John K. Coyle, founder and CEO of The Art of Really Living, is one of the world’s leading experts in innovation and Design Thinking. He has an MBA from Northwestern University, and is a graduate of Stanford University’s “d.school” where his academic advisor was David Kelley – founder of IDEO and Steve Jobs’ right hand man.
John is an NBC Sports analyst, two-time TEDx presenter, author and sought-after keynote speaker. He won an Olympic silver medal in speed skating – an achievement he attributes directly to his Design Thinking background. His mission is to innovate the human experience, and he has been applying Design Thinking to Fortune 500 companies, careers, and leadership challenges for more than 20 years.
John’s presentations offer the intellectual and analytical background of a professor coupled with the inspired emotional storytelling of a champion athlete. John’s talent is weaving facts, frameworks and storytelling into experiential learning sessions that activate both the intellectual and emotional centers for participants.
Speaker & Author, The Art of Really Living
Notable Recent Engagements & Clients
Google, American Airlines, ACETECH Whistler CEO Summit, Boston Scientific Group, Comcast, IDEO, Slalom Consulting, Trustmark, Stanford University, Rush Medical Center, Allstate, TEDx Naperville, Chicago Ideas Week Edison Talks, City of Ontario, Daimler Chrysler, Global Coca-Cola & McDonald’s leadership, Marquette University, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Impact Advisors, Optum, Florida Hospitals, Root, Vistage, Abbott, Product Management & Innovation Forum, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, AON
Speaking Topics
• Strengths 2.0: Applying “Design Thinking” to Individual (and Team) Strengths and Weaknesses •
Time 2.0: Going Counterclockwise – Unwind Cognitive Time and Live (Almost) Forever
• Resiliency 2.0: How to draw on your own natural sources of strength to flourish in the face of adversity
• Innovation Leadership 2.0: How to apply innovation mindsets, tools and practices including design thinking and creative problem solving to business (or personal) challenges
Writing
• The Art of Really Living Manifesto (Limited Edition, March 2016)
• Blogs – TheArtofReallyLiving.com and JohnKCoyle.com
• Book in Progress – Counterclockwise
Lecturer, Marquette University: Innovation Leadership Curriculum
Professor, CEDIM Graduate School (Mexico): Masters of Innovation Curriculum
Fellow and Senior Vice President Innovation Leadership Development, Maddock Douglas Help clients bring industry changing ideas from mind to market, train leaders on innovation mindsets, practices and toolsets, and design strategic interventions required to create a culture of innovation
Commentator & Analyst, NBC Statistician and subject matter expert for 2006, 2010 and 2014 Olympic games broadcasts: provide inbooth expertise to commentators, producers and cameras as well as features and live on-air commentary
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Sr. Director, Innovation & Long Term Strategy, US Cellular Led a strategic enterprisewide effort to drive innovation and transform customer experience in a rapidly consolidating national market. This multiyear project helped earn the No. 1 Consumer Reports ranking, and was both a cultural transformation and customer experience overhaul
Sr. Director, Customer Strategy and Marketing, US Cellular Led a team of 80+ responsible for overall customer strategy & experience including: branding, market research, customer analytics, customer segmentation/targeting & positioning, pricing & promotions, campaign analytics, field marketing, product marketing, sponsorships & events
Sr. Principal, Diamond Management Consultants During the heady dotcom era, helped clients like Goldman Sachs, AOL/Time Warner and Enron build new business models and transform for growth
Athlete 12 years on U.S. national teams (cycling and speedskating), represented the U.S. in 10 world championships, winning 3 world medals and a silver medal in the 1994 winter Olympic Games in short track speedskating
EDUCATION
• Stanford University, d.School: B.S., Product Design and Engineering
• J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management (Northwestern) MBA, Marketing, Organizational Behavior, Entrepreneurship
Extensive testimonials from satisfied clients on LinkedIn, with a sampling below
“John’s ability to grip an audience, to craft a business story on very human terms, to tie it back to the success of his team’s efforts is one of the best I have ever seen.” David Rosen, TIBCO
