Mike Evans

Seven formidable forces have joined together and are gunning for our jobs, looking to displace departments and to reinvent and disrupt all industries. Standing still is not an option. Complacency and clinging to the status-quo are the death knell to individuals, teams and organizations. These forces are not just trends, but seismic shifts that demand our attention. Among them…

• Artificial Intelligence Impact – Upon Individuals, Teams and Organizations
• White-Collar Robots
• Revolutionary and World-Changing Software
• Expansion of Internet Capabilities
• Today’s ‘Commoditized Economy’ (Sea of Sameness)

We are amidst a brawl with few rules, where the fast, adaptive, resilient and agile will be rewarded. Those unwilling or unable to evolve risk vulnerability and obsolescence. In this New World of Work, leveraging ideas, speed, talent, distinction and leadership at all levels will separate top performing individuals and organizations from the laggards.

Drawing from real-world examples and cutting-edge research, this keynote explores the critical importance of agility, resilience, and forward-thinking leadership in navigating the complexities of today’s disruptive environment. For those willing to adapt, the future is not a threat, but a canvas upon which to paint their success story.

Adapting to and embracing change – igniting engagement, passion, ownership and creativity that is often lacking during times of disruption, is the preeminent competency individuals and teams must cultivate. Learn what it will take to thrive and excel in the New World of Work – Future Work.

Key Learning and Takeaways:

• Employ strategies to thwart AI impact, relentless change, and disruptive forces. Cultivate leadership skills to navigate uncertainty and inspire resilience. Develop the agility and tenacity needed to secure your place in the future of work.
• Discover the essential skills and competencies required to thrive in the New World of Work. Understand how to cultivate distinctiveness in a world where AI threatens to render knowledge ubiquitous. Build and enhance your personal and organizational brand to stand out in today’s sea of sameness.
• Gain invaluable insights into how to harness the power of innovation, distinction and agility to adapt and stay ahead of the curve and seize new opportunities for growth.
• Position yourself and your team for long-term success and relevance in an increasingly dynamic marketplace. Cultivate a growth mindset.
• Transform your culture from one of obligation to one of aspiration, where change is embraced, and accountability thrives. Unlock the secrets to thriving amidst disruption and shaping a brighter future in the New World of Work.

In the past, change was episodic, transient, and gradual; now, change is constant as business, technology, and society itself continue to evolve at an ever more rapid pace. Accelerating Change – igniting engagement, passion, ownership and creativity that is often lacking during times of change, can be accomplished using proven memorable and pragmatic principles.

Through decades of research, Evans has identified five principles and practices that drive successful change efforts. Attendees will learn how to move employees from compliance to commitment, avoid common pitfalls, and cultivate a culture where change is embraced.

Drawing from proven principles and pragmatic strategies, Evans reveals why some organizations excel in achieving desired results while others falter. He explores the challenges leaders face in driving behavioral change and gaining voluntary contributions of discretionary performance from their teams.

Driving a strategy that requires change in human behavior may be the most difficult challenge a leader can face. What do top leaders do to gain voluntary contributions of discretionary performance from those they lead? How do they create alignment, ownership and accountability for desired results at every level of an organization? How do they ensure that key strategies are not slowly suffocated, but instead produce extraordinary results?

Discover the practices demonstrated by exemplary leaders that result in others voluntarily choosing to follow them. By embracing these principles, leaders can ignite a sense of purpose, distinction, and passion among their employees, driving unprecedented success in the age of disruption. Blast through the common barriers, obstacles, challenges and inertia that derail most change efforts.

Key Learning and Takeaways:

• Embrace the key change principles that are common among successful change efforts. Heighten and refine your untapped leadership potential.
• Understand the critical difference between leading and managing change and the appropriate ratio required to accelerate change.
• Discover what it takes to move employees from compliance to commitment – jettison resistance.
• Learn how to create a ‘Want-To’ versus a ‘Have-To’ culture. A culture where change is embraced.
• Avoid the primary pitfalls and traps that sabotage most change efforts.
• Learn the five best practices demonstrated by exemplary leaders and how you can apply them.
• Discover the key elements of communicating a vision that lead to increased levels of commitment, engagement and accountability.
• Understand what it takes to cultivate a culture where employees ‘bring more of themselves’ to the workplace – where they are engaged, energized and flourish.
• Learn how to lead, develop and cultivate a culture/team that is equipped to overcome the new ‘forces that are coalescing’ to dramatically alter the corporate and economic landscape.
• Discover what it takes to lead a culture/team that is aligned, resolute, engaged, agile and takes accountability and ownership to achieve what matters most.
• Arouse a sense of purpose, distinction and passion among your employees.

