” was far and away the single biggest bad listening habit clients identified.

To bring sales speaker Rob Jolles to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post Guiding a Salesforce Mindset, with Rob Jolles appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: We’re just a little more than a year into the Trump Administration and it seems that so much has already happened. What is your top advice for businesses and investors as they navigate the waters ahead?

MANZELLA: The Trump administration has implemented legislation and advocated policies that are putting upward and downward pressure on economic growth, and impacting levels of risk and volatility. As a result, it’s essential to continually monitor events in Washington, DC, and constantly re-calibrate corporate levels of risk and strategies moving forward.

SPEAKING.COM: In a recent video on the Manzella Report YouTube channel, you mentioned there’s a great deal of misinformation about trade in the news. Could you please clear up some of that misinformation for us?

MANZELLA: Globalization and international business have had a net positive impact on economic growth and the American standard of living. However, companies that do not produce smart (IP rich) products and services, and employees that do not embrace life-long learning will incur increasingly greater challenges ahead. Unfortunately, policymakers and the media tend to assume that globalization and trade have had an overall negative impact on the United States.

SPEAKING.COM: What effects do you think the steel and aluminum tariffs will have on the American economy?

MANZELLA: President Trump’s tariffs on imported steel and aluminum of 25 and 10%, respectively, will punish American workers, continue to invite retaliation – most likely against agricultural products from red states — and harm U.S. exports. There are better strategies to deal with foreign countries than abuse global trading rules.

SPEAKING.COM: What do you recommend businesses do with the money they’ll save thanks to the tax cuts?

MANZELLA: The Homeland Investment Act of 2004 provided a one-time tax break for repatriating foreign cash held by U.S. corporations. A significant portion of repatriated cash was used to fuel share purchases rather than growth investment. Because President Trump’s recent tax reform is permanent and allows for faster depreciation of equipment, businesses are investing in R&D, employee training and wages, and infrastructure. These investments will have a positive impact on companies, employees and U.S. economic growth.

SPEAKING.COM: How could we effectively close the skills gap in the U.S.?

MANZELLA: As companies delve deeper into their core competencies, they need employees with deeper skill sets and the ability to think critically, solve complex analytical problems and manipulate sophisticated technology. This is a tall order.

To reduce the increasingly greater skills deficit, companies need to step-up in-house training, educational institutions need to better understand the skills demanded by industry, companies need to consider hiring well educated older workers, the United States needs to admit more, not fewer immigrants, and companies need to establish more apprentice-type positions offered in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

SPEAKING.COM: You’ve said, “What happens in China no longer stays in China.” How could China influence the U.S. economy this year?

MANZELLA: China, which continues to grow at very fast rates, is currently incurring several transitions. How China navigates these changes will have a tremendous impact on the United States and the world.

SPEAKING.COM:What implications does the abolishment of presidential term limits in China have for its economic future?

MANZELLA: President Xi understands that he has to implement various reforms in order to safely navigate and prepare for the obstacles ahead. As a result, he has consolidated power. This has major positive and negative ramifications.

To bring economic keynote speaker John Manzella to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post The Economic and Political Challenges Ahead, with John Manzella appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

Himmelman is the founder of Big Muse, a creative consultancy whose clients include the Gap, Adobe, McDonald’s, and other Fortune 500s. His bestselling book, Let Me Out is a practical guide to overcoming self-doubt and turning your ideas into action.

SPEAKING.COM: What misconceptions do you find business leaders have about creativity?

HIMMELMAN: It’s not only business leaders that hold gross misconceptions about creativity; it’s people in general. Creativity is something most people relegate to the arts – things like dance, poetry, and music, for instance. A problem arises when business leaders share these same misconceptions. Their thinking often goes like this: “I get that the arts are a wonderful thing, but in terms of our business — which is focused on the bottom line — these kinds of ‘creative-considerations’ are tangential, or superfluous to our agenda.”

It’s easy to understand their train of logic. If creativity is “arts-related” only, then what these leaders are saying is largely true; they have no strategic necessity within a business setting. But when seen through a more appropriate lens, a wider lens if you will, creativity is not the arts. It is a natural state and condition that arises in all human beings when their level of fear is diminished. Unfortunately, creativity has become something of a buzzword, a term bandied about without truly understanding its depth.

What we posit in Big Muse – and neuroscience bears this out – is that creativity is what happens when a human being is without fear. That is to say, that when a person is in a fearless condition, he or she will evince whatever skill-sets they’ve acquired throughout their lives, with far less interference from the parts of the brain (specifically, the amygdala or the limbic brain), which exist to keep a person alive in threatening environments. From an evolutionary standpoint, those threats once had to do with things like an enraged mastodon or a hungry saber tooth tiger. These days the threats may come from a hypercritical boss or a peer. In each case however, the brain is not in an imaginative place and remains in a purely defensive posture, one that is myopically focused only on immediate survival.

It is impossible for the human being to react, using the imaginative and the protective faculties simultaneously. Creativity then, especially as it relates to the needs of business leaders, is about having people in their employ that feel free to express their innate genius, to evince their ideas, and to imagine solutions for products and services that don’t yet exist – the latter, being the very things that every business needs to grow and prosper in this era of extreme disruption.

SPEAKING.COM: Some people always seem to be able to put their ideas into motion. What traits do these kind of people have in common?

HIMMELMAN: There was a Harvard study published a decade ago, which showed that the most effective and creative people, from Einstein to Bill Gates, all shared the following three traits:

1.) Each of them set aside a time for daily reflection —whether that involved prayer, meditation, or journaling.

2.) They leveraged their strengths, in part by working with a mindset of accomplishing small pieces of their large goals each day. In this way, they were daunted less often by seeing their goals as insurmountable.

3.) Lastly, they were all excellent storytellers. They had the ability to envision an idea coming to fruition and were skilled in the art of giving that nascent idea life though a process of first, envisioning a positive outcome, telling themselves and others stories about their vision, and ultimately using the power of their story to enlist the resources necessary for making their vision manifest.

SPEAKING.COM: What is MARV and how can it be used to improve corporate cultures and increase productivity?

HIMMELMAN: MARV is Big Muse’s trademarked metaphor for the voice of fear in every one of us, that same amygdalic fear, which I described above. I call that fearful voice MARV and it serves as an acronym for Majorly Afraid of Revealing Vulnerability. Its effectiveness lies in the fact that it is purveyed as something humorous and self-effacing, as opposed to some kind of pedantic, scientific jargon. When people first see the cartoon image of MARV, it becomes very apparent just how deleterious “he” has been in thwarting them from pursuing their goals.

SPEAKING.COM: In your opinion, is getting started on a project the hardest part of launching a new initiative?

HIMMELMAN: I’m aware that what I’m about to say may sound odd or even glib to many people, but I firmly believe that the hardest part of starting on a project is the act of sitting one’s rear end in a chair!

When my book Let Me Out was published last year and I received my advance copy, my first thought was, ‘Oh my god, this is amazing, I’ve written a book and it’s coming out on Penguin!’ My second thought was less pleasant: ‘Holy crap, what if this is just a worthless bunch of words?’ Clearly that was MARV speaking to me. What I did next was something I will never forget. I set out to “test” one of the main points in the book, a point specifically related to the question of getting started on an idea.

I had long wanted to fly a plane. It was something I thought about over the decades, but because of my many fears I never took action on the idea. I never took the goal from the ephemeral to the actual. My “test” amounted to something so simple that I almost hesitate to share it with you. It started with a question: ‘Could I actually fly a plane by using a technique from my own book?’

What I did that day was this; I took seven steps across my office and sat my butt in my chair. That was the pivotal step, the one that literally changed everything for me. It was a powerful combination of the very two things that underpin every creative idea that gets manifested: the ‘physical action’ (the walking and the sitting) and the ‘intellectual concentration’ (the urgency, and intention).

Once in my chair, I Google-searched flight times in Santa Monica where I live, got a person on the phone, and scheduled a test flight. Less than two months later, I was flying a Cessna 176 Skyhawk, over the 118 Freeway in California’s San Fernando Valley. As I brought the plane to 4500 feet and leveled off, I realized how I had gotten to this place I once only dreamed about; I simply walked across my office and sat in a chair!

SPEAKING.COM: In order to spend more time with your family, you traded in a rock star life for a more “corporate-style” job composing scores for television and film. How did that environmental change affect your creativity?

HIMMELMAN: Great question. Creativity is always a paradox. For the fruits of creativity to make itself apparent, it must consist of two seemingly contradictory aspects; the first being an open “MARV-free” mindset, and the second being, a rigid structure. Think of the open mind-set as rain and the rigid structure as the bucket. One without the other leaves a would-be creator with nothing but a useless puddle.

Being immersed in the high-paced world of scoring for film and television on hit shows like Fox’s Bones, or the CBS hit, Judging Amy, provided me with a kind of structure I never had before. The demands and the workloads were intense and the requirement for more and more speed was constant. What I learned was that if I could keep MARV at bay, that is, keep my mind free of the fear of failure, I could, not only get quality work done in a timely manner, but I could actually harness the power of that tension to do more and better work.

SPEAKING.COM: What advice do you have for people who need to constantly be creative in a corporate environment?

HIMMELMAN: It’s another great question, although I’d change it a bit. I think the first thing that needs to be considered is whether a company’s leadership is (or is not) providing an environment that’s the least fear-inducing possible. Second, I’d want to know how much leeway the leadership gives to the people they hired to be creative, to take risks and to take initiative. The thing that puts the brakes on creativity — perhaps more than all others — is when we disempower people from having an emotional investment in their work.

On the contrary, when people feel as though they can exercise their volition and seize ownership over their work, their ability to handle challenges like deadlines — and even to evince strikingly new innovations — increases several times over. That said, if you find yourself working for a company where just the opposite is taking place, one in which you feel you have no stake in outcomes, good or bad, my first suggestion is to find another job.

If that’s not possible, start on a process of daily reflection, of taking things little by little, and of envisioning and articulating a better future for yourself. Perhaps within that process you will find that you can have a positive influence on the culture of your workplace.

SPEAKING.COM: What are a few ways leaders can foster a work culture that’s conducive to creativity?

HIMMELMAN: Leaders generally hire the right people. The people they employ have gone through a thorough vetting process, and they have been judged to possess the right intelligence, and specific acumen. The problems happen when inflexible rules become outmoded, when processes that no longer work are still in effect. Perhaps those outmoded processes were expensive to create, or perhaps there are ego issues surrounding the need to preserve them long after their utility has passed; the reasons for hanging on to things that no longer work are many, and often complicated.

A good leader will by nature, be skilled at self-reflection, at empathy, and at understanding the need to give their employees enough room to make decisions in the spheres and areas of their expertise. Again, this hearkens back to the widely accepted idea that human beings become disengaged when they feel they have no ability to channel their creativity and to make a positive change in their environment.

As one specific idea, I’d suggest holding sessions in which established hierarchies disappear. This is something that’s done in successful militaries around the world. Leaders meet with the people under their command and when they do, each participant removes their stripes and stars. Then, instead of merely making it safe for subordinates to speak their minds, they go one step further; they make it unsafe not to speak their minds. In other words, there is a reward system in place for those who express their feelings and opinions about the challenges they face, about ways to improve their organization, and even how the leaders themselves have done things that are deleterious to the functioning of the organization. This means of course, that the egos of the best leaders are kept in check, that they are not only willing to listen, but rather they demand this kind of frank information.

SPEAKING.COM: How is writing a song in one of your workshops going to help an organization be more productive when they go back to the office?

HIMMELMAN: Songwriting is used in Big Muse sessions, not because we’re trying to make anyone a hit songwriter, but because it is such a perfect metaphor. We’ve all heard about left and right-brained thinking, and while efficacy of this theory is debated among neuroscientists, the idea of fusing form and structure is very relevant to all sorts of work. Every strategic plan, every product roll-out, every means of communicating and sharing ideas, works within this principle.

When we work with companies, the song-writing piece of our workshops is usually the culminating metaphor. If an organization wanted to improve co-collaboration, we would focus the writing of the songs around that theme —likely they would be written co-collaboratively. If the focus of a particular off-site centered on innovation we might use the song-writing portion to create an open child-like mindset to envision possibilities not yet evident. In each case, music is used as a disruptor, and I – and the rock and roll band I often have in tow – are also disruptive in the sense that we serve as alien eyes, creating a mood that is completely dissimilar from most normal corporate environments.

We do this deliberately, strategically, so that rote habits and behaviors can be left behind, and (for the moment at least) left behind to make space for other ideas that can be experimented with, or played with, as it were. And here’s the most important thing: Music brings people into direct, visceral contact with their child-like selves. Creativity, collaboration and trust, are all evinced exclusively by the child-self.

SPEAKING.COM: Why is Kid-Thinking significant and what can people do to improve their Kid-Thinking?

HIMMELMAN: As I’ve just mentioned above, albeit without that specific term (which comes from my book), Kid-thinking is how we come to see the world as a place of possibility and abundance. One of the best means of encountering Kid-Thinking is to place yourself beyond your mastery. Paradoxically, mastery —something most of us strive for and admire in others — can also be the greatest inhibitor to our personal and professional growth. Instead of it being a reflection of our Kid-Thinking, it is too often used as a protective device which shields us from our vulnerability, and without vulnerability we have only inertia.

But as most of us know, it’s painful to feel like a beginner. A year ago while my wife and I were in New Orleans in City Park, I happened to hear an amazing Argentinian guitarist named Martin Moretto. I was leaving the next day and I asked him if he’d be willing to teach me some of what he’d been playing over Skype when I got back home.

Our lessons were sometimes painful for me. There’s no better word to describe how I often felt. As a professional guitarist, it was hard to feel like a beginner again, struggling to learn the new techniques Martin had been showing me. I was however, simultaneously cognizant that the ignominious “beginner-feeling” I was experiencing was more than likely going to propel me into new musical places, which it absolutely did!

SPEAKING.COM: You’ve said that you let two years go by before you acted on your idea to start Big Muse. What was stopping you and how did you finally give yourself the push you needed to get the ball rolling?

HIMMELMAN: MARV was stopping me and I hadn’t even created the metaphor yet! To get the ball rolling I did exactly the same things I did in the Cessna example I shared with you. One morning, I just walked to my desk and started coming up with logo ideas and names. It doesn’t sound like much, but when we take our ideas from the ephemeral to the practical, even the smallest, most incremental movements forward make a universe of difference.

To bring innovation speaker and musician Peter Himmelman to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post Freeing Your Innate Creativity with Peter Himmelman appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: After a car accident left you severely burned, you faced an arduous recovery. Can you describe how you endured such extreme adversity?

MASSARI: In the beginning, it was pure grit – surviving the agony. When I was in the hospital, for weeks after the accident, the pain was mind-bending. It was physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally eviscerating. The nurses would scrub my wounds for four hours every day to remove dead tissue to help my skin heal. This pain was so consuming that I felt I was losing my whole identity. I had to remind myself over and over – “I am not a burn. I am not a burn”.

Although there were tiny moments of reprieve – when a nurse looked me in the eyes with such compassion – or when I felt the loving presence of my family – it was mostly figuring out how to survive the next moment – the next second.

One day in the hospital bed I was in so much agony, and had been for so long, that I said to myself “I give up. I want to give up.” I was absolutely exhausted — completely depleted. In that moment, somehow I believed that I could simply disconnect from my body – that I could leave reality and turn my back on all of it. I turned my head to the side and closed my eyes. I had no more fight in me. In retrospect, I see that in that moment I was probably ready to die.

Then something powerful happened. Through the cracks of my eyes I remember seeing my left arm moving. I was startled. Somehow I saw that my body was not giving up. My physical body clearly wanted to live – it was encouraging me. I was astonished that my burned body was still saying “Yes”.

It became incontrovertibly clear that I was either going to be a prisoner of my unyielding body, or, I could choose to figure out how to show up and participate in this process physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally.

This was a big “Ah-ha” moment for me – and this awareness carried over into every area of my life.

When we learn to lean into adversity – rather than resisting it – we become an active participant in our journey towards successfully triumphing through our hardships. We accelerate a process of restoration when we are present.

I believe that this little moment saved me years of potentially having a life of apathy and disconnection.

SPEAKING.COM: What was your mindset throughout your recovery?

MASSARI: My approach actually evolved and expanded as time passed. As I began healing it became so important to me to not be defined by the accident. I didn’t want to be a victim. This is when everything started to truly change.

I knew that I had to move past this experience so that I could start living again. Every day I had to renew my commitment to take charge of my life. I saw that I actually had a choice to take command of my reactions and of how I felt. This discovery gave me a sense of full aliveness, and a strength that I had never quite experienced before.

Finding a way to be ok no matter what, and finding a way to transform this tragedy into a gift became my constant focus. This led to intensifying my relentless search to understand human suffering – and, at the same time, I also searched for joy, for goodness, for ways to progress, to grow, and to keep my heart open. I needed to gain an understanding of the greater human experience. I needed to find a way to step even more into who I was meant to be in the world.

Life changes when we decide to own our lives – to be our own hero – and to do it with heart.

SPEAKING.COM: In a nutshell, can you describe your mission as a speaker?

MASSARI: My mission in life – my steadfast commitment – is to comfort, uplift and transform people’s lives. It’s like a reflex, a heartfelt dedication to encourage and nurture people – to bring kindness to every person that I meet, and to help light that inner fire of perseverance and hope.

My intention is to show an audience what it looks like to truly take charge of their lives at every level. I help people reconnect to their purpose and to their heart – to show up fully in life, in work, and with each other.

And it’s not enough to just inspire people. I’m passionate about delivering a soul-stirring message – teaching concepts and tools that expand our way of thinking. It’s so exciting to be able to reach people in this way – to be able to give. I feel so honored and grateful to be living my life’s purpose.

SPEAKING.COM: In your keynotes, you speak about overcoming adversity, the mindset of resilience, and courage, among many other things. Why are these qualities so important to success – both professionally and personally?

MASSARI: Life is full of disappointments, challenges, painful moments and potential hardships. Building our strength of character and will, can give us the edge we need that enables us to overcome any negative experiences or beliefs that hold us back.

If you think about it, none of us would choose for our blocks, fears, or inhibitions to run our lives and make decisions for us. Every one of us wants to experience living in our own buoyant aliveness – to feel that we are in command of our lives.

A life of success requires that we be very brave. We need a willingness to explore and get to know ourselves, face our own fears, and launch into a journey of self-discovery. It starts with intricately studying our reactions to adversity, and learning to operate from a place of awareness, care, and intention. This self-awareness allows us to become who we are meant to be in the world, and to express our unique gifts. Without it, we are just a shadow of ourselves – shrinking from the world.

I am passionate about helping each person become a finely tuned instrument – to live their life with purpose, wholeness and heart. When we have the courage to face our challenges and fears, and learn to successfully navigate adversity, and feel that we actually grow and evolve when we experience difficulties, we become freer, happier, stronger, and more capable in our lives.

This is when the tables turn, when life becomes exciting. This is when we can look at our lives, and at every experience, as an opportunity for growth. And this is how we become more confident and more empowered. Life becomes an adventure.

SPEAKING.COM: You also speak about self-leadership. Why is self-leadership important?

MASSARI: Self-leadership involves taking personal responsibility. In every challenging situation you can ask: “What is my part in this? What am I being shown? How can I respond differently?” This process is extraordinarily liberating, because it means we are not allowing our struggles and conflicts to run us. As a result, we naturally have more ease and confidence as we walk and engage with the world around us.

SPEAKING.COM: What is a common misconception that “gets in the way” of people’s well-being?

MASSARI: It’s natural for a person to feel that they can’t live a joy-filled life if they have a struggle, or adversity. Yet, even when we have an all-consuming challenge, we also have parts of our lives that are good – a loyal friend who always supports us, a mentor at work who has our back, the pleasure of a hot cup of tea, the joy of a sport we love. Focusing on those good things, and building our attention on them, makes them become bigger, more important, more meaningful, and mightier than our pain.

Every day, in every moment, we can make a decision on where we place our focus. It’s vital to notice the good things, the blessings, the moments of joy and ease. This is an active practice that ideally can become a part of our daily living.

SPEAKING.COM: Why are some people so difficult to deal with? Can you shed light on how we can create a different approach when in conflict with a difficult person?

MASSARI: People lash out when they are in pain. It could be stress, something they’re dealing with at home, or maybe they’re in physical pain… it could be anything. When someone is mean and does or says something that is hurtful to us, our reflex may be to judge, get defensive, withdraw, try to be clever, attack back, try to win, or to be right… The problem is, we are then instantly at war with this person. And when we are at war there is no resolution – we are divided and separate.

Since we can’t possibly know what is fully happening for someone, it helps to remember that we all have our struggles, we are all working hard, and really, we all want the same things – to be respected, to be appreciated, to feel good about our lives. Remembering this can help us have pause when someone is being unkind or unfair. It can help us not react so quickly – which is the first step in creating a positive outcome.

No matter what our role, when we are confronted, we can make a decision to step in and lead with compassion. In every situation, we have an opportunity to be generous, to be kind, to remove judgement, to disconnect from the drama, and create a shift. Of course, in certain extreme situations, the appropriate response may be to walk away completely and remove yourself from a hostile person. An enormous amount of courage and commitment is required to be a compassionate leader, especially when you are triggered or feel pain.

We cannot control how others respond. We can make a choice to be responsible for our own self and what we are bringing to the dynamic. We can have mastery over how we engage, communicate and creatively problem-solve.

Ultimately all of us can learn the art of disarming conflict. It is absolutely worth the effort to learn this skill, and it takes practice for all of us.

SPEAKING.COM: When you were burned, how did compassion from nurses, doctors and caregivers make a difference in your own healing process?

MASSARI: This is one of my favorite topics, along with healing burnout, and managing change. (I customize my content for every industry including healthcare audiences.) In healthcare I am very passionate about nourishing and giving back to those who tirelessly give so much every day to help others.

To give you a little background: my father was an oncology surgeon, and my mother, a nurse. I witnessed my father’s immense and supportive care for his patients and how his kindness impacted people which had a huge effect on me as a child. Inspired by my parents, I too worked in medical office settings. Later in life, after my accidents (yes, there were two), I was a patient for years – on the receiving end of the presence and gentleness of my nurses and doctors. Their compassionate care was profound. It was vital for me in my healing experience. I have learned with absolute certainty that compassion heals the places that medicine cannot touch℠.

When we look kindly into someone’s eyes so that they know they are not alone, or put a supportive hand on someone’s shoulder, or even just genuinely ask, “How are you feeling today?”, these are all powerful gestures that can deeply affect a person. And it only takes seconds!

People want to feel seen and cared for in this world. Kindness is deeply healing. Bringing our humanity to each other is deeply healing – to both the giver and the receiver.

In my keynote to healthcare audiences, I always highlight that everyone, including those without direct patient contact, play a critical role in compassionate patient-centered care.

I also emphasize how leadership can model compassion and kindness with their teams. When the leadership of an organization cares for their staff, this creates an encouraging and inspired work culture, and their kindness inevitably trickles down to benefit the patient.

I am certain that the compassion of my caregivers elevated my entire experience and my recovery in the hospital. Without their presence, my health care would have fallen completely flat. It would have felt empty and cold.

Love is powerful, and it absolutely has a place in healthcare.

SPEAKING.COM: Can you tell us about any particularly memorable speaking engagements / unusual situations that arose while on the road?

MASSARI: My career as a speaker has given me some of the most enriching and awe-inspiring moments that I’ve had in my life.

The first one that comes to mind is when I spoke on the main stage at the Million Dollar Round Table. It was a profound and humbling experience to be in front of so many people from around the world (8,600 people from 75 countries). They had more translators at that event than they do at the United Nations.

Afterwards, I went backstage to thank the interpreters for sharing my message in all of their native languages. I was eager to show my gratitude. I knew how hard they must have worked, and they had given me such a gift – because of them, my message reached so many countries in a single day. I excitedly entered each country’s sound-proof booth, ready to give each interpreter a big hug, and to my surprise they were jumping up to hug me. In every single booth they greeted me so lovingly, and they were so grateful for my message. It was very emotional for all of us. As I went from booth to booth – from Thailand, to Japan, to Italy, to Germany, to Indonesia, to India, and on and on – I felt an immediate bond with each of them, an instant friendship. Jamaica to my left, Israel to my right – it felt like such a small world – and a world of the sweetest friendships and deepest connections. I will never forget that day as long as I live.

Another spectacular experience was speaking for the American Association of Critical Care Nurses. It was such an alive audience – can you imagine 8,000 critical care nurses all in one room!? There was so much heart in that audience – it was palpable! They were so responsive to every story – so much laughter, so many sighs, such delight. Here I was, coming to love them, to give back to them – and they ended up giving me so very much more. I am still smiling.

As I am reflecting on many of these sweet memories, I am seeing that what has made every event so poignant and memorable is the love and kindness of people. It is always the light of the human spirit that makes everything come alive.

SPEAKING.COM: How do you keep your audience engaged and actively listening during your keynotes?

MASSARI: I believe wholeheartedly in the power of a compelling and well-told story. If you want people to internalize a message, to experience a real change, you have to sweep them away with a story. It has to touch each person’s heart, their mind, to create images, to move them emotionally, to captivate them.

The stories I share are about courage, and about taking personal responsibility for your life. They are an extremely candid sharing of my own dramatic journey. Every single story has layers of take-aways and through them, I reveal answers to some of life’s most difficult questions: How do you truly deal with extreme adversity? How do you adapt when the challenges seem to come non-stop? Is it possible to understand that very difficult person? Is there a purpose to suffering? What does it take to be ok in this world and to thrive?

Even though my story is unique and personal, the nuggets of wisdom that I share are incredibly relatable to everyone. They provide vital and immediately actionable tools to handle a difficult situation, cope with adversity, to feel encouraged, supported, and motivated.

SPEAKING.COM: What type of client would most benefit from your message?

MASSARI: My message is universal. It’s a celebration of the incredible power, resilience and courage of the human spirit. My keynote is ideal for clients who are invested in the well-being of their leadership teams, employees, and customers, and who want to help revive and restore passion, as well as inspire personal and professional growth.

I’ve had wonderful feedback from larger organizations including GE Healthcare, SAS, and Siemens, as well as from smaller events like leadership retreats and hospital association conferences. I speak to every industry including Healthcare, Finance, Insurance, Sales, IT, Real Estate, Energy, Agriculture, and Non-profits.

I love to come and deliver my speech when a group is undergoing big changes, or is having to manage a very high stress environment, or are dealing with burnout. My commitment is to deliver a grounded message of true hope and to ultimately elevate an audience in a lasting way.

