Navigating the AI Adoption Divide (Andrew Grant &/or Dr Gaia Grant)

The rapid rise of AI is reshaping leadership, adding an unpredictable ‘X factor’ to an already complex landscape. 

As businesses race to innovate, leaders must juggle competing demands, balancing urgency and caution to drive sustainable growth. This new wave of growth is reshaping leadership, forcing executives to balance tradition with transformation, speed with strategy, and agility with stability. 

This session cuts through the noise, tackling the core paradoxes of AI-driven transformation and providing practical strategies. Covering areas such as decision-making, problem-solving, fostering an innovation culture, and leadership tactics, participants learn how to balance creative ingenuity with AI-powered efficiency. The topic provides a powerful introduction and/or subplot to ensure AI supports, not hinders, innovation, empowering organizations to succeed in an era of disruption. 

The dynamic keynote also explores the unique challenges of AI adoption: examining how leaders can harness the potential without losing control. Through groundbreaking insights from Andrew and Gaia Grant’s book The Innovation Race and Gaia Grant’s unique research with the University of Sydney Business School, the keynote/workshop introduces powerful tools like the Innovation Climate Leadership Indicator (iCLi) and Dynamic Polar Positioning (DPoP) to help leaders navigate digital transformation. Several case studies are also included to show how these principles and tools can be applied in real-world settings. 

While many futurists indulge in sharing dazzling forecasts and speculative tech marvels, Andrew Grant and Dr. Gaia Grant offer a grounded, strategic approach. This keynote isn’t about predicting the future. Instead, it prepares leaders to confidently manage uncertainty. The focus is not on future fantasies but on future readiness. As a result, executives and leaders are equipped with practical strategies to foster agility, resilience, and sustainable innovation—ensuring they don’t just keep up with AI but lead through disruption. 

Dr. Gaia Grant and Andrew Grant will not only help you stay current with AI but also lead through the tension. Participants leave with the confidence to steer transformational change in an era where complexity, creativity, and AI must coexist. 

Key Takeaways & Talking Points 

• Understand the impact of AI on leadership and innovation

• Navigate the tensions between speed and strategy in AI-driven change

• Gain insights into effective leadership styles and how to manage the competing demands

• Apply practical models and tools designed to executive digital transformation with confidence

Who will win, who will lose, and why it matters 

Why do so many innovation initiatives fail, and what can be done about it? 

This fast-paced global keynote journey explores how cultures, companies, and countries have faced the relentless challenge of unchecked innovation – and how some have successfully navigated the dual hurdles of rapid change and innovation. Drawing on compelling case studies from The Innovation Race, the session offers practical strategies for staying ahead by transforming disruption into opportunity. 

While tech giants often grab the headlines, long-term research shows they don’t have all the answers — and most organizations today only understand part of the innovation puzzle. By adopting a broader perspective across various global contexts, this session uncovers what truly drives sustainable innovation and how to avoid the pitfalls of fleeting hype. 

Participants are encouraged to go beyond passive observation — to no longer just marvel at the speed of change, but actively engage with the forces shaping the future. The session highlights critical but often overlooked factors that will ultimately influence the future of innovation: leadership styles, team culture, and organizational readiness. It offers tools to help leaders navigate core paradoxical tensions in innovation, enabling them to become more resilient, agile, and adaptive. 

Key Takeaways & Talking Points 

• Explore the global landscape to identify the secrets to sustainable development

• Learn about global best practices as guidelines for strategic action 

• Gain exposure to practical culture change strategies to support sustainable organization-wide transformation

Managing rapid innovation and change through strategic resilience

How can you survive and thrive as a leader when the landscape is constantly changing? The secret lies in becoming more resilient through an ‘ambidextrous leadership’ approach.

This session introduces the concept of ambidextrous leadership: the ability to lead with both agility and consistency across various roles and contexts. The audience learns effective tools for managing these competing demands and for building strong resilience. It covers how to handle the AI paradox—learning to harness emerging technologies while maintaining core values. This isn’t just a tech challenge; it’s now a leadership necessity.

In this engaging session, the audience is encouraged to consider how they can develop the strategic resilience needed to succeed during complex changes. Drawing on 30 years of consulting experience and the latest research, the session provides practical tools for fostering cultures of integrity, agility, and long-term impact. Through interactive exercises and insights, participants discover how to turn tension into productive creative energy.

