Adam Fraser

Let’s face it, life is getting faster and faster and shows no signs of slowing down. Business is more competitive now than any other time inhistory. Companies and individuals now more than ever need to out create, out innovate and out market their competition. The result of this is a workforce that is having serious issues around sustaining high performance. 83 percent of employees are indifferent to or hate their job, 65 percent or all strategy is never implemented and approximately 73 percent of all change efforts fail.

Dr Adam Fraser is a human performance researcher and consultant who studies how organisations adopt a high performance culture to thrive in this challenging and evolving business landscape. While other speakers talk about research, he does the research, partnering with various Universities through Asia Pacific. He is at the forefront of how neuroscience and positive psychology can be used to improve work place performance. In fact he is thought to be the only keynote speaker in the world to have had the impact of his keynote presentation measured in a University study (It improved the behaviour of attendees by 41%).

He has worked with elite level athletes, the armed forces and business

professionals of all levels. In the last 5 years he has delivered more than 600 presentations to over 50,000 people in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. He has worked in many industries and his clients include, CBA, Westpac, Optus, IBM, ABN AMRO, PWC, Asteron, AON, Tower, Local Government Managers Association, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Queensland Law Society, and the Department of Education.

His topics included the psychology of performance, improvement of productivity, transformational leadership, engagement of teams, work life balance and development of high performing cultures. He is regularly featured in the media. Having appeared in the Australian Financial Review, CEO magazine, Business Review Weekly (BRW), Fast Thinking, Readers Digest, Human Capitol magazine and Management Today. He has held regular radio spots on ABC 702 and his own slot on Sky Business. He is also regularly on Channel 7’s Sunrise & The Morning Show, Kochie’s Business Builders, Channel 9’s Today show and Mornings, What’s good for you and Close Up in Auckland. He is married to a woman who is far brighter than he is, two daughters who have him completely wrapped around their finger and a dog Tilly who routinely outwits him.

TOPICS

Working in FLOW

High Performance In The Zone

Right now your business is under the pump. Companies and individuals now more than ever need to out-create, out-innovate and out-market their competition. The narrative in business has shifted from “how do we keep doing the same thing but to more people”, to “how do we stand out and offer something unique”. This evolution in business puts pressure on the human capitol that exists within corporations to step up.

The result is your people are working as hard as they can, for as long as they can, and many are burning out in the process. Modern business practice says to cope with this pressure you should work less and take more frequent breaks. But Dr Adam’s extensive research into business success shows the key isn’t about taking a step back to recharge, it’s about diving into a psychological state called FLOW – engaging with and losing yourself in the work. It’s a deep dive into high performance. Working while fully engaged and focused in a way that drives you on and feeds your creativity. In FLOW time ceases to be a pressure cooker and stress evaporates replaced with high engagement and a buzz of energy to bring a focused, creative mindset to all challenges.

Dr Adam Fraser will help your team unlock this high performance state of FLOW and give you the tools to stay in it. Adam will:

• Arm you with practical tactics to increase productivity, creativity and innovation
• Show you how to spend more time in FLOW and less time in the stress of flux
• Make you abandon a “victim” mindset and put you in control over your mood and behaviour at work
• Show you how to tap into a greater sense of fulfillment and authentic happiness at work in a way that adds to your well-being
• With FLOW, Adam will get your team working in the zone, working with high performance in the moment when it counts most.

After Shock

It is often said that culture eats strategy for breakfast. A flourishing culture is the most important aspect of a high performing team.

In the world of psychology, incredible breakthroughs have been made into understanding how cultures and groups work. When it comes to culture, we often outsource that responsibility to the senior leaders. Statements bandied about include ‘Well, culture comes from the top down!’ However our research is showing that culture comes from the bottom up too.

Every person in an organisation affects its culture. Every behaviour, from each individual, sends a ripple effect through an organisation that affects its culture. This fascinating, humorous and enlightening presentation will completely change the way your team views how they affect the culture of their organisation.

Specifically this presentation will delve deep into the psychology of groups through a series of fascinating case studies. It covers two guiding principles. First of all that human behaviour self excites. In other words, whatever behaviour you exhibit, others around you will copy that behaviour. What this means to teams is that any time people within that team deviate from the values and chosen behaviours, it creates a culture that is opposed to the strategic objectives of the organisation. Secondly, often behaviours that are thought to be ‘small and trivial’ can actually lead to large outcomes. And it’s these behaviours that can have a dramatic impact on the culture of the team.