“Simply put, John is a compelling, engaging speaker. Time and time again, I’ve witnessed him captivate audiences with his dynamic storytelling. The way in which he blends his diverse and impressive experiences and insights pulls in even the most challenging of audiences. His message is clear and powerful, leaving participants inspired and connected. John’s unique and highly effective formula makes him a surefire hit.” Nicole Lorey, Chief Communications Officer and Vice President at Transamerica Brokerage Group
“You know when you meet John that something big is going to happen. He is able to story tell his way through any topic with entertaining examples that keep you thinking about them the next day and, well, the next week. I witnessed John deliver an innovation presentation at a large industry conference and he captivated the audience with each and every point and had them asking for more and requesting his presence as next year’s keynote. If you are looking to bring innovation to your organization or catapult your team’s strengths to the next level, John is the man you want to talk to.” Sarah McVey, Vice President Strategic Initiatives, Mather Lifeways
“John Coyle was extraordinary. He was universally embraced by our City team and provided extremely valuable training to all those in attendance. The response from staff was overwhelming. He did a fantastic job. Incredible professional with an equally amazing story. We can’t wait to have him back!” Jacob Green, Assistant City Manager, City of Ontario
“John is passionate, emotional, charismatic, and fantastic at what he does. John speaks in a way that feels intimate – as though you were simply chatting with him in a living room over a glass of beer. It’s brilliant. He’s the first TEDxNaperville speaker to give two talks, each unique and radical and delivered with such gusto and impact that he’s become one of our most viewed speakers.” James Chesterfield, Producer, TEDx Naperville
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Topics
Strengths 2.0 – Applying “Design Thinking” to Individual and Team Strengths and Weaknesses
Consider the adage “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Is it time for a new approach? Through the metaphor of sport, learn how individuals and teams can use innovation to identify and leverage their unique strengths (and design around weaknesses). Become empowered to: 1) achieve breakthrough performance by doing what you do best; 2) decide what to delegate or outsource; and 3) achieve greater collaboration with customers and colleagues.
Resiliency 2.0: Drawing on your own natural sources of strength to flourish in the face of adversity
Humans are naturally resilient beings, but what causes some to rise to repeated challenges, and others to shrink? Explore a new model of resiliency, one where proactive challenges are designed to build capacity for ever greater performance under pressure and adversity, and where focusing on strengths and mindfulness creates increased capacity to perform at even higher levels under stress.
Time 2.0 – Going Counterclockwise – Unwind Cognitive Time and Live (Almost) Forever
We know about the time value of money, but do we truly understand the investment value of our time? In this unique mind-bending talk, John shares breakthrough ideas on how to re-think your relationship with time. He will demonstrate that our brains process time in a non-linear manner, and hence, the value of an increment of time is unrelated to its duration. Using both story-telling and data, John explores how to slow, stop and reverse the perceived acceleration of time, and live summers longer than when you were a kid.
Innovating the Human Experience (or “The Gift of Time”)
John takes his innovation expertise, leveraged by dozens of Fortune 500 companies, and attacks some of life’s larger questions. Step by step, John applies creative destruction to our standard operating procedures and assumptions about strengths and weaknesses, stress and resiliency, and time and “chronoception” (how humans experience time). The program includes science-backed data, real life stories, introspective self-analysis, and personal roadmap planning and development.
Innovation Leadership Series
Innovation is the key to successful business growth, now and in the future. Do your current and upcoming leaders have the necessary toolset and knowledge to make it happen? Empower them with a data-driven framework and innovation mindset to breakthrough to the next level and beyond. Partnering with your planners and senior executives, John will help you select from these modules to create a series that will deliver the best value to your organization:
– Cultivating a culture of innovation: the role of the innovation leader
– Design thinking overview and activation
– Ideation best practices and practice
– Innovation antibodies (victim vs. creator)
– Innovation culture kryptonite (learner mindset vs. knower mindsets)
– Diversity, inclusion and innovation.
