Amy Blankson

  • Authority on Happiness in a Digital Era; Member UN Global Happiness Council; Best-Selling author of The Future of Happiness
  • Twice Awarded Presidential Point of Light
  • Co-Founder, Future of Philanthropy Conference

Amy Blankson, bestselling author of The Future of Happiness, is the only person to receive a Point of Light from two sitting US Presidents.  After graduating from Harvard College and Yale School of Management, she has focused her work on understanding how to cultivate happiness in a digital era.  She is a co-founder of the Digital Wellness Collective, a member of the UN Global Happiness Council, and is currently working with the IEEE to create standards for well-being in the creation of artificial intelligence and emotion awareness. Most recently, Amy has shared her thought leadership as a speaker at TEDx, as a regular contributor for Forbes on Women, Technology, and Leadership, and as a featured professor in Oprah’s Happiness course.

 


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Amy Blankson headshot
Past Hosts Include:
  • MIT Media Lab
  • Google
  • UBS
  • TEDx CMU
  • Dignity Health
  • Harvard
  • Yale
  • Cigna
  • Operation Smile
  • Deloitte
Rave Reviews About Amy Blankson as a Speaker
The Future of Happiness gave me tactical tips in the first few minutes and a genuinely happier life by the end. In an age of endless interruptions, this book couldn’t have arrived at a better time.

Keynote - The Future of Happiness: Getting Unstuck in the Digital Era | TEDxBYU [15:11] - Get Sharable Link
Talks & Conversations with Amy Blankson
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THE FUTURE OF HAPPINESS IN THE DIGITAL AGE: LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE PERFORMANCE AND WELL-BEING

Technology—at least in theory—is improving our productivity, efficiency, and communication. Yet the average mobile user checks their phones more than 150 times per day, and 67% of cell owners find themselves checking their phone even when they don’t notice their phone ringing or vibrating. Mindful a ...

Technology—at least in theory—is improving our productivity, efficiency, and communication. Yet the average mobile user checks their phones more than 150 times per day, and 67% of cell owners find themselves checking their phone even when they don’t notice their phone ringing or vibrating. Mindful attention is a scarce resource. As one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between happiness and technology, Amy Blankson unveils five strategies that successful individuals use to find a sense of balance between technology, productivity, and wellbeing in the Digital Age. In this talk, you will learn how to move from partial attention to full intention, how to hack your distractions to achieve maximum productivity and life satisfaction, and how to rid yourself of the tech graveyard in your office drawers to create more mental and physical space to do the things you love. By rethinking when, where, why and how we use technology, we can begin to recapture our focus, deepen engagement, and find flow in our everyday activities and relationships.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

  • Discover the impact of distraction on your productivity and happiness.
  • Establish positive technology boundaries to shift from a mindset of inattention to one of full intention.
  • Learn healthy habits for tech use to maximize flow and engagement
  • Understand how your technology use impacts your perception as a leader.
  • Increase your flow and engagement by using brain-training techniques.
BEST AUDIENCES:
Sales, Entrepreneurs, Financial Services, Direct Sales, Technology, Education
CATEGORIES: Well-being, Technology

STRATEGIC HAPPINESS: BUILDING A CULTURE OF TRUST AND POSITIVITY IN UNCERTAIN TIMES

Happiness is the greatest competitive advantage in the modern economy, yet so often it is seen as a luxury at work.  However, a decade of research shows that training your brain to be positive at work actually fuels greater success. In fact, 75% of our job success is predicted not by intelligence, b ...

Happiness is the greatest competitive advantage in the modern economy, yet so often it is seen as a luxury at work.  However, a decade of research shows that training your brain to be positive at work actually fuels greater success. In fact, 75% of our job success is predicted not by intelligence, but by your optimism, social support network and the ability to manage energy and stress in a positive way.  It is time to get strategic about how we can raise happiness levels at our organizations to empower teams to reach their full potential. In this talk, Amy draws on her experiences working as Co-founder of global consulting firm GoodThink to empower teams that happiness is a choice, happiness is a habit, and happiness spreads.  She explains how we rethink stress in the midst of change and challenge and how we can lead positive change from any position in the organization.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

  • Learn how the field of positive psychology has changed everything we thought we knew about finding happiness and success.
  • Understand why happiness is a choice and not a genetic or environmental byproduct.
  • Discover practical strategies for practicing happiness on a daily basis.
  • Uncover the power of emotional contagion and use positive social influence to deal with toxic co-workers.

