Most Frequently Requested Programs
How Outstanding Leaders Avoid Business Decision-Making Disasters
When was the last time you saw a business disaster, whether a minor mishap such as excessive team conflict or a major calamity that threatened bankruptcy? Behavioral economics studies show that most of these disasters are preventable and stem from one or more poor decisions. Pioneering leaders have recently begun integrating decision science into their decision-making processes to help the teams and organizations they lead avoid disasters. This presentation offers case studies and best practices from these pioneering leaders and provides clear take-aways to help you avoid disasters.
- Identify situations that might lead to business disasters
- Learn about problematic mental patterns (called cognitive biases) that lead to poor decisions
- Discover how pioneering organizations address cognitive biases to make wise decisions
- Adapt best practices on avoiding disasters from these organizations to your own context
- Develop processes that empower everyone in your organization to avoid disasters
- This program is usually delivered in a keynote of 60 minutes with time for audience peer-to-peer interaction and Q&A. It can range from a brief TED-style talk of 20 minutes to a half-day training with extensive exercises.
- This program is well-suited for anyone who has or aspires to a leadership role.
Outstanding Leadership Through Social Intelligence
You can become a truly outstanding leader through developing your social intelligence, the strategic ability to evaluate and influence other people’s emotions and behaviors. Social intelligence skills will determine your success in cultivating valuable relationships, improving teamwork, managing conflicts, exhibiting executive presence, and guiding stakeholders to achieving organizational objectives. This presentation offers case studies on effective use of social intelligence-based strategies and provides clear take-aways to help you become an outstanding leader.
- Identify where your leadership skills can most benefit from improving your social intelligence
- Learn best practices for using social intelligence in leadership contexts
- Discover how truly outstanding leaders use social intelligence to achieve their leadership goals
- Adapt social intelligence-informed strategies from these leaders into your own leadership toolkit
- Empower others in your organization to improve their leadership through social intelligence
- This program is usually delivered in a keynote of 60-90 minutes with time for audience peer-to-peer interaction and Q&A. It can range from a brief TED-style talk of 20 minutes to a half-day training with extensive exercises.
- This program is well-suited for anyone who has or aspires to a leadership role.
Achieving Organizational Goals Through Social Intelligence
Why do most organizations act as though people are driven solely by logic and reason? After all, extensive behavioral economics research shows that the large majority of our behavior is based on emotions. Failing to engage stakeholder emotions effectively undercuts motivation and engagement, and leads to turnover, internal discord, and toxic cultures. Pioneering organizations address these problems by relying on social intelligence, the strategic ability to evaluate and influence other people’s emotions and behaviors. This presentation offers case studies from these organizations and provides clear take-aways to help you use social intelligence-based strategies to achieve your organization’s goals.
- Identify where your organization’s policies may be misaligned with people’s emotional drivers
- Learn best practices for using social intelligence in organizational contexts
- Discover how pioneering organizations use social intelligence to achieve their goals
- Adapt social intelligence-informed best practices from these organizations into your own context
- Incentivize others in your organization to follow these best practices
- This program is usually delivered in a keynote of 60 minutes with time for audience peer-to-peer interaction and Q&A. It can range from a brief TED-style talk of 20 minutes to a half-day training with extensive exercises.
- This program is well-suited for anyone who works in organizations of at least 25 people and has a role in shaping organizational culture.
Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion Through Social Intelligence
For you to achieve outstanding diversity & inclusion results requires strong social intelligence, the ability to evaluate and influence other people’s social interactions. Our evolutionary background has resulted in unconscious bias and other problematic mental patterns (called cognitive biases) that leads to tribal behaviors, undermining D&I initiatives. To deal with tribalism, pioneering organizations are applying social intelligence-based strategies to address the cognitive biases that result in tribalism and undercut D&I. This presentation offers case studies from these pioneering organizations and provides clear take-aways to help you achieve outstanding D&I results.
