Lisa Bodell
Founder of FutureThink and author of Why Simple Wins and Kill the Company Lisa Bodell is the leading keynote speaker on simplification and innovation.
Lisa Bodell Booking & Availability
Speaking fees, availability and booking details for corporate events, keynotes and private appearances.
How do I book Lisa Bodell for a corporate event?
Use the Check Availability form above to send your proposed event date, location, audience size, event format and program goals. The Mollie Plotkin Group will follow up with availability and next steps.
What is Lisa Bodell’s speaking fee?
Lisa Bodell’s current speaking fee is $45,000–$50,000. Final pricing can vary by date, location, event format and scope of the appearance.
Is Lisa Bodell available for my event date?
Submit your proposed date and event details and the Mollie Plotkin Group will confirm current availability.
Who is Lisa Bodell’s booking agent?
Contact the Mollie Plotkin Group to inquire about booking Lisa Bodell.
What types of events can Lisa Bodell be booked for?
Corporate events, conferences, leadership meetings, keynote speeches, workshops, fireside chats, private events and virtual programs may be available depending on the engagement.
Lisa Bodell Keynote Topics & Programs
Lisa Bodell speaks on artificial intelligence, business, change management, communications, corporate culture and creativity through keynote presentations and related programs. Additional themes are also available.
The relentless volume and velocity of change is exhausting. Layered on top is AI, which means more tools, more options, more expectations. And that’s the trap: Bolt AI onto broken processes and you don’t fix the problem – you just speed up the bad work. The real path forward isn’t about more technology. It’s about simplifying first, so humans can lead and AI can support.
When people are overwhelmed by complexity and the path forward isn’t clear, the easy answer is learning to tolerate it better. But the goal isn’t endurance – it’s to eliminate the problem. Lisa Bodell shows organizations why simplicity is no longer a “nice to have” – it’s the foundational strategy to reclaim focus, eliminate noise, and create the space where both teams and technology can actually flourish.
Lisa’s passion for simplicity is personal. Raised in a home filled with instability and unpredictability, she learned early how to survive chaos and create clarity when everything was unclear. That skill propelled her corporate success, but it also led to burnout. It wasn’t until she realized she didn’t need to manage chaos – she needed to eliminate it – that everything changed.
Backed by more than 25 years of global experience and compelling case studies from organizations like Netflix, AT&T, and Pfizer, Lisa shares the practical tools and mindset shifts that help organizations simplify how work gets done without sacrificing results. Through humor, interactive polling, and unforgettable storytelling, Lisa challenges leaders to stop reacting and start shaping the work – and culture – they truly want.
Key Takeaways from Unleash the Power of Simple
- Practical tools to help people focus on what matters most.
- Why adding AI to complex work amplifies problems instead of solving them.
- Real-world examples of how simplification drives speed and innovation.
- A call to action: stop fixing people to work harder – fix work to work better, then let AI amplify what’s great.
In this talk, Lisa Bodell tackles a truth many leaders feel but seldom say out loud: Expectations have multiplied, clarity has disappeared, and leaders are being asked to do everything for everyone – at the expense of real performance.
The urgent work of transforming organizations amid unprecedented change can’t happen if leaders have to navigate systems so complex and contradictory that even the best of them are burning out. We tell them to be bold, then drown them in process. We demand fast decisions, but require consensus. We celebrate courage, only when it’s comfortable. This isn’t leadership; it’s performance art.
The pendulum swung from command and control to endless accommodation – creating an impossible situation for leaders that won’t get organizations to the future fast enough. Lisa lays out a refreshing balance for leaders – the kind that pairs support with standards, empathy with performance, and humanity with results. When leaders are empowered to lead boldly, they don’t just elevate themselves – they elevate everyone around them.
It’s time to burn down the models that no longer work – and finally let leaders lead. “The future belongs to unapologetic leaders who prioritize clarity over complexity, purpose over politics, and action over appearance,” she says.
“The future belongs to unapologetic leaders who prioritize clarity over complexity, purpose over politics, and action over appearance.”
Key Takeaways from Let Leaders Lead
- Inspires leaders to lead with clarity, boldness, and simplicity.
- Understand why leadership feels impossible – and how to fix it.
- Real-world stories of leaders who simplified, clarified, and took back control.
- How clarity, focus, and boundaries lead to higher performance and engagement.
- Practical shifts that drive productivity gains and execution speed.
- Tactical tools to cut through noise and lead with focus.
- The permission to stop performing and start actually leading.
In too many organizations, teams are stuck in the comfort of the status quo. We’re moving faster than ever, surrounded by powerful AI tools – but spending less time thinking than ever. That’s the real risk. AI doesn’t replace thinking; it exposes whether we’re doing any at all.
The challenge isn’t a lack of technology. It’s a lack of curiosity, courage, and clarity. Many of the processes designed to drive innovation actually suppress it, reinforcing existing behaviors instead of challenging them. When AI is layered onto these systems without intention, it simply accelerates what already exists.
