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Keynote SpeakerLisa Bodell

CEO, FutureThink; Bestselling Author, Why Simple Wins

Topics

Popular Talks

Unleash The Power of Simplification
Leading Simplicity – A Roadmap
Unleashing Innovation

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Biography

When the most important work isn’t getting done, it’s not the people that need to be fixed – it’s the work. Lisa Bodell, a global leader on simplification, collaboration, and innovation, helps organizations transform performance by reimagining the work. By trading complexity for simplicity, organizations find new ways to unleash creativity and spark the energy so essential to innovate and compete. It also lifts morale, increases engagement, and improves employee well-being and retention. Lisa is the author of two groundbreaking books, Why Simple Wins and Kill the Company. She ranks on the “Top 50 Speakers Worldwide” list and captivates audiences with her insights, energy, and humor. Lisa inspires them to question the status quo and make small changes that have profound impact – giving them time and energy to focus on the work that matters most.

After earning her business degree from University of Michigan, Lisa launched her career at Leo Burnett in Chicago, where she discovered a gift for uniting strategically-driven ideas with forward-thinking themes. She went on to build two successful businesses before moving to New York and focusing on the simplification and innovation space with FutureThink. Founded in 2003, FutureThink works with leading brands worldwide and has become one of the largest sources for simplification and innovation research, tools, and training in the world.

Lisa brings a compelling perspective to the sought-after topics of simplification and innovation to thousands of people each year. A thought leader and serial entrepreneur, her transformational message has inspired executives at top-ranked organizations such as Google, SAP, Citigroup, and the Department of National Intelligence to lead change in their organizations.

Lisa has contributed her expertise to a wide variety of media. She is a monthly contributor to Forbes and has frequently appeared in other media including: Fast Company, WIRED, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and CNN. She has also been featured in many major books such as Warren Berger’s A More Beautiful Question, Adam Grant’s Originals, and AfterShock, the 50-year celebration based on futurist Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock.

Lisa has taught innovation at both American University and Fordham University and has a TED popular talk on the topic. She serves on the board of advisors of several organizations, including the Global Agenda Council for the World Economic Forum, the United States National Security Agency, the Association of Professional Futurists, and Novartis.

"Lisa is everything you look for in a keynote speaker – she’s insightful, engaging and energetic. She was the top-rated speaker at our Google events and inspired the entire audience to start a simplification revolution.” Think Events, Google

“Lisa's message around change and simplification is incredibly relevant and compelling. Her talk is thought-provoking, challenging and necessary given today's complex and ever-changing business environment.” Global Managing Director, Accenture

“Lisa is one of the most outstanding presenters I have ever seen. She passionately delivers well-articulated messages that engage the audience and encourage action. Her insights will become essential elements of our culture.” CEO, NYSE Euronext

“Lisa’s presentation was the absolute favorite of our 3-day offsite! I now have a totally new way of looking at simplification and innovation. I would recommend her and her team to anyone planning an event in a heartbeat.” Vice President, Delta Airlines

“Incredible. Lisa captivated the audience with insightful, well-articulated thoughts about technologies and trends that could transform our industry. In a very short time, she energized people to be more proactive about shaping our future.” VP for Worldwide Innovation, Pfizer

“Lisa blew us away. Inspiring and practical. People were up off their feet, laughing and thinking. Cell phones were constantly going up to take pictures of her presentation. She exceeded all expectations.” Chief Learning Officer, AXA

“Over the years, I’ve tried many ‘gurus’ to educate our leaders. Lisa is the real thing – she’s inspiring, motivating, practical, and memorable. She ignites the possible with the audience. She was the top rated speaker at our executive events.” Executive L&D, AT&T

“Lisa made my leadership team think in new ways and helped us develop winning business ideas right in the room. My team now embraces change and innovation rather than fearing it.” Managing Director, Citi

“Lisa’s presentations have transformed the way our leaders think. Lisa provides a mix of practical, easy to use tools and inspiration, which has helped to create a new mindset around how to innovate in all parts of our company." Executive Director of Enterprise Learning, Merck

“Such a professional! Very insightful! It was the best of all sessions!” Pasha Holdings

“Amazing presentation! Extremely informative and thought provoking!” Financial Reporting Specialist, Prudential

“People loved her message of simplifying and ‘getting rid of stupid rules.’ This could be a risky message for a company like ours, but she made clear distinctions about the controls that regulated industries like ours have to maintain vs. the types of things that can be stopped. There were a number of spots where it was clear that she did her homework. She was able to deliver her message while speaking to things that were very specific to our industry or even company. On top of her ‘on stage’ performance, she was just a delight to have on site. Everyone that she engaged with, from our senior executives to the person that put her microphone on was blown away by how much energy she gave them.” Fortune 500 client

