Jeff DeGraff

“Strategy doesn’t work without culture.” —Jeff DeGraff

We’re living in a world of accelerating change and unprecedented competition. Disruption has become the new normal—and constant innovation is the only way to stay relevant and succeed. Does your organization have the innovative culture, language, and mindset needed to succeed? In this invaluable session, “Dean of Innovation” Jeff DeGraff draws on 30 years working with the world’s most innovative companies to show you how to pump up innovation and creativity—followed by an exhilarating Q&A that will help set the wheels in motion to transform your organization.

You’ll learn how to:

• Inspire your team to do their most creative work at work.
• Foster cross-collaboration and “watercooler moments” with a remote workforce.
• Empower a creative mindset that brings people together to “connect the dots” and accelerate the pace of innovation and change.
• Synch up innovation strategies and practices to achieve your goals and create value.
• Encourage individuals to design and follow their own creative path—retaining your company’s most creative thinkers.
• Hire for diversity of thought and assemble “super teams” that complement each other through their strengths and differences.

“We innovate when we disrupt, and we have to disrupt each other.” —Jeff DeGraff

Today’s workplaces are more polarized than ever before. In fact, a recent Harvard Business Review article reported that about 89% of employees have experienced conflict in the workplace and spent roughly 3.5 hours a week dealing with it. But is conflict really bad for the workplace? Or can it be a positive force for innovation and fresh thinking? In this provocative talk, renowned innovation guru Jeff DeGraff challenges the common perception of workplace conflict and team differences, contending that friction can actually be the spark that ignites creativity and innovation. Drawing from his acclaimed book, The Innovation Code, Professor DeGraff, shows you how to harness the positive aspects of disharmony and differences to create a more innovative and productive workplace where creative mindsets and culture thrive. He identifies four contrasting types of innovators and shows how to leverage their full spectrum of thinking—disrupting old norms and driving innovation in every aspect of your business. You’ll understand why apathy is the death of innovation, conflict feeds creativity, and diversity of thought is critical to successful teams. Sharing a pragmatic playbook based on real life examples from the Fortune 500, DeGraff shows you how to celebrate differences and embrace conflict as your organization’s new innovation superpower.

“The amount of innovation a company produces is inversely related to the number of PowerPoint slides or elaborate process diagrams it makes about innovation.” —The DeGraff Hypothesis

Productivity is no longer enough. Strategy is no longer enough. And please don’t get the “Dean of Innovation” Jeff DeGraff started about all the slides and diagrams. As a consultant to half the Fortune 500, he has seen firsthand the obstacles that leaders face when trying to jumpstart their organization’s growth engine. DeGraff’s experience shows that most simply don’t have the tools or preparation to make innovation and growth happen. Even in leading organizations, innovative strategies and processes cannot succeed without the culture, competencies and leadership practices required to execute and sustain innovation. In this session geared specifically for leadership, Professor DeGraff breaks down these essential components of innovation. He also shares a simple, essential approach that any leader can use to not only recognize, develop and launch creative ideas—but to turn them into winning solutions that create value.

“The greatest innovation you create is yourself.” —Jeff DeGraff

The rapid pace of disruption isn’t just happening at the organizational level. Individuals on every branch of the org chart have realized that the game has changed. Maybe you no longer feel like you are growing. Or worse, keeping up. If you were a product or a service, you would take stock, assess your strengths and weaknesses, and get down to the business of innovation. Why shouldn’t individuals take the same approach? According to innovation expert Jeff DeGraff, “Innovation You” should be job #1 when it comes to succeeding in times of disruption and change. In this lively and inspirational session, Professor DeGraff shows how you can adopt best practices from the most innovative organizations in the world to refresh, reinvent and reinvigorate your life and career. Diving deep into strategies and how-to tactics, he spells out the four steps to becoming “new and improved,” including developing the skills to help others do the same.

Known for his talent for thinking on his feet, diagnosing organizational obstacles and prescribing insightful solutions, Jeff DeGraff’s “Q&As” at the end of a keynote are always the highlight of his talks. In this conversational format, Professor DeGraff discusses your organization’s innovation challenges in a fireside chat with an interviewer of your choice. Get ready to get to the heart of what makes and doesn’t make innovation work—with highly pragmatic and prescriptive advice from one of the world’s preeminent thought leaders on innovation.