Gaurav Bhalla

Format: 60-90 minute keynote

Companies, consultants, and thought leaders, such as Google, McKinsey, MIT, are unanimous in declaring that Creativity is a must-have, a critical core competence for organizations to survive and thrive in today’s complex and uncertain world.
But creativity can thrive only when organization cultures embrace Cognitive Diversity. Because:

When everyone in an organization thinks the same way, talks the same way, and acts the same way, it’s not a strategic asset, it’s a crippling liability?

Here’s the bottom line: consensus is a creativity killer. It’s the drive for consensus that weakens successful organizations, because the voices screaming about the threat of emerging competition, or the attractiveness of emerging opportunities were not heard.

What adds insult to injury is that Diversity is a hot topic. Everyone is talking about it. But no one is talking about its most vital aspect – Cognitive Diversity – which has the power to make or break an organization’s future growth and prosperity. The keynote fills this critical void.

This provocative and insightful keynote is ideal for:

• Current and Future Leaders
• All teams – leadership, departmental, cross-functional, multi-country, virtual
• HR, Talent Management, and Diversity professionals

Audiences will leave with the following key takeaways for Monday-Morning action:

1. Why Cognitive Diversity is vital for igniting Creativity
2. Core strategies for cultivating and nurturing Creativity through Cognitive Diversity
3. Leadership Transformations necessary for cultivating and nurturing Cognitive Diversity

For deeper learning, the strategies for cultivating and nurturing cognitive diversity can also be delivered through training and coaching programs, and through facilitated workshops.

Soulful Leadership is a new human-centric narrative that transforms and reimagines the purpose of Leadership. You may ask:

Why A New Transformation Leadership Journey? 

Because new times require new narratives; yesterday’s leadership thinking will not produce tomorrow’s visionary leaders

Today’s complex and conflicted world presents challenges, quandaries, and paradoxes that defy simple-minded right-wrong, yes-no, good-bad thinking. Truth rarely lies at the extremes. It invariably lies in the murky middle where leadership choices are often not right vs wrong, but frequently between right vs. right, or wrong vs. more wrong.

This provocative, insightful, and energizing keynote is designed to meet this critical need – to train current and future leaders on how to chart and implement visionary leadership journeys that help succeed and win in a complex and uncertain world.

This visionary keynote is ideal for:

• Current Leaders: C-suite, Senior Management, Department and Division Leaders
• Future Leaders: High-potential managers, next-generation leaders
• HR, Talent Managers, and other professionals responsible for shaping and upholding corporate culture

Audiences will leave with the following key takeaways for Monday-Morning action:

• Why transforming leadership journeys is vital for resolving challenges posed by a complex and uncertain world
• Core strategies for transforming leadership journeys
• How transforming leadership journeys elevate trust and boost personal and business success

​For deeper learning, the essence and meaning of this keynote can also be delivered through training and coaching programs, and through facilitated workshops.

“If a company’s culture is broken, if it has a Trust problem, if it has a Commitment problem, can its strategy or innovation, no matter how brilliant, deliver a market-winning performance?

No. Of course not. Which is why we have the dictum, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

CULTURE is the foundational force that separates the highest performing companies from the rest. It is what confers, sustains, and grows competitive advantage. But if, and only if, that Culture is robustly inclusive. Only if it has migrated from being an “I” culture to a “WE” culture.

In today’s uncertain and complex world, “I” cultures, powered by hierarchies and the executive brilliance of their leaders and leadership teams, are inadequate to deliver world class performance. Additionally, “I” leadership mindsets further weaken an organization’s performance by eroding two of its core foundations – Trust and Commitment.

This provocative, mindset-shifting session is ideal for:

• Current and Future Leaders
• All teams – leadership, departmental, cross-functional, multi-country, virtual
• HR, Talent Management, and Corporate Culture professionals

Audiences will leave with the following key takeaways for Monday-Morning action:

1. Understand the Visible and Invisible linkages between a “WE” Culture and Trust and Commitment
2. Employ that Understanding to nurture “WE” leadership transformation journeys
3. Construct shared platforms for elevating Trust and Commitment by seeding “We” sub-cultures

For deeper learning, the strategies for cultivating and nurturing “WE” Leadership can also be delivered through training and coaching programs, and through facilitated workshops.

