Tom Morris, Ph.D

This is Tom’s most widely requested talk. It’s high energy fun, profound, and extremely practical, all at the same time. One major company has asked for this talk more than 60 times, for its various business units. It presents the most universal tools for individual and organizational success, as understood by the great thinkers of the centuries. Many businesses and lives have been changed for the better because of this talk.

We all need guiding concepts we can trust—ideas that have stood the test of time and can help us achieve success in even the most demanding situations. Tom has an unprecedented ability to bring together the wisdom of the ages in a form that people can use right now. This talk presents a simple, powerful and complete framework of seven universal conditions for deeply satisfying, sustainable excellence in all that we do. His now-famous “7 Cs of Success” have fueled extraordinary results in pockets of excellence around the world, and have never been more important than they are today. In a high-energy and entertaining session, Tom will reveal the most fundamental tools for personal and institutional greatness and provide a practical guide for their use every day. This talk leaves people with a new, well-grounded enthusiasm and a determination to use the wisdom they’ve been given. Once they’ve heard it, they’ll never be the same.

In business today, there are subtle but important mistakes about what “ethics” means. These misunderstandings are what allow smart people to do foolish things, by thinking they are acting for the good of the business. As a persuasive corrective, Dr. Morris takes the audience to the most ancient conception of ethics as offering a distinctive form of power, and looks at two different approaches to ethical decision making: one exclusively rule-based and the other rooted in the wisdom and virtue tradition.

Based on his book, If Aristotle Ran General Motors: The New Soul of Business, Morris provides a big picture perspective on what ethics is all about and how it fits into a framework for organizational and personal excellence. He takes people into a context where they can see not only why we have rules and compliance concerns, but also why ethics has to go far beyond a concern for rules. He introduces people to the most powerful conception of ethics from the ancient Greek philosophers: not about staying out of trouble but rather about creating a distinctive form of strength – strong people, strong organizations, and strong customer relations.

There are conditions in which creativity flourishes, and alternative situations in which it’s almost impossible and disappears. The culture of your company makes all the difference as to whether you will be a hotbed of innovation, or a place where anxiety, habit, and inertia rule. Tom Morris draws on the wisdom of the ages in a way that only he can do, to provide you with a simple map to a powerfully innovative culture. And since one great idea can be worth dozens or even hundreds of incremental improvements, he will use the insights of the most creative thinkers in history to show you how you can encourage not just those small innovations that improve products and services in discernible ways, but also the big breakthroughs, the great insights, the revolutionary perspectives that will keep your business flourishing, regardless of the ups and downs of the market and the general economy.

Difficult change comes our way on a regular basis these days. And we have an old saying about how to deal with it: When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. For decades, people have said this, but no one explains how to do it. The great philosophers did. In this highly entertaining and engaging talk, Tom Morris will equip you and all your associates to be expert lemonade makers! Some clients have themed their entire meeting around this topic and have served great lemonade during the break!

Over many centuries of the human adventure, the quest of the alchemist was to take something ordinary and create out of it something truly extraordinary. There is nothing in our time more ordinary now than the rapid pace of tumultuous change that we increasingly face in so many ways. And there are two kinds of change: The change that happens to us, and the change that happens only because of us. How do you respond creatively and powerfully to change that comes your way How do you best initiate change that needs to be made As a rare philosopher who is as full of humor and great stories as he is of insights that can change your business and your life, Tom Morris will explain in this talk the changeless wisdom of the ages on dealing well with change.

When you take good care of your people, your people take good care of your customers, and your customers take good care of you. The key to it all is a winning culture. So: What creates a great organizational culture What guides and motivates us to bring our best to every challenge and work powerfully with others every day Tom Morris shows that the answers to these questions are simple, profound, and transformational. At a time when pressures are high and companies are focusing on the discipline of execution, the main challenge is getting everyone to believe deeply in what they’re doing and to do it with excellence and care every day. Aristotle and a few other profound thinkers have revealed four foundations for reaching and maintaining the highest levels of commitment and greatness in our work with other people. In this session, Tom presents those four foundations for a winning culture and offers practical guidelines for putting into practice the greatest wisdom for sustainable greatness. This talk will give you a profound diagnostic tool whose use empowers individuals and organizations in a new way, while strengthening all your most vital relationships beyond what you could have imagined. This is a must-have framework of ideas for leaders at any level, as well as for front line people who need to form strong and resilient client relations.

