Keynotes
One story. Three ways in.
Each keynote draws on the same experience and the same tools, shaped for a different audience. All three are tailored to your event, theme and the people in the room.
Flagship keynote
When the Plan Breaks
Deciding well and rebuilding under real constraints.
In 2020, a mountain biking crash left Andrew Kooger with a traumatic brain injury and a T7 spinal cord injury. The plan he had for his work, his sport and his life was gone. What followed was not one dramatic comeback. It was a long series of ordinary decisions, made with incomplete information and under constraints he had not chosen.
This keynote connects that experience to the moments your people face at work: a reorganization, a lost client, a market shock, a project that falls apart late. Andrew walks through the decision protocol he relies on and shows how it holds up when there is no perfect option, only better and worse ones.
What the session is designed to help people do
- Distinguish what can be controlled from what cannot.
- Evaluate the options still available under real constraints.
- Connect a choice to the values that matter most.
- Commit to a realistic next action, and review it.
- Best for
- Leadership conferences, sales kickoffs, corporate offsites and association events.
- Proposed format
- 45–60 minutes, with optional Q&A. In person or virtual.
- Pairs with
- The Decision Toolkit workshop
- Tailoring
- Examples and emphasis are adjusted to your audience and event theme.
Identity and values
The Puzzle
Who you are when what you built on disappears.
Most of us build who we are from pieces: work, sport, family, relationships, goals, the things we are good at. When one piece breaks, the whole picture can seem to go with it. Andrew lived that after his injury, when the athlete and the professional he had built himself around both had to be rebuilt.
The Puzzle is the framework he uses to make sense of it. It helps people see which pieces their sense of self rests on, which values still hold when circumstances change, and how to put together a next step that fits who they are now. It works for teams through change, for people returning from leave, and for audiences thinking about disability, inclusion and belonging at work.
What the session is designed to help people do
- Examine identity beyond roles, titles and achievements.
- Identify the values that still guide choices after a disruption.
- Build a manageable next step, rather than a complete plan.
- Best for
- HR teams, employee resource groups, culture and inclusion events, and associations.
- Proposed format
- 30–60 minutes. In person or virtual.
- Pairs with
- Purpose at Work or Practical Accessibility and Inclusion workshops
- Tailoring
- Examples and emphasis are adjusted to your audience and event theme.
For client-facing professionals
Both Sides of the Desk
Decisions under pressure, for people who advise others.
Advisors, planners and client-facing teams sit with people making some of the biggest decisions of their lives, often under stress. Andrew has built his career in finance and today works in asset management, alongside the advisors and planners who have those conversations. He has also been the person whose plan was rewritten overnight.
This keynote draws on both perspectives. It looks at how people behave when a plan is threatened, the questions that help in those moments, and how professionals can examine a decision before committing to it while protecting their own judgment under pressure.
The session is educational and behavioural. It contains no investment, product or market recommendations, and it is not an accredited continuing-education program. Andrew's speaking is independent of his employer.
What the session is designed to help people do
- Recognize fear, loss and identity in difficult client conversations.
- Ask useful questions when the pressure is high.
- Examine a decision before committing to it.
- Protect personal judgment in demanding situations.
- Best for
- Advisors, planners, insurers, and any client-facing team that guides people through big decisions.
- Proposed format
- 45 minutes. In person or virtual.
- Pairs with
- The Decision Toolkit workshop
- Tailoring
- Examples and emphasis are adjusted to your audience and event theme.
The two frameworks behind the talks.
They answer different questions, so they are taught separately.
The Puzzle
A framework for identity and values.
We build our sense of who we are from pieces: work, sport, family, relationships, goals. The Puzzle helps people see which pieces they have built on, which values still hold when one of those pieces breaks, and how to choose a next step that fits who they are now.
It is at the centre of The Puzzle keynote and shapes the reflection in the other two.
The decision protocol Andrew teaches
- PauseSlow the first reaction down enough to think.
- Name the constraintSay plainly what has changed and what is fixed.
- Identify optionsList what you can still do, not only what you have lost.
- Choose in line with valuesPick the option that fits what matters most.
- Commit and reviewTake a realistic next step, then check how it went.
The protocol is a practical sequence for the moment a plan stops working. It is the core of When the Plan Breaks and the Decision Toolkit workshop.
Learning goals describe what each session is designed to help people do. Results depend on the audience and on how the ideas are used afterward; no session guarantees business outcomes.
Want more than one session?
Pair a keynote with a workshop so the whole audience hears the ideas and teams get time to put them to work.
Planning your 2027 event?
Tell Andrew about your audience, your date and what you want people to leave with. He will follow up to talk it through and send a proposal.