Key Speech Themes
Simplify Work • Creating organizational capacity
Leading change with clarity and focus
Unleashing innovation • AI as a thinking partner
Creativity and problem-solving
Banish complexity and friction
Leading organizational transformation
Lisa’s Story
• Transforming leaders and organizations – shows how to fix what’s broken with work and leadership. Eliminate complexity, create capacity, and increase focus and clarity.
• Delivers repeatable systems for lasting change – actionable tactics that drive engagement, reduce burnout, and make transformation sustainable.
• Non-Threatening Disruptor who makes change feel safe and acceptable.
• Futurist and founder of FutureThink, the world’s largest source of simplification, innovation, and leadership tools to transform culture.
• Author, two bestselling books: Why Simple Wins and Kill the Company.
• Ongoing contributor, Forbes; frequent appearances Fast Company, Wired, The New York Times, Inc., Harvard Business Review, CNN, and more.
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As epic change tests us daily, every leader and organization must urgently create new capacity – to adapt, to think, and to act on the work and priorities that actually matter. Easier said than done. People are drowning in the work of work and leaders are handcuffed by conflicting expectations and other hurdles. To meet this challenge, Lisa Bodell, the globally recognized expert and bestselling author of Why Simple Wins and Kill the Company, helps organizations fix what’s broken with work and leadership – the things that get in the way of building capacity and thriving in this environment.
Using her expertise, organizations and leaders are eliminating unnecessary complexity, restoring clarity, and creating the capacity leaders and teams need to perform, innovate, and thrive. Lisa is a trusted, non-threatening disruptor who shows organizations how to stop reacting to chaos and start redesigning how work actually gets done. She also helps leaders reclaim focus, lead with clarity, and replace burnout with momentum – so leadership becomes real again, not performative.
Lisa is the founder and CEO of FutureThink, a global innovation and simplification firm that partners with organizations such as Google, Netflix, Pfizer, SAP, AT&T, Citigroup, and the U.S. Department of National Intelligence. Since founding FutureThink in 2003, she has helped organizations challenge outdated models, eliminate friction, and simplify work in ways that drive speed, engagement, and sustained performance.
A bestselling author known for challenging the status quo while making change feel practical and human, Lisa encourages leaders to stop fixing people to do more work – and start fixing work to better fit people. Through powerful stories, interactive experiences, and real-world tools like “Kill a Stupid Rule,” she helps organizations turn clarity into action.
Lisa’s passion for simplicity is deeply personal. Raised in a family environment marked by instability and unpredictability, she learned early how to survive chaos – skills that fueled her success but eventually led to burnout. That experience shaped her belief that the answer isn’t learning to manage chaos, but eliminating it altogether. This perspective resonates strongly with leaders navigating relentless change and impossible expectations.
A sought-after keynote speaker ranked among the world’s Top 50, Lisa delivers high-impact talks that inspire leaders to lead with clarity, courage, and focus. Her work spans leadership transformation, simplification in times of upheaval, and reimagining innovation in an AI-powered world – always emphasizing that technology should amplify human thinking, not replace it.
Lisa began her career at Leo Burnett after earning her business degree from the University of Michigan, where she learned to merge strategic rigor with bold ideas. She has taught innovation at American University and Fordham University, delivered a popular TED talk, and serves on advisory boards including the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council and the Association of Professional Futurists.
Lisa Bodell doesn’t just talk about change – she helps organizations fix what’s broken, simplify what matters most, and build leaders and cultures ready for the future.
Lisa Bodell’s Videos
2025 Speaker Reel
Fix What’s Broken
The Benefits of Simplicity
When and Where Do You Do Your Best Thinking? (Interactive Exercise)
Simplicity Focus Rooted in Childhood Chaos
Getting Rid of Unnecessary Complexity
Kill Stupid Rules
Let Leaders Lead
Speech Descriptions
The Simplicity Solution – Reclaim Control and Thrive in Times of Upheaval
We’re no longer managing change at work – we’re coping with chaos. There’s too much – of everything. With people overwhelmed by complexity and the path forward anything but clear, the answer is to not try and control chaos, the solution is to embrace simple. In this presentation, Lisa Bodell shows organizations why simplicity is no longer a “nice to have” – it’s the strategy to eliminate noise, regain focus, and unleash the capacity to create the future.
Read More >Unleashing Innovation: AI-Enabled, Human-Led
In too many organizations, teams are stuck in the comfort of the status quo. We’re moving faster than ever, surrounded by powerful AI tools—but spending less time thinking than ever. That’s the real risk. AI doesn’t replace thinking; it exposes whether we’re doing any at all.
The challenge isn’t a lack of technology. It’s a lack of curiosity, courage, and clarity. Many of the processes designed to drive innovation actually suppress it, reinforcing existing behaviors instead of challenging them. When AI is layered onto these systems without intention, it simply accelerates what already exists.
Read More >Let Leaders Lead: It’s Time to Fix What’s Broken
We’re in a moment where the leadership playbook isn’t outdated – it’s unusable.
Organizations have built systems so complex and contradictory that even the best leaders are burning out. We hire people to be bold, then drown them in process. We demand fast decisions but require consensus. We celebrate courage – only when it’s comfortable.
Read More >Post-Keynote Breakouts
Options:
• Fireside Chat with Senior Leadership
• Simplification Tactics Workshop
• Kill a Stupid Rule Workshop
Read More >
Speech Descriptions
The Simplicity Solution – Reclaim Control and Thrive in Times of Upheaval
We’re no longer managing change at work – we’re coping with chaos. There’s too much – of everything. With people overwhelmed by complexity and the path forward anything but clear, the answer is to not try and control chaos, the solution is to embrace simple. In this presentation, Lisa Bodell shows organizations why simplicity is no longer a “nice to have” – it’s the strategy to eliminate noise, regain focus, and unleash the capacity to create the future.
Read More >Let Leaders Lead: It’s Time to Fix What’s Broken
We’re in a moment where the leadership playbook isn’t outdated – it’s unusable.
Organizations have built systems so complex and contradictory that even the best leaders are burning out. We hire people to be bold, then drown them in process. We demand fast decisions but require consensus. We celebrate courage – only when it’s comfortable.
Read More >Unleashing Innovation
In most organizations, the very structures put in place to help them grow all too often hold them back. As structures languish unchecked, people become overwhelmed with outdated processes, policies, reports, committees and meetings that frustrate them and hijack their workdays. Is it any wonder innovation becomes a challenge? In this presentation, simplicity expert Lisa Bodell shows how to increase the capacity for innovation by banishing unnecessary complexity.
Read More >
Post-Keynote Breakouts
Options:
• Fireside Chat with Senior Leadership
• Simplification Tactics Workshop
• Kill a Stupid Rule Workshop
Read More >
What People Say About Lisa