Accountability is the Catalyst to: Accelerated Change, Robust Employee Engagement, Intensified Ownership, Relentless Perseverance, Impeccable Alignment, and propels individuals, teams and organizations to intoxicating heights of achievement and success. Learn what it takes to awaken the whatever it takes attitude, belief, resolve, perseverance, confidence, determination, drive and creativity to achieve what matters most to individuals, teams and organizations.

Accountability crumbles silos, boosts teamwork and collaboration, strengthens camaraderie, creativity, resiliency, agility, trust, and communication. This keynote extends beyond theory, offering practical strategies to unleash discretionary performance, foster collaboration, and intensify ownership and engagement.

This transformative approach to accountability and peak performance has garnered acclaim worldwide. The key learnings and takeaways provide a roadmap for individuals and teams to achieve unparalleled success and make their mark in today’s dynamic landscape.

Discover how to transform accountability into a positive, engaging and forward looking experience. By taking ownership of your performance, decisions, and results, you unleash the magic that drives unprecedented success. Embrace actionable insights and strategies to awaken accountability and drive unparalleled success in today’s competitive landscape.

Key Learning and Takeaways:

• Discover the 4 keys to accountability, along with the observable best practices.

• Cultivate the agility, flexibility and resiliency to adapt and thrive during constant change.

• Unleash voluntary contributions of discretionary performance that is often left untapped in individuals, teams and organizations.

• Foster collaboration, camaraderie and teamwork – Establish unshakable trust and credibility.

• Intensify ownership, engagement and alignment – Crumble silos and abolish territorialism.
• Instill a can-do, steely resolve, solutions focused mindset in the face of difficult challenges, obstacles and barriers. Break through self-imposed barriers and mediocrity.

• Eradicate the blame-game and vanquish excuse-making that stifle peak performance.

• Shed feelings of disarray, discomfort, apathy, entitlement, indifference and despair.
• Discover how to develop and enhance your ‘desired brand’ to secure your position now and in the future.
• Develop a team or organization that is connected, aligned and manifests your organizations brand.

Whatever the desired results you wish to achieve or challenges within your organization – lofty growth, distinction, culture change, innovation, breaking down silos, improving collaboration, employee engagement, merging cultures, doing more with less… – it is through your people (culture) that you will either succeed or fail. Embark on a transformative journey towards fostering a culture that drives exceptional results.

Culture, simply put, is the convergence of the way your employees think and act. That culture is producing your organization’s every result (financial, operational, customer, employee, etc.). If your future desired results are loftier, more difficult, of just different than those you are achieving today, will your current culture be able to deliver? Creating those ‘shifts’ in how employees think and act is what will propel your team or organization toward those desired results.

Your culture is your ‘brand.’ An organization’s (or team’s) culture is either an engine propelling it toward it’s desired results, or an anchor impeding and hindering it’s progress. You can define, lead and shape your optimal culture.

Learn to cultivate an environment where employees at all levels are engaged, energized and flourish. Internalize what it takes effectively tap into the enormous wealth of creativity, innovation, passion, energy and commitment of employees that is often left idle. Cultivate a culture that is engaged, passionate, focused, committed, aligned and accountable, with employees contributing daily to help achieve what matters most.

You can ignite extraordinary results within your team or organization. These straightforward, practical and memorable tips can transform your culture to support and deliver your ‘must-achieve desired results.’ The results that will ensure you thrive and excel in the new world of work.

