Wondrously heretical keynotes to inspire meaningful progress

Nothing comes close to the catalysing effect of a well-crafted event. To take the savviest people within an field and immerse them within a compelling context to explore new ideas and better ways of working—at depth—is a kind of magic.

My work often begins at such affairs. I overthink “the future of leadership, motivation and work”. That is: how to best coordinate meaningful progress towards complex goals in emerging contexts. Thus, when manifesting at events, I bring the freshest distillation of insight—packaged into relevant, timely and apt keynote presentations to inspire your audience to venture beyond the default.

Dr. Fox is an introverted wizard-philosopher who works particularly well with smart and sceptical audiences who’ve “seen it all before”. (~˘▾˘)~

Crowned as Australia’s Keynote Speaker of the Year, Dr. Fox is amongst the Professional Speakers Hall of Fame.

Learn more about Dr. Fox and hear what his many happy clients say. ❤︎

Keynote Themes

The following ‘themes’ are approaches that I have honed in relation to the typical cognitive and energetic flow of events—a starting point for our exploration. As an independent researcher and rogue scholar I am constantly abreast of emerging trends (and how they interrelate).

Ultimately, I work in service to the intent you have for your event. That is: what you want your audience to think, feel and do differently as the result of your gathering. We can finesse particulars via a deep and thorough briefing call.

Keynote presentations are insightful, warm, crisp and compelling—most apt for large audiences or ‘high stakes’ affairs. They range from 30–90 minutes in duration. More time allows for greater interaction and deeper Q&A. I am equally deft in both corporeal and virtual realms.

#1 // A Quest Beckons🏮

BEYOND THE DEFAULT. The opening session of any event is the most critical, as it sets the trajectory and tone for the whole affair. Getting this right is paramount—lest we see folk remain ensnared in operational matters. The last thing we want is for people to remain sitting in isolated silos with arms folded, all stiff in their professional armour, stealth-checking their email.

This keynote is honed to open events. Even the most sceptical participants will find themselves open and enthusiastically engaged; warmed to the opportunity at hand.

  • Defaults—established ways of doing things—are an important element of any enterprise. We need them. They save us a heap of time, and make us much more efficient. But lo! Most organisations have now become Cursed with Efficiency. We’re all so busy, and so we seek quick fixes and familiar solutions that tick the right boxes and save us time, without realising we may be venturing closer toward irrelevance. Artificial Intelligence won’t save you. To stay relevant, we must know when (and how) to disrupt default thinking, so that we may pioneer new ways—beyond the default.

Have your audience warmed, willing, ready and able to venture beyond the default.

PERFECT FOR:
Any teams and industries seeking to lift their gaze beyond the immediate, so as to contemplate and engage in mythic-level progress. Ideal as an opening keynote (or early into your event).

“Wow. What can I say? Jason Fox. Given the immense pace of change we face as a business in the world today, I wanted a senior leadership forum that would challenge complacent, hum-drum, default thinking. I wanted us to venture beyond the default—and Jason Fox leading our quest worked a treat. Jason is thoughtful, challenging, motivating, funny, always entertaining, and incredibly insightful. He seemed to ‘get’ Arup quickly and won the crowd over within minutes. He was just what we were looking for. Jason has the ability to just knock you over with undeniable home truths; incredibly, right there in the moment, and with a laugh. Not just in a challenging keynote, but by linking together new learning across all sessions. His impact in the room was tangible, and any default thinking that emerged was quickly exposed! The feedback on Jason was overwhelmingly positive and I felt strongly that we had moved our senior leadership forward a long way at our best forum ever. Thanks Jason!” Peter Bailey CEO & Chair ARUP Australasia

“Wow. What can I say? Jason Fox. Given the immense pace of change we face as a business in the world today, I wanted a senior leadership forum that would challenge complacent, hum-drum, default thinking. I wanted us to venture beyond the default—and Jason Fox leading our quest worked a treat. Jason is thoughtful, challenging, motivating, funny, always entertaining, and incredibly insightful. He seemed to ‘get’ Arup quickly and won the crowd over within minutes. He was just what we were looking for. Jason has the ability to just knock you over with undeniable home truths; incredibly, right there in the moment, and with a laugh. Not just in a challenging keynote, but by linking together new learning across all sessions. His impact in the room was tangible, and any default thinking that emerged was quickly exposed! The feedback on Jason was overwhelmingly positive and I felt strongly that we had moved our senior leadership forward a long way at our best forum ever. Thanks Jason!” Peter Bailey CEO & Chair ARUP Australasia

#2 // Into the Storm ⛈️

LEADING INTO THE UNPRECEDENTED. It’s common practice to hire a futurist who can string together cherry-picked success stories that demonstrate how “Everything Is Fine” and “Technology is Amazing—look!”. Such contributions are entertaining distractions that often feel good (because: the future is bright, carry on!)—but perhaps your leaders are mature enough to confront the reality at hand.

