Talks On Workplace Culture

Chris’ Keynotes emphasize his core mantra:

"Employees—of all generations—desire and deserve workplaces where they are respected and validated for their ideas, efforts, and contributions, every day.”

His presentations help leaders bring this vital concept to reality in their workplaces.

Audiences get inspired when Chris is their speaker. They get excited because Chris empowers them to roll up their sleeves and get to work on their culture immediately.

If you are looking for a “Vegas-style” flash-in-the-pan speaker, Chris is not for you.

But if you need a seasoned speaker to catalyze your culture improvement efforts -- empowering people to work together fluidly, joyfully, and productively despite their differences – Chris is the speaker you want and need.

Chris is recognized globally for his unique approach

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Chris’ most popular keynote topics include:

Today’s business leaders aren’t facing “The Great Resignation.” When millions of people quit en masse, that is nothing short of “A Quiet Revolution.” 

Like most revolutions, this one started simply enough. At first, employees were happy-ish. After all, our idea of work had not dramatically changed for several decades. The pandemic changed all that. For the first time, employees had a say in where, when, and how work got done. They enjoyed a level of freedom and autonomy never felt before; many finally found a sense of balance between work and life. 

Suddenly, for the 48 million US workers that voluntarily quit in 2021 alone, the “old normal” was no longer good enough.

This high-energy talk focuses on the tactical and practical—based on his bestselling book, Good Comes First with Mark Babbitt—shows today’s leaders how they can win the war for talent through the creation of an uncompromising company culture while simultaneously increasing any company’s bottom line.

We don’t have a so-called labor shortage. Instead, we have a respect shortage.

The data is clear: When it comes to today’s employee experience—and the retention of attraction of top talent—nothing means more to an employee than feeling respected. In fact, workplace respect is a better indicator of a quality employer than pay, perks, benefits, and training—combined. 

And what happens when people feel disrespected? When they grow tired of working unfulfilling jobs for lousy bosses within uninspiring company cultures? They walk. And they keep walking until they find a company where they systemically feel respected and validated for their ideas, efforts, and contributions—every day.

In this interactive discussion, Chris, co-author with Mark Babbitt of the bestseller Good Comes First, shows leaders a proven method for making respect as important as results. In fact, through the use of real-world examples and case studies, Chris demonstrates that in the post-pandemic workplace: Respect = Results.

For years, leaders have posted their organization's core values on the walls of their lobbies and in their conference rooms. And yet leaders rarely live up to those values. Even worse: As they choose to focus almost exclusively on driving results, far too many leaders ignore values and tolerate destructive behaviors. 

The natural consequence: Employees don’t live those values, either. The result: The stated company culture becomes a contradiction. 

This is why today’s best leaders are building accountability systems to make core values—and the human behaviors that demonstrate alignment to those values—countable.

In this insightful keynote, Chris proves that before leaders and team members can be held accountable for living a company’s core values and creating a respectful workplace, core values must become countable. Specifically, leaders must define values in observable, tangible, measurable, coachable, and changeable terms.

 

The net result: Leaders see across-the-board improvements of 30 to 40 percent in employee engagement, customer satisfaction, retention, productivity, and profits.

For decades, talented team members have tolerated old-school leaders who put results before respect and rationalize destructive, demeaning behaviors while chasing higher profits.

But as “The Great Resignation” and ill-fated attempts to return to the pre-pandemic “old normal” have has proven, those days are over. Today, as companies struggle to recover from the impact of COVID-19, employees are desire (and are proving they deserve) workplaces where they are respected and validated for their ideas, efforts, and contributions—every day.  

To retain and attract talented, engaged staff, leaders, from small business owners to Fortune 100 CEOs, must make the creation of a work culture where respect is as important as results their top priority. 

The challenge? We rarely ask leaders to change work cultures. And most leaders don’t know how. 

