As CEO of transformation innovators Symmetry, Jim is a leading architect of change and trusted advisor to international organisations, fast-growth companies and Olympic Teams.
As a speaker, Jim is well known internationally for his energy, humour, engagement and his lasting impact on mindset and action. He leaves a new vocabulary behind that lives on in meetings and in thinking.
Jim Lawless believes that speed is a critical competitive advantage; optimising for adaptability and accepting uncertainty is how we win in volatility.
He works behind the scenes with CEOs and their senior leaders to re-architect how decisions are owned and made throughout the organisation, allowing for speed and uncertainty; learning and unlearning, and encouraging correct decisions and actions to deliver the strategy, even when errors are made in the early phases.
His client list includes Apple, Microsoft, Diageo, Bayer, BAE Systems, Novartis and VW Group. He is the author of the global bestseller Taming Tigers (Penguin Random House).
He has delivered keynotes on his DARE Loop framework and Second Strategy architecture to well over a million people across five continents and is ranked among the world's leading business speakers by Global Gurus.
Jim’s credo is that performance and change are extremely emotionally testing for the individual and for those who would lead them, with discipline, through uncertainty to bold new ambitions. They are not academic pursuits or cascaded strategy decks.
He tests his frameworks at the extreme edge. He became the deepest freediver in British history in just eight months with a dive to 101 metres on a single breath; he moved from non-rider to televised jockey in twelve months. Both were deliberate applications of the DARE Loop methodology. Principles required to do so. Both ran alongside his day job and his most important role, fatherhood.
As a speaker, Jim leaves behind a precise, practical and simple map that audiences use to navigate uncertainty, swapping ownership and action for hesitation and escalation, for many years after the event. As an architect of strategy implementation, he walks beside clients to create tangible success stories, together.
Jim worked as a City of London commercial solicitor before moving into high-performance and change. He was elected a Fellow of the UK’s Royal Society for the Arts in recognition of his business writing.
The human changes.
The environment changes.
Or nothing changes
The Unit of Transformation today is the human being. Yet we do not give them the map for the place outside the comfort zone and rarely provide the leadership environment required to move rapidly into uncertainty, to adapt and execute the bold plan
Symmetry is Jim Lawless's boutique advisory practice; built on a single conviction: that transformation only holds when the individual and their leadership environment shift together. Jim brings twenty-five years of experience in strategy execution with over 300 global organisations. He has a personal track record of boardroom, organisational and personal transformation that gives him the credibility to ask others to be bold and to explain the principles required to do so.
Consistently voted the top Speaker outside of the US, Jim has spoken to well over a million people on five continents. He turns a superb event into a commercial and strategic turning point. Normalising and explaining change, adaptability and uncertainty, Jim gives leaders at every level fresh, vital insights, a new mental model to take away and an immediate shift in how they think about ownership, decision-making and action.
Jim has followed his keynote interactive plenary workshops of up to 3000 people where leaders apply his framework to your strategy to build clarity, take decisions and make commitments before leaving the event.
THE KEYNOTES
The Dare Loop
The unit of transformation in a knowledge economy is the human. Velocity is achieved when our people have the courage, clarity and skills to do new things, fast,to deliver the strategy. Yet nobody teaches your people the map to ‘outside the comfort zone’ so that they can navigate confidently through the self-doubt and emotional turmoil it will bring.
The DARE Loop is the mental model for adopting a growth mindset, designing from the future backwards to build tomorrow’s action list and taking accountability for your results. Jim’s keynote -which takes people from their own ambitions and fears to 101m under the ocean, challenges their limiting beliefs, make high performance accessible and lights up your delegates with energy, laughter and confidence in their ability to deliver the ambition
The Second Strategy
The enterprise strategy, the ‘behaviours’ and the instruction that people are ‘empowered’ have all been rolled out. Yet there is no change. You have a ‘wicked’ problem to solve and ‘The Second Strategy’ is a proven way to approach it. Humans cannot be commanded into being empowered. People need specific things before they will leave their comfort zone, enter uncertainty and become vulnerable to self doubt, failure and criticism: at their workplace. A disciplined Second Strategy is how to deliver the enterprise strategy at the speed required to win today. Every leader from the CEO down needs to be able to understand it, regulate emotion, deliver consistency and nurture the courageous action you need for progress to accelerate.
TESTMONIALS
"Jim Lawless related to our current situation – an organisation going through massive change – with wit, enthusiasm and challenge."
Isabel Nisbet, Acting Chief Executive, OFQUAL
"We at Apple pride ourselves in thinking differently, that is why we work in partnership with Jim. Our big conference pitches and our key sales presentations have both been inspired by the Lawless touch."
Human Resources Director, APPLE EUROPE
“Working with Jim proved to be challenging and a turning point for our Exec team. It allowed us to step back and examine how we were operating as a team and create a team agreement around how we would step up together.”
Ursula Morgenstern, CEO, ATOS UK & Ireland
“Jim made a tremendously positive and inspiring impact - exactly what was needed!”
Nick Pounder, Associate Director Human Resources GILEAD
“It exceeded my expectations in so many ways and I wanted to let you know that the unsolicited feedback from participants has been resoundingly positive. A standing ovation is not given lightly by our European Leadership Team - a true testament to the value you brought to our conference and I'm confident that we are ready as a team to both tame and unleash our inner tigers.”
Sinead Collins, HR Director-European Cereal & Marketing, KELLOG’S
“Jim was truly inspiring on the day. He had the audience memorised with his fantastic story telling - you could hear a pin drop. The subsequent feedback from delegates has been outstanding!”
John Pitts, Training Manager, VOLVO