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Nathaniel Willis

Transformation from the inside out.

Global transformation leader at Fortune 100 companies · AI Platform Lead · Product Excellence Lead · 15+ years leading transformation

Keynotes and workshops for leaders who need change to stick: purpose anchored in the organization, identity reframed in its people.

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Where Nathaniel has spoken

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Where to start

Choose your path.

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For organizations

Keynotes and workshops

For event planners and executive teams bringing a practitioner voice on purpose, identity, and operating model change into the room.

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For leaders

Coaching

For leaders in a season of transition who want to get clear on who they are and the next step to take.

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For the curious

The Assignment Assessment

Not sure where to begin? A free assessment that shows which part of the Assignment Compass needs the most attention.

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The reel

See him in the room.

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Clips from keynotes, community events, and workshops.

The thesis

Change that ignores the root does not stick.

Companies redesign structures, retool processes, and roll out new technology. Then they wonder why the old behavior comes back.

The reason is almost always underneath. Fear. Doubt. What people believe about themselves and about what's possible.

Nathaniel's work starts there. Organizations transform when they anchor their purpose. People transform when they reframe their identity. When both happen, people, process, and technology can be fused into an operating model that lives in the DNA of the organization, not just on a slide.

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The way we build keeps changing. The work of leading people through it does not.

Agile taught teams to deliver. The product model taught companies to own outcomes. Agentic orchestration asks leaders to run work shared by people and AI agents. I’ve led all three shifts.

01 Deliver
02 Own the outcome
03 Orchestrate

ERA 01 · DELIVER

We learned to ship in small batches.

Agile broke big programs into short cycles and put teams closer to the work. Many companies adopted the ceremonies, but far fewer changed how decisions and funding worked.

People

Cross-functional teams replace hand-offs between departments.

Process

Sprints, backlogs and retrospectives replace the annual plan.

Tools

Boards, CI/CD and DevOps pipelines make progress visible.

71% of respondents use Agile in their software lifecycle, yet only 11% are “very satisfied” with it.

Digital.ai, 17th State of Agile Report, 2024

The two main reasons Agile doesn’t scale: organizational resistance to change and too little understanding among leaders.

Digital.ai, 17th State of Agile Report, 2024

What leaders get wrong: They treat agile as a team ritual and keep top-down funding and project milestones.

What’s next: Velocity is not value. The question becomes “what outcome did we move?”

ERA 02 · OWN THE OUTCOME

We stopped funding projects and started owning products.

The product model gave durable teams a problem to solve, the funding to solve it, and accountability for results. It works when leaders give teams the authority that goes with that accountability, and it stalls when they don’t.

People

Product managers, designers and engineers form durable teams that own a problem.

Process

Discovery and outcome goals replace feature roadmaps and project gates.

Tools

Product analytics, experimentation platforms and shared platforms built for reuse.

Companies with the most mature product and platform operating models have 60% greater total shareholder returns and 16% higher operating margins than bottom-half companies.

McKinsey, “The bottom-line benefit of the product operating model,” Dec 2023

Only 12% of companies have made the shift to a product operating model, and 97% report roadblocks.

Planview, 2024 Project to Product State of the Industry Report, Oct 2024

What leaders get wrong: Renaming project managers as product owners and running transformation as a project. SVPG’s advice is to prove the model with pilot teams first, then scale.

What’s next: Teams that own outcomes are ready to own agents too.

ERA 03 · ORCHESTRATE

Now people and agents share the work.

AI agents can plan, act and hand work back to people, so the leader’s job shifts from managing tasks to designing the system: who decides, what the agent can do on its own, and how we know it worked. Organizations that redesign the workflow see results, while those that bolt agents onto old processes end up paying for pilots.

People

Employees become managers of agents, and judgment becomes the scarce skill.

Process

Workflows are redesigned around human decision points, guardrails and evidence.

Tools

Agent platforms, agent identity, runtime governance and real-time cost controls.

Gartner predicts over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by the end of 2027 because of rising costs, unclear business value or weak risk controls.

Gartner press release, Jun 25, 2025

Nearly three-quarters of AI high performers report fundamentally redesigning workflows for AI, compared with one-quarter of other respondents.

McKinsey, The State of AI in 2026, Aug 2026

What leaders get wrong: Running agent pilots without a value metric, an owner or a cost ceiling.

What’s next: Governance that keeps pace with autonomy, and products that tie token spend to business value.

Deliver → Own → Orchestrate

Every shift rewards the leaders who change how decisions get made, and not just which tools get bought. My keynote From Idea to Impact: Building an AI-Native Organization gives your leaders a practical path through the third shift.

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Two pillars

Two places transformation is won or lost.

Identity & Purpose

People don't resist change. They resist losing who they believe they are. Nathaniel helps leaders and teams get beneath fear, doubt, and limiting belief, so purpose is clear at the organizational level and identity is reframed at the personal level.

Explore identity talks →

Change & Operating Model Transformation

Change is now the environment, not an event. Drawing on his work leading an enterprise AI platform and a global Product & Delivery Community at Fortune 100 scale, Nathaniel shows how to align people, process, and technology into a new operating model, and how to move AI from idea to impact.

Explore transformation talks →

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Find your assignment.

The Assignment Assessment: 22 questions and 3 reflections. You see a short result on screen and get the full report by email.

Take the free assessment

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Wired

Formed

Called

Sent

Keynotes

Featured talks

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Flagship keynote

Change Is the ConstantAnchoring Purpose When the Operating Model Shifts

The flagship keynote. How executives keep an organization anchored in purpose while its operating model is rebuilt.

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Keynote

From Idea to ImpactBuilding an AI-Native Organization

What actually moves AI from pilots to practice, from someone running an enterprise AI platform today.

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Keynote

The Inside JobWhy Transformation Starts With Who You Believe You Are

Why change stalls at the level of identity, and the tools leaders can use to get it moving again.

See the talk

Planning a faith-and-work event? See Made for This →

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About

A practitioner, not a commentator.

Nathaniel is a global transformation leader at Fortune 100 companies, where he holds two global roles. As AI Platform Lead, he takes enterprise AI from idea to impact, including citizen development and demand management. As Product Excellence Lead, he leads the global Product & Delivery Community, where product managers, CX leaders, and AI delivery leaders build AI-native ways of working.

He reads technology, business, and culture side by side and connects the dots into direction leaders can act on. He has spent 15+ years learning that strategy rarely fails on paper. It fails in people's beliefs.

More about Nathaniel

Workshops

For teams in the middle of it.

When the room needs more than a keynote, Nathaniel runs half-day and full-day working sessions. Reframe helps teams in transition surface the beliefs shaping how they respond to change. Operating Model Reset helps executive teams map where they are, where they're going, and the order to get there.

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Testimonials

What organizers say

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Before you book

Questions planners ask

What formats are available?

Keynotes, executive briefings, breakouts, and half-day or full-day workshops. All four talks run 45–60 minutes and can be shortened for a tighter agenda.

Can a talk be customized for our event?

Yes. Every talk is shaped around your audience, your theme, and the change your people are facing. That starts with a short pre-event call. The core framework stays intact; examples, emphasis, and the call to action are tailored to your room.

Do you speak virtually?

Yes. Virtual sessions are delivered live with the same substance as in-person talks, designed for the screen, with interaction built in.

How far ahead should we book?

As early as you can. Share your date on the booking form, even if it's an estimate, and we'll be in touch.

Bring the conversation to your room.

Tell us about your event, your audience, and the change they're facing. We'll be in touch.

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