This keynote is an inspiring call to rethink how we approach change. It reframes AI not as a shortcut or crutch, but as a thinking partner – one that helps humans question assumptions, explore new possibilities, and make better decisions. True innovation starts by changing how people think, not just what tools they use.
Drawing on insights from Kill the Company and Why Simple Wins, Lisa Bodell shows how to reignite the most underused human capabilities in organizations: curiosity, creative problem-solving, and judgment – and then amplify them with AI in practical, responsible, and unexpected ways.
This is not a passive keynote. Through live, interactive moments, participants transform the room into a real-time innovation lab – challenging assumptions, stress-testing ideas, and uncovering new opportunities together. Attendees leave inspired and equipped, ready to think more bravely about change, growth, and transformation.
“AI doesn’t replace our thinking – it supports it. It gives us the chance to think bigger, challenge faster, and imagine more boldly than ever before.”
Post-Keynote Breakouts from Igniting Innovation
Key Takeaways from Igniting Innovation
- AI’s blind spot: it amplifies thinking, it doesn’t replace it?
- How to reignite curiosity and creative problem-solving at work.
- Using AI as a safe provocateur, not a replacement for judgment.
- Practical human-centered techniques to drive innovation immediately.
- A clearer, braver mindset for leading change in an AI-powered world.
After the keynote, keep the energy and focus alive with a powerful 30-minute fireside chat featuring Lisa Bodell and a senior leader from your organization. This session creates a platform for leadership to engage in an honest discussion about what holds the organization back and what must change – culturally, behaviorally, or structurally.
Lisa facilitates a provocative, no-fluff discussion that bridges keynote insights with your company’s real challenges. The second half of the session opens up to the audience for live Q&A – giving people the opportunity to ask bold questions, surface concerns, and hear candid reflections from the top. It’s equal parts inspirational and actionable – and a dynamic way to model change from the top down.
Ready to make simplification stick? This highly engaging 45- to 60-minute workshop is the perfect way to activate Lisa Bodell’s keynote content with immediate, tangible next steps. Each participant receives a personal deck of 50+ simplification tactics – proven approaches that remove daily friction, streamline work, and accelerate decision-making.
Lisa facilitates a rapid-fire “tactic swap” across tables, encouraging people to share favorites, discover new ideas, and commit to the first action they’ll take. After the exchange, Lisa guides a high-energy, full-room discussion to uncover the most frequently chosen tactics and clusters them into key themes – whether it’s killing unnecessary meetings, shifting approval processes, or cutting low-value reports. From there, she dives deep with real examples and activation strategies tailored to your audience. Participants leave with new ideas, a customized plan, and a renewed commitment to doing work that actually matters.
If you want to spark bold thinking and real results fast, this session delivers. Based on one of Lisa’s most iconic tools, Kill a Stupid Rule is a fast-paced, interactive workshop where teams identify and challenge the outdated rules, bloated processes, and unnecessary work holding them back. In small groups, participants brainstorm all the “stupid rules” they’d love to eliminate – then plot them by ease of elimination and potential impact.
With Lisa’s expert facilitation, groups vote on the top candidates, share insights across teams, and leave with a clear path to act. The session can be customized from 45 to 75 minutes depending on group size and time available. Whether used as a breakout or full-room experience, this session generates immediate ideas, energy, and action – and gives leaders a replicable tool to drive change long after the event ends.
AI isn’t going to replace your team. But a team that knows how to use AI will replace the one that doesn’t. Most organizations know they need to become AI-native. What they don’t know is how to get their people there – genuinely, not grudgingly. Leaders have issued the mandate. But the gap between “we need to embrace AI” and “here’s exactly how we do that” is where momentum dies and quiet resistance takes root.
As CEO of FutureThink, Lisa Bodell didn’t just study AI adoption – she led it, using her own team as a live case study. What she discovered wasn’t a technology problem. It was the absence of a clear, human-centered approach to getting started.
In this session, Lisa shows leaders how to start small and visible, picking the right first use cases: low-stakes, high-annoyance work everyone is glad to hand off, so early wins build trust faster than any town hall. She lays out a strategic roadmap for mapping work into what to automate, what to keep human-led, and what to protect as distinctly human. She unpacks the language, rhythms, and practices that build genuine momentum and make adoption stick; showing that the leaders who win won’t be the ones who moved fastest; they’re the ones who brought their people with them.
Lisa Bodell Biography & Credentials
Lisa Bodell is a global leader in simplification, collaboration, and innovation. She shows organizations how to eliminate complexity and leverage simplicity – unleashing creativity and sparking the energy so essential to innovate and compete in a rapidly changing world.
- ADVISOR TO TOP ORGANIZATIONS AND LEADERS: Lisa’s counsel helps organizations unleash new levels of performance by eliminating complexity, creating capacity, and increasing focus and clarity.
