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Cheryl Cran

Future of Work Expert

Cran Cheryl Headshot Jan 2024
Speaker Reel
Cheryl
Cran Cheryl Headshot Jan 2024
Speaker Reel

Cheryl Cran is a “future of all things” expert, including work, society, and life. She is recognized as the #1 Future of Work influencer by Onalytica and a top ten future of work expert by GoCatalant. Cran is passionate about helping leaders and teams develop the crucial human skills needed to lead a human-focused future where technology is leveraged to automate the mundane and elevate the humane. Her multi-industry experience and successful track record provides unparalleled value to her clients.

Cran is the founder of NextMapping and CEO of parent company, Synthesis at Work Inc. Prior to this, she held senior leadership positions in the corporate finance and insurance industries. Cran developed NextMapping as a proprietary business solution brand to encompass her work and research on the future of all things, including work and the future-ready skills needed by leaders and teams to navigate change in the workplace. Her past clients have included Amazon, Upwork, AT&T, Gartner, Scottish Water, ExecOnline, and more.

Cran is the author of 10 books, including her newest, Super.Crucial.Human, and her bestsellers, NextMapping: Anticipate, Navigate and Create The Future of Work and The Art of Change Leadership: Driving Transformation in a Fast Paced-World. Her thought leadership on the future of all things has been featured in publications such as Fast Company, Huffington Post, Forbes, Metro New York, Entrepreneur Magazine, Reader’s Digest, CBS Online, NBC Online, and more. She is also the creator of the NextNow podcast.

Speaking topics

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

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Client reviews

  • Cheryl Cran was our keynote speaker at our annual SilkRoad Conference and in a word she was superb! Our tech savvy HR audience were completely wowed by Cheryl’s style and delivery of very valuable, relevant and important content regarding change leadership and the future of work. Cheryl challenged all of us to ‘upgrade our leadership OS’ and to leverage our creativity real time.She provided the context our audience needed to understand how to lead and manage impactful change.

  • Cheryl has a unique ability to gather tremendous data and content, sift through it and then provide a clear and simple pathway that helps the leaders and the business to grow. Her style is direct yet fun and she is deeply insightful into the personal growth needed by each individual in order for him or her to be able to contribute at higher levels to the overall goals of the company. Cheryl as a leadership expert  is consultative, creative and results focused we look forward to working with her again.

  • It was a pleasure to work with you leading up to the event, you were responsive and professional. I appreciate the efforts you took to learn about our business and people strategy and how you used this information to customize the presentation. You kept everyone entertained, laughing and most importantly learning.

  • Cheryl Cran brings huge value as a communication and leadership expert. Working with Cheryl has helped our company to grow exponentially over last year—we increased our staffing due to tremendous growth and her presentations on communication and leadership as well as her consulting processes has provided us with substantial return on investment. We know how to build homes, Cheryl Cran knows what is needed inside the company to grow the leaders and produce outstanding results.

  • Our event was a huge success and it would not have been possible without your engaging presentation. The energy in the room was charged as you engaged everyone in a very interactive presentation. At the end of the evening everyone felt empowered, invigorated and ready to tackle the world. Energy, passion and results!

  • We had over 820 participants in the first employee session, over 700 at the second one and over 200 leaders at the leadership session – the presentation was authentic, powerful and she provided tools anyone could easily use, should they choose to. The message of personal accountability was delivered with wit, humor and passion. This was one of our most successful events. Numerous participants also commented on this.

  • Cheryl was a great way to end the day. Cheryl had lots of energy and was able to create dynamics amongst the participants

  • Thank you so much for your keynote – your message, your style, your humour and positive attitude are infectious.

  • You kept everyone entertained, laughing and involved during a luncheon keynote – not an easy feat!

  • Cheryl, thank-you for another terrific event. Our organization enjoyed having you come back to work with another segment of our employees. The management staff enjoyed both the content and specifically your fun and interactive style. Your enthusiasm, positive outlook and realism about the issues and challenges facing people in the work place today made your presentation a worthwhile commitment. Thank you again.

  • … She tied in advice for leading the 4 generations in the workplace and greatly increased awareness and understanding of generational differences – a very current and relevant topic in any workplace. Cheryl is a dynamic speaker who incorporates humour, meaningful stories and exercises to provoke discussion and fully engage her audience.

  • Cheryl Cran spoke for Duke University Singapore in April 2013 and we were thrilled! Her Keynote on “Everyone is a Leader” was very eye opening and inspiring. Cheryl’s ability to convey her message on leadership, empowerment and skill development in a friendly, fun and connected way is quite amazing. Our group valued her ability to connect with our culture and customize her message to the realities of working in Singapore.
    I found Cheryl to be accessible, easy to work with and a great example of an inspired leader. We would love to have Cheryl back again.

  • Your tempo, your gusto and energy, your combination of visuals and upbeat/hip music, your message and your statistics, your sense of humor and audience interaction – all make for quite an entertaining, learning and time-well-spent experience. I felt moved and enriched and really good after you spoke. So I thank you for your presentation at the best Summit EVER as we are being told by our attendees!!! I have you to thank for these comments!

