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Ward Clapham      

Former Police Chief, Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Author of "Breaking With the Law: The Story of Unconventional Tickets" and "Lead Big: Discovering the Upside of Unconventional Leadership."

For 30 years, Ward Clapham worked and served in one of the most stressful and demanding public arenas—law enforcement. When he took command of the third largest Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) detachment in Canada, located in Richmond, B.C., the organization ran like most bureaucracies—heavy command-and-control management and strict adherence to the status quo. As with previous leadership assignments, Clapham didn’t believe in staying in the box. He and his teams took calculated chances, made mistakes, and forged new paths where others feared to tread. Though difficult at times, Clapham’s unshakable vision created new paradigms of leadership within the traditional environment of policing, not to mention that crime and community problems were significantly decreased. Public and private organizations face similar challenges: how to successfully break with ineffective paradigms, practices and principles that tether people and organizations to the status quo. Clapham’s inspiring stories define and describe the paradigm shift needed to move away from the command-and-control style of managing people toward a more proactive, unleashing of talent. He challenges leaders to think again about the effectiveness of their current methods and established rules of engagement.

One of his successful Richmond initiatives is the topic of his first book, "Breaking With the Law: The Story of Positive Tickets." It has also been featured in numerous newspaper articles, a FranklinCovey feature film, and in Reader’s Digest magazine. His second book, "Lead BIG: Discovering the Upside of Unconventional Leadership" defines and describes the paradigm shift needed to move away from the command and control style of managing people toward a more proactive, unleashing of talent. His own inspiring stories and results coupled with scientific research, anecdotes, quotes, and historical accounts lead to powerful break-with insights in each chapter applicable for leaders in all areas of the public and private sectors.

Lead Big will inspire leaders to think again about the effectiveness of their current methods and established rules of engagement. Explore how Clapham and his team adjusted to keep the organization proactive, flexible, and innovative within a constantly changing landscape. Learn how he rooted advanced leadership principles into previously rigid police cultures, and how those principles are now being adapted throughout the world. Discover how he was able to successfully "break with the law" within a command-and-control structure. "Lead BIG: Discovering the Upside of Unconventional Leadership" is an inspiring journey of discovery with one of Canada's top cops as he relates tales of confronting and combating the status quo to generate positive change.

Clapham has also been featured in several books including Dr. Stephen R. Covey's book, The 3rd Alternative, Michael Abrashoff's book, "Get Your Ship Together," Stephen M.R. Covey's book, "Smart Trust," and Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner's 5th edition of "The Leadership Challenge."

Speech Topics


Culture

Its that somewhat nebulous, always pressing presence in every organizationculture. You know its important for morale, for the customer experience, and for driving profits. But how do you change something that often feels like a fog?

Author, speaker, and former Canadian Mountie and Chief of Police, Ward Clapham, shares powerful insights into the myths and realities of changing an organizations culture. Using gut-wrenching examples from the colorful world of policing, Ward outlines effective ways for focusing on cultural issues that hold many organizational back from reaching peak performance. You will be inspired to action as Ward shares the avant-garde methods he used to break his teams out of ineffective practices and forge into better territory.

After serving 30 years in a highly entrenched cultural environmentlaw enforcementWards unbelievable results prove that any leader wields the power to transform culture for the better

Leading in the Knowledge Worker Age: Social Media - a Real Game Changer

During this keynote presentation and Q & A, the participant will learn about how social media is dramatically changing how we work, build relationships, interact with one another, and finally, exercise leadership.

They will discover how the ease, speed, depth and breadth of communications today is a real game changer for business leaders. The old command and control style is being seriously challenged by more collaborative servant leadership techniques and methods. Participants will explore how this shift is fundamentally about culture change. And that type of transformational change - which may include updating business practices - must come from the top. But more than a top-down dictum, it's got to be part of the essence of a business leader today.

The Positive Ticket Principle

It started with a policing experimentwhat would happen if cops tried to catch kids doing something good, instead of doing something bad? And what if kids were rewarded with a positive ticket? It turned into a viral phenomenon called the Positive Ticket Principle that has swept the policing world and now finds application in the business sector.

Speaker and author Ward Clapham, former Chief of Police and mastermind of the Positive Ticket experiment, shares how the Positive Ticket Principle is the key to accelerated business performance and inspiring results.

In his latest keynote address, Clapham explains how employees are not simply motivated by rewards or carrots. While those things are important, the Positive Ticket Principle takes the carrot approach one step further.

Its not just rewarding people, its rewarding them as they progress and achieve significant goals they find personally meaningful. That combination of prize plus unleashing progress becomes the catalyst for breakthrough performance and success.

Learn more about how you can ignite the power of your workforce using the Positive Ticket Principle.

Breaking With the Law: Lead Big - Discovering the Upside of Unconventional Leadership

Businesses today are jumping on the bandwagon of employee motivation through reward and recognition. But the multi-year study has revealed that at the end of the day its not reward that powers the most positive emotions and the urge to succeed. Its progress.

Over his long tenure in policing, Ward has broken with many leadership beliefs and behaviours that were ineffective and unproductive, hence the title of his book series Breaking With the Law. In the face of sometimes harsh criticism, Ward has discovered the ultimate secret for quantum improvement: Every breakthrough first requires a break with the old paradigms, practices, and principles that tether people and organizations to the status quo.

Wards presentation defines and describes the paradigm shift needed to move away from the command and control style of managing people toward a more proactive, unleashing of talent. Wards presentation will inspire you to think again about the effectiveness of your current methods and established rules of engagement.

As a master storyteller, Ward will relate his experiences in grappling with out-dated traditions and ineffective behaviours. Youll be laughing one moment and crying the next as he takes you on an inspirational journey of courage from this cop out of the box.

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