Dr Adam Fraser is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) with over 20 years of experience as an event and keynote speaker.
In the last 8 years he has delivered more than 1200 presentations to over 300,000 people in Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
He has worked in many industries and his clients include, CBA, Westpac, Optus, IBM, PWC, Asteron, AON, Tower, Local Government Managers Association, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Queensland Law Society, and the Department of Education.
His topics included the psychology of performance, improvement of productivity, transformational leadership, engagement of teams, work life balance and development of high performing cultures.
Talking Points
Strive: Embracing the gift of struggle.
For the last 10 years Dr Adam Fraser and Deakin University have been studying how leaders and teams can evolve, innovate and be resilient in times of change to stay commercially relevant and profitable. Their research shows that the key factor allowing teams to transform and evolve is their relationship with the struggle and discomfort that accompanies any change.Strive: Embracing the gift of struggle.
For many years, we have been incorrectly taught that we should avoid struggle and challenge. We often look at those we believe have struggle-free lives and we wish that our lives resembled theirs. After all, a life free of difficulties and struggle has to be a good life, right?! Wrong! This misperception has lead people to avoid situations that push them out of their comfort zone. The problem with this? Individuals and organisations don’t get anywhere near their potential. This presentation sheds a new light on the role challenge and struggle play in our development both personally and professionally. It will provide you with the proper tools you need to approach challenge and discomfort in a way that not only improves your performance and success, but also improves your self-esteem and wellbeing.
Outcomes:
- You will learn to have a more constructive and resilient mindset towards change and transformation.
- It will create a STRIVE culture in your teams, where you reflect on progress, learn from failures and have a greater level of perseverance and tenacity when under pressure.
- Help you understand why you are proud of the hard things in life.
- Teach you about ‘The completion myth’ and why we feel flat after we achieve a goal and more alive when we are working towards a goal. Have you see why taking the easy path leads to dysfunction and misery.
Problems it Solves:
- Stops you retreating back to old safe behaviours when faced with the opportunity to change and grow.
- Helps teams band together and create a culture that supports transformation.
- Helps align you and your teams behaviour to the strategic focus of the organisation.
Research Outcomes:
The strategies presented in this keynote have been shown to achieve the following results in 800 professionals from highly complex environments that were experiencing large amounts of change.
- 54% increase in level of positive mood at work
- 22% improvement in capacity to handle high workloads
- 20% improvement on level of engagement
- 27% increase in level of creativity and innovation at work
- 11% increase in hope and optimism
The Third Space: Developing behavioural agility.
Would you like to learn how to:The Third Space: Developing behavioural agility.
- Have a bad day and not take it home with you?
- Have a stressful meeting and not let that mood derail the next meeting?
- Endure a de-motivating set back yet still be able to attack your next task with optimism and enthusiasm?
- Transition into your next task in a way that you are completely present and give it your undivided focus?
- Work from home, rather than feel like you live at work?
Your job as a team member, as a leader, as a salesperson is to adapt your behaviour to meet the needs of the next role, environment or task. However, too often, one setback or one bad meeting, can derail your day by having a domino effect that robs you, and your business, of energy and focus.
Dr Adam’s cutting-edge research with Deakin University shows that what high performers have in common is that they use ‘The Third Space®’ to overcome setbacks and assume a mindset to get the most out of what is coming next.
‘The Third Space®’ is the transitional gap between “What the hell just happened?” and “What’s next?”. High performers use this space to decompress, jettison the negative and bring new focus and energy to the next task at hand.
You will learn:
- How to use ‘The Third Space®’ to transition effectively between the different roles, environments and tasks that make up our day to extract the maximum value from each.
- How to “Show up” at work fully responsible for the energy you bring to affect the behaviour and culture of your organisation constructively.
- A simple three-step process to perform between work and home to dramatically improve work-life balance and overall happiness.
- How to use ‘The Third Space®’ when working from home to work more effectively and be able to switch off at the end of the day.
PROBLEMS IT SOLVES
- Increases performance by stopping you from carrying the stress and frustration from one environment to the next.
- Helps you turn off at the end of the day so you can go home, connect with your loved ones and come back to work more refreshed and focused.
RESEARCH OUTCOMES
- 43% improvement in the mood in the home, practicing the Third Space on the commute between work and home.
- 91% increase in Boundary strength (the ability to not let the previous interaction have a negative impact on the next interaction).
Rechargeable: Building sustainable performance.
With the massive levels of disruption seen in our lives, burnout is a real issue for many people in business today. When team members burn out their performance plummets which means they are more at risk of being disengaged, which then leads to a dysfunctional impact on the culture of the team.Rechargeable: Building sustainable performance.
But how do you prevent burnout when you still have a mountain of work to get through?
Dr Adam Fraser’s research has proven that it is possible to improve your wellbeing while working at a fast pace or under high demand. The mistake most people make is that they think that in order to recover, they need to take long breaks off work. However, the research of Dr Adam Fraser and Deakin University shows that the best way to prevent burnout is short, regular but consistent bursts of recovery. Recovery is a regular habit we need to do each day, each week and each month. We can recover while working hard.
The strategies shared in this presentation have been shown in University studies to reduce stress and burnout in various stressful jobs such as paramedics, partners in professional services firms, sales teams and school principals.
OUTCOMES FROM THE PRESENTATION
- You will leave this presentation with an individualised recovery plan that you can start immediately and implement over the following months.
- The plan is built around your existing habits, which increases the likelihood of successful behaviour change.
PROBLEMS IT SOLVES
- By improving one’s performance and well-being through recovery, we increase the sustainability of performance and boost engagement while decreasing turnover and stress claims.
