Neil Pasricha

Neil Pasricha Speaking Topics

• Motivational

  What’s the best way to open or close your conference? With Neil’s unique blend of hilarious stage performance together with his simple takeaways based on research conducted while studying at Harvard Business School and as a researcher. Crowds buzz with the combination of sidesplitting personal stories that hook audiences from the get-go together with a beautifully accessible and disseminated look at the world of happiness and positive psychology research. Audiences walk away thinking “I decide where I’m going” and, more importantly, “I know exactly how to get there.”

• Happiness

  Does success lead to happiness? Or … does happiness lead to success? In this thought-provoking and side-splitting keynote, Neil unpacks the science behind the simple sayings using the latest positive psychology and neuroscience research. He begins by asking, “Would you press a button to have 31% higher productivity, 37% higher sales, and 300% greater creativity on Monday morning?” When people say “of course”, he explains how to achieve it without the magic button. Forget motivation—this cogent and hilarious talk is for those of us who want to be told how to apply the research. Perfect for cynics, realists, and optimists alike. Get ready for a whirlwind tour of the research Pasricha has published in Harvard Business Review together with the latest studies in the emerging landscape.

Leadership

What company has been sitting on top of the Fortune 500 for more than a decade? Walmart. The retail giant from Arkansas. No other company boasts half a trillion dollars in sales with more two million employees circling the globe. What the company doesn’t share is how they got to that level of success — particularly regarding how they invest, groom, and motivate great leaders from within all the way to the C-suite. That’s exactly what Neil Pasricha will explain in this eye-opening keynote. Neil acted as Director of Leadership for Walmart for almost a decade and worked directly for two company CEOs. Neil ran global CEO onboarding, executive development, and he worked with Harvard Business School to develop Walmart’s first ever Global Executive Program. How do you improve your leadership skills and inspire others to feel confident in their work? Let Neil explain how to lead yourself first in order to lead a team of two million, two hundred, even two people.

Employee Engagement

We think it goes like this: Engaged Work → Big Success → Be Happy. Study really hard, get straight A’s, then become a doctor! Or work really hard, score a promotion, and then be happy. If we’re engaged at the beginning, everything will turn out okay, right? Yes, we grow up with that model. We tell our kids that model. But that model is scientifically backwards. We need to instead choose happiness first, and then we’ll do engaged work, and then big success follows. The model actually goes like this: Be Happy → Engaged Work → Big Success. Why? Happier people have 31% greater productivity, 37% higher sales, and three times the creativity of their peers. Not to mention they live an average of ten years longer. But how do we get there? New York Times bestselling author and Harvard MBA Neil shares the research underpinning #1 International Bestseller The Happiness Equation to answer three big questions about engagement: How much can we control? What results can we expect? What tools can we use? In this funny and fast-paced speech Neil shares the real takeaways that lead to engagement… and helps us all lead happier lives.

Change Management

New structures, new leaders, new systems, new tools. Sound like a typical week in your office? We are all working on unstable ground so it’s no wonder Gallup reports only 13% of the global workforce is showing up ready to face the changing landscape. But… what if there were simple, research-based tools grounded in the emerging science that we could all use to be more productive, engaged, and agile individuals? It’s not a dream. It’s happening right now. Based on his groundbreaking research published in Harvard Business Review and New York Times bestsellers The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation, Neil delivers a unique blend of cutting edge research packaged with heartwarming stories and sidesplitting laughs that leave audiences not just ready to face the next wave of changes – but excited for them.

Resilience

After Neil’s wife left him and his best friend committed suicide, he found himself living alone and struggling to find happiness. Fast-forward only one year later and he was working directly for the CEO of Walmart, writing the International Academy of Digital Arts and Science’s “Best Blog in the world” every night which had over 50 million hits, and had just published The Book of Awesome which stormed to #1 on the International bestseller lists and sold well over a million copies. If there’s one thing Neil’s learned, it’s that we don’t succeed in spite of our losses, but because of them. And he learned before your life can change, you need to change, because happiness and leadership only stem from within. Neil illustrates five clear takeaways which help you take challenges and transform them into growth opportunities to lift performance and results to new heights.