Engagements

Speaking & Media

Sharam Kohan speaks to senior leadership teams, HR conferences, governance forums, law schools, and business school programs on organizational behavior, behavioral economics, and compliance strategy.

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On Speaking

What the engagements cover

The talks and workshops drawn from The Honest Organization are not motivational. They offer a rigorous account of why specific organizational failures occur, grounded in behavioral economics research and illustrated by more than twenty-five years of practitioner observation. Engagements are available as keynote addresses (45–60 minutes plus Q&A), half-day workshops, and full-day executive seminars for senior leadership teams. Customized presentations addressing organization-specific applications of the framework are available upon inquiry.

Keynotes & Workshops

Suggested Presentation Topics

1
The Architecture of Organizational Self-Deception: What Behavioral Economics Reveals About Why Organizations Fail
Keynote / Workshop · Executive leadership, HR conferences, business school programs, governance forums

The foundational presentation introducing the four-mechanism framework and structural design principles. Appropriate for audiences with or without prior exposure to behavioral economics.

  • Why culture is a consequence rather than a cause of organizational dysfunction
  • How the four mechanisms interact to produce predictable failure patterns
  • What structural features distinguish organizations that can receive diagnostic information from those that cannot
  • The five design principles of the Honest Organization and their practical implementation
2
The Incompetence Ratchet: Why Promoting the Wrong Person Gets Harder to Fix Over Time
Keynote / Workshop · HR executives, talent management professionals, board members, general managers

A focused presentation on promotion decisions, performance evaluation, and why correction of mismatched promotions is structurally improbable. Highly relevant to boards and executive teams engaged in succession planning and senior leadership evaluation.

  • The Incompetence Ratchet mechanism and why it is self-reinforcing
  • How loss aversion makes demotion structurally improbable
  • Structural alternatives to conventional promotion and performance evaluation systems
  • Dual-track promotion and mandatory probationary review as design interventions
3
The Compliance Illusion: How Self-Concept Maintenance Generates Legal Exposure
Keynote / Workshop · General counsel, HR executives, compliance professionals, board members

Maps the four behavioral mechanisms to specific categories of legal liability. Examines the structural position of the general counsel and compliance function under organizational self-deception. Particularly relevant for in-house counsel and boards with compliance oversight responsibility.

  • How organizational self-deception generates discrimination and retaliation liability
  • Why the general counsel reporting to the executive team whose conduct requires correction cannot function as a genuine compliance authority
  • The Structural Separation of Counsel and Compliance principle and its governance implications
Additional Topics

Other Presentation Areas

Employee Relations
The Disgruntled Employee as Organizational Construct
Organizational Culture
Why Culture Change Programs Fail - Every Time
Employee Engagement
Low Morale as Diagnostic Signal: What the Data Are Actually Measuring
Governance
Board Oversight and the Self-Deceiving Organization
HR Leadership
The HR Director in the Self-Deceiving Organization
Behavioral Economics
Applying Behavioral Economics Research to HR Practice
Booking

Speaking & Media Inquiry

For speaking invitations, podcast requests, and media interviews. All submissions receive a response within five business days.