Gustavo Grodnitzky PhD Speaking Topics

• Culture Trumps Everything

  Organizations are often burdened with mediocre or poorly performing employees – costing billions of dollars a year. This poor performance is often attributed to an employee’s individual qualities or attributes, such as personality, motivation and/or skillsets. However, within the field of psychology, we know that context is a better predictor and controller of behavior than individual attributes – and inside an organization, this “context” is what we also refer to as “corporate culture.” Culture trumps everything.

  Corporate culture is very much like a garden – left unattended, a garden will grow all kinds of weeds and plants that can actually choke out the fruits, flowers, and vegetables you want to grow. But, if you spend time on your garden (if you spend time on your culture) picking out the undesirable weeds (i.e. specific behaviors), it becomes a lot easier to grow the fruits, the flowers, and the vegetables you do want to grow. Culture is cultivated just like a garden.

  If employees within an organization are goal-oriented, team-focused, and driven by performance, it’s because the culture demands it. Conversely, if an organization has employees that don’t care about goals, don’t care about teams, and don’t care about performance, it’s because the culture allows that, as well. This is the difference between working in your business vs. working on your business. Working on your business means working on your culture because Culture Trumps Everything.

  In his participant-driven program, Dr. Gustavo Grodnitzky (well known as Dr. Gustavo) will provide participants with actionable information regarding:

  • Understanding the profit paradox, classic capitalism vs. social capitalism and their implications
  • A clear definition of organizational culture
  • Examples of the successes and failures created by organizational culture
  • Steps for Creating a Culture of Success: Identifying the four factors which predict success in organizations

• Culture Trends and the Future Workforce

  How to adapt your business culture to survive and thrive post-pandemic.

  The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the trend toward a flexible, and in some cases hybrid, workforce. And now it’s here to stay. Organizations face a stark choice: Adjust to the new business environment or face extinction.

  Corporate culture expert Dr. Gustavo Grodnitzky provides concrete steps to reshape your culture for the future workforce. You will learn:

  • How current employee trends will shape the future workforce and what to do about it.
  • How to apply and operationalize a strategic model for the creation of a flexible workforce.
  • How to respond to the 4 biggest threats every business must consider when adapting to a flexible workforce.

• Decision Making Mindset: Making Decisions from the Inside Out

  The average person makes 35,000 decisions per day. Some — like what to wear every morning — are simple. But others have major consequences. Which job candidate should you hire? What can be cut from the budget? Should you give an under-performing employee another chance or let them go? Even when you think you understand why you make certain decisions, there are hidden factors at play. To make better decisions, you first have to raise your awareness of those factors.

  That's exactly what we'll cover in this thought-challenging, scientifically grounded, interactive workshop. Guided by Dr. Gustavo Grodnitzky, participants will…

  • Discover their current decision-making style.
  • Explore the surprising internal and external factors that influence decision-making.
  • Identify their individual beliefs, habits and tendencies that will challenge any decision making process.
  • Learn a systematic, step-by-step, science-based system for decision-making.

• Trust: Coin of the Realm

  At the crossroads of economics, technology, and human capital, business leaders find themselves in an ever-changing dynamic environment where they must make decisions, rely on others to execute, hold people accountable for performance, and keep their teams operating seamlessly as various challenges arise. It is in this environment where trust is the coin of the realm. Recent research has found that building a culture of trust leads to more engaged employees, higher productivity, improved quality, and increased profitability. When compared to low-trust companies, high-trust company employees are more productive, display greater energy, are more collaborative, and stay longer with their employers. They also experience fewer problems with chronic stress and report being happier with their lives. These are all factors which support stronger engagement and performance.

  In a global CEO survey done by PwC published in 2016, 55% of CEOs stated that lack of trust in their organization is an existential threat. Clearly, a majority of CEOs globally recognize the problem, but they don’t know what to do about it. This workshop offers a science-based place to start.

  In this experience-based workshop, Dr. Gustavo Grodnitzky will provide participants with actionable information and direct experience in order to build a culture of trust including:

  • Understand the science-based formula for developing trust
  • Examine the specific everyday behaviors required for trust development and their benefits
  • Identify the individual participant's trust-related "hot buttons" and "blind spots"
  • Apply our proprietary "Delegation Staircase" to understand how trust can support or hinder delegation

• Ready or Not, Here They Come! Maximizing Performance in a Multigenerational Workforce

  For the first time in the history of mankind, there are four generations in the workforce. There are 35 million Traditionalists and 84 million Baby Boomers, the largest numbers of which began to retire in 2011. There are 68 million Generation Xers and 79 million Millennials, or Generation Y, and Generation Z is just beginning to enter the workforce. There will be no escaping the demographic reality that in the very near future, there will be 84 million retiring Baby Boomers, followed by 68 million Gen Xers to replace them. This will create an employee vacuum in the workforce that only the 79 million Gen Yers can fill, increasing demand and competition for Generation Y employees, in addition to increasing the ongoing challenge of working with a multigenerational workforce.

  In this highly thought-provoking and participant-driven program, Dr. Gustavo Grodnitzky, well known as Dr. Gustavo, will provide participants with actionable information regarding:

  • Generational differences
  • Gen Y/Z challenges and strengths
  • Recruiting and Retaining Gen Y/Z: Implementing five "magnet factors" that attract and keep the best of Gen Y/Z in your workforce
  • Strategies and tactical Steps to better manage Gen Y/Z: A five-factor action list Dr. Gustavo will identify for each participant his/her own organizational "magnet factor" strengths and challenges as well as identify immediate tactical steps s/he can take to overcome those "magnet factor" challenges.

  Given the reality of the demographics, every industry will be competing for the same people. Understanding and managing these factors will ensure success for the Vistage participants' businesses.

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