Curt Steinhorst

AI can process. It can predict. It can even create. But it can't notice what matters in the periphery. Ask the question behind the question. Imagine what doesn't yet exist. Discern meaning from noise. Create from conviction. Release what no longer serves.
 
As AI handles knowledge work, the deeper question emerges: What stays human? Not which tasks to protect, but which capabilities become more valuable as machines become more capable. The answer requires something machines don't have: The attention to see what others miss. The curiosity to question what others accept. The courage to create what doesn't yet exist.

These aren't soft skills—they're the hardest skills of all, and they become more valuable as technology scales.

The Human Advantage explores how leaders cultivate what stays human—not as nostalgia for the past, but as strategy for the future. You'll discover why these human capacities multiply in value as AI advances, and how to develop them systematically. 

Key Outcomes:
• A framework for identifying which human capabilities multiply in value as AI scales
• Specific practices to develop attention, curiosity, and courage across your organization
• Tools to build these capabilities into your talent strategy and daily operations
• A clear competitive advantage that technology can't replicate

Build sustainable competitive advantage by developing what AI can't replicate—the human capabilities that become more valuable as technology advances.

Organizations are complex human systems, not machines—yet watch any transformation kickoff and count how many times you hear 'optimize,' 'streamline,' 'standardize.'

Human dynamics aren't obstacles to transformation. They ARE the transformation—the invisible forces that determine whether anything actually changes.

Who loses power. Who gains budget. Whose work becomes obsolete. Who gets blamed if this fails. Who gets credit if it works.

These unspoken calculations happen in every meeting, drive every decision, determine every outcome. They're not side effects of transformation—they're the main event. The same political dynamics that protect the status quo also determine who champions change.

This session reveals what actually determines transformation success: How to shift from self-preservation to curiosity, from territory to exploration. Because organizations don't change through force of will or perfect planning—they change when humans decide to.

Key Outcomes:
• The hidden dynamics that make or break your transformation—and how to spot them early
• A practical framework for turning resistance into momentum
• Specific techniques to shift your organization from protection to curiosity
• Clear indicators that separate real change from compliance theater

Transform your transformation success rate by solving for what actually matters—the human dynamics that determine whether strategy becomes reality.
 

The Playbook for High-Performing Teams in High-Pressure Environments 

Rocket science is hard. Building a team that can deliver at pace without breaking what matters is a different kind of hard.

As a senior executive at Venus Aerospace, Curt helped lead a team literally building rocket engines that could cross the Pacific in under two hours—and the human challenge matched the technical one: sustain speed, keep judgment sharp, and stay aligned when timelines, expectations, and complexity all rise at once.

Most organizations answer pressure with more hours, more meetings, and more urgency. That buys days but costs months—because speed exposes hidden fault lines. When time for the real work isn’t protected, it gets crowded out by noise. If decisions don’t have a clear owner and a firm deadline, momentum either grinds to a halt or veers wildly. If expectations aren’t clear, confidence erodes and the best people disengage.

This session shows leaders how to spot those fault lines early and respond in ways that keep pace and standards—without adding layers of bureaucracy or relying on heroics. The result: a team that moves fast on purpose, and keeps moving after the first burst.

Key Outcomes:
• A proven framework for leading with clarity under extreme speed and pressure
• Core principles for preventing burnout while sustaining high performance
• Simple, repeatable strategies for communicating effectively in chaotic moments
• A fresh perspective on how to scale culture without losing what makes it work

Scale at speed without burning people out or breaking what matters.
 

It's almost as if work was designed to make focus impossible—endless channels, constant urgency, infinite options.

The very tools meant to help us produce more have become the biggest obstacles to producing anything meaningful. The ability to protect and direct attention has become the difference between motion and progress.

We've optimized everything except the one resource that actually matters: human attention. Every tool that promises productivity delivers distraction. Every initiative that should simplify adds complexity. Organizations moving faster while accomplishing less. Leaders managing every minute while their attention splinters across infinite priorities. Everyone knows they're busier than ever while questioning if any of it matters.

This keynote—rooted in Curt's bestselling book Can I Have Your Attention? and deep research into human performance—reveals why focus has become the scarcest resource in business and what to do about it.  Because knowing what matters is only half the equation. The other half is creating the conditions where people can actually work on it.

Key Outcomes:
• The science of focus—what enables it, what destroys it, and how to design for it
• Practical techniques for protecting attention in an interruption culture
• Organizational frameworks that make focused work possible, not heroic
• A shared language for focus that works from the C-suite to the front lines

Stop managing time. Start protecting attention.