  • We had Cheryl as our Keynote speaker at our annual strategic retreat for our senior leaders. Her presentation on “Leading With Power, Energy & Passion” was exactly what our team needed. Cheryl has the unique ability to ‘hear’ what we needed and to completely create a customized message that was EXACTLY what we needed . Her knowledge of technology, leadership tools and emotional intelligence and her ability to give us tools to leverage our skills was right on track with where we need to go as a leadership team. We have a team of highly intelligent and accomplished leaders who are quite jaded and we had one of our long term leaders say, “I have been coming to these for years and Cheryl was by far the most relevant and excellent leadership expert we have had to date”.

     

    As a leadership expert Cheryl combines research, applied knowledge and tremendous insight that ultimately will help our leaders to perform to their next level of success.

  • Thank you Cheryl for your keynote at our annual BC Health Conference in Richmond. Your message about leading change in a fast paced, technological and multi-generational workplace was so perfectly timed for us and our industry. Health care is going through major technological advance at a fast speed and we have a diverse group of teams who are adapting to change at different speeds. You provided us with research and insight that helped the leaders in attendance to recognize their own need to adapt to change and the shifting realities of the workplace but also how they can help their teams adapt and get along with each other better. The practical tools you provided were relevant and will help our leaders continue to lead at the highest levels possible.

  • Cheryl Cran’s Keynote to our legal technology professionals at the ILTA 2012 conference was fantastic! We are a discerning group with high expectations and Cheryl’s ability to provide new thought provoking information as well as create energy and buzz around her topic was great. we had our highest attendance at an early morning session, ever.  Our profession is dealing with continual technological change as well as economic and client pressures.  Cheryl’s keynote, “Leading Change in a Fast Paced & Technological Workplace” was spot on. We appreciated the time she took both before the conference and during to talk with our people and deepen her understanding of our group and their challenges. In her keynote Cheryl provided strategies and solutions that were relevant and usable, as well as valuable takeaways to help people in their work. We were all talking about ‘the technology and generations gap’ for days after her presentation. It was a pleasure working with Cheryl before, during and after the Keynote.

  • Cheryl we want to thank you for your keynote presentation at our annual Western Broadcast Association conference. Your session on leading change in a fast paced, technological and multi-generational workplace was extremely well received by our members. Your message provided insight into the fast pace of change being made by social media and other technology. You provided leadership strategies and insights to deal with multi-generational workplaces. We appreciated the time you took to customize your message to the realities of the media industry. The media industry is changing rapidly and the tools you provided helped our members to look at their own speed of change as well as helping their teams to adapt to the changing workplace as well.

  • Cheryl presented at our annual convention held in Dallas this year and her topic was timely, relevant and helpful to the bureau owners and agents in attendance.  We appreciated the time and effort she took to prepare a fully customized presentation that was applicable to our audience. She provided insight and relevant tools that I believe will help those in attendance build their business and achieve increased success.  The research on social media as well as the technological tools Cheryl provided, such as relevant apps, were both interesting and helpful.

  • Cheryl, you did an excellent job on the Leading Change in a Fast Paced, Technological & Multigenerational Workplace webinar that you did for WITI (Women In Technology International).  Our members cross all generations and deal with the fast pace of the technology industry daily.  The research you presented on leadership strategies for times of change was very relevant and the solutions and tools you provided gave attendees things that they can put into place today.  We look forward to working with you again in the future.

  • We had Cheryl as our Keynote Speaker at our 6th annual Excellence in Business Forum in Trinidad. Cheryl’s message was perfect for our audience of entrepreneurs and leaders in the Trinidad business community. She provided ideas and strategies for everyone to use to increase business and success by better understanding the generations and how they manage change. There were four entrepreneurs who told their stories after Cheryl’s keynote and every one of them confirmed the challenges and opportunities of working with multiple generations in the business. We appreciate the time Cheryl took to understand our culture, meet with our team at the office before the event and continue to answer questions well into the evening of our event.

  • We had Cheryl speak at a January 2012 conference in Atlanta in front of senior executives in the logistics, transportation and supply chain industry.  She talked about changing generations at work – from Gen X to Gen Y and Zoomers. Her remarks on the changing dynamics of incorporating the work habits of all the generations was very relevant to the group from an industry known as traditional.  She received very good remarks for both her presentation skills but more for her relevance as to why the dynamics matter to industry leaders and the next two or three generations of emerging leaders.

  • Cheryl your keynote on the leadership impact of generational perspectives on our industry was right on target! I had many audience members come up to me and say
    that your keynote was relevant, insightful and humorous. Our executive team loved you too! On behalf of the McDonalds Restaurant W.O.N/WLN conference and the 1000 attendees- Thank- you!!

  • You certainly had our group buzzing with excitement during and following the presentation. You gave us some valuable insights into leading the different generations of customers and staff.  I overheard lots of GenY, GenX and Zoomer discussions from our dealers for the next few days following your presentation. I would certainly recommend you to any other groups (except our competitors, of course).

  • Cheryl Cran’s keynote was a major hit with our leaders. Her keynote “The Future of Leadership” had it all — audience polling, trends research, usable strategies, and delivered with massive energy that kept everyone entertained and engaged throughout.

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