SPEAKING.COM: What inspired you to start doing speaking engagements?

MASSARI: It was a desire to help people, for no person to feel alone, and to let people know what is possible.

Prior to becoming a speaker I was a full-time artist – making paintings, sculptures, and mixed media work. Even as an artist, my passion was always to touch people in a meaningful way, and create an impact. I wanted to find the common thread that unites us as humans, and to honestly share my own vulnerability in order for the viewer to feel seen.

After my accidents, and after working for so many years on my own healing, I woke up one day with an intense desire to share what I had learned. It was like a fire within. I had learned how to navigate my way out of pain, I had learned to overcome challenges, to find my way to a life that is beautiful. I knew in my bones that it was time to share with others, everything that I’d learned about life, to offer this incredible message of hope.

That’s when the spoken word became a new art medium for me. I have completely devoted myself to the art of speaking. I’m very aware of the way the sound of my voice and the cadence of my words and pauses land on the audience. When I speak on stage I think of that same sensitivity and awareness of how a brushstroke lands on a canvas.

A beautifully crafted speech has the power to change someone’s world. It can shift their entire paradigm. The greatest gift for me is when I get emails years later from people who explain how they still think about my speech every day, or that it changed the way they see their life, or that they still use the tools at their work that I shared. These emails are incredibly moving for me. They fuel my devotion to keep growing and improving my craft as a speaker.

Now everything has come full circle. My visual artwork is now an integral part of my speaking. My entire keynote has a PowerPoint with my artwork as the backdrop. Each image has been chosen to match the feelings of the particular story I am telling, enveloping the audience in a very full and unique visual, sensory, and oratory experience. I want to sweep them away, to lift them up, to encourage hope, and to create a shift in thinking so that they can view their lives from new coordinates. This is the heart of my mission and my passion. I give them my whole self.

© 2018 Allison Massari – This content is the copyright work of Allison Massari and Massari Fine Arts, LLC. No reproduction without written permission.

To bring motivational keynote speaker Allison Massari to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post Growing through Adversity, with Inspirational Speaker Allison Massari appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: During your TED Talk, “A Young Inventor’s Vision of the Future”, you said that despite numerous innovations, the world 20 to 50 years from now wouldn’t appear too different from today. Could you elaborate on that idea?

DELUCA: Most innovations were dreamed up because the inventor wanted to solve a problem that would improve the lives of others. But no matter how many great inventions are created, there are still only 24 hours in the day and we’re still only human. The thinking behind that statement was that hopefully, the inventions that are created make our lives easier so we can have time to focus on the unique experiences that go along with living.

SPEAKING.COM: What skills does someone need to be a successful inventor?

DELUCA: Passion and Persistence.

SPEAKING.COM: How can inventors figure out if there’s a market for their idea?

DELUCA: Today it’s easier than ever to test out the market. Using tools like Kickstarter or Indiegogo, inventors can pre-release their ideas to millions of future customers to see if they’ll buy what they’re selling. They can test price points, features, and add-ons to find the right mix of solutions before investing thousands or millions into something that won’t catch on.

SPEAKING.COM: How do you decide when it’s time to let go of a project and move on to something else?

DELUCA: I am a prolific inventor. One of the best unintended side-effects of being prolific is I don’t have a single baby. When someone calls one of my babies ugly, I take it as constructive criticism and reshape that idea into something new or move onto one of the others. I love when I get push back about the value of an idea because it’s a challenge for me to either prove that person wrong or improve future ideas.

SPEAKING.COM: What do people need to know about the process of getting a patent granted?

DELUCA: You don’t need to shell out thousands of dollars or work with a patent attorney. It is possible to be a pro se inventor. In fact, the United States Patent and Trademark office has a number of pro se inventor programs to help new inventors navigate the system. However, it does take experience to learn how to avoid common mistakes.

Luckily, granted patent applications are public so anyone can read and learn what it takes to get a patent issued. In the age of the internet, it is so easy to become an expert on anything you’re interested in.

SPEAKING.COM: What do you recommend people do after getting a patent granted?

DELUCA: Celebrate. It’s a big deal! Remember, though, that a patent being granted is still only the beginning. Then comes the fun part of telling anyone who will listen about your idea and deciding if it’s got the market potential to be something bigger. Just because you get a patent, doesn’t mean it’s a solution someone wants to buy.

SPEAKING.COM: How do you maintain your creative energy while raising two sets of twins?

DELUCA: It’s definitely not as easy as it was when I didn’t have little ones wreaking havoc. I have an au pair who helps to watch the kids so I can focus on my day job during the workweek. I also recently started using a Mother’s Helper to do little things around the house like starting laundry, cleaning up after dinner, and going through the mail. Even for a few hours a week those are extra hours that I can spend doing something creative instead of chores.

SPEAKING.COM: How can parents and teachers help children think like inventors?

DELUCA: Give children the freedom to explore. People can’t become interested in anything unless they are exposed. You have to expose them in a fun way that leaves them wanting more. Any time I was forced to do something or told I had no choice, I pushed back.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some of the projects you’re currently working on?

DELUCA: I plan on launching a Kickstarter here shortly for my Laundry NFC tags. Apple just announced support for reading NFC tags so after I manage to do some additional iOS testing on my tags, I’ll launch that Kickstarter project. http://laundrynfc.com.

For work I’m leading a team within Watson Internet of Things called the App Factory and we’re looking for IoT use cases to invest in that have potential to make a splash across a number of industries. It’s been fun taking my passions outside of work and applying them to larger enterprise scale solutions.

SPEAKING.COM: Which one of your inventions are you most proud of?

DELUCA: I requested a disclaimer of title from IBM for a patent I wrote myself called Ticket Segmentation. Normally, when you’re at a live event you purchase a single seat for the entire game, but I wanted to break the ticket into a number of seats based on natural break points in the event. For example, at a baseball game you might sit behind home plate for 3 innings ($300 ticket is now only $100) and then along the 3rd base line for the remainder of the game ($30 ticket is now only $20). So, for $120 you can experience the best seat in the house and have that bragging power at a fraction of the cost.

I’m most proud of this invention because I went through the entire process myself for the Utility patent and ended up getting an issuance.

To bring innovation keynote speaker Lisa Seacat DeLuca to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post Lisa Seacat DeLuca on How to Be a Successful Inventor appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: How can companies find a balance between being unique and fitting in?

MICHELLI: I describe this as the inward/outward journey. To be a company that is unique enough to stand out from competitors yet still conform enough to be viewed as a credible supplier of products or service, business owners and leaders must do authentic introspection and diligent outward market assessments.

Much of this work is done to define brand characteristics and involves questions like what unique history, qualifications, and qualities can you lay claim to in the marketplace? What are the “must haves” in your industry that represents needed “sameness?” While this process is essential at start-up, it needs to be reviewed frequently in accord with a changing business landscape, shifting customer wants/needs/desires, and evolving business strengths.

Furthermore, that defined brand personality must shine through, not only in marketing and advertising but also in the operational execution of branded customer experience. To put a final point on it, a brand’s personality must emerge in the perception of customers when they are surveyed or spontaneously share their perceptions/reviews socially.

SPEAKING.COM: What drives customer loyalty today?

MICHELLI: There are three key elements to customer loyalty. The ability to meet customers’ stated needs, the ability to reduce customer effort, and the ability to make the customer’s journey pleasurable at high-value interactions. That pleasurable component comes in many forms such as anticipating unstated needs, demonstrating deep care and concern, or even expressing authentic gratitude for their patronage.

SPEAKING.COM: What are the leadership behaviors needed to inspire customer and employee loyalty?

MICHELLI: Leaders who create world-class human experience businesses (companies where both employees and customers are highly emotionally engaged and loyal) demonstrate a number of competencies. For example, they clearly and passionately articulate a vision for human experience excellence. They actively listen to assure their people and their customers are understood. They express empathy – connecting with the emotional experiences of those they serve and lead. They coach for operational excellence and team member growth. They monitor human performance to assure consistent delivery of customer value at every interaction every time. They encourage “design thinking” to guide improvements nimbly and iteratively. They also model care, compassion, accountability, and service behaviors at every turn!

SPEAKING.COM: What are some of the biggest errors businesses make when it comes to the customer experience?

MICHELLI: There are a lot of them. Everything from thinking customer experience is an “initiative,” not a strategy, all the way to attempting to overreach when it comes to enterprise-wide change efforts.

I consult with both large and small organizations. Normally the biggest underlying problems are a failure to make a compelling case for change, failure to define what customer success will look like, not knowing how or when to seek customer feedback, inability to act on customer feedback, and holding a death grip on legacy processes and technologies that ease business operations but produce nightmares for customers. Fortunately, every one of these errors is fixable with guidance and a long-term commitment to success.

SPEAKING.COM: What is “bad profit?”

MICHELLI: It is profit made without producing commensurate customer value. The “late return fees” charged by the former video rental giant Blockbuster is a good example of bad profit. Blockbuster itself is an example of where “bad profit” will take you over the long haul.

Other examples of bad profit include hidden fees, money made from underutilization by a customer (i.e., a customer pays for a certain volume of cellular minutes but consistently doesn’t use them, and the company sits back and reaps that revenue as opposed to right-sizing the customer’s plan). I am paraphrasing the great leadership consultant Peter Drucker who essentially said we aren’t in business to make a profit; we are in business to “make a customer.” Making profits in ways that don’t profit the customer is a sure way to “make a customer go away!”

SPEAKING.COM: What are some factors that companies need to consider when incorporating technology into the customer experience?

MICHELLI: Technology should serve your customer experience strategy and not be a strategy unto itself. I have worked with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and have written about them in my book The New Gold Standard. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company’s customer experience strategy is based on delivering high-touch, sensory-elevating, human-powered and refined hospitality. The role of technology for Ritz-Carlton is largely in the infrastructure that enables staff to readily know the preferences of the customers (i.e., Ritz-Carlton has a sophisticated customer experience management system which they refer to as Mystique). Much of their technology is hidden from direct customer contact.

Conversely, a brand like Starbucks (a company I’ve worked with and written two books about, The Starbucks Experience and Leading the Starbucks Way) blends technology with human customer interactions. The human interactions function to build human connections between store partners and customers while the technology seeks to mobilize that connection, expedite ordering/payment/pick-up and facilitate social/mobile dialogue.

Undoubtedly well-placed technologies enhance customer experience (particularly by making it easier and faster for customers to get their needs met) but technology is not a panacea for customer experience greatness. It is a set of tools and, as such, the right technology tool must be applied in the right circumstance aligned to the goals of the project – which in business terms means the overarching customer experience objectives.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some actions leaders can take to make employees feel that they are part of something great?

MICHELLI: Include them in the creation of that “great” thing.

Paint a picture of what greatness could look like. Use “what if we could…” type statements to draw people into your vision for the future. Ask people to think about the impact of achieving that “great” future state – specifically the impact on the people they serve, the impact on themselves, and the impact on the longevity and success of the business. Give them opportunities to share insights on how collectively you might make that future state a reality. Carefully and respectfully listen to that feedback and support rapid prototyping of ideas that will likely move the organization in the direction of that shared vision.

Finally, celebrate the victories and gracefully learn from the shortcomings. I’ve seen these approaches succeed time and time again!

SPEAKING.COM: What can companies who are trying to stage a turnaround do to erase negative customer perceptions of their brand?

MICHELLI: Listen to the perceptions, fix the root cause problems, and come back to the consumer admitting the problem – asking for the chance to win back their business.

Domino’s Pizza has done a fabulous job with this. They knew from their consumer research that they had problems with the taste profile of their core product. They took that customer feedback, activated their culinary team, tested the improvements in focus groups, came back to consumers telling the honest story of their journey, and asked for the chance to re-engage those lost customers. That approach was a crown jewel in the brand’s successful turnaround strategy.

SPEAKING.COM: Most of your business books focus on practices at specific companies. How do you choose the organizations you profile?

MICHELLI: I am a lead business author for McGraw-Hill and my editor, and I have deployed three filters when vetting new book projects: 1) Global Footprint, 2) Commitment to Employee Care, and 3) Dedication to Customer Experience Excellence. Since McGraw-Hill publishes internationally and my books get picked-up in many languages, so the global impact of a brand is important to us.

The second and third filters are “musts”. I wouldn’t write about a brand that is obsessed with customers at the expense of employee care. Frankly, I wouldn’t view that type of brand as sustainable. Conversely, I think there is more to business than simply making the lives of employees great. We should treat employees well AND empower/encourage them to do the same for customers who entrust a company to serve them.

SPEAKING.COM: Aside from the organizations you’ve already written about what companies stand out in your mind when it comes to delivering customer excellence?

MICHELLI: There are many like Amazon, USAA, Apple, Publix, Wegmans, Nordstrom, Virgin, and Disney. Did I mention the team at SPEAKING.com and my team at The Michelli Experience?

To bring customer service speaker Dr. Joseph Michelli to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post How to Create the Best Customer Experience with Dr. Joseph Michelli appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: You believe that “everyone is perfect.” What do you mean by that?

BAREZ-BROWN: Every one of us has everything we need right now to be brilliant at what we do, but we often lose touch with what it is that makes us special and unique. We socialize to the ‘norms’ so that we feel like we fit into the business culture. In this process, we lose our shine. We don’t need to change to be brilliant and successful – we just need to reconnect with who we really are.

