Keynote Topics
The Values Driven Team: An Engagement Playbook
Learn what matters most to the people you need to inspire, with revolutionary data and insights about their shared human values.
It’s no secret that employee engagement is in freefall. Companies continue to offer more perks and incentives, yet 85% of employees worldwide aren’t engaged at work. Many organizations are at a loss for how to make people do great things and feel satisfied along the way.
Human values expert, employee engagement keynote speaker and 2x best-selling author David Allison has dedicated his career to studying the shared human values – what matters most – that drive people to become engaged, inspired, and motivated. By conducting nearly a million surveys in 152 languages featuring hundreds of millions of data points, David and his team have turned shared human values into hard data that’s readable, meaningful, and actionable. It’s no wonder his work is included in college textbooks worldwide and leveraged by organizations like Google, PayPal, lululemon, and the United Nations Foundation.
Guided by David’s game-changing research – delivered in an unforgettably dynamic keynote – you’ll discover how to go beyond pointless perks to create an engaged workforce incentivized by what they value most. People don’t want ping pong tables and free pizza. Give them more of what matters most – what they truly value – and you’ll unlock their passion and potential.
WHO IS THIS FOR?
- People and Culture Professionals
- Senior strategy-level leadership in any industry
- Pension and Benefits Providers
AUDIENCE TAKEAWAYS
- The specific Power Values that will engage people and influence outcomes.
- Creative, detailed strategies to immediately put the Power Values to use.
- David’s revolutionary Values Thinking Process to create actionable tactics.
- The Three Telltale Questions that will identify the values of people you need to inspire.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT & RETENTION INSIGHTS
- Align Policies with Values: Gain insights into creating policies that resonate with what employees value most, fostering a culture of belonging and motivation.
- Values-Driven Communication: Acquire strategies for communicating with your team in a way that honors their core values, enhancing clarity and commitment.
- Boost Team Cohesion: Explore methods to identify and leverage common values within your team, strengthening bonds and collaboration.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT & RETENTION BIOGRAPHY
David Allison stands at the forefront of transforming workplace culture and employee engagement as the world’s leading authority on human values.
From his landmark keynote speech at Tech Talent North, Canada’s leading symposium for People & Culture professionals, to guiding IMEX (the world’s leading trade show for business events) to becoming an age-free organization, David has reshaped the very ethos of multiple industries. He’s used research to understand the unique challenges of recruiting specialists like Cloud Architects and AI engineers, and helped medical information systems giant QHR Technologies shape their workplace culture strategy. On a much larger scale, he profiled the global contact center workforce for Genesys, to help contact center leaders around the world craft workplace environments that resonate with their employees.
David’s thought leadership and insights are not just limited to keynote speeches; his work has been featured in numerous podcasts, industry journals, and prestigious publications such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and INC Magazine. Additionally, his pioneering research and methodologies are included in textbooks used on campuses worldwide, preparing the next generation of leaders to adopt a values-driven approach.
With an unmatched ability to translate complex data into actionable strategies, David Allison is a dynamic, memorable, and transformative employee engagement and retention keynote speaker.
The Surprising Science of Values-Based Leadership
Learn what matters most to the people you need to inspire, with revolutionary data and insights about their shared human values.
Neurologists have known for years that leading people effectively requires tapping into their core values to find out what matters most. Finally, we can pinpoint the precise values that people share, and use those values – what matters most to your team – to create leadership strategies that will drive exponential engagement and success..
Human values expert, leadership keynote speaker, and 2x best-selling author David Allison has turned our shared human values into accurate empirical data, to detect what matters most to any group of people, including the people you lead right now, and the people you want to recruit for tomorrow. To do this, his team has conducted/analyzed nearly a million surveys in 152 languages, collecting hundreds of millions of data points about what makes people tick. In his fast-paced and dynamic leadership keynotes, he isolates the values that mean the most to your teams, your entire workforce, or even the workforce of your entire industry. Then he shows you how to use values to tackle any issue, create enormous motivational momentum, and meet any goal.
Once you learn the accurate, science-backed, shared values of your people – simply put, what matters most to them – the transformation begins. You’ll see your true self in your work. You’ll see where your values intersect with the values of people you need to engage. And you’ll find
that more effective leadership comes from being more human. As David says: “If we let them, our values will unite us. Because we are all values-driven.”
WHO IS THIS FOR?
- Leaders and managers at all levels
- Organizations that want to cultivate great leaders
AUDIENCE TAKEAWAYS
- The specific Power Values that will empower you to engage people and influence outcomes.
- Creative, detailed strategies to immediately put the Power Values to use.
- David’s revolutionary Values Thinking Process that turns shared values into actionable tactics.
- The Three Telltale Questions that will identify the shared values of anyone you want to engage and inspire.
LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS
- Improve Collaboration: Learn how to leverage shared values for stronger team cohesion and enhanced collaboration.
- Align Corporate Goals with Human Values: Understand how to align organizational goals with employee values for greater engagement.
- Values-Based Conflict Resolution: Find out how to use values to navigate and resolve conflicts effectively.
