SPEAKING

​

Creating space for clearer thinking in complex times​​

​

Many conferences and events focus on solutions before there is shared clarity about the problem. My speaking work is designed to slow that moment down — not to stall action, but to improve its direction.

​

I speak to audiences who sense that today’s ecological, social, and economic crises are not isolated failures, but expressions of deeper systemic patterns. My aim is to help people see those patterns more clearly — and to leave with a stronger sense of orientation, responsibility, and agency.

​

What I bring to the room

​

My talks combine systems thinking and philosophical inquiry, grounded in lived experience and real-world consequences.

​

Audiences can expect:

​

• Clear framing of complex, interconnected issues

• Language that makes implicit assumptions visible

• A refusal of false optimism without collapsing into despair

• Thoughtful challenge delivered without accusation

• Space for reflection as well as insight
   

I am less interested in telling people what to think than in helping them recognise what they may already sense, but have not yet articulated.

​

Core themes I speak on

​

While each talk is adapted to context, my work often centres on:

​

• The Four Drivers of Planetary Change
  Why climate, biodiversity loss, inequality, and social fragmentation share common structural roots.

• Money, value, and real wealth
  How abstract measures shape real-world outcomes — and what gets lost when they diverge from lived reality.

• Technology, efficiency, and the machine metaphor
  Where optimisation helps — and where it quietly erodes care, meaning, and responsibility.

• Consumption, identity, and cultural narrative
  Why awareness alone fails to shift behaviour, and how desire is systemically shaped.

• Governance, growth, and the limits of policy reform
  Why institutions struggle to act on what they already know.

• From optimisation to orientation
  Rethinking progress in an age of limits.
   

Audiences and settings

​

I speak to:

​

• Think tanks and research institutes

• Conferences and public forums

• Leadership teams and boards

• Universities and learning institutions

• Retreats and facilitated dialogues
   

Formats include:

​

• Keynote talks

• Moderated conversations

• Panel contributions

• Closed-door leadership sessions

​

How my talks are experienced

​

Feedback often reflects that the work:

​

• Brings clarity without simplification

• Connects dots across disciplines

• Legitimises difficult or “uncomfortable” questions

• Shifts the tone of discussion in the room

• Leaves people thinking differently about familiar problems
   

The value lies not in novelty, but in coherence.

​

What this work is not

​

To set expectations clearly, my speaking is not:

​

• Motivational performance

• Advocacy for a single policy or solution

• Technical instruction

• Optimistic reassurance without substance
   

It is an invitation to engage honestly with complexity — and to act with greater integrity as a result.

​

Speaking enquiries

​

If you are organising an event or conversation that would benefit from deeper framing, I’m open to discussing whether this perspective is a good fit.

​

Contact:

Michael Chèze
mcheze@icloud.com​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​