SPEAKING.COM: Your latest book, Wake-Up, aims to help people escape autopilot and live more conscious and extraordinary lives. How much time does the average person spend on autopilot?

BAREZ-BROWN: It is estimated that the average person spends around 80% of their time on autopilot, which is a staggering amount! As our lives get busier and overstimulated through technology demands, autopilot tends to increase since we rely on habits and routines to simplify our lives and help block out the noise.

SPEAKING.COM: How does spending so much time on autopilot affect our lives?

BAREZ-BROWN: Autopilot is our bodies’ clever way of saving energy. We need it to survive! If we did everything from first principles we would be exhausted. It helps us with our simple daily routines.

The challenge, though, is that we are on autopilot far too often, at work and while living our lives, and it stops us from flexing to fit the situation we find ourselves in. Hence, we always do what we have always done and miss the boundless opportunities we have around us every day. Days, weeks and even years fly by, and life starts to feel rather dull.

SPEAKING.COM: What does getting off autopilot have to do with creativity?

BAREZ-BROWN: To be a great creative, we need to be able to answer the question, “what’s needed here?” Today is unique and therefore yesterday’s answer will not work. We need to escape autopilot to have clarity and focus and to be able to come up with creative approaches that work the best today. We also need to experience varied stimulus when being creative so we need to by definition break habits and routines to have great ideas.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some exercises you recommend to help people get off autopilot?

BAREZ-BROWN: My favourites include:
• spending the first 10 mins outside every day, phone free and getting clarity on the one big thing that I want to achieve.
• doing 20 press ups every time I need to go to the bathroom.
• taking 3 long deep breaths every time I look at my watch.

SPEAKING.COM: Another one of your specialties is getting business leaders and professionals out of their heads and feeling more. What role is there for emotions in the workplace?

BAREZ-BROWN: Emotions are key to life! They add richness, satisfaction and help us listen to what’s going on. We feel when we care. Emotions are our subconscious communicating with us, so they let us know when things are deeply right or deeply wrong. If we ignore them, then we will often regret it as our journey will head in a direction that doesn’t fit who we are.

SPEAKING.COM: How do you connect with highly analytical clients who are weary of letting emotions influence business decisions?

BAREZ-BROWN: This is a situation that often occurs with clients and their teams. First, be empathetic to their point of view. But the crucial question that helps them make that leap is ‘How do you make most of the biggest decisions in life, like getting married, having a family, buying a house?’ They will all admit to listening to their feelings as well as logic. It’s not that logic is bad – it definitely has its place – but feelings need to be taken into account, as well. They are an important guide to getting what is right for you, in business and life.

SPEAKING.COM: Where does intuition come from and how do we know if we can trust it?

BAREZ-BROWN: Intuition is simply another perspective; that of our subconscious which has a huge amount of processing power. I wouldn’t just trust my intuition if it wanted me to jump out of a plane without a parachute even if the idea felt great; we need some logical overlay. However, often when deciding on things, intuition plays an invaluable role in helping us consider other options and seeing things in different ways.

SPEAKING.COM: Prior to your work as a speaker and consultant, you had a successful career in brand management, but you didn’t feel “delighted.” How did you decide you were in the wrong line of work and that your feeling wasn’t just a phase or a sign that you needed to change your approach to the work you were doing?

BAREZ-BROWN: I had an itch and the itch wouldn’t go away! I tried everything – talking to my boss and colleagues, changing jobs, changing my living situation – but nothing could stop it. Eventually, I felt compelled to go big and take a leap of faith! And I am delighted that I did!

SPEAKING.COM: After you left your job in brand management, you almost immediately got on a plane and began a journey of discovery. Could you tell us what happened on that trip and how it got you to where you are now?

BAREZ-BROWN: I headed to New Zealand first, travelled and absorbed the glory! It was like being freed from self-imprisonment. I could do anything I wanted and notice where it took me.

Before long I realized that certain experiences gave me more energy than others. Being lost in nature was energetically rewarding but what gave me the most amazing buzz, was helping people who were a little lost – those who were struggling to find answers. I became intensely aware that people are my fascination and helping them unlock part of their life puzzle was what I was meant to do.

To bring creativity and innovation speaker Chris Baréz-Brown to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post Making Life Extraordinary with Creativity Speaker Chris Baréz-Brown appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: What was the process like rebuilding your life after being in a coma for a year?

SWARNER: It wasn’t exactly easy, and even though it was a medically-induced coma, I frankly don’t remember much about being 16 years old. Moving forward from the lucid moments I had was very difficult, but my emotional attachment to living and drive to survive were key to pulling through. Focusing on living as opposed to “focusing on not dying” made a big difference.

SPEAKING.COM: When and why did you decide you wanted to climb Everest?

SWARNER: While in grad school working toward my doctorate in Psychooncology (psychology for cancer patients), I decided I wanted to do something bigger, something that would scream around the world that nothing is impossible.

Life is based on perspectives and choice. We are always in control of how we see things and what we believe is possible. Hope is also a huge factor, and I wanted to use Everest as a proverbial 29,035 foot platform to shout “Hope!”

SPEAKING.COM: What were some of the reactions you received from people around you regarding your plans to summit Everest, and how did those reactions affect you?

SWARNER: Countless people told me outright that I was crazy. My parents literally said, “we didn’t get you through two cancers to go kill yourself on a hunk of rock and ice.” Numerous people around the world thought what I was attempting (climbing the highest mountain on earth with one lung) was literally and physiologically impossible.

I took those reactions into account and stored them in the back of my mind, channeling my desire to prove them wrong into motivational energy. Despite the tons of negative feedback I got, in the end, it was my choice to attempt the impossible.

SPEAKING.COM: What were some of the challenges you faced in building a team to get you to the top of Everest?

SWARNER: When attempting to get sponsorship and support, I lived out of a Honda Civic for months after grad school, and my office was the library and a pay phone bank.

I didn’t have a big team. My brother and a cook were stationed at base camp, and accompanying me up the mountain were the most amazing climbers ever, two Sherpas.

SPEAKING.COM: What are a few of the 7 Summits to success?

SWARNER: My newest eBook series focuses on what most speakers and authors don’t: the understanding that “A+B doesn’t always = C” for everyone. Each individual has a completely unique background that shapes his/her reality and motivation. People’s perspectives on life differ, so the 7 Summits to Success takes this into account and doesn’t TELL anyone what to do or how to do it. Instead it makes them question their own “how” through stories of my climbing adventures and a concise “workbook” to help guide people to their success.

For example, the first book, Everest: Being Unstoppable takes people through the struggles, the drama, but ultimate success of Everest. The lesson/guidance given to people throughout is the importance of having an emotional attachment to the end result, and living the future goal as though it’s already in the present and completed. By doing so, whenever someone has a proverbial bump in the road, the end result accompanied with those intense emotions remind you that the struggle is worth it.

SPEAKING.COM: What is the “Upside Down Mountain” analogy and can people apply it to their own challenges?

SWARNER: Anyone, anywhere can use this. It’s basically the same as the above example: Knowing – not thinking or believing, but knowing – you’re already successful. This may mean writing down the goals so they’re real, practicing visualization, or any other exercise that works for you to make you fully understand it’s happened. The key is picturing yourself on top as opposed to starting at base camp and struggling to get there.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some ways people can stay focused on long-term goals and avoid getting distracted from whatever it is they should be doing to meet those goals?

SWARNER: Emotions. We’re human beings, not human “doings.” Our emotions, when tied to the end result, are incredibly powerful motivators.

My second suggestion takes its inspiration from the business world. Successful businesses have guidelines that help them stay on track toward their goals. Why wouldn’t you do the same in life? Why wouldn’t you want goals associated with values to keep you in the right direction and on-task?

SPEAKING.COM: What do you recommend to people who are considering abandoning a goal or project?

SWARNER: It depends on how much they believe in the goal and how possible it is, but also how much it means to them. Since everyone is different, there are multiple questions that need to be asked. This is where my Performance Coaching could help – A LOT.

One of the keys though, is to understand that “success” shouldn’t be our end goal, because after we get “there,” what’s next? Instead, shouldn’t we focus on constantly succeeding?

SPEAKING.COM: Have you ever had a goal or project that you let go of, and if so, what factors led you to that decision?

SWARNER: I’m sure I had little goals here and there that I gave up on, but obviously nothing of significance. I did, however, give up on one goal (for now): getting into space with Elon Musk. I’d rather they figure out the whole exploding rocket thing first.

SPEAKING.COM: In April you trekked to the North Pole completing the “Adventurer Grand Slam.” What’s next?

SWARNER: Recently, I proposed via satellite phone to my now fiancé. I’ve been told marriage is a more difficult expedition, so I’ll be focusing on that along with my speaking, coaching, and a potential TV show based on adventure!

To bring motivational speaker Sean Swarner to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post How to Achieve Your Goals, with Sean Swarner appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: What does it take to be a great innovator?

EBELING: The philosophy of “Not Impossible” has far more to do with your desire and intention around what you want to change, than it has to do with any kind of training or education you might have. Our fundamental belief around innovation is that innovation comes from and stems from something that has to change rather than something that you’re actually trained to change.

The different things that we work on originate from our mission statement of “change the world through technology and story.” We emphasize “technology for the sake of humanity.” We look at the world’s problems, typically social issues, and ask, “How could technology in some way change or solve this? How we could solve a problem in a way that will be accessible to many people?”

In short, innovation for us originates from a problem or social issue that we feel must change, so we say “Geronimo”, jump in, and go for it.

SPEAKING.COM: How can businesses and schools teach creative thinking?

EBELING: I think it really starts with a fundamental understanding of the concept of experimentation: fail, fail, fail, succeed, and repeat as necessary. Failure is just part of the iterative process and we should teach people to jump into it head first rather than straying from it.

I think it’s much easier to do that in a school environment than a business environment. In the latter, you have to be able to give people that ability, that desire to jump in, to experiment, to skin their knees and then to get back up and iterate from there.

There are endless examples of historical figures that have long since died or icons who are still alive now and achieving fantastic, incredible, amazing and life changing things, but they always talk about their failures and how their failures led to their successes. So I think understanding that concept of experimentation is the core of creative thinking.

SPEAKING.COM: Your motto is “Commit first, then figure it out.” How is that an effective approach to getting things done, especially for organizations that might be worried about delegating limited resources?

EBELING: For Not Impossible, we are the definition of limited resources. We don’t have large operating budgets or a large infrastructure. This approach stems from a burning desire we have to see something through that we know could be changed and that has to be changed. We never have that core expertise in-house at the start of our projects, but what we’re able to do is to align and coalesce people who have that ability and that expertise around something, as well as a cause and a purpose that they feel driven to help us solve. That’s how we’re able to scale and do what we do.

SPEAKING.COM: What criteria do you use to decide that you’re going to commit to something?

EBELING: Our mission statement is change the world through technology and story. We refer to things that must change as “absurdities”. When we find absurdities, we first ask, “Is there already a better solution out there to this?” And if there is, then we publicize that. There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel.

On the other hand, if we recognize that there isn’t a solution or the solution that exists is not accessible, then that’s one of our first criteria to committing. Can we actually do something? Do we see that there’s a need and a demand around creating an accessible solution?

Second, we ask ourselves, “What is the story?” Specifically, the lens that we look through when we tell stories is called “Help One, Help Many,” which means that by providing an accessible solution to one person, you are then able to share that story to inspire and promote further innovation and collaboration and scale that solution. We ask ourselves, “Who is the one?”

Those are the two milestones that we check off when we’re deciding to commit to something.

SPEAKING.COM: What are the qualities of a stellar collaborator?

EBELING: We approach every problem knowing that we are not the ones who have been educated to solve this problem, so for us, collaboration is 50% drive and 50% ego. We want to play with experts who have the knowledge within a particular field, but we also don’t want them to enter into our sandbox with the attitude of, “It’s my way or the highway” or “I’m the expert, and you should listen to me.” We welcome, encourage, and yearn for that expertise, but we’re also not bashful about challenging it and challenging the status quo, which is why we’re sometimes able to come up with solutions that have never been considered before.

SPEAKING.COM: How can people recognize and find good collaborators?

EBELING: I think that this is a classic law of attraction: like attracts like. If you are someone who is driven towards purpose without an ego, you attract other people like that. It’s very easy to recognize when someone is going to bring ego and too many opinions to the table but maybe not that crucial drive. Drive is so important because every single project we tackle goes through moments where we doubt we should do it or we doubt that we’re the right ones for the job. Yet we keep going because it’s not a question of whether or not we can stop. We’re driven by a higher purpose: to actually create something that’s going to change someone else’s life. For us, failure is not an option.

SPEAKING.COM: One of your organization’s goals is to ensure that the technology you create is accessible to those who need it. What steps do you take to ensure that your inventions will be affordable as possible?

EBELING: Accessibility is the core to everything that we create. That whole concept and distinction of accessibility was derived from our first invention that we created called the EyeWriter, which was a pair of sunglasses, a coat hanger, some duct tape, zip ties, and a web camera. A paralyzed artist was able to put that on, and in looking straight ahead, the web camera tracked his pupils. By moving his eyes back and forth, he could then control a cursor on the screen, which allowed this paralyzed artist to draw again for the first time in seven years.

When we released that, it was a smash success and received all kinds of accolades and notoriety. We then released it open source, which was really important to us, because we felt that was the way that people would be able to access it. That’s how this device would be able to change many lives.

