More Keynotes, Masterclasses and How To’s
Lonely at the office
The biggest threat of the 21st century.
Mother Teresa used to say that loneliness was the worst disease she’s ever seen, the leprosy of the West.
1 in 5 teens report that they are lonely and have no friends.
Half of women in the workplace report feeling lonely.
The pandemic exposed the true disease of our time, loneliness.
Being lonely is more detrimental to your health than smoking 15 cigarettes per day. It causes anxiety and, of course, depression.
Everything convenient from ordering groceries, tapping to pay, and remote work all can make it worse.
“Lonely people are also more likely to resign. Loneliness begets loneliness, once a person is lonely, they become more difficult to approach. They tend to not listen well and they become more focused on themselves” du Plessis (2022)
“Loneliness does strange things to our brains; researchers have discovered that loneliness reduces our ability to feel and experience empathy. Empathy is being able to see something from someone else’s point of view, to try to understand the way they think and why they feel the way that they do. In fact, the lonely brain becomes hyper-alert to threats.” du Plessis (2022)
In this Talk
I pull data and research from my 2022 thesis on loneliness and explore the causes and effects of loneliness on our work, and social and political structures. And I give practical examples of how your organization can start the journey of combatting one of the biggest threats in the 21st century.
Who should attend
Leadership teams
Team Leads
Wellness and People teams
“Pierre’s talk was truly engaging – he was easy to listen to and his advice was highly practical. The audience was captivated, and 178 attendees were in awe. Thank you for a soul-touching deliverance of a well-appreciated topic, especially in this pandemic challenging times.”
Digital Detox
A talk and guided Body Practice
We spend an inordinate amount of time in front of and staring at our black rectangles, our screens.
People spend around six hours a day in front of a screen and on average about two to three hours on our phones. And during the pandemic our screen use has skyrocketed.
Our eyes hurt, our backs ache, and our attention span aspires to be that of a goldfish.
We need a digital detox.
We live completely disconnected from our own bodies, living out out lives on social media platforms and glued to screens.
This 30 min presentation (online or in-person) teaches you and your team the importance of stepping away from the screen. It includes a guided Body Meditation/Practice which everyone can use as part of your daily rhythm, to help you and your team detox, reconnect to their bodies and be all round healthier and happier people.
Included
The session also includes a private link to a studio quality recording of the practice sent to all participants for later use.
“The more high-tech we become, the more high-touch we need to be.”
Ora et Labora
How to build a meaningful life and business
Only one in five people are actively engaged and happy at work, three are apathetic and the fifth is actively trying to damage the company they work for.
The new workforce is demanding more than just a paycheck. They want meaning. They want to work for a place that does meaningful work and is engaged in making the world a better place.
Move fast and break things, Zuckerberg's famous motto is now a thing of the past. Customers are demanding virtuous, responsible organisations that are not only for profit, but also for good.
How we build meaning into business is the question every leader should be asking. How do we create live consciously, and create conscious businesses?
CEO's across the globe, like Jeff Weiner from LinkedIN with his focus on compassionate leadership and Satya Nadella that rebooted Microsoft on to run on empathy. These and others have discovered the power and need for building conscious businesses by infusing spiritual practices, principles and values, like compassion and empathy into the core of their multi billion dollar businesses in order to create impactful organisations and meaningful workplaces.
Spiritual principles dig into the core of who we are as human beings. Principles such as compassion, kindness, and recognising each other as valuable and unique function as powerful cultural drivers in a business.
'Ora et Labora', Latin for prayer and work has been the secret of multi million dollar businesses run from Monasteries. "The counterintuitive secret that the monks and the world’s greatest salespeople have discovered is that the more successfully we forget our selfish motivations, the more successful we become.” August Turak
In this keynote, Pierre explores spirituality and work and what focusing on more than just profit can add into a business and into the lives of the people that work there. He presents universal spiritual principles and practices that can give any business and each one who works something to be, something to want, and something to do.
“Pierre captivated the group with an insightful look at spirituality and work. He took a difficult topic and delivered in a way that reached and inspired each person in different way. Members of my team, from all walks of life, took something away from this presentation and we all enjoyed Pierre’s genuine talent for presentation and storytelling”
The Art of Discernment
A Keynote & Masterclass on crafting a virtuous strategy in a chaotic world.