Key Learning and Takeaways:

• Learn how to create shifts in the way employees think and act so that your desired culture will flourish and heighten organizational performance.
• Foster increased levels of trust, collaboration and teamwork
• Ignite a heightened sense of urgency, accountability, and ownership at all levels of your organization
• Intensify ownership, engagement and alignment – Crumble silos and abolish territorialism.
• Understand how to identify the root cause of undesired cultural beliefs and actions that impede progress, and how to infuse desired beliefs and actions to accelerate achievement of desired results.
• Discover how to gain voluntary commitments from colleagues so they self-select desired actions – Stop wasting time enforcing compliance around policies and procedures.
• Develop a culture where employees ‘bring more of themselves’ to the workplace – trigger innovation, creativity and passion.
• Create organizational laser-like focus on what matters most – eliminate confusion, misunderstanding, miscommunication, mistrust, frustration and indifference.

Accountability is the Catalyst to: Accelerated Change, Robust Employee Engagement, Intensified Ownership, Relentless Perseverance, Impeccable Alignment, and propels individuals, teams and organizations to intoxicating heights of achievement and success. Learn what it takes to awaken the whatever it takes attitude, belief, resolve, perseverance, confidence, determination, drive and creativity to achieve what matters most to individuals, teams and organizations.

Discover how to transform accountability into a positive, engaging and forward looking experience that will secure your position in the new world of work. Learn how to kick-start a revolution that will blast your team or organization to new heights of success. With the world coming at us fast and furious every day, it’s easy to feel like you’ve lost control of your own life, your team or your organization. By choosing to take and lead accountability you reclaim control and are able to direct your own destiny.

• Discover the 4 keys to accountability, along with the observable best practices.
• Cultivate the agility, flexibility and resiliency to adapt and thrive during constant change.
• Foster collaboration, camaraderie and teamwork – Establish unshakable trust and credibility.
• Intensify ownership, engagement and alignment – Crumble silos and abolish territorialism.
• Instill a can-do, steely resolve, solutions focused mindset in the face of difficult challenges, obstacles and barriers.
• Eradicate the blame-game and vanquish excuse-making that stifle peak performance.
• Shed feelings of disarray, discomfort, apathy, entitlement, indifference and despair.
• Unleash voluntary contributions of discretionary performance that is often left untapped in individuals, teams and organization

In the past, change was episodic, transient, and gradual; now, change is constant as business, technology, and society itself continue to evolve at an ever more rapid pace. Accelerating Change – igniting engagement, passion, ownership and creativity that is often lacking during times of change, can be accomplished using proven memorable and pragmatic principles. Learn why some organizations achieve and exceed desired results.

Leading change has become a critical competency in today’s economy. But there is a significant and crucial difference between leading and managing change – not only in the approach, but more importantly in the results. The success, or lack thereof, with transformational change efforts hinges on a few key principles that have been identified, studied and validated.

Nearly 75% of large-scale change efforts fail, or produce mediocre results. By implementing proven change principles that have allowed teams and organizations around the globe to accelerate and sustain desired change, you gain a competitive advantage.

• Embrace the key change principles that are common among successful change efforts.
• Understand the critical difference between leading and managing change and the appropriate ratio required to accelerate change.
• Ignite a heightened sense of urgency, accountability, and ownership at all levels of your organization.
• Discover what it takes to move employees from compliance to commitment – jettison resistance.
• Learn how to create a ‘Want-To’ versus a ‘Have-To’ culture. A culture where change is embraced.
• Avoid the primary pitfalls and traps that sabotage most change efforts.
• Intensify agility, resilience and perseverance.

Culture, simply put, is the convergence of the way your employees think and act. That culture is producing your organization’s every result (financial, operational, customer, employee, etc.). If your future desired results are loftier, more difficult, of just different than those you are achieving today, will your current culture be able to deliver? Most often the results teams and organizations must achieve in the future require employees to think and act differently. Creating those ‘shifts’ in how employees think and act is what will propel your team or organization toward those desired results.

Your culture is your ‘brand.’ The experiences your culture creates (the manner in which your employees think and act) will either reinforce that current ‘brand’ or evoke a new one. You can either lead your culture, or it will lead you. An organization’s (or team’s) culture is either an engine propelling it toward it’s desired results, or an anchor impeding and hindering it’s progress. You can define, lead and shape your optimal culture.

• Learn how to create shifts in the way employees think and act so that your desired culture will flourish and heighten organizational performance.
• Understand how to identify the root cause of undesired cultural beliefs and actions, and how to infuse desired beliefs and actions.
• Discover how to gain voluntary commitments from colleagues so they self-select desired actions – Stop wasting time enforcing compliance around policies and procedures.
• Develop a culture where employees ‘bring more of themselves’ to the workplace – trigger innovation, creativity and passion.
• Create organizational laser-like focus on what matters most – eliminate confusion, misunderstanding, miscommunication, mistrust, frustration and indifference.
• Acquire principles and tools to help you clearly define and then establish your optimal culture.

In the age of the never satisfied customer, multi-faceted global influences and complex economic challenges, there are companies and entrepreneurs (Destructive/Disruptive Competition) at this moment looking to reinvent the way your business is done. How many bookstores were wiped out because of Amazon.com? What happened to Kodak? Blockbuster? Sears? Woolworth’s? Nokia? Rest assured someone somewhere is about to revolutionize your industry, or your business.

We are in a brawl with few rules, where the fast, flexible, and agile will eat and spit out the slow, over-thinking, and complacent. Individuals, teams, and organizations that fail to adapt will find themselves vulnerable, uncomfortable, and at the mercy of other people, events, or the competition. In this New World of Work, quickly leveraging ideas, talent, and leadership at all levels will separate top performing organizations from the laggards.

In today’s commoditized surplus economy, where customers have more choices than ever, what will it take to ensure your products and services are scintillating and memorable?

• Learn to differentiate in a sea of sameness. Distinct or extinct?
• Develop tenacity, resolve and agility to secure your spot in the New World of Work.
• Arouse a sense of purpose and passion among your employees.
• Understand why many individuals, teams and organizations are losing in the New World of Work.
• Build, enhance and grow your desired ‘brand.’
• Cultivate a workforce that is connected, aligned and delivers your ‘brand promise.’
• Capitalize on the untapped potential of your existing top-talent – inspire extraordinary performance

In these tremendously ultra-competitive and turbulent times, how do you cultivate an environment where employees at all levels are engaged, energized and flourish? How do you effectively tap into the enormous wealth of creativity, innovation, passion, energy and commitment of employees that is often left idle? Much different than ‘job satisfaction’ (there are a lot of highly paid miserable people who are satisfied with their job) – engagement is about passionate, focused and committed employees contributing daily to help achieve what matters most.

In order to thrive, it is essential to engage, enlist and motivate employees at all levels to be all they can be. How do you engender a culture where employees at all levels define their ‘job’ as achieving our desired results, and not simply acting on what is in their ‘job description?’

• Grasp memorable principles that move employees from compliance to commitment.
• Develop a culture where employees ‘bring more of themselves’ to the workplace.
• Understand what it takes to help employees find more meaning and fulfillment in their work.
• Foster innovation and creativity to build and sustain a competitive advantage.
• Discover how to craft a culture where employees go above and beyond what is ‘required.’
• Learn the pathway to differentiation and increased market share.
• Master practical and memorable leadership tools proven to increase levels of voluntary contributions of discretionary performance from those you lead.

Welcome to the age of self-determination. The era of ‘entitlement’ is history. It’s up to you to take charge of your career and life. You must become CEO of Me, Inc. It’s about maintaining a competitive edge amidst chaos. It’s about achieving success when the stakes are high and ever-changing. Do you know what it will take? Are you ready for the dramatic changes taking place in the New World of Work?

It is incredibly important in today’s economy for everybody to think of himself or herself as a ‘brand.’ Over the past 10-15 years hundreds of thousands of jobs have been expunged, teams eliminated, and firms driven to extinction due to ERP, SAP, the Internet, Globalization, White-Collar Robots (EX: Cash Machines) and other factors. Blue-collar robots came and triumphed. The new target – White-collar World. Are you prepared?

Those who will thrive and endure in the future will embrace the notion of continually developing skills, abilities and competencies that will set them apart and vividly demonstrate their value to whoever is signing their paycheck. What are you doing to stand out in today’s sea of sameness?

