Speaking

Norman delivers several keynotes and workshops on a range of topics dealing with the Future, Strategic Leadership, Resilience and Change. These are presented to corporates and public sector organisations in Australia, SE Asia, NZ, South Africa and the UK.

Building your Future – use Scenario Thinking

Find out why conventional strategic planning no longer works – and what to do about it. FutureBuilding is a process for planning and creating the future in uncertain environments through the use of Scenario Thinking and Planning. Organisations cannot afford to adopt a static view of the future – we all face a series of alternative futures as the environment unfolds.  The emphasis shifts from trying to predict the future (a dangerous practice) towards preparing your organisation for the range of futures that it faces. FutureBuilding is an approach that will build alternative scenarios of the future and then build those capabilities necessary to thrive under these conditions.

 

Over the Horizon Leadership

Leading in uncertain times requires “over the horizon” foresight and leadership to cope with disruptive markets and technologies. How can we prepare the organisation for changing conditions? How can we read the environment and figure out what what to do? And what styles of leadership are appropriate when things keep changing? Learn how Strategic Leadership becomes vitally important when we have to focus over the horizon. And what we can do to provide leadership in times of great uncertainty.

 

Strategic Thinking and Decision Making – in conditions of uncertainty and pressure

Much of our approach to strategy and decision making is based on outdated (and inaccurate) theories of economics and rationality. The breakthroughs in neuroscience have given us deeper understanding of how strategic thinking occurs and how decisions are really made. Added to our understanding of complexity and resultant uncertainty, we’ve had to rethink many aspects of strategy and decision making.

An integrated approach to this important area includes the elements of sense-making (how we understand information and events); how we processing this information; how to use intuition and gut feel; and how we then make a decision.

We also address the challenges of making decisions under pressure – and how we can improve our decision making in these situations.

 

Building Corporate Resilience

The “new normal” conditions bring with them unprecedented levels of shock and turbulence into our environments. Leaders and organisations need new levels of resilience to cope with these tough conditions. More than just bouncing back – they need the ability to anticipate and respond to strategic before they get knocked over.

Based on an extensive study of resilient organisations, learn about the sources of resilience in these organisations. See how leaders can build the physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual “muscles” in organisations. And explore the strategies that have a proven record in maintaining and leveraging the resilience within organisations.

 

Why book Norman for your next event?

• Because he has a reputation for provocative and challenging thinking – he gets people to question their own views
• Because he rates as the best “international visiting speaker” on executive programs at two leading graduate schools of management
• Because he relates his presentation to practical issues that are relevant to the client
• Because his client testimonials refer to him as knowledgeable and enthusiastic – he demonstrates an ability to keep his audience highly engaged – and acts as a catalyst for change.