Unlock Innovation.Empower Teams.Drive Change.
Keynotes and workshops for executives, boards, and teams, built so the change sticks long after the room clears.
The instincts that keep us safe are the same ones that hold us back.
Habit, fear, and ego get us through the day. But when it comes to innovation, growth, and change, they’re the enemy.
Habit
We default to the way it’s always been done, because it’s easier than asking if there’s a better way.
Fear
Speaking up feels riskier than staying quiet, so the best ideas never make it into the room.
Ego
Leaders feel they have to have every answer, so the questions that matter never get asked.
Curiosity is how we break through.
Curiosity is the spark that helps us look beyond our current situations and limitations. Jon’s framework turns it into three shifts: how leaders think, how the work gets done, and how teams connect. Change only one and it fades. Change all three and it sticks.
Unlock Innovation
Leaders trade certainty for curiosity, so better ideas finally have room to surface.
- Fresh solutions to problems that have been stuck for years
- More ideas, from more of your people
Drive Change
Curiosity becomes how problems get solved and possibilities get explored, not just a nice idea.
- Faster, better-aligned decisions
- Change that’s built into the work, not bolted on
Empower Teams
Build the psychological safety where people speak up, and the leader speaks last.
- Teams that bring problems and solutions forward
- Leaders who stop carrying every answer
Bring these ideas to life.
Three ways to bring it into your organization: on the main stage, in the room with your team, and one-on-one with your leaders.
Forge a new direction.
From 90 minutes to a full day, in your conference room or off-site, built around the challenges your team is actually facing.
- Alignment on the problems that matter most
- A team that speaks up instead of waiting
- A practical action plan for every participant
A room that leaves thinking differently.
Story-driven talks with practical takeaways, built for your audience and your event.
- Tools they can use on Monday
- A new way to approach problems and possibilities
- Energy that turns into action
Then we keep going.
Coaching that takes leaders and teams through the three shifts, so the change from the workshop becomes how they lead: 1:1, with the team, or both.
What organizers say
“Jon is a best-selling author, the author of The Curious Leader, which is what we’re literally doing our entire conference on.”
“It was phenomenal. Jon brought our chapter leaders together with our general attendees, and they loved asking a question with a question.”
Not just applause. Habits.
Takeaways attendees wrote in their own words after Jon’s session at the Great Game of Business Conference.
“I am inspired beyond being inspired. I sit in a lot of development conferences and leadership trainings.”
“It was a mic-drop moment… from burnout to breakthrough.”
“Humor, relatability, and real-life scenarios that grip your attention.”
The best leaders don’t have all the answers. They create the room for better ones.
Jon Bassford spent two decades running and fixing organizations as a VP of Operations and COO, from venture-backed startups to global nonprofits. In every room he saw the same thing: the teams that thrived were the curious ones. Today he helps leaders build that culture through keynotes, workshops, and coaching.
He’s a TEDx speaker, the author of The Curious Leader, and holds a JD, an MBA, and the CAE.
Let’s plan something that lasts.
Tell Jon about your group, your event, and what you want to be different afterward.