- TRUE TRANSFORMATION STARTS WITH SIMPLIFYING: Bolting AI onto broken processes doesn’t fix the problem – it just speeds up bad work. Lisa shows how to simply first – then apply agentic AI.
- SIMPLICITY DRIVES EXTRAORDINARY RESULTS: Complexity chokes innovation. What you don’t do is just as important as what you do. Simplicity helps people focus on the work that matters with less frustration.
- HELPS LEADERS LEAD BETTER: Leading through chaotic change demands simple, unapologetic focus. Lisa gives leaders the courage to burn down broken systems, pair empathy with standards, and end leadership as “performance art.” Newfound clarity and capacity drives bold execution and big results.
- SIMPLE IGNITES ENGAGEMENT: People can’t organize their way out of complexity. Change is exhausting. Lisa engages everyone in the process to Kill Stupid Rules and make simplification part of the organizational DNA.
- GETTING REAL: In one hour, Lisa helped one company identify over 500 rules that were bloating work. There’s a staggering increase in capacity when you subtract more than you add.
Lisa Bodell is also available to be booked for corporate and private events. Contact the Mollie Plotkin Group today to inquire about Lisa Bodell’s fees.
Want to book Lisa Bodell for an event?
Contact the Mollie Plotkin Group at 215-995-0905 to book Lisa Bodell for a keynote speech, corporate event, leadership program, workshop, fireside chat, virtual appearance, or other private or professional event.
Our team will help confirm Lisa Bodell’s availability, speaking fee, travel requirements, and fit for your audience. To start the booking process, please share your event date, location, audience size, event format, and the type of presentation you are looking for.
The Mollie Plotkin Group is a full-service keynote speaker agency and entertainment bureau that helps organizations secure keynote speakers, entertainers, athletes, celebrities, and thought leaders for corporate meetings, conferences, fundraisers, and special events.
Eliminate Complexity
As epic change tests us daily, every leader and organization must urgently create new capacity – to adapt, to think, and to act on the work and priorities that actually matter.
Easier said than done.
People are drowning in the work of work and leaders are handcuffed by conflicting expectations and other hurdles. To meet this challenge, Lisa Bodell, the globally recognized authority and bestselling author of Why Simple Wins and Kill the Company, helps organizations fix what’s broken with work and leadership – the things that get in the way of building capacity and thriving in this environment.
Using her expertise, organizations and leaders are eliminating unnecessary complexity, restoring clarity, and creating the capacity leaders and teams need to perform, innovate, and thrive. Lisa is a trusted, non-threatening disruptor who shows organizations how to stop reacting to chaos and start redesigning how work actually gets done. She also helps leaders reclaim focus, lead with clarity, and replace burnout with momentum – so leadership becomes real again, not performative.
Founder & CEO of FutureThink
Lisa is the founder and CEO of FutureThink, a global innovation and simplification firm that partners with organizations such as Google, Netflix, Pfizer, SAP, AT&T, Citigroup, and the U.S. Department of National Intelligence. Since founding FutureThink in 2003, she has helped organizations challenge outdated models, eliminate friction, and simplify work in ways that drive speed, engagement, and sustained performance.
Bestselling Author
A bestselling author known for challenging the status quo while making change feel practical and human, Lisa encourages leaders to stop fixing people to do more work – and start fixing work to better fit people. Through powerful stories, interactive experiences, and real-world tools like “Kill a Stupid Rule,” she helps organizations turn clarity into action.
Lisa Bodell Keynote Speaking
Lisa’s passion for simplicity is deeply personal. Raised in a family environment marked by instability and unpredictability, she learned early how to survive chaos – skills that fueled her success but eventually led to burnout. That experience shaped her belief that the answer isn’t learning to manage chaos, but eliminating it altogether. This perspective resonates strongly with leaders navigating relentless change and impossible expectations.
A sought-after keynote speaker ranked among the world’s Top 50, Lisa delivers high-impact talks that inspire leaders to lead with clarity, courage, and focus. Her work spans leadership transformation, simplification in times of upheaval, and reimagining innovation in an AI-powered world – always emphasizing that technology should amplify human thinking, not replace it.
Lisa began her career at Leo Burnett after earning her business degree from the University of Michigan, where she learned to merge strategic rigor with bold ideas. She has taught innovation at American University and Fordham University, delivered a popular TED talk, and serves on advisory boards including the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council and the Association of Professional Futurists.
Lisa Bodell doesn’t just talk about change – she helps organizations fix what’s broken, simplify what matters most, and build leaders and cultures ready for the future.
Lisa’s transformational message has inspired executives at top-ranked organizations such as:
- SAP
- Citigroup
- The Department of National Intelligence
- American Express
- BMW
- Cisco
- KPMG
- Electronic Arts
- Fidelity
- Samsung
- TD Bank
- Verizon
- United States Coast Guard
- South by Southwest
- Oracle
- and many more.