BEST AUDIENCES:

Sales, Entrepreneurs, Financial Services, Direct Sales, Technology, Education

CATEGORIES: Leadership, Trust, Authenticity, Engagement

CONSCIOUS INNOVATION: LEVERAGING POTENTIAL THROUGH CREATIVITY AND COLLABORATION

n the information economy, collaboration is the ultimate currency. Digital communities now enable us to “upsource” projects to collective wisdom, thereby tapping into vast reserves of knowledge and creativity. Yet at the heart of this movement are individuals, many of whom have ceased to believe tha ...

n the information economy, collaboration is the ultimate currency. Digital communities now enable us to “upsource” projects to collective wisdom, thereby tapping into vast reserves of knowledge and creativity. Yet at the heart of this movement are individuals, many of whom have ceased to believe that they can overcome systemic barriers to making a difference in their organization. The Ancient Greeks defined optimism as “the belief that our behavior matters,” which is a critical concept for helping individuals to remove limiting beliefs and to shift towards solutions-based thinking. In this talk, Amy will share inspiring stories of individuals who have mobilized their communities for positive change and will reveal core strategies for how to leverage the potential of teams. Using a combination of design thinking and experiential activities, Amy will show audience members how we can all be innovators if we act together with intention.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

  • Learn how upsourcing knowledge has fundamentally shifted the nature of collaboration in the Digital Era.
  • Discover how leaders are leveraging collective wisdom to innovate faster and more effectively.
  • Understand why positive individuals are 3X more creative than negative individuals.
  • Identify and fact-check limiting beliefs that hinder creativity.
  • Empower individuals to use a growth mindset to fuel innovation and create positive change.

BEST AUDIENCES:

Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, Marketing, Technology, Civic/Government, Education, Nonprofits

CATEGORIES: Innovation, Creativity

INCREASING GENDER PARITY IN LEADERSHIP: WHY IT MATTERS AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT

While gender parity in management has long been an issue, the events of the past year–particularly in the field of technology–have shed new light on why women continue to struggle with breaking through the glass ceiling.  While these stories give us snapshots into the challenges that women in the fi ...

While gender parity in management has long been an issue, the events of the past year–particularly in the field of technology–have shed new light on why women continue to struggle with breaking through the glass ceiling.  While these stories give us snapshots into the challenges that women in the field face, we would be remiss to simply push for more management positions, board seats, or funding opportunities for women without answering the underlying concerns and misconceptions about women in the field: Why should there be more women in leadership? How did current leaders navigate their career choices? What challenges have they faced along the way?  Drawing upon dozens of interviews that Amy completed over the past year for her Forbes series on “Women Execs in Tech,” Amy will share her insight to these questions and provide a path forward for leaders of any gender.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

  • Uncover shared characteristics of some of the world’s most successful women
  • Explore current challenges for women in leadership
  • Learn why gender parity is vital to innovation and organziational culture
  • Discover best practices for recruiting, retaining, and promoting top female talent.

BEST AUDIENCES:

Management, Consulting, Human Resources, Technology

CATEGORIES: Inclusion, Well-being, Leadership

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Books by Amy Blankson
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Biography

Amy Blankson is the only person to be named a Point of Light by two Presidents (President Bush and President Clinton). She received a Presidential appointment to serve a five-year term on the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National Service, and was one of the youngest delegates to the Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future. Amy received her BA from Harvard and MBA from Yale School of Management. She went on to co-found the Future of Philanthropy Conference at Yale University, and in 2007, joined GoodThink on the ground floor to develop and scale the company as it sought to bring the science of happiness to life.

Drawing on over 17 years of management and consulting experience with businesses, foundations, and nonprofits, Amy Blankson brings both passion and practicality to GoodThink. She is currently doing research in partnership with Google to determine how to make positive psychology strategies stick and create sustainable positive change. Amy is the author of the award-winning children’s book Ripple’s Effect, and has three beautiful daughters who teach her about the joy of positivity and the importance of gratitude on a daily basis.