Speaking & Workshops
Dr. Shawna Gann speaks on how complex identity dynamics expose hidden patterns in workplace culture.
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Drawing on research, storytelling, and leadership insight, her sessions help audiences recognize the signals shaping credibility, participation, and belonging at work — and develop new language for understanding why some people have to work twice as hard to be seen as half as capable, while others move through the same organization barely noticing there's a system at all.
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Audiences leave with a sharper lens for what's happening inside their cultures and a clearer sense of where to start.
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Dr. Gann frequently speaks with:
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Leadership teams
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Professional associations
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Higher education audiences
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Organizational learning communities
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Conferences focused on leadership, culture, and identity
Maslow’s hierarchy has shaped how many organizations think about motivation and development. This session explores alternative perspectives on human needs that emphasize connection, community, and interdependence rather than individual progression.
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Participants leave with a fresh perspective on how workplaces can support both individual development and collective flourishing.
Beyond Maslow — Rethinking Human Needs at Work
Leaders influence culture every day through the signals embedded in their decisions, expectations, and communication. This session explores how leadership behavior shapes credibility, encourages or suppresses participation, and determines whether ideas and expertise are fully engaged within a team.
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Participants gain practical insight into how leadership behavior influences collaboration, thinking, and innovation.
Unlocking Contribution — How Leaders Shape the Culture Their Teams Experience
This isn't a traditional keynote. It's a sixty-minute experiential performance that weaves live music, audience sing-alongs, and personal storytelling into a conversation about what it actually costs to leave pieces of yourself at the door — and what becomes possible when you stop.
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Drawing on research into complex identity and liminal experience, Dr. Gann uses the structure of karaoke as both a format and a metaphor. Knowing the songs in the room is how we signal belonging. Performing fluency in someone else's cultural playlist is how many people spend their careers.
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Participants leave having laughed, sung, and sat with something real.
Karaoke Keynote — A Sing-Along About Identity, Belonging, and Being Fully Yourself
(In-Person Only — Coming Soon)
Belonging is often described as a feeling, but in organizations it operates more like a condition of membership. This session explores how workplace cultures signal who is recognized as a legitimate member of the group and whose perspectives are treated as fully part of the organization.
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Participants leave with a clearer understanding of the difference between fitting in and belonging and insight into how leadership behavior shapes whether membership feels stable or conditional.
Belonging Isn’t a Feeling — How Culture Shapes Membership at Work
Mixed Signals — What Complex Identity Reveals About Workplace Culture
Experiences of identity ambiguity, multicultural backgrounds, and other liminal identities often expose cultural patterns that remain invisible to others. Drawing on research and real-world stories, this talk reveals how everyday workplace interactions signal credibility, shape participation, and influence whose ideas are heard.
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Audiences gain a new lens for interpreting workplace culture and recognizing the signals shaping belonging and contribution.
These sessions introduce audiences to new ways of understanding identity, culture, and leadership in contemporary workplaces.
Speaking Themes
Keynotes
Presentations for conferences, leadership gatherings, and organizational events that introduce audiences to new ways of understanding workplace culture.
Dr. Gann works with organizations and professional communities in several formats.
Types of Engagement
Workshops
Interactive learning experiences where participants explore how these ideas apply to real workplace situations and cultural dynamics.
Leadership Retreats
Facilitated conversations supporting leadership teams as they examine the signals shaping culture inside their organization.
Webinars & Virtual Sessions
Shorter sessions designed for distributed teams, professional communities, and online learning events.
Connection to Research
Many of these sessions draw on insights from Dr. Gann’s research on mixed race and complex identity in professional settings and ideas explored in her forthcoming book Mixed Signals: Complex Identity and the Future of Civility at Work.
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Her work combines research, storytelling, and practical insight to help audiences better understand the cultural dynamics shaping credibility, participation, and belonging in contemporary workplaces.