Testimonials
“Simply put, John is a compelling, engaging speaker. Time and time again, I’ve witnessed him captivate audiences with his dynamic storytelling. The way in which he blends his diverse and impressive experiences and insights pulls in even the most challenging of audiences. His message is clear and powerful, leaving participants inspired and connected. John’s unique and highly effective formula makes him a surefire hit.”
– Chief Communications Officer and Vice President, Transamerica Brokerage Group
“You know when you meet John that something big is going to happen. He is able to story tell his way through any topic with entertaining examples that keep you thinking about them the next day and, well, the next week. I witnessed John deliver an innovation presentation at a large industry conference and he captivated the audience with each and every point and had them asking for more and requesting his presence as next year’s keynote. If you are looking to bring innovation to your organization or catapult your team’s strengths to the next level, John is the man you want to talk to.”
– Vice President Strategic Initiatives, Mather Lifeways
John is a natural-born public speaker, and not in the way that he’s just good with memorizing a line to share with an audience. He’s passionate, emotional, charismatic, and fantastic at what he does. John speaks in a way that feels intimate – as though you were simply chatting with him in a living room over a glass of beer.
He’s the first TEDxNaperville speaker to give two talks, each unique and radical and delivered with such gusto and impact that he’s become one of our most viewed speakers.
– Producer, TEDx Naperville
I have had the pleasure of attending several events where John has been the key speaker – both in front of 100 people and crowds of thousands. He is truly riveting – his talent is weaving facts, examples and intellectual principles into engaging stories which bring his topics to life for his audiences. Even on the few occasions I’ve been part of his preparation and know his topics, I still walk away from the main event with pages of notes and invaluable nuggets I can use in my own professional and even personal life.
– Vice President, Client Services and Practice Lead, Change Strategy & Enablement, Lake Shore Associates
John Coyle was extraordinary. He was universally embraced by our City team and provided extremely valuable training to all those in attendance. The response from staff was overwhelming. He did a fantastic job. Incredible professional with an equally amazing story. We can’t wait to have him back!
– Assistant City Manager, City of Ontario
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing John Coyle speak many times over the past several years, and his Tedx talk certainly lived up to my high expectations. John’s delivery and message was genuine; he conveyed a real sense of sincerity in wishing well for others and wanting each person to achieve his or her own personal happiness. His presentation was compelling in that he delivered a clear call to action in terms of instructing people how to take a realistic yet non-judgmental view of themselves and to play to their strengths – John made a definite point and provided clear takeaways for the audience.
John has a gift for creating content that is both understandable and easy to relate to. Even though the experience he described was extraordinary, he described it with humility in a way that made him seem like a regular guy – just like the rest of us, but with no “aww, shucks, I’m nothing special” pretense. The visuals John had to accompany his presentation were clean and simple; they supported his delivery very well. I’m very much looking forward to his next speaking engagement!
– Strategic and operational planning expert,
John’s ability to grip an audience, to craft a business story on very human terms, to tie it back to the success of his team’s efforts is one the best I have ever seen. Even after John moved on from US Cellular, his story of their loyalty transformation was so compelling and well delivered that we continued to ask him to speak to audiences around the world
– Head of Engagement Sciences, TIBCO Engage, TIBCO
To say that John is intellectually creative, personally engaging, and a gifted communicator would only understate the case. He’s an unusually high bandwidth individual, who’s thought processes extend well beyond any boundaries presented, who’s written communication skills are unusually high, and who’s speaking and presentation capabilities are atypically charismatic. While at US Cellular, he wasn’t only well-liked, he was also broadly admired — and served as both catalyst and leader for US Cellular’s most ambitious foray into the development of an innovative — and unique within the industry — service offering.
– Senior Director – Strategy & Corporate Development, US Cellular