David Burkus

David Burkus

Leading Authority on Organisational Culture, High-Performing Teams, and the Future of Work

Core Intelligence Domain: Leadership
Location: United States | Languages: English
Representation: Represented globally by PSpeakers Global Intelligence

David Burkus is a highly sought-after global management strategist, award-winning business school professor, and trusted advisor to C-suite executives on the intricacies of team dynamics and the future of work. With an evidence-based approach to organisational psychology, he dismantles outdated leadership dogmas to replace them with empirical, proprietary frameworks that foster innovation, engagement, and sustainable high performance. Recognised as one of the world’s pre-eminent thought leaders on corporate culture, Burkus equips top-tier organisations with the strategic foresight necessary to navigate the complexities of modern, distributed, and hybrid workforces.

Regularly featured on the prestigious Thinkers50 radar as one of the top management minds in the world, Burkus has spent over a decade researching how the most successful organisations build cohesive, agile teams. His insights have been embraced by industry giants across the globe, including Google, Fidelity, Viacom, Stryker, and the United States Naval Academy. By bridging the gap between rigorous academic research and practical corporate application, he delivers actionable intelligence that empowers leaders to cultivate environments where elite talent thrives.

Pioneering Frameworks and Global Impact

Burkus is the bestselling author of several seminal books on leadership and management, which have been translated into dozens of languages and have fundamentally reshaped how organisations approach talent and culture.

• Best Team Ever: Explores the surprising science behind why some teams pull together and others fall apart, providing a blueprint for fostering psychological safety, prosocial purpose, and deep understanding.
• Leading from Anywhere: The definitive guide to managing remote and hybrid teams, offering practical strategies for tracking productivity, avoiding burnout, and maintaining culture from a distance.
• Under New Management: Challenges traditional workplace practices—such as email restrictions, open-plan offices, and standard performance reviews—advocating for a radical shift towards autonomy and trust.
• Pick a Fight: A compelling narrative on how authentic leadership requires uniting teams against a shared challenge, rather than just competing for market share.
• Friend of a Friend: Uncovers the hidden networks that drive business success, leveraging the science of network theory to improve collaboration and innovation.

His groundbreaking research and commentary are frequently featured in leading international publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, USAToday, Fast Company, and Bloomberg Businessweek. Burkus is also an accomplished media voice, delivering a widely viewed TED Talk that has garnered millions of views and hosting high-profile podcasts that dissect the nuances of modern leadership.

Core Speaking Topics and Masterclasses

David Burkus delivers high-impact, transformative keynotes tailored to executive boards, senior management, and enterprise-wide audiences. His most requested programmes include:

• The Surprising Science of High-Performing Teams: An evidence-based exploration of the core habits shared by the world’s most cohesive and productive teams, focusing on actionable steps leaders can take immediately.
• Leading the Hybrid Workforce: Strategic frameworks for maintaining engagement, accountability, and innovation across distributed teams, ensuring that culture transcends physical office spaces.
• Cultivating a Culture of Innovation: How to build an environment that encourages risk-taking, rewards creative problem-solving, and rejects the status quo.
• Network Leadership: Harnessing the power of informal networks within an organisation to break down silos, enhance communication, and accelerate cross-functional collaboration.

Key Takeaways

• Evidence-Based Leadership: Move beyond anecdotal management trends to adopt proven, research-backed strategies for team cohesion and scalable performance.
• Hybrid Work Mastery: Equip leaders with the tools to sustain corporate culture, monitor productivity without micromanaging, and combat digital fatigue.
• Enhanced Psychological Safety: Learn the proprietary frameworks necessary to create environments where employees feel secure in taking calculated risks and sharing dissenting ideas.
• Purpose-Driven Engagement: Transform mundane corporate mission statements into powerful rallying cries that unite employees and drive exceptional organisational commitment.