So in this interactive conversation, Chris provides the actionable inspiration needed to help leaders build a team of good people... doing good work... in a good company. We share the impact of an inspiring servant purpose and of respect-based workplace values and behaviors and drive optimal results while, at the same time, focusing on the doing of good.

In this era, mistrust, mistruths, and disrespect—not only in interactions with toxic bosses and toxic colleagues in the workplace but also in back-channel communications and on social and digital platforms—are rampant. So it has never been more critical for leaders to demonstrate respect as they earn the respect of their employees. 

Not in some insincere way; certainly not in the same way management has attempted to manipulate employee engagement over the past several decades. Instead, the goal for leaders today is to create a workplace where respect is contagious, validation is pervasive, and employees are treated with dignity while driving results.

In this presentation, designed to offer time for reflection and self-awareness, Chris shows that today’s most valued leaders are exceptional relationship builders, respectful collaborators and engaged mentors. Moreover, those same leaders consistently show employees they matter by demonstrating genuine care for both the work and the people doing the work. 

At the end of this discussion, leaders will know they must deliberately create a company culture where good comes first for employees, customers, and all stakeholders—and those players know they are trusted to do exceptional work.

Within 18 months of implementing Chris’s proven culture refinement process, clients have enjoyed:

40% gains in employee engagement

40% gains in customer service

35% gains in results and profits

After participating in one of Chris’ presentations, your audience will learn exactly why creating a work culture where respect is as important as results can boost retention, attraction, engagement, productivity, service, fun, and profits.
Even more, they’ll learn the foundational cornerstones of an uncompromising work culture, based on Chris’ best-selling book with Mark Babbitt, Good Comes First.

See Chris In Action

Upcoming Appearances

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View past speaking appearances...

Chris Edmonds is an engaging speaker who doesn't just talk about culture change - he's built a proven process for culture change! His stories and examples help his audience understand how to embed values and results in their businesses.

Hyrum Smith

Co-Founder, Franklin Covey

Chris Edmonds is a terrific storyteller and a powerful speaker. Chris clearly outlines how leaders can build purposeful, positive, productive work cultures - which every organization needs right now.

Ken Blanchard

Co-Author of the New One Minute Manager

Chris Edmonds does a phenomenal job inspiring audience members about the power of a purpose-driven, values-based company. His energy is infectious and will leave your audience wanting more.

Mark Deterding

CEO Triune Leadership Services

Chris is a riveting speaker! His engaging style and powerful content help leaders understand why making values as important as results is critical in business today. I've put Chris' ideas to work in my company already.

Scott Palat

CEO TutorFi

As a school district with a historically rich culture, it's easy to become content with the status quo. Chris' engaging keynote to our administrators outlined practical, actionable strategies that will ensure our district's culture is not just good, but premier.

Baron R. Davis

CEO Superintendent, Richland School District Two

Chris Edmonds helped our executive team craft an inspiring organizational constitution. His coaching helped us embed our servant purpose, values, and behaviors throughout our global organization. Within one year, our aligned culture led to increased business results, engagement, and service.

Ed Flowers

Former SVP & Chief People Officer of World Kitchen LLC

We brought Chris in to help us align our work culture across multi-national divisions and operations. The project was amazing and the outcome superb.

Carl Warschausky

Former CEO of World Kitchen LLC

I brought Chris in to help me create a positive and purposeful company culture where good consistently comes first-and respect is expected as much as results. Now, we're off and running. And we know we're going in the right direction.

Venus Williams

Tennis Champion, Entrepreneur

Mark and Chris are fantastic partners. They have experience working with a number of businesses (including non-profits) with a wide range of culture challenges. They are responsive and have a structured, customizable change process that we found to be very helpful when presenting their proposal to our board and our leadership team for consideration. We love their data-driven approach to a topic like culture that can seem so hard to measure.

Amber Jordan

COO, Desert Sage Health Centers

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Do you want to boost engagement by 40%?

Chris will show you how to better align your culture in a step-by-step process that has worked time and time again.

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