Bruce Feiler

Leading with Purpose: How Leaders Can Create a Meaning Agenda that Serves a More Purpose-Focused Workforce

Drawing on insights from his most recent book, THE SEARCH, his viral Wall Street Journal essay, “The New Rules of Success in a Post-Career World,” and his TED White Paper “The Meaning Moment: How a New Generation of Workers Is Changing the American Workplace,” Bruce Feiler discusses how leaders can adapt to the rapidly changing attitudes toward work and success a new generation of workers–younger, more female, and more diverse. Gone are the days when managers can simply issue top-down edicts and ignore the input of their workers. But what do workers want? Feiler’s talk first explores the changing values of today’s workforce, focused specifically on his proprietary data on the post-pandemic rise of job fluidity, work from anywhere, along with the importance of balance, flexibility, and well-being. He then gives leaders a proven, three-pronged approach to creating a more purpose-driven workplace:

• How to conduct a “meaning audit” to identify your organization’s strengths and weaknesses
• How to develop a “meaning agenda,” that introduces science-backed solutions
• How to “communicate with meaning,” using language from the top of the organization to the bottom that is people-focused and inclusive, while also being inspiring and helpful to the bottom line. 

This timely, practical presentation offers a new framework for work in a post-Covid, post-career world and a road map for leaders and workers to work together to create a more welcoming, more balanced, and ultimately more successful work culture.

The Search: Finding Meaningful Work in a Post-Career World

Fewer people are searching merely for work these days. More people are searching for work with meaning. Drawing on insights from his most-recent books, THE SEARCH: Finding Meaningful Work in a Post-Career World and LIFE IS IN THE TRANSITIONS: Mastering Change at Any Age, as well as 20 years of writing about modern life in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and elsewhere, Bruce Feiler lays out a road map for finding work that brings you the happiness you crave, the meaning you deserve, and the success you seek. As the workforce becomes younger, more female, and more diverse, the world of work is changing fast, but the world of career placement is not keeping up. In a talk filled with inspiring stories, proprietary data, and practical takeaways, Feiler debunks the three lies of work (“You have a career,” “You have a path,” “You have a job”) and explore the one truth (“Only you can write your own story of success”). He then gives participants a toolkit for how to perform a “meaning audit” when they’re going through a work change that allows them to stop chasing someone else’s dream and start chasing their own.

The Secret to Mastering Life’s Biggest Transitions: Tools and Takeaways For Navigating Uncertain Times

Drawing on the groundbreaking revelations in LIFE IS IN THE TRANSITIONS, Bruce Feiler presents a timely new roadmap for how to transform and reinvent ourselves in times of transition to live with more meaning, purpose, and joy. Feiler has spent seven years collecting and analyzing life stories from hundreds of Americans who underwent enormous life changes. Mining this rich wellspring of data and stories, Feiler explores the greatest emotions we struggle in times of change, the biggest roadblocks to reinventions, the habits we most need to shed, the secrets to being creative in moments of uncertainty. With extraordinary insight and urgency, Feiler shares a groundbreaking toolkit for flourishing in periods of upheaval and the first new model for navigating life transitions in half a century.

12 Trends Reshaping the Family – How Millennial Parents, Digital Kids, Overworked Moms, and Active Dads are Changing How Families Shop, Spend, and Connect

Drawing on fifteen years of proprietary research, two bestselling books, and 100 New York Times columns, Bruce Feiler explodes outdated ideas about the family and reveals how working moms, diaper dads, and 24/7 technology are remaking the American home, posing an urgent threat to brands, and presenting an unrivaled opportunity for nimble companies to reach millions of new customers. With his patented mix of in-depth data, careful analysis, and handson research, Feiler discusses how changing demographics [he coined the term parennials in the NYT]; flexible jobs, online shopping, and increased stress; and outlines the possibilities for businesses to help harried families improve their lives.

The Power of Story: Harnessing the Art and Science of Storytelling to Connect, Persuade, and Thrive

From the bestselling author of Life Is in the Transitions comes a bold new road map for finding meaning and purpose at work, based on insights drawn from hundreds of life stories of Americans from all backgrounds and vocations. This presentation takes Feiler’s idea of the “nonlinear life” and applies it to the future of work. From thousands of hours of interviews with an extraordinarily diverse group of Americans, Feiler reveals a powerful new vision for how to think about work. He shows that our lives are upended by a stream of “workquakes” on average every two and a half years. Sure, some people set a goal and stick with it, but far more of us revise our passions, change our directions, and rethink our priorities. After dismantling the three lies about work, Feiler lays out the one truth: that each of us must write our own story. Showing that the people who are happiest at work don’t climb, they dig, Feiler introduces the six questions to ask in a workquake that allow us to perform a “meaning audit,” tapping into our truest selves and our deepest hopes to create the meaning we crave and the success we deserve.

The Secrets of Happy Families: How High-Functioning Families Adapt, Talk, Play and Thrive

As seen on GMA, TODAY, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, and his popular TED Talk, Bruce Feiler delivers a lively, practical talk designed to help busy families contend with the issues they struggle with most: discipline, dinner, difficult conversations, out-of-control mornings, challenging bedtimes, technology showdowns, and sibling rivalry. Combining up-to-the minute research, personal experience, and proven know-how from more than fifteen years of research, two bestselling books, and 100 New York Times columns, Feiler offers and easy-to-implement blueprint of what high-functioning families have in common and helps audience members identify the specific takeaways that can make their family—and everyone in their family—happier.

The Power of Community – How to Survive and Thrive in Difficult Times

The Council of Dads: The worldwide phenomenon that went from a life-threatening illness to a bestselling book to an NBC primetime drama series. Faced with one of life’s greatest challenges, Bruce Feiler reached out to six men who helped shape him and asked each one for a piece of advice for his young daughters: how to live, how to travel, how to question, how to dream. In this funny, moving presentation, Feiler relates the lessons he learned about the power of friendship, the importance of relying on our community whatever challenges we face, and how to celebrate what’s most precious in our lives.