Talks · Workshops · Facilitation
Keynotes, workshops, and coaching for leaders on the decisions that stall execution.
I partner with event organizers and leadership teams on talks and workshops built for hard decisions and tight constraints. Useful in the room. Still useful on Monday morning.
Chemical engineer by training, with a career across Procter & Gamble, McKinsey & Company, and The Coca-Cola Company. Today: executive coaching, advisory work, and building ventures from the ground up.
From the desk of Jared D. Simmons
Sessions
Each session works as a keynote or an interactive workshop. I shape the format to the room: a conference stage, a leadership offsite, an executive team, or a cross-functional working session.
For managers and executives who direct work, develop people, and set direction. Often all in the same day.
Which role does this moment need? The skills are usually there. Reading the moment is the harder part. Participants learn to spot the difference, choose on purpose, and resist defaulting to the role that feels most comfortable.
Want to work on this one-on-one? See coaching and advisory.
For leadership teams that have agreements on paper but uneven follow-through in practice.
Who decides? Who hands off to whom? Results often live in the plumbing: trust, decision rights, handoffs, and operating rhythm. Participants leave seeing what’s getting in the way, with specific adjustments that turn agreements into follow-through.
For executives and operating leaders under pressure to protect margin without weakening the business.
Some cuts look good on the P&L this quarter and cost you later. Leaders learn to weigh cost and margin opportunities across product, process, and operations while protecting what customers value and what the organization needs to execute.
For cross-functional teams responsible for turning ideas into results.
Innovation tends to stall at the seams, where shared goals, capability, collaboration, and process stop lining up. Participants learn to find those seams early and close the gap between intention and execution.
What deserves our return, and what doesn’t
For leaders and teams who keep returning to the same issues without getting clearer, or keep reaching for a new tool before using what they already know.
Sometimes progress starts by slowing down. We look at the actual issue before the symptoms, your own experience before outside benchmarks, and what you already know before the next technique. Everyone leaves with three things: something worth revisiting, something worth releasing, and a next action.
Also available on request: The Cost of Standing Still. Why doing nothing can feel like the responsible choice when things are uncertain, and how leaders create movement without pretending the path is obvious.
Looking for one-on-one work? See coaching and advisory.
Coaching and advisory
One-on-one coaching and advisory work for senior leaders navigating complexity, an expanded scope, or high-stakes decisions, and for rising managers whose organizations sponsor their coaching.
It’s confidential, and it can be virtual or in person.
This work is built to help you move from rumination to experimentation and from doubt to decision.
My coaching is built on a simple philosophy: think. interact. act. It helps you see which mode a problem needs, so you can move. See how it works.
It starts with a conversation.
Approach
I treat every talk and workshop like a conversation.
Conversational. I talk with people, and I leave room for questions and pushback.
Engaged. People work on a problem they’re facing now, while the ideas are fresh.
Relatable. Plain language and first-hand stories from Procter & Gamble, McKinsey, Coca-Cola, and building ventures from the ground up, including the lessons I learned the hard way.
The goal is a useful reframe, practice on live work, and enough structure to keep moving after the session ends.
“The real work starts after the idea makes sense.”
My consulting practice, working with leaders and teams on complex problems, decisions, and execution.
Visit OUTLASTA venture I founded and operate: a network of business hubs for Mid-market America. Gather. Advise. Connect.
Visit KIWAVIMy podcast. Conversations with people across industries about how they define, practice, and sustain innovation.
Listen to What is Innovation?About
I’m a speaker, facilitator, advisor, and executive coach. My work sits between ideas and execution, where the problem is real, the pressure is high, and progress still needs to happen.
I’m a chemical engineer by training. I started in R&D at Procter & Gamble, joined the Product Development and Innovation practice at McKinsey & Company, and later served as a Strategic Initiatives Director at The Coca-Cola Company, responsible for a pipeline of product innovation initiatives.
Today I coach and advise leaders, facilitate leadership teams, and host the What is Innovation? podcast. I’m an executive coach and facilitator.
Outside of work: former cover-band lead singer and keyboardist, now exploring solo jazz. Published poet. Reader of the Shakespearean author, and curious about who that was. Puzzles of every kind, and football.
Looking for a coach or advisor? Let’s talk first.
Every engagement starts with a conversation. Tell me what you’re navigating, who’s involved, and what a real outcome looks like.
For an event, include the date, the audience, and what you want people to leave with. I’ll follow up with a recommendation, whether that’s one of the sessions above or a format built for your group.
Helpful to include: the session you’re considering, keynote or workshop, audience size, and any timing constraints. Or write directly to Jared@JaredDSimmons.com.