We learned from that experience that while open source is one avenue towards accessibility, it’s not the only one. In hindsight, had we offered that device as a solution that people could buy online, we strongly believe we would have had a greater influence. We would have been able to affect more lives had we opted for making this thing and putting it into a micro, mass production environment.

We learned quickly then, that sometimes accessibility doesn’t look the way that you want it to look. It’s really just a question of “how do you give people the ability to have access to the devices that you’re making?” So as we go through the design process we ask at every step:

• How do we make this more affordable?
• Are we creating something that’s more complicated than it needs to be?

  And our overarching premise:

• How do we keep performance at the high and price at the low?
  We started winning all these awards, doing Ted Talks, and now it’s even part of the permanent collection at the MoMA in New York. When we saw the reaction we got, we said to ourselves, “Wow, this is something that has obviously resonated deeply for people. Maybe this is something that we should continue.”

  SPEAKING.COM: You had a successful career in the movie business. How did you go from creating film graphics to inventing the EyeWriter and starting Not Impossible?

  EBELING: Not Impossible was a natural evolution rather than a premeditated one from my career in production into this concept we now have of being a social hacker, maker, punk rock engineer, and do-gooder. That evolution came from seeing the results of what we were able to create with the EyeWriter, which was made purely just to try to help this one particular artist, Tempt One, draw again. However, it went viral. People were talking about it. We started winning all these awards, doing Ted Talks, and now it’s even part of the permanent collection at the MoMA in New York. When we saw the reaction we got, we said to ourselves, “Wow, this is something that has obviously resonated deeply for people. Maybe this is something that we should continue.”

  Ultimately though, we decided at the time to just go ahead about our day jobs and keep doing what we were doing.

  That changed when we got an email from Tempt that said, “This is the first time I’ve drawn anything for seven years. I feel like I’ve been held under water and someone finally reached down and pulled my head up so I could take a breath.”

  Getting that email and that feeling that we were able to create and generate for this artist was so euphoric and special for us that we launched Not Impossible.

  Now we go about looking at the world through this lens of technology for the sake of humanity. I draw on so many of the skills that I learned from being a producer, like tackling these impossible projects and just figuring out how to come in under budget and on time. Constantly tackling these things is what drives the overall culture of Not Impossible.

  When you’re driven on why something has to happen and you actually have a person – a “one” in that concept of “help one help many” – it makes it incredibly hard to give up because you see the face of the finish line – the face of a human being.

  SPEAKING.COM: Project Daniel’s mission was to create prosthetic limbs for a boy who lost both his arms in a bombing in Sudan. In your Ted Talk you mentioned that everything that could go wrong with the project did. How did you manage to keep motivating yourself and your team in the midst of so many set backs?

  EBELING: When you’re driven on why something has to happen and you actually have a person – a “one” in that concept of “help one help many” – it makes it incredibly hard to give up because you see the face of the finish line – the face of a human being. Although everything went wrong in Sudan – from electricity surges to malfunctioning of 3D printers, from travel delays to the cease fire ending and being in a situation that was a hot zone – we knew we were there to solve the problem for Daniel. We knew that achieving a solution for Daniel could lead to achieving a solution for many more people. We stayed driven because we knew “the one” – a real individual – and we were constantly driving to solve for that one.

  SPEAKING.COM: Could you share a little bit about some of the projects Not Impossible is working on?

  EBELING: We have a variety of different projects we’re working on. We have a hunger initiative that is actually using cell phone technology to drive people who live in a food insecure environment to healthy meals. We have a device that we’re creating around kids with cerebral palsy that can help rehabilitate them and walk without crutches. We have an initiative that helps the deaf experience music through their skin. We have an initiative that’s helping people with Parkinson’s stop their tremors without having to take any pharmaceuticals. We have a variety of different projects right now that we’re working on and we’re incredibly excited and having a lot of fun on all of them.

  To bring innovation keynote speaker Mick Ebeling to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post How to Change the World with Innovation Speaker Mick Ebeling appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some important future trends for American health care programs?

BOTTLES: The biggest challenge for everyone in health care is to come up with new and innovative ways to support what’s called the “Triple Aim” of improving the patient’s experience. This includes: decreasing the per capita cost of healthcare and supporting improved quality and population health metrics. Another important trend is the increased use of digital technology to support both patients and providers and the increased desire of many patients to take control of their own health care.

All of these trends will change the role of the hospital, which for years has been the center of American health care. In the future, care will be transferred away from the hospital to wherever the patient is located, so the hospital will become less and less a central site of care.

This has major ramifications for both providers and communities where patients live. The health of a community’s population will provide clues as to why some locations support health and wellness, and others do not. Health and wellness will be impacted by many players such as emergency responders, urban planners, business owners, schools, mall owners, restaurant owners and others who have rarely collaborated in the past. Such partnerships will lend themselves to unique collaborations such as Kaiser Hospitals, for example, hosting farmer’s markets in their lobbies to support healthy eating.

SPEAKING.COM: Could you describe some of the ideal traits of a health care provider in the 21st Century?

BOTTLES: Because of the changes taking place in the American health care delivery system, it’s becoming much more of a team effort. In the old “fee for service” payment system healthcare economy, teamwork was not nearly as important as it will be when we transition to value-based payment models. Physicians and other providers will need to learn how to function in teams that support empowered patients who are increasingly utilizing digital technology to support their health and wellness goals.

The inevitable transparency that comes with patients having cell phones to tweet, text and talk to each other changes the patient/doctor relationship in so many ways. The old “do what I tell you to do” approach of some doctors just does not fly in the current environment where patients are looking to “patients like me” to help them cope with chronic diseases. These patients are learning from each other on Facebook, Twitter, and patient-led sites where people swap tips on how to cope with diseases like diabetes, hypertension, or multiple sclerosis.

Interestingly, these developments are not limited to health care. Retired U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal describes comparable changes in military leadership brought on by foot soldiers who because of technology, have real-time access to information about the battle that the central headquarters lacks.

SPEAKING.COM: Can you give us a few tips about how not to get fired from a physician or nurse executive position?

BOTTLES: No. I think getting fired from a nurse or physician executive position is sometimes the price you pay for trying to make credible and important changes to improve patient care. The trick is to be continually improving as a leader so that if you do get fired, it’s relatively easy for you to find a more compatible organization in which to continue to grow and affect change.

SPEAKING.COM: What do you mean when you say, “Fail often and cheaply in order to succeed?”

BOTTLES: In the current chaotic healthcare environment with so many changing variables, no one can truly predict the future. The most successful individuals and organizations are those that try many different approaches and quickly make mid-course corrections based on real-time intelligence. Failure is a much better teacher than success. In healthcare, we have not been bold enough in trying innovation, and we have not been quick enough to abandon tactics that fail.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some survival tactics for hospitals, doctors and nurses in a post-health care reform world?

BOTTLES:If you can provide patient-centered care at a reasonable cost and if you have good results on easily measured outcomes metrics, you will thrive in the new world.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some ways to engage physicians in adopting and using new health care information technology?

BOTTLES: I spend much of my professional consulting work trying to encourage physicians to embrace new healthcare information technology. It is certainly challenging work at times.

One problem I see is that experts have told physicians that “the sky is falling” many times before yet not much has changed from the point of view of the physician. With the Affordable Care Act and the Federal Budget deficit, I believe this time it is different, but physicians in many parts of the country are not sold on the changes.

Another problem is that Information Technology vendors over-promise and under-deliver in order to sell their products. There is a steep learning curve and physicians must change their workflow to learn new technologies and experience the advantages of them.

The bonuses and penalties associated with CMS value-based payment models are starting to work. You can motivate both providers and administrators by pointing out how these new technologies can impact bonuses and avoid financial penalties. Many of my current keynotes focus on how primary care physicians can successfully create new revenue streams if they understand the new rules for chronic care disease management fees and the changes in how physicians will get paid under the recent Sustainable Growth Rate for Medicare.

SPEAKING.COM: How can healthcare providers help promote better patient safety?

BOTTLES: Participate in quality programs at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement or the Armstrong Institute at Johns Hopkins.

To bring healthcare keynote speaker Dr. Kent Bottles to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post Managing Rapid Changes in Healthcare, with Healthcare Speaker Dr. Kent Bottles appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: You have a firm called “Being Chief” and a popular book titled “Be Chief.” What does it mean to be a “Chief?”

MILLER: The U.S. Army wants you to “Be All You Can Be,” and Oprah Winfrey wants you to “Live Your Best Life.” Likewise, “Being Chief” means mindfully working to be the best and most powerful version of yourself. My company and my book are both focused on offering simple choices to help professionals connect what they do to who they are, unlocking their power and enabling their companies to drive sustainable growth.

SPEAKING.COM: To what extent is leadership an inborn talent?

MILLER: I believe everyone has an inborn ability to be themselves and can lead by example.

SPEAKING.COM: How can leaders ensure that the right questions are asked?

MILLER: By building diversity, diversified skills and gender-balance into their leadership team… components that will set the team up for asking the right questions.

SPEAKING.COM: What are the keys to driving sustainable growth?

MILLER: I believe there are 5 prerequisites and 1 key for organizations to drive sustainable growth. All 6 elements begin with the letter “C.” The prerequisites include strong strategies and tactical plans for Customers, controlling Costs, ensuring adequate Capital, facing Competitors, and exceeding expectations for different Communities (shareowners, vendors) including the climate and social expectations of the actual Community we live in. Last but not least, the key to truly sustainable growth is building a change-adaptive Culture of skilled and engaged team members.

SPEAKING.COM: How can leaders empower employees who fear being held responsible for mistakes or failure?

MILLER: This is really a two-part question. First, to empower employees, a manager can guarantee everyone knows the strategy, include everyone up front when plans and goals are set, decentralize decision-making wherever possible, ensure consistent two-way communication, emphasize the need for continual (life-long) learning, provide regular recognition, and make sure the organization’s compensation plans are market-based.

Second, while employees should be held accountable for their decisions and choices, it is important for managers to encourage risk-taking as a critical component of a culture that embraces innovation. To eliminate fear, managers and employees should be communicating regularly so neither is “surprised” by the action of the other.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some examples of viral engagement in the workplace?

MILLER: Here are four. Think about what happens to a team when:

1. An energetic and talented person is added to a team?
2. An energetic and talented person leaves a team?
3. A negative person who doesn’t add skills to a group is added to a team?
4. A negative person who doesn’t add skills to a group leaves a team?

(I’ll bet everyone has examples of each in their experience!)

SPEAKING.COM: What are some ways you’re seeing CEOs address climate change or other social challenges in their company policies and practices?

MILLER: I’m seeing more CEOs address climate change in multiple ways. Many are lending their voices publicly to support the fact that climate change is both “real” and something we need to take action on NOW. Many are also setting specific goals in areas like renewable energy utilization, carbon reduction, and water usage reduction to support our climate.

In the area of social change, I am seeing certain CEOs take a similarly public stance for social change while many more are providing support for groups of their employees to voice their views on social issues, where the company itself does not take a strong, visible stand.

SPEAKING.COM: You have an impressive record turning around struggling organizations. What skills are needed to lead a successful turnaround and how did you develop those skills?

MILLER: In addition to the skills and experience required to lead the “6C” analysis, strategy, and implementation planning outlined in question 4, I would share one simple axiom: manage Human Capital with the same intensity normally reserved for the management of Financial Capital. As Jim Collins posits in his best-selling book, Good to Great, it’s “Who First.”

In developing these skills, I gratefully acknowledge three advantages in particular. First, my dad was a Human Resources professional who throughout my childhood consistently exposed me to important lessons about people at the kitchen table. Second, I was blessed to have had many mentors who were willing to spend time and coach me up. Finally, I was given several “stretch assignments” early in my career where I can truly attest to the saying “if it doesn’t kill you, it makes your stronger.”

SPEAKING.COM: You mention a triple-bottom line of profits, people, and the planet. Could you give us an example of how you addressed those three factors as the head of an organization?

MILLER: When I was recruited by AT&T as the first outsider in their 100-year history to run a $3B part of their legacy “long-lines” business, the primary reason they chose me was that the CEO believed I could reverse the company’s (then) dropping market share. By applying my 6C strategy, we did indeed triple the unit’s growth rate from 5% to 15% and held that rate for 3 years to grow to $5B, gaining significant market share.

At the same time we drove record levels of employee engagement and client loyalty. Simultaneously, AT&T’s longstanding Employee Resource Groups, which drove a broad range of community activities, also benefitted from the uptick in employee engagement.

Finally, regarding the environment, AT&T was one of the early adopters of goal setting for our climate with their People, Planet, and Possibilities Program.

SPEAKING.COM: You’ve said you wanted to be a chief since you were a young boy. What was your first experience leading others?

MILLER: When I was 7 years old, I started playing soccer as a goalkeeper. I learned that the players on the field would listen to me when I consistently:

1. Explained clearly and directly where I needed them to be.
2. Told them in front of others when they did a great job.
3. Told them privately when they needed to do something differently.
4. Listened to anyone who had an idea of how I could be better.
5. Worked as hard as anyone else in practice.
6. Worked away from the field to build friendships with everyone on the team.

To bring leadership keynote speaker Rick Miller to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post How to Drive Sustainable Growth with Leadership Speaker Rick Miller appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: What do we need to change about the way we talk about employee engagement?

HESS: Too many leaders talk about employee engagement for the organization’s benefit, but charts and graphs which display engagement results and connect with bottom line measures don’t motivate staff.

