Duncan Wardle

The future is here, and for the first time in history, it’s highly skilled labor at risk of losing jobs to robots. By some leading estimates, upwards of 40% of all current jobs could be replaced by AI within the next 15 years! But even with the uncertainty it brings, I do not believe AI should be treated as our enemy. In fact, it’s just the opposite.

We should embrace AI. Not as a tool to eliminate jobs, but as one to take over the tedious, repetitive parts of our work, freeing us up to leverage the skills that make us uniquely human: creativity, intuition, empathy, and imagination. The skills we were actually hired to use, but are so often restricted by unruly inboxes, excessive meetings, and repetitive reporting.

As Head of Innovation and Creativity at Disney for the last decade, my job was to uncover the untapped creative potential of our teams by embracing new technology as an opportunity, not a treat. Today, I use this experience to show CEOs across the world how to do the same, providing their organization with the tools needed to leverage their most important asset: their people.

As part of my Working in Harmony with AI presentation, I’ll show you how by leveraging AI to take over the mundane, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks hiding throughout your organization, you can too redirect your teams’ energy towards the skills that make them uniquely human. And as a result, give your company a massive competitive edge.

Duncan’s shares insights from his time as Head of Innovation & Creativity at Disney, providing a unique set of Innovation Tools and Techniques that everyone can use to Think Different.

How do you create a culture that embraces risk and entrepreneurialism, allowing everyone to innovate? Duncan shares how he infused a culture of innovation across the world’s most creative company, Disney.

Transforming a product centric culture into a consumer centric one. How companies can create Customer Experience Magic by deeply understanding their consumer, transforming their culture with amazing results.

Duncan not only inspires companies to be more innovative and creative, he teaches hands-on workshops, marrying strategic thinking with creative ideation to deliver game changing, measurable results.

Demystifying Design Thinking

A unique creative problem-solving process, used by I.D.E.O. Apple and Amazon to help disrupt product categories, services and industries.

Leading For Creativity

Creativity is now a huge competitive advantage. This workshop provides participants with a series of Creative tools and behaviors to help foster a culture that embraces innovation and creativity.

Insights for Innovation

In a world of increasingly disruptive technology, innovation must become part of everyone’s DNA. This workshop helps participants uncover insights in new and unusual ways, delivering breakthrough ideas.

The ability to think Creatively is the one core human truth that will remain relevant in the brave new world of Artificial Intelligence. Thankfully, I believe everyone has the power to be Creative.

But wait, haven’t we all been told at one point or another that we’re not the “creative type”? That we should leave the creativity to the “Creatives”? For most of us, this has happened so many times that we end up actually believing it. For adults, not being creative is an accepted fate.

But weren’t we kids once? Turning boxes into spaceships and pillows and blankets into forts and castles? What happened to that creativity? Well, with an education and corporate structure that encourages finding the single “right answer” to every question, we are trained to fall in line, and shut down that creative portion of our brain.

Fortunately, that childhood creativity did not dissipate – it’s just lying dormant, waiting to be brought back to life. And those that are able to access it – the Edisons’ and Einsteins‘ and Disneys’ and Jobs’ of the world – are the ones that are able to drive massive creative disruption through major new theories and industries.

So, how can you embed a sustainable culture of innovation and creativity throughout your organization, and encourage every employee to think creatively? Let me show you with my Theory of Creativity keynote. Leaning on 25 years with the Walt Disney Company, most recently as Head of Innovation & Creativity, I have designed a tangible Innovation Toolkit that everyone can use to “Think Different” and solve real challenges in the marketplace by leveraging their creative mind.

By the end of my talk, your audience will walk away with a series of unique Creative Behaviors and Innovation Tools that will allow them to deliver revolutionary thinking and drive substantial results in all areas of your business.

Leading A.I. expert Kai Fu Lee has suggested that upwards of 40% of current jobs could be replaced by Artificial Intelligence within the next 15 years. 40%!

So, how we will compete in the next decade? What skills will we need to survive in a decade of total disruption and rise in A.I.? Simple. Businesses that will win will be those that leverage the most impactful human traits that A.I. won’t be able to replicate (at least not for the foreseeable future): Creativity, Intuition, Curiosity, & Imagination.

As Head of Innovation and Creativity at Disney for the last decade I learned that there is a huge gap in the market. CEO’s everywhere would look to us – The World’s Most Creative Company – for guidance on how to create a culture of innovation, and provide their organization with the tools needed to leverage their most important asset: their people.

