Travels from Massachusetts, USA
Heather E. McGowan's speaking fee falls within range: $30,000 to $50,000
One of Forbes’ Top Futurists, Heather E. McGowan is a sought-after future-of-work strategist, keynote speaker, and 2x bestselling author. She equips leaders and organizations to navigate relentless change by activating their most critical resource: their people. By teaching audiences to ask better questions, she enables them to adapt at the speed of possibility to Solve Tomorrow’s ProblemsTM.
Heather’s audiences range from startups and government organizations to publicly traded Fortune 500 companies, including Google, JPMorgan Chase, Accenture, Mastercard, FedEx, AT&T, and Kaiser Permanente. Whether she’s engaging in intimate conversations with senior executives or delivering keynotes to thousands, she transforms perspectives through data-driven insights, powerful visual frameworks, and practical optimism. Her approach helps organizations turn their distinctly human capabilities — adaptability, empathy, and curiosity—into strategic advantages in times of rapid change.
Heather’s approach to innovation was shaped by her early career as an industrial designer. At Safety 1st, she helped transform the company known for its “Baby on Board” sign in to a comprehensive baby safety products’ leader, developing multiple top-selling products. Her success continued at Wilson Sporting Goods’, where she designed award-winning tennis footwear. Her innovative work extended to medical devices, where she designed surgical equipment controls, and sustainable consumer goods, creating a groundbreaking recyclable razor system that remains in production two decades later.
This hands-on experience taught her that true innovation isn’t just about finding solutions—it’s about asking better questions to Solve Tomorrow’s Problems. After earning her MBA from Babson College, Heather expanded into socially responsive investing and later led RISD’s Center for Design and Business, helping organizations integrate user-centric design thinking into business strategy.
As Strategic Architect at Philadelphia University (now Jefferson University), Heather created an award-winning, interdisciplinary college focused on innovation. Her achievements included integrating 18 existing programs into a new core curriculum and creating an immersive design thinking-based program. The curriculum won the Core 77 top National Design Award for Education.
Heather’s emergence as a global thought leader began with a viral LinkedIn series on the future of work—reaching 100,000 readers in 24 hours—which sparked speaking invitations worldwide. Often quoted in The New York Times, Pulitzer-prize winning columnist Thomas Friedman referred to Heather as an “oasis” for her insights into the future of work. Her bestselling books include The Adaptation Advantage, which became an accidental guide to the pandemic, and The Empathy Advantage, named a Top 10 Business Book of 2023.
Heather holds a BFA in Industrial Design from Rhode Island School of Design, an MBA from Babson College focused on Entrepreneurship, and was recently awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Pennsylvania College of Art and Design for her contributions to innovating education.
Personal experiences, like mobilizing 7,000 strangers to find a life-saving bone marrow donor for her brother, fuel Heather’s unwavering optimism and core belief: humans are wired to help each other achieve extraordinary things. This drives her mission: to help leaders Solve Tomorrow’s ProblemsTM by teaching them to ask better questions today.
Internationally known speaker, consultant, and thought leader, Heather McGowan helps audiences understand how growing technological changes are influencing the way we learn and work, and how we can better prepare for the coming shifts. Hooking the audience with highly visual presentations, she illustrates why the present and coming transformations are nothing like what we’ve experienced in the past and how the future well being of our society hinges on evolving our mentality towards jobs and education.
SOLVE TOMORROW'S PROBLEMS Harness Human Ingenuity to Navigate What's Next
Move beyond problem-solving to problem-finding. Heather shows leaders how to ask better questions—the ones that unlock breakthrough opportunities.
Think organizations can't change quickly?
HISTORY PROVES OTHERWISE.
When naysayers said "it can't be done," humans accomplished the impossible—in weeks, not years. Each pivotal moment reminds us of humanity’s most underestimated asset: our ability to adapt in the face of seemingly impossible odds.
In this perspective-shifting keynote, Heather challenges the myth that we resist change using unforgettable stories about a mop, a burrito, and a hermit crab to demonstrate how we can tap into our natural curiosity and hardwired drive to collaborate to see and shape what’s next.
