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David Burkus
David Burkus helps organizations build high-performing teams through leadership development, team dynamics, and workplace collaboration. A bestselling author and Columbia faculty member, he has been recognized as one of the world's top business thought leaders by Thinkers50 and has worked with clients including PepsiCo, Adobe, and NASA.
David Burkus is an organizational psychologist, author, and keynote speaker who helps leaders build teams that consistently perform at their best.
A member of the Columbia University faculty, David holds a doctorate in strategic leadership and a master's degree in organizational dynamics. He is the bestselling author of five books, including Best Team Ever, Under New Management, and Friend of a Friend. Thinkers50 has ranked him among the world's top business thinkers multiple times since 2017. His research and ideas have also been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings, and his TEDx talks have drawn more than four million views.
David's work bridges academic research and applied practice, translating peer-reviewed findings on trust, collaboration, and team performance into frameworks leaders can put to use immediately. He has consulted with organizations including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA, helping senior leaders address the specific behaviors that separate high-performing teams from the rest.
Audiences leave David's keynotes with a clearer understanding of how culture and trust drive performance, along with practical tools for building psychological safety and stronger collaboration within their own teams.
David brings rigorous research and usable tools to every stage, a strong fit for any team ready to perform better together.
Topics, sessions and talks
David Burkus argues that talent alone rarely wins the day: the habits and culture a team builds together do. Drawing on years of research into high-performing groups, he shows why recruiting star players, raising pay, or piling on feedback rarely fixes underperformance. Instead, David traces the behaviors that separate teams that click from ones that stall, and offers a practical blueprint leaders can apply immediately. Audiences leave with a clear view of how culture drives performance and where to focus first.
Every team hopes to click: to collaborate fast, tackle challenges head-on, and deliver results time and again. Few manage it consistently. David Burkus points to two overlooked elements of high-performing collaboration: clarity about roles and responsibilities, and empathy for how teammates actually prefer to work. When both are present, teams operate at a noticeably higher level; when either is missing, one misunderstanding can send them into collapse. David offers research-backed tools for building instant clarity and alignment, even in the newest or most complex teams.
Trust isn't given, and it isn't earned just once either: David Burkus describes it as something reciprocated, built and rebuilt through every interaction a team has. In this keynote, he outlines the Trust Loop, a feedback cycle the highest-performing teams use to reinforce trust and protect it from eroding. David shows why trust breaks down faster than most leaders expect, and how strong teams recover from setbacks without losing it. Audiences leave with a practical blueprint for strengthening trust and turning it into results.
Most purpose initiatives follow the same script: rewrite the mission statement, launch a campaign, hope it sticks. Most fail, not because leaders do not care, but because a statement alone is never felt. David Burkus cites research showing most employees say purpose matters, yet few feel it shapes their daily work. He identifies the specific leadership behaviors that make purpose tangible at the team level, centered on one question: who is served by the work being done. David shows how making that answer visible lifts performance, retention, and motivation.
Artificial intelligence is already reshaping how teams work, and David Burkus argues the fundamentals of high performance haven't changed: people still need clarity, connection, and trust. He challenges the idea that adopting AI is simply a software rollout, another platform or dashboard to train on. Instead, David shows how the best teams treat AI as a collaborator, rethinking communication, decision-making, and leadership in the process. Audiences leave with a grounded view of what adaptive, AI-enabled leadership looks like in practice.
David Burkus combines a doctorate in strategic leadership with an active consulting practice advising organizations such as PepsiCo, Fidelity, and NASA. Recognized by Thinkers50 as one of the world's leading business thinkers, he pairs academic rigor with real-world experience that translates directly into results for teams and organizations navigating complex challenges.
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frequently asked questions
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To book David Burkus, email david.burkus@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm David's availability and speaking fee. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and about your audience.
David Burkus structures his keynotes around named frameworks drawn from peer-reviewed research — such as the Trust Loop — translating findings on team behaviour into step-by-step blueprints leaders can apply directly after the session.
David Burkus speaks on high-performing team culture, trust and collaboration, and the behaviours that separate effective teams from those that stall. He is a Thinkers50-ranked organisational psychologist, Columbia University faculty member, and bestselling author of five books including Best Team Ever, whose TEDx talks have drawn more than four million views.
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