- Learn how our evolutionary background and cognitive biases undermine D&I
- Assess situations where these biases might impact your D&I efforts
- Discover how pioneering organizations use social intelligence to address cognitive biases in D&I
- Adapt these social intelligence-informed best practices into your own organizational D&I context
- Incentivize others in your organization to follow these best practices for D&I
- This program is usually delivered in a keynote of 60-90 minutes with time for audience peer-to-peer interaction and Q&A. It can range from a brief TED-style talk of 20 minutes to a half-day training with extensive exercises.
- This program is well-suited for anyone who has or aspires to improve diversity and inclusion in their organization.
Cultivating Trust for Competitive Advantage
Would you work with someone you don’t trust? Of course not. Trust is the vital if invisible glue holding an organization together, internally and externally. A lack of trust profoundly damages employee engagement, retention, and productivity, and severely hinders your ability to work with vendors and get customers. Fortunately, research on best business practices shows how you can gain a reputation for trustworthiness, internally and externally. This presentation offers case studies from organizations noted for trust-based cultures and provides clear take-aways to help you gain a competitive advantage by cultivating trust.
- Learn about the vital role of trust in organizations
- Assess the existing level of trust within your organization
- Discover best business practices for developing trust-based internal cultures and reputations
- Adapt best practices on cultivating trust to your own organizational context
- Incentivize others in your organization to engage in best practices for cultivating trust
- This program is usually delivered in a keynote of 60 minutes with time for audience peer-to-peer interaction and Q&A. It can range from a brief TED-style talk of 20 minutes to a half-day training with extensive exercises.
- This program is well-suited for anyone who works in organizations of at least 25 people and has a role in shaping organizational culture.
Leadership Success Through Emotional Intelligence
True leadership success requires outstanding emotional intelligence, self-awareness and self-management of one’s emotions and intuitions. Our emotional reactions stem from our evolutionary heritage and are poorly adapted to modern professional environments. Successful leaders develop an awareness of when their emotions are leading them astray, and use effective strategies to steer their emotions into helpful channels. This presentation offers case studies from such leaders and provides clear take-aways to help you gain the emotional intelligence required for true leadership success.
- Identify where your leadership skills can most benefit from improving your emotional intelligence
- Learn best practices for using emotional intelligence in leadership contexts
- Discover how truly successful leaders use emotional intelligence to achieve their leadership goals
- Adapt emotional intelligence-informed strategies from these leaders into your own leadership toolkit
- Empower others in your organization to improve their leadership through emotional intelligence
- This program is usually delivered in a keynote of 60 minutes with time for audience peer-to-peer interaction and Q&A. It can range from a brief TED-style talk of 20 minutes to a half-day training with extensive exercises.
- This program is well-suited for anyone who has or aspires to a leadership role.
3 Secrets to Engaging Employees Through Meaning and Purpose
Your bottom line depends on your employees being highly engaged. Research on companies with highly engaged employees shows the importance of cultivating a sense of meaning and purpose in the workplace to increase productivity and teamwork, and decrease sick days and turnover. This presentation offers case studies from such organizations and provides clear take-aways to help you develop a workplace with meaning and purpose in a cost-effective manner that improves your bottom line.
- Learn why a sense of meaning and purpose is vital to employee engagement
- Assess the level of meaning and purpose in your own organization
- Discover 3 research-based secrets used by organizations noted for high meaning and purpose
- Adapt best practices from these organizations into your own organizational context
- Incentivize others in your organization to follow these best practices on meaning and purpose
- This program is usually delivered in a keynote of 60 minutes with time for audience peer-to-peer interaction and Q&A. It can range from a brief TED-style talk of 20 minutes to a half-day training with extensive exercises.
- This program is well-suited for anyone who works in organizations of at least 25 people and has a role in shaping organizational culture.
Should You Trust Your Gut? Leadership Myths Busted
You probably heard advice for leaders to go with their guts, stick to their guns, and be confident. Unfortunately, behavioral economics studies show that following these typical pieces of advice – and many similar ones – often leads to disastrous consequences for leaders, since our gut reactions and intuitions are a poor fit for leadership contexts. Groundbreaking research on best leadership practices forms the basis for this presentation, which busts leadership myths and offers clear take-aways to facilitate your leadership success.