Because our current trajectory is cyberpunk and not great. We stand amidst the confluence of intersecting trends, to the backdrop of a meta-crisis (replete with societal and ecological collapse). Something fundamental has got to change. We need creative and subversive leadership, more than ever. Your event can be a catalyst for this.

  • Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, paradox and doubt—this is the storm within which we must lead. This is not the time to batten down the hatches, and hunker into the familiar. To survive, we need to adapt. But to thrive, we need to pioneer—deeper, into the storm. And in this session, we do just that—unpacking the bigger, darker and more philosophically confronting conversations at the nexus of intersecting trends. Such change behooves a refreshed leadership philosophy, enterprise strategy and culture. One that’s fit for the storm, and a world less predictable.

Give your leaders the intellectual spanking they deserve—and have them awaken and rise to the real leadership challenges at hand.

PERFECT FOR:
Established and emerging leaders willing to confront reality and rise to the complex challenges of our times.

Note: grim as this keynote sounds, the vibe is pragmatic, warm and upbeat. This is our chance to have the conversations we otherwise avoid or don’t have time for.

“Once every 2 years we run a very important event that brings together our most senior leaders from 23 different countries. These guys are all very switched on, and have seen a lot of the conventional ‘change leadership’ stuff before—but Jason provided something that was incredibly fresh, clever and practical. This provoked new thinking, and stimulated very constructive discussions amongst our leaders. Jason contributed greatly to the success of our event.” Steve Wilson Director of Talent Pepsico

“Once every 2 years we run a very important event that brings together our most senior leaders from 23 different countries. These guys are all very switched on, and have seen a lot of the conventional ‘change leadership’ stuff before—but Jason provided something that was incredibly fresh, clever and practical. This provoked new thinking, and stimulated very constructive discussions amongst our leaders. Jason contributed greatly to the success of our event.” Steve Wilson Director of Talent Pepsico

#3 // Make Clever Happen ✨

UNLOCK MEANINGFUL PROGRESS. The closing keynote provides the resonant ‘end note’ that folks will remember, long into the future. This is not the time for a dry technical session; nor is it a time to hear from a speaker’s personal story of success. Instead: this is the time in which you want your audience to mindfully translate and distill the inklings, hunches, realisations, connections and insights generated by your event into the actions conducive to meaningful progress. As an award winning keynote speaker and a wizard with a PhD in motivation science—I can make this happen, ensuring your event is a resounding success.

  • Achieving clear goals or improving on existing performance is relatively easy—it’s when your goals are complex and/or nuanced that things get challenging. Especially if they require you to navigate unprecedented work through uncharted domains towards an uncertain future. Most of these notions will fail to manifest in reality. Why? Because we’re up against busyness and distraction, default thinking and the status-quo. Your fledging ideas have no chance.

    Until now! Huzzah. Tremble, world! For in this session, you’ll be equipped with the wit, skills and savvy to translate your inspired, intuitive reckoning into real and tangible progress.

The true measure of the impact of your event is not just in how people feel in the moment—it’s in the meaningful progress it inspires in the weeks, months and years that follow.

PERFECT FOR:
Any event where you hope to bring about a meaningful change in how people think and work together. This warm, engaging, upbeat and interactive keynote is the ideal way to close your event.

“We made two great decisions when we were choosing keynote speakers for our annual Australasian Research Administrators Association Conference this year. The first was to have Jason Fox open the conference, and the second was for him to close it! Jason’s relevant, engaging, and (occasionally) irreverent presentation incorporated pop culture, motivation science, mixed media and had our delegates engaged and keen to hear more from the outset. Most importantly, his closing keynote provided a visual summary of key ideas from our meeting, and his illustrations continue to be a memorable and humorous keepsake for delegates well after the event. Jason offered our delegates unique insights into our profession, a mirror to assess our motivations, tools for reflection on our professional practices, and easy strategies for making things happen after the event … not to mention being seriously funny. Highly recommended for conference organisers who want to keep delegates engaged and finish their event with a hilarious bang!” Karen Burke Conference Convenor Australasian Research Administrators Association

