Gaia Grant
Researcher on innovation culture and sustainability at the University of Sydney Business School, global innovation culture consultant, and bestselling international author.
PROFILE
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Gaia Grant is the creator of ‘The Innovators Profile’, a PhD researcher on innovation, the director of Tirian and author of a number of innovation and creativity books, such as, ‘The Innovation Race: How to change a culture to change the game’, along with international bestseller, ‘Who Killed Creativity?… And How Can We Get it Back?’.
Gaia Grant is the MD of Tirian, the co-author of the breakthrough new book The Innovation Race: How to change a culture to change the game and international bestseller Who Killed Creativity?… And How Can We Get it Back?, and the author of a number of additional books and resources, including A Patch of Paradise and The Rhythm of Life. Gaia Grant is a lecturer on sustainable innovation culture in international business and strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship, and a doctoral (PhD) researcher at the University of Sydney Business School. She also has an MSc in Creative Leadership (State University of New York), along with a Grad Dip Change Leadership, BD (hons), and BA Dip Ed. Gaia is conducting doctoral research on creating a culture that supports sustainable innovation and is drawing on data she’s collected from more than 1,000 survey responses and 70 interviews with innovation leaders. This has also included a one-year long intensive organisation immersion to share breakthrough insights on innovation leadership and innovation culture. Gaia’s corporate clients have included: Google (US), JP Morgan (Asia Pacific), Visa (US), Salesforce (Asia Pacific), Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts (Canada), Citibank (Asia Pacific), Baker & McKenzie (Asia Pacific), Colgate Palmolive (Innovation Lab America), Deutsche Bank (Asia Pacific) and many other MNCs who can all attest to her insightful and engaging approach. Gaia has presented keynotes at a number of high profile events for up to 3,000 people at a time, including: Salesforce International Roadshow | World President Organization Global conference | Optus / Singtel national event | Growth Faculty Conference. Other selected industry keynote and workshop presentations have included Ci Creative Innovation Conference (Australia) and the Creative Problem-Solving Institute (State University of New York, US). Gaia has also presented her research papers at a number of universities internationally across the US (such as Xavier and Miami), Asia Pacific (including Bhutan, Central Philippines University) and Europe (including delivering at major European management theory conferences EGOS & PROS). Gaia contributes regularly to a number of major magazines and newspapers, and she has also been featured by a number of international media outlets including BBC and ABC TV, along with commercial TV, Reuters, Harvard Business Review, HRM, Fast Company and the Wall St Journal. She has co-authored several academic papers on innovation and over 30 corporate educational resources, simulations and programs, which are used by Fortune 500 companies worldwide. Gaia’s white paper on "What it means to be an ambidextrous innovation leader: Developing greater agility for sustainability in a rapidly changing world" has been well received by innovation leaders globally. Gaia is a recognized thought leader and a highly skilled presenter and facilitator who has developed a wide range of strategies and tools that can be used to find solutions to the most difficult challenges. Along with her corporate client work, Gaia has also researched, designed and delivered long-term innovation culture solutions for a number of not-for-profit organisations. This work has included directing a one-year project working on innovation solutions for an Australian government project that supports impoverished farmers with improving agriculture techniques in Indonesia, coordinating strategies for refugee organisations to overcome challenges internationally, and producing a health curriculum for more than 25 million teachers / students in India. |
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SPEAKING TOPICS
The Amazing Innovation Race
How to lead and manage innovation. A global adventure to explore which countries, companies and cultures win, who loses and who gets eliminated.
Why have some great countries, cultures and companies charged ahead at the forefront of innovation, while others have struggled to survive? Who are the most innovative cultures in the world and why? And what does this mean for organisations today and for the race to survive and thrive? Drawing on fascinating insights from different cultures around the world, this session (based on the breakthrough new book The Innovation Race) reveals principles we can use to create a culture that supports purpose-driven and sustainable innovation and ultimately changes the game.
