Keynote Speaker on Liminal Leadership & Change

You found my “semi-illustrious professional speaker” aspect, well done. I’m Dr. Fox, a global Hall of Fame keynote speaker working with teams who quest to stay relevant in a changing world.

We are in the midst of The Great Unravelling. Climate, technology, social systems—the old paradigms aren’t holding. A storm is coming—it’s already here. This is not business as usual anymore. Now, more than ever, you’ve got to keep your wits about you.

Which is precisely why events are so important.

Nothing comes close to the power of live events. Events enable us to make and deepen connections, experience complex ideas at depth, and—finally—have the conversations that just can't happen in our day-to-day. Events catalyse the new value and meaningful progress.

If we get the alchemy right, you can feel the shift. That palpable sense of subtle transformation, the renewed vision, the expanded perception, and the enlivened resolve. That physiological quickening, the insight cascade, the epiphanic moment where new ways of seeing and being coalesce.

Events are the fulcrum; the hinge of future history; and the awakening of latent potential.

Events are magic. And that’s what we’re creating together.

Making Magic Together

You don’t want to go through all the effort of gathering folks together only to have them sit in a room and be talked at. We can do so much better than that.

I’ve produced and hosted over a hundred events; paid for speakers, managed logistics, and carried the risk. I’ve also contributed to over half a thousand events. I know, first hand, what makes a speaker easy to work with and extraordinary value.

The secret is largely in their disposition: are they there to serve themselves—or are they with you to serve your event?

And so the question I always ask first is:

“What do you want your audience to think, feel, and do differently as a result of your event?”

Everything I bring is in service to this.

There is no one-way-fits-all. It’s a dance; and we adapt our approach as needed.

An internal event for an organisation that has recently undergone a significant merger is significantly different to an external event to educate clients about new offerings. A public event for a profession adapting to a new regulatory landscape is also very different from a think-tank salon for captains of industry. And an offsite for senior leaders is vastly different to an event hosted for new managers and emerging talent.

All events sit within a larger story and deeper strategic imperative. This is what event organisers like you hire wizards like me to serve.

My approach in three principles...

1 // Prepared to wing it
Events are living experiences, and life is messy. Technology fails, talks run over, and the unexpected happens (all the time). But I am always prepared to wing it. As in, actually prepared, because of the depth of my experience.

I’m not wedded to script or slides, and can jump in wherever needed. I am your least precious, most adaptable speaker. Whatever happens, I’ll ensure your event works.

2 // Hero the audience
I’m a wizard, not a hero. Your audience are the ones up against the real challenges. And besides: I’m not here to steal the show. It’s your show. And theirs.

Thus I also make sure to spend time with people before and after, answer questions, sign books, and be available. Stagecraft and larger-than-life charisma is great and all—but you want your speakers to be real and relatable, too. This is part of the “you had to be there” magic of an event.

Oh, also: I will never use stage time to take selfies or sell my own services.

3 // Stir the pot
I don’t pretend to be an expert in your industry—you hire external speakers for fresh perspective from outside of your profession. I bring a wealth of deep knowledge and savvy—with the benevolent intent to disrupt the all-too-familiar patterns of default thinking.

For “the mind that is not baffled it not employed,” as poet Wendell Berry writes. “The impeded stream is the one that sings.”

My contribution is always oriented toward epiphany. Not me sharing mine, but your audience realising theirs.

Dr. Fox works particularly well with smart and sceptical audiences who’ve “seen it all before”

Wit, wisdom & wiles

The value I bring to all my work can be surmised as “wit, wisdom and wiles for a time betwixt worlds.”

• Wit being the synthesis and distillation of disparate ideas in a manner that is timely, relevant, and apt.
• Wisdom being the sensibilities to walk the path of least unnecessary harm (particularly apt for complexity).
• Wiles being the cleverness and canny required to keep playing when the game keeps changing.

This is not about bringing new content, hot-takes, stats and facts. Nor is it about providing soothing lullabies of reassurance, or comforting affirmations.

I do Wyrd Work, and bring quickening fox magic.