- Diverse Leadership Styles: Discover how to tailor leadership styles to meet the values of diverse teams.
LEADERSHIP BIOGRAPHY
David Allison, the world’s foremost authority on human values, is a dynamic and unique leadership keynote speaker who applies groundbreaking research across multiple industries. As a pioneer in identifying and applying core human values, David assists leadership teams in understanding what truly motivates and drives their teams, teaching them how to use shared values to motivate, engage, and inspire people effectively.
His landmark keynotes, including those for Lincoln Financial, The Canadian Society of Association Executives, the Real Estate Forum, and more, along with his extensive studies for global entities like Genesys, The United Nations Foundation, PayPal, and Google, have realigned management initiatives and leadership styles with the values employees are driven by.
David’s expertise extends beyond team leadership, encompassing how today’s leaders can positively impact consumers, financial partners, regulatory bodies, donors, prospects, and community members. His insights and methods have been featured in numerous podcasts, industry journals, and publications like Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and INC Magazine. His work is also included in textbooks worldwide, preparing the next generation of leaders to be values-driven.
Boosting Sales by Being Human
Learn what matters most to the people you need to inspire, with revolutionary data and insights about their shared human values.
Consumers today are more complex to understand than ever before, exhibiting unpredictable behaviors and defying traditional demographic categories such as age, income, gender, and education. We have more data and insights than ever, but all that data isn’t getting us closer to achieving our goals. But what if we’re measuring the wrong things?
Now, for the first time, it’s possible to identify what matters most to consumers – we can pinpoint the values they share. Human values research pioneer and sales keynote speaker David Allison has transformed our shared human values into accurate empirical data, conducting nearly a million surveys in 152 languages that feature hundreds of millions of data points. His findings align with a neurological truth: every decision we make, thousands of times a day, is determined by our values. It’s no wonder his discoveries are included in college textbooks worldwide and leveraged by organizations like Google, PayPal, lululemon, Five Star School Supplies, and the United Nations Foundation.
The result of David’s global research is a proven, science-backed method for identifying the values your audience shares. His must-see keynotes are more than just speeches; they are dynamic events that teach you how to leverage values to drive sales and marketing efforts that truly work.
Once you know what matters most to the people you need to inspire, you can engage any audience, deliver any message, and fuel explosive sales growth. It’s all about the power of shared human values. David’s keynote will show you how.
WHO IS THIS FOR?
- Sales teams and leaders
- Marketing departments and agencies
- Organizational leaders looking to revolutionize their businesses from the ground up
AUDIENCE TAKEAWAYS
- The specific Power Values to engage people and influence outcomes.
- Creative, detailed strategies to immediately put the Power Values to use.
- David’s revolutionary Values Thinking Process to create actionable tactics.
- The Three Telltale Questions to identify the shared values of people you want to engage.
SALES INSIGHTS
- Better Bonds: Discover how to align sales strategies with customer values.
- Identify Drivers: Learn how to identify key values that drive purchasing decisions.
- Speak Their Language: Master the art of values-based communication.
SALES & MARKETING BIOGRAPHY
David Allison, the world’s leading authority on human values, is a transformative and dynamic keynote speaker highly sought after in the sales sector. With his groundbreaking research David has uncovered transformative insights into B2B and B2C buying behavior. His expertise has been instrumental in guiding major organizations like PayPal, Amazon, Google and lululemon, and his in-depth studies in dozens of product and service categories have helped countless sales teams and sales leaders use the power of shared values to meet their goals.
David has shared the stage with prominent figures like Barack Obama at the Digital Enterprise Show for B2B Sales in Malaga, Spain. His dynamic keynotes have changed the way people think about sales at events for the National Association of Financial Planners, Aviso Wealth, Lincoln Financial, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, The Real Estate Forum, and the Pet Food Industry, to name a few.
His insights and opinions have been featured in Business Insider, Pet Food Trends, ICSC magazine, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and INC Magazine, and he is a repeat guest on dozens of popular sales podcasts. David Allison’s unique focus on human values and their impact on buying behavior makes him an unforgettable presence on any platform, offering transformative and actionable insights for the sales industry.
Reinvention from the Inside Out
How to build lasting transformation, starting with what matters most
Transformation begins with adapting. It leads to becoming. It’s about waking up to what matters most and where we want to go, and then actually getting there.
Today, with relentless disruption, new technologies, new demands, and new definitions of success, change can feel overwhelming. Let’s call it what it is: people aren’t afraid of change. They’re afraid of change that doesn’t make sense to them. If we want people to embrace transformation, we have to anchor it to what matters most, in other words what people value
David Allison is a global pioneer in the science of human values. Using the valuegraphics database, built from nearly a million surveys across 152 languages, he has uncovered the neurological fact behind every choice we make: we are driven by our values. And that includes how we respond to change.
This goes beyond motivation: it’s a clear path forward. It’s a must-see keynote that shows you how to ignite real change by tapping into the shared values of the people you serve. Because when people see themselves in the future you’re building, they will help build it faster, better, and with everything they’ve got.
WHO IS THIS FOR?
