Speaker
Ted has delivered keynote speeches to audiences of 1,800 people, conducted workshops for twelve, and every group size in between.
His topics relate to the traps that individuals and groups fall into when they tackle any form of complexity, and the strategies to avoid these pitfalls.
What Most Leaders Miss
An excerpt from a conference speech where 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 speech where Ted explores the cognitive traps that lure us when we confront complex problems of any kind.
Leadership
The Pervasive Missing Ingredient
The missing ingredient is the ability to orchestrate deep and productive team dialogue. The key is to leverage cognitive diversity by fostering constructive dissent. Today’s leader must be the Chief Conversation Facilitator.
Group Decision-Making
Beware The Pitfalls of Team Discussion
When groups gather to interact, they are vulnerable to routine pitfalls, such as group polarization, group think, and path dependence. From departmental meetings to board offsites, teams ignore these traps at their peril.
Tackling Complex Problems
Why We Often 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 our self-sabotaging tendencies, such as oversimplifying, overconfidence, and over-reacting.
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.
“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 Toronto Metropolitan University