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keynotes

In a fast-paced world, few of us have the luxury to read the old masters, yet we need their guidance more than ever. Daniel combines ancient wisdom with modern psychology to motivate, inspire, and engage audiences around the world.

Zen and the Art of Adaptability

The shelf-life of expertise is growing shorter every year. What worked yesterday may not work today. Luckily, Zen Buddhism, and other traditions, have time-tested strategies for keeping us agile and adaptable in a chaotic age. The greatest innovators know that experience can be a trap. Instead, they learn to approach problems with what one Zen master called, “a beginner’s mind.”

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You’ll learn how to:

  • Avoid the tyranny of expertise

  • Adapt quickly to changing circumstances

  • Relax ego to become a more effective leader, or team-member

2

Harness Conflict for Innovation

Conflict can tear us apart. But if used right, it can lead to breakaway innovation. From Socrates’ dialectics, to Rabbinic debates, to the compromises of America’s Founding Fathers, productive conflict can lead to solutions better than either side could have come up with on their own.

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You’ll learn how to:

  • Engage in productive conflict that reduces long-term tension

  • Improve the quality of collective creativity through transparent dialogue

  • Synthesize opposing ideas into exciting solutions, not mild compromises

3

Purpose Does What Money Can't

High performance requires high motivation, but high salaries don’t motivate like we think they do. Research shows that, after a certain point, money can have a neutral or even negative effect on performance. Instead, wisdom traditions and modern psychology agree that true motivation comes from putting ourselves in service of a cause greater than ourselves.

 

This keynote will:

  • Inspire and remind people of the greater cause they serve through your organization

  • Motivate them to align with the group’s central values

  • Demonstrate how to cultivate personal fulfillment in their work

Bring ancient wisdom to your modern cause

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