The conversation truly changes when leaders start to talk about employee engagement because they genuinely care for individual team members. The person that benefits the most from being engaged is the employee him or herself, and when folks have a good day at work, then everyone else around them benefits.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some of the biggest challenges leaders face in engaging today’s employees?

HESS: One big challenge is the assumption that the organization and leader are responsible for an employee’s level of engagement when in reality, It Takes 3™. Engagement improves when the organization has a strategic focus, leaders have tactical focus and employees have a personal focus.

SPEAKING.COM: What are a few employee engagement challenges that are unique to the healthcare industry?

HESS: Healthcare has employees working 24/7, 365 days a year. With the “always open” mentality of inpatient care, managers have a harder time supporting all shifts. Frequently, nurse managers have more than 50 direct reports working around the clock. Think of the challenge of personally connecting with 50 team members and then add the additional challenge of not working the same hours.

Another big challenge is the level of uncertainty and change due to the political and regulatory climate. Reimbursement formulas based on patient satisfaction add further complexity. Every day brings new challenges to healthcare employees and that can enhance or detract from engagement depending on how they are handled.

SPEAKING.COM: What do you mean when you talk about creating “Professional Paradise”?

HESS: Professional Paradise™ is an internal state of mind that is created by a set of beliefs and mindsets that drive positive actions and outcomes. Every individual is capable of creating his or her own Professional Paradise regardless of what’s happening externally. It’s a synonym for employee engagement. Team members create Professional Paradise when they are satisfied, energized and productive.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some ways managers can handle negative employees?

HESS: With negative employees who have “burned all their bridges”, the best management tool is to document negative behavior, follow HR policies and manage the person out of the organization. In the case of negative employees who are productive that the manager wishes to keep on, the conversation needs to change. Managers who approach negative employees with an “I care about you” attitude and dialogue have an opportunity to understand where the negativity stems from and proceed from there. When leaders want direct reports to be engaged because they genuinely care about their well-being, the conversation shifts.

SPEAKING.COM: You mention a great deal about employees being asked to do more with less. To what extent is the introduction of new healthcare technology actually making healthcare providers’ jobs easier?

HESS: New technology usually makes our jobs easier BUT it takes time, patience and a willingness to feel uncomfortable in the short term if we’re going to achieve the desired outcome. Seth Godin recently said “Change creates incompetence” and a big light bulb went off.

That’s exactly what happens in healthcare. We have systems and processes that we are used to – clinical or otherwise. When innovation and disruption come into play to improve quality, safety or satisfaction, then we have to adapt and that often creates a feeling of incompetence. Employees may become disengaged if they aren’t involved in the change process. However, having input before major transitions can minimize the impact of the change.

SPEAKING.COM: How can health organizations prepare for the possible repeal of the Affordable Healthcare Act?

HESS: The same way they prepare for all changes: thinking strategically, acting tactically and getting individuals involved at a personal level. Communication is key; admitting that we don’t know what we don’t know builds trust in uncertain times.

One healthcare leader I worked with recently said, “We are doing the right things right” (things like delivering high quality, safe care in a cost effective manner) and “We know that no matter what happens with the ACA we’ll be okay.”

I completely agree.

To bring healthcare speaker Vicki Hess to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post Increasing Employee Engagement in Healthcare with Leadership Speaker Vicki Hess appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: What are the “mega challenges” you feel businesses need to take on in order to thrive in the long term?

WINSTON: My work focuses on helping executives navigate the mega-trends and disruptions changing how business operates. These include a fast-changing climate, stress on natural resources (like water), rapid reductions in the price of clean energy, Millennial attitudes about what it means to succeed in business, and radical transparency driven by technology and connectivity. Every one of these forces means that businesses have to reassess their role in society along with how well they are solving their own, their customers’, and the world’s biggest challenges.

SPEAKING.COM: The term “sustainability” has become a highly used word in recent years. When it comes to your work, how do you define “sustainability”?

WINSTON: Sustainability has had a number of definitions over the years. The most commonly used comes from an important United Nations effort 30 years ago: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” It’s a tidy definition that speaks to a way of thinking that allows us to maintain our quality of life and protect resources so we don’t diminish the planet’s capacity to support humans indefinitely.

From a business and economy perspective, there are many dimensions of what operating sustainability means. A sustainable economic system will be powered by renewable energy, eliminate the concept of waste (by endlessly reusing or repurposing materials), ensure that people have opportunities for meaningful work at living wages, provide for everyone’s general well-being, and more. In short, a sustainable economy is one in service of all life.

SPEAKING.COM: What are a few changes that large companies have made to address environmental issues?

WINSTON: Companies have been reducing their environmental impacts for many years in many ways, focusing on slashing costs and risks by using much less energy and water, and producing less or no waste. More recently, many large companies — especially tech and retail giants like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Walmart — have bought significant quantities of renewable energy (Apple powers all its datacenters with renewables). Companies have also innovated to create new clean technologies in transportation, buildings, energy, and much more. Finally, an increasing number of companies are wading into politics to defend the Paris climate accord or promote policies that tackle climate change, like a price on carbon.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some of the common challenges businesses face when making that “big pivot” to more environmentally friendly practices and how can they overcome those challenges?

WINSTON: These days the hurdles are not really technological or even economic. A large number of “greener” operating practices and technologies save significant money and create business value. Often the hurdles are organizational. Inertia – the way things have always been done – can make change hard. Managers and executives can hold onto outdated views of the costs and benefits of sustainable business practices. The myth that “sustainability always costs more” is still prevalent.

SPEAKING.COM: You’ve stated that in order to go green, companies need to change the way they set their goals. Could you tell us more about what that change looks like?

WINSTON: Until recently, nearly all companies would set goals from the “bottom up.” Meaning, they would ask the organization what they think they can do – for example, cutting energy use by 10% — and then possibly set a stretch target. However, we can’t solve the big, shared environmental and social challenges with incremental, internally-focused thinking. To tackle something like climate change, all organizations and institutions need to set goals based on how fast the science tells us we need to reduce emissions.

To illustrate this, imagine a doctor tells you that you need 6 months of chemotherapy or treatment. You can’t say, “Well, I’ll just try a couple of months and see how it goes.” Realizing this reality, many companies are setting “science-based” goals for reductions in energy, water, and waste; 260 of the world’s largest companies have committed to carbon targets in line with science and 100 companies have committed to an organization called RE100 (which I advise) to move toward 100% renewable energy.

SPEAKING.COM: One of the Big Pivot strategies on the digital presentation featured in your TED Talk reads “Inspire customers to use less.” How can companies do that and benefit from it at the same time?

WINSTON: This is perhaps the biggest challenge and largest “heresy” as I call it – working with customers to reduce their impacts, sometimes by using less of your products. We see this in many business-to-business relationships already. Many companies help their corporate clients manage their businesses better and leaner, which can actually result in selling less of some products and services. The reward, though, is building a longer, deeper relationship with the customer as a trusted ally, and thus capturing market share.

In the consumer realm, this thinking is far less common, but it does happen. Patagonia famously ran an ad saying “Don’t Buy this Jacket” and declared that customers should buy their longer-lasting products only if they needed them. Since then, Patagonia’s sales have grown rapidly, and the company is an outstanding example of how businesses can get a larger share of customer wallets by helping individuals use less.

SPEAKING.COM: In your TED Talk you explain that people have wake-up calls, pivotal moments when they realize they need to change something. What was your “wake-up call” in regard to business and sustainability?

WINSTON: I was working in the dot-com world after being in traditional large business roles at Boston Consulting Group, Time Warner, and Viacom/MTV. When the dot-com crash came, I found myself free to really think about my passions so I started researching how business and environmental issues overlap. I had a few weeks where I read some amazing books about the impact of our economy on our natural resources and the clear threat to our ability to thrive as a species over the long-term. Those few days were my wake-up call about the aspects of our economic system that are impossible to keep going indefinitely, and the amazing opportunities in doing things differently.

SPEAKING.COM: Regarding supply chains, the transportation and distribution of materials and products around the globe currently depends on fossil fuels. Additionally the process produces a high quantity of CO2 emissions. How are the companies you work with addressing this?

WINSTON: Companies are reducing their energy intensity, often in dramatic ways. In transportation specifically, the big logistics companies have used GPS and software to optimize routes. UPS famously stopped taking left turns in grid-like cities, avoiding idling time at lights. Their use of “telematics” has cut 100 million miles from routes annually.

There have also been significant efforts to clean up international shipping fleets – those ships produce an enormous amount of air pollution by using dirty fuels. Of course, there are also real efforts to localize production more, which lessens logistics time and footprint.

SPEAKING.COM: How do you think the Millennial generation’s growing participation in the economy will affect businesses’ stances on ecologically responsible practices?

WINSTON: It already has. Millennials are on their way to being 50% of the workforce by 2020. Every company I work with and talk to is focused on this issue of appealing to these 20 and 30-somethings, as customers and, perhaps more importantly, as employees.

This generation has different views of how companies should operation. A global survey by Deloitte showed that 87% thought companies should measure success by more than purely financial performance. Millennials are significantly more likely to see climate change as a big threat and expect companies to be more open and transparent about how they manage environmental issues.

To bring sustainability speaker Andrew Winston to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post Thriving as a Sustainable Business, with Strategy Speaker Andrew Winston appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: When you left your job as a stock broker, you could have traveled any number of places or ways. Why did you choose to travel from New York to Hollywood on just $5 a day?

LOGOTHETIS: To me, New York City and Times Square in particular is the center of capitalism and that was my old life. The Hollywood sign is the symbol of hope and living your dreams. I was essentially transitioning from one to the other – from my old life to my new life.

SPEAKING.COM: Some people might see your interactions with strangers during your travels as risky. How do you decide whom you can trust on the road?

LOGOTHETIS: I use my intuition and usually get a sense of who people are right away. From my travels I’ve learned who to trust and who not to trust.

I also listen to the locals. When they tell you “don’t go out at night,” you don’t go out at night. If you don’t listen you risk getting beat up in an alley in Panama like I did.

These are some of the experiences I have used to hone my intuition. It’s not fool proof but it works for me.

SPEAKING.COM: Have you encountered any cultural misunderstandings during your adventures and how did you manage them?

LOGOTHETIS: I was in Cartagena (Colombia) and I was being harassed by a street seller. I wanted him to leave me alone and I gave him a symbol to cut it out by waving my hand across my neck. Little did I know this meant that I wanted to kill him! It took a lot of work to calm him down and at one point I feared for my life, but eventually I was able to pacify him and get out of that situation.

SPEAKING.COM: You’ve said you learned conflict resolution when your car caught fire during a night in “the Kidnap Capital of India.” Could you tell us more about those events?

LOGOTHETIS: I went through India with a transformational life coach on an experiential life-changing trip. We were driving when suddenly the car caught fire – in what turned out to be one of the world’s kidnap capitals. My guru laid this fact on me while we sat in the dark being stared at by an entire village of Indians. As I sat there fearing for my life I realized that I needed to have faith. What other choice did I have?! The car was fixed and we were on our way but I learned a valuable lesson on trusting my fellow man when you’re in need.

SPEAKING.COM: You often cite the importance of human connection as one of the greatest lessons you’ve learned during your trips. What does it mean to “see another person”?

LOGOTHETIS: Seeing someone is to see beyond his or her mask and bullshit. To see who they are. To see their fears, joys, happiness.

I ask myself: Who are they really? Then you treat what you see with grace dignity and love.

SPEAKING.COM: How can someone get better at seeing others?

LOGOTHETIS: First be gentle to yourself and stop judging others. When you stop judging others, you’ll stop judging yourself and give yourself a pass. This is easier said than done and it takes time plus a lot of patience.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some ways that parents and teachers can teach empathy to children and youth?

LOGOTHETIS: I would say help the child realize that their behavior affects people. So if a child says “I hate you” help the child realize how you feel when they say that and how others would feel if they hear that. Then help the child find empathy by helping them understand what it feels like to be sad and low.

SPEAKING.COM: Millennials and the generation following them are reporting higher rates of anxiety and depression than their predecessors. Why do you think this might be and what is your advice for these generations?

LOGOTHETIS: A big part of the reason is that we are so connected through smart phones, yet somehow we’ve become disconnected from human connection! Try to inspire younger people to get away from their phones. Phones should never replace human connection. Yes, phones can connect us in a literal sense, but ultimately we have to do the work to truly connect on a human level.

SPEAKING.COM: What are a few steps people can take to monetize their passion as you’ve managed to do?

LOGOTHETIS: 1. Follow your passion and take a risk.
2. Never, never give up.
3. Find a mentor that believes in you and has the same passion and can help you along the way.

SPEAKING.COM: What tips do you have for reducing environmental impact while you travel?

LOGOTHETIS: When you travel remember that the world you live in will one day belong to your kids and your grandkids. Ask yourself, what we do you want our legacy to be? If you approach your travels with a sense of understanding that everything is connected to what we do as humans, you can help the world and yourself.

To bring motivational speaker, Leon Logothetis to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post Adventures in Kindness with Inspirational Speaker Leon Logothetis appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: How do you define personal disruption?

JOHNSON: Personal disruption is the act of applying the framework of disruptive innovation to an individual. In the case of products and services, a disruptive innovation is a silly, little thing that ends up taking over the world like Toyota did to General Motors, like the telephone did to the telegraph, or like the car did to the horse and buggy. With personal disruption, you start at the bottom of the ladder, you climb to the top of that same ladder and then you jump to the bottom of a new ladder.