Drawing from her bestselling books The Adaptation Advantage and The Empathy Advantage, Heather reveals how leading organizations thrive when they place adaptability at their core, allowing them to find breakthrough opportunities where others least expect.
MOP The inventors of the Swiffer didn’t ask customers what they wanted. They watched them clean their floors.
The insights they gleaned became a $2.5 billion product nobody asked for but everyone wanted.
The question Heather asks: What if you were one insightful question away from your next breakthrough?
BURRITO A judge in Ohio ordered a woman charged with assault to work in the same restaurant where she’d thrown her incorrect burrito order at the person who made it.
This story is about what’s happening to humanity, but also what questions might help you understand why your organization is not yet operating at its full potential.
HERMIT CRABS Hermit crabs only survive if they find a bigger shell to occupy as they outgrow the old. But they collaborate with other crabs to do this.
This story is about how a leader's job used to be about telling people what to do and how to do it. Now it’s about helping people get to their next shell so they can expand their capacity, increase their resilience, and Solve Tomorrow’s Problems.
OUTCOMES The audience will leave able to: - Identify problems worth solving before competitors do - Lead people to their next chapter, not just their next task - Look for the person behind the problem, not just the problem itself
CLEAR ON PURPOSE Turning Purpose into Performance Through a Shared Vision
Purpose is a performance driver. Heather shows how meaning and belonging create intrinsic motivation that outperforms perks.
In an era where success flows from meaningful connection, we thrive through deep listening, empathy that bridges divides, and dialogue that transforms conflict into shared purpose. By nurturing psychological safety and bold ideas, we unlock our collective potential through
THE SPARK OF HOPE THAT ILLUMINATES THE PATH FORWARD.
The ability to bridge divides through emotional intelligence and skilled communication may be our most valuable professional competency in today's interconnected world. When organizational purpose aligns with human potential, extraordinary things happen.
In this inspirational keynote, Heather reveals how purpose can become your organization’s most powerful performance driver. Through compelling research and real-world examples, she demonstrates how a shared vision can create the trust, belonging, and motivation needed to transform individual potential into collective impact. By getting clear on purpose, we don't just adapt to change—we shape the future.
MISSION + BATTLECRY The monarch butterfly is highly adaptive—going through four state changes in its short life.
It's uniquely motivated in its pursuit of multigenerational migration.
This story teaches us the power of both adaptability and the motivational energy that can be found in the pursuit of a purpose larger than ourselves—and our connection to that purpose.
HUMAN PERFORMANCE Humans leapt to the top of the food chain not because we were the strongest or fittest, but because of our ability to socially learn and collaborate at scale. That collaboration is breaking down right now.
The question Heather wants us to sit with: What is the cost of disconnection in learning, in productivity, in innovation, and in what we need most right now: our adaptive capacity?
CULTURE + LEADERSHIP Lincoln was a remarkable president not just because he led us through the civil war, but because he built his cabinet with people who had dissenting opinions. Most leaders look to fill their teams with people who agree with them. Lincoln chose people who challenged him to see his blind spots.
If we want to get clear on our purpose, this is the kind of leadership we need now.
OUTCOMES The audience will leave able to: - Connect daily work to meaningful outcomes - Align teams around a vision that moves people - Reduce turnover through belonging
LEADING IN THE AGE OF UNCERTAINTY The Curiosity Advantage
Agility isn’t optional. Heather explains why effective leaders embrace learning and unlearning, and how to help teams regulate emotions and stay grounded when everything feels unstable.
Remember when being a leader meant having all the answers? Today's most successful leaders are
ASKING BETTER QUESTIONS.
In a world of economic volatility, AI advancement, cybersecurity challenges, and employee mental wellbeing responsibility, leadership has evolved beyond simple command-control tactics to drive productivity.
Today's exceptional leaders acknowledge complexity as a reality and leverage curiosity over unrealistic certainty, asking better questions amid constant change.
In this talk, Heather reveals how forward-thinking leaders succeed by unlocking their teams' natural capacity to adapt and innovate.
