Ben Hammersley

We all know the world is changing. And many can give examples of the technologies or trends that are contributing to that change. But that is not the whole picture. In this topic, we teach audiences about the skills, techniques, and cognitive tools that leaders need to both understand those changes, and shape their own future. Ideal for executive learning and development programs, or thought-leader positioning customer events, these keynotes are consistently rated as life-changing, with plenty of actionable take-aways for the audience. This topic also extends well into subsequent break-outs and workshop sessions, which can be provided.

With so much change, so many disruptions and innovations, transforming the culture, systems, and the politics of the world we grew up in, into the world of the 2020s, we have found that most of our clients have a mental model of the world that is, if not entirely out of date, then dangerously incomplete. In this topic, we show the workings and the shape of the interconnected, interdependent, networked, co-arisen modern world, and how it affects the audience’s business and lives. From youth culture in Brazil, to high-speed rail in China, Russian postmodern foreign policy to non-human corporations, weaponized memetic infections to European nationalism, solarpunks to 山寨, climate mitigation to shadow economies, we provide a true grounding in today, without which you cannot possibly plan for tomorrow. This is especially appreciated by c-suite audiences, and has been a repeated hit at evening events with partners and spouses.

We are all bringing yesterday’s war to today’s battlefield. In the modernity of 2020, we have a profound misunderstanding of the nature of geopolitical, commercial, and personal threat. It isn’t kinetics that will get us, but confusion. The post-modern asymmetric reaction to the extreme commercial and military hegemony of the West, or the quasi-Monopoly power of the large corporation is no longer one of physical violence, but of memetic infection, and purposeful, weaponised, confusion. For these audiences, leadership, and strategy, is the art of making the best decisions with the knowledge available. But making those decisions requires accurate data, clear analysis, accurate thinking, without interference. In this talk we detail the ways that the final line of risk is the individual executive’s ability to think clearly, how this is under specific targeted attack, and how to defend against that. This topic is of deep interest to multinational top tier executives, or those being shaped into becoming so. It can also include follow-up reading, and online sessions.