• Arouse your understanding and commitment of what it will take to find success in the New World of Work.
• Discover how to develop and enhance your ‘desired brand’ to secure your position now and in the future.
• Learn what it will take to gain a reputation as a ‘valued’ employee. • Understand how to find more meaning and fulfillment in your work.
• Grasp what it takes to unleash your true potential.
• Develop a team or organization that is connected, aligned and manifests your organizations brand.
• Create internal champions of transformation.
• Break through self-imposed barriers and mediocrity.

Discover the practices demonstrated by exemplary leaders that result in others voluntarily choosing to follow them. Leadership is a choice and can be learned, nurtured, and refined – by employees at all levels. Grasp an understanding of the most desired leadership traits employees crave from their leaders (based upon 250,000 case studies).

Embrace memorable principles that can be put into practice immediately. Whatever the desired results you wish to achieve or challenges within your organization – employee engagement, culture change, breaking down silos, improving collaboration, raising employee morale, merging cultures, doing more with less – it is through your people that you will either succeed or fail. The manner in which your people behave is a reflection of leadership.

• Acquire proven tools, models and principles to heighten and refine your untapped leadership potential.

• Learn the five best practices demonstrated by exemplary leaders and how you can apply them.

• Discover the key elements of communicating a vision that lead to increased levels of commitment, engagement and accountability.

• Understand what it takes to cultivate a culture where employees ‘bring more of themselves’ to the workplace – where they are engaged, energized and flourish.

• Embrace memorable principles that move employees from compliance to commitment.

• Learn to influence, transform and achieve any change that is most important to you, your team, or your organization.

• Discover what it takes to influence and inspire others – with or without positional authority.

• Vanquish any existing degrees of the ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ mindset.

In a society where some experts suggest the average attention span is eight seconds, how do you enhance mindfulness and live in the moment? The benefits of being present and aware improve peace of mind, control and personal growth. Developing your ability to be cognizant of your feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations bolsters your level of consciousness and intensifies your feelings of control and effectiveness.

With the relentless and unyielding amount of information, distractions and minutia that bombards you daily, learning to develop mindfulness is your respite during the storm and bolsters your ability to achieve what matters most.

• Discover the culprits that sabotage mindfulness and what you can do to avoid them.

• Develop your ‘awareness radar’ – the ability to better understand what is in the head and heart of those around you.

• The majority of positive emotions are anchored in the present. Learn to leverage that in order to evoke more inner-peace.

• Learn the best practices utilized by those who have mastered the art of mindfulness.

• Enhance your ability to control your thoughts rather than your thoughts controlling you.

• Understand the significant consequences of multi-taking and the toll it takes on mindfulness.

• Learn the benefits of focus, commitment to choices and living in the present.

• Discover how mindfulness reduces stress and anxiety, and can improve memory.

Deciding upon new strategies and direction is challenging. Enlisting employees at every level to think, act and behave in a manner that assures the strategy results in success is even more difficult. Executing any strategy that requires change in human behavior may be the most difficult challenge a leader will ever face. What does it take to ensure key strategies are not slowly suffocated, but rather produce exhilarating results?

Two out of three crucial strategies fail to produce desired outcomes. How many of your most crucial strategies over the past two or three years achieved and sustained rousing success? How many slowly suffocated over time? Applying these principles of flawless execution will enhance your likelihood of success.

• Learn the four principles of execution that are common among strategies that achieve and sustain desired results.

• Understand the most common ‘de-railers’ of flawless execution and how to avoid them.

• Internalize a common framework and methodology to ensure your top strategies are achieved.

• Discover how to create organizational focus on critical new strategies that will ensure future success, while still maintaining peak performance on the day-to-day operations.

• Learn how to ‘deconstruct’ crucial strategies down to the individual contributor level so that all employees understand how ‘what they do’ contributes to the success of the strategy. •

Develop the ability to align, engage and enlist necessary personnel and key stakeholders.

• Spawn a culture where employees at all levels focus on actions and behaviors that will positively contribute to execution excellence.