As millennials begin dominating the workforce, and AI begins dominating decision-making, can leaders continue leading with a “leadership-as-usual” mindset?

Absolutely not. Leadership is a highly context-bound activity, so leadership will have to adapt and morph in response to these two different – but highly related – challenges. Soulful LeadershipTM, that emphasizes leading with one’s humanity, that brings cause, compassion, and human-centric thinking to the forefront will be in ever-increasing demand.

This future-looking, provocative, and insightful keynote is designed to help current and future leaders prepare for the emerging Millennials and AI-dominated world. Like a lighthouse, the keynote’s goal is to help guide current and future leaders reimagine leadership’s purpose, and rethink its outcomes so they can lead brilliantly and fearlessly with unwavering clarity.

This prescient keynote is ideal for:

• Current leaders and culture makers
• Future leaders, department heads, and other managers involved in shaping and upholding organization culture
• HR and Talent Managment professionals

Audiences will leave with the following key takeaways for Monday-morning action: 

• The why and how of integrating hard and soft leadership skills
• Core strategies for morphing and adapting leadership journeys to lead effectively in a Millenial and AI world
• The importance of perennially reviewing and reinventing the organization’s mission, purpose, and actions

This keynote can be customized for audiences interested in only Millennials, or only AI.

Additionally, for deeper learning, the essence and meaning of this keynote can also be delivered through training and coaching programs, and through facilitated workshops.

What could be simpler than the maxim – no customer, no business? Then why is customer-first thinking still a slogan for many organizations?

P&G’s A.G. Lafley, IBM’s Lou Gerstner, McDonald’s Ray Croc have all stressed the importance of leading and winning with a customer-first mindset – if you put the customer first, success will be yours. Yet, despite the simple and profound nature of the message, putting customers first is still a distant reality.

This provocative, insightful, and entertaining keynote is designed to encourage organizations to lead and win with a “Customers as Assets, Not Wallets” mindset. The keynote discusses insightful case studies, and presents simple but powerful tactics and strategies that can be implemented right away, on Monday-Morning, provided the organization has the will.

This hard-hitting and entertaining keynote is ideal for:

• Customer-facing functions: Marketing, Sales, Customer Service
• Customer-support functions, teams, and professionals: Business Development. IT, and Innovation
• Organizational support functions, teams, and professionals – they too have customers, albeit, they are internal

Audiences will leave with the following key takeaways for Monday-morning action:

• Why a customer-first mindset beats hands down product-centric and technology-first mindsets
• Core strategies for leading and winning with a customer-first mindset
• How customer-first operating cultures and mindsets boost corporate reputation and attract top talent

For deeper learning, the tactics and strategies for leading and winning with a customer-first mindset can also be delivered through training and coaching programs, and through facilitated workshops.

Can innovation also be a leading change-management strategy?

Absolutely. Because the vast majority of change, and the one that usually poses the greatest threat, is imposed on the company from the outside – changing customer needs, new competitors, disruptive technology – not from within. Which is why smart companies embrace change by embracing innovation, and not just by tinkering with org charts, or by blasting high-octane corporate communications.

This provocative and game-changing keynote was designed to bring an energetically fresh perspective on why embracing change by embracing innovation is the No. 1 success strategy and the best investment in insuring an organization’s future growth and competitive standing when disruptive market forces are assaulting it from all directions.

This game-changing keynote is ideal for:

• Innovation, Marketing, New Product Development, and Sales teams
• HR, Talent Management, and Organization Development/Change Management professionals
• Current and future leaders and policy makers

Audiences will leave with the following key takeaways for Monday-morning action:

• Relevance and power of innovation as a strategy for confronting and conquering change
• Core strategies for implementing the “embracing change by embracing innovation mindset”
• Importance of embedding the change-innovation link in the operating DNA of the company

For deeper learning, the tactics and strategies for embracing change by embracing innovation can also be delivered through training and coaching programs, and through facilitated workshops.