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Keynote Presentations

Your leaders get practical skills to improve human reliability & safety immediately, plus insights they'll apply for years to come.

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“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

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Popular Presentations

Each is available in-person or virtually, and is adjustable to 45-90 minutes as needed

1)  Seven Practical Steps to Build a Culture of Safety & Human Reliability

Description:

Unwanted errors and surprises in high-hazard industries can change lives, ruin careers, and capsize reputations overnight. Join us to learn seven practical steps used by: pilots, nurses, firefighters, paratroopers, and other high-reliability teams around the world: (1) Take a Learning-Based Approach. (2) Build Psychological Safety. (3) Lead After Action Reviews. (4) Transform Investigations. (5) Apply Defenses. (6) Improve Systems. (7) Build Resilience. Includes a two-page summary handout. To learn more, watch this quick 2-minute video -- https://vimeo.com/647808495

What you'll learn:

  1. Seven practical steps to take to build a culture of safety & reliability in your team

  2. The hidden trap that teams fall into when they rely solely on classic error-prevention tools.

  3. Three differences between the Control-Based approach to errors vs. the Learning-Based approach to errors

Ideal for:

  • Front-line and senior leaders in high-hazard industries

  • Specialists in HSE or Human Performance / HOP

  • Investigators / Event Analysts

Click above to watch the video clip

Click above to watch the video clip

2)  How to Build Trust and Expertise with After Action Reviews (AARs)

Description:

After Action Reviews (AARs) help save lives, build trust, and share priceless, unwritten human expertise. Safety-driven teams in the military, emergency fire & rescue services, and other high-hazard industries have used these psychologically safe, semi-structured, post job debriefs for over 40 years. Join us in this fast-paced session to learn how to lead AARs for your team. You'll get to DO a brief real-world After Action Review, too. Watch this video to learn more -- https://vimeo.com/481375946

What you'll learn:

  1. The four key questions of an After Action Review (AAR)

  2. The eight (8) common mistakes of leading AARs and how to avoid each one.

  3. Why AARs have been called, "one of the most successful organizational learning methods yet devised."

Ideal for:

  • Front-line and senior leaders in high-hazard industries

  • Specialists in HSE or Human Performance / HOP

  • Investigators / Event Analysts

Click above to watch the video clip

3) Three Practical Ways to Build Psychological Safety in Your Team

Description:

Many leaders believe that "accountability" will reduce errors. In reality, blaming people for errors strangles communication, erodes trust, and often creates more errors. What’s the alternative? Increase engagement, communication, and learning by building Psychological Safety. Join us in this fast-paced seminar to see the evidence, and discover three practical ways to build Psychological Safety in your team immediately. Handout included. Watch this quick, 60-second video -- https://vimeo.com/510000784

What you'll get:

  1. Five (5) common blame-based phrases to avoid and 5 Psychologically Safer phrases to use instead

  2. Four (4) specific questions you can ask that build Psychological Safety

  3. Practical tips on how to write an "Assurance Statement" you can use for the rest of your career

Ideal for:

  • Front-line and senior leaders in high-hazard industries

  • Specialists in HSE or Human Performance / HOP

  • Investigators / Event Analysts

Click above to watch the video clip

4) Why We Can't Proceduralize Everything:
And a Practical Alternative

Description:

Unwanted errors & surprises are serious threats to reliability in any high-hazard industry. To address them, many leaders apply a mechanistic approach. They write detailed procedures and enforce strict compliance. But a more adaptive approach is needed for complex, dynamic human-based systems. Join us in this presentation to see the evidence and get practical skills. Handout included. Watch this quick one-minute video to learn more -- https://vimeo.com/518426687.

What you'll get:

  1. Five key differences between Mechanistic and Adaptive Systems

  2. Why we can't "Proceduralize" everything in Adaptive Systems

  3. Three practical strategies for increasing safety & human reliability in complex, adaptive systems.

Ideal for:

  • Front-line and senior leaders in high-hazard industries

  • Specialists in HSE or Human Performance / HOP

  • Investigators / Event Analysts

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5) Scan & Focus: a Practical Way to Improve Situational Awareness

Description:

"Why didn't we see it?" "How could we have missed it?"

"It was right in front of us!" Situational Awareness is essential to smooth, safe, reliable operations in high-hazard workplaces like yours. But what is it? How does it work? How can we improve it?

In this workshop, you'll learn how to use a practical technique called "Scan & Focus" to improve your team's Situational Awareness. See this article to learn more -- https://www.reliableorg.com/post/how-technical-teams-can-scan-focus-to-improve-situational-awareness.

What you'll get:

  1. The hidden drawbacks of the three traditional models of Situational Awareness

  2. How to apply the Scan & Focus technique in your team

  3. Real-world examples of how military units, Paramedics, Construction teams and others apply Scan & Focus

Ideal for:

  • Front-line and senior leaders in high-hazard industries

  • Specialists in HSE or Human Performance / HOP

  • Investigators / Event Analysts

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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.

Finding the right speaker on Safety and Human Reliability is tough

Your audience is depending on you.

They are technical experts and leaders. They work in electric utilities laboratories, or other high-hazard industries.

They want new ideas on how to improve safety and human reliability from an expert who can communicate, engage, and even inspire them.

But there's a problem...

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Some speakers tell good stories, but give you no real evidence or practical take-aways.

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Other speakers give you a sales pitch or an infomercial instead of real content.

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And some speakers offer theories so abstract and complex that your audience winds up scratching their heads in confusion.

If you've felt frustrated, embarrassed and angry after keynotes like these, you're not alone.
I deliver keynotes very differently.

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“Jake led a workshop at an exclusive invitation-only retreat that I run called the Satoshi Roundtable, which is a gathering of top blockchain CEOs and developers.

Jake’s presentation was perhaps the most well received among an audience with very high standards.”


Bruce Fenton, Managing Director at Chainstone Labs

Years of insights in an hour's time
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Useful Content
Your people are busy. So, I summarize hundreds of pages of research saving you years of time. Your people get practical content they can apply immediately.

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Real-World Examples
Stories stick. So I share brief success stories and cautionary tales about pilots, surgeons, wildlands firefighters, soldiers, scientists, electric system operators, engineers, and their leaders.

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No Marketing
I briefly describe my company and services when I take questions at the end. That's it.

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“Jake is an expert in human performance and an even better presenter.

Our event attendees gave him extremely strong feedback on the webinar he did for us... We would highly recommend working with him.” ​


Matt Barbour, Manager of Communications & Training, Texas Reliability Entity, Inc

Finding Your Next Keynote Should be Easier
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Schedule a Call
We discuss your goals and timeline, and you get helpful resources immediately.

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Pick the Presentation

We choose the presentation that will energize and educate your audience.

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See the Results

Your leaders get practical strategies to improve reliability and safety fast.

Get a free PDF of "Seven Steps to Build a Culture of Safety & Human Reliability"
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