Leading Through the Churn: Authentically Connecting People to Purpose. How do you lead people who are reluctant to follow? The answer, as retired U.S. Army Green Beret Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mann shares, is human connection. Only once we have a greater understanding of our need to connect with others can we start to build better, deeper, stronger relationships with those around us.

In this compelling talk, Lt. Col. Mann draws from his experiences leading and connecting people in some of the most challenging, war-torn environments in the world to outline powerful methods for fostering better trust and connection using time-tested Green Beret interpersonal skills that can be adapted by any organization. After all, what works in life and battle works even better in life and business.

Operation Pineapple Express. How do you lead when everything is falling apart and chaos reigns supreme? In the heat of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, a group of volunteer veterans stepped into the breach to lead a grassroots movement to help rescue Afghan nationals trapped in extremely dangerous conditions as the country collapsed all around them. Operation Pineapple Express, the nonprofit organization founded by Lt. Col. Scott Mann and dedicated to rescuing and resettling our Afghan allies, played a pivotal role in their safe passage away from life-threatening situations.

In this dynamic keynote, Lt. Col. Scott Mann brings the audience along for the heart-wrenching, moment-by-moment events as he tells the story of secretly moving Afghans through holes in the airport perimeter known as the Pineapple Express. He brings the talk full circle as he challenges people to identify their own Pineapple Express and answer the call to lead in difficult times.

Navigating Chaos and Change (Keynote/Workshop). How has chaos changed the reality of your day-to-day arena? How do we find our way out of chaos and back to a place that makes sense? How do you keep yourself healthy and relevant to those you lead in the darkest moments? What are the best practices that allow you to effectively lead your team through chaos? Your people and leaders are exhausted from persistent change and pivots out of one crisis and into another. This half-day workshop or one hour Keynote will teach your people how chaos and complexity have changed their leadership reality and give them the tools to lead themselves and others through exhausting change while still maintaining morale and purpose.

Strategic Influence in Challenging Times (Keynote/Workshop). Why does it seem so much harder to meet our goals? How do you cut through the noise and identify the true threats to your goals and influence that are simmering below the surface of everyday life? How do you establish relatability and relevance that will move people to an action they otherwise wouldn’t take? How do you influence in real-time when things get hard? The methodology in this half-day workshop will make your people more relatable to the pain and relevant to the goals of the folks they seek to influence and teach them to be the individuals who are followed in challenging times. Available as a Keynote or Workshop.

Trust Dynamics (Keynote/Workshop). What’s happening to the loss of trust in business and what do we do about it? What do leaders need to know about trust that will give them an authentic, competitive advantage? How can leaders bridge trust gaps and silos for unified effort? This half-day workshop or one hour keynote will train your people to assess, build, and restore trust – putting trust back into the core of your business. 

Narrative Competence (Keynote/Workshop). Why is it so hard to move teammates and clients to action? How do you build the skillset to cut through the noise and influence in real time? How do you leverage your own stories to inspire, sell, and influence? How do you employ narrative competence when failure isn’t an option? Your people are distracted and disengaged. The average attention span for an adult is 8 seconds. This half-day workshop or 1 hour Keynote will teach your people how to use storytelling to cut through the distraction and influence others. 

Lead Yourself First. Supply chain shortfalls. Unprecedented change management. Low personnel numbers. Now more than ever, teams are being asked to consistently perform at the highest level with fewer and more limited resources. This ultimately leads to burnout and high levels of turnover. In this talk, Lt. Col. Scott Mann demonstrates to leaders how they can inspire consistent high performance in a sustainable way. Drawing from his experiences as a leader in the Special Ops Community, he shares the ways embracing a culture of rhythm, rituals, regimen, and rigor can help teams overcome the inertia of burnout, while remaining resilient over the long haul to achieve strategic objectives.

The Generosity of Scars. How can you connect with clients and associates when we are facing an epic struggle? By telling your story; It’s how the brain makes sense of the world, and how your audience makes sense of your mission. As Lt. Col. Scott Mann shares, through purposeful storytelling, you can create an impact, accelerate trust, and make your vision more relatable to the people you aim to connect with.

In this talk, Lt. Col. Mann leads a discussion where he walks audiences through the process of discovering purpose, building a movement, and learning to tell their story in the service of others. In doing so, he arms organizations with the skills needed to influence and engage people, while developing a competitive edge.

Reconnecting After the Storm. How do we reconnect after the persistent fear, unprecedented change, and epic isolation of a multi-year pandemic? Reemerging and reconnecting after a storm like the one we’ve been through is not to be left to instinct alone. “The Great Resignation” has shown us that leaders who can’t reconnect with their people wherever they are on their emotional journey will likely lose them. This affects performance and bottom line.

Lt. Col. Scott Mann shares his lessons learned from reconnecting as a multi-tour veteran returning home from war and how they can be adapted to the evolving workplace. Creating parallels to people returning to the office, he offers hard-hitting human connection skills that will enhance leaders’ ability to boost psychological safety and human connection in their organizations, while uniting their people around a shared purpose.

Getting Below the Waterline in Times of Low Trust. How do you overcome the trust gaps between you and the people you serve that seem so pervasive in these complex times? As retired U.S. Army Green Beret Lt. Col. Scott Mann shares, you have to get below the waterline – that’s where the real essence of humanity and connection, regardless of language or culture, resides. Green Berets recognize this, and it’s how they build rapport in low-trust, war-torn environments where there is a thin line between life and death.

Having trained Green Berets in this social science skillset for more than two decades, Lt. Col. Mann gives audiences a crash course on how to get below the waterline with their teammates and clients. He shares actionable steps for building the type of trust that moves people to follow you and invest in a shared vision, as well as insights for developing a detailed plan of action that is more relevant to achieving your objectives.

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