Key Speech Themes
Simplify Work • Leading Change • Sparking Innovation
Banish Complexity • Transforming Culture
The Simplicity – Well-Being Connection
Lisa’s Story
• FOR ORGANIZATIONS: HELPS THEM SIMPLIFY TO ACHIEVE BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE WHILE IMPROVING PEOPLE METRICS – ENGAGEMENT, WELL-BEING, AND RETENTION.
• FOR LEADERS: HELPS THEM CUT THROUGH COMPLEXITY, SIMPLIFY WHAT’S BROKEN, AND RECLAIM THE AUTHORITY TO LEAD.
• FUTURIST AND FOUNDER OF FUTURETHINK – THE WORLD’S LARGEST SOURCE OF SIMPLIFICATION & INNOVATION TOOLS AND TRAINING.
• AUTHOR, TWO BESTSELLING BOOKS: WHY SIMPLE WINS AND KILL THE COMPANY.
• MONTHLY CONTRIBUTOR, FORBES; FREQUENT APPEARANCES FAST COMPANY, WIRED, THE NEW YORK TIMES, INC., HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, CNN, AND MORE.
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When organizations aren’t performing to their potential, it’s not the people that need to be fixed – it’s the work. Lisa Bodell, a leading global expert on simplification, collaboration, and innovation, helps leaders and organizations transform performance by reimagining work. By trading complexity for simplicity, organizations find new ways to unleash creativity and spark the energy so essential to innovate and compete. It also lifts morale, increases engagement, and improves employee well-being and retention. Lisa is the author of two groundbreaking books, Why Simple Wins and Kill the Company. She ranks on the “Top 50 Speakers Worldwide” list and captivates audiences with her insights, energy, and humor. Lisa inspires them to question the status quo, kill stupid rules, and make small changes that have profound impact – giving everyone time and energy to innovate, collaborate, and focus on the work that matters most.
After earning her business degree from University of Michigan, Lisa launched her career at Leo Burnett in Chicago, where she discovered a gift for uniting strategically-driven ideas with forward-thinking themes. She went on to build two successful businesses before moving to New York and focusing on the simplification and innovation space with FutureThink. Founded in 2003, FutureThink works with leading brands worldwide and has become one of the largest sources for simplification and innovation research, tools, and training in the world.
Lisa brings a compelling perspective to the sought-after topics of simplification and innovation to thousands of people each year. A thought leader and serial entrepreneur, her transformational message has inspired executives at top-ranked organizations such as Google, SAP, Citigroup, and the Department of National Intelligence to lead change in their organizations.
Lisa has contributed her expertise to a wide variety of media. She is a monthly contributor to Forbes and has frequently appeared in other media including: Fast Company, WIRED, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and CNN. She has also been featured in many major books such as Warren Berger’s A More Beautiful Question, Adam Grant’s Originals, and AfterShock, the 50-year celebration based on futurist Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock.
Lisa has taught innovation at both American University and Fordham University and has a TED popular talk on the topic. She serves on the board of advisors of several organizations, including the Global Agenda Council for the World Economic Forum, the United States National Security Agency, the Association of Professional Futurists, and Novartis.
Lisa Bodell’s Videos
2025 Speaker Reel
The Benefits of Simplicity
Simplicity Focus Rooted in Childhood Chaos
When and Where Do You Do Your Best Thinking? (Interactive Exercise)
How Complexity Happens
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 >Post-Keynote Breakouts
Options:
• Fireside Chat with Senior Leadership
• Simplification Tactics Workshop
• Kill a Stupid Rule Workshop
Read More >
Enough! Let Leaders Lead
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. This isn’t leadership; it’s performance art.
Read More >Speech Descriptions
Unleash the Power of Simplification
People are drowning in the work of doing work and it’s sabotaging organizations. Our days are continually hijacked by the unplanned and unnecessary – unproductive meetings, outdated rules, irrelevant reports, and endless emails that dampen morale, creates feelings of futility, and can be detrimental to mental health. In this presentation, Lisa Bodell shows audiences a new way to unleash energy, collaboration, and innovation by embracing a mindset of simplification.
Read More >Enough! Let Leaders Lead
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. This isn’t leadership; it’s performance art.
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
