Richard Gerver
Most organisations are not built to change. They are built to repeat what worked last cycle, then layer programmes on top when the world moves. Leaders are then asked to drive transformation through a workforce that has learned to wait change out. The harder problem is not the strategy. It is the leader’s own behaviour, and what people around them are willing to commit to.
Richard Gerver helps leaders change how their organisations behave, drawing on a documented institutional turnaround and two decades advising business, government and sport on human leadership.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Richard Gerver
- He has a verifiable case study that most leadership speakers do not. Grange Primary School moved from near-failure to a nationally referenced model of learning under his leadership, recognised by the National Teaching Awards in 2005.
- His books are read by operating audiences, not just educators. Change: Learn to Love It, Learn to Lead It and Simple Thinking are published by Penguin and Wiley/Capstone, respectively, and held shelf positions in business charts.
- LinkedIn Learning commissioned him to build Smart Thinking and Developing Mental Toughness for a global business audience. The courses have reached learners at scale across multiple languages.
- He worked closely with Sir Ken Robinson on human potential and creativity, and is cited in Robinson’s The Element. That intellectual lineage gives his leadership works a depth most motivational speakers cannot claim.
- He has been named UK Business Speaker of the Year on more than one occasion, including a confirmed 2011 win cited in his University of Derby honorary doctorate commendation.
Biography highlights
- Headteacher of Grange Primary School, Derbyshire, where he developed the “Grangeton” model and led a documented institutional turnaround.
- National Teaching Awards Head Teacher of the Year, 2005.
- Honorary Doctor of Education, University of Derby, 2016.
- Author of Creating Tomorrow’s Schools Today (Bloomsbury Education), Change: Learn to Love It, Learn to Lead It (Penguin) and Simple Thinking (Wiley/Capstone).
- LinkedIn Learning instructor: Smart Thinking and Developing Mental Toughness.
- Foreword by Sir Ken Robinson on his first book; later cited in Robinson’s The Element.
Biography
Grange Primary School was on the verge of failure when Richard Gerver took it over. Within two years, the school was being studied as a national model, with a curriculum built around a pupil-run virtual town called Grangeton. The work earned him the National Teaching Awards Head Teacher of the Year in 2005 and shaped the rest of his career.
He has spent the two decades since translating that experience for business audiences. Change: Learn to Love It, Learn to Lead It, published by Penguin, argues that leaders fail at change because they manage it as a project rather than a behaviour. Simple Thinking, published by Wiley/Capstone, attacks the bureaucratic clutter that senior teams build around their own decisions. Both books found shelf space in mainstream business sections, not just education.
His thinking sits in the lineage of Sir Ken Robinson, who wrote the foreword to his first book and cited him in The Element. He has worked with UNESCO, the British Council, Skanska and the Welsh Government, and was commissioned by LinkedIn Learning to build two courses, Smart Thinking and Developing Mental Toughness, that have reached a global business audience.
The University of Derby awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Education in 2016, citing his ability to humanise complex organisational issues through a leadership philosophy built on communication, empowerment and impact. He has been named UK Business Speaker of the Year on more than one occasion.
Key speaking topics
- Human leadership and behaviour change
- Organisational transformation
- Resilience and mental toughness
- Curiosity, creativity and innovation
- Future skills and human potential
- Change management
- Executive development
Ideal for
- CEOs and executive teams are asking why a recent transformation programme has stalled
- CHROs and L&D directors rebuilding leadership development for a fatigued workforce
- Senior leaders preparing a workforce for restructure, integration, or operating-model change
- Boards looking for an outside voice on the human side of strategic execution
Audience outcomes
- A sharper view of why most change programmes fail at the leader’s own behaviour, not at the strategy
- Specific tools for stripping complexity out of decisions and communication
- Confidence that resilience and mental toughness can be built deliberately, with examples from sport and education
- A reframing of curiosity as an organisational capability, not a personal trait
- Renewed clarity on what senior leaders should personally commit to during a period of change
Talks
Why most change programmes fail at the leader’s behaviour rather than the plan, drawn from his book of the same name.
Key takeaways:
- The behavioural shift required of leaders before structural change can take hold
- How to read and address the workforce’s appetite for change
- A practical framing for leading through sustained uncertainty
A talk on curiosity as the trait that separates organisations that adapt from those that calcify.
Key takeaways:
- Why curiosity is an operating capability, not a personality trait
- How leaders create or destroy curiosity in the people around them
- The link between curiosity, innovation and long-term commercial performance
Drawn from his Wiley/Capstone book on cutting bureaucratic and cognitive clutter from senior decision-making.
Key takeaways:
- Where complexity is added unnecessarily inside senior teams
- A test for whether a process is serving the work or the org chart
- Behaviours that protect clarity under pressure
Videos
Testimonials
Books
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Asia Pacific | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Europe | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Middle East & Africa | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| South America | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| United Kingdom | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| US East Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US West Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Virtual | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |