This was one of the most productive workshops I've attended. I walked away with a framework for introducing a systematic approach to innovation in my organization.
John Kao
Chairman, The Institute for Large Scale Innovation Former Harvard Business School Professor who developed the acclaimed curriculum on Innovation & Business Creativity Bestselling Author
Featured Topics
Fee Range
Please contact us for pricing
John Kao
Biography
Today's leaders have a monumental challenge before them, as they lead in an era whose very essence is defined by disruption at global scale. Even before the current pandemic, we lived in a perfect storm of accelerated innovation, geopolitical uncertainty and black swans. These heightened days of disruption have elevated our need to re-evaluate prevailing models of leadership in order to reach a desired future state, and DR. JOHN KAO is at the forefront of a new leadership framework entitled The Six Intelligences, that will drive smart leadership in disrupted times.
Dr. Kao has played a leading role in the fields of innovation and business creativity for over 30 years, and his work reflects an ongoing engagement with advanced, disruptive technologies. His advisory and venture development activity has embraced fields as diverse as innovation learning, blockchain credentialing for education, AI & big data, data ownership & privacy, immersive gaming, collaboration technology and more. His knowledge is eclectic and blends the perspectives of former Harvard Business School professor, bestselling author, serial entrepreneur, musician, master facilitator, Harvard-trained psychiatrist, and Tony-nominated producer of film and stage. He developed Harvard Business School's acclaimed curriculum on business creativity and innovation, and has been an advisor to Fortune 50 companies as well as governments. He has shared his approaches at The World Economic Forum Davos, TED, Google, the Keidanren and NATO, and has been dubbed "Mr. Creativity" and a "Serial Innovator" by The Economist.
John Kao's presentations and workshops will help you and your organization realize fresh horizons of opportunity and position you toward your desired future.
John Kao
Featured Video
Current: John Kao
Time 14:40
John Kao
Featured Keynote Programs
What the Hell Do We Do Now? The Art and Discipline of Navigating in Uncertain Times
In this keynote speech, John covers how we stand and face the future and particular the wicked problems – greater uncertainty, turmoil, disruption, wicked problems, the gap between generations, accelerating technology, changing definition of nation states in a time of globalization, super-empowered individuals who upset the playing field, non-linearity, income inequality and on and on.
Living and working in an era of hyper-disruption.
Creating a new playbook when the old playbook doesn’t work any more
The dinosaurs will perish, the new mammalian forms will survive.
Future-proofing Your Organization (country) (industry) (life)
In this speech John covers the essential Future Proofing Portfolio
Building capabilities for looking around corners
Embracing the network – digital fluency for speed, agility, awareness
Affirming core values
Leveraging diversity – gender, culture, age
Expanding creative repertoire – exercising organizational intuition
Conducting experiments, learning, lean, rapid prototyping
Use beginner’s mind
Innovation becomes a way of making the future you want
EdgeMaking
21st Century Leadership
In this speech John covers the shifting landscape and the challenges to traditional leadership:
A particular leadership approach is a set of answers to a question; it arises in a particular context. Cultivating 21st century leadership skills requires a new set of character strengths, including curiosity, creativity, agility, ability to tolerate uncertainty and paradoxes, intuition, empathy
The EdgeMakers character strengths framework
The Leader as an EdgeMaker
The leading organization as an EdgeMaker
The 6 Intelligences that Will Drive Smart Leadership in Disrupted Times
Leaders who navigate successfully through times of great uncertainty understand that resolving problems in an era of constant disruption involves enlarging a leader’s cognitive space and cultivating a new kind of hybrid thinking, acting and organizing. This blended framework of thought and action is what Dr. Kao refers to as The Six Intelligences that will drive smart leadership in disrupted times.
Leaders who ultimately understand and implement this blended framework of six intelligences, will be able to:
Become the patrons of new possibilities
Know how to make useful exceptions
Champion emergent opportunities and anticipate emergent threats
Find, empower and provision talent
Sponsor meaningful experiments
Evangelize by keeping and communicating the vision/culture
Orchestrate processes to capitalize on human diversity
Inspire activism and galvanize action
If your leadership team is looking for new strategies to move beyond disruption and closer to a desired future state, then Dr. Kao is an essential guide. Bringing his personal brand of deep knowledge, foresight and method to leaders and organizations in search of their desired future, Dr. Kao helps his clients reimagine the current state of disruption and activate fresh new agendas for success.