To cement the learning, in small groups people will come up with examples of different aftershocks that can often be sent through the organisation, including those that have a positive impact and a negative impact. A self awareness exercise follows, where attendees will start to look at some of the aftershocks they are sending into their own organisation and what impact they are having on the culture of the team.

The major take-aways from this presentation are:

• Every member of a team has a profound impact on what that culture looks like, not just the leaders. Culture doesn’t just come from the top down it comes from the bottom up too.
• Every time you exhibit behaviours that are not aligned to the culture of the team, the culture is eroded.
• Small behaviours are often thought of as being trivial however the wrong small behaviour can have a huge negative impact on a team or culture.
• Greater awareness of each person’s impact, both positive and negative, on the people around them.

The Pyschology of Innovation

We are living in a marketplace of dramatically increasing complexity, competition and commoditisation. Technology is increasing customer power and awareness, driving down prices and margins, and increasing convergence, making it harder and harder to differentiate. This is the world we live in!

Years ago machines replaced us on a physical level, now with the dramatic advancements in artificial intelligence they are starting to replace our brains. Robo-advice in the US is a software program that manages people’s investments without any need for a human planner being involved.

Today business people are being kept awake at night by 2 big questions: firstly, how do we extract maximum value out of our existing legacy business models? Secondly, what is the new model that is going to help us compete and win in the future?

The reality is if we don’t evolve and innovate our current business models are going to become irrelevant and so will we.

Dr Adam Fraser is conducting cutting edge research around how do business people stay ahead of the pack by embracing innovation and evolution.

What is unique about this presentation is that he will not only cover the latest research on how we can be more innovative but also cover the psychology of what stops individuals, teams and organisations from innovating.

Specifically this presentation will cover:

What are the major forces of change disrupting your industry (will present case studies and data) and how you do business and go-to-market.

The key to innovation is looking at different industries and having different perspectives influence us. Too often we surround ourselves with people like us or who think like us. Some of the greatest break-throughs come when we collaborate with people who have different perspectives.

The most innovative businesses have a culture where people feel psychological safety. This means they are not afraid to put forward ideas and challenge convention. Learn how Google created psychological safety in their organisation.

Finally you will understand the psychology of why you limit your thinking and hold yourself back from embracing your ideas and executing on them.

Following this engaging and thought provoking presentation you will leave with strategies to drive clear and practical innovation into your business.

Shift

The Science Behind Change

If you’ve tried to implement change in your business you may have felt that you were banging your head against a brick wall. Well, you’re not alone. 75% of all change efforts introduced into organisations fail to get traction. Compelled to investigate why, Dr Adam uncovered the 3 main reasons that cause change to fail. More importantly he can show you what your company can do to overcome these debilitating obstacles.

Using compelling business case studies to illustrate the science behind change, Dr Adam will:

• Identify the 3 main reasons change fails and detail strategies to overcome them
• Provide a simple yet incredibly effective behaviour change model that can be implemented straight away that dramatically increases the chance of sustained behaviour change
• Show you how to reduce the anxiety teams normally associate with change
• Create a greater level of empathy amongst co-workers during times of change.

No business looking to adapt to a constantly changing business landscape will survive without the ability to SHIFT.

Spark

Staying In High Performance Mode

Everyday your business faces high-pressure demands. Your workforce has been cut in half. Your people are being asked to do twice as much as they use to. And you’re all expected to deliver 3 times the results. It’s a state that drains your workforce of its power and fills the workspace with mounting stress. Dr Adam’s innovative research has shown that the only way to overcome this is to get into, and stay in, high performance mode by effectively managing your physical wellbeing. It’s what he calls SPARK.

And getting, and keeping, that SPARK helps your workplace be more creative, more innovative and more productive. It allows us to better prioritise tasks and enables clearer, more strategically powerful thoughts.

To help companies attain this high performance SPARK, Dr Adam has developed a diagnostic Red Line Program that acutely measures your team’s level of Physical, Intellectual and Emotional Stress. It predicts areas of burnout and fatigue and gives you the tools to manage your own physiology to elevate you to a high level of performance.