SPEAKING.COM: What is the relationship between personal disruption and disruption on a macro level?

JOHNSON: We typically think of disruptive innovation as a means of moving the economy forward, an innovation that originates with a product or a service, a company, or even a country. Yet the fundamental unit of disruption is actually the individual. Companies don’t disrupt – people do. So if you want to move innovation forward inside your organization, remember that disruption happens at the individual level first, not the organizational level.

SPEAKING.COM: What is the “S curve” in the context of disruption and what can it help us understand?

JOHNSON: Popularized by EM Rogers in his book, Diffusion of Innovation, the S curve helps gauge how quickly an innovation will be adopted. It also illustrates just how unpredictable disruption is. So if you think about the bottom curve of an “S”, growth is going to be very slow at first. Once you reach 10 to 15% market penetration, you’re going to accelerate into hyper growth – the sleek steep back of the curve. At the top of the curve, typically 90% market penetration or saturation growth tapers off.

What I’ve done with the S curve is I’ve re-imagined it to help us understand the psychology of disruption. So anytime you start something new whether it’s a role or project, it’s an opportunity to disrupt. The S curve tells you that initially when you’re starting out, growth is going to be very slow, an expectation that helps you avoid discouragement. If you’re hiring people, it helps you avoid frustration recognizing that there is a low end to the curve and it’s going to take them a while to get up to speed.

As you put in the days, weeks, months, and sometimes years of practice, you’re going to accelerate into competence – that sleek back of the S. This is the exciting part of the curve where all of your neurons are firing and you’re building confidence.

At the top of the curve, you’re approaching mastery. Things are going to become very easy for you, but because you’re no longer enjoying those feel good effects that come from learning, you can actually get bored. If you don’t jump to a new S curve or a new ladder, your plateau can become a precipice.

The key with personal disruption is to learn to surf those S curve waves of learning and mastering. The more quickly and adeptly you can do that, the more successful you will be as a disruptor.

SPEAKING.COM: You have said “Our own unique skills are often the ones we value least.” Could you elaborate on that?

JOHNSON: People usually overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are, a tendency that’s rooted in evolution. In prehistoric times if you got too comfortable, your chances of getting killed and eaten increased, so you couldn’t focus too much on what you did well; rather, you had to focus on what other people were doing well so that you were able to survive.

In the modern world the things you do best are things that you do reflexively well, without thinking. I’ll give you a quick example: I can’t remember a time where I didn’t know how to play the piano. I learned how to play it when I was really young, so throughout my life I’ve thought, “Well, playing the piano is no big deal. Who cares?” On the other hand, someone who has always wanted to play the piano but never learned, actually really values that.

Sometimes, then, a person’s superpowers aren’t actually on their resume, because they overlook or ignore abilities that come so easily to them.

To be successful as a disruptor, it’s important for us to be able to lean on our strengths, and in particular, our distinctive strengths – things we do well that other people do not. That means we need to figure out what we do reflexively well, own it, value it, and use it every single day on the job.

SPEAKING.COM: What advice would you give people who have trouble finding work that correlates with their strengths?

JOHNSON: Finding work that correlates with your strengths is actually the easy part. Often you hire a person, and it turns out they’re in the wrong seat not because they’re not capable or high performing, but because they lead with what they do well rather than what they do best. On their resume they put the things they worked really hard to learn how to do, but not the things that have come easily for them.

Once people are truly attuned to what they do best, finding work that correlates to their strengths actually isn’t that difficult to do, because people come to you. One of the smartest things you can do is be willing to listen to the compliments that you get every day, especially the compliments you’ve “heard a million times.” If you go out and find a job that allows you to use that skill that people repeatedly compliment you on, you will have no trouble getting work that correlates to your strength. Sometimes we struggle to find work, because we simply aren’t willing to look for a job or projects that will leverage what we do best.

SPEAKING.COM: What are a few examples of turning constraints into something useful?

JOHNSON: There is a wonderful story about how Steven Spielberg took a constraint and turned it into a tool of creation when he was directing and producing one of his first films, Jaws. Some of the movie’s most iconic scenes in that film came about because the mechanical shark that Steven Spielberg wanted to use, did not actually work. Over budget and behind schedule, he decided to shoot the scenes from the shark’s point of view, add on John William’s now classic score, and let the audience’s imagination do the rest.

SPEAKING.COM: What guidelines would you offer people when it comes to assessing risks in their professional lives and deciding which risks to take?

JOHNSON: I typically focus on competitive risks and market risks. A competitive risk in your work life might be assessing if it’s worth investing the energy and time in applying for a job that you saw posted. You know that an organization has a need they’re trying to fill because you’ve read the post and you just need to figure out if you can compete against and beat out the other 10, or 25, or 50 people who are applying for that job.

When it comes to market risks, though, there are no “job posts” spelling out a need. Rather, you identify a problem you think you can solve and if you can actually persuade people and “the powers that be” to create a position or market for you, then you get the job.

People are far more reluctant to take market risks, even though the Theory of Disruption shows that those who pursue market risks over competitive risks are six times more likely to succeed.

With competitive risks, our brains actually mislead us to downplay the risks, because we view these situations as more certain and simple. There is a concrete demand and all we need to do is beat the opposition. In market risk, there’s no clear-cut opposition – just uncharted waters. If you can look at situations and say to your brain, “I know I feel less comfortable but that’s actually less risky,” then your odds of success are actually going to be higher.

SPEAKING.COM: How can people who may feel overworked and spread thin by their current responsibilities fit personal disruption into their lives?

JOHNSON: Disrupting yourself on a grand scale begins with disrupting yourself on a micro scale – finding ways to give yourself just a little bit more time to think a bit differently. For example, I find that if you’re willing to get up just 15 minutes earlier – before your anxiety gets up – then you can carve out some time to think, create, or explore something new and different.

My second suggestion comes from an experiment my family did a few weeks ago in which we decided to give up watching television in the evening. Typically our family watches an hour or an hour and a half, which eats up a lot of time. If you are willing to give up some of the activities you typically do to relax – like watching television, you can replace them with something that’s equally relaxing, but at the same time offers you a creative outlet – such as going for a walk so you can give yourself time to think.

SPEAKING.COM: You majored in music, which on the surface doesn’t seem to have much to do with finance and investing. In your personal journey how did you disrupt yourself to build a career on Wall Street?

JOHNSON: I moved to New York because my husband was going to graduate school, which left me responsible for putting food on the table. I actually did not want to have a career in music, which is ironic considering where we were, but honestly, I felt like I was finished with the music part of my life.

I decided that I wanted to work on Wall Street, but there was no way I was going to be able to walk in the front door. I had a music degree, I had not gone to Harvard, I was a female, and this was the late ’80s, early ’90s. So I had to walk in the side door by becoming a secretary.

Oftentimes, the motivation to move in a disruptive way occurs when you see something that you want and there’s no way that you can actually walk in the front door to get it. People that wanted to work on Wall Street didn’t think, “I’ll start as a secretary.” They wanted to start as an investment banker. As you’re thinking about your own career or business, be willing to play in that place that other people don’t want to be. Be willing to be a secretary.

I eventually came to work with Clayton Christensen and founded an investment fund with him, not because I had a degree from Harvard Business School, but because I collaborated with him on a number of volunteer projects that no one else was lining up for. In the course of doing that work with him, he saw that I was competent and capable. When he needed people to help him launch an investment fund, he knew me and my experience with investing, so he asked me if I would join him as a founding partner of the Disruptive Innovation Fund.

At a high level, if you’re looking to take this framework and have it play out in your career, look for opportunities to play where other people aren’t playing, where other people don’t want to play. You will be surprised how many opportunities come to you when you’re willing to play in those unusual places.

To bring business and innovation speaker Whitney Johnson to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post What is Personal Disruption? Answers from Innovation Speaker Whitney Johnson… appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: Why are some people more resilient to stress than others?

WARRELL: It ultimately comes down to mindset. While certain circumstances can trigger a stress response, it’s the ‘story’ we tell ourselves about those circumstances that can amplify our stress response. People who tend to be the most resilient aren’t immune to stress, but they have developed a degree of psychological Teflon that enables them to respond to it with greater calm and clarity of thought.

The good news is that no matter how poorly someone may have handled stress in the past, we can grow our resilience simply by developing habits that help us to short circuit our psychological and physiological stress response.

SPEAKING.COM: What is the difference between stress and stressful thinking?

WARRELL: There’s no such thing as stress per se; there are simply people thinking stressful thoughts, which trigger a physiological and psychological response in our bodies. It explains why two people can be in the same situation and one falls to pieces while the other calmly gets on with addressing the cause of the problem.

SPEAKING.COM: How do men and women react differently to stress?

WARRELL: There is no evidence to show that men and women are wired differently when it comes to stress. However men and women are often socially conditioned to respond differently to stress, which over time can lead to a gender stress gap.

My research and experience has shown me that from a young age boys are encouraged to take more risks. For example, there is research that shows that on the playground boys are more likely to be actively encouraged to use the monkey bars whereas girls are more likely to be cautioned about them. Over time the boys in the studies built up a greater tolerance for risk and confidence in handling it, skills that would potentially help them to manage stressful situations better later on. This research also explains why we have a substantial ‘gender confidence gap’ as men tend to have more confidence in their ability to handle challenges compared to women.

SPEAKING.COM: What are a few steps people can take to curtail negative emotions when they find themselves in high-pressure situations?

WARRELL: First, adopt some very simple mindfulness practices that help us to be more in tune with the emotions we are feeling in any given moment. We can’t control emotions if we are operating in a mindless state of auto pilot.

Second, notice what we are telling ourselves about a situation that may be triggering and amplifying those emotions. As I mentioned above, it’s not the circumstances we’re in that drive negativity, but what we tell ourselves about them: the interpretation we are creating about the situation we are in.

SPEAKING.COM: What is the correlation between a person’s age and their capacity to build resilience?

WARRELL: Good news! While many things tend to get worse with age, our capacity for resilience (which is an aspect of our EQ) actually improves.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some common myths about work/life balance?

WARRELL: That there is a magic formula and once you’ve found it, you’ll forever live with it. The truth is that life’s responsibilities, commitments and pressures are constantly in flux so balance is never static. However, in my experience, when the way we spend our time is in alignment with what we are most committed to, the balance naturally sorts itself out. Rather than striving for perfect balance, it’s more important to simply work towards living in alignment with our deepest values while taking time to reflect on what we need to adjust and tweak on a regular basis.

SPEAKING.COM: The conversation on the balancing act between work and family seems to focus more often on mothers. What advice do you have for fathers who are struggling to dedicate enough time and energy to both work and family?

WARRELL: First, be kinder to yourself. As a working mother of four teenage children, I know how easy it is to beat up on ourselves for not getting it just right. I see so many people – women and men – who constantly feel like they aren’t measuring up. So my first advice is to cut yourself a little more slack when you don’t get it ‘just right’ all the time.

Second, make time to schedule in quality time with each of your children rather than waiting for the time to show up in your calendar. When our children were younger my husband Andrew set up a regular ‘date’ with each of our four children to ensure they each got some quality 1:1 time with him. They got to choose what they’d do together and would look forward to it with great anticipation.

The key thing here is to be deliberate and intentional about how you spend the time you do have. If you’re glued to your phone when you’re supposed to be hanging out with your kids then you’re missing a precious opportunity to connect with them.

Third, be sure you invest regular time in yourself –body, mind and spirit – so that you have the energy you need to show up fully and be genuinely engaged in what you are doing. If you’re constantly exhausted, out of shape and overwhelmed, you can’t be who you want to be for your family, your colleagues, clients or anyone… much less for yourself!

SPEAKING.COM: Could you share a bit about your own experience balancing your career with a family of four children?

WARRELL: I live by the mantra ‘good enough is good enough.’ There are many days that my kids and I are on opposite sides of the country or the world, so I try to focus on the really important things and to be fully present and fun for my kids whenever I’m physically with them. I make sure I connect with them regularly and truly listen to whatever is going on for them. I try to outsource whatever ‘low value’ activities I can – like cleaning, laundry and ironing – so that I can focus more time directly on my family.

I also invest time every day in rituals that enable me to bring my best and bravest self to whatever I’m doing and whomever I’m doing it with. For instance, I exercise nearly every day and take time to look at what I’m prioritizing and adjust as needed. I am big into journaling as I find it a great way to process my thoughts, emotions and the mindset I’m bringing to my life.

Finally, I try to be as organized as I can, without planning too far in advance – as that can lead to mental overwhelm given all the balls I have in the air at any given time. There’s plenty of stuff I figure out as I get to it. In fact, if I were to give advice to my younger self – back when I had four children under six and was just starting out on my “second career” in coaching, speaking and leadership development – my biggest advice would be to just trust myself, that I can figure it all out as I go along, because that’s pretty much what I do. There is no perfect formula or system. The systems I do use have evolved and changed as my family has grown and as my business has expanded.

SPEAKING.COM: What is the key factor to avoiding burn-out?

WARRELL: Investing regular time to renew, refuel, recharge and reconnect to whatever fuels our spirit and re-energizes our body. I am not one to deprive myself of sleep and even though I travel around the world and across time zones regularly, I make sure I allow enough time to get sleep as I know that going without it for very long will not allow me to show up as the person I want to. My mission in the world is too big to afford time off for burn out so I invest regular time in ‘topping up’ my reserves to make sure that I can operate at full capacity.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some ways people can gracefully say “no” to others and not feel guilty?

