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From shiny
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Innovation isn’t a spark of genius, it’s a system. Neil helps rooms see that, and the human capability required to sustain it.

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Innovation is not a moment. It's a system.

Most people still picture a lone genius and a flash of brilliance. It’s a comforting story, and it isn’t true. Real innovation is collective, cumulative, and shaped by the systems we work in, the people, processes, culture, incentives, and history that decide whether an idea takes root or dies quietly.

My work as a keynote speaker is helping audiences see that difference, and feel it. Not as theory, but as a shift in how they understand their own challenges, their own organisation, and their own part in it.

I don’t stand on stage to deliver answers. I stand there to open up a way of seeing, moving people from fixing isolated problems to noticing the patterns that create them, from feeling overwhelmed by complexity to learning how to work with it. It’s built from 25 years across innovation, leadership development, and systemic transformation, blending systems thinking, design thinking, applied NLP, and facilitation into something practical and human. Not academic. Not motivational fluff.

And it isn’t always a single slot. I can host town halls, run live interviews with senior leaders, and weave themes through a whole day rather than an hour, the kind of format I’ve used with organisations like KPMG, where the goal wasn’t to inspire for sixty minutes but to shift how people were thinking and talking together.
People leave with a clearer sense of why innovation and change so often stall, a new way of holding complexity rather than simplifying it away, and a deeper sense that innovation is a team sport, not a solo act.
This is for leaders and teams wrestling with real complexity, not tidy problems. Anyone tired of shallow innovation and surface-level change, ready to build capability rather than launch another initiative. If what you’re looking for is someone who can bring depth without heaviness, challenge without ego, and energy without hype, this might be a good fit.

Themes I speak on

Innovation is a system, not a spark

Edison didn’t invent the light bulb alone; over twenty inventors got there first. What made him different was building the ecosystem around it. Real innovation is never a lone genius moment; it’s messy, collective, and systemic. Most organisations are still hunting for the spark instead of designing the system.

Requisite human, irreplaceable human

AI can process, but it can’t sit in the silence a conversation needs, or ask the question that changes everything. As machines take on more of the thinking, the requisite human judgement, ethics, and presence aren’t soft skills anymore. They’re the hard edge that innovation and change depend on.

Systemic thinking sees the whole board

Most teams see only their patch: the target, the deadline, the department. Systemic thinking means seeing the interrelationships, where silos block the flow, where feedback loops break down, where a small blind spot upstream becomes tomorrow’s crisis. See the whole board, and problems get solved before they escalate.

Leading in complexity, without a map

There’s no formula for this, no five-step plan pretending complexity is tidy. Just six moves: see the friction, frame the opportunity, gather the right voices, challenge what only looks fixed, work across boundaries, take people with you. Not steps to follow. A stance to take.

See it in the room

Words only tell you so much. Here’s what it’s actually like in the room.

In good company.

Businesses, governments and charities.

to navigate their most complex challenges.

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

Real people. Real organisations. Real change.

Senior leaders reflecting honestly on what it’s actually like to work with us.

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“I chose systemic innovation because the statistic that 70% of innovation fails was not one I wanted to be on the end of.”

Sam Catley

People Services and Innovation Director, EDF

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“I see it like my little toolbox. It’s something that’s stuck with me and has fundamentally changed how I approach challenges on a personal and business level.”

Sarah Harvey

Global Director Customer Success, Vertex Inc

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“Bringing Neil into my clients is something I don’t hesitate to do. He will come in and quickly understand the most complex and most critical issues for an organisation and very quickly navigate his way around with diplomacy and humour to help them reach their goals.”

Julia Days

Talent Acquisition Transformation Consultant and Strategy Advisor, RL100 UK 2026

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“We’ve now had 1,500 women go through our programme, and we’ve eliminated attrition from that population, which is extraordinary. We have stopped women leaving our organisation once we invest in them in that way.”

Rachel Higham

MD of IT, BT

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“When Neil tips up in an organisation, I think he’s tipping up as a colleague, as someone who wants to collaborate and who genuinely wants to leave a legacy.”

David Beales

People innovation Hub, EDF

About Neil as a speaker

My style on stage is thoughtful, warm, and gently provocative.

I’m not there to perform at people or impress them with cleverness. I’m there to think with them, to ask better questions, and to help open up a different quality of conversation about innovation, change, and complexity.

That often means bringing humour, stories, and energy into the room, and also slowing things down at the right moments so people can really notice what’s going on beneath the surface. It means being willing to challenge assumptions gently, to surface tensions that matter, and to invite people into reflection as well as action.

Alongside keynote talks, I often work in more interactive formats too. Hosting and facilitating town halls, running live interviews with senior leaders, weaving themes through an event, or helping shape a conversation over the course of a day rather than in a single slot. That’s been a big part of my work with organisations like KPMG, where the aim wasn’t just to inspire people for an hour, but to shift how they were thinking and talking together.

I enjoy speaking. I enjoy rooms of people. And I care deeply about making those moments useful, respectful, and worth people’s attention.

 

If what you’re looking for is someone who can bring depth without heaviness, challenge without ego, and energy without hype, then I might be a good fit. 

Got a question?

Have a conversation.

Our AI is trained on our thinking, our methodology and our work. Ask it anything about complexity, our programmes, or whether we might be the right fit for what you’re facing. It can even point you to the juicy free stuff if you’d rather start there. It can answer most questions faster than we can. But if you want to talk to a person, it will 100% make that happen. We just might take a little longer to get back to you, because we’re only human.

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You’re talking to an AI. It won’t pretend otherwise. But it knows our work inside out and is very friendly.

You’re curious?

If you’re looking for a keynote speaker who can open up that conversation with your audience, in a way that’s thoughtful, grounded, and genuinely useful, I’d love to talk.

 

No pressure. No pitch deck.

Just a conversation about what you’re trying to create, and whether this might help.

 

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