RESEARCH OUTCOMES
The material presented in this keynote has led to the following improvements;
- 26% decrease in how emotionally drained people felt from work
- 44% decrease in level of burnout
The Ripple Effect: How we all affect culture.
One of the biggest blocks to cultural transformation is when team members outsource culture to the most senior roles. Team members incorrectly believe that it is only the leader that shapes the culture of a team, saying things like, “Culture comes from the top down” or “The fish rots from the head down.” However, when you look at the true psychology of how cultures work, you realise that these statements are inaccurate.The Ripple Effect: How we all affect culture.
Science has made incredible breakthroughs in our understanding of how the culture of teams and organisations works. In a nut shell, we have discovered that culture comes from ‘the bottom up as well’. In this challenging and competitive business landscape, we can no longer outsource culture to the senior leaders. Every single person in an organisation affects the culture. Every behaviour from each individual sends a cultural ripple that affects the people around them, thus shaping the culture. Just think of a time when you have been in a team where that one bad apple destroyed the culture of a team!
OUTCOMES FROM THE PRESENTATION
This fascinating, humorous and enlightening presentation will completely change the way your team views how they affect the culture of the organisation.
Your team will learn that:
- Every member of a team has a profound impact on what that culture looks like.
- Human behaviour self excites. Humans are not as independent as we would like to believe and tend to copy the behaviour of the people around them.
- Every time you exhibit behaviours that are not aligned to the desired culture of the team, the culture is eroded.
- Small behaviours are often thought of as being trivial. However, the wrong small behaviour can have a huge negative impact on a team or culture.
- A clear list of positive ripples each person in the team can send to improve the culture of the team.
PROBLEMS IT SOLVES
- The team becomes clear about what behaviours they need to apply more of and what behaviours they need to avoid to improve the team culture.
- Increases one’s self-awareness about how they affect team dynamics.
- The team starts to hold each other accountable for their impact on the culture.
RESEARCH OUTCOMES
In a number of organisations the materials presented in this presentation has lead to;
- 160% increase in the level of trust in the team.
- 74% increase in how supportive team members felt the team culture was.
- 43% decrease in the stress levels of the team.
No Thanks Kevin: The psychology of courage.
One of the strongest characteristics of a high-performing team is their ability to take proactive action before they are forced to change by external circumstances. This is a huge driver of performance, innovation and evolution.No Thanks Kevin: The psychology of courage.
Research shows that for many organisations and teams the only time they change is when they are forced into action by external circumstances. However, by then, it is often too late, they have already been disrupted or outperformed by a competitor.
Humans often struggle with their ability to take proactive action. We are constantly presented with moments that are opportunities to advance and grow. Dr Adam Fraser refers to these as ‘Evolution Points’. They are opportunities to innovate and reinvent the way we operate. Unfortunately, all too often in these moments, we let fear, anxiety, self-doubt and imposter syndrome hold us back from initiating proactive action.
Dr Adam Fraser has been studying how can we exhibit courage when faced with an evolution point. His research shows that the traditional approach to being courageous often leads to more procrastination. We have been incorrectly taught that to be courageous, we have to feel positive emotions and think positive thoughts at the moment of challenge.
In this presentation Dr Adam will demonstrate how to use the SAFE model (a four step strategy) to be courageous and evolve, even in the presence of negative thoughts and emotions.
Who is Kevin I hear you ask? That will be revealed in the presentation.
OUTCOMES FROM THE PRESENTATION
- Team members will learn how to use the SAFE model to exhibit courage when taking on an evolution point.
- They will realise that they don’t have to feel positive emotion before taking courageous action.
- They will identify the evolution points that they are not taking action on.
PROBLEMS IT SOLVES
- Stops team members from retreating back into old comfortable behaviours that stop the organisation moving forward.
- Helps teams to make the most of opportunities to innovate and evolve.
RESEARCH OUTCOMES
In a recent study the ‘SAFE model’ helped leaders increase the frequency of courageous leadership behaviours by 64% (as judged by their team members).
Adam was great at our offsite. It was my second time in his audience and I was entertained as good as the "first time. Adam moulds interesting research results and statistics into a humorous ... keep reading Commonwealth Bank
We had the largest response from our customers to this seminar, with over 67 acceptances. The feedback was exceptionally positive and the presentation provided a fantastic mix of information and interaction. Just watching the room people were nodding approval and understanding, you clearly hit the mark! Thank you for you professional and energetic and positive approach. I appreciate that it’s not easy to ‘rouse’ an audience at 8am in the morning. Thank you once again. Would you please come back to us another time?
Adam’s speech was high energy, entertaining and thought provoking. The audience responded well to the key points of his speech and my managers and team leaders have been motivated to use the techniques that Adam presented. They now have a clear understanding of how they can better prepare and motivate themselves, and their teams, during times of high pressure and the accompanying stress that results. Adam has been consulting to me on a personal level for a number of months and has enabled me to be much more e!ective as a manager and to maintain high personal performance levels. I would strongly recommend Adam as a speaker at any presentation focusing on the key interdependencies of energy, health and stress management in raising the effectiveness and performance of staff and management.
Thank you Adam, for an amazing and most enjoyable presentation. You certainly are an excellent presenter and communicator. Your stories and personal experiences not only encouraged all the attendees to relax, enjoy and be challenged, but also set you apart from other presenters. I am very appreciative that I have taken away tools to implement in my life and working habits.
Both my clients and I found your talk to be informative, amusing, anecdotal and extremely well delivered. It is obvious from your performance that you were well prepared, practiced and familiar with both your topic and with speaking in public to groups. As our guys were _ of the way through lunch when you commenced your talk it was a credit to you to be able to capture their attention and keep their interest throughout. It is without hesitation that we would recommend you to other organisations looking for someone to inform, excite or rev up their teams, or represent them in front of clients and customers.
