Susan Pinker

How do we connect with each other when we can’t actually be together? Using the latest evidence from social psychology and social neuroscience, Susan Pinker explores the importance of social interaction: why we need it, what it does for our health, and how it affects our brains and our working relationships. The celebrated author and psychologist also considers how we can achieve mutual trust even while being separated by geography—or by at least six feet of distance. Is there a way to leverage our bonds, both weak and strong, all while hewing to the rules of social distancing? Pinker blends stories, videos, and scientific evidence into a compelling talk, laying out a plan for achieving real communication despite the distance.

A perfect talk for HR groups, managers, and anyone interested in how to understand, attract and retain the workforce of the future, which will look radically different than the workforce of today. How will work evolve over the next decade? In the last year, 80% of recession-related job losses were experienced by men. Compared to the retraction in finance, manufacturing, and agriculture, the education, medical and service sectors are expanding, and the higher percentage of female university graduates will bring more women to higher levels of management and the professions. Companies will need to adjust their cultures—in work-life balance, autonomy and social responsibility—if they want to survive the influx of women, younger workers, and offshore employees, all groups with differing views of loyalty and career-building. Pinker shows you what’s relevant, and what’s not, looking at how these trends affect your work environment today and how to prepare for the next wave of employees.

In this new talk, Susan Pinker shows how face-to-face contact is crucial for learning, happiness, resilience, and longevity. From birth to death, human beings are hard-wired to connect to other human beings. Face-to-face contact matters: tight bonds of friendship and love heal us, help children learn, extend our lives and make us happy. Looser in-person bonds matter, too, combining with our close relationships to form a personal “village” around us, one that exerts unique effects. And not just any social networks will do: we need the real, face-to-face, in-the-flesh encounters that tie human families, groups of friends and communities together. We need close social bonds and uninterrupted face-time with our friends and families in order to thrive—even to survive. Creating our own “village effect” can make us happier. It can also save our lives.

Why is there still a shortage of women in business, politics, engineering and science? Why do many male high school drop-outs earn more than the ambitious girls they sat beside in school? In this entertaining and accessible talk, Susan Pinker answers provocative questions deeply relevant to business leaders: Why do companies have a hard time retaining women at upper level positions? Why do many gifted girls opt out of successful careers as they near the top? Why do men and women make different career choices, how does each define success, and how can you leverage this knowledge—this empirical data—to your advantage? Pinker looks at the roots of sex differences, showing us how the genders solve problems, make decisions and prioritize differently. How are verbal skills, empathy, aggression and competition different in males and females? Drawing on neuroscience, genetics, economics and pop culture, Pinker gives an invaluable talk, showing you how to react to, anticipate and cater to the intrinsic traits of each gender.

Professionals of all stripes must often speak to the press, or to large audiences unacquainted with their core message. When this happens, disaster often strikes—in our eagerness to tell the truth of our research or experience, we forget to cater our message to different recipients: groups with emotional relationships to taboo subject matters, each with their own sets of triggers, ‘sacred cows’, cultural values, and aversions. These divides happen along cultural, political, religious, and generational lines—but they can also cause confusion and misrepresentation across professional partitions when scientists speak to journalists, and vice versa.

In this talk, Susan Pinker gives an informative session on matching message with audience. She explores how taboo, often emotional subjects can sabotage attempts at communication, unless diligent care is taken. She then gives practical advice for anyone confronted with journalists, or the press: giving tips on leading the dance of an interview or conference, avoiding pitfalls and triggers, and always being sensitive to individual differences. With Pinker’s help, we can transform data into a compelling narrative, and properly avoid (or address!) the elephant in the room.