But here’s the challenge: until now, no one has made innovation tangible. Many companies hire an Innovation consultancy or build an “Innovation Department,’ only to find that they have not truly driven cultural change and embedded innovation across the entire enterprise.

What if instead, there was a Design Thinking Innovation Toolkit? One that everyone could use that makes creativity tangible, innovation easy, and the process enjoyable? That’s exactly what I have built leaning on my years of experience at Disney, and exactly what I’ll share with you as part of Embed- ding a Culture of Innovation into Everyone’s DNA presentation.

The Walt Disney Company’s ability to redefine and dominate nearly every industry it’s ever entered is no coincidence. The continued success of Disney has been driven by foundational trait of the company that goes all the way back to it’s founder Walt Disney who was merciless in his pursuit of innovating the customer experience?

By viewing all major business decisions as a customer experience decision, The Walt Disney Company continues to find innovative ways to engage consumers around the world, both old and new. And these innovative experiences have created one of the most passionate, loyal fanbases of all time.

So, how does Disney Think Different and leverage Creativity to innovate the customer experience? Through several specific tools and examples I’ll share with your teams during my Delivering Customer Experience Magic keynote.

You’ll learn from the following examples:

• By simply re-expressing the industry challenge Walt Disney created a level of hospitality that has never been replicated.
• How by challenging the rules of the industry, Walt came up with the biggest creative solution of the twentieth century.
• Learn how Disney Parks turned very product centric culture into a consumer centric one.
• How Disney leverages High Tech to enable High Touch, delivering record guest satisfaction.
• And How instead of asking ourselves How We Might make more money, by asking how my we address the biggest consumer pain point we created record revenues at DIsney.

Every single day, millions upon millions of influential Millennial and Generation Z consumers begin their day in the exact same place: Instagram Stories.

This habitual use of Instagram is not just to catch up with friends either. An astounding 80% of these users engage with brands just as often as they do friends. But why? What is it about this digital storytelling platform that draws in Millennials and Gen Z in, and has them connecting with brands at record-shattering rates?

Simple: these young consumers – above all else – care about purpose. And purpose can only be shared through the magic of storytelling.

Why is storytelling so important? Because it’s in our DNA. Storytelling is a tool as old as mankind itself, having been used by humans for ages to share our biggest, brightest, and most important ideas. As such, we naturally respond to the power of story.

And for brands that tell the right story to the right group of consumers – a story that clearly identifies their purpose – it’s a way to build an incredible bond. One that, if nurtured correctly, can last for life.

Think about the world’s most powerful brands and the stories they tell. Steve Jobs did not tell a story about a computer company with better features. He told a story about a brand feverishly dedicated to “those who think outside the box”. Walt Disney did not tell a story about building a profitable movie house; he told a story about innovating all forms of entertainment to bring families closer together. And Richard Branson didn’t start his journey with a story about cost-cutting and quarterly profits. Instead, Virgin told a story about massively disrupting long-established industry status quos.

These stories – and the purpose behind them – are what resonate with consumers, and are what catapulted these brands into some of the most valuable in the world.

Leaning on his experience as the Head of Innovation and Creativity for the World’s #1 Storyteller – The Walt Disney Company – Duncan will empower your audience the tools they need to leverage the magic of storytelling, and lead with purpose. Tools that will not only help your brand resonate with new, hard-to-reach generations of consumers, but with employees as well. Because purpose isn’t just important for consumers, it’s important for all stakeholders of your business.

To succeed in this fast-paced, ultra-competitive market, your business must become a storyteller. Because the brands that choose to tell a great story about a great purpose are the brands that win.

What story is your business going to tell?

In my role as role as Head of Innovation and Creativity at Disney we piloted 4 models of innovation. #1. External innovation gurus like IDEO. #2. Creating an Innovation team and #3. An accelerator program. All of the programs achieved some success but failed in achieving our goal of Embedding a Culture of Innovation into everyone’s DNA.

I also recognized this gap existed in other organizations, who having enjoyed success tend to have a legacy mentality, where the C Suite asks their team to innovate, think different, talk risks etc, but no one is showing people how! So leaning on my 25+ years at Disney, I decided to create my own innovation masterclass that helps organizations embed innovation into everyone’s DNA by giving them a toolkit that makes innovation easy, creativity tangible and the process fun.

Here is an outline of the content.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbVo4VTRbds