What I Know

Themes of living systems, complexity, emergence, development and change run through everything I do. Along with power (and magic).

I also literally have a PhD in motivation science.

With that in mind, here are the domains of knowledge I am most known for.

a) Liminal Leadership

Leadership is the capacity to orient collective attention and action toward emergent possibility. Or more prosaically: creating the conditions where others can see what needs doing and choose to do it.

Liminal leadership is when this capacity is applied to the in-between: where default structures cannot solve new problems—but new structures haven’t quite yet emerged. Liminal leadership thus requires tending to existing systems whilst also cultivating the conditions from which new ways can arise.

Without liminal leadership, you get calcification or chaos. For liminal leaders know: only that which can change can continue.

b) Emergent Strategy

Strategy is the seemingly coherent pattern of choices that positions resources toward desired outcomes given constraints and uncertainty. Traditionally, this takes the shape of strategic planning. This can work for stable contexts with known variables. But life and the world we share is complex.

Emergent strategy is orientation that arises from distributed sensing and adaptive response more than centralised planning. It requires an aligning of principles and practices so that viable pathways reveal themselves through action. Here, the way reveals the way.

Without emergent strategy, you’re guided by increasingly obsolete plans. But with emergent strategy, you sense and adapt.

c) Mythic Mode

Mythic Mode is also an elevated way of engaging with life itself. Something above and beyond the mechanical mode of living and working most adults settle into. Deeper, too.

Mythic Mode is also the highest difficulty level in roleplaying games. Something that can only be unlocked after completing the default game.

Many adults reach some success—and then plateau. Sure, we optimise, develop skills, and continue to productively work our way towards what we think we want. But the invitation and opportunity is: to step up and into Mythic Mode.

When in Mythic Mode, you’re enlivened by challenge, enriched by relationality, and drawn towards participation in the greater story we share. Alive, awake, and attuned to what matters. “Performance beyond measure.”

Without Mythic Mode, you’re lost in finite games. But with Mythic Mode, you're alive to the infinite game.

It’s all Wyrd Work

The quickening magics of emergence, change, and the realising of latent potential. The work of being and becoming; of living into our own unfurling.

Wyrd is an olde word that refers to the shaping of that which is to become. It informs much of the work I do, in that first we pay attention, sense into and attune to existing pattern. Only from there can we sense the threads that might lead to the unfurling of your adjacent possible. In this way, change is never imposed or decreed but rather: cultivated and evoked.

But I digress...

Ways I Contribute

There are so many ways to contribute to an event. I’ve hosted live whisky tastings woven with poetry, facilitated on-stage D&D immersions as means to smuggle in new wisdom, led contemplative river walks through storms, woven improvisational jazz into leadership off-sites, and more.

You and the team and I—we can conjure something special.

But to start the conversation, here are the five main formats in which I can contribute to your event.

Keynote “Topics”

I’m not a pull-string speaker, and there are no “off the shelf” presentations to purchase. No two contributions are quite the same. There might be similarities in the concepts unpacked, and examples given, but the the substance of what I bring is something we finesse during our briefing call together. This way, whatever I contribute is most apt for your event and strategic intent.

Having said that, here are are serving suggestions, to get the conversation started.

i) A Quest Beckons

Venture—Beyond the Default

“open minds”

A keynote that moves audiences from default thinking toward emergent possibility. The key insight here is in the distinction between meaningful progress (that which brings us closer to value and relevance) and the delusion of progress (a phenomena where default thinking gets in the way of meaningful progress).

This keynote is warm, witted, illuminating—and surprisingly effective at winning over even the most sceptical within the room.

You will learn:

• How defaults shape our thinking, motivation, and behaviour
• How to distinguish between meaningful progress and the delusion of progress
• How to attune to glimmers, weak signals and the magic of emergence
• How to use quest-augmented strategy to cultivate optionality and antifragility
• How to use qualitative sense-making to orient towards relevance-realisation

#curiosity #emergence #strategy #story #progress

ii) Into the Storm

Rise to the Complexity

“awaken leadership”

Sometimes good leaders need a wake up call, lest complacency and hubris take root. And sometimes, after saying all the correct and expected things, an event needs to invite some trickster-energy into the mix.

