Gaia Grant
- Creative Thinker, Author
- Conducted Breakthrough Research with the Discipline of Strategy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Gaia Grant Speaker Biography
Gaia Grant (PhD) has deep insights into the challenges of leading innovation and change.
Gaia is a director of Tirian International Consulting, with 30+ years’ experience in strategic development with a range of global organisations from Fortune 500 companies through to NFPs. She is the author of a number of books including: The Innovation Race: How to change a culture to change the game, along with international bestseller Who Killed Creativity?… And How Can We Get it Back and Leading Purpose-Driven Innovation.
As a researcher on innovation with the University of Sydney Business School and the creator of the unique ‘Innovator’s Profile’ and ‘Polar Positioning’ (PoP) tool, Gaia provides a unique perspective on how leaders can deal with the dynamic tensions that can either fuel or frustrate innovation for sustainable growth.
Gaia’s presentation approach is engaging and evidence-based, ensuring her audiences walk away with clear practical frameworks to apply and specific actionable outcomes.
Gaia’s research focuses on how to lead to create a culture that supports sustainable innovation. In her research Gaia draws on data she’s collected from thousands of survey responses and multiple interviews with global leaders. Her work with the University of Sydney Business School includes evaluating and designing work-based learning and development programs to prepare people for the future of work. Gaia’s research clients have included The Australian Institute of Company Directors and the peak Australian Superannuation Association Fund to investigate the importance of creating a culture of integrity following the outcomes of the Haynes Royal Commission. Gaia’s qualifications include: PhD (USYD); MSc (State University of New York); Grad. Cert. Creative Change Management (SUNY); BD Hons (MCD University); BA Dip Ed (Macquarie), FHEA.
Gaia’s has consulted to and worked with a range of market leaders, including: Google (US), JP Morgan (Asia Pacific), Visa (US), Salesforce (Asia Pacific), Boeing (& partner airlines internationally), Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts (Canada), Citibank (Asia Pacific), HSBC (Hong Kong), AMP Bank (Aust), Deloitte Digital (Aust), KPMG (Aust), Bloomberg (Aust), Baker & McKenzie (Asia Pacific), Colgate Palmolive (Innovation Lab America), Deutsche Bank (Asia Pacific) and many other MNCs who can all attest to her insightful approach.
Gaia has presented keynotes at a number of high-profile events including: Salesforce International Roadshow | Gartner Symposium CIO ITXpo | ATO (Australian Tax Office) | World President Organization Global conference | Optus / Singtel national event |Growth Faculty Conference | HSBC C-Suite. Other selected industry keynote and workshop presentations have included Ci Creative Innovation Conference (Australia) and the Creative Problem-Solving Institute (State University of New York, US). Gaia has also presented her research papers at a number of universities internationally including across the US (such as Xavier and Miami), Asia Pacific (including Bhutan, Central Philippines University), as well as delivering at major US & European management theory conferences: Academy of Management (Israel), European Group of Organisation Studies (Europe) & PROS.
Gaia is a recognized thought leader and a highly skilled presenter, facilitator and consultant who has developed a wide range of strategies and tools that can be used to find solutions to the most difficult challenges. Along with her corporate client work, Gaia with her partner Andrew Grant has also researched, designed and delivered long-term innovation culture solutions for a number of not-for-profit organisations, including directing a one-year project working on innovation solutions for a government project that supports impoverished farmers with improving agriculture techniques in Indonesia, coordinating strategies for refugee organisations to overcome challenges internationally, and producing a health curriculum for more than 25 million teachers and students in India.
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Speech Topics
LEADING INNOVATION ON THE EDGE: Navigating the AI Adoption Divide
CATEGORIES: AI, LEADERSHIP, INNOVATION, CREATIVITY, FUTURIST, + Business, Future of Work, and Asia / Global Affairs.
The rapid rise of AI is reshaping leadership, adding an unpredictable ‘X factor’ to an already complex landscape.
INTRO: As businesses race to innovate, leaders must juggle competing demands—balancing urgency and caution to drive sustainable growth. This new wave of growth is reshaping leadership, forcing executives to balance tradition with transformation, speed with strategy, and agility with stability.
ABOUT: Innovation has become essential not just because it’s fashionable, but because the challenges faced are compounding and won’t stand still. Yet many leaders feel torn between maintaining core services and rethinking how those services must rapidly evolve. The tension between competing demands is real, especially when teams are stretched, and the stakes are high. This session cuts through the noise, tackling the core paradoxes of AI-driven transformation and providing practical strategies. Covering areas such as decision-making, problem-solving, fostering an innovation culture, and leadership tactics, participants learn how to balance creative ingenuity with AI-powered efficiency. The topic provides a powerful introduction and/or subplot to ensure AI supports—not hinders—innovation, empowering organizations to succeed in an era of disruption
THE WHAT: The dynamic keynote also explores the unique challenges of AI adoption: examining how leaders can harness the potential without losing control. Through groundbreaking insights from Andrew and Gaia Grant’s book The Innovation Race and Gaia Grant’s unique research with the University of Sydney Business School, the keynote/workshop introduces powerful tools like the Innovation Climate Leadership Indicator (iCLi) and Dynamic Polar Positioning (DPoP) to help leaders navigate digital transformation. Several case studies are also included to show how these principles and tools can be applied in real-world settings.
THE WHY: While many futurists indulge in sharing dazzling forecasts and speculative tech marvels, Andrew Grant and Dr. Gaia Grant offer a grounded, strategic approach. This session isn’t about predicting the future. Instead, it prepares leaders to confidently manage uncertainty. The focus is not on future fantasies but on future readiness. As a result, executives and leaders are equipped with practical strategies to foster agility, resilience, and sustainable innovation—ensuring they don’t just keep up with AI but lead through disruption.
