Speaker
Ted has delivered keynote speeches to audiences of 1,800 people, conducted workshops for twelve, and addressed every group size in between.
What Most Leaders Miss
An excerpt from a conference speech in which Ted highlights one of the key attributes of successful leaders — one that is rarely discussed or written about!
We Conserve Mental Energy
An excerpt from a conference speech in which Ted discusses the traps that await us when we confront complex problems of any kind.
Leadership
The Missing Ingredient in 21st-Century Leadership
The missing ingredient for many leaders is the ability to orchestrate productive team dialogue. How? By leveraging cognitive diversity. How? By fostering constructive dissent. Today’s leader must be the Chief Conversation Facilitator.
Intended for organizational audiences that include leaders of any size teams.
Group Decision-Making
Avoiding the Three Pitfalls of Team Discussion
All team meetings, from departmental meetings to board strategic offsites, are vulnerable to three pitfalls when individuals assemble to interact: group polarization, group think, and path dependence. A group ignores these traps at their peril.
Intended for organizational audiences.
Problem Solving
The Three Reasons We Mess Up
More than ever, we need to ramp up the complexity of our thinking to match the complexity of our challenges. We do this by correcting for our three self-sabotaging tendencies: oversimplifying, overconfidence, and over-reacting.
Intended for both organizational and non-organizational audiences.
Hard to Be Human
The Five Design Flaws of Modern Homo Sapiens
What is unique about being human? The five big design flaws that make human life harder than it needs to be. And five big workarounds that fix these flaws.
Intended for both organizational and non-organizational audiences. Typically a keynote.
Emotion Management
The Over-reactive Human Animal
Why are we are so affected by so many trivial disturbances? Why do we jeopardize so many of our relationships over perceived slights? An exploration of why we over-react and how we can manage our emotions more productively (and reduce self-inflicted turmoil).
Intended for both organizational and non-organizational audiences.
Meaning-Seeking
Finding Value in Our Lives
Only humans need “meaning” but this need is not easily met. Philosophers and psychologists have wrestled with existential angst and come up with some very powerful insights and solutions.
Intended for non-organizational audiences but can be adapted to a business setting.
“Your keynote was identified in evaluations as one of the top 3 highlights of our conference, with comments such as ‘very inspiring’ and ‘perfect opener.’”
Robert P. Taylor, PhD, CEO of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada
“Ted brought insights in a compelling presentation that provided practical steps leaders can take.”
John Brewer, Director, The Conference Board of Canada
“Ted’s speech provided very illuminating insight into cutting-edge research, as evidenced by the extended Q&A.”
Chris MacDonald, PhD, Director of Ted Rogers Leadership Centre at Ryerson University