Natalie Nixon

Creativity Strategist CEO, Figure 8 Thinking

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NATALIE NIXON SPEAKING VIDEOS

In Conversation with Natalie W Nixon BBC

Creativity Leap Chats: Natalie with Seth Godin

Why great thinkers ask divergent questions | Natalie Nixon

7 rules for improvising at work | Natalie Nixon | TEDxPhiladelphia

The Nudge Imperative | Natalie Nixon | TEDxGeorgeSchool

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Keynote Speaker

Natalie Nixon 2025 Speech Titles

The New I in AI: Imagination, Inquiry and Intuition
AI is Your Co-Creator
L.E.A.P! : The Extraordinary Method for Boosting Productivity and Navigating Uncertainty
Adapt & Disrupt: Build Creativity’s Business ROI in the Imagination Era
Curiosity is the Currency of the Future: Building a Culture of Inquiry
The Future of Work is Jazz: Applying Improvisation, Collaboration and Foresight

Natalie Nixon's Biography

Natalie Nixon, PhD is "the creativity whisperer to the C-Suite". She is a creativity strategist who advises leaders on achieving transformative business results by applying wonder & rigor. She is a highly sought after global keynote speaker, valued for her accessible expertise on creativity, the future of work and innovation.
Natalie was selected for Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2024; Real Leaders' "Top 50 Keynote Speakers in the World for 2022" list; and has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company and INC.

She is the author of the award-winning The Creativity Leap - an
honoree in the creativity category of Fast Company's 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards. Her firm, Figure 8 Thinking, was named among the top 20 women-led innovation firms in 2021 by Core 77. Clients have included Microsoft, Salesforce,Comcast, Citrix, Morrison & Foerster, Living Cities, VaynerMedia and Bloomberg.

A hybrid thinker, Natalie consistently applies her background in cultural anthropology, fashion, design thinking and dance. She is an early-stage investor at two social impact ventures, valued for her ability to work at the intersection of commercial value and stakeholder equity.

Natalie is a trustee of the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Design Museum; and a former trustee of Vassar College and Leadership+Design. She has lived in Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Israel, and Sri Lanka and is proficient in Portuguese and Spanish. She is certified as a Foresight Practitioner by the Institute for the Future. She received her BA (honors) from Vassar College, and her PhD from the University of Westminster in London.

When she's not dancing up a storm in hip-hop class, Natalie is fine-tuning her salsa, foxtrot and tango on the ballroom floor. She lives in her hometown of Philadelphia with her husband, John Nixon, and is the proud stepmother of Sydney.

HIGHLIGHTS

1. Ranked among the Top 50 Keynote Speakers in the world by Real
Leaders;
2. Selected for the Thinkers50 Radar cohort of 2024;
3. Award winning author of The Creativity Leap: Unleash Curiosity,
Improvisation and Intuition at Work;
4. Many of my keynotes convert into workshops for clients (“foresight
studios”)

SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTISE
● Applied Creativity & Innovation for Leadership
● Foresight Strategy, Future of Work & Learning
● Design Thinking & Qualitative Research

AWARDS
● Thinkers50 RADAR Class of 2024
● BigSpeak’s Top 10 Female Speakers - 2023 and 2021
● Real Leaders Top 50 Keynote Speakers in the World - 2022
● Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Award- Innovation & Creativity - 2021
● Porchlight Books: 2020 Best Business Book of the Year in Creativity & Innovation
● Soundview: Shortlisted Best Business Book - 2020
● Core77 20 Woman-Led Industrial Design & Innovation Firms

How might we innovate better and more consistently?
How might we look ahead to the next quarter/year with fresh eyes & a rejuvenated attitude?
What’s something we haven’t heard before about the future of work?
How do I build my organization’s creative capacity?
There are clues to answering these questions in Natalie’ mosty recent keynotes

The New I in AI: Imagination, Inquiry and Intuition
Worried about how you’ll find your edge in AI? At its BEST, AI enhances human qualities at work. Natalie Nixon, a renowned creativity strategist, advocates for leveraging curiosity, imagination, and intuition to navigate this evolving landscape. Her keynote offers practical insights to redesign work and thrive in the changing paradigm.

L.E.A.P: The Extraordinary Method for Boosting Productivity and Navigating Uncertainty
When ambiguity arises, you can either flee, pause, or charge ahead blindly. Natalie Nixon, a creativity strategist, presents the L.E.A.P Method™, a straightforward approach to confront uncertainty. By Leveraging, Envisioning, Asking, and Prototyping, attendees gain clarity and actionable strategies to move forward. Remember, progress only happens in one direction: forward!

Adapt and Disrupt: Build Creativity's Business ROI in The Imagination Era
In the age of AI dominance, creativity is not optional—it’s essential. Natalie Nixon, a creativity expert, reveals how imagination drives business success. Learn from pioneering leaders, adopt dynamic methods, and unleash creativity to secure your organization’s strategic edge. Embrace innovation, wield imagination, and thrive in disruption.

AI Is Your Co-Creator
Just as we have IQ and EQ, we also have a CQ- or a creativity quotient. This talk explores the links between creativity and leadership and how leaders with a high CQ behave, interact with stakeholders, and co-create a strategic vision.