Because the future is not what it used to be. We’re living in a time of exponential advancements in technology—to the backdrop of a metacrisis and ecological collapse. Now is the time to rise to the complexity of the challenges before us, so as to (quite literally) save the future from dystopia. Fun!

You will learn:

• Why leadership development has become domesticated—and how to break free
• How to cultivate meta-rational and meta-systemic leadership sensibilities
• How to ‘keep your wits about you’ amidst artificial intelligence and relentless distraction
• How to wield Hermetic Principles whilst navigating the emergent and unknown
• Why Living-Systems Thinking is key to surviving ‘these times’

#leadership #development #complexity #courage #change

iii) Change the Game

Shift Behaviour, Shape Change

“make happen”

The true measure of the impact of your event is not just how people feel in the moment, or immediately after it concludes. It’s in what happens in the weeks, months and years that follow.

This keynote is, effectively, “motivation mastery” for adults in pursuit of complex goals. With insights from psychology and game design—and the wit of a wizard-philosopher—we can ensure your event is a thunderous success.

You will learn:

• How to recognise where our defaults are helpful—and where they hold us back
• How to reverse self-sabotage and get out of your own way
• How to attune to the subtle glimmers, inklings and hunches generated by this event—and attune to that which is most apt for you
• How to surpass your ‘immunity to change’ and unfurl into a bold new chapter of your story
• How to maintain subtly-disruptive rituals so as to ensure meaningful progress

#motivation #culture #progress #rituals #purpose

iv) Unlock Mythic Mode

This Isn’t Even Your Final Form

“be legendary”

Most adults persist in Machine Mode—finding new ways to optimise themselves so as to be more productive. And most adults eventually become trapped within these efficient patterns; circling through the same motions, achieving the same successes, and wondering: surely there’s more to Life than this?

There is. So much more.

But this realisation cannot be prescribed. Nor can it be taught; not directly. It can only be evoked and called forth; and only if the quickening conditions are just-so.

And so this keynote presentation blends developmental and mythopoetic sensibilities to awaken and enliven the greater character within us all.

You will learn:

• How to attune to the narratives that serve you—and the ones that enslave you
• The difference between ambition (what you think you should want) and vocation (what’s actually calling you)
• How to play finite games as an infinite player
• Why “do it for the plot” is good advice
• How to access Mythic Mode in any moment—and be enriched by a qualitative field of relational possibility

#mythopoetic #character #mythic #potential #aliveness

v) How to Be A Wizard

Arcane Wisdom in The Age of Artificial Intelligence

“work magic”

(Yes, I too speak on Artificial Intelligence.)

I’ve worked with strategic innovation teams in AI for over a decade. But in recent times, swathes of folk have become drunk on the power and promise of this new technology. And whilst there is much to be excited about, the times call for Arcane Wisdom to compliment the exuberance of Artificial Intelligence.

This is the domain of wizardry. To be a wizard is to be wise (or: to at least strive for such).

A wizard knows not only how to do magic—but when not to.

We now each carry a black stone tablet in our pockets. We can readily summon food and transport, easily cast our voice and project our image across time, and effortlessly open portals new worlds. But with great power comes great responsibility—for power corrupts.

This keynote will wisen up your audience with regards to technology, power, and magic.

You will learn:

• How to avoid the cognitive atrophy that comes with convenience
• How to ensure your imagination doesn’t become domesticated by convenience
• How to maintain cognitive security in an age of ubiquitous corporate surveillance and agentic glazing
• How to use Arcane Intelligence to work with Artificially Intelligent entities
• How to maintain sovereignty in an age of algorithmic entrainment

#AI #wisdom #imagination #magic #power

How This Works

Just email my partner and business manager, Dr. Kim Lam, via kim@drjasonfox.com

Kim will happily provide a sense of my availability, along with a fee guide. Kim can also tee up a “discovery call” for us, to explore what might work best for you (and for you to sense if I am the best fit for your event).

Note: I am often booked a year in advance, so it’s always a good idea to check availability early. Plus this gives us more time to shape your event.