You'll discover practical frameworks to transform challenges into opportunities and evidence-based strategies replacing outdated leadership models. Through compelling research and real-world examples, learn how empowering teams, nurturing curiosity, building trust, and harnessing collective intelligence creates both agile organizations and fulfilled teams that thrive amid change.
ESSENTIAL CONTEXT David Foster Wallace tells a story of two fish who are swimming along when an older fish swims by and asks, “Hey, how's the water?”
One fish turns to the other and says, “What the heck is water?”
Uncertainty is the water in which we've always swum. But our reliance on technology and the past convinces us we should be able to predict what comes next. David’s fish story is an excellent reminder that our job isn’t to eliminate uncertainty. That’s impossible. It's to lead through it.
ORIENTATION We're not dealing with one wave of change.
We're in the middle of three happening at the same time, each feeding into the next: a new human era, a new technology revolution, and a new economic paradigm.
Each one requires a shift in how we think, how we decide, and how we operate.
What Heather wants audiences to sit with is not only what's changing, but the reality that change is not episodic but normative. Change is now a normative state.
UNLEARNING Destin Sandlin is an engineer who rigged up a bike so that, when you turn the handlebars to the right, the front wheel turns left. Turn left, and the wheel goes right.
It took Destin eight months to learn how to ride the backwards bicycle. Because, under pressure, his brain kept reverting back to what it already knew.
Destin’s bicycle story reminds us that the greatest challenges ahead of us are not necessarily learning but the harder act of unlearning—which, in many cases, means rewiring our brains.
OUTCOMES The audience will leave able to: - Adapt with confidence instead of fear - Build cultures where unlearning accelerates growth - Navigate uncertainty as a core leadership ability
START WITH TRUST The Lifeblood of High-Performing Teams
Trust isn’t soft—it's infrastructure. Heather shows how high-trust systems unlock innovation, collaboration, and performance.
Despite disruptions like technology shifts and social changes, businesses today have a unique opportunity to tap into measurable advantages when it comes to engagement, innovation, and profitability—
AND IT ALL BEGINS WITH TRUST.
Just as humanity’s greatest achievements arose from collective effort, cohesive teams innovate faster, adapt more effectively, and consistently outperform when they are grounded in trust.
In this powerful presentation, Heather shares proven tools audiences can use to activate their natural collaborative strengths so they can achieve extraordinary results, gain a competitive advantage, and drive sustainable growth.
TRUST: BRIEF HISTORY In 1957, the U.S. began building the interstate highway system. 48,000 miles of roads connecting the entire country.
It’s hard to imagine coordinating something on such a large scale today. But at the time, the U.S. had some of the highest levels of institutional trust ever measured. Today, we have the lowest levels ever.
Heather uses this story to show audiences why trust is the precondition for every ambitious effort at scale, and what we can do about it.
TRUST + COLLABORATION We put a man on the moon with less technology than we carry in our pockets today.
What’s more interesting is how that happened. No one person at NASA had all the information, but everyone trusted each other to take responsibility for what they did know—and speak up when it mattered.
Heather uses this story to show audiences what trust makes possible when high-performance teams set out to undertake the extraordinary.
TRUST LEADERSHIP In 1982, someone began tampering with Tylenol bottles.
Johnson & Johnson's CEO James Burke didn’t make excuses. He pulled every bottle off the shelves nationwide—a decision that cost the company millions but protected every customer.
This story shows audiences what most leaders miss: In a crisis, trust is the product.
We’re in the business of earning trust.
OUTCOMES The audience will leave able to: - Build psychological safety that accelerates performance - Create cultures where collaboration happens naturally - Turn trust into measurable business outcomes
THE AUGMENTED IMPERATIVE Unleashing Human Potential in the AI Era
AI isn’t replacing us—it’s amplifying us. Heather explains how tools have always reshaped human cognition, and how leaders can preserve agency while using AI to extend capability.
Think you can't remember phone numbers like you used to?
YOU'RE NOT ALONE.