- Identify where and when typical leadership advice is helpful and where and when it is not
- Understand why and when our gut reactions are a poor fit for leadership contexts, and when our gut reactions serve us well
- Discover how problematic mental patterns (called cognitive biases) lead to leadership disasters
- Learn the groundbreaking research on best leadership practices that busts leadership myths
- Develop a plan to integrate these practices into your leadership toolkit and teach them to other leaders in your organization
- This program is usually delivered in a keynote of 60 minutes with time for audience peer-to-peer interaction and Q&A. It can range from a brief TED-style talk of 20 minutes to a half-day training with extensive exercises.
- This program is well-suited for anyone who has or aspires to a leadership role.
Risk Management in Hiring & Promotion
When was the last time you saw a hiring & promotion disaster, whether a hire that did not work out or a serious lawsuit over perceptions of hiring & promotion discrimination? How do you avoid situations that lead to unacceptable risks in hiring & promotion? Behavioral economics studies show that most hiring & promotion disasters are preventable and stem from one or more poor decisions. Pioneering leaders have recently begun integrating decision science into their decision-making processes on hiring & promotion to help the teams and organizations they lead avoid disasters. This presentation offers case studies and best practices from these pioneering leaders and provides clear take-aways to help you avoid disasters in hiring & promotion.
- Identify situations that create unacceptable risks in hiring & promotion
- Learn about problematic mental patterns (called cognitive biases) that lead to unacceptable risks in hiring & promotion
- Discover how pioneering organizations address cognitive biases to avoid unacceptable risks in hiring & promotion
- Adapt best practices on avoiding unacceptable risks from these organizations to your own context
- Develop processes that empower everyone in your organization to avoid unacceptable risks in hiring & promotion
- This program is usually delivered in a keynote of 60 minutes with time for audience peer-to-peer interaction and Q&A. It can range from a brief TED-style talk of 20 minutes to a half-day training with extensive exercises.
- This program is well-suited for anyone who has or aspires to a leadership role with responsibility over hiring & promotion.
Outstanding Selling Through Social Intelligence
You can become a truly outstanding sales professional through developing your social intelligence, the strategic ability to evaluate and influence other people’s emotions and behaviors. Social intelligence skills will determine your long-term sales success by empowering you to cultivate valuable relationships with prospects through understand and satisfying their needs and wants, the emotional drivers that determine their buying behaviors. This presentation offers case studies on effective use of social intelligence-based strategies in sales and provides clear take-aways to help you become an outstanding sales professional.
- Identify where your sales skills can most benefit from improving your social intelligence
- Learn best practices for using social intelligence in sales contexts
- Discover how truly outstanding sales professionals use social intelligence to achieve their sales goals
- Adapt social intelligence-informed strategies from these professionals into your own sales toolkit
- Empower others in your organization to improve their sales skills through social intelligence
- This program is usually delivered in a keynote of 60 minutes with time for audience peer-to-peer interaction and Q&A. It can range from a brief TED-style talk of 20 minutes to a half-day training with extensive exercises.
- This program is well-suited for anyone who is involved in sales or oversees sales professionals.
Leadership Success Via Managing Risks, Avoiding Threats, and Seizing Opportunities
To succeed as a leader requires you to excel at managing risks by avoiding threats and seizing opportunities. Yet behavioral economics and neuroscience studies shows that the human mind is wired to make many poor decisions when assessing threats and opportunities in modern business environments. Fortunately, cutting-edge research has shown innovative strategies that help us make decisions in ways that optimize risk management and avoid dangerous judgment errors. Pioneering leaders have been integrating this research into their decision-making processes to notice and avoid potential threats while perceiving and taking advantage of unexpected opportunities. This presentation offers case studies and best practices from these pioneering leaders and provides clear take-aways to help you manage risks, threats, and opportunities successfully.
