PROFILE
Whitney Johnson is a leading authority on organizational change, ranked among the top 10 management thinkers worldwide by Thinkers50. As CEO and co-founder of Disruption Advisors, she and her team partner with Fortune 500 companies, fast-growing startups, and private equity firms to build high-performing teams through one-on-one executive coaching and large-scale organizational development programs: their client roster includes Kraft Heinz, Intermountain Health, Morgan Stanley and Amazon.
A former Wall Street equity analyst turned C-suite advisor and board member, Whitney brings rare insight into how organizations and their leaders navigate transformation. She co-founded the Disruptive Innovation Fund with Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen and has shaped how companies approach growth through her Wall Street Journal bestselling books “Smart Growth,” “Build an A Team,” and “Disrupt Yourself.” Her frameworks have reached millions through Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review, while her “Disrupt Yourself” podcast engages business and thought leaders in reshaping how we think about change and growth. A trusted voice for leaders navigating disruption, she has nearly 1.7 million followers on LinkedIn.
Through Disruption Advisors, Whitney and her team guide organizations through critical transitions—from succession planning to merger integration—combining analytical rigor with deep emotional intelligence. Recent work includes an exclusive retreat for senior HR executives, demonstrating the firm’s commitment to developing exceptional human capital leaders.
And when Whitney’s not helping organizations disrupt their way to growth? She is at home in Lexington, Virginia with her family, growing raspberries, blackberries and strawberries, and making homemade jam. Though she will tell you there’s a surprising overlap between growing blackberries and change management—both require patience, the right conditions, and a willingness to get your hands dirty.
SPEAKING TOPICS
Disrupt or Be Disrupted
Growing your Business and Yourself in An Era of Disruptive Change
Consider this simple yet powerful idea: disruptive companies and ideas upend markets by doing something truly different. They see a need, an empty space waiting to be filled, and they dare to create something for which a market may not yet exist. Yet executing on that disruption requires the learning and growth of your people. You know your people want to make progress, but don’t always know how. Sometimes they don’t know where to start. Once they start, they can struggle to maintain momentum, and once they’ve made considerable progress, they may tire of what they’ve been doing and need to do something new.
In this keynote, you’ll learn how to use the S Curve of Learning™ Framework to identify where you and each member of your team is in their growth and how to help them navigate their growth––from the launch point to sweet spot to mastery. The fundamental unit of growth is the individual. Companies don’t disrupt, people do.
Smart Growth – The Key to Growing Your Company
The most important funding mechanism for your company’s growth is the learning and growth of your people. But somehow jobs muffle people’s innate desire to learn––they find themselves bored, stagnant, or wanting more at work. In this keynote, you will learn about the S Curve of Learning™, a model for smart growth. We will answer questions like, why, despite the desire to grow, can it be so difficult to start? What does it take to gain and maintain momentum once people start? And finally, why do people outgrow things so quickly? The answers to these questions prepare you to understand the growth process and identify where each person, including yourself, is in his/her growth. When you know where people are on their S Curves, you can help and support them as they move forward. Grow yourself to grow your people to grow your company. That’s smart growth.
How to Build a High Performing Team
The secret to building a high-performing team is to have a plan for developing each employee no matter where they are on their personal learning curves. In this keynote, you will learn about the S Curve of Learning™ Framework and to identify where you and each member of your team is in their growth and then help them navigate their growth––from the launch point to the sweet spot to mastery.
Your team is a collection of S Curves. You build a team that can carry the high load of growth by building a portfolio of individual S Curves that matches your organization’s current needs. When you help each person navigate the entire growth cycle––help them learn, leap and repeat––it is impossible not to gain an organisational advantage. Don’t build just one A Team, build vast networks of A Teams across companies, careers, and lives.
Take Charge of Your Career, Your Organization, and Your Life
We are living in an era of accelerating disruption––no one is immune. But how you deal with disruption defines you. In this keynote, you will learn about the Seven-point Framework of Personal Disruption, a proven algorithm for accelerating your growth. Whether you are early-career, mid-career, or a seasoned professional, deliberate self-innovation will help you build momentum along the various growth curves. If you want to be successful in unexpected ways, follow your own disruptive path. Dare to innovate. Do something astonishing. Disrupt yourself!
