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Rob Cross is the founder and research director of the Connected Commons, a consortium of over 100 leading organizations accelerating network research and practice.

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Rob Cross logo

Speaker, Educator, Consultant.

  • Home
  • About
  • Network Strategies
    • Elevate Personal Performance and Well-being
    • Accelerate Role Transitions
    • Execute Critical Work through Networks
    • Propel Organizational Agility and Alignment
    • Promote Rapid Innovation
  • Speaking
  • Work With Rob
  • Courses and Tools
    • Resources: Elevate Personal Performance and Well-being
    • Resources: Accelerate Role Transitions
    • Resources: Execute Critical Work through Networks
    • Resources: Propel Organizational Agility and Alignment
    • Resources: Promote Rapid Innovation
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • White Papers
    • Books
      • The Microstress Effect
      • Beyond Collaboration Overload
    • Media
  • Contact
  • Search
Rob Cross Speaking

Small Shifts, Big Impact.

Presenting insights and strategies to improve organizations and help people drive performance and well-being through networks.

Small shifts in how we connect and collaborate can have a big impact on individuals, teams and organizations.

Known for his pragmatic view and interactive style, Rob creates compelling and interactive sessions for audiences of all sizes and across levels and sectors. Whether giving a conference keynote, presenting at a corporate event or conducting a workshop, he tailors the message to ensure audience engagement and high-value takeaways.

Unlike many speakers, Rob deepens the impact and diffuses the learning through companion online and offline tools and courses. Card sort or workbook activities, used virtually or in the room, optimize engagement with the content. Action planning, online diagnostics and post-program webinars bring participants more deeply into the content and help individuals and teams establish new, more effective ways of working.

Rob’s research and insights have changed the way thousands of leaders manage their organizations and cultivate personal connectivity, enabling them to outperform and thrive in a hyper-connected world.

Large Audience or Small Group … Live or Virtual

Watch highlights of Rob presenting network insights and strategies to improve organizational, team and individual performance.

Keynotes and Presentations

Rob shows how network research can be applied to individual, team and organizational goals and transform the way you lead, work and live.

  • Organizational Performance and Innovation. Topics include creating agile organizations, optimizing network-centric talent strategies, driving successful organizational change through networks and network drivers of psychologically safe/thriving cultures.
  • Teaming and Agility at the Point of Execution. Topics include network drivers of team/unit agility, collaborative practices of high-performing teams/units and overcoming six dysfunctional patterns of collaboration that derail groups.
  • Personal Performance and Well-Being through Networks. Topics include how high performers innovate, execute and thrive through networks, how successful people reduce collaborative overload and social agility in transitions (entry, lateral transfers and promotions) through network practices.

Leadership Development and Workshops

Rob designs workshops around five pressing needs for leadership offsites and strategy sessions, executive education programs, team launches or development efforts.

  • Managing Personal Connectivity for Performance and Well-Being. Successful people are 18-24% more efficient in their collaborations and use this time to build networks that generate innovation, performance and well-being.
  • Managing Transitions through Social Agility. Entering new organizations, lateral transfers or promotions are increasingly common failure points that people can avoid through specific network practices deployed through a transition.
  • Thriving in a Hyper-Connected World. Successful and happy people better address relational micro-stresses and invest in connections that support physical health, growth in and out of work, a sense of purpose/meaning and resilience.
  • Collaborative Practices of Agile Teams and Units. More successful groups avoid six dysfunctional patterns of collaboration that undermine success and more rapidly form networks inside and outside of teams/units at critical points.
  • Driving Innovation and Business Results through Networks. High-performing organizations are four times more likely to be managing networks and collaboration in ways that reduce collaborative inefficiency and overload, drive emergent innovation, create agile cultures and optimize talent engagement.

Deepen the Impact, Diffuse the Insights

Rob has worked closely with leading organizations to create physical and virtual assets to extend learning and engage teams and colleagues.

  • Card sort or workbook activities, used virtually or in the room, optimize engagement with the content.
  • Online diagnostics bring participants more deeply into the content and offer option to obtain rater feedback if desired after the session.
  • Online action planning promotes accountability for each person.
  • Optional team-level assessments and guidance to establish more effective ways of working.
  • Webinars six to eight weeks after a program keep cohort connections alive.
  • Multiple methods to assess impact of actions taken to create ROI on program.
Rob Cross Keynote Speaker

Bring Rob in for your leadership development initiative, conference,
off-site or event.

Learn more about Rob’s speaking and workshops—and how he deepens the impact and diffuses learning through courses and tools.

Download Speaker Information Kit

Ready to get started? Contact Rob.

What future-focused leaders say about Rob …

Rob and I have partnered over several years, first at Ford and now at DICKS Sporting Goods, focused primarily on Collaboration Overload and Wellbeing.  He has a unique ability to bring rich, credible research to light in a digestible way… he humanizes the science, and uses his expertise to help us all lead, work, and live better together.

Julie Lodge-Jarrett
Senior Vice President & Chief People Officer

Dick's Sporting Goods logo

I value Rob’s positive energy, collaborative approach and the tremendous value he brings to every engagement. Rob is a dynamic speaker and his style resonates with all levels of leadership. He is also an amazing consultant and is able to rapidly identify practical applications of his proven research to solve our most pressing social capital challenges.

David Sylvester
Director
New Employee Success

Amazon Web Services

Rob’s range and ability to connect with a broad global audience is world-class – he has presented for us several times in venues ranging from top leadership forums to virtually delivered programs to global audiences as well as more focused leadership development programs and functional workshops.  Rob is a thought leader who is masterful at finding the critical insights to enhance collaboration – he is even better at providing leaders with actionable steps to quickly adjust their behavior and approach to energize their teams and drive results.

Mike Benson
Vice President
Talent & Organization Capabilities

General Mills logo

We have for many years worked with academics and “thought leaders” and have often been disappointed. Working with people and organisations is difficult, complex work and simplistic solutions based on unsubstantiated opinions deliver little. Rob’s work is research-based with data-driven analysis and evidence. His message, delivered with clarity and conviction, provides clear signposts to achieve sustained performance improvement. He’s also easy and fun to work with.

Mike Haffenden
Director

Strategic Dimensions logo

Rob’s twenty-plus years of academically rigorous research makes him the unmatched leader in understanding the personal and organizational strategies required to succeed in the emerging Connected Economy. Over my career, I have seen his presentation style and counter-intuitive insights mesmerize and energize the most executive C-suite teams.

Greg Pryor
Senior Vice President

Workday logo

Rob is simply fantastic! I was honored he accepted my invitation to speak at the People Analytics & Future of Work Conference—colleagues around the country had long provided rave reviews of both his work and presentation style. Once on stage, I immediately knew what they were talking about. Rob’s content was immensely relevant, innovative and hopeful. He engaged the audience with positive energy and ideas that kept them glued to his words and content and, in turn, resulted in an uncommonly active, and fun, Q&A session … #RobisAwesome.

Al Adamson
Founder and CEO

People Analytics & Future of Work

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About Rob Cross

Rob CrossRob Cross has studied the underlying network dynamics of effective organizations and the collaborative practices of high performers for more than 20 years. Through research and writing, speaking and consulting, and courses and tools, Rob’s network strategies are transforming the way people lead, work and live in a hyper-connected world.

More About Rob

About Connected Commons

Connected Commons logoRob Cross is the research director and a co-founder of Connected Commons, a consortium of leading organizations accelerating network research and practice.

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