“We made two great decisions when we were choosing keynote speakers for our annual Australasian Research Administrators Association Conference this year. The first was to have Jason Fox open the conference, and the second was for him to close it! Jason’s relevant, engaging, and (occasionally) irreverent presentation incorporated pop culture, motivation science, mixed media and had our delegates engaged and keen to hear more from the outset. Most importantly, his closing keynote provided a visual summary of key ideas from our meeting, and his illustrations continue to be a memorable and humorous keepsake for delegates well after the event. Jason offered our delegates unique insights into our profession, a mirror to assess our motivations, tools for reflection on our professional practices, and easy strategies for making things happen after the event … not to mention being seriously funny. Highly recommended for conference organisers who want to keep delegates engaged and finish their event with a hilarious bang!” Karen Burke Conference Convenor Australasian Research Administrators Association

#4 // Artificially Intelligent 👹

KEEP YOUR WITS AMIDST EXPONENTIAL CHANGE. The default narrative for artificial intelligence is that it is amazingly powerful and can do many creative things, but it will never replace ‘being human’. And that, whilst it can be used for ‘evil’—it can also be used to achieve great ‘good’. Such nothing-statements have some face-validity to them, but the underlying message is palliative—and misses the point entirely.

AI is one of the greatest exponential enablers in the history of humanity. But in the context of our already-flawed systems, the question is: what will it enable? Will AI be our saviour—or will Moloch (the god of coordination failure) see to it that AI accelerates our demise?

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers humanity countless boons, and beckons a whole new paradigm of work. We are now all obligated to explore, experiment and utilise AI—to maximum effect. Those who don’t will fall behind—the rivalrous dynamics of the market will see to it. Yet! Whilst AI is magical, we must ward ourselves against falling completely under its spell. With great power comes myriad new risks—do we have the wit to wield AI with wisdom?

Be smarter, wiser and savvier about AI—beyond naïveté and hype.

PERFECT FOR:
Clever folk seeking thoughtful provocations beyond the spellbinding awe of what AI can and will do. This keynote explores the relationships between emerging factors and trends, so that you can chart a wiser path amidst it all.

“Jason set the summit alight with his keynote. He is a wise oracle, taking delegates on a journey exploring different pathways to the future. He blends powerful insights with a unique delivery style and razor sharp wit so that his conclusions are memorable and resonate long after the event ends. REMIX Summits are fortunate enough to collaborate with some of the most talented people on the planet and for me Jason is right up there with any of them for me.” Peter Tullin Co-Founder REMIX Summits

“Jason set the summit alight with his keynote. He is a wise oracle, taking delegates on a journey exploring different pathways to the future. He blends powerful insights with a unique delivery style and razor sharp wit so that his conclusions are memorable and resonate long after the event ends. REMIX Summits are fortunate enough to collaborate with some of the most talented people on the planet and for me Jason is right up there with any of them for me.” Peter Tullin Co-Founder REMIX Summits

#5 // Change The Game 🪄

SHIFT BEHAVIOUR, SHAPE CULTURE. Fluff and fist-pumping rah-rah can be quite stirring. Rousing, even. But the longevity and actual impact of motivational presentations—once we return to work—is often questionable.

Smart people require more than just a motivational pep talk. If you want your people to be the champions of your enterprise culture—and demonstrating the behaviours most aligned to your strategy—then they ought understand the science behind what drives collective motivation.

In this keynote, we unpack the elements of gameful design—including the most effective levers your leaders can use to influence collective behaviour and culture.

  • How do you motivate people to do great work? Old-school approaches might have you set forth a crystal clear vision, with incentivised targets. This may fine for operational work with predictable outcomes—but it’s terrible for any work that involves curiosity, empathy and wit. Besides—it’s not always feasible to rely upon extrinsic motivators. Nor should we default to hokey motivational clichés. We can do better—and so, we shall! In this practical session, you’ll learn how to use motivation science and game design to unlock the motivation inherent to the work itself.

People don’t play games to avoid work—they play games to engage in well-designed work.

PERFECT FOR:
Leaders and managers looking for ways to keep their teams meaningfully engaged—without having to resort to carrots or any manipulative tricks. Also: anyone who seeks to understand the dark patterns that influence our motivation and behaviour (so that we might use such powers for good).

