William Higham

How to Thrive in a Volatile World: A 3-step guide to managing uncertainty

In today’s more unpredictable business environment, companies need to be able to adopt new strategies quickly and confidently. But few companies are set up to do so. This talk provides practical advice to anyone struggling to help their workforce be more “change-friendly”.

Business is increasingly unpredictable:

• Frequent disruption is inevitable today: yet 43% of leaders say their business is not set up to navigate change confidently (Magnetic, Dec 2023)
• Employee engagement, mental health levels are down: conflict and resignations up. Workers are struggling to adapt: not even senior management is immune.
• Companies must find a way to make their staff, managers and systems more “change-friendly” if they’re to survive in this new world.

Benefits 3 distinct audiences:

• Senior leadership (CEOs, C-Suite) who want to make their company more future-ready.
• Senior/middle managers wanting to manage uncertainty better themselves: and improve their Dynamic Leadership skills.
• HR directors/managers who want to help their workforce through times of change and/or build a change-friendly company culture.

Audiences will learn how to:

• adapt their own attitudes and leadership styles to better navigate the new landscape
• help their teams deal with the emotional and business requirements of change
• create a more change-friendly, agile and resilient company culture / organisation
• use these new-found skills to gain a business advantage over their competitors

Six Ways to Conquer Uncertainty: How to lead in an increasingly volatile world

2024’s proving to be another year of uncertainty. And many executives themselves are feeling uncertain. But that doesn’t need to be the case. William has been helping leaders manage uncertainty for over a decade. And he’s learned that, not only is change not a bad thing. Volatile times can actually provide more growth opportunities than calm ones. As Formula One champion Ayrton Senna once said: “You can’t overtake fifteen cars in sunny weather – but you can when it’s raining.” 

William has created a brand new talk that helps leaders find agility and growth in today’s unstable world. It distils all his experience of Uncertainty Management into six practical processes you can adopt to help you thrive in a VUCA world. William can show you not just how to manage uncertainty, but how to find huge growth opportunities within it.

Four Ways to Innovate for Growth: Embed winning innovation into your company

Companies that actively promote a culture of innovation are 3.5x more likely to outperform their peers. And 87% of executives believe innovation is essential to their organisation’s success and growth (McKinsey). Yet  just 36% of today’s businesses are actively innovative (DTI). If you’re finding it hard to create an innovation culture within your company, this talk can help. Over the last 20 years, William has identified four practical things companies can do to become more innovative.

• Identify customer-led growth opportunities
• Instil a more open, “challenger” mindset
• Manage collaborative creativity and idea generation
• Build new metrics and processes to test success

William will show you how to use these in your business – to create innovative new products and processes that’ll keep you a step ahead of the competition.

An Organisation Fit for Tomorrow: Future-proof strategies for CEOs and CHROs

In tomorrow’s uncertain business landscape, the most successful companies won’t be those with the best products or marketing teams. They’ll be the ones that can best adapt to new circumstances. The ones with the best organisation: the most efficiently run offices, smartest workflows and resource allocation, inspiring cultures and engaged, productive employees.

But legacy environments and reporting structures are really hampering many companies’ productivity, engagement and efficiency. The introduction of hybrid was a good start – but much more needs to be done.

In this talk, William looks at what CEOs and CHROs can do to rebuild the enterprise: creating environments and organisational structures ready for the future. How to create structures that give individuals flexibility while fostering a collaborative, engaged community across hybrid workforces. That build flatter, results-driven hierarchies with a common purpose. That use new technologies like AI and IoT to empower individuals and improve workflows.

A Guide to Getting Engaged: How to engage tomorrow’s customers & staff

Brand loyalty and employee engagement are at an all-time low. According to one study, 92% of consumers say they aren’t even loyal to their favourite brand. And 85% of employees admit to being disengaged at work.

But, despite such disturbing statistics, William believes it’ll actually be easier to build loyalty tomorrow than in the past: in both consumers and employees. Why? It’s all down to a growing desire to belong, to ‘feel part of something’, to have the support of ‘people like me’ in an increasingly uncertain world.

In this talk, William uses examples from social media to competitive leisure, neighbourhood groups to book clubs, to show how smart companies can foster loyalty by creating ‘brand families’. He helps audiences identify passions and values that can unite their employees and engage their customers. How to use events and advice to bring customers together. How to give people a voice without losing your own.