Steve Jobs was the quintessential California Hippie, with bare feet, long hair, hallucinogenic drugs, and a fascination for all things Zen, who believed that the right sort of diet would grant him an exemption from the bathing habits of normal people. And yet, as we know, against all odds, and despite a great many personal flaws, idiosyncrasies, and imperfections, Jobs became a pioneering business visionary and hugely accomplished leader, who ended up practically in a class by himself. The real story of how he did it can now spark people and companies across all industries to new levels of world-class achievement.

Philosopher Tom Morris has a new take on the amazing success of this modern business icon, and how it can give fresh guidance to leaders at all levels in organizations. Drawing on the principles that catapulted Jobs to the top of the tech world and helped him build Apple into the world’s most valuable company, Morris lays out strategies, tactics and actionable takeaways that imbue leaders with the skills necessary to inspire innovation and success. Tom explains how these principles work in a way that no one else can — with high energy, good humor, and a level of insight that will leave people immensely excited about trying some of these powerful new ideas right away.

Since the untimely death of Steve Jobs, you’ve heard all the stories. But now you can bring into your group the empowering perspectives, attitudes, and actions that he lived every day and that can now take you to a new level of leadership excellence and success.

In this talk geared to top leaders, Tom explores three models of excellence and the importance of collaborative partnership for innovative and sustainable success. He looks at leadership lessons from the globe’s greatest philosophy and literature, bringing us sharp insights from such classics as the world’s oldest epic story, Gilgamesh, The Anglo Saxon tale of Beowulf, and Mary Shelley’s deep cautionary story of Frankenstein, along with perspectives from The Three Musketeers, Dracula, Don Quixote and Moby Dick. When you read what everyone else is reading, you often end up thinking what everyone else is thinking. Tom Morris reaches deep into the collective wisdom of the great thinkers and writers of the past and discovers novel perspectives that can change everything for the better.

Steve Jobs. What did this man know that we need to know?  What were his secrets? What did he do that crosses industries? How can we learn from one of the most unlikely and expansive success stories ever?

Tom digs deep into the myth, mess and magic of Steve Jobs and provides a revolutionary, practical look at what we can adapt from the strange, charismatic and compelling character who basically invented the connected life we all now live. Starting in his parents’ garage, Jobs built, in his lifetime, the world’s most valuable company. How did he do it? And what can we all do to emulate the best of his practices?

Using great humor, memorable stories and a level of passionate energy that carries on the legacy of Jobs himself, Tom will mesmerize your group and provide the highlight of your meeting.

Steve Jobs was the quintessential California Hippie, with bare feet, long hair, hallucinogenic drugs and a fascination for all things Zen, who believed that the right sort of diet would grant him an exemption from the bathing habits of normal people. And yet, as we know, against all odds, and despite a great many personal flaws, idiosyncrasies, and imperfections, Jobs became a pioneering business visionary and hugely accomplished leader, who ended up practically in a class by himself. The real story of how he did it can now spark people and companies across all industries to new levels of world-class achievement.
Tom has a new take on the amazing success of this modern business icon, and how it can give fresh guidance to leaders at all levels in organizations. Drawing on the principles that catapulted Jobs to the top of the tech world and helped him build Apple into the world’s most valuable company, Tom lays out strategies, tactics and actionable takeaways that imbue leaders with the skills necessary to inspire innovation and success and explains how these principles work in a way that no one else can with a level of insight that will leave people immensely excited about trying some of these powerful new ideas right away.

Since the untimely death of Steve Jobs, you’ve heard all the stories. But now you can bring into your group the empowering perspectives, attitudes and actions that he lived every day and that can now take you to a new level of leadership excellence and success. This is a talk loved by top leadership groups.