Christopher Kolenda

Christopher Kolenda Speaking Topics

• Why Not? How 1,700 Miles on a Bike Revealed the Secrets to Achieving Improbable Goals

  What would you dare to do if you knew you would succeed?

  By answering that question, you’ve identified a transformation zone goal.

  But here’s the challenge: you cannot achieve transformation zone goals using comfort zone habits.

  Discomfort lies between comfort and transformation; it’s the zone where you fear everyone will watch you fall on your face. That fear prevents you from moving forward on goals that light you up.

  What if you had a proven, repeatable way to navigate discomfort safely?

  This keynote is for CEOs and high-performing leaders who want to break through barriers to growth and ignite their transformational goals.

  Told through the lens of a 1700-mile bicycle ride to honor his unit’s fallen soldiers, Chris Kolenda illustrates how you cross the bridge between current performance and future potential.

  Mastering this process enables you to:

  • Envision your transformation zone goals
  • Develop the strategies you need to break through your comfort zone and turn discomfort into growth
  • Activate the resilience to bounce forward relentlessly from challenges
  • Ignite new possibilities previously hidden from view.

  With compelling stories and actionable strategies, Kalenda equips you with practical steps for navigating the discomfort zone, so you grow beyond your perceived limits and build the endurance to reach extraordinary heights.

  You’ll describe your transformation zone goal and have the confidence to write Why Not in front of it.

  Actionable Objectives you will gain strategies to:

  • Inspire people to contribute their best to your organization’s success.
  • Master ways to respond to challenges and avoid self-sabotaging reactions.
  • Determine who to put in your inner circle and who to keep away from it.
  • Create 1mm adjustments that deliver massive impact.
  • Recognize and address emotional triggers undermining your credibility.
  • Build bridges that inspire co-creation, and avoid walls that invite friction.

• Building an Inspiring Culture®: How to Empower with Accountability, Buy-in, and Clarity

  Imagine the impact when people voluntarily advance your Common Good.

  21-year-old Sergeant Jeffry Gomer heard the bullets crack over his head. He was in charge of 3 paratroopers at an observation post in Afghanistan, providing security for a very important meeting. Captain Joey Hutto was finalizing an agreement with the elders from Mandigal village that would end fighting and strengthen cooperation. 800 people, including children, were watching.

  A shoot-out would have destroyed the months-long process, which is exactly what the shooter intended.

  Sergeant Gomer understood the stakes and what the shooter was trying to do. Instead of responding with bombs and machine guns, he directed his marksman to put two rounds where the gunman fired from.

  He reported the incident to Captain Hutto.

  The elders heard the shots. Joey informed them of what happened. They resumed the meeting and signed the historic agreement.

  How did Sergeant Gomer know the right way to respond?

  How important is it to you for your frontline leaders to have exceptional judgment?

  If you answered “very” or “vital” to that question, this keynote is for you.

  Your company only excels when people buy-in to your common good. In today’s hyper-polarized environment, workplace friction is the norm, with 68% of American employees saying they are unengaged at work and some actively disrupting or undermining your success. Companies report losing nearly eight hours per employee per week to miscommunication. Managers often let problems slide rather than holding people accountable. With four generations in many workplaces, it’s become a short walk from misunderstanding to conflict.

  Chris Kalenda knows a few things about working with challenging audiences. The key to cooperation, he found, was building trust through the ABCs: Accountability, Buy-in, and Clarity: set clear expectations, gain buy-in, and use accountability to improve future performance. Using the ABCs, Chris’s unit motivated a large Afghan insurgent group to stop fighting and switch sides. He later negotiated so successfully with the Taliban that they wrote a letter to the American people asking for talks.

  Your company soars to new heights when you use the ABCs to Build and Inspiring Culture(R), because people contribute their best to your Common Good.

  Learning Objectives:

  • Gain actionable, memorable ways to understand before you try to be understood.
  • Understand the three critical elements of Buy-in and practical ways to get them working together.
  • Discover the empowering technique for accountability that gains joyful traction and avoids making you feel like a jerk.
  • Install a powerful feed-forward approach to improving performance.
  • Develop action steps that build psychological confidence, so people are willing to flag problems, offer new ideas, and try new things.
  • Implement the three elements of collaboration so you can create lasting solutions.

• Adversaries into Allies: How to Resolve Conflict without Collateral Damage

  Have you ever felt ensnared in an unwinnable dispute?

  Think back to how contentious issues like COVID-19 protocols divided families and colleagues. Today's workplaces often mirror these divisions as individuals retreat into ideological echo chambers, breathing their own exhaust and avoiding dissenting voices.

  In many organizations, managers can spend up to 25% of their time resolving disputes while employees lose hours weekly entangled in them. Miscommunication reportedly costs the average company 8 hours per week, per employee.

  What if you had a battle-tested, business-proven, way to resolve conflict that turned even the most persistent adversaries into allies?

  Disagreement, after all, is inevitable, but conflict is voluntary.

  Chris Kolenda's understanding of this profound truth was forged in Afghanistan, where conventional methods of dealing with conflict failed amidst relentless attacks.

  They embraced an unconventional strategy that focused on finding common ground, a move that transformed adversaries into allies, the only example of such success in the history of the war.

  That outcome led to Chris being the Secretary of Defense's personal representative in negotiations with the Taliban. Years later, Chris's discussions with the group were so successful that they wrote a letter to the American people asking for peace talks.

  What would you dare to achieve if you could repurpose the time you waste in conflict into growing your business?

  This keynote will equip your audience with practical strategies to:

  • Turn conflict into cooperation by uncovering what people truly care about.
  • Harness Disagreement for Innovation: Learn how opposing views can spark creativity.
  • Resolve Workplace Conflicts Efficiently: Implement combat-tested strategies tailored for business success.
  • Secure Lasting Buy-In: Discover keys ensuring enduring cooperation and organizational harmony.

  This keynote gives you visual models and behaviors that turn conflict into cooperation. Chris has used these strategies to turn enemies into allies. Imagine what you can achieve with them at your workplace.