Helping People and Organizations Thrive Through Change
Dr. Victoria M. Grady bridges research and real-world impact. A leading expert in organizational behavior and change psychology, she helps leaders decode resistance, inspire action, and achieve measurable transformation.
Keynote Speaker on Change, Transformation & Team Evolution
As a change speaker and organizational behavior expert, I help leaders and teams turn disruption into opportunity. My keynotes explore the psychology behind transformation—why people resist it, how teams evolve through it, and what leaders can do to guide the process with empathy and strategy.
With a focus on storytelling and research-based insight, my presentations equip audiences with practical tools for navigating transition and accelerating team development.
Featured Keynotes
Staplers and Volleyballs: Why Strength Isn’t What you Think
In today’s global society, most of us face lives filled with challenging situations—whether with our health, education, finance, family, or relationships. The challenge of change and transition can be difficult to manage, no matter where it strikes.
Each and every one of us will experience a change challenge of some kind… we may get it wrong or we may get it right, but the bottom line is we all lean on objects for support and stability during times of change. This behavior is a basic human instinct, we (again you and me) need to understand how to recognize and define our leaned-on objects and how to know when it’s time to find a new object (or let one find us).
The one thing I know to be true in this process is that humans unequivocally possess a hidden strength that, once recognized, becomes your personal and professional change and transition game-changer.
Popular Keynote Abstracts
Are You Stuck? Understanding the Biology Behind Change and Transformation
As we enter the post-pandemic workplace, it would seem that the basic requirement of an agile workforce ready for change is more critical than ever before. However, change can be difficult. Each time an organization goes through any sort of change, some individuals/groups will gladly leap forward with enthusiastic anticipation and others will seem to be wearily burdened by the very notion.
Within the workplace, the latter is often labeled as resistance. Resistance that some colleagues and business leaders characterize as irrational or based on a lack of understanding. Other “experts” will even tell us that the reason we struggle against change is that all the change we see makes us exhausted. But it is not resistance, and it is not exhaustion that makes us resist change. Quite simply, we get Stuck.
Getting Stuck is a biological response to change that is rarely explored and even more rarely acknowledged in the workplace. We build entire algorithms, schema, or mental models that work like roadmaps to navigate the world. Those roadmaps are deeply wired into our brains. When a change comes along, it often requires us to rewire these algorithms. Our instinctual response says "whoa...maybe this is not a good idea..." From the brain’s perspective, we like things the way they are. We get Stuck because our brains get attached to the way things are today. So how do you get UnStuck?
What is a Change Response Style?
Even the most flexible, adaptable, unflappable employees form deep connections to the people, objects, and routines that represent their “normal.” When change disrupts one of these connections, it breaks the employee’s contract with “normal,” triggering a fight-or-flight response deep within their brain. Though powerful, this resistance to change is expected and therefore leverageable when practically addressed.
A change response style describes how a person connects to and relates to others during times of change and transition within the workplace. There is no “right” or “wrong” change response style; each has unique attributes that help or hinder change adoption. When these attributes are optimized, teams can successfully navigate change in a healthy and constructive manner.
This interactive session will include participants completing the Change Response Style Assessment. Our discussion will include the background of each Change Response Style…but even more importantly, the nuances that leadership/management/colleagues might expect from one Change Response Style to another.
Hi, I’m Dr. Victoria Grady
I’m an author, professor, and consultant who helps organizations lead change that sticks. My work sits at the intersection of behavioral science and business strategy: where research meets real-world transformation.
As an Associate Professor at George Mason University’s Costello College of Business, I study how people respond to organizational change. In my consulting work, I partner with leaders in healthcare, government, and industry to apply those insights for lasting results.
My books, Stuck and The Pivot Point, explore how understanding loss and attachment can unlock better change outcomes. I believe that when we truly understand people, we can lead change that works.
My work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, ATD Magazine, CEO World, Washington Business Journal, and Bloomberg News.
To learn more about my consulting work, visit PivotPnt.com.
Workshops
Victoria is a certified Wallbreakers® Facilitator
Wallbreakers® is a Leadership/Change Management Simulation designed to support the individual in practicing decision making, testing assumptions and evaluating real-time impact on the change strategy for the organization.
With Wallbreakers®, participants sharpen their change leadership skills and engage in reflective discussions about their