You and your team will walk away armed with the knowledge of:

• How sleep impacts performance and how to maximise your sleep
• How to maintain your energy and avoid the 3 o’clock slump
• How to structure sleep, nutrition, physical activity and stress management to optimise your workplace performance and overall quality of life
• How to manipulate your brain chemistry to be more focused, learn faster and be happier
• How to structure your day to optimise productivity and reduce stress
• The key to preventing burn out

To succeed in this fast paced, high performance world you and your team need SPARK.

Grit

Getting You To Thrive

Dr Adam Fraser and John Molineaux from Deakin University analysed over 800 professionals who worked in highly complex environments that were experiencing large amounts of change. The research showed that people who thrived in these environments had one distinguishing characteristic, they saw pressure as a challenge (an opportunity to develop and grow). In contrast people that faltered and suffered in complex environments saw pressure as a threat (I could mess this up, I could fail, I could be exposed as not knowing what I am doing).

The ability to view pressure as a challenge not a threat is a characteristic we refer to as GRIT.

Why do we need it?

The business world is evolving faster than any other time in history. Environments are becoming more complex, margins are being squeezed, our customers are more informed than ever before and technology is changing our behaviour.

It’s harder and tougher than it has ever been before. And the companies that thrive are the ones that see challenge and change as opportunities. The ones with GRIT, who lean in, buckle down, and work together to master a task and see it through to the very end.

The ones who lack GRIT breed a workforce that is allergic to change, a workforce that will never innovate and ultimately become irrelevant. This is why 75% of all change efforts FAIL – because organisations low on GRIT cower at the first sign of a struggle and retreat to a “why can’t things stay the same” mentality.

Dr Adam Fraser will open your eyes to the importance of GRIT. He’ll uncover the level of Grit in your company and give you the tools to have a truly gritty workforce, one that pushes for success. He will:

• Get you to understand the importance of GRIT and help your teams acquire it.
• Empower teams with simple tools to increase their perseverance and tenacity in the heat of battle.
• Demonstrate how a shift from a “fixed” mindset, where things are too hard, to a “growth” mindset greatly increases GRIT.
• Reveal how GRIT and achieving at work is critical to an individual’s happiness and wellbeing.
• Unlock key tools to help team members tap into the meaning and purpose of their role to increase their passion for their work.
• Teach leaders and managers how to interact with their teams to increase the level of GRIT.

The Third Space

Developing Behavioural Agility

Have a bad day and not take it home with you?

Have a stressful meeting and not let that mood infect the next meeting?

Endure a de-motivating set back yet still be able to attack your next task with optimism and enthusiasm?

“Work harder, Work longer” was an adage that was easy to subscribe to before your business was at full capacity. But this old business model just doesn’t cut it any more. The greatest challenge in business within the next decade is not the amount we have to do, as this shows no signs of lessening. Instead it’s the way we transition between tasks. Your job as a manager, your job as a leader, your job as a sales person is to adapt your behaviour to meet the needs of the next role/environment/task. However too often one setback, one bad meeting, can derail a persons day by having a domino effect that robs them, and your company, of energy and focus.

Dr Adam’s cutting edge research with Deakin University explored hundreds of people with demanding jobs, ranging from palliative care nurses to sales people to surgeons to leaders to special forces soldiers to elite athletes. What the high performers all had in common was that they used the Third Space to overcome setbacks and assume a mindset to get the most out of what is coming next.

The Third Space is the transitional gap between “what the hell just happened?” and “what’s next?. High performers use this space to decompress, jettison the negative and bring new focus and energy to the next task at hand.

In one study, when people used the Third Space between work and home it lead to a 41% improvement in work/life/balance.

In outlining The Third Space, Adam will bring to life his leading edge research and you’ll learn:

• How to use the Third Space to transition effectively between the different roles/environments and tasks that make up our day to get the maximum value from each.
• How to access your own Third Space to be resilient to any challenges just encountered. To reset and get back in an optimal state for high performance to take on the next task with a freshly focused and optimistic mindset.
• How to empower groups with tools to “Show up” at work fully responsible for the energy they bring to positively affect the behaviour and culture of the organisation.
• Proof of a direct correlation between truly engaging at work and the positive impact it has to an employee’s wellbeing and happiness.
• A simple three step process to perform on the way home from work to dramatically improve work life balance and overall happiness.