Dr Jason Fox

Dr Jason Fox's Biography

Dr Jason Fox is an introverted motivation scientist who inspires curiosity, progress & change. He is a motivation strategy and design expert who shows forward thinking leaders how to influence culture and build for the future of work.

His adventures include working with the senior leaders of multinational organisations (to rethink leadership development, and make strategy happen), to the leaders of multi-million dollar projects (to keep things ahead of the game).

Such clients include the likes of Fortune 500 companies like PepsiCo and other multinationals like McDonalds, Toyota, Microsoft, Gartner, Beam Suntory and Sony, through to companies like Suncorp, Optus, Telstra, Sydney Water, AMP, and The International Institute for Research.

Jason is the director of The Future of Leadership Melbourne, the founding director of Clever Happenings and a global ambassador for the ideas execution conference 99U. He is also the bestselling author of The Game Changer, and his research has been featured in the likes of Smart Company, BRW and The Australian Financial Review.

When not liberating the world from poorly designed work, Jason enjoys partaking in extreme sports like reading, coffee snobbery and fruit ninja.

 

Speaking Topics Include

Beyond the Default A Quest Beckons...

We’re up again a certain kind of Pavlovian conditioning that happens at events. You know this. All of the familiar patterns—the lanyards, the tables, the notebooks and mints, the programme, the music, the lighting and the clunky conference app—all contribute to the inevitable ‘seen this before’ torpor that afflicts experienced leaders. If we don’t counter this, chunks of the audience will be stealth-checking emails, or simply staring into space whilst contemplating muffins.

 

And so, this keynote is designed to disrupt default thinking and behaviour, by getting folk into a ace of enhanced self-awareness (and contemplation of their own patterns).

Then, having established this awareness at the individual level, we can our focus on the collective. From here we deftly navigate through the otherwise invisible psychological hurdles of group think and bandwagonism, so that we might contemplate new possibilities—beyond the default. Hence this makes for the perfect opening for your event. It’s a veritable awakening—a psychological toolkit for pioneering leaders—and a precursor to pioneering endeavours.

 

Into the Storm -Pioneering through Uncertainty & Doubt...

One of the biggest opportunities an event provides is the (head)space to have the conversations we don’t otherwise get to have. To ponder what lies on the horizon—the opportunities, and the hidden threats that may disrupt our endeavours.

 

Because leadership isn’t getting any easier. Conventional leadership-folklore serves a complicated yet predictable world. But now the world is complex and hard to predict, and instantly accessible and shareable information is rewriting the future as quickly as it can be understood. We’re in the storm now.

 

The Industrial Age is long dead, and The Information Age is at dusk. As we stand at the cusp of the Conceptual Age, there are confronting new tensions leaders must contemplate: from centralised control to distributed authority, from robust planning to antifragile experimentation, from bureaucracy to responsiveness, and from profit-obsessed to purpose-driven (and so forth).

 

Such change behooves a refreshed leadership philosophy, enterprise strategy and culture. One that’s fit for the storm, and a world less predictable. Thus, let’s bring this conversation to the table, to see what we might evoke.

 

Change the Game Rethink motivation & work...

Fluff and fist-pumping rah-rah can be quite stirring, rousing, even. But the longevity and actual impact of motivational presentations—once we return to work—is oft questionable.

 

Smart people require more than just a motivational pep talk. If you want your people to be the champions of your enterprise culture—and demon rating the behaviours mo aligned to your strategy—then they ought under and the science behind what drives collective motivation.

 

And so, in this keynote, we unpack the elements of Motivation Design—highlighting the most effective levers your leaders can use to influence collective behaviour and culture. Motivating and insightful, naturally. But also: utterly practical for the modern leader.

 

Making Clever Happen - Unlock meaningful progress...

Just as an event begins, so it must end. In many ways, the final session is just as important as the opening session. Actually: more so, thanks to peak-end rule.* The final, closing keynote is what marks the beginning of the transition—from what is essentially an artificial yet wondrously curated experience (the event)—back to the complex and oft-frustrating world of work and life (their reality). This final keynote—if done well—can create resonance for your whole event. Much like how a large gong, when ruck, can create a deep and lingering effect.

 

Therefore, of course it must be inspiring. But it must also be useful in assisting folks with this transition.

 

Too often I experience an event’s end with an inspirational speaker delivering a powerful story of success. And while this can be extremely inspiring in the moment, it runs the risk of creating too big a discrepancy and contrast between the event and the real world everyone needs to return to. The result? Success appears beyond reach—and so nothing happens.

 

We can do better. For a closing keynote, my philosophy is: get people talking (with each other, during the keynote). In service to the whole event, the Making Clever Happen keynote has all individuals intuitively scanning through the event to identify the various moments, ideas and interactions that resonated most with them. Then, through the lens of meaningful progress I have folks identify that which they want to progress. From there, we future pace the sequence of a ions, mindful of the challenges (and opportunities for self-sabotage) along the way.

 

Of all my keynotes this is the most interactive. Therefore it is perhaps the lightest in terms of content—but the most significant in terms of effect. If you want your people to think, feel and do things differently as a result of your event, this keynote will serve you thunderously well.

 

The Custom Job -The keynotes I deliver are constantly evolving, and always finessed to be the most relevant for your audience. But (sometimes) I can go beyond my own defaults...

I’m continuously abreast of research in motivation design and the future of work. I also work with a diverse range of senior leadership clients, across multiple industries and countries. As such—and with respect to non-disclosure agreements—I have a broad field of relevant savvy to call upon.

 

But knowing stuff is one thing. Making sense of it, and packaging the intelligence in a way that’s elegant and succinct, and of practical relevance for your audience—ah... that’s the fine art and science of keynote speaking. I relish the opportunity to do incredibly customised work. Sure, it takes more time (and it costs more), but if there’s a particular area you’d like my informed perspective on—and it’s within my domain of expertise—let’s see what’s possible.