- Corporate leaders reinventing culture
- HR, People & Culture teams leading transformation
- Communications, DEI, and Innovation professionals
- Anyone charged with helping others move forward into the unknown
AUDIENCE TAKEAWAYS
- The top Power Values that unlock buy-in and belief during transformation
- The Values Thinking Process: a tool to turn values into action
- The Three Telltale Questions to uncover what matters most to your people
- Field-tested tactics to reduce fear and boost engagement in times of change
CHANGE INSIGHTS
- Change That Sticks: Make transformation feel personal, not imposed.
- Empower Your Culture: Align people with purpose, not just process.
- From Fear to Flow: Replace resistance with readiness by connecting to shared values.
TRANSFORMATION & CHANGE BIOGRAPHY
David Allison is the world’s leading voice on the intersection of human values and behavior change. As the founder of the Valuegraphics Project, he has redefined what it means to understand people, not by age, gender, or income, but by what matters most. And what matters most? The core values that truly drive them.
He’s helped GoFundMe reshape nonprofit innovation. Guided internal auditors through AI transformation. Led public sector unions through tectonic shifts. His values-first approach has influenced change across every sector imaginable: tech, government, education, finance, healthcare, and more.
David’s been invited to speak on stages alongside leaders like Barack Obama. He’s advised global giants like Google, Lululemon, and the United Nations. His research is included in textbooks, used by universities, and built into strategies at the highest levels.
But what sets David apart is his ability to make big ideas human. His keynotes are electrifying, grounded, and unforgettable. They feel like your smartest friend telling you a truth you’ve always known, but never had the words for.
AI & The Superhuman Future
Inspiring People to Embrace and Ignite the Power of AI
AI is transforming the way we work, sell, and lead, offering unprecedented opportunities—but also raising challenges about how people and organizations can adapt. The answer lies in pairing AI’s cutting-edge technology with the profound motivators that drive all human behavior: shared values.
For the first time ever, David Allison has turned the enormous power of human values into actionable, data-driven insights that pinpoint exactly what buttons to push to move the needle in the right direction. Using hundreds of millions of data points from the Valuegraphics Project—the first global inventory of shared human values—David’s groundbreaking methodology reveals what truly inspires people to act, connect, and thrive.
This is not a one-size-fits-all presentation. Every keynote is built from scratch, powered by custom research that uncovers the specific shared values driving sales, employee engagement, or innovation in your industry or organization. By combining AI with these highly tailored insights, David offers a revolutionary approach that delivers a clear, proven roadmap for achieving goals with unprecedented precision and effectiveness.
David Allison’s keynote, The Superhuman Future, delivers more than just insights—it delivers a transformative experience. Known for his electrifying stage presence, David combines cutting-edge research with inspiring storytelling, audience interaction, and lightbulb moments that will leave people on the edge of their seats. Attendees will leave energized, equipped with tools they can use immediately, and talking about this keynote for years to come.
Who Is This For?
- Sales and Customer Experience Leaders: Teams seeking to pair AI with values-based insights to build trust, enhance loyalty, and drive results.
- Senior Leadership and Strategy Professionals: CEOs, CHROs, and other leaders navigating AI-driven transformation.
- People and Culture Leaders: HR and workforce engagement professionals striving to align teams with new technologies.
- AI and Technology Innovators: Developers and strategists seeking to humanize AI adoption.
Key Takeaways
- Leverage Shared Values: Learn how to identify and use the core human values of your workforce, customers, and stakeholders to enhance AI-driven strategies.
- Reduce Fear and Resistance: Discover how to align innovation with what matters most to people, creating a culture that embraces change.
- Superhuman Strategies: Explore actionable approaches to combine AI with values-based insights to engage employees, motivate teams, and achieve organizational goals.
- Future-Ready Tools: Leave with David’s Values Thinking Process, the Three Telltale Questions, and other practical tools to build a values-aligned, AI-ready organization.
David Allison’s AI-Driven Future Biography
David Allison, Engagement & Influence Expert, Human Values Research Pioneer, Best-Selling Author & CEO
David Allison is the world’s leading authority on how human values shape our societies, economies, and the future of work. As the founder of the Valuegraphics Project, he has transformed human values into measurable, actionable strategies that deliver results eight times more effectively than traditional approaches. His insights, drawn from nearly one million surveys conducted in 152 languages, have been embraced by organizations like Google, PayPal, lululemon, and the United Nations Foundation.
David’s expertise includes conducting custom AI-focused research for organizations across industries. For example, he has studied the public and private sector workforce to explore how AI adoption impacts risk assessment for the Institute of Internal Auditors, and helped School Board Associations craft messaging to help teachers and parents embrace AI’s positive impact on education. These are just two examples of how David builds every keynote from scratch, tailoring his presentations to address the unique goals and challenges of each audience, ensuring maximum relevance and impact.
David is a sought-after figure in podcasts and industry journals, with notable appearances and contributions to Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and INC Magazine. His unique position at the leading edge of human values research makes him an unforgettable presence, offering profound insights and actionable strategies to navigate the evolving landscapes of work and technology.