Dr. Gaia Grant and Andrew Grant will not only help you stay current with AI but also lead through the tension. Participants leave with the confidence to steer transformational change in an era where complexity, creativity, and AI must coexist.
Key Takeaways & Talking Points
• Understand the impact of AI on leadership and innovation
• Navigate the tensions between speed and strategy in AI-driven change
• Gain insights into effective (Ambidextrous) leadership styles and how to manage the competing demands
• Apply practical models and tools designed to executive digital transformation with confidence
CREATIVE & CRITICAL THINKING IN THE AGE OF AI: Building the Thinking Skills That Technology Can’t Replace
CATEGORIES: AI | LEADERSHIP | INNOVATION | CREATIVITY | FUTURE OF WORK | CRITICAL THINKING
In an era where AI is transforming how organizations think, decide, and innovate, this session equips leaders with the human capabilities that matter most: creative intelligence and critical judgment. Andrew Grant and/or Dr Gaia Grant demonstrates how to harness AI as a powerful accelerator—without losing the originality, insight, and reflective thinking that drive breakthrough performance and ensure ‘human-in-the-loop’.
Blending global executive experience, research insights, and frameworks featured in the Harvard case study JPMorgan Chase: Leadership in the Age of GenAI., this session explores how to generate novel ideas, evaluate them rigorously, and navigate complexity with clarity. Participants learn how AI reshapes problem solving and decision making, and how to avoid the cognitive biases and shortcuts that undermine innovation.
The session introduces practical tools and diagnostics—including the Creative Quotient (CQ), the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT), and Tirian’s AI Creativity Utilization Dial—to help leaders identify their creative strengths, challenge assumptions, and determine when to lean on AI versus when human ingenuity must lead.
Designed as a keynote or an interactive workshop, this session gives teams the confidence and capability to tackle “wicked problems” using a balanced blend of AI enabled efficiency and human driven creativity.
Key Takeaways & Talking Points
• Strengthen creative and critical thinking as core leadership capabilities in an AI accelerated world
• Learn when and how to integrate AI into creative and design thinking processes
• Use the AI Creativity Utilization Dial to balance human insight with machine intelligence
• Use the CQ and TTCT to measure your creative thinking capacity—and examine where human creativity outperforms AI’s attempts.
• Overcome cognitive biases and build a culture of thoughtful enquiry and innovation
A dynamic, future focused session for organizations seeking to elevate thinking, sharpen decision making, and unlock the full potential of human–AI collaboration.
MORE CORE KEYNOTE TOPICS DR GAIA GRANT &/OR ANDREW GRANT
We need to be creative to be innovative. But the relentless push to innovate faster is producing a toxic culture that may undermine the whole creative process. In our rush for end results fast, we could ironically be killing the very thing that will lead us to innovation: creativity. Creativity and innovation are not interchangeable words, and it’s important for effective businesses to understand why. In these sessions, we explore why we need both, and the paradoxes behind this that can impact our work.
Core Keynote AND/OR A hybrid keynote / workshop. This option allows for the participants and all stakeholders to walk away with interactive, actionable data from the collective intelligence of the group’s contributions to real live workplace challenges and solutions. (rec 1- 2 hours.)
INNOVATE:
1. Leading on the Edge: Navigating the AI Adoption Divide. Explores the leadership paradox at the heart of AI adoption—how to embrace innovation without losing what matters most. By balancing the ‘Explore’ and ‘Preserve’ mindsets, leaders can move beyond hype to drive meaningful, sustainable change. (+ JPMChase Leadership in the age of Gen-AI case study).
2. The Innovation Race: Becoming Future Ready. Who will win, lose and be eliminated? What does successful & sustainable Innovation look like? Includes: best practices- Countries, Companies, Cultures, Innovation Leaders, Business Transformation in an AI world.
3. Are you an Innovative Leader? Creating agile leadership teams: Identifying ambidexterity across different occupational profiles to manage the tension of change. (includes an Innovation profiling assessment iLCi)
4. How to Make Rapid AND Responsible Decisions about New Innovations. Mastering the art of purpose-driven innovation leadership for driving sustainable change
5. The Collaboration Concept: A gamified simulation (including a live social experiment & gamified simulation to explore the challenge of building collaborative teams in a corporate competitive environment)
These programs have been successfully deployed to benchmark and develop the UAE Prime Minister’s Office Future Leaders (with DukeCE). + APEC CEO Forum, Baker McKenzie, Boeing, Channel, Gartner, General Mills, Google, HSBC, ICBC Bank of China, Lenovo, Lufthansa, Salesforce, YPO & for Harvard Business School.
CREATE:
1. The AI Creative Challenge: Leading Through Innovation. Harness AI without losing the human spark
2. Harnessing Creative Intelligence (CQ) – for a distinct competitive advantage
(including personal creativity measure feedback and goals).
3. Who Killed Creativity?… And How to Get it Back? Identifying creativity challenges and solutions from the classroom to the boardroom (including why Design Thinking often fails and how to prepare for it better).
4. The 7 Critical & Creative Thinking Strategies + AI Critical Thinking Lab: Future-Proofing Leadership- for generating practical new innovations (including 7 practical examples & applications from the 7-step process)
This framework has accelerated innovation across the mobility ecosystem, including Daimler, SAIC Motor & Toyota. Other industry leader engagements include: Accenture, Alipay, ANZ Bank, Citibank, Deloitte, Deutsche Bank, Google, KPMG, Nestlé, PwC, Salesforce, Swiss Re, YPO.