"Move fast and break things" is a motto that is outdated and increasingly indefensible. More and more consumers are demanding that organisations are responsible, authentic, and in fact, virtuous.
How does one design a virtuous strategy in a VUCA, Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous, world?In this keynote and masterclass Pierre pulls from ancient decision making techniques and philosophies to help businesses chart a better course in a VUCA world.
After this talk your leaders will be better equipped with anchors and practical tool kits, some centuries old, that will greatly assist to bring clarity and help to make more confident decisions.
They will be able to design a strategy that is authentic and responsible even in times of great upheaval and chaos.
After the masterclass they will leave with a worksheet filled with practice and reflections to guide their path as leaders.
Prostitutes, the Andes, and Japanese Sword Makers.
On the importance of mentorship, friendship and strangers
We live in a world obsessed with the 'I' so much so that we cannot even spell WII without two I's. We need to re-connect to run sustainable businesses where knowledge is not hoarded but shared, we need to re-kindle friendships to simply be healthier human beings.
In this talk, featured at TEDx Soweto, Pierre offers a new framework to guide us to form 4 types of relationship necessary for us to move forward as companies, and simply just as human beings.
We are not born as individuals, we were born as part of a community, a tribe, a nation. Each of us carry a scar with us on our stomach's that tells of our connection, once, to the rest of humanity.
It’s no secret that chaos is near certainty in almost every aspect of our lives and even more so in business. Everything from changing weather patterns to Artificial Intelligence is disrupting our day-to-day.
Mere living, and not to mention doing business, now takes a level of awareness and ability to handle ambiguity and complexity that has never been required before.
Change is the only constant.
The irony is, that it is only in times of chaos, in times of great upheaval, great disruption, that true change is possible. And it is only in the liminal spaces, the twilight zones, the cracks that positive change can happen. It is only during these times that true innovation happens.
Never let a disaster go to waste, Obama’s advisor told him during his ’08 campaign, a disaster allows us to do things that couldn’t be done before.
After this talk your audience will leave with a new paradigm for not only surviving chaos, but thriving in it.
Chaos is a gift.
Discovering the biggest missed opportunity in innovation.
How to: Deal with Anxiety and Fear
A series of Practices dealing with anxiety and fear
Fear and Anxiety is caused by our thoughts of the future, our worries about what we cannot control. It severely affects our ability to work and to enjoy the present moment.
These four simple practices are designed to help move you back to the present and regain control.
In these sessions you will learn:
A grounding practice
A Breathing exercise
A Meditation to help you deal with the negative emotions
A journalling practice to help you plan and gain perspective.
These sessions can be booked as a series of four 30 minute sessions or as a once off half day session.
Included
Three studio quality audio tracks of the first three practices available on a private link to each participants.
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
How to: Make a decision
Using age old techniques to make a decision
Whether you are brainstorming a new strategy or needing to make a personal career choice, this session filled with practical frameworks will help you make the best decision possible.
Most of us suffer from decision fatigue, with too many options available to us compounded with the uncertainty and complexity that modern life brings.
This interactive process will help you make a good decision based on you and your teams' lived experience.
Included
A downloadable pdf complete with the framework sent to each participant via a private link
How to: Meditate
A simple session teaching the basics of Meditation
Meditation, or mindfulness, has become trendy. This is largely due to the simple fact that it works, it trains our minds to be more resilient, being able to come back from stress and anxiety faster. For the last few decades many scientists have become increasingly interested in the effects of meditation on our brains, reporting effects of well being, calm, and focus.
I have been meditating for the last 15 to 20 years and lead a contemplative community and have personal experienced and seen the positive effect a meditation practice can have in one’s life
In this session I make starting a meditation practice as simple as possible. Teaching the basics you and your team need to know to get started by doing a live, guided 10 - 15 min basic mindfulness style formal meditation as well as suggesting a few informal practices to bring meditation and mindfulness into everyone’s day to day.
Includes
A studio quality audio track of the meditation available to all participants via a private link for use to set up your own practice.