speaking engagements
Bust some myths with me
Sarah Kaplan is an author, keynote speaker, and thinker who has spent three decades exploring how people and organizations navigate complexity, build courage to make change, and do their best work.
As an exclusive speaker with the Lavin Agency, Sarah appears regularly in public and private speaking events for clients around the world on topics such as the turbocharging innovation, myth of meritocracy, the zero-sum trap, the gender wage gap, corporate purpose, board governance for the 21st century, uncomfortable conversations, and getting beyond backlash.
Sarah brings the same clarity and warmth to the stage that she brings to the page — leaving audiences with ideas they can actually use.
The Myth of Meritocracy
Why do organizations struggle to make progress on diversity, even when everyone says they support it? This keynote reveals how implicit bias, false beliefs about merit, and the fear of discomfort keep us stuck, and how breaking those patterns leads to better innovation and better business.
Beyond the Business Case
For decades we've tried to justify gender equality by proving it improves performance. This talk explains why that's the wrong question; and why innovation, not justification, is the path to lasting change.
Leading Through Trade-Offs
The toughest leadership challenges can't be solved by maximizing shareholder value alone. Discover a practical framework for balancing competing stakeholder demands while driving innovation.
The Science of Who Gets Ahead
What if the biggest barrier to women in leadership isn't a lack of talent, but the stories we tell ourselves about merit? Discover the hidden biases and false assumptions that keep talented women out of STEM, the boardroom, and beyond.
“After the keynote, we felt encouraged. Sometimes everything feels hard or too much to do, but Sarah gave us a roadmap and questions to ask to get us started.”
“I got so much from her talk and the discussion after. My mind is swimming with ideas.”
“Loved the energy, loved the sense of humor. She really got us talking.”
“There’s lots of research that we don’t know about, and that research could be really useful to us. Dr. Kaplan was a great translator. She shared so many unexpected insights that will help make our conversations more honest and our organization more innovative.”
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