Speaking on Navigating Change in Complex Human Systems
I speak to people and organizations working in the middle of change, particularly when the path forward isn’t clear, the stakes are real, and progress depends on how well people can think and act together.
My talks focus on culture and systems, collaboration, and decision-making in complex environments, drawing on research, practice, and lived experience to help groups make better sense of the work they’re doing.
These are not motivational speeches or step-by-step playbooks. Instead, they’re designed to help people slow down their thinking, surface real tensions, and engage more honestly with the challenges they’re already facing.
Upcoming presentations and workshops
- June 8, 2023 | Crafting Stories [Workshop]. Thistle Farms Global Partner Network, Nashville, TN
Ideas I explore on stage
Much of my work sits at the intersection of different worlds; academic and practical, mission-driven and market-driven, individual experience and collective systems.
On stage, I help groups make sense of how these worlds collide, overlap, and sometimes work against one another and what becomes possible when people learn to navigate those tensions more intentionally.
Working Together When No One is Fully in Charge
How change actually happens across teams, organizations, and sectors, and why coordination, trust, and shared meaning matter more than formal authority.
Culture as the Hidden Driver of Results
Why outcomes are shaped less by formal structures and more by the stories people tell, the norms they follow, and the assumptions they carry from one context into another.
Translating Between Different Ways of Seeing the World
How people from different backgrounds, whether professional, cultural, generational, or ideological, often talk past one another, and what it takes to build shared understanding without forcing false agreement.
Leading Without Clear Answers
What it means to lead when problems are evolving, outcomes are uncertain, and people don’t agree on what “success” even looks like.
Beyond Individual Heroics
Why lasting change depends less on exceptional individuals and more on the quality of relationships, coordination, and learning between people and groups.
Making Sense of Change in a Fragmented World
How polarization, rapid technological shifts, and overlapping crises are reshaping how people relate to institutions, to one another, and to the future, and why sensemaking has become a critical collective skill.
The Human Side of Change
How attention, empathy, and self-awareness shape collaboration, and why technical solutions alone rarely solve human problems.
Selected Speaking Engagements
- Alzheimer’s Association (National)
- American Marketing Association, Chicago Chapter
- Boy Scouts of America (National)
- Chicago Area Direct Marketing Association (CADM)
- Military Spouse Project
- Licensing International
- West Virginia Society of Association Executives
- College of DuPage
- Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)
- Evolve 4 Change Conference
- Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation Conference
- E-Commerce Directions Conference
- Florida Sterling Quality Conference
- Internet World
- Keen Digital Summit
- National Center for Database Marketing (NCDM)
- Next Gen: Charity
- Patti Digh’s Design Your Life Camp
- Advanced Software Applications (ASA)
- Amazon Inventions Tour
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of FL
- Group 1 Software
- Marketing Information Systems (MkIS) User Forum
If you’re convening a group around questions of change, collaboration, or culture, and think these ideas might be useful, you can reach out here.