Curt Steinhorst

Speaking topics

Presentations listed below include in-person and virtual keynotes, as well as workshops, fireside chats, and other presentation formats.

• The Human Advantage: Cultivating the Capabilities that AI Can’t Mimic

  AI can process. It can predict. It can even create. But it can’t notice what matters in the periphery. Ask the question behind the question. Imagine what doesn’t yet exist. Discern meaning from noise. Create from conviction. Release what no longer serves.

  As AI handles knowledge work, the deeper question emerges: What stays human? Not which tasks to protect, but which capabilities become more valuable as machines become more capable. The answer requires something machines don’t have: The attention to see what others miss. The curiosity to question what others accept. The courage to create what doesn’t yet exist. These aren’t soft skills —they’re the hardest skills of all, and they become more valuable as technology scales.

  The Human Advantage explores how leaders cultivate what stays human — not as nostalgia for the past, but as strategy for the future. You’ll discover why these human capacities multiply in value as AI advances, and how to develop them systematically.

  Key learning outcomes include:

  • A framework for identifying which human capabilities multiply in value as AI scales.
  • Specific practices to develop attention, curiosity, and courage across your organization.
  • Tools to build these capabilities into your talent strategy and daily operations.
  • A clear competitive advantage that technology can’t replicate.

  Build sustainable competitive advantage by developing what AI can’t replicate — the human capabilities that become more valuable as technology advances.

• The Human Equation: When Transformation Succeeds or Fails

  Human dynamics aren’t obstacles to transformation. They ARE the transformation — the invisible forces that determine whether anything changes. Who loses power. Who gains budget. Who gets blamed if this fails. Who gets credit if it works. Whose work becomes obsolete. Who gets the raise.

  These unspoken calculations happen in every meeting, drive every decision, determine every outcome. They’re not side effects of transformation — they’re the main event. The same political dynamics that protect the status quo also determine who champions change.

  This session reveals what determines transformation success: How to shift from self-preservation to curiosity, from territory to exploration. Because organizations don’t change through force of will or perfect planning — they change when humans decide to.

  Key learning outcomes include:

  • The hidden dynamics that make or break your transformation — and how to spot them early.
  • A practical framework for turning resistance into momentum.
  • Specific techniques to shift your organization from protection to curiosity.
  • Clear indicators that separate real change from compliance theater.

  Transform your transformation success rate by solving for what matters — the human dynamics that determine whether strategy becomes reality.

• It’s Not Rocket Science: Operating at Speed Without Burnout

  Rocket science is hard. Building a team that can deliver at pace without breaking what matters is a different kind of hard. As a senior executive at Venus Aerospace, Curt helped lead a team literally building rocket engines that could cross the Pacific in under two hours — and the human challenge matched the technical one: sustain speed, keep judgment sharp, and stay aligned when timelines, expectations, and complexity all rise at once.

  Most organizations answer pressure with more hours, more meetings, and more urgency. That buys days but costs months — because speed exposes hidden fault lines. When time for the real work isn’t protected, it gets crowded out by noise. If decisions don’t have a clear owner and a firm deadline, momentum either grinds to a halt or veers wildly. If expectations aren’t clear, confidence erodes, and the best people disengage.

  This session shows leaders how to spot those fault lines early and respond in ways that keep pace and standards — without adding layers of bureaucracy or relying on heroics. The result: a team that moves fast on purpose and keeps moving after the first burst. Scale at speed without burning people out or breaking what matters.

  Key learning outcomes include:

  • A proven framework for identifying which human capabilities multiple in value as AI scales.
  • Specific practices to develop attention, curiosity, and courage across your organization.
  • Tools to build these capabilities into your talent strategy and daily operations.
  • A clean competitive advantage that technology can’t replicate.

  Build sustainable competitive advantage by developing what AI can’t replicate — the human capabilities that become more valuable as technology advances.

• Can I Have Your Attention? Eliminate Distraction and Focus on What Matters

  It’s almost as if work was designed to make focus impossible — endless channels, constant urgency, infinite options. The very tools meant to help us produce more have become the biggest obstacles to producing anything meaningful. The ability to protect and direct attention has become the difference between motion and progress.

  We’ve optimized everything except the one resource that matters: human attention. Every tool that promises productivity delivers distraction. Every initiative that should simplify adds complexity. Organizations moving faster while accomplishing less. Leaders managing every minute while their attention splinters across infinite priorities. Everyone knows they’re busier than ever while questioning if any of it matters.

  This keynote — rooted in Curt Steinhorst’s bestselling book, Can I Have Your Attention?, and deep research into human performance — reveals why focus has become the scarcest resource in business and what to do about it. Because knowing what matters is only half of the equation. The other half is creating the conditions where people can work on it. Stop managing time. Start protecting attention.

  Key learning outcomes include:

  • The science of attention — what enables it, what destroys it, and how to design for it.
  • Practical techniques for protecting attention in an interruption culture.
  • Organizational frameworks that make focused work possible, not heroic.
  • A shared language for focus that works from the C-suite to front lines.

  Stop managing time. Start protecting attention.

• Speaker’s Choice: When What You Need is Not on the Menu

  Sometimes, what your team needs most is the thing no one else will say — and no one else has the permission to deliver.

  Here’s the truth: Curt Steinhorst spends his days thinking about what actually moves organizations forward. Sometimes that’s a new framework. Sometimes it’s remembering why work should be energizing, not exhausting. Sometimes it’s the strategic insight everyone’s missing. Or the simple truth that changes everything. When you choose this option, you’re saying: “We trust you to step back, look at where we are, and deliver what we actually need to hear.”

  It might be brand new thinking that hasn’t made it to a slide deck yet. It might be a proven idea applied exactly to your moment. It might even be permission to stop doing something everyone thinks is essential. The point is, you’re getting what matters most right now — not what was predetermined, but what’s useful.

  Key learning outcomes include:

  • What you didn’t know you needed to hear.
  • Permission to stop doing that thing everyone pretends is working.
  • At least one idea you’ll steal immediately.
  • A story you’ll retell at dinner (and probably claim as your own).

  Side effects may include sudden clarity, uncontrollable honesty, and the urge to cancel half your meetings…