Michele Wucker

Michele Wucker Speaking Topics

• Gray Rhinos and Green Swans: The New ESG Imperative

  Environment and climate are global, obvious, challenges with huge impact on supply chains, agriculture, property values, and finance. Yet progress in dealing with them has been painfully slow. That is changing, with huge implications for capital flows and investment strategies. Amid increasingly extreme weather and recognition that global supply chains depend on addressing climate change, calls are rising for action. Companies are waking up on environment, social, and governance (ESG) issues • not for political reasons, but because it's a business imperative.

  What does the ESG rallying cry mean for your business? How do the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) fit in? How do you sound the alarm loud enough to get your company and partners on board? What are the right change metrics to follow?   The audience will leave with:

  • A dynamic systems understanding of climate risks

  • Tools for analyzing key stakeholders and motivating them to move from denial or muddling to action

  • An understanding of the rising debate over climate risk pricing

  • Actionable ideas to help you apply ESG principles to employee and customer engagement

  • Insights into the dangers of greenwashing

  Michele jokes that she’s lost count of the number of questions from reporters about the climate change gray rhino: charging right at us, but only some people are responding. Experts at Davos debated green swans and gray rhinos in 2020. Michele’s network of industry connections gives her an inside track into some of the latest developments in ESG conversations, both positive and pitfalls. She has spoken to governments, companies, trade groups, and other non-governmental organizations about climate change and the transition to zero-carbon. The recent flood of investment using ESG criteria –and the rising ESG debates and new regulations— means this is a trend you cannot afford to ignore.

  This program is perfect for:

  • Policy makers

  • Boards

  • Risk managers and business continuity professionals

  • Investors

  Format:30-45 minute keynote with Q&A

• Risk Skills in the Future of Work

  In a world made more uncertain by the advance of new technologies, automation, and artificial intelligence, combined with sudden shocks like pandemics and extreme weather, the most essential skills involve your ability to manage risks and navigate uncertainty. How will jobs and the workplace transform -and what do you need to do to be ready? 

  Takeaways: • Why your risk choices tell the world who you are just as distinctively as a fingerprint identifies you

  • How understanding the often surprising influences on your risk fingerprint can help you make better decisions

  • Why the key skills employers need are tied to your ability to manage risk and uncertainty

  • How risk awareness and risk empathy can improve teamwork and relationships with key stakeholders

  • What to ask about an organization's risk culture when deciding whether or not it's a good match for you

  • The importance of creating a healthy risk portfolio across career, health, finance, and relationships

  This program is perfect for:

  • Senior management focused on human capital strategy

  • HR Professionals building human capital

  • Teams needing help managing change

  • Leaders seeking to catalyze innovation

  This program is based on insights developed in Michele’s most recent book, "YOU ARE WHAT YOU RISK: The New Art and Science of Managing an Uncertain World."

  Format: 1.5 hour to 1/2 day interactive workshop with breakouts. Can be customized to include follow-up (breakouts can be separated out depending on group size) and read-out report.

Risk Empathy for Team Building

Risk empathy is the ability to understand how others experience risks and adapt your own behavior to meet those needs. Just as analyzing your own risk fingerprint -that is, the influences behind the risks you take• gives you valuable insights into your own risk choices, seeking insights into the risk fingerprints of your colleagues, clients, friends, and family can be a powerful tool in business and life.

The audience will leave with:

• The ability to analyze your own risk fingerprint

• Powerful questions and strategies for understanding the risk fingerprints of those around you

• Tools for building risk empathy and team building

• An understanding of the dangers of risk stereotyping and how to avoid it

• Insights into your organizational risk culture

 This program is perfect for:

• Senior management

• Teams with new leaders or otherwise managing change

• Back-to-the-office or hybrid workplace transitions from work-at-home

This program is based on insights developed in Michele’s most recent book, "YOU ARE WHAT YOU RISK: The New Art and Science of Managing an Uncertain World."

Format:45 minute keynote; This topic can also be presented as a 30 minute presentation followed by a facilitated workshop

Understanding Your Risk Fingerprint

Do you see sitting still or making a bold move as being the bigger risk? Do you see opportunity where a colleague sees danger? Do you look before you leap or just take the plunge? When you see an obvious risk, do you face it head on or do your best to ignore it? The answers to these questions shape every choice you make about every risk you take. Recognizing why you answer them the way you do --the personality traits, experiences, group dynamics and deliberate decisions that make up your risk fingerprint--can help you to make better decisions in your career and life. Understanding how those around you see and respond to risk will help you connect with your clients and collaborate and negotiate more effectively with colleagues and partners. Learn about some of the surprising reasons -like what you had for lunch or the mix of people in the room• that affect how you see and respond to risks, and take away insights about how to put that knowledge to optimize your risk relationship and performance. 

This program is perfect for:

• Teams seeking to improve group dynamics and performance

• Boards evaluating risk governance 

• Strategic planning groups looking to optimize risk decisions

• Financial advisers working with clients of various risk profiles This program is based on insights developed in Michele’s most recent book, "YOU ARE WHAT YOU RISK: The New Art and Science of Managing an Uncertain World."

Format:Keynote or 60-90 minute workshop

Gray Rhinos in the Global Economy

This is one of Michele’s most frequently requested presentations, particularly for private audiences. Gray Rhinos in the Global Economy combines her deep experience and personal network in global policy, finance, and economics with the powerful framework she developed for helping decision makers to improve their responses to clear and present dangers. Join the CEOs, risk professionals, boards, thought leaders, and senior financial and national policy officials around the world who apply gray rhino theory to their strategic decision making.

  This program is perfect for:

• Senior Management

• Chief Risk Officers

• Board Retreats

• Association Annual Meetings

The audience will leave with:

• Insights into top 'gray rhino' risks in the global economy and their impact on business in general and specific industries

• Guidance on what signs to look for to determine how these risks may play out

• A dynamic systems approach to how these risks may interact and multiply their impact beyond the sum of the parts

• A framework for improving strategic responses

Adaptable format: 45min keynote plus Q&A, or longer workshop/strategy planning session

Demographic Gray Rhinos: Robots Meet Aging and Migration

Tectonic shifts are coming in labor markets and consumer demographics, intensified by recent technological advances in additive manufacturing and machine learning. Together, they are a crash of obvious, highly probable yet neglected “gray rhino” challenges. * By 2050, there will be just one worker for every retiree, less than a third of the current level * Pension shortfalls in the U.S. alone are roughly $20 trillion * By 2044, the United States will be a majority minority country * Close to half of U.S. jobs could be lost to automation of everything from scheduling to driving to legal and financial analysis In this provocative talk, learn about the opportunities and pitfalls that your organization faces amid shifting demographics colliding with increasing automation, and strategies for getting ahead of the game.