Driving Enthusiastic Adoption of New Cultural Behaviors
Transforming organizational culture is not just about directives—it's about cultivating enthusiasm, engagement, and momentum. By treating change as a product that people voluntarily adopt, leaders can inspire alignment, spark innovation, and drive transformations that last.

Keynote Details:
Drawing from my experience leading IBM's global transformation of almost 400,000 people, I'll show how to approach change in a way that excites teams and sustains progress. By framing change as something teams chose to adopt and were happy to pay for, we turned skepticism into momentum and reshaped IBM's culture.

This session unpacks actionable strategies to help leaders engage teams authentically, build leadership buy-in, and create environments where change becomes second nature. Through vivid stories and real-world tactics, participants will gain a practical framework for designing cultures that adapt and thrive.

How Design Gains Power
Design is one of the most underutilized strategic tools in business. When positioned at the heart of decision-making, it transforms organizations, driving innovation, customer satisfaction, and competitive advantage.

Keynote Details:
For too long, design has been sidelined as a support function, missing from critical business conversations. At IBM, we shifted this paradigm, growing from virtually no design capability to a global team of 5,000 formally-trained designers, and dozens of Executive-ranked designers leading the teams, and the business. This transformation didn't happen by chance—it was intentional and strategic.

Attendees will discover how to build a design culture that thrives in the midst of an entrenched Enterprise, secure executive sponsorship for design initiatives, and connect design to tangible business results. By the end of the session, participants will leave with actionable insights on how to make design a driving force within their organization, creating lasting impact and earning the respect of their peers.

Not every moment calls for a standard keynote. Some moments demand a sharper intervention.

In addition to his core topics, Phil regularly works directly with leadership teams, hosts, and producers to design bespoke talks and conversations—rooted in his experience leading change at scale, but shaped around the specific tension, transition, or inflection point an organization is facing. These sessions are designed as cultural provocations: grounded, credible, and intentionally disruptive in the best sense of the word.

Audiences vary in size from 30 to 30,000. Typical audiences include executive leadership teams, boards, transformation leadership teams, design and product organizations, technology leaders, and cross-functional teams navigating transformation at scale. Phil's work is particularly resonant with organizations confronting moments of change—AI adoption, cultural reinvention, post-merger integration, shifts in workplace strategy, or the need to move faster without losing trust.

Outcomes vary by audience, but the goal is consistent: inspire and educate using real world examples, show the power of earning buy-in over mandating compliance, and gaining momentum where change has stalled. Audiences leave with a shared language for what's really happening inside their organization, a sharper understanding of what needs to change next, and the confidence to act—together.