Think of the leaders or teams in your organization who aren’t behaving in ways aligned to your culture and values. Do they underperform? Lower engagement scores? Higher employee turnover? Everyone talks about them as gossip? It’s more than likely that they are dragging the whole team or the organization down.
The culture of any organization or team, is the worst behavior you are willing to tolerate. Weeds grow and multiply. Allow one weed, and the other weeds will join the party.
When we’re struggling to control the weeds in our backyards, the outside perspective of a culture keynote speaker can help us gain clarity, direction and fight back those weeds.
Investing in a culture keynote speaker can be a transformative decision, and instrumental in shaping a workplace culture to not only improve the employee experience, but also attract top talent and drive long-term individual and organizational growth. Creating and scaling culture champions to live your values and hold people accountable to the North Star, can change the game and fight your weed battles for you.
The Power of a Keynote Speaker
What a Keynote Speaker Does
It’s more than just a great slide deck and some speech cards.
The best culture keynote speakers, who customize their delivery to your aspired culture by learning it and are deeply versed in how to build great teams in your business, know how to present new information in a unique and engaging way, helping audiences to see challenges and situations in a different light.
Most of us have no idea how our brain plays tricks on us every day. We believe we are culture champions but what others experience is the opposite. With a great culture keynote speaker, audiences leave feeling invigorated, entertained, and educated, not overwhelmed or daunted. They leave excited to live your values and be culture champions. You can then leverage the pincer approach of a top down and bottom-up approach to create a culture worth working for.
Culture keynote speakers create interactive experiences and share personal stories around everyday challenges that audiences can relate to and learn from. People leave committed to growth, with the knowledge and tools to start making a difference to their day-to-day experience.
Why It Matters for Positive Workplace Culture
Since Gallup started studying employee engagement, the highest percentage of engaged employees ever recorded in the US was 36% in 2020, which has fallen to 31% in 2023 (Gallup).
If a company’s vision for how people are positively treated and sent home to their families in good health is not owned, embodied by everyone and especially leaders, it becomes more of a pipe dream. Culture is a mirror of leadership after all.
Corporate culture speakers like Alex Draper know exactly how to create that alignment. Just a 10% improvement in employees' connection with their organization’s mission leads to an 8.1% decrease in turnover and a 4.4% increase in profitability (Gallup). Purpose-oriented companies also report 40% higher levels of workforce retention than competitors (Deloitte).
By stimulating important conversations around common toxic behaviors, ‘cultural debt’, ‘culture conning’, and the importance of leaders ‘owning’ the culture, corporate culture speakers like Alex help to foster stronger team cohesion and improved communication. It shapes a productive, inclusive, and future-ready organization of culture champions.
Case Studies: Before and After a Keynote
Alex Draper is one of the best culture keynote speakers in Chicago, on a mission to wipe out bad leadership and create organizations worth working for.
Dober knew that if you take your eye off culture, people will create the culture for you. When they launched The CARE Playbook, all the leaders started using the word clarity immediately, and they knew what that meant, and started embodying that within their teams to improve performance and engagement. Now, in sales and growth terms, they are seeing incredible innovation, and psychological safety blossoming, with people speaking up about the things they want to see implemented.
Dober have been able to incorporate CARE components where they had gaps, helping them do a lot of what they were doing even better, and getting going in areas that they were blind to.
The Oncology Institute’s (TOI) National Summit brought together their top leaders to reinforce and model their culture through CARE. In DX, TOI found a lifetime partner who shared their passion for leadership and culture, to provide thoughtful support and insight.
“Culture is a very complex thing, and DX has helped to simplify it… I love watching everyone's face as we are going through the different components of CARE. As we do the exercises I love seeing and hearing the connection that they have with it.” – Laura Szitar, Chief People Officer, TOI.
Many organizations focus heavily on the customer or patient. But when there's a great culture, and employees feel supported and can depend on one another, they go above and beyond to form higher performing teams. Now, TOI’s culture is going to be a differentiator, and they will see CARE in company results, engagement scores, and employee retention.
Metrics of Success
- Employee Engagement: Seek their insights on the relevance, clarity, and resonance of the corporate culture keynote through surveys, one-to-ones, and satisfaction scores both before and after the presentation.
- Behavioral Change: Are employees applying the concepts and strategies discussed in their daily work?
- Retention and Turnover: Monitor turnover rates before and after the corporate culture keynote to see if there is a positive impact.
- Culture Surveys: Look for shifts in key culture-related indicators, such as trust, collaboration, and satisfaction.
- Quality of Relationships: You should see reduced conflicts and improved teamwork and collaboration.
- Inclusion: Track diversity metrics and the extent to which employees from diverse backgrounds feel included.
- Performance: A more positive culture can often lead to improvements in productivity, customer satisfaction, and innovation.
- Employee Wellbeing: Look for improved employee wellbeing, such as stress levels, absenteeism, and burnout.
How to Choose the Right Keynote Speaker
Actionable Steps
But finding the right culture keynote speaker – one who can move people and mountains, and will make an impact that ripples through your organization – is an art.
A corporate culture speaker needs to clearly understand your company’s vision and values, and the cultural challenges unique to your teams and organization. Ask for their feedback to gauge their understanding and explore how their speech will be tailored to your people and culture.
Learn about the essential factors to consider when selecting a keynote speaker here.
Measuring Impact
Collect feedback from the audience. Use surveys, polls, or other methods to ask your employees about the culture speaker’s content, delivery, and effectiveness, and how they will apply what they have learned in their day-to-day. Watch employees during the workplace culture keynote, too. Are they looking bored, or inspired?
Implementing Key Insights Post-Keynote
The Lasting Impact of a Great Keynote
The powerful words of a great culture keynote speaker like Alex resonate long after the event, serving as a catalyst for lasting cultural change. His corporate culture keynotes are experiential and interactive, using DX’s 6-step methodology for rapid behavior change.
He provides practical insights on corporate culture, team psychological safety, and the neuroscience of management to inspire happy, high-performing teams – and offers tools and strategies that people can use back in the office right away.
Next Steps for Your Organization
Alex believes in delivering tailored content that resonates with each specific audience, to address the unique challenges, values, and objectives of your organization. No one size fits all. A white glove approach for every project.
Book a consultation with our team today to find out how our Alex can improve the employee experience through a workplace culture keynote that leaves a lasting impact on your team’s mindset and behaviors.
See Alex in action in this video……
FAQs:
How can a keynote speaker impact workplace culture?
A culture keynote speaker can serve as a catalyst for transformational change. Their insights, stories, and expertise can inspire employees to embrace new values, behaviors, and attitudes that align with the company's vision.
What are the benefits of having a keynote speaker focus on culture?
A culture keynote speaker can create a shared understanding and commitment to the company's values and mission, boost morale, promote diversity, and encourage innovation.
How do you measure the impact of a keynote speaker?
Run surveys, polls, and sit down and have group or one-on-one conversations with people around how they felt about the workplace culture keynote, and how they feel moving forward.
What should you look for in a workplace culture keynote speaker?
You need a culture keynote speaker with deep and relevant industry expertise, a successful track record in corporate culture, engaging storytelling skills, charismatic stage presence and a passion for fostering positive, lasting cultural change.
The impact of a good leadership speaker can be transformative. Get in touch to talk to DX about making that a reality, by designing a custom keynote just for you and your leaders.