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Deborah Perry Piscione
Authority on Innovation & Leadership
Deborah Perry Piscione
Authority on Innovation & Leadership
Biography
Deborah Perry Piscione is a futurist of business + work, serial entrepreneur, thought leader in innovation, AI + web3 technologies, a LinkedIn Learning author, and New York Times bestselling author.
Renowned expert in AI, web3 technologies, and the future of business + work, Deborah Perry Piscione and Josh Drean co-authored Employment is Dead: How Disruptive Technologies Are Revolutionizing the Way We Work (Harvard Business Review Press, January 28, 2025). They also cofounded the Work3 Institute, a pioneering research and advisory firm equips organizations with innovative frameworks to navigate the seismic shift from traditional work structures to the new paradigms demanded by the AI and web3 era. Drawing on their extensive experience and visionary insights, they guide companies through the complex process of reimagining and restructuring their operations for a rapidly evolving technological landscape.
Perry Piscione relocated to Silicon Valley in 2006. Shortly after her move, while standing in line at a local Starbucks, the woman ahead of her noticed she was new to the area and asked, “How can I help you?” This conversation led to a meeting with a leading venture capitalist at a top-tier venture capital firm, which later resulted in another introduction and a multimillion investment in Perry Piscione’s first startup. Her career trajectory had been dramatically altered.
Perry Piscione was deeply impressed by Silicon Valley’s culture, which stood in stark contrast to her previous work experiences. Having worked in foreign policy in the halls of Congress and the White House and served as a television commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News in Washington, DC, she was accustomed to an environment where division was the norm. Silicon Valley’s collaborative spirit opened her eyes to a new way of thinking and doing business.
Captivated by Silicon Valley’s culture Perry Piscione wrote the New York Times bestseller and highly acclaimed book, Secrets of Silicon Valley, which was acquired in thirty-nine countries. A leading global consulting firm adopted the book to build out the firm’s innovation boot-camp practice. From this experience, Perry Piscione architected Improvisational Innovation, which helps companies innovate using a bottom-up approach in which anyone in any corner of the company could introduce new ideas in a trusted and safe environment. This approach has now been adopted by many Fortune 500 companies.
One of Perry Piscione’s proudest accomplishments is founding the Alley to the Valley (A2V) community. This innovative network quickly earned a reputation as a “female golf course,” where accomplished women could forge powerful connections and close deals, through the A2V ask and offer methodology. Through this initiative, Perry Piscione witnessed firsthand the transformative power of networking spaces that fast-track dealmaking among accomplished women, fostering high-level collaboration.
Speaker Videos
Speaking Demo Reel - Deborah Perry Piscione
Risk Taking Leadership
Improvisational Innovation
Artificial Intelligence
Deborah Speaking Clip - Yes, And
TEDTalk: The Risk Factor
Culture
Innovation
Leadership
On Silicon Valley
Speaking Demo Reel
Talent
Speech Topics
Executing on Innovation: Harvesting New Ideas from Any Corner of the Company
Deborah Perry Piscione has uncovered the DNA from the inspired cultures of the most innovative companies in the world. In doing so, she architected a bottom’s up innovation process called, Improvisational Innovation, where anyone in any corner of the company can bring forth new ideas and be rewarded for it. And for the companies that has heard her presentation and brought the Improvisational Innovation process internally? A record 10x growth in new or existing revenue streams!
New ideas and bold bets are essential for the livelihood and survival of any organization operating in today’s competitive marketplace and era of exponential growth. This presentation is for any leader or manager throughout the company who has been kept up at night and thought, “How do I know where the next big idea is? “ or “What are the incremental or groundbreaking ideas that can be cultivated from my employees?” This presentation is critical for those thinking about company growth and needs to harvest ideas that will either generate new revenue streams or save the company money.