As we hand off more tasks to technology, some of our more-human capabilities will naturally fade—yet while automation may lead to atrophy in some areas, augmentation opens doors to entirely new human capabilities. The key isn’t only using AI to replace what we currently do by automating it, but transforming work as we know it.
In this eye-opening presentation, Heather cuts through the AI hype to demonstrate why thriving alongside AI isn't about having the right answers—it's about asking better questions, framing new challenges, and enhancing what makes us uniquely human.
TOOLS THAT CHANGE US Fire was a major innovation that ultimately allowed us to change the world, but first it changed us by rewiring our brains through better nutrition, sleep, and socialization.
In today’s world, we fixate on what AI will replace or displace while missing how it will rewire the way we think for the better—if we pay attention.
First, Heather explains, it will change our cognition—and then it will allow us to completely reimagine our world.
POWER OF AUGMENTATION The veined octopus is fragile and exposed. But instead of evolving to develop a permanent defense like a thicker skin or shell, it uses tools—carrying coconut shells to protect itself and hunt.
Heather tells the octopus story to remind audiences that the goal with AI is to remain nimble and adaptive to maintain our learning agility.
The question is how do we use AI tools with productive friction to expand our capabilities as we adapt?
"HUMAN IN THE LOOP" Admiral Rickover led the development of nuclear submarines, but resisted full automation.
He insisted that human complacency is our greatest vulnerability and that we always need a human in the loop.
Heather tells the Rickover story to remind audiences what leadership looks like in an automated age.
It required a willingness to 1. Make critical decisions, 2. Own the consequences, and 3. Learn from them.
OUTCOMES The audience will leave able to: - Partner with AI to enhance—not erase—human value - Use productive friction to know what to automate vs. augment - Lead teams through technological transformation
SPEAKING.COM: What do you want people to learn / take away from your presentations?
MCGOWAN: I want people to be inspired that they are in control of their own destiny. I want to stop the dystopian fear of technology and engage more folks in thoughtful planning about our future.
In my lifetime we have dramatically reduced global poverty, productively increased global literacy, and last spring, after less than 25 years, we have connected more than half the globe online. If we can make these strives in a single lifetime, imagine what we can do as we have an ever-expanding arsenal of technology tools at our disposal?
We do, however, need to shift our thinking. In order to thrive we need to think differently about how we engage with work and how we think about learning—two big mindset shifts. I want people to leave my talks empowered that they can play a role in unleashing the potential of humanity.
SPEAKING.COM: What kind of special prep work do you do prior to an event? How to you prepare for your speaking engagements?
MCGOWAN: I begin by understanding the host entity and their goals. Every talk I make is bespoke and customized to the audience’s needs on that particular moment in time. So I begin by learning and sorting through my inventory of thought pillars and shaping the story to the audience. I usually have at minimum one phone call with the host stakeholders where I interview them to better understand their needs beyond my secondary initial research.
SPEAKING.COM: Have you had any particularly memorable speaking engagements / unusual situations arise while on the road?
MCGOWAN: I spoke at an event comprised of individual stakeholders from a struggling city. The stakeholders were lamenting because they had not been selected as a finalist for Amazon HQ2. I sensed their frustration and listened to their reasoning.
After a few conversations with stakeholders prior to my presentation I decided to make a declaration at the start of my talk. I said, “Stop waiting for Amazon or any other company to come save you. The third industrial revolution obliterated one-company towns and the fourth is not going to bring them back. You need to think differently about your region, your resources, and how you are going to rebuild. You have tremendous potential. Stop waiting for someone else; save yourself”.
I think it was the first time I ever received a booming round of applause before I spoke. It was a gamble but I sensed that the stakeholders needed to be liberated from the company bake-offs to forge their own path. I received four follow-on speaking requests immediately following that talk. Sometimes you just have to say it.
SPEAKING.COM: What types of audiences would most benefit from your message?
MCGOWAN: Anyone who works can benefit from my message but I find those who are most engaged fall into one of a few categories: executive leadership, senior-level human resources or learning development professionals, strategic executives, and enlightened higher education leaders, particularly university presidents. I do find that, no matter what audience I speak with, someone will ask their question from their own parental perspective with concern for their own children’s future.
