Duncan Wardle Featured Former Head of Innovation and Creativity at Disney

Poised to replace millions of jobs, it’s easy to view AI as the enemy. But what if instead we embraced Artificial Intelligence as the key to unlocking our true creative potential?

The future is here, and for the first time in history, it’s highly skilled labor at risk of losing jobs to robots. By some leading estimates, upwards of 40% of all current jobs could be replaced by AI within the next 15 years! But even with the uncertainty it brings, I do not believe AI should be treated as our enemy. In fact, it’s just the opposite.

We should embrace AI. Not as a tool to eliminate jobs, but as one to take over the tedious, repetitive parts of our work, freeing us up to leverage the skills that make us uniquely human: creativity, intuition, empathy, and imagination. The skills we were actually hired to use, but are so often restricted by unruly inboxes, excessive meetings, and repetitive reporting.

As Head of Innovation and Creativity at Disney for the last decade, my job was to uncover the untapped creative potential of our teams by embracing new technology as an opportunity, not a treat. Today, I use this experience to show CEOs across the world how to do the same, providing their organization with the tools needed to leverage their most important asset: their people.

As part of my Working in Harmony with AI presentation, I’ll show you how by leveraging AI to take over the mundane, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks hiding throughout your organization, you can to redirect your teams’ energy towards the skills that make them uniquely human. And as a result, give your company a massive competitive edge.

The ability to think creatively is the one core human truth that will remain relevant in the brave new world of Artificial Intelligence. Everyone has the power to be creative!

But wait, do you believe that you are not the “creative type”? That we should leave the creativity to the “Creatives”? For most, this has happened so many times that we end up actually believing it. For adults, not being creative is an accepted fate.

With an education and corporate structure that encourages finding the single “right answer” to every question, we are trained to fall in line, and shut down that creative portion of our brain.

But weren’t we kids once? Turning boxes into spaceships and pillows and blankets into forts and castles? What happened to that creativity?
Fortunately, that childhood creativity did not dissipate – it’s just lying dormant, waiting to be brought back to life!

During the Theory of Creativity™ Keynote, Duncan will share innovation tools developed from experience with thousands of global Fortune 500 companies and 30 years of experience with the Walt Disney Company, most recently as Head of Innovation & Creativity.

By the end, your audience will walk away with a series of unique Creative Behaviors and Innovation Tools to leverage their creative minds, deliver revolutionary thinking and drive substantial results in all areas of your business.

Keynote Takeaways:

The best brands in the world may have great products and service, but they thrive because of an unrelenting passion and focus on customer experience.

Through this engaging and interactive Keynote, Duncan will share how to transform your business from product-centric to customer-centric and reap the rewards that come when customers believe the work you do is truly magic.

Duncan will share with your team famous real-world examples from behind the scenes from his time as the Head of Innovation and Creativity at The Walt Disney Company.

Showcasing challenges brought on by direct and indirect competitors, Duncan will share real-life and timely examples of how ever-evolving organizations drastically changed consumer behaviors.

As he shares the exact steps Disney and other companies have taken to turn problems into massive opportunities, he will dig into the new revenue opportunities and enhanced customer experiences.

By the end of this interactive presentation, your audience will have developed a whole new understanding of customer experience, and you will be empowered with tools to reframe any challenges facing your organization, finding those unique opportunities to create some customer experience magic of your own!

Keynote Takeaways:

None of us are going back to “Business as Usual”, and the secret sauce to success lies in the culture you create at work.

But innovation is not something that happens by chance. It’s the result of building an environment in which it can thrive, and you have to give people a set of tools that you may use every day to grow.

Companies set on creating a culture of innovation will not only survive, but they will thrive! This goes far beyond having an “Innovation Department.” Now is the time to instill a culture of innovation among EVERY member of your team.

During Duncan’s time as the Head of Innovation for Disney, a company known for redefining pretty much every industry they touch Duncan’s decades of success weren’t merely a matter of luck or chance.

His results were a direct reflection of his ability to create a thriving, innovative culture, and to ensure that everyone on his teams were put in a position to let their inner creativity run wild.

In the Embedding Innovation into Everyone’s DNA Keynote speech, Duncan will share the exact steps and strategies used to create such an environment.

Participants will learn how to create safe spaces for taking creative risks, ensure everyone on your team is empowered and thinking like an entrepreneur, and transition from the ideation stage into action.

He’ll also share a creative problem-solving tool which will prime your organization to discover innovative ideas each and every time you set out to tackle a challenge.

Keynote Takeaways:

Duncan helps companies solve specific challenges, creating custom-designed consulting sessions that help organizations think different and develop game-changing ideas.

Did you know that Walt Disney developed the idea for Disneyland during a deliberate creative problem-solving exercise, where he was trying to find ways in which he could have more control over how guests experienced his films? Or that prolific inventor Thomas Edison, knowing that his best ideas came in his sleep, developed a method to deliberately wake himself immediately after dozing off, so that he could write down whatever ideas he had in his dazed state of mind?

Though creativity and innovation can feel very natural, they are most commonly the product of very specific situations and environments. And these environments are something you can absolutely be engineered to promote ideation in all individuals.

Innovation Consultant Duncan Wardle knows a thing or two about engineering innovation.

After spending 25 years in leadership roles at The Walt Disney Company – including time as their Head of Innovation and Creativity – Duncan has trained over 1 million individuals and organizations across the globe on how to create these cognitive environments where innovation thrives. Let Duncan teach you to develop a culture of creativity and empower everyone in your organization to leverage their full creative potential.

Have a unique challenge to solve? Duncan will custom-build a session utilizing iD8 Thinking Methods to help individuals and companies think different and develop game-changing ideas that are deeply embedded in consumer insights.

Once Duncan trains your team to step outside their own “River of Thinking” (their own expertise) and to use a series of Innovation Tools and Creative Behaviors to develop “Moonshot Thinking,” you will understand how to strategically and repeatedly create the best environment for innovation within your business.

The result? Your business develops a massive competitive advantage.
In this time of fast-paced disruption, the companies that succeed are the ones that can reinvent themselves and anticipate the changing needs of their customer. The ones that stay ahead of the curve, are consistently creatively solving problems, promoting ideation, and consistently innovating.

Through Duncan Wardle’s creative consulting services, your team will be given the tools, skills, and roadmap for driving successful innovation and problem solving for years to come.