Richard Gerver Speaking Topics

• Additional Presentations by Richard Gerver:

  Tiggernometry: Adding Bounce to Your Life Creating Tomorrow's Schools Today Leading into the Unknown Out of The Ordinary – The Grangeton Story From Hoodie to Hero – Harnessing the Power of the Next Generation Beyond the Pane

• Schools for the 21st Century

  “Tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it” – Ancient African Proverb

  In his keynote Richard will urge us all to focus in on our moral imperative as educators; to prepare our children for their futures. He will explore the challenges that our students face now and in their adult lives, challenging us to look beyond conventional thinking and practice and to ask questions of a new paradigm; he will highlight the need for leadership, a new type of strategic thinking and a new professional mindset. He will look at the notions of creativity, risk, skills and knowledge and will share his thoughts on how we make learning matter to the most sophisticated generation of consumers the world has ever produced. Richard believes in practice not theory and as such, will also share some of the work he and his staff developed at the world famous Grange School. The keynote will explore new ideas and thinking linking the future of education with organisations such as Pixar and Harley Davidson. Provocative, amusing and dynamic; Richard’s presentation will leave people with challenging and inspirational pathways for the educational journey ahead.

Lead Happy!

Recent surveys of employee satisfaction in both the US and Europe show that most people see happiness rather than financial reward as the most important factor in their working lives, citing shared, clear and tangible vision and values as the crucial defining factors. At the heart of any successful leadership and management strategy must be a sense of empowerment felt by every member of the team; that starts with a strong shared and implemented vision. In this speech Richard shares his experience of leading and managing vision development and transforming organisations through employee empowerment.

The New Education Age: It's more about the future and less about the past

Tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it – Ancient African proverb

The mass education system that the vast majority of us experience was created for a different time and place; it was created to control and maintain structures, systems and stability. For generations it worked reasonably efficiently; people knew what routes led to what kind of lives; professional, blue or white collar. An education that led to a higher qualification guaranteed certain opportunities and life choices for example.

Times have changed; economic shifts, social and environmental upheaval and most importantly the rise and exponential development of new technologies have left society breathless and ill prepared for the challenges that face our local, national and global futures.

Education defines the success of a society’s ability to control and manage change yet education has changed little since the extraordinary shift in the way life is led in the 21st century, as a result we are caught in a world where people are scared and often paralysed by the prospect of change, we are being overwhelmed by crises of global proportions around the economy, the environment and socio ethnic cohesion.

The world has created the most sophisticated generation of consumers we have ever seen; the “on demand” generation. To them, much of what the formal education system offers is out-dated and irrelevant.

If we are to prepare our children for their futures, education needs to radically rethink its purpose, its approach and its values. In his keynote presentation, Richard Gerver will explore the challenges we face, the questions we need to ask and the routes we need to take if our legacy for our young is to be one of success and empowerment.

Change: Learning to Love It, Learning to Lead It

In this unique session, Richard will explore why change and uncertainty becomes so challenging for so many people; links to risk aversion, a need for safety, security and control, hamper and stifle so many people and organisations. Gerver argues that we must return to our childhood to see where things begin to go wrong and how we must change our mindsets and motivations as a result. He will explore issues of empowerment and the impact of Taylorism and industrial models as well as the power of creativity, curiosity and confidence to understand how to embrace change in uncertain times and just why we must shift the paradigm to understand that change is not a program or a strategy but is an ever present in the organic nature of the 21st Century. He will use his unique perspective as an educator, a leader and a performer to provoke new thinking about change as a core factor in defining our future successes on human and organisational levels.