Speaking Topics
Talks that leave the room with something to do on Monday
I teach for a living, so I do not do inspiration without instruction. Every talk ends with a step the audience can take with the documents they already have.
TOPIC 1
Why Public Institutions Are Slow
The documents problem, explained with real examples
For: leadership teams, boards and program leaders in public institutions.
Public institutions are slow because they don’t understand their own documents. The plan, the budget, the program review and the policy manual were written by different departments in different years, and nobody has read them together. This talk shows what that costs and where to start.
Audiences will learn:
- The four reasons institutions cannot read their own documents: outdated, not connected, all over the place, too complicated
- How to spot the contradiction between the plan and the budget in one sitting
- What to fix first, and what to leave alone
TOPIC 2
Read Your Institution Like an Analyst
Plan, budget and last review, side by side
For: leaders and boards who have to make decisions on documents they did not write.
An analyst reads a company by connecting the pieces: revenue to cost to cash to risk. This talk applies the same discipline to an institution and shows how to find the contradictions in an afternoon.
Audiences will learn:
- The three documents to put side by side before any decision
- How to put a cost on a gap when nobody owns the number
- How to explain the finding so the room acts on it
TOPIC 3
Public Money Made Simple
Budgets and financial statements in plain language
For: people who have to vote on budgets and financial statements without a finance background.
Most people in a public institution decide on money they cannot read. This talk teaches the few things that matter in a budget, a salary structure and a financial statement, in words a smart fifteen year old would follow.
Audiences will learn:
- The five lines in any budget that tell you what is really happening
- How to ask one question that exposes a hidden cost
- How to explain a number to a room that did not ask for it
Both Sides of the Table
What banking taught me about reading documents, what the classroom taught me about explaining them, and why institutions need both. This talk can be shaped to a conference theme or an institution’s own documents.