- Assess where you can most benefit from improving your leadership ability to manage risks by avoiding threats and seizing opportunities
- Learn best practices and cutting-edge research on avoiding dangerous judgment errors to make the best decisions around risk management
- Explore case studies of how truly successful leaders use pioneering techniques to help them make optimal decisions on avoiding potential threats and seizing unexpected opportunities
- Adapt risk management and decision-making strategies from these leaders into your own toolkit
- Empower others in your organization to improve their risk management and decision-making skills around addressing threats and taking advantage of opportunities
- Integrate cutting-edge risk management and decision-making strategies into your organization’s standard operating procedures
- This program is usually delivered in a keynote of 60 minutes with time for audience peer-to-peer interaction and Q&A. It can range from a brief TED-style talk of 20 minutes to a half-day training with extensive exercises.
- This program is well-suited for anyone who is involved in risk management.
Overcoming Resistance to Change Through Social Intelligence
Overcoming resistance to change requires outstanding social intelligence, the strategic ability to evaluate and influence other people’s emotions and relationships. Resistance to change is an inherent part of human psychology, due to fears of uncertainty and loss of stability that come with any significant organization changes. To manage and lead organizational change requires social intelligence skills that help overcome these fears, including thoughtful empathy, cultivating valuable relationships, improving teamwork, managing conflicts, exhibiting executive presence, and guiding stakeholders to achieving organizational change objectives. This presentation offers case studies on effective use of social intelligence-based strategies and provides clear take-aways to help you manage change effectively.
- Identify situations where resistance to change is likely to undermine organizational objectives
- Evaluate where your organization’s change management policies may be misaligned with people’s emotional drivers
- Learn best practices for using social intelligence to address change resistance
- Discover how truly outstanding leaders use social intelligence to manage and lead change
- Adapt social intelligence-informed strategies from these leaders into your own change management toolkit
- Empower others in your organization to improve their change management skills through social intelligence
- This program is usually delivered in a keynote of 60 minutes with time for audience peer-to-peer interaction and Q&A. It can range from a brief TED-style talk of 20 minutes to a full-day workshop with extensive exercises.
- This program is well-suited for anyone who is involved in managing and leading change.
In-Depth Sample Program for 8-Hour Workshop
Leadership Success Via Managing Risks, Avoiding Threats, and Seizing Opportunities
This sample program is designed for a whole-day workshop. It can be shortened to a half-day workshop, a 60 to 90-minute keynote, or 20-minute TED-style talk.
To succeed as a leader requires you to excel at managing risks by avoiding threats and seizing opportunities. Yet behavioral economics and neuroscience studies shows that the human mind is wired to make many poor decisions when assessing threats and opportunities in modern business environments. Fortunately, cutting-edge research has shown innovative strategies that help us make decisions in ways that optimize risk management and avoid dangerous judgment errors. Pioneering leaders have been integrating this research into their decision-making processes to notice and avoid potential threats while perceiving and taking advantage of unexpected opportunities. This presentation offers case studies and best practices from these pioneering leaders and provides clear take-aways to help you manage risks, threats, and opportunities successfully.
- Assess where you can most benefit from improving your leadership ability to manage risks by avoiding threats and seizing opportunities
- Learn best practices and cutting-edge research on avoiding dangerous judgment errors to make the best decisions around risk management
- Explore case studies of how truly successful leaders use pioneering techniques to help them make optimal decisions on avoiding potential threats and seizing unexpected opportunities
- Adapt risk management and decision-making strategies from these leaders into your own toolkit
- Empower others in your organization to improve their risk management and decision-making skills around addressing threats and taking advantage of opportunities
- Integrate cutting-edge risk management and decision-making strategies into your organization’s standard operating procedures
- Planned Agenda (480 minutes)
- 60-minute presentation on risk avoidance and management
- It will focus on where and how dangerous judgment errors (cognitive biases) pose the biggest risks for leaders and how leaders can most effectively notice and address such risks.
- 15-minute Q&A
- 15-minute break
- 60-minute assessment exercise
- Training participants will get a free copy of the “Assessment on Dangerous Judgment Errors in the Workplace” and take the assessment. Then, they will discuss the assessment outcomes in groups of 3-4. Each participant will have a chance to get suggestions for addressing these problems from other participants and the presenter. Each participant will also commit to at least two next steps and exchange information with other participants to help support each other and hold each other accountable after the meeting. At the end there will be a reporting out from different groups, to give each a chance to learn from the others. The presenter will also provide a free electronic manual with assessment templates for participants to enable others in their organization members to take the assessment. Out of this exercise, participants will get a pragmatic and specific and practical understanding where such dangerous judgment errors might be posing the biggest risks in their work.
