Stephen Shapiro

Stephen Shapiro Speaking Topics

• Revealing Invisible Solutions®: A Systematic Approach for Finding Solutions to Important Opportunities

  What if your organization had an effective and systematic approach to deal with any problem or opportunity?

  To find better solutions, you need to first ask better questions. The questions you ask determine which solutions you’ll see and which will remain hidden.

  This interactive keynote contains a very simple tool to reframe any problem multiple ways: twenty-five lenses that help you gain different perspectives. Packed with powerful stories and practical tools, this speech will enable everyone on your teams to start mastering any challenge.

  This keynote/workshop will help the audience:

  • Discover why we are hardwired to ask ineffective questions and how to work through those barriers
  • Understand the power and importance of well-defined questions
  • Reframe any problem multiple ways to help you find the optimal solution

  During this customizable and interactive keynote, the audience will not just leave with new concepts, they will have powerful tools they can apply every day.

  For longer sessions, teams will have a chance to apply the twenty-five lenses. Not only does this leave people with a deeper understanding, but you also will capture valuable insights that the company can use. This can be done with audiences of any size.

  This enlightening experience brings to life the concept in Stephen Shapiro’s latest award winning book, Invisible Solutions.

• Pivotal: Creating Stability in World of Uncertainty, Disruption, and AI

  In our fast-paced modern world, workplace burnout and confusion have become the norm. But it doesn’t need to be this way.

  Stephen Shapiro’s keynote offers a powerful antidote to the dizzying spinning and relentless chaos overwhelming countless organizations (and individuals) today.

  He provides practical tools to help you distinguish genuine opportunities from mere distractions, thereby creating stability in your professional and personal life.

  The concept of stability is akin to a basketball player executing a pivot. While one foot moves in a circular motion, the other remains anchored to the ground.

  The unsung hero is the foot that doesn’t move, as it provides the solid foundation and stability needed for future shifts.

  This speech champions the planted foot. By focusing on what doesn’t—and shouldn’t—change, you can build a robust foundation that supports future shifts without wasting valuable resources on bright shiny objects or fleeting fads.

  The emphasis has always been on what’s next. But sometimes, we need to focus on what’s now. Where do we double down our efforts to achieve extraordinary returns today and tomorrow?

  This positions you and your organization to shift from a place of power. It involves knowing where to channel your resources for the greatest impact, allowing you to offer clarity and direction to your employees. In the process, you become irreplaceable to your customers.

  This presentation also delves deeply into AI strategies that help you determine where, when, and how to invest.

  It’s time to stop the spinning and start winning.

Small Bets to Win Big at Innovation: The Power of Experimentation Rather than Failure

We live in challenging times. Inflation. Supply chain disruptions. Pandemics. War. Talent shortages.

Given this level of uncertainty, we need a different approach for innovation. When you can’t predict what will happen next, traditional long-term investment strategies fail.

The key to being nimble during these turbulent times is to focus on placing many small bets – rather than a few large ones.

But what bets do you place? Which bets should you kill? And when should you double down? Answering these questions is the key to success.

During this interactive session, you will discover:

• How to place better (more frequent yet smaller) bets
• How to determine which bets are not worth further investment (experimentation)
• How to avoid failure – and what to do when you do fail
• How to create a culture of experimentation – quickly and inexpensively

We also have fun with a simple gambling simulation that demonstrates how we can lower our risk with our bets. The key is getting as many insights about the future, for the lowest possible investment.

This practical session will not only give everyone the tools and mindset for creating small experiments, but also will leave them with specific actions they can take within the next seven days to make progress with their innovation efforts.

The concepts are so simple to implement that companies can create an entire culture around experimentation with little effort, time, or cost.

The “small bets” approach demonstrated during this session are truly a game changer for any organization of any size.

Personality Poker®: Creating a High-Performing Innovation Team

Contrary to conventional wisdom, opposites do not attract. As a result, in business, we tend to surround ourselves with people who are similar to us. Although this is great for efficiency, this lack of diversity can kill innovation.

How can you increase your innovation potential? Play Personality Poker® with Steve Shapiro! This fast-paced, highly interactive game will help you discover:

• Your primary innovation personality
• Your innovation blind spots
• Why the person you like the least is the person you need the most
• What is missing from your team that is limiting innovation and success
• How to create a high-performing innovation team that leverages divergent points of view

This is the most interactive keynote you will ever experience and has been done with audiences of more than 1,000 people in a Vegas casino! Be ready for an incredible way to kick off your conference as it will set the tone for the rest of your event!

Innovate the Way You Innovate: Uncovering Innovative Solutions to Difficult Problems

Well-intentioned leaders, in their attempts to boost innovation, are inadvertently destroying it. What if “thinking outside the box” actually kills innovation? What if failure is not a necessary component of innovation? It’s time to innovate the way you innovate.

During this customizable and interactive keynote, you will discover that innovation isn’t just about generating occasional new ideas; it’s about staying consistently one step ahead of the competition. This enlightening experience brings to life the concept in Stephen Shapiro’s books, Invisible Solutions and Best Practices Are Stupid.

You will discover why:

• You don’t want to innovate everywhere. Avoid trying to improve every aspect of your business. Instead, “innovate where you differentiate.” Focus your energy where there is the greatest potential impact.
• Asking for ideas is a bad idea. Avoid suggestion boxes or abstract questions. They create a lot of noise and wasted energy. Instead, provide well-framed challenges to increase creative output. “Don’t think outside the box, find a better box.”
• Expertise is the enemy of innovation. Breakthroughs are rarely developed by experts within your industry or area of specialization. Instead, reframe your challenge to find solutions elsewhere.
• The pragmatic approaches shared in “Innovate the Way You Innovate” have increased innovation ROI tenfold or more.

Innovation for Innovators: Create Your Best Innovation Culture

You’ve decided to invest in innovation.

You have a team of innovators ready to change your culture.

Now where do you begin?

Stephen’s presentation, consisting of content from his best-selling book, Best Practices are Stupid, is specifically designed for individuals tasked with making innovation a reality in your organization.

Throughout this impressive presentation, Stephen will address a wide range of issues such as:

• Why failure is bad but experimentation is good
• How to measure innovation to ensure you are innovating efficiently
• What organization structures help push innovation to the lowest levels of the organization
• How to identify your organization’s differentiator and its impact on innovation
• How to motivate everyone in the organization to participate in innovation
• How to maximize your innovation ROI with a challenge-centered approach

“Innovation for Innovators” provides the basics and the specifics necessary for any company to create a pervasive culture of innovation. It is often most powerful when done as a longer workshop rather than a keynote.