Al Comeaux

Turns out, the skills that make us great as leaders every day—habits and thinking ingrained in
us, traits that make us leaders from the start—these very same capabilities and conventions
can make us terrible at leading change. It’s a mind-boggling paradox I’ve discovered that holds
us back as change-leaders, and we need to understand and embrace it to drive lasting changes.
Because change efforts, unlike everyday initiatives, depend so much on our people—the very
folks who will carry the change on their backs, but only if they decide to—we need to challenge
our habits and depart from familiar leadership approaches—sometimes leading in
counterintuitive ways—lest we cripple our change efforts. In this lively, groundbreaking
keynote I share powerful stories and lessons to ignite the imagination and bring this paradox to
life, so we all recognize the changes needed in ourselves, and we grasp the habit-breaking
mindset necessary if we intend to win at change.

You’re about to launch a market-moving innovation, something that’s bound to give you an advantage. The catch: It requires change at your customers, distributors, franchisees, partners—the third parties in your value chain in between you and success. Their people—their workers—will carry this change on their backs, but only if they choose to. Are their leaders up to the task? This keynote is for the leaders at your partner organizations…the ones whose leadership approach can make or break your innovation’s success. Bring them in, help them understand the mindset that leads to innovation-ready change. In this keynote, I ignite your partners’ imagination, so they think the right way about leading change. It makes their businesses stronger, and this gives your innovation the runway needed for take-off.

Global forces and technology like artificial intelligence are driving the need for change in our
organizations…and the need for change only becomes greater, faster with each development.
So, how do we take advantage of these technologies? How do we change our organizations to
keep up with the demands they drive? Well, it turns out, technologies don’t drive change;
people do. If we lose our people—the ones who must decide to adopt the change and carry it
on their backs—we lose the change. In this keynote, I bring to life what’s needed to ready our
people for lasting change: It’s about focusing on inputs instead of outcomes, walking-the-
change-talk, listening and aligning before acting. It’s common sense, just not common
practice…and I explain why, using science, great stories and examples from my three decades in
corporate life, plus my 25-year journey studying change. After all, AI and other capabilities are
incredibly important, but to seize their possibilities, we must first focus on things at home.

Given the trillions wasted on failed change efforts each year, how must we as leaders go about
change differently? What do leaders at companies that win at change do vs the unsuccessful
among us? In this signature keynote, I offer an insider’s view—having led changes of all sorts at
the C-level for two decades, in addition to a quarter century studying change at scores of
companies—to share a brutal truth: Organizations don’t change. People do. It turns out, change
is a decision made by every single person. As leaders we lose when trying to get our people to
change; we win by getting our people to want to change. How? By getting our own hands dirty
as leaders. Pulling our people through the change. Understanding the invaluable role that
listening and modeling play. This keynote uses stories, science and humor to lay out how we as
leaders can win our change efforts, and this sets us up for success as leaders overall.

As businesses grapple with the post-pandemic world—figuring out how to compete for business and employees while grappling with decisions about office space, employee autonomy, even whether to add remote people of all flavors—we have to take a step back and ask ourselves: What’s it going to take to succeed in such a blurry world? And once we’ve decided on a direction, how do we as leaders ensure this new way succeeds and keeps us competitive? Al Comeaux is perhaps the best positioned person in the world to help ground us in what’s needed. His 20 years of leading change—he’s had to flip business models overnight and led changes during a hostile takeover, an IPO, a leveraged buyout, rapid massive globalization, and so much more…all kinds of uncharted territory—this grounds him in the kind of thinking we need as we take on a whole new future. In this keynote, Al also brings science and data from his decades researching change, as well as fantastic stories that underscore his points. It’s a fast- paced, energizing yet deep talk that will challenge all of us to be better leaders so our organizations flourish—not flatline—through these uncharted times…and always.