“Lisa was a dream to work with and provided insights and tips on how to kill complexity in the workplace. Our members love takeaways they can implement upon their return to work...Lisa provided those and more!” Vice President of Operations, Dental Trade Alliance

Popular Talks by Lisa Bodell

Unleash The Power of Simplification
Complexity is crippling our organizations. Unproductive meetings, irrelevant rules and reports, and endless emails keep people from doing the work that matters most. Worse, complexity dampens morale and creates feelings of futility. It doesn’t have to be this way. CEO and TED-talk veteran Lisa Bodell shows organizations how to unleash...
Complexity is crippling our organizations. Unproductive meetings, irrelevant rules and reports, and endless emails keep people from doing the work that matters most. Worse, complexity dampens morale and creates feelings of futility. It doesn’t have to be this way. CEO and TED-talk veteran Lisa Bodell shows organizations how to unleash the energy, collaboration, innovation, and engagement lying in wait by embracing a mindset of simplification right now. This spirited presentation shows how small changes can have a profound impact on the organization’s people, competitiveness, and ability to adapt. Lisa offers techniques used by the nimblest of companies to save time, kill rules, and simplify everything. Drawing on research from her book, Why Simple Wins, Lisa’s energy, engaging stories, and interactive exercises prove that using simplicity as an operating principle is the surest path to organizational transformation.

You will learn:
- How simplification sparks action and enables groups to move faster with more focus than everyone else.
- Why simplification is not just a method but a mindset and a habit – a key to resilience and adaptability.
- How to create a workplace where there’s more time to innovate and think.
- How asking questions helps eliminate organizational and individual busywork that’s outlived its time.
- Web-based real-time interactive exercises reveal what’s holding people back from embracing simplification.
- How killing complexity increases trust, engagement, talent retention, and helps people be their best.
Leading Simplicity – A Roadmap
Embracing simplicity as an operational mindset will unleash the power of people and create a sustainable competitive advantage. But building a culture of simplicity requires advocates and leaders who send a message that simplicity is a strategic priority and that it’s OK to challenge the status quo. In this presentation,...
Embracing simplicity as an operational mindset will unleash the power of people and create a sustainable competitive advantage. But building a culture of simplicity requires advocates and leaders who send a message that simplicity is a strategic priority and that it’s OK to challenge the status quo. In this presentation, Lisa Bodell delivers real-world insights leaders can use to inspire their teams, ignite disruptive thinking, build speed and agility, and turn problems into possibilities. With energy, humor, and revealing interactive exercises, Lisa shows how simplicity is the catalyst that accelerates innovation, collaboration, engagement, and growth. Building simplicity into organizational DNA creates a sustainable competitive advantage because it’s the absolute foundation of resilience in the face of never-ending change.

“We’ve got to give people permission to challenge how they work. People know what’s driving them crazy. Simplification changes everything and unleashes them to focus on transformative work.”

You will learn:
- Why culture comes down to the work people do every day. If you get the work right, you get the culture right.
- How to make it normal to challenge the norm, creating space for change and true innovation to happen.
- Drive an agenda that makes simplification a seamless part of your operating system; placing equal importance on eliminating work as adding it.
- When people aren’t drowning in the work of doing work there’s more engagement, less frustration, increased well-being, and improved retention.
- Set the groundwork for enduring change and improved problem-solving by reducing stress and giving teams the space to think and do the “work of work,” not just busy work.
Unleashing Innovation
In most organizations, the very structures put in place to help them grow all too often hold them back. As structures languish unchecked, people become overwhelmed with outdated processes, policies, reports, committees and meetings that frustrate them and hijack their workdays. Is it any wonder innovation becomes a challenge? In this presentation,...
In most organizations, the very structures put in place to help them grow all too often hold them back. As structures languish unchecked, people become overwhelmed with outdated processes, policies, reports, committees and meetings that frustrate them and hijack their workdays. Is it any wonder innovation becomes a challenge? In this presentation, simplicity expert Lisa Bodell shows how to increase the capacity for innovation by banishing unnecessary complexity. Making work simpler is the key to unshackling people to spend time and energy on their most important work. Lisa helps shift the organizational mindset – engaging everyone in the process of questioning the status quo. The tools and insights she provides help solve problems that stand in the way of breakthrough innovation.

“Getting the work right liberates people to apply their time and imagination in ways that drive performance and innovation.”

You will learn:
- How to make work simpler and reignite critical aptitudes such as curiosity, inquiry, and creative problem-solving.
- How companies are killing stupid rules to eliminate hurdles and focus people on work that leads to breakthrough innovation.
- Practical yet provocative techniques for reinvention and innovation with current products and services.
- Real-life examples of how even the smallest changes can have big impact.
- Discover what is hijacking people’s time through Lisa’s interactive audience polling.