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An Introduction to Duncan Wardle
Duncan Wardle: Live Event Highlights
Duncan Wardle: Virtual Event Highlights
The Theory of Creativity | TedXLadyBirdLake
Speech Topics
The ability to think creatively is the one core human truth that will remain relevant in the brave new world of Artificial Intelligence. Everyone has the power to be creative!
But wait, do you believe that you are not the “creative type”? That we should leave the creativity to the “Creatives”? For most, this has happened so many times that we end up actually believing it. For adults, not being creative is an accepted fate.
With an education and corporate structure that encourages finding the single “right answer” to every question, we are trained to fall in line, and shut down that creative portion of our brain.
But weren’t we kids once? Turning boxes into spaceships and pillows and blankets into forts and castles? What happened to that creativity?
Fortunately, that childhood creativity did not dissipate – it’s just lying dormant, waiting to be brought back to life!
During the Theory of Creativity™ Keynote, Duncan will share innovation tools developed from experience with thousands of global Fortune 500 companies and 30 years of experience with the Walt Disney Company, most recently as Head of Innovation & Creativity.
By the end, your audience will walk away with a series of unique Creative Behaviors and Innovation Tools to leverage their creative minds, deliver revolutionary thinking and drive substantial results in all areas of your business.
KEYNOTE TAKEAWAYS:
- How to innovate by challenging the rules of your industry
- Learn real-life examples of how to embed a sustainable culture of innovation and creativity throughout your organization
- Learn tools on how to encourage every employee to think creatively
The best brands in the world may have great products and service, but they thrive because of an unrelenting passion and focus on customer experience.
Through this engaging and interactive Keynote, Duncan will share how to transform your business from product-centric to customer-centric and reap the rewards that come when customers believe the work you do is truly magic.
Duncan will share with your team famous real-world examples from behind the scenes from his time as the Head of Innovation and Creativity at The Walt Disney Company.
Showcasing challenges brought on by direct and indirect competitors, Duncan will share real-life and timely examples of how ever-evolving organizations drastically changed consumer behaviors.
As he shares the exact steps Disney and other companies have taken to turn problems into massive opportunities, he will dig into the new revenue opportunities and enhanced customer experiences.
By the end of this interactive presentation, your audience will have developed a whole new understanding of customer experience, and you will be empowered with tools to reframe any challenges facing your organization, finding those unique opportunities to create some customer experience magic of your own!
KEYNOTE TAKEAWAYS:
- How to turn a product centric culture into a consumer centric one
- How to leverage “high-tech” to enable “high-touch”, delivering record guest satisfaction
- How to address the biggest consumer pain points and what that can mean for revenue
None of us are going back to “Business as Usual”, and the secret sauce to success lies in the culture you create at work.
But innovation is not something that happens by chance. It’s the result of building an environment in which it can thrive, and you have to give people a set of tools that you may use every day to grow.
Companies set on creating a culture of innovation will not only survive, but they will thrive! This goes far beyond having an “Innovation Department.” Now is the time to instill a culture of innovation among EVERY member of your team.
During Duncan’s time as the Head of Innovation for Disney, a company known for redefining pretty much every industry they touch Duncan’s decades of success weren’t merely a matter of luck or chance.
His results were a direct reflection of his ability to create a thriving, innovative culture, and to ensure that everyone on his teams were put in a position to let their inner creativity run wild.
In the Embedding Innovation into Everyone’s DNA Keynote speech, Duncan will share the exact steps and strategies used to create such an environment.
Participants will learn how to create safe spaces for taking creative risks, ensure everyone on your team is empowered and thinking like an entrepreneur, and transition from the ideation stage into action.
He’ll also share a creative problem-solving tool which will prime your organization to discover innovative ideas each and every time you set out to tackle a challenge.
KEYNOTE TAKEAWAYS:
- A fresh outlook on daily tasks
- An approach to tasks with new levels of creative thinking
- A mindset that allows innovation to flourish at work
Biography
The former Vice President of Innovation & Creativity at The Walt Disney Company, Duncan Wardle spent his 25-year career at Disney developing some of their most innovative ideas and strategies. Ideas that would forever change the way the company expands its impact, trains its employees, and solves problems creatively.
What sort of ideas? How about sending a beloved Pixar character into outer space?
When tasked with developing a creative public relations campaign to launch Walt Disney World’s newest attraction, Toy Story Mania, Duncan made a deal to send the one and only Buzz Lightyear up on NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery, where he took part in the live broadcasts Astronauts beamed back to earth. It was the ultimate in creative cross-promotion, and forever gave Duncan bragging rights, having launched a PR campaign that was literally out of this world!
Back on Earth, Duncan and his team were tasked with leading the Walt Disney creative process for LucasFilms, Pixar, Marvel, Disney Imagineering, Disney Parks and ESPN. Realizing that innovation and creativity were not inherent traits, but something that could be taught and learned, Duncan founded the Creative Catalyst Team. This team was used to teach employees across all the Disney properties how to develop their own “thinking toolkit,” which would enable them to strategically and repeatedly create moments of innovation within their business units.
The program was a massive success, and during Duncan’s tenure, the group trained over 3,000 professional and executive Disney cast members. Participants walked away from Duncan’s program with the ability to think more audaciously when solving challenges and create innovative new storylines, products and services throughout the entire Disney universe.
While Duncan loved the challenge of running the creativity and innovation teams at the world’s most creative company, he understood that his ability to successfully teach others to develop an innovation and ideation toolkit was something that could have a massive impact for people and organizations across the globe. And so, he left to launch his creative consulting company id8, which has quickly become one of the top innovation consulting firms in the world, and in the process, has allowed Duncan to share his creative consultant services and innovation workshops to thousands of employees and executives at companies such as Ford, McKinsey, Coca-Cola, NBA, Apple, Johnson & Johnson and Forbes.
With an infectious energy and playful collaboration, Duncan pushes executives and their teams to overcome preconceived ideas, act more audaciously, and develop their own innovation “light switch”, which is a method to activate their creative brain and access the ideas that turn ordinary companies into industry leaders.
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