“So how to kickstart day three of a jam-packed conference and keep the energy flowing? Inject a dose of the urbane Melbourne oracle, Jason Fox. Our event bought together more than 900 delegates from across the Australasian higher education sector. We wanted to showcase the best of Melbourne’s creative culture whilst ensuring delegates were challenged by some of the world’s best critical thinking. Enter Jason Fox—stage left. Jason took our delegates on a magical mystery tour of motivation design; whimsical, erudite and illuminating. He truly connected with the audience with a palpable buzz within the venue. Many of our delegates told us that this was their game changer, the session that made them want to break out the ways that they had been working and to try new things.” Mary-Louise Huppatz Manager of Strategy & Planning The University of Melbourne

“So how to kickstart day three of a jam-packed conference and keep the energy flowing? Inject a dose of the urbane Melbourne oracle, Jason Fox. Our event bought together more than 900 delegates from across the Australasian higher education sector. We wanted to showcase the best of Melbourne’s creative culture whilst ensuring delegates were challenged by some of the world’s best critical thinking. Enter Jason Fox—stage left. Jason took our delegates on a magical mystery tour of motivation design; whimsical, erudite and illuminating. He truly connected with the audience with a palpable buzz within the venue. Many of our delegates told us that this was their game changer, the session that made them want to break out the ways that they had been working and to try new things.” Mary-Louise Huppatz Manager of Strategy & Planning The University of Melbourne

#6 // The “Future of Leadership” 🔮

WHAT IS LEADERSHIP ANYWAY? One might think of ‘leadership’ as the sensibilities apt for the efficacious coordination of efforts at higher orders of complexity amidst emerging contexts. Thus the question is: what is emerging? And how might we develop our leaders so as to be most relevant and apt into the future?

I have been an advisor to many leadership teams on such matters, and have co-created (and contributed to) many leadership development programs to this effect. The “future of leadership”—in complex contexts—is decentralised, developmental, fluid, post-authentic, oscillatory, and (often) asynchronous. Which, I know, is quite different to the notions of leadership that the pre-internet age groomed us for. That’s the point.

  • The poet T. S. Eliot observed that “Nothing pleases people more than to go on thinking what they have always thought, and at the same time imagine that they are thinking something new and daring: it combines the advantage of security and the delight of adventure.” This seems apt to much of the conversations about ‘leadership’ today. If you tire of the pantomime of trite aphorisms and recycled clichés—this keynote will inspire you to rethink what leadership really means.

‘Leadership’ has long become a cringe topic—yet worlds of new sensibilities await those who seek to coordinate efforts amidst complexity at scale.

PERFECT FOR:
Those who sense that the world is genuinely changing, and that the skills and sensibilities required for effective coordination amidst complexity are different from those we have become accustomed to. Also perfect as an ‘out-of-left-field’ firestarter for any conventional leadership event.

“For nearly 10 years I have had the privilege of working with a great leadership team. My people are incredibly astute, analytical, sceptical and busy—such is the nature of our industry (medical devices). At our annual strategic offsite this year, I wanted to bring in a new perspective, and to participate with the team, rather than lead the workshop. After much searching, we decided to hire Dr Jason Fox to facilitate our leadership offsite. Why? Because our time is precious, and my team don’t suffer fools lightly. From the get go Jason was a joy to work with. He took the time to understand us, without making big assumptions or trying to box us in to a standard program. You can tell he knows his stuff—he was able to hold the space and facilitate a lively, rigorous yet organic conversation exploring whole new domains and encounter possibilities we had never before considered. We were immersed in deeper thinking and conver- sation—beyond operational matters, and beyond our own defaults. The experience enriched us as a team and provoked our curiosity, starting many new experiments within in our business. Five months on, we have demonstrated new and meaningful progress with those experiments born of our conversations with Jason. The team is still buzzing from the momentum generated, and as a leader it feels great to see them (and myself ) so energised. If you lead clever people and you want to pioneer, work with Dr Jason Fox.” Chris Cowley Managing Director Varian Medical Systems

“For nearly 10 years I have had the privilege of working with a great leadership team. My people are incredibly astute, analytical, sceptical and busy—such is the nature of our industry (medical devices). At our annual strategic offsite this year, I wanted to bring in a new perspective, and to participate with the team, rather than lead the workshop. After much searching, we decided to hire Dr Jason Fox to facilitate our leadership offsite. Why? Because our time is precious, and my team don’t suffer fools lightly. From the get go Jason was a joy to work with. He took the time to understand us, without making big assumptions or trying to box us in to a standard program. You can tell he knows his stuff—he was able to hold the space and facilitate a lively, rigorous yet organic conversation exploring whole new domains and encounter possibilities we had never before considered. We were immersed in deeper thinking and conver- sation—beyond operational matters, and beyond our own defaults. The experience enriched us as a team and provoked our curiosity, starting many new experiments within in our business. Five months on, we have demonstrated new and meaningful progress with those experiments born of our conversations with Jason. The team is still buzzing from the momentum generated, and as a leader it feels great to see them (and myself ) so energised. If you lead clever people and you want to pioneer, work with Dr Jason Fox.” Chris Cowley Managing Director Varian Medical Systems

#7 // The Ritual of Becoming 🎭

WHO ARE YOU TO BECOME? So: you were taught to ‘dream big’, ‘set goals’ and ‘believe in yourself’. Quaint. But maybe you’ve outgrown this? Dreams are nice—but they can become tyrannical narratives. Goals are fine—but they only work in predictable domains. Self-belief is tricky—for it’s a paradox. All of this is made harder by social media, where even vulnerability is performative.

