Natalie Nixon

Creativity Strategist, Author & President of Figure 8 Thinking, LLC

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Biography

Natalie Nixon changes lives through ideas so that people build their creative confidence for years to come, get paid their worth and make an impact. She is a creativity strategist; global keynote speaker; author of the award winning The Creativity Leap: Unleash Curiosity, Improvisation and Intuition at Work; and has been featured in Forbes and in Fast Company. As president of Figure 8 Thinking, LLC she advises leaders on transformation- by applying wonder and rigor to amplify growth and business value. Clients have included Comcast, Citrix, Living Cities, VaynerMedia and Bloomberg. Read More >

A hybrid thinker, Natalie consistently applies her background in cultural anthropology and fashion. She began her career in education and as a hat designer. Later, Natalie worked in global apparel sourcing for a division of The Limited, Inc. Previous to Figure 8 Thinking, she was a professor for 16 years. She is an early-stage investor at two social impact ventures. She's valued for her ability to work at the intersection of commercial value and stakeholder equity.

Natalie has lived in Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Israel, and Sri Lanka and is proficient in Portuguese and Spanish. She is a member of the Forbes Coaches Council, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is certified as a Foresight Practitioner by the Institute for the Future.

Nixon is known as "the creativity whisperer for the C-Suite". She is a highly sought-after keynote speaker, valued for her accessible expertise on creativity, the future of work and innovation. Natalie advises leaders on transformation by applying wonder and rigor to amplify growth and business value. She brings an innovative and unique perspective to every keynote, strategic advisory engagement, and leadership coaching session. Her experience living in 5 countries combined with her background in anthropology, fashion, academia, and dance distinguish her as a one-of-a-kind creativity expert. If you're looking for a speaker who simultaneously inspires, leaves your audience with practical techniques for immediate application and motivates by blending street cred with scholarship, then Natalie is the speaker for you.

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. Read Less ^

Speaker Videos

TEDx: 7 Rules for Improvising at Work

Introducing Natalie Nixon

Speaker Reel

Speech Topics

Making Innovation Stick in A Hybrid Work World: Activate the 3i's

"Creativity is the engine for innovation." -Natalie Nixon Read More >

What exactly does "working in the office" mean in our post-pandemic world? There are lots of opportunities to reframe collaboration, teaming and leadership to yield the best innovation and meaningful work. The place to start is by applying Natalie Nixon's 3i Creativity™ framework: inquiry, improvisation and intuition. In this talk, Natalie shares examples and tactical methods to boost critical skills in our new working world of blurred boundaries. Read Less ^

Creativity & Leadership: Getting Buy-In Through Empathy & Curiosity

“Curiosity is the new currency.” — Natalie Nixon Read More >

The businesses and organizations that lead with inquiry and empathy are ultimately the most innovative. Integrating design thinking, lean and agile methods are a few ways to do this. That’s because curiosity and empathic leadership are rooted in open, growth mindsets. They also generate collaborative work environments and lead to building customer-centered products and services. In this session, Natalie Nixon shares the major and practical business outcomes that are directly tied to inquiry-based leadership. Read Less ^

The Future of Work: The 4 Shifts Your Organization Must Make...Now!

“The best algorithms will still depend on humans asking a better question.” — Natalie Nixon Read More >

The future of work will require more than a familiarity with virtual reality, big data, artificial intelligence and robotics. It will require people with a heightened creative capacity.

In the 4th industrial revolution where cloud technology, automation and cryptocurrency are realities, boundaries between technology and humans have completely blurred. Now more than ever, the human quotient and the creativity are critical business assets. In this session, Natalie Nixon offers provocative ways to embrace the future of work and outlines 4 shifts every organization must make to be nimble and adaptive. Read Less ^

Adapt & Disrupt: Getting Excellent at Change

“Plans are fiction. They haven’t happened yet. Learn to improvise.” — Natalie Nixon Read More >

We all know that the only constant in life is change; yet we don’t design adaptive organizations. Most companies are disrupted because they do not know what business they are actually in and what their customers really need. This session will lead you through principles of improvisation and the key questions your leadership should be able to answer and then use to assist teams and employees. Read Less ^

Innovation IQ: How to Master the 3 Drivers to Stay Out Front & Lead

“The more diverse the inputs, the more innovative the output.” — Natalie Nixon Read More >

Business management guru, Peter Drucker, was famous for having written that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” He was right. Unfortunately, most companies only pay attention to organization culture when it’s too late in the game. In this session, Natalie Nixon will leave you with tips for developing the 3 tenets of culture—people, process and place—to design an organizational culture that is primed for innovation and a prosperous future state. Read Less ^