Over 15 years of research and a passion for innovation + democratizing opportunity for everyone in every corner of the company, Deborah Perry Piscione is known for her secret sauce to create growth, a 12-step process over 4-9 months sprints that:
- Provides a framework for ideation + risk-taking
- Captures ideas from any person in every corner of the company in a safe + trusted environment
- Develops talent beyond their day-to-day job
- Rewards the employee and their team
- Creates an entrepreneurial + risk-taking culture
- Generates new revenue streams, products + services for the company
Through her interactive presentation, Deborah addresses the four ingredients of innovative success: 1) A corporate culture that fosters experimentation; 2) Leadership who understands that it is their job to take risks; 3) An environment that values people for all their talents and passions (not just the job they were hired for); and 4) An annual innovation process that allows people to submit ideas in a safe and trusted environment. As Deborah explains, leaders know that without nurturing big ideas, top line expansion is limited. This process helps an organization shift to a growth mode, and addresses the question on how to identify, source, data-mine, and execute upon new ideas from any employee in every corner of the company.
Attendees will learn how to take the annual 12-step Improvisational Innovation process back to their organizations and provide employees an opportunity to bring forth new ideas in a safe and trusted space and be recognized and rewarded for it.
Brought to large enterprises such as Qualcomm, Nike, Pfizer, Phillip Morris International and Accenture, the Improvisational Innovation process has been described as “the most effective means of allowing good ideas to bubble up from anyone at any time.”
How to Create a Risk-Taking Culture to Unleash Workforce Productivity
It’s no coincidence that our most revered business icons are also the boldest risk-takers, such as Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. Yet with so much emphasis on short-term stock price gains and bottom line focus, organizations tend to act too safe, resulting in a stagnant business culture which generates entirely forgettable results in a world that demands significant solutions.
If ground-breaking innovation is about taking calculated risks, then why do companies not only set reams of policies and procedures to limit risk, but also spend no resources developing the key skills and systems for effective risk-taking? In this poignant presentation, Deborah discusses how to get back into the business of taking risk. Based on her series of books, including The Risk Factor: Why Every Organization Needs Big Bets, Bold Characters, and the Occasional Spectacular Failure, Deborah Perry Piscione explores risk-taking as a powerful tool for leaders and their organizations.
Exemplifying the heroes of risk, entrepreneurship, and venture capitalism, and the role risk-taking play in their success, Piscione makes the case that for your culture to act smarter, faster, with more agility in reacting to competition and developing innovative ways to grow, you must explore the one core leadership skill that has been completely ignored in corporate cultures. She explores both the individual skills and organization systems to unleash risk-taking. This is a very exciting speech for an entire audience.
- Discover how to create a culture of risk-taking to generate next level business solutions
- Develop skills for effective risk-taking and betting big on the creativity of employees
- Explore new avenues for improving organizational culture to optimize risk-taking and encourage creative exploration
The Future of Work is Not Employment…It Is the Metaverse
In this keynote, Deborah explores the mindset shift necessary to thrive in the metaverse, provides reasons why employees will eventually abandon traditional employment for the bounty of Web3, and outlines practical strategies that digital-first leaders can start implementing today to take advantage of this vast new world of endless possibilities.
This interactive session cuts through the myths of web3 and explores how forward-thinking, digital first leaders can navigate the impact that the metaverse will have on the future of work, by educating them on the advances in web3 technology and providing practical strategies for them to integrate the Metaverse into their current business practices.
Take a dive into the wonderful interoperability of the metaverse and the impact it will have on the way we view employment.
The metaverse and web3 technologies are rapidly emerging and have the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with the digital world. This introductory presentation will provide an overview of the concepts of the metaverse and web3 technologies and their potential impact on work.
Learning Outcomes:
- Understanding the concept of the metaverse and its potential applications in work environments.
- Exploring the basics of web3 technologies, including blockchain and cryptocurrency, and their potential impact on work.
- Understanding how the metaverse and web3 technologies can impact the way we work, such as enabling decentralized work and creating new business models.
- Identifying the potential challenges and risks associated with the adoption of these technologies in the workplace.
- Developing a basic understanding of the skills and competencies that will be in demand in the metaverse and web3 era.
The metaverse and web3 technologies represent an exciting new frontier that will have a significant impact on work. By understanding the concepts of the metaverse and web3 technologies and their potential impact on work, we can prepare for the future and take advantage of the opportunities that these technologies offer. As the world of work continues to evolve, it is crucial to stay up to date with emerging technologies and be adaptable to change to thrive in the new digital era.
