SPEAKING
Ideas that move people to lead better
Dr. Shawna Gann speaks on how complex identity exposes the hidden dynamics of workplace culture.
Drawing on research, storytelling, and leadership insight, her sessions help audiences recognize the signals shaping credibility, participation, and belonging at work. They build new language for understanding why some people work twice as hard to be seen as half as capable, while others move through the same organization barely noticing there is a system at all.
Audiences leave with a sharper lens for what is happening inside their cultures, and a clearer sense of where to start.
SHE FREQUENTLY SPEAKS WITH
Leadership teams · Professional associations · Higher education audiences · Organizational learning communities · Conferences across leadership, HR, learning and development, coaching, education, and organizational development
SPEAKING THEMES
Sessions that change what people notice
These sessions introduce audiences to new ways of understanding identity, culture, and leadership in contemporary workplaces.
Mixed signals.
What complex identity reveals about workplace culture.
Experiences of identity ambiguity, multicultural backgrounds, and other liminal identities expose cultural dynamics that stay invisible to everyone else. Drawing on research and real stories, this talk shows how everyday workplace interactions signal credibility, shape participation, and influence whose ideas get heard.
Audiences gain a new way of interpreting workplace culture and recognizing the signals that shape belonging and contribution.
Belonging works like membership.
How culture decides who counts at work.
Belonging is usually described as a feeling. Inside organizations it behaves more like a condition of membership. This session explores how workplace cultures signal who counts as a legitimate member of the group, and whose perspectives are treated as fully part of the organization.
Participants leave with a clear line between fitting in and belonging, and insight into how leadership behavior makes membership feel stable or conditional.
Unlocking contribution.
How leaders shape the culture their teams experience.
Leaders influence culture every day through the signals embedded in their decisions, expectations, and communication. This session examines how leadership behavior signals credibility, encourages or suppresses participation, and determines whether expertise is ever heard.
Participants gain practical insight into how leadership behavior influences collaboration, thinking, and innovation.
Beyond the pyramid.
Rethinking human needs at work.
The hierarchy of needs many of us learned, the familiar pyramid, has shaped how many organizations think about motivation and development. This session explores alternative perspectives on human needs, ones that emphasize connection, community, and interdependence rather than individual progression up a pyramid.
Participants leave with a fresh perspective on how workplaces can support both individual development and collective flourishing.
Karaoke keynote.
A sing-along about identity, belonging, and being fully yourself.
IN PERSON ONLY · COMING SOON
A sixty-minute experiential performance that weaves live music, audience sing-alongs, and personal storytelling into a conversation about what it costs to leave pieces of yourself at the door, and what becomes possible when you stop.
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 everyone else knows is how we signal belonging. Performing fluency in someone else's cultural playlist is how many people spend their careers.
Participants leave having laughed, sung, and sat with something real.
TYPES OF ENGAGEMENT
Four ways to work together
Dr. Gann works with organizations and professional communities in several formats. Each can stand alone or open a longer engagement.
Keynotes
Presentations for conferences, leadership gatherings, and organizational events that introduce audiences to new ways of understanding workplace culture.
45 TO 60 MINUTES
Workshops
Interactive learning experiences where participants explore how these ideas apply to real workplace situations and cultural dynamics.
90 MINUTES TO HALF DAY
Leadership retreats
Facilitated conversations supporting leadership teams as they examine the signals shaping culture inside their organization.
HALF DAY TO FULL DAY
Webinars and virtual sessions
Shorter sessions designed for distributed teams, professional communities, and online learning events.
60 TO 90 MINUTES
CONNECTION TO RESEARCH
The talks come from the work
These sessions draw on Dr. Gann's research into race and complex identity in professional settings, including five years of original research with multiracial and multiethnic professionals.
Mixed Signals: A Multiracial Window into Civility and Belonging at Work
Her work combines research, storytelling, and practical insight so audiences understand the cultural dynamics shaping credibility, participation, and belonging in contemporary workplaces.
HOW THE SESSIONS COME TOGETHER
Research driving insight
Every session rests on evidence, not opinion. Participants leave with frameworks they can name, teach, and use long after the session ends. Sessions can be paired with assessment, follow-up practice, or a longer engagement, depending on what the organization is trying to shift.
NEXT STEP
Let's find the right next step.
A short conversation is usually enough to find the leverage point and shape the right session.