The Future of Work is Jazz - Applying Improvisation, Collaboration and Foresight
Embrace business improvisation for success. Join creativity strategist Natalie Nixon for a keynote that envisions work as a jazz ensemble—dynamic and harmonious. Discover the parallels between jazz improvisation and agile collaboration, fostering innovation and team synergy. Gain strategic foresight tools for proactive planning. Let’s orchestrate a unified business future!

Curiosity is The Currency of the Future: Building a Culture of Inquiry
Do you know how to ask really, great, provocative questions? That matters not just for the increasingly basic ways we interact with AI technologies like ChatGPT, but also for executing on a compelling strategy. Natalie Nixon emphasizes the significance of questions in driving innovation and fostering dynamic cultures. Learn various question types, how to ask them effectively, and normalize a culture of inquiry.

Natalie Nixon is ready to inspire your teams!
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Natalie Nixon testimonials

MALACHI W. RANDOLPH

CHIEF OF STAFF, INSIGHTS & STRATEGY, VAYNERMEDIA

"Thank you so much for the interactive sessions and all of the preceding research and collaborative work you accomplished with our teams. I’ve already heard great feedback from the team and the time was well spent. Once again, thank you for helping Citrix and our employees be everything they can be."

SCOTT SWANBURG

MANAGING DIRECTOR, CITRIX

"Figure 8 Thinking is a stellar team who brought commitment, compassion, and courage to our partnership. Their landscape analysis on the wealth disparity in the United States was superb. Figure 8 Thinking brought excellent qualitative research, scenario planning and analysis to the project and exceeded our expectations with suggested experiments to test their recommendations."

JANAY QUEEN

PHDMANAGING DIRECTOR, LIVING CITIES

"Natalie’s hands-on, design thinking workshop with our team led to key insights that we will plan to incorporate in our program design in the future."

DANIELLE COHNVP

STARTUP ENGAGEMENT + LIFT LABS, COMCAST NBC UNIVERSAL

"Natalie worked closely with us to pilot design thinking training for our lawyers. The lawyers were out of their comfort zone and Natalie helped them overcome their natural skepticism and coached our teams through the growth process. The result was 4 inspiring ideas that are in various phases of implementation at our firm and we could not be more pleased."

DIANE CARDONA

DOWNSCHIEF LEGAL TALENT OFFICER, MORRISON & FOERSTER

"Natalie brought a level of energy, engagement and broad thinking to the PTM board retreat. Her capacity to inspire people to embrace their inner wonder and to push to new approaches and ways of thinking was just what our board needed. As we get comfortable with new levels of uncertainty post-COVID, our job is to also break perceptions of how we operated pre-pandemic while aligning with mission, and exploring new experiences for our visitors and staff. With Natalie’s guidance we have identified ways to be a children’s museum that is flexible and can evolve through both wonder and rigor."

PATRICIA WELLENBACH

PRESIDENT & CEO, PLEASE TOUCH MUSEUM

"Natalie’s workshop gave our team an energetic and creative boost as we navigate these messy moments in time. Ninety minutes flew by! People were deeply engaged, curious and imaginative. It accomplished our near term goal and sets us up perfectly for reimagining possible futures. Department leads are already asking for more as they evaluate their specific plans and ensure that we remain a “Future Ready” company."

MATTHEW VANDER LAAN

HEAD OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS, MONOSOL, A KURARAY DIVISION

"As a new organization, Natalie has helped our board and staff forge a sense of togetherness and shared identity. She has expertly facilitated conversations with thought-provoking questions and ideas, and she has helped us craft a game plan and timeline for our priorities over the coming year."

MOLLY DE AGUIAR

PRESIDENT, INDEPENDENCE PUBLIC MEDIA FOUNDATION

"Natalie is a superb facilitator! She is a great listener and helps your group to land on new insights at the end of a workshop."

GRACE KILLELEA

PRESIDENT, HALF THE SKY

"Natalie is brilliant, confident, creative and empathic- a combination of traits that allowed those of us who were unsure of how to navigate our project to relax, and feel excited about the process. Natalie inspires, motivates, encourages, and holds people accountable. I would never hesitate to engage with her again."

MARIANDL HUFFORD

HEAD OF SCHOOL AT MIAMI COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL

"Natalie offered an analytical perspective, grounded in qualitative research, that facilitated targeted market positioning for Columbia University;s Center for the Future of Work. Further, her interdisciplinary thought leadership, creative analysis, and strategic foresight introduced new industry partnerships and collaboration opportunities. We look forward to future engagements."

JASON WINGARD, PHD.

PRESIDENT OF TEMPLE UNIVERSITY

With VaynerMedia, Natalie was faced with a tough task: to come into a fast-moving communications agency and inspire department leads across Strategy and Creative. She not only inspired but provoked a new way of thinking with her insightful WonderRigor framework that our teams will use as part of their tool box going forward. Her ability to quickly understand our organization ensured the session was relevant and relentlessly practical; we’re excited to keep our relationship with Natalie very much alive for future opportunities to collaborate.