WANTED: Digital First Leaders
Leaders in business have two seminal jobs: to provide a vision for the business, and most importantly to create a company culture that values employees and provides customized experiences to them. Unfortunately, while most leaders provide a vision for the business, they fail at building a craveable culture. They’ve been taught to treat people like pawns on a chessboard, rather than human beings with feelings, dreams and goals. They fail to encourage risk-taking and innovation at every level of the organization.
In this keynote, Deborah helps leaders set the tone of the organization to ring loud and clear throughout the entire company, from the C-Suite to the newest entry-level employee. In the new world of work people’s emotions and ideas matter FIRST, not the mindless execution of a business leaders’ plans.
Deborah will lay out why traditional leadership strategies will continue to slip into obsolescence if they don’t transform and how digital-first leaders can adapt to the changing landscape of the Metaverse. In addition, she will make the case of how Web3 technologies will alleviate the persistent problems that employers often lose sleep to solve, such as employee engagement, productivity, innovation and growth. Participants will dig into the new dynamics of employee power and how it will reshape the employee-employer relationship for the better.
- Understanding the concept of emerging technologies and their potential impact on the future of work.
- Identifying the potential benefits and challenges of new work trends, such as increased collaboration, new business models, and potential privacy concerns.
- Exploring the role of blockchain technology in enabling decentralized work and its potential impact on the future of work.
- Learning about the skills and competencies that will be in high demand such as digital literacy, adaptability, and creativity.
- Developing an action plan for preparing for the future of work as new technologies continue to disrupt the flow of work.
WORKSHOP: The Secrets of Innovative Success
New ideas and bold bets are essential for the livelihood and survival of any organization + government operating in today’s competitive marketplace and era of exponential growth. On the minds of many leaders are the questions such as, “How do I know where the next big idea is?” and “What are the incremental or groundbreaking ideas that can be harvested from my employees?” Leaders know that without nurturing big ideas, topline expansion is limited. Deborah Perry Piscione created Improvisational Innovation™, a bottom-up methodology that engages all the talents of the entire organization, helps the organization shift to a growth mode, and addresses the question on how to identify, source, data-mine and execute upon new ideas from any employee.
Through her interactive and hands-on workshop, Deborah addresses the four Secrets of Innovative Success: 1) A corporate culture that fosters experimentation; 2) Leadership who understands that it is their job to take risks; 3) An environment that values people for all their talents and passions (not just the job they were hired for); and 4) An annual innovation process that allows people to submit ideas in a safe and trusted environment, a process she calls Improvisational Innovation.
A 12-step process over 4-9 months sprints that:
- Provides a framework for ideation + risk-taking
- Captures ideas from any person in every corner of the company in a safe + trusted environment
- Develops talent beyond their day-to-day job
- Rewards the investor and their team
- Creates an entrepreneurial + risk-taking culture
- Generates new revenue streams, products + services for the company
Deliverables: After your leadership team completes the Improvisational Innovation workshop, participants walk away with annual innovation goals to address your company’s opportunity spaces, pain points and under addressed needs for growth and cost-savings. The workshop arms you and your leadership team with a step-by-step, month-to-month, plan of deliverables, KPIs, and key motivators for inspiring your employees to participate.
After the workshop, participants have the opportunity to refresh with Deborah’s LinkedIn Learning courses, “Executing on Innovation” and “Risk-taking for Leaders,” Both of her courses have been reviewed and approved by LinkedIn Learning and the PMI® Authorized Training Partner Program and qualifies for professional development units (PDUs).
Improvisational Innovation has been adopted at Fortune 500 companies such as Qualcomm, Tata Enterprise, NetApp, Nike, Pfizer, Philip Morris International, Accenture, Coppel (Mexico), among others. On average, the process has yielded $200M USD in new and expanded revenue streams within 12-18 months of adoption. The Improvisational Innovation process has also been embraced by startups and fundamental for governments that are trying to diversify their economies and build regional ecosystems.
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