- 15-minute break
- 60-minute technique implementation exercise:
- This segment will focus on the “Failure-Proofing” technique, a highly effective tool to address dangerous judgment errors. Participants will get into groups of 3-4. Each participant will choose a current project or process in their organization. Then, they will be asked to imagine that the project or process suffered a disaster. They will then brainstorm all the plausible threats that could cause this failure. Next, they will evaluate numerically the likelihood of each threat occurring, as well as the significance of the threat if it does come about. Then, they will brainstorm ways of addressing the threats. Finally, they will check for gut reactions and cognitive biases. Each participant will have a chance to get suggestions at each step of the process from other participants and the presenter. Each participant will also commit to at least two next steps and exchange information with other participants to help support each other and hold each other accountable after the meeting. At the end there will be a reporting out from different groups, to give each a chance to learn from the others. The presenter will also provide a free electronic manual that they can use to educate those in their organization about this strategy. Out of this exercise, participants will get not only a clear set of pragmatic fixes to potential threats to the projects and processes they oversee, but also a thorough understanding of how to apply this strategy in their day-to-day activities.
- 60-minute lunch break
- 60-minute technique implementation exercise:
- This segment will focus on the “Avoiding Disastrous Decisions” technique, a highly effective tool to minimize risks in making decisions. Participants will get into groups of 3-4. Each participant will choose a potential upcoming major decision, and then decide on the criteria for decision-making. Next, they will weigh the relative importance of these criteria. Then, they will rank the options. Next, they will multiply the weighted criteria by the rankings to get initial numbers. Finally, they will check for gut reactions and cognitive biases. Each participant will have a chance to get suggestions at each step of the process from other members and the presenter. Each participant will also commit to at least two next steps and exchange information with other participants to help support each other and hold each other accountable after the meeting. At the end there will be a reporting out from different groups, to give each a chance to learn from the others. The presenter will also provide a free electronic manual that they can use to educate those in their organization about this strategy. Out of this exercise, members will get not only a solid answer to whatever decision they chose, but also a thorough understanding of how to apply this strategy in their professional activities.
- 15-minute break
- 60-minute technique implementation exercise:
- This segment will focus on the “Addressing Threats and Seizing Opportunities” technique, a highly effective tool for making a long-term plan that incorporates addressing typical judgment errors. Participants will get into groups of 3-4. Each participant will choose a broad area of their professional activity. Then, they will evaluate the kind of resources required to address this area if everything goes according to plan. Next, they will address potential internal and external threats and opportunities that might arise in this area, the probability that such threats will occur, the ways such threats might be addressed, and the additional resources that might be required. They will also check for gut reactions and cognitive biases. Each participant will have a chance to get suggestions at each step of the process from other members and the presenter. Each participant will also commit to at least two next steps and exchange information with other participants to help support each other and hold each other accountable after the meeting. At the end there will be a reporting out from different groups, to give each a chance to learn from the others. The presenter will also provide a free electronic manual that they can use to educate those in their organization about this strategy. Out of this exercise, participants will not only get a clear vision of the future plan and resource requirements for the specific broad area of their professional activities that they chose, but also a thorough understanding of how to apply this strategy to other areas.
- 15-minute break
- 30-minute plan development interactive exercise:
- Training participants will get into pairs with a partner. They will develop a specific plan for integrating all the information presented in the program into their professional context, including how to teach these techniques to others in their organization. They will discuss this plan with their partner, address any issues, and exchange contact information to have the partner support them and hold them accountable. Out of this exercise, members will get a thorough plan for specific next steps in integrating all the information from the training into their daily professional lives.
- 15-minute conclusion presentation, summarizing and integrating all the points brought up earlier
- 60-minute presentation on risk avoidance and management
If you’re interested in having one of these programs customized to your audience, or if you would like us to create a special program to meet your needs by using his expertise in decision-making and emotional and social intelligence, get in touch today!