Susan T. Scott

Susan T. Scott Speaking Topics

• Resilience Is a Decision

  Nobody discovers resilience in a crisis. They reveal it.

  Resilience is often celebrated after the fact, but it is built long before the moment it is needed. In this keynote, Susan T. Scott explores what allows people and organizations to navigate uncertainty, loss, disruption, and change without losing their sense of purpose or possibility. Drawing on lessons from executive leadership, personal adversity, and one of the most visible cancer journeys in modern sports through her brother, Stuart Scott, Susan challenges audiences to rethink resilience not as endurance, but as a daily practice of choice, preparation, connection, and courage.

  Audiences leave with a deeper understanding of what sustains people through difficult seasons—and what leaders can do to create environments where resilience can be strengthened, shared, and revealed. Often people don’t discover whether they are resilient until life tests them. This keynote helps leaders build that capacity before the test arrives.

• Ignoring the Signals That Were Always There. Stop.

  The disruption that blindsides organizations is rarely invisible. It is ignored. That stops today.

  Organizations rarely fail because they lack information. They fail because they misread, dismiss, or delay acting on the signals already around them.

  Drawing on three decades at the center of industry-defining change, Susan T. Scott explores how leaders distinguish between noise and meaningful signals, challenge assumptions, and develop the judgment required to act before circumstances force their hand.

  Using principles of strategic foresight, Horizon 1, 2, and 3 thinking, data-informed decision making, and an understanding of the cognitive biases that distort perception, Susan helps audiences recognize the patterns that others miss—and the blind spots that prevent action.

  Audiences leave with practical tools for identifying emerging opportunities and threats, a deeper understanding of how bias shapes decision-making, and a framework for leading through uncertainty with greater clarity and confidence.

• Lead the Room. Change the Culture.

  Culture isn’t what you say you value. It’s what you tolerate, reward, and model—every single day. How leaders shape the environment in which people work.

  Leaders often talk about culture as if it’s something that happens around them. It isn’t. Culture is created by the behaviors leaders celebrate, ignore, and repeat.

  In this keynote, Susan T. Scott challenges audiences to examine the signals they send through their actions—not their intentions. Drawing on decades of executive leadership, she reveals how trust, accountability, belonging, and performance are shaped long before they appear in employee surveys or strategic plans.

  Audiences leave with a deeper understanding of their role in shaping culture and the practical choices that create lasting change. Every organization has a culture. The question is whether it’s advancing your mission or quietly undermining it.

• Jeffersonian Dinners

  The best conversations are rarely the ones on the agenda. Some of the most important conversations happen around a table. Not everyone wants this experience. The right people never forget it.

  A Jeffersonian Dinner is not a networking event. It is not a workshop. It is a carefully curated gathering of no more than twelve people, convened around a single, provocative question. The topic is decided by the host or corporate sponsor. The host or sponsor is responsible for the dinner meal for participants.

  No presentations. No panels. No performative introductions. Just thoughtful people willing to engage in the kind of conversation most organizations rarely make time for—and most participants never forget.

  Facilitated by Susan T. Scott, these dinners bring together leaders, innovators, board members, and decision-makers who understand that breakthrough thinking rarely emerges from crowded agendas or crowded rooms. It emerges when smart people are given the space to challenge assumptions, explore ideas, and learn from one another.

  The result is something increasingly rare: genuine connection, unexpected insight, and conversations that continue long after the evening ends.

  Available by inquiry. Limited engagements each year.