SPEAKING.COM: Which of your keynote speaking topics are your favorites and why?
MCGOWAN: Speaking about the future of work in all forms is fun for me as it brings a rich discussion of human potential. This is the future we can create together. From my research combined with what I have experienced, I am a short-term pessimist and a long-term optimist. I believe we will ultimately unleash the potential of humanity by leveraging technologies to augment human capabilities and that is why I am optimistic. I am pessimistic because I do not see us shifting quickly enough to make the necessary changes to truly thrive and realize our potential.
SPEAKING.COM: What inspired you to start doing speaking engagements?
MCGOWAN: I was working in both academia (by accident) and industry as a consultant. My undergrad degree is in industrial design (design thinking before the term existed) and my masters is an MBA with a focus on entrepreneurship. I found myself using visuals from design and business concepts to help people around me understand changes either taking place or changes we needed to make.
After a decade of this type of translation work I wrote a blog series on LinkedIn called “Jobs Are Over: The Future is Income Generation”. That series went viral and I began getting speaking requests from folks all over the world asking me to deliver facets of that message in a talk. One talk led to another and so on until today where I make almost my entire income from speaking engagements all over the world for which I am very fortunate.
SPEAKING.COM: How much do case studies, personal stories and/or humor factor into your keynote speech content?
MCGOWAN: Examples, personal stories, and humor always help. A couple of decades ago I took a year of training at Second City in Chicago. At the time I did it to increase my speed and breadth of ideation for design work but it has served me well to increase my adaptability.
I suggest improvisational training as part of a core curriculum in the future. Humor and storytelling help with engagement and recall. John Hagel of Deloitte says that story and narrative are related but different concepts. You can learn something from a story as it is resolved and offers reflection. A narrative is unresolved and it is a call to action that can only be completed when you engage in the resolution. I strive to make my talks include both story and narrative.
SPEAKING.COM: What are some of the successes you’ve helped clients make?
MCGOWAN: My friend and mentor, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, likens his work writing and speaking to being in the heating and lighting business. He believes a successful communication evokes passion (heat) or insight and illumination (light). I have found several instances where people leave my talks with comments such as “I did not see it that way before.” One of my favorites is “All I have heard and read about the future of work is dystopian, but leaving your talk I feel optimistic and I am excited about the future.”
Kevin M.R. Mayne
September 12, 2018
I have been fortunate to hear Heather speak on a number of occasions. Each time I've been impressed with the level of knowledge she brings to her subject matter. Many speakers rehash topics that been discussed. Heather on the other researches her topics and always has a fresh cutting-edge perspective to offer. She also presents her information not only verbally, but also backed with easy to understand visuals that illustrate her point of view. This multi-modal approach to her delivery engages her audience, appeal to different types of learners, and conveys often sophisticated, high level info in a more understandable and digestible format.
Speaker rating 10/10
Marie Norcia
April 23, 2019
Heather is a great speaker. She is engaging and presents information in a creative way that audiences really react to. Heather presented to a large group of my clients and the response was entirely positive. The clients followed up with questions such as whether or not she had written a book they could buy and if they could see her anywhere else in person or online.She offers great insight into the future of work and how we should look at talent from an employer and employee perspective.
Chris Shipley
Heather McGowan is a smart, insightful, original and relatable speaker. Her talks are packed with original thought, clearly explained. And unlike so many in-demand speakers, she tunes each talk to the audience so that every talk is fresh. Heather brings a learning mindset to her participation, understanding that she can learn from other speakers, and reference their material in her talk so that her addresses bring a cohesiveness to the entire program.
Ivan Kaye
September 11, 2018
Heather is engaging, inspiring, thought-provoking . She has an ability to make extremely complex subjects simple through her brilliant graphs and explanations. It was a real treat having her present at our big innovation forum
Heather Dawson
May 7, 2019
We were delighted to have Heather kick off our global summit on the Future of Work. Heather not only brings a unique and compelling perspective that is based on her deep research, experience and thinking, but she uniquely delivers it in a way that is both engaging and authentic. She 'simplifies the complex' with stories and visuals that leave people feeling empowered to become adaptable, lifelong learners. As we learned from Heather, 'the future of work is learning'!
