Keynotes

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Fewer Errors

Safer Operations

More Trust

Concise. Practical. Engaging.

I'm not a motivational speaker or a "one trick pony."

I'm an expert on workplace errors who loves leading fast-paced, interactive, practical keynotes for groups like yours.

I show your audience how pilots, firefighters, paratroopers, and other high-reliability experts manage the risk of errors, and how you can do the same.

Explore my five (5) most popular keynotes below.

Watch a 3-minute demo video

From my initial reach out to learn more about his topical sessions to the follow through of our event, I have nothing but good things to say about my interactions with Jake.

He was professional and organized, prompt with his communication and deliverables and engaged my audience in an intentional and thought provoking way.

He made my job easy AND our audience really enjoyed his sessions.

That's what we call a win.

Molly Nolan

Marketing & Program Manager at Nolan Consulting Group, Inc.

See 200+ people react to
one of my presentations

Watch a 5-minute
keynote opening video

"We got more practical ideas from Jake than from any other keynote we can remember.

After dinner, we talked about Jake's presentation for more than TWO HOURS!

That led to REAL change when we returned to the plant."

Maintenance & Reliability Leader at the Xcelerate 2019 conference

keynotes

Five popular keynotes to choose from

Seven Practical Steps
to Build Reliability, Safety and Trust
in Technical Teams

Description:

Why can't we eliminate errors?
Why don't employees follow $&#^% procedures?
How do the safest and most reliable teams in the world build reliability, safety and trust at the same time?

In this fast-paced, interactive keynote, you'll get real world answers. And you'll learn how to apply these seven steps successfully used by: pilots, paratroopers, wildlands firefighters, and other high-reliability teams across the globe:

Take a Learning-Based Approach
Build Psychological Safety
Lead After Action Reviews
Transform Investigations
Apply Classic Defenses
Improve Systems
Build Resilience

Objectives:

Summarize the 7 core steps and the principle for each one
Show 3+ specific examples of measurable, real-world results from companies who used the Learning Based approach
Identify one simple way you can apply each of the seven steps with your team immediately

Watch 90-second intro video

Click to see client evaluations from:

Download Catalog & see p.6

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How to Build Trust & Expertise
With After Action Reviews (AARs)

Description:

When I was a 19 year old firefighter, something happened that changed my life forever. I experienced my first After Action Review (AAR).

Safety-driven teams in the military, emergency fire & rescue services, and other high-hazard industries have used these non-punitive, semi-structured, post job debriefs for over 40 years.

They help save lives, build trust, and share priceless, unwritten expertise. Research shows that they can increase team effectiveness by up to 25%.

In this fast-paced keynote, your audience will learn how to lead effective AARs and will actually DO a brief, real-world AAR during the presentation!

Objectives:

Ask the five key questions to lead an After Action Review (AAR)
Avoid the single worst mistake that kills most AARs
Apply six (6) best practices distilled from 20+ years of experience

Schedule a Call

Download Catalog & see p.8

Watch 45-second intro video

Click to see client evaluations from:

Watch the AAR exercise I get my audiences to do

The biggest mistake I used to make when leading AARs

Watch an uncut 5-minute keynote opening on AARs

Four Practical Ways to Build
Psychological Safety in Your Team

Description:

Many leaders believe that "holding people accountable" will reduce errors.

In reality, blaming workers for errors often strangles communication, destroys trust, and creates more errors. So, what’s the alternative?

Increase engagement, communication, and learning by building Psychological Safety. In this fast-paced keynote, you’ll learn what Psychological Safety is, and will discover four practical ways to build it in your team immediately.

Objectives:

Avoid five (5) common blame-based phrases to avoid and 5 Psychologically Safer phrases to use instead
Ask four (4) specific questions to ask to build Psychological Safety
Write an "Assurance Statement" that you can use for the rest of your career

Download Catalog & see p.10

Watch 60-second intro video

Click to see client evaluations from:

Schedule a Call

Practical Decision Making:
Four Layers from Novice to Expert

Description:

Why don’t people follow &$%*# procedures?
How do experts make decisions differently than novices?
How can I improve my own decision making quickly?

In this fast-paced keynote chock full of real-world examples, you’ll discover how to apply these four decision making layers used by everyone from novice trainees to veteran experts in high-hazard industries across the globe:

Explicit Procedures
General Guidelines / Rules-of-Thumb
Universal Principles
Tacit Skill

Objectives:

Explain the four decision making layers with concrete, real-world examples from your industry
Show why experts on complex jobs usually can't follow work procedures exactly, and what they do instead that's more effective
Apply the four layers to improve real-world decision making in yourself and your teams

Click to see client evaluations from:

Watch 75-second intro video

Watch audience reaction

Download Catalog & see p.11

Schedule a Call

How to Lead Event Reviews
For Error-Based Incidents

Description:

An incident happened. Miscommunication, misunderstanding, and other complex errors were involved. How do you learn from it to prevent similar events in the future?

Simple techniques like the "Five Whys" often fix the blame, but don't fix the problem.
Root Cause Analyses (RCAs) are often too complex and expensive.
Learning Teams are popular, but have some unique drawbacks, too.

In this keynote, you’ll get a practical alternative: Event Reviews. You’ll see plenty of real-world examples -- some funny, some dramatic. And you’ll see how to apply the Event Review process to incidents in your industry.

Objectives:

Apply the six (6) core steps of an Event Review to a real incident
Ask six (6) core questions to understand each anomaly you find
Distill 20-40 ideas down to the 3-7 highest-value, lowest-cost, lowest-risk process improvements that you can apply immediately

Watch 2-minute intro video

Click to see evaluations from:

Read 4-page article

See 2-minute summary

Watch audience reaction

Download Catalog & see pp.12-13

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"We engaged Jake as a keynote speaker for our company-wide safety conference. 

Our leaders, from field foreman through executives, were unanimously impressed.

Since Jake’s presentation, our project managers and field foreman have told me that they are starting to experiment with many of the practical ideas that Jake taught us."

Fred Barlow, Vice President & Chief Safety Officer, Reliance Electric, Inc.

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Download Catalog

"We have brought in many speakers over the years to address HOP, Psychological Safety, and serious and fatal injury prevention.

Jake's style and delivery stand out. Not only does he deliver great content, but he is very engaging and uses technology and audience interaction to keep the audience's attention from beginning to end.

And perhaps most importantly, he provides practical and actionable information that the audience can take and use immediately."

Lisa Brooks, Director

North America NSC Networks