Shane Snow

Superadaptors: Those Who Thrive Amidst Change

Throughout his career as a renowned journalist, bestselling author, and CEO, Shane Snow has studied the hidden habits of groups that exceed the sum of their parts (Dream Teams), the tactics of innovators who change industries and nations (Smartcuts), and the psychological strategies of leaders who spur massive movements (The Storytelling Edge). Now Shane is back with a rollicking exploration into the surprising attributes of people and groups in history who faced sweeping change and didn’t just survive it, but leveled up because of it. From the Polynesian navigators who faced hurricanes and conquerors, to the Luddites who smashed their weaving machines; from history’s worst decision-making king to its cleverest pirate king; from bomb survivors who found post-traumatic growth to leaders who pulled businesses from the brink of technological disruption, in Superadaptors, Shane draws dotted lines between the patterns of our past and the challenges of our present. In a world where no one will utter the words “things aren’t changing as fast as they used to” again, we all need to become Superadaptors.

In his new Superadaptors keynotes, Shane Snow uses science and history to teach:

• How to make it psychologically easier to change direction when it’s hard
• How to open others up to changing and adapting when it’s easy to resist
• How to spot opportunities and create optionality in the midst of change
• And how to build the skills of Superadaptors within an organization or team

The Storytelling Edge: The Science-Backed Secrets Of Moving Humans Through Story

In an era where artificial intelligence can do more of our work than ever, the ability to connect with human beings is ever more valuable. And while people have been using storytelling to connect, inspire, and motivate each other since we crawled out of caves, Shane Snow is the preeminent journalist to show the business world the science of when and why storytelling works. 

As a correspondent for WIRED magazine and co-author of the now-classic bestseller The Storytelling Edge, Shane has been strapping neurosensors to test subjects, translating the work of neurobiologists, and getting his own brain zapped with electricity while watching TV for the sake of understanding the science of storytelling—before it was cool. He’s since used what he’s learned to produce films that change minds about people’s differences, TV shows that teach kids and parents media literacy, and Tony Award-winning Broadway musicals about misfits and outcasts—and to teach leaders around the world how to use storytelling to change the hearts and minds of the people they want to impact.

In his Storytelling Edge keynotes, Shane Snow teaches:

• How leaders and sales teams can use storytelling to build relationships, make people care, and inspire people to action
• How to use specific science-backed storytelling techniques to make presentations and pitches more memorable
• How to weave storytelling into every fiber of a business, from product to marketing to customer service to stakeholder relations to thought leadership
• Grounded case studies on how The Storytelling Edge framework helped take Microsoft Teams global, helped doctors lower mortality rates around the world, and has helped struggling sales teams double their productivity
• Not-so-grounded sci-fi stories that show why certain types of stories stay with us our whole lives while others don’t
• And how to use storytelling to truly stand out in an era of instant answers and AI sameness

Dream Teams: Groups That Exceed The Sum Of Their Parts

Early in his career, Shane Snow built a startup company up to a $100M valuation with 100 employees, handed off the reins… and then watched as a new leadership team drove it into the ground. As a business journalist for WIRED and HBR with a focus on human behavior science, Shane spent years before and after this experience obsessed with the question, “Why do some teams exceed the sum of their parts, while others don’t?” The question led him on a global adventure, where he led massive-scale business research studies and traveled around the world interviewing rap groups, historians, intelligence agency directors, and leaders of social movements—all of which went into his instant bestseller, Dream Teams. The book launched Shane into the stratosphere as a consultant to Fortune 500 leadership teams on building high-performance cultures, harnessing differences after mergers, and adapting to disruption. Since then, Shane has applied his Dream Teams research as CEO of multiple successful companies, as a Producer assembling awe-inspiring teams in film and on Broadway, and as an Advisor helping launch billion-dollar companies like Substack.

In his Dream Teams keynotes, Shane Snow reveals how to:

• Identify the unseen differences that allow a group to add up to more than its parts
• Debate smarter and leverage conflict to make a group smarter—while strengthening team relationships rather than eroding them
• Practice low-effort leadership habits that build psychological safety and allow a group to think bigger—and think differently—without fear
• Use storytelling to inspire people to dig deep and do hard things together
• Develop and exercise intellectual humility to create cultures that can embrace new things, change their minds when necessary, and hold steady when it’s the right thing to do

Described as a “master storyteller and change agent,” Shane draws from real experience in the trenches as a business leader—and leverages decades of experience crafting inspiring stories in magazines, in Hollywood, and on Broadway—to deliver lessons and takeaways about teamwork that audiences never forget.

Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Use Lateral Thinking To Change The Game

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting things to change.” “Best practices go out of date the second something changes.” “No one ever changed the world by thinking the same.” Pick your favorite flavor of this quote, and the most successful innovators in history have proven it—in business, in science, in art, in technology. We make breakthroughs by thinking differently.

And yet it’s human nature to keep thinking the way we think. Most businesses plateau in time. Even smart people get stuck in their ways. Some people, on the other hand, manage to use “lateral thinking” to continually break out of the box, change the game, and often, change the world.

That’s what Shane Snow’s bestselling book Smartcuts is about. An instant classic, Smartcuts has been translated into dozens of languages and been cited by world leaders, CEOs of global banks, NBA coaches, and thought leaders from Jay Shetty to the Director of the CDC, for forever changing the way they think and work. 

A polymathic combination of investigative journalist, entrepreneur, film and Broadway producer, and science researcher, Shane Snow has been described as a “master storyteller and change agent.” In his Smartcuts keynotes, he reveals how his “lateral thinking” research and subsequent applications of Smartcuts to building and advising billion-dollar companies can help you to think differently, too.