The Innovation Change Leadership Profile (iCLi) and Dynamic Polar Positioning Tool (DPoP), created from extensive original research interviews with global leaders and detailed case studies, are introduced as groundbreaking frameworks for navigating the paradoxes of innovation. Participants identify their unique innovation orientations through interactive activities and learn how to balance Exploration (developing breakthrough ideas) with Preservation (continuous improvement) to achieve sustainable growth.

By exploring their leadership mindset, uncovering hidden biases, and mastering how to manage change with strategic foresight, participants learn to balance these ‘Explore’ and ‘Preserve’ perspectives and gain tools to move beyond hype and create lasting value.

Key Takeaways & Talking Points 

• Master ambidextrous leadership: Balancing agility and consistency across diverse teams and roles.

• Decode leadership mindsets: Identifying default biases and uncovering potential obstacles to transformation.

• Profile for practical impact: Includes individual and team diagnostics to support targeted development.

• Lead through competing demands: Applying practical tools to drive sustainable change.

• Build adaptive teams: Foster resilience and responsiveness across occupational profiles.

Leading collaborative innovation and change in a competitive corporate culture
(Andrew Grant &/or Dr Gaia Grant)

Collaboration is a widely recognized core organizational value. Yet true implementation can be an incredibly deceptive challenge. 

This unique session delves deep into the concept of collaboration, exploring the critical question: “Under what conditions will people really cooperate?” This seemingly simple question holds significant implications for anyone seeking to foster a collaborative environment for sustainable innovation and change, from corporate managers to governments and even countries in conflict. 

Through honest and detailed investigation of this topic, the program aims to understand how to effectively incentivize cooperation, especially within a competitive corporate environment. During the session, participants engage in a social experiment (gamified simulation) to examine the behavioral economics of individuals, teams, and entire business units. In this safe, reversible environment, they can experience firsthand the effects of removing trust and accountability and quickly see the power of genuine collaboration to achieve remarkable results.

This program applies Dr. Gaia Grant’s Innovative Change Leader (iCLi) framework by showing how genuine collaboration can be sparked despite the seemingly opposing force of independence, fostering sustainable innovation through valuing individual experiential insights alongside collective effort in co-creation.

Essential for preparing teams for lasting success.

Key Takeaways & Talking Points

• Understand the forces that can impede collaboration in a typical competitive environment

• Determine the impact of non-collaborative behaviours (e.g., defecting/freeriding) in business contexts

• Address the concerns and interests of others with opposing viewpoints

• Identify how to change behaviors and systems related to siloed “me/we versus they” thinking

Mastering the art of purpose-driven innovation leadership for driving sustainable change
(Andrew Grant &/or Dr Gaia Grant)

The pressure is on. Complex decisions about new innovations like AI need to be made quickly.

This session explains how it is imperative to innovate both radically, for agile adaptation to rapid change) and responsibly (for reliable and sustainable performance. It discusses how to identify key objectives, build multidisciplinary teams, and align roles and responsibilities based on understanding these essential competing demands. 

The session features an engaging, interactive AI ethical dilemma that highlights the conflicting demands involved in responsible innovation. The ‘Purpose-driven Innovation Scanner’ (PDIS) tool is introduced to offer practical guidance on assessing innovation biases and leveraging strengths to foster purpose-driven outcomes and sustainable change.

The fascinating approach draws on in-depth case studies from consulting work with a variety of organizations, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to not-for-profit enterprises. Participants learn the key qualities of leaders and organizations that can drive purpose-driven and sustainable change, and they learn the impressive results and outcomes achieved from applying these principles. 

Key Takeaways & Talking Points

• Balancing radical and responsible innovation through exposure to case studies that demonstrate how it can be done

• Values prioritization strategies, for revealing how AI and emerging technologies are approached with integrity

• Applying The Purpose-Driven Innovation Scanner (PDIS) Tool, which provides a structured approach to measuring and implementing responsible innovation

Do we need to learn to be creative now that AI can do it for us?
(Andrew Grant / Dr Gaia Grant)

The World Economic Forum continues to highlight creative and critical thinking as vital leadership skills, even as AI transforms industries. In the age of intelligent technology, it will be crucial to improve efficiency without sacrificing creativity or the human spark. 

As AI redefines problem-solving and innovation, it prompts important questions about maintaining the relevance of human creativity. The key question remains: Will AI kill creativity or boost it? How can leaders find the right balance between AI and human input when addressing complex problems that require Creative Intelligence and Design Thinking? 