This keynote offers a ‘post-authentic’ guide to cultivating your own development as an adult. If you find yourself jaded with the otherwise masculine bent of motivational speakers come to ‘optimise’ your life—you will love this session.

Drawing upon motivation science, adult development and mythopoetic sensibilities, you will find your way to new motivation and meaning in life.

  • In this very unconventional motivational session, you’ll learn how to tend to and cultivate your own development and unfurling—shaping the next chapter of what is to come. If you are searching for new motivation, meaning, enchantment or direction in life—if you seek to develop and grow as a person—this session is for you. It works—even if you are a deeply sceptical person who leads a complex life. Perhaps; especially so.

“We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.”—Bast, from The Name of The Wind

PERFECT FOR:
Events—particularly off-sites and retreats—where you want to people to genuinely bring out the best in themselves. Not towards some arbitrary ‘goal’, but for their own development and unfurling. This is a profound kind of magic.

“Jason Fox was nothing short of sensational! He scored a 100% 5-star rating from our audience (of over 1,000) who not only loved his unique and humorous style but also the calibre of his message. Jason went to great lengths prior to the event to understand the audience, the theme and how he could link to the speaker immediately following him. Hat tips and gratitudes Jason!” Jo Vohland General Manager & Curator ATC Events & Media

“Jason Fox was nothing short of sensational! He scored a 100% 5-star rating from our audience (of over 1,000) who not only loved his unique and humorous style but also the calibre of his message. Jason went to great lengths prior to the event to understand the audience, the theme and how he could link to the speaker immediately following him. Hat tips and gratitudes Jason!” Jo Vohland General Manager & Curator ATC Events & Media

Fireside Conversations 🔥

Sometimes our events allow for more intimate contexts, wherein we can explore the questions that are alive in us, and pursue insight beyond the edge of knowledge.

My firesides often take the form of a short and thoughtful provocation followed by a generous bias towards emergent conversation and Q&A. As for content, I am often asked to share my thoughts on a wide array of topics—though I primarily offer insight from the following domains:

  • Quest leadership – strategic innovation, the ‘future of leadership’,

  • Motivation design – psychological safety, values, focused and deep work, gamification, dark patterns, habits/rituals/rhythms

  • New philosophies – metamodernism, emergentism, adult development, cognitive complexity, cultural code, the many hues of solarpunk, trickster bricolage

  • The metacrisis – systems collapse, climate change, multipolar traps, attractor-basins, deep adaptation, post-growth/post-hope/post-doom sensibilities (fun!), dancing with Moloch (the god of coordination failure)

  • Decentralised coordination – blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, DAOs, web3, NFTs, incentive structures, lorecraft and the future of work

  • Complex adaptive systems – self-organising, sense-making, negative capability, void hunting, memetics, hyperobjects, coordination protocols

There are many ways in which we can go about this. In the past, I have:

  • engaged in deep on-stage podcast interviews with key leaders

  • deftly facilitated emergent mini-workshops on thorny topics

  • hosted conspiratorial luncheons and dinners

  • weaved coffee and whisky tastings into intellectual speakeasy salons

  • facilitated incredibly frank panel sessions with captains of industry

Fireside conversations are by their nature emergent and thus only appropriate for folks willing to hold space for generative ambiguity. In many ways, this makes them the most alive part of an event experience. Rather than polished and predictably performative presentations, we instead get the kind of event experience where you had to be there.

The mystic and conceptual artist James Lee Byars once said:

“To arrive at the edge of the world’s knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves.”

This is where epiphanies are realised. I live for these kinds of events.

Fireside conversations are deep, warm and emergent—perfect for leadership off-sites, , boardroom briefings, intimate gatherings, on-stage podcasts, virtual events, panel discussions, unhurried Q&A, and more.

Booking Dr. Fox

If you suspect we might have cause to make some magic together, please email my partner and business manager kim@drjasonfox.com and let’s see what we can conjure. ❤︎

Or—if you prefer—feel free to use this contact form.

The Museletter of Dr. Fox ·*:･ﾟ✧

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