Talks your audience can use on Monday morning.
Each talk describes a problem your audience will recognise in their own organisation and ends with questions they can ask their teams the next morning. The talks come from my advisory work with chief executives and boards.
4 signature talks.
Every talk is shaped for your audience, from the examples to the title on your programme. Open one to see what it covers.
Keynote, workshop or board sessionThe FilterWhy bad news gets smaller on its way to you.
The promise
Your audience learns how information gets smaller on its way up. They leave with 3 questions to ask their own teams on Monday morning.
Who it is for
Chief executives, boards, executive teams and senior leadership conferences. It works best when the audience makes real decisions.
What people leave with
- Why honest reporting gets harder at every level. It comes from how organisations work, not from bad people.
- 3 ways a leader can hear what is happening without relying only on the management line.
- 3 questions that bring out what a team has stopped talking about.
Formats
- Keynote, 45 to 60 minutes, with questions on stage
- Workshop, a half day, applied to your own decisions
- Board session, 90 minutes, in confidence
- Panel or moderated conversation, as panellist or as chair
For boards
For boards, the talk is told through the green dashboard: why a board pack can stay green while reality turns red. It ends with the question that tests any report: how do we know?
The thinking behind this talk: read the essay
Keynote, workshop or board sessionFix the System, Not the PilotWhat aviation learned by refusing “human error” as an answer.
The promise
Your audience stops asking who to blame and starts asking what made the mistake likely. That one change makes the next failure less likely.
Who it is for
Operating businesses where failure is visible and expensive: energy, telecoms, mining, ports, logistics, construction, financial services and regulators.
What people leave with
- The difference between what triggered a failure and the conditions already in place. Each needs a different fix.
- Why a serious failure usually comes from 7 to 12 small causes, not one big one.
- What changes in a business when blame stops being the first question.
Formats
- Keynote, 45 to 60 minutes
- Workshop, a half day, applied to one of your own incidents
- Board or risk committee session, 90 minutes
- Panel or moderated conversation, as panellist or as chair
Behind the talk
This is the thinking behind FranklySpeaking, the firm I founded, which investigates problems that keep coming back and fixes the cause.
Keynote, workshop or board sessionPrecisely WrongThe question to settle before you approve the next AI system.
The promise
The board leaves with one written question and a clear idea of the evidence to expect before it is answered. This is a governance session, not a technology briefing.
Who it is for
Boards, executive teams and risk or audit committees about to automate a decision with legal, safety or reputation risk.
What people leave with
- Why a system trained on good-news data gives confident answers that are wrong in the same direction every time.
- What happens when leaders’ unresolved disagreements are built into automated decisions, thousands of times a day.
- The question to ask after an automated decision goes wrong. Most governance rules cannot answer it.
Formats
- Keynote, 45 to 60 minutes
- Board or risk committee session, 90 minutes
- Working session, 2 hours, with your technology and risk leaders
- Panel or moderated conversation, as panellist or as chair
For boards
In South Africa, King V asks the governing body to govern data, information and technology (Principle 10). It addresses AI directly, with clear accountability for the decisions and outcomes of AI systems and clear, understandable reasons for what they decide. This session helps a board settle that before approval, not after a failure. If an automated decision has already gone wrong, FranklySpeaking’s AI Decision Review finds out why.
The thinking behind this talk: read the essay
Keynote or workshopThe First Generation LeaderLeading at a level no one in your family has led before.
The promise
Your audience stops seeing a small circle of advisors as a personal weakness. They start treating it as a gap they can close on purpose.
Who it is for
Founder-led and first-generation businesses, family groups in transition, leadership programmes and any audience where many people are the first in their family to lead at this level.
What people leave with
- Why a family network gives leaders better information, not just social advantages.
- Where to find a second opinion from someone who has nothing to lose by being honest.
- How to tell the difference between advice and agreement.
Formats
- Keynote, 45 to 60 minutes
- Moderated conversation or fireside, 60 minutes
- Masterclass, a half day, as First Generation Leadership
- Closed session for a founder or family board, 90 minutes
The thinking behind this talk: read the essay
Every talk, board session and masterclass.
The formats each idea comes in. Every talk also works as a panel or a moderated conversation.
| Talk or programme | The question it answers | Keynote | Workshop | Board session |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keynotes | ||||
| The Filter | Why bad news gets smaller on its way to you | |||
| Fix the System, Not the Pilot | What aviation learned by refusing “human error” as an answer | |||
| Precisely Wrong | The question to settle before you approve the next AI system | |||
| The First Generation Leader | Leading at a level no one in your family has led before | |||
| Board sessions | ||||
| Before the Vote | Deciding well, and disagreeing well, before the board commits | |||
| What Exactly Did We Decide? | How a decision becomes action, as the board intended | |||
| The Real Decision-Makers | Succession and who really decides | |||
| Masterclasses | ||||
| Frank Conversations | Saying the difficult thing early, without losing the room | |||
| Political Intelligence | Reading where decisions are really made | |||
What you can count on.
From the first call to the week after, this is how a session runs.
Before
We start with your audience
A 15-minute call about who will be in the room, what they believe today and what they need to leave with.
Your world, not someone else’s
2 or 3 short conversations with your people, so every example lands close to home.
Everything to promote it
Titles, abstracts, biographies and photographs, ready to use as written.
On the day
A light footprint
A lapel or headset microphone, a clicker and a screen facing me. Slides arrive 48 hours ahead.
Questions on stage
Time for the room to test the ideas against their own work.
After
The conversation keeps going
A one-page follow-up with the 3 questions from the talk, for your delegates to ask their own teams.
4 small asks and why they matter
Closed sessions stay closed
Nothing is recorded, so people say what they really think.
The most senior person stays
When the leader stays for the whole session, the room knows it matters.
A short conversation beforehand
I speak with 2 or 3 of your people, so the examples are yours.
The difficult part stays in
The part someone hopes I will leave out is usually the part that changes things.
Tell me about your audience.
Who will be there, what they believe now and what you need them to leave with. Fees depend on the room and are agreed before anything is booked.