The session includes fascinating practical case studies from the authors’ vast consulting experience and from their in-depth research. Fast-paced entertainment and humour are blended with deep social and anthropological facts, with profound implications for facing contemporary challenges. Participants discover the enduring cultural traits that foster true creative thinking and innovation through being introduced to the 4 key innovation paradoxes and learning how to navigate them successfully.
Focus Session 1: Who wins, who loses, who gets eliminated? The Traveller, Tourist, & the Reality of the Innovation Race.
Focus Session 2: The Monk and the Mobile. Leading Innovation. Navigating the 4 paradoxes of innovation.
Focus Session 3: Innovation Keynote 3: The Innovation Game Changers How to create a purposeful innovation culture.
Who Killed Who Killed Creativity?... And How Can We Get It Back?
Identifying and investigating the key creativity killers, and introducing the seven strategies for ensuring individuals, teams and organisations become innovative.)
A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs globally identified creativity as the number one 'leadership competency' of the future, and yet 300,000 CQ Torrance tests have shown that creativity has been on the decline since the 1990s. In this colourful and lively Whodunit-like keynote talk and/or interactive board game simulation, participants help solve a mystery using the latest brain research and sociological findings to discover what can block the creative thinking process – and they discover how to get it back.
Focus Session 1: The magic of creative thinking - and how to really think outside the box. Uses magic illusions as an illustration for how the creative thinking process can be blocked psychologically, segueing to challenging people about their mindset and mental models.
Focus Session 2: Investigating the crime & scene. Profiling the creative thinking killers, and counteracting these through building an innovation culture.
Focus Session 3: The forensic lab and the neuroscience of creative thinking. How to re-train the brain to access and harness unique creative thinking skills – including fascinating insights from the latest research in neuroscience.
How to lead and manage innovation. A global adventure to explore which countries, companies and cultures win, who loses and who gets eliminated.
Why have some great countries, cultures and companies charged ahead at the forefront of innovation, while others have struggled to survive? Who are the most innovative cultures in the world and why? And what does this mean for organisations today and for the race to survive and thrive? Drawing on fascinating insights from different cultures around the world, this session (based on the breakthrough new book The Innovation Race) reveals principles we can use to create a culture that supports purpose-driven and sustainable innovation and ultimately changes the game.
The session includes fascinating practical case studies from the authors’ vast consulting experience and from their in-depth research. Fast-paced entertainment and humour are blended with deep social and anthropological facts, with profound implications for facing contemporary challenges. Participants discover the enduring cultural traits that foster true creative thinking and innovation through being introduced to the 4 key innovation paradoxes and learning how to navigate them successfully.
Focus Session 1: Who wins, who loses, who gets eliminated? The Traveller, Tourist, & the Reality of the Innovation Race.
Focus Session 2: The Monk and the Mobile. Leading Innovation. Navigating the 4 paradoxes of innovation.
Focus Session 3: Innovation Keynote 3: The Innovation Game Changers How to create a purposeful innovation culture.
Who Killed Who Killed Creativity?... And How Can We Get It Back?
Identifying and investigating the key creativity killers, and introducing the seven strategies for ensuring individuals, teams and organisations become innovative.)
A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs globally identified creativity as the number one 'leadership competency' of the future, and yet 300,000 CQ Torrance tests have shown that creativity has been on the decline since the 1990s. In this colourful and lively Whodunit-like keynote talk and/or interactive board game simulation, participants help solve a mystery using the latest brain research and sociological findings to discover what can block the creative thinking process – and they discover how to get it back.
Focus Session 1: The magic of creative thinking - and how to really think outside the box. Uses magic illusions as an illustration for how the creative thinking process can be blocked psychologically, segueing to challenging people about their mindset and mental models.
Focus Session 2: Investigating the crime & scene. Profiling the creative thinking killers, and counteracting these through building an innovation culture.
Focus Session 3: The forensic lab and the neuroscience of creative thinking. How to re-train the brain to access and harness unique creative thinking skills – including fascinating insights from the latest research in neuroscience.