WARRELL: We can say “no” to an invitation or request without saying “no” to the person. I make sure I let people know how much I value them or the opportunity before explaining what else I have on my plate at the time and why I simply can’t commit to whatever they are asking of me. If I can do something that is less time consuming that helps them out and takes care of the relationship, I do, but often I simply have to decline. I’ve written about the importance of saying no in several of my books and while it can be uncomfortable and sometimes painful to say no to people, when we are clear on what we MOST want to say YES to, the guilt evaporates.

To bring inspiring keynote speaker Margie Warrell to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post Building Resilience, with Global Keynote Speaker Margie Warrell appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: Why is debriefing an important part of Air Force culture?

BOURKE: Debriefing is the secret to continuous improvement in any organization. In the military, we risk our lives every day we go to work, therefore making continuous improvements and eliminating mistakes is a critical part of our success.

SPEAKING.COM: What purpose can debriefing serve in the business world?

BOURKE: By the same token, while business professionals may not risk their lives every day they go to work, they do risk their way of life. Successful businesses are constantly looking for ways to improve, innovate and reduce execution errors. Debrief fosters a culture of continuous improvement in any organization.

SPEAKING.COM: What exactly does debriefing entail?

BOURKE: Debriefing in the military means that at the end of our missions, the pilots who flew during the mission gather together behind closed doors and review our performance. During the Debrief, we remove rank and we talk about what worked on the mission and what we could have done better individually or as a team. Our Debriefs are a safe space so that people speak openly, and without fear of reputational risk. From our Debriefs we capture “key lessons learned” and roll those key lessons into future plans.

SPEAKING.COM: What steps do teams need to take to get the most out of debriefing?

BOURKE: First and foremost a Debrief must be planned. For business, this means building the Debrief into employee’s outlook calendars whether conducting a standard weekly Debrief every Friday at 4 PM, or blocking 15 minutes after a sales pitch to review what worked, what didn’t and next steps.

SPEAKING.COM: What can leaders do to remove the negative connotations that some employees might have of debriefings?

BOURKE: Leaders must find a way to reset the tone at the beginning of any Debrief so the team feels comfortable speaking honestly and without fear of reputational risk. Leaders can reset the tone by being the first to admit their errors which serves to disarm others in the Debrief. Leaders can also develop a standard verbiage that they use at the beginning of every Debrief to remind their team that they are in a safe zone that is focused exclusively on learning and growing together.

SPEAKING.COM: Why is a “checklist approach” so important when it comes to execution?

BOURKE: Checklists are one of the most important tools to any organization where execution truly matters. Whether it’s tactical aviators, surgical teams in the OR, employees in a manufacturing plant or a CEO preparing for the quarterly board meeting, checklists provide two key functions:

1. Checklists are there to keep you on track in an emergency. Emergency procedures checklists are designed to make sure that pilots react the right way, the first time and every time when things go wrong in their jets. Emergency procedures checklists can provide the same benefit to any business whether you are a customer service specialist reacting to a customer complaint, or the foreman on a building project reacting to an onsite accident.

2. Checklists keep us on track in our normal daily procedures. For pilots, normal procedures checklists make sure that their new hires operate aircraft the right way the first time they fly an airplane and every time thereafter. Disciplined use of checklists helps pilots develop good habit patterns which ultimately allow them to correctly execute many regular procedures by memory.

With that said, when experienced pilots find themselves overloaded by clutter in their cockpit and are not thinking clearly, they can fall back on their checklists to continue to execute at the highest level even when feeling overloaded by external inputs. By the same token, businesses who care about execution and maintaining high standards should develop normal procedures checklists for their teams. This will ensure that new hires perform their jobs the right way the first time and every time thereafter, and will provide their experienced employees a tool to fall back on when they are feeling overloaded or not thinking clearly.

SPEAKING.COM: How can organizations and leaders build checklists that will truly add value to their teams?

BOURKE: Think about the “emergencies” and “normal procedures” that are most important to your company and develop checklists to support them. You likely already have training manuals that address many of these key issues. Checklists are simply abbreviated memory joggers that distill down the key elements. For a sales team this might mean normal procedures to prepare for your day or week as well as preparing for specific sales meetings. It might also address emergencies like handling key customer complaints, returned orders, loss of a sale to a competitor, or loss of a key team member.

SPEAKING.COM: Could you discuss a complex situation you found yourself in, either during your military or business career, and explain how a checklist approach and training enabled you to succeed in that situation?

BOURKE: As a young pilot flying the F-4 Phantom, I joined a test bombing mission to fill in as a replacement the morning of the flight. In addition to being given a poorly copied map, I had to reject my first plane due to maintenance issues and took off after the other pilots had departed. Given the unusual circumstances, my training warned that I should be extra cautious. Therefore, I wrote down radio frequencies and navigational aids on my map in the event that something should go wrong. During the mission, there was a loud explosion inside the cockpit, everything went white and I couldn’t hear a thing. My training and checklist immediately kicked in:

1. “Climb to Cope”
A healthy spacing from the ground would inevitably buy me a little more time to figure out what went wrong.

2. “Speed is Life”
I parked both throttles in the Northwest quadrant and lit my afterburners to make sure that I had as much potential energy as possible should I need to try to glide to a safe landing area or ejection zone.

3. “Analyze the Situation and Take the Appropriate Action”
My brain was racing and while I still hadn’t figured out what had gone wrong, I knew I had a major emergency. So, I looked at my map, and picked out one of the radio frequencies I had written down. The navaid pointed me towards the closest airfield where I might be able to land., I squawked 7700, the universal distress code, and declared an emergency with air traffic control.

4. “Wind Your Watch”
By now I was pointed at a safe airfield about 90 miles on my nose, I was 20,000’ above the ground and I was accelerating through 450 Knots. I leveled off, pulled the throttles out of afterburner and took a deep breath to try and figure out what was going on. Knowing that speed was life I cautiously slowed below 250 knots and suddenly I could begin to communicate with ATC and my back seater. Doing so, I discovered that I had hit some power lines and my ejection seat was potentially damaged.

5. “Fly The Airplane First”
With my ejection option ruled out, I realized that I had only one choice and that was to touch down at the nearest airport as gingerly as possible. But with all the real and potential damage to my airplane, I was worried about the airworthiness of the jet at the slow speeds I needed to fly to touch down. My wingman and I ran a controllability check above 10,000’. I lowered the landing gear and flaps, slowed to a safe landing speed and low and behold my trusty beast kept flying.

This was all the encouragement I needed to continue my approach. I forced myself to remain calm and execute my normal landing checks knowing that at any moment something could go terribly wrong. I touched down ever so gingerly on the 10,000’ long runway, pulled my drag shoot and let out a huge exhale as I slowed my wounded jet to taxi speed.

SPEAKING.COM: You were part of a special defense mission in the hours following the World Trade Center Attack. What was going on in your mind during that flight?

BOURKE: Flying homeland defense over New York City following the terrorist attacks on 9/11 was one of the most impactful experiences of my life. At that time, all of us involved in our nation’s homeland defense were worried that if taking out the World Trade Center was phase one of the attack, what was phase two and how would we defend against it?

There was also a constant internal struggle that the mission might be to shoot down a large commercial airliner filled with US Citizens flying over my own country. This was a terrible conflict and certainly not something any of us as US Fighter Pilots had signed up for when we joined the military. For a better overview of this story you can watch this video.

SPEAKING.COM: Could you tell us about the book you’re currently working on?

BOURKE: The Art of The Debrief is a business and leadership book focused on how business people can use Debrief to drive continuous improvement in any organization.

To bring leadership and team building speaker Anthony Bourke to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

The post Using Debriefing to Foster Continuous Improvement, with Leadership Speaker Anthony Bourke appeared first on SPEAKING.com Keynote Speakers Bureau.

SPEAKING.COM: You have described your work as, “…developing creative ways of communicating, and working to transform complex concepts into meaningful stories that can be universally understood.” Would you please expand on what this means to you and how it translates to your audiences and/or meaningful applications?

GOODS: Everyone has a story to tell, and more often than not, those stories are getting more and more complicated. What I always try to do is look for the essence in a product, a place, or a person and let that essence help me tell their story in a unique and powerful way that people will remember. In my talks I go through a number of those communication challenges and how I went about solving each one.

SPEAKING.COM: How did you discover that you could apply your artistic skills to the scientific field?

GOODS: I had the incredible opportunity as a student at Art Center College of Design to intern with an artist who was working at the California Institute of Technology helping scientists visualize the vast amounts of data they collect. Considering my educational background, this was the last place on earth that I imagined being able to spend my day.

However, I got hooked. That summer exposed me to some of the smartest people working on the biggest scientific questions that humans are asking. I wanted to be around people like that all the time. I realized that I was pretty good at taking the complicated ideas they were trying to tell and communicating them in compelling ways, but I had no idea how I would ever get a job doing such a thing.

SPEAKING.COM: What led you to become the “Visual Strategist” at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab?

GOODS: Initially, JPL was not looking for someone like me. After graduating from ArtCenter I was trying to see if I could find a job at a research center. I got to meet the Director of JPL and had two seconds to sell myself to him. I asked him, “Wouldn’t it be great to have artists and designers helping JPL imagine future space missions?” He said that would be great, but then walked off to his next meeting.

It wasn’t until I sent my resume in a huge next day air envelope that he realized I was serious. JPL looked at some of the strange work I did at art school including a pipe organ made out of soda pop bottles, and they thought I would fit right in. I was a given a 6 month probation period, and 15 years later I’m still there.

SPEAKING.COM: What do you find most challenging about your position as a Visual Strategist?

GOODS: As with any large institution there is a lot of bureaucracy. In government there is even more, but I take it as a challenge. We have crazy one-of-a-kind things we are trying to accomplish, so we really have to stretch our creativity to figure out how to do them within the confines of all the rules and gatekeepers. Though we have many successes, we always feel like we had to move mountains to accomplish them. Fortunately we’ve built a lot of trust and people want to help us succeed.

SPEAKING.COM: How has this position evolved over time?

GOODS: The first 8 years of my career at JPL I was on my own and never knew if I would have a job at the beginning of the next fiscal year. Eventually I was able to hire someone, and then in the past 3-4 years I have been able to build a team of 8 full time staff plus a network of world class freelancers. As a team, we have been able to change the culture of JPL from one in which no one knew “why artists and designers should work there” to “now we don’t have enough capacity to help everyone who asks”. It has been a joy to see the team branch out to the point where we are now embedded in every area of JPL from the communications to brainstorming future missions to working with facilities and security.

SPEAKING.COM: Of all the projects you’ve created for NASA, which is your favorite, and why?

GOODS: “Hi Juno” was an amazing opportunity to coordinate thousands of people around the world to hack a spacecraft called Juno and say “HI” to it as it was flying by our planet on its way to Jupiter. Everyone had to coordinate and use Morse code exactly at the same time. You might not expect this, but I can’t tell you how many people cry when watching the video. It was a special chance to bring people together to do something that became very meaningful to them… and now, Juno is at Jupiter 🙂

SPEAKING.COM: Of all your projects, which has resonated most with audiences?

GOODS: Probably “The Big Playground”. In recent years, scientists have been finding thousands of planets around other stars. This was really hard for me to wrap my head around ten years ago as they had only found a few hundred at the time, but the opportunity to find more is vast and I wanted to express that.

So I took a single grain of sand and had someone at JPL drill a hole (using a carbide drill bit) into it. The hole was 10th the size of the grain of sand! The sand represented the Milky Way galaxy which has hundreds of billions of stars. The hole is where we live, but it is also where we have found thousands of planets around other stars. In the coming years, we will find tens of thousands more in just that little area, let alone the rest of the galaxy. If you want to get a sense of all the other galaxies that we know about you need 60 rooms full of sand.

For “The Big Playground,” I put a lot of sand in a room and you can see the grain under a microscope… My favorite moment tied to this project was when a scientist who uses the Hubble telescope looked into the microscope, looked up at me, and said “You have reminded me why I work here.”

SPEAKING.COM: What message do you hope to communicate with your installations?

GOODS: I want to bring a little bit of awe and wonder to people’s lives. I try to pull them away from the everyday to give them perspective on their lives and what they will do next.

SPEAKING.COM: What scientific concepts/theories would you like to create an installation for that you haven’t yet?

GOODS: There are these giant lines and drawings in South America called the Nazca Lines. They are so big that you can only see them from the sky, but they were made thousands of years ago, before people could fly (we think). If true, someone spent a lot of energy making beautiful things that no one would ever get to see. It makes me wonder if I could create a message that is undetectable with current technology, but perceivable in the far off future.

SPEAKING.COM: What is the “Museum of Awe” and why did you launch this project?

GOODS: It’s a new kind of experience. It’s not a museum of objects, but a museum of experiences. It’s a mixture of art, science, theater, food, and surprise. Our goal is that by the end of our experience you will be reminded of what a gift and privilege it is to be alive. It’s a pop up experience that will be found in the least expected places like an abandoned building, an office in a skyscraper, or a salt mine. My buddy David Delgado and I are building this idea because we want to give people the tools to see the awe and wonder that is all around them, something that we feel is needed now more than ever.

To bring innovation speaker Dan Goods to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com

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