Julia Douthart
I had the pleasure of hearing Heather's authentic voice at Work Rebooted. Amazingly smart and intuitive, Heather has an uncanny ability to help an audience visualize the complete interdependencies influencing the way we learn, work and live so we can better prepare for the coming technology-driven shifts. As a summit curator, I found her to be a real pleasure to work with and highly regarded among her peers and those involved in shaping the future of work.
James Johnson
I was fortunate to hear Heather speak at the Innovation in the “Age of Accelerations” Forum. She is an amazing communicator and a driving force, inspiring new relevant perspectives. Her presentation is a “must see” by leaders across government, academia, and industry who should be preparing our society for the future of work and the future of learning...the future of work is learning!
Annalie Killian
September 13, 2018
In a world where we are drowning in information, clarity is power. Many add to the noise and the fears about the future of work; but Heather has done the homework, the thinking and crafted the vision for adapting with supreme clarity. She has been a lone voice tackling this subject with original thinking and substance when I first discovered her blog and invited her to speak in Australia in June 2015, and since then she’s been sought out by the smartest institutions in the world to help everyone from presidents to policy-makers to high school kids understand complex and interconnected trends, and best options, through her amazing and original diagrams. Her straight talk and clear insights will hit the top ratings at your event - guaranteed.
Jerel Bonner
Heather has positioned herself on the front line of the battle as it relates to the future of employment trends. She has a unique ability to pull out the key numbers and visualize so that others can understand these complex situations in a simpler manner. Heather's presentation visuals combined with her insight hit hard at the challenges in the workplace.Heather is highly skilled at reading economic indicators as they relate to the employment tea leaves, Heather's focus on how work is being outsourced to automation, and what individuals and employers need to do to ensure future income generation for both the corporation and the individual.During her presentations, Heather's hidden competency is her ability to ask questions to entice outside the norm dialogues, along with just listening to let others uncover what they really are considering or concerned about. Audience leave her presentations pondering how to be better prepared for the future, and know they are not alone in the challenge.
Speaker rating 9/10
“Heather is my go-to -person because there are a lot of mirages out there when it comes to the Future of Work and she is the oasis. She is the real deal. Her ability to convey information in both words and visuals together are really powerful.” – Thomas L Friedman, Columnist, New York Times + Pulitzer Prize Winner Author
“Heather provided the spark, the insights, and the energy to move our HR team forward. Her talk had something for everyone on our team, from our centers of excellence to our HR partners, from our leaders to our operations team, from our learning team to our compensation group. In particular, her discussion of the future of work and the importance of learning at the heart of organizational life really hit home for all of us.” — Robin Pelzman, Biogen
“Heather has a mind that can hold so much complexity yet combined with her rare gift of making these complex and highly emotive ideas so clear and accessible through her visualizations, models and straight talk – no academic or corporate jargon…just relatable facts, insights and powerful stories and metaphors. No-one can paint the picture of the Future of Work as vividly as Heather McGowan!” — Annalie Killian, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at sparks + honey
“In the war for talent, organizations must be able to offer employees a path that goes beyond typical career progression. Heather presents a compelling and thought provoking vision that focuses on lifelong learning and adaptability for employees, which the pace of technological change essentially requires. Her analysis is comprehensive, yet easily understood. She distills it into actionable steps to help organizations move towards creating an environment in which employees and organizations mutually benefit and are well positioned for an uncertain future.” — Charles Moore, Managing Director, Alvarez and Marsal
“Heather is an academic entrepreneur and visionary. She represents a new generation of thought leaders in higher education.” — Robert. E. Johnson, PhD, Chancellor University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
“Heather has the unique ability to synthesize and intellectualize large amounts of often-disparate data into a cohesive, clear, and actionable strategy while identifying and addressing the inevitable hurdles or challenges in any endeavor. As a university president, entrepreneur, and board member, I have never ever seen anyone better than Heather at demystifying complex information to provide a path to action. “ — Stephen Spinelli, Jr, PhD, Chancellor Emeritus, Jefferson University
“I was fortunate to hear Heather speak at the Innovation in the ‘Age of Accelerations’ Forum. She is an amazing communicator and a driving force, inspiring new relevant perspectives. Her presentation is a “must see” by leaders across government, academia, and industry who should be preparing our society for the future of work and the future of learning…the future of work is learning!” — James Johnson, Executive Director Air Force Human Resilience (Major General) United States Airforce
“In a world where speakers claim to be experts, Heather is a genuine expert who can speak.” — Peter Sheahan, Group CEO, Karrikins Group
“Heather is in a category of her own—a singularly gifted strategist. She sees the future and communicates it with clarity so others can drive change that matters. Her messages cut through the clutter and offer compelling visualizations that enable her audiences to deeply understand complex topics—and act with impact.”— Randy Swearer, VP, Autodesk
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The Empathy Advantage: Leading the Empowered Workforce
In the decade before the Covid-19 pandemic, change was coming so quickly and across so many vectors that most business leaders – so busy tackling one new challenge after another – missed the trendlines that would collide in the early months of 2020 and forever change their workforce and how they lead it for generations to come.
In The Empathy Advantage: Leading the Empowered Workforce, Heather E. McGowan and Chris Shipley team up again to deliver a guidebook for leaders navigating the uncertainty of a post pandemic world in a sequel to their successful book The Adaptation Advantage. Leaders today must acknowledge and respond to the fundamental shifts that lay the foundation for effective leadership: From managing people to enabling success, from viewing peers as competitors to seeing them as collaborators, from applying extrinsic pressure on workers to unlocking intrinsic motivation, and from driving productivity with unquestioned authority to inspiring value creation by leading with empathy.
In this book, you will learn about the five interlocking trends that brought us the empowered workforce: The Great Resignation, the Great Refusal, the Great Reshuffle, the Great Retirement, and the Great Relocation collectively delivered the Great Reset. These trends, building for a decade prior to the pandemic, saw employees leading jobs; restructuring where and how they work, accelerating retirement, and reordering the role of work in their lives.
The Adaptation Advantage: Let Go, Learn Fast, and Thrive in the Future of Work
The way we work is always changing. This has been particularly true in the 21st century. Digital transformation has disrupted virtually all industries and yielded major shifts in the nature of employment. Unfortunately , not everyone has kept up with the changing times. A rigid focus on outdated models of employment and education has prevented some from thriving in today’s economy.
That doesn’t need to be the case! In The Adaptation Advantage, authors Heather E. McGowan and Chris Shipley explain how both individuals and organizations can succeed despite constant change. Leveraging decades of expertise, McGowan and Shipley offer an empowering alternative to the bleak messages often spread when people consider the future of employment.
Economic and social shifts are unavoidable. With the lessons found in The Adaptation Advantage, you’ll learn to ride these waves, ensuring continued success for years to come.
Disrupt Together
Spinelli and McGowan integrate a broad network of international leaders on innovation to demonstrate the tight linkages between innovation and opportunity recognition. Building on the award winning Philadelphia University curriculum redesign that is reshaping how innovation is taught worldwide, these experts highlight how to identify relevant opportunities more effectively than ever before. The team covers every facet of innovation, including design processes, team development, ethnography, audits and charrettes, opportunity shaping and assessment, business models, value delivery, systems thinking, and more. Master the art of innovation in teams! Disrupt Together introduces a breakthrough transdisciplinary, team-based approach to innovation that integrates business, design and engineering, and can deliver powerful results for both new ventures and existing companies with case study examples from education, healthcare, branding, and consumer product and service design. The book will serve as the definitive companion text for a growing number of innovation and entrepreneurship programs that either follow the Philadelphia University model or have been influenced by it. This guide will also be an indispensable resource for every business practitioner seeking to build innovative new organizations or reinvigorate innovation in existing firms.
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