In this keynote and/or workshop session, participants are encouraged to explore the changing relationship between AI and creative thinking, gaining strategic insights on how leaders can leverage AI without losing control of ingenuity and innovation. The practical AI Creativity Utilization Dial is introduced as a tool to help identify how and when to incorporate AI into the creative process. 

Andrew Grant and/or Dr. Gaia Grant won’t just help you use AI, they’ll demonstrate how to harness it to boost creative thinking and solve complex problems more accurately and efficiently.

Key Takeaways & Talking Points

• Maximize creativity without losing control – learn when to integrate AI while maintaining human ingenuity, creativity and ensuring alignment with strategic goals

• Use AI for better results in creative & design thinking through understanding how AI can collaborate with human thought processes, tackling complex challenges and wicked problems that defy simple solutions

• Practice using the AI Creativity Utilization Dial for identifying how to lead innovation in specific contexts

Solving wicked problems for a competitive business advantage

In an era defined by complexity and ambiguity, traditional problem-solving approaches often fall short. 

Wicked challenges, those complicated issues with no straightforward solutions, demand more than just technical expertise or linear thinking. They call for creative intelligence (CQ): the ability to navigate uncertainty with curiosity, adaptability, and insight.

Creative intelligence is no longer a luxury; it’s a strategic necessity. CQ enables individuals and teams to reframe problems, develop innovative solutions, and respond with agility. People with higher CQ tend to be more curious, open to new experiences, and better equipped to handle complexity. They consistently outperform their peers, showing greater effectiveness, resilience, and adaptability. For organizations, cultivating CQ is not merely a bonus; it offers a distinct advantage. It drives innovation, uncovers hidden opportunities, and builds the resilience needed to succeed in competitive, fast-changing markets.

This engaging keynote introduces the seven essential CQ skills needed for success, demonstrating how they can be developed through targeted, research-based exercises. Participants learn how to connect these skills to real business outcomes, finding practical, creative solutions to real-world challenges.

Combining science with creative spark, the session features simple magic illusions that illustrate the cognitive traps of ‘inside-the-box’ thinking. These moments of surprise and insight are complemented by case studies from leading organizations, providing inspiration and actionable tips for embedding CQ into everyday work. The session is designed to be interactive, energizing, and highly practical, perfect for leaders, teams, and organizations seeking a competitive edge. By the end, participants will leave empowered with increased creative confidence to boost their thinking skills.

Whether you're leading change, solving complex problems, or developing future-ready teams, this keynote offers the mindset change and skill enhancement necessary to succeed.

Key Takeaways & Talking Points

• Learn about the 7 key CQ attributes needed to be creative

• Apply the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) to assess and map individual skills 

• Discuss company best practices (7 case studies) to identify how to apply CQ skills to business challenges 

• Apply the principles to your own wicked challenge(s) to generate creative insights to current challenges
  
  

How to spot the psychological blocks that might be killing your creative thinking

We are facing a creative crisis. Adults tend to lose their creative ability when they need it most. While 98% of children are classified as “geniuses” in divergent thinking tests, this percentage drops to just 2% in adulthood. 

Although recent research indicates that creative thinking will be the most crucial leadership trait in the next decade, studies show that adults tend to lose their creative confidence and skills quickly as they age. It has also been observed that, despite an increase in IQ since the 1990s, there has been a general decline in creative thinking capabilities (CQ) – as revealed in the international bestseller "Who Killed Creativity?... And How Can We Get it Back?".

This session takes a creatively memorable ‘CSI’-themed journey, transitioning from the classroom to the boardroom to help participants understand the current crisis in creative thinking. It offers an engaging, interactive platform to examine potential barriers to positive change. Using the latest insights from neuroscience and psychology, participants discover how to ignite their creativity and overcome mental blocks that hinder innovation. The session also explores workplace implications beyond design thinking tools and AI, empowering participants to develop a creative mindset and foster an innovative culture. 

The outcomes ensure that participants understand both the neurological (internal) and environmental (external) forces that can hinder creative thinking, equipping them with essential skills to succeed in complex, unpredictable environments.

(Interactive keynote + optional hybrid integrated workshop.)

Key Takeaways & Talking Points

• Diagnose the psychological blocks to understand what hinders creative thinking and how it diminishes with age 

• Identify and apply the ‘creative rescuer’ strategies to reignite creative thinking capabilities 

• Investigate culture change principles that will support a positive environment for fostering creative thinking and innovation in your organization