– A senior leader in state government

Speaking

We deliver employee engagement, productivity, success, and happiness at work, through award-winning keynotes, presentations, breakouts, and workshops all grounded in solid scientific data.

All programs can be delivered virtually.

Topics & Customization

Leadership. Engagement. Collaboration. Whatever area of your organizational success you are looking to strengthen, our sessions deliver actionable insights from cutting-edge brain science to help you do just that.

Below is a selection of the presentations we offer in-person and online. With any topic you choose, we will work with you to tailor the presentation to your organization’s specific goals and challenges. We also welcome requests for other topics. Contact us to start the conversation»

The Science of Being Happy & Productive at Work

Studies show that happier people are more productive, creative, insightful, engaged and resilient. They are also healthier and more sociable. Grounded in solid scientific data, this award-winning presentation covers dozens of actionable techniques to increase job happiness, organized around the themes of goals, relationships, and attitude. Gain specific strategies to…

Effectively cope with stress
Reboot your workflow for increased focus and creativity
Develop and sustain happiness

…and more!

This session has the option of including a session of “Choose Happiness @ Work.”

Building Belonging: The Science of Connecting in a Lonely World

We are experiencing what the Surgeon General calls an “epidemic of loneliness.” The costs are enormous. For example, loneliness reduces job performance, and the health effects of loneliness are worse than smoking 15 cigarettes a day! Fortunately, science can guide us in building a sense of belonging for ourselves and those around us. This highly interactive session will bring people together to explore these three key areas:

Comprehend: Develop a deep understanding of the many factors affecting loneliness and social isolation, from brain chemicals to societal influences.
Connect: Learn about specific actions we can take as individuals to build better connections.
Catalyze: Discover what all of us can do to build belonging in our organizations and communities.

Join us to connect with other people and explore the science of building belonging.

Empower Your Inner CEO with Mindfulness & Emotional Intelligence

Mindfulness empowers your prefrontal cortex, which we call your “inner CEO”, because it’s responsible for executive functions such as prioritization and focusing attention. Mindfulness is simply paying complete attention to the present moment without judgment. So why do it? Because a growing mountain of scientific evidence suggests that mindfulness and meditation:

Add neurons to your “inner CEO”, improving self-control and emotional regulation
Reduce stress and increase happiness
Improve your ability to focus in an extremely distracting world.

What could be better than mindfulness for leaders? Mindfulness plus emotional intelligence! Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to accurately recognize and label emotions in yourself and others. It’s the ability to work skillfully in any emotional context. Evidence shows that mindfulness boosts EI, which in turn makes our relationships and our careers more successful.

In this highly interactive workshop, you’ll try several forms of mindfulness and practice ways to boost your EI, including techniques that can be immediately applied in a busy work day. You will leave with a more powerful inner CEO, and the ability to bring mindfulness and EI to your biggest work challenges.

Engaging Your Employees to Do Great Work, Happily

Engaged employees are enthusiastic about their jobs and companies; they go the extra mile for their employer. Engagement leads to improved productivity, quality, retention and profits. So how do you get an engaged employee? This research-based, interactive session will teach you concrete, immediately applicable techniques to raise employee engagement. Explore…

Drivers of employee engagement (alignment, progress, significance, development, relationships and more) and how to deliver them in your organization.
The forces that drive employees to disengage, and how to avoid those.
How “minding the GAPs” is the key to engaging employees.

Learn the science behind engagement, and the practical steps any organization can take to boost engagement, and therefore the bottom line.

‘Gamify’ Your Leadership: What Leaders Can Learn from Game Developers

To be successful in today’s business world, leaders must provide interaction and fun to engage and retain employees. Learn how to ‘Gamify’ your organization so your teams have more fun, deliver better results, and see you and your organization as highly engaging. Learn from the masters of engagement – game developers! Explore…

How your leadership can deliver engagement just like a great video game with Autonomy, Relatedness, Mastery, and Surprise
Why giving your employees buy-in or why-in is so compelling to getting the work done
What game developers know about mastery and why you should also be “rubber banding” to engage employees and teams.

Learn the science that game developers use–and the practical steps any organization can take–to boost engagement, productivity and the bottom line.

The Science of Managing Transitions

Learn the science of more effectively managing transitions. Changes happen quickly in the world, but transitions happen more slowly inside of people. This session will help you lead yourself and others through those transitions, so you can make the most of change. We will explore:

All three phases of transitions, even though most of us only are aware of two of them
Why optimism during crisis is essential, but risky
Practical tools and techniques that will help you help your people boost their well-being, so they can be as innovative and productive as possible

Remember This! The Science of Learning and Memory

Constant change means constant learning. Learn how to learn and remember in this practical session grounded in science. Discover:

How creating a “memory palace” is key to remembering important information
Why doorways are dangerous to your memory
What foods boost your brain and memory
Why spaced out learning is better learning
Improve your ability to learn and grow.

This is one session you will not forget!

Truly Tapping Your Strengths and Those of Your Team

Conventional wisdom holds that the key to success is finding and fixing your weaknesses. The “strengths movement” maintains that the key to success is discovering and using your strengths more on the job. Data from Gallup suggests that teams that play to their strengths enjoy…

38% higher productivity
44% more customer satisfaction
50% lower turnover

Putting your strengths to work significantly increases engagement and job satisfaction. It also gives employees the energizing effect that comes with excelling at a task, saves organizations the friction of remedying weaknesses, and empowers both sides to make the most of their potential.

This practical workshop steps through discovering, understanding, and using your strengths and those of your colleagues—not just for one day, but for the rest of your life.

Using Brain Science to Engage Across Generational and Age Differences

To succeed today you must work with members of all generations. But are our differences more generational, or more the age differences between us? Brain science tells us that brains change as they age; while older brains are more successful at some activities, younger brains are more capable at others.

Neuroscience and social psychology can help guide us in working together. In this session you will:

Understand age similarities/differences, how brains function at different ages, and generation similarities/differences–and how they impact organization effectiveness.
Experience how working within and through these differences is important in creating intergenerational engagement and a thriving organization.
Use social psychology to understand universal human needs, and how to satisfy those given age and generational differences.
Break down generational stereotypes by listening to others describe who they are as members of these groups and to feel firsthand what that means.
Create action steps to move forward toward intergenerational engagement and excellence.

You will leave with immediately applicable action steps to improve your effectiveness, and that of your organization.

Fearless Leadership: The Science of Employee Psychological Safety

Research shows that psychological safety–a shared sense of trust that empowers candid conversation and interpersonal risk–is key to team success at work. How can we increase it?

In this very interactive session, you’ll deepen your understanding of psychological safety. You will conduct a short psychological safety audit that you can use to measure current levels in your organization. You’ll experience several ways of boosting psychological safety for yourself and your colleagues. We’ll look at how psychological safety can lead to more inclusion, boosted well-being, and better results. In this session you will:

Deepen your understanding of what psychological safety is (and isn’t).
See the latest data that shows why psychological safety is so important.
Experience a quick–and effective–way of measuring psychological safety.
Try out concrete ways of boosting levels of psychological safety.
Understand the SCARF model and how it supports psychological safety.

You will leave with concrete tools to improve the effectiveness of your teams.

Collaboration through Candid Conversation

This workshop will help you collaborate better by more candidly conducting difficult conversations. In this workshop, you will:

Reflect on how you relate to conflict, your organization’s culture around conflict, and how conflict might be useful.
See how a healthy mix of assertion and cooperation leads to true collaboration.
Learn how emotional intelligence can help anyone better navigate difficult conversations.

You will leave with an improved ability to make the best of any
conflict and find your way to better collaboration.

Impact

Peer-reviewed, published studies suggest that a boost in happiness increases employee productivity by 12-25%. If we make one person who is contributing $75,000 in value to your organization happier, our speaking engagement results in $9,000 added value. Based on the feedback we receive, our presentations impact the happiness and productivity of many more people in each audience.

And productivity is only one metric: Happiness is also correlated to employee engagement, talent attraction and retention, quality of work relationships, employee health, and other factors that make for successful and sustainable organizations.

Interactivity & Support

Informed by scientific insights on effective teaching and learning, all our presentations engage the audience. Your participants might find themselves leaning into one-on-one discussions, creating and committing to their personal action plans, or -literally- activating mirror neurons in the attendee next to them. Handouts are provided with summary information, activities, and additional reading. Follow-up programs to ensure sustained impact can be custom-designed for your organization.

Process

We compile key goals from stakeholders in your organization.
We interview a few participants about their biggest challenges and opportunities.
We use input from steps 1 and 2 to customize the presentation that will best meet the identified needs.
We travel to your event location and deliver the keynote and/or workshop along with handout materials.
We follow up to ensure lasting impact, using email and phone conversations, a refresher webcast, and/or a set of email reminders.

Testimonials & References

For more feedback and testimonials from previous speaking engagements, please see the Happy Clients page.

Ready to take the next step? Contact us to start the conversation or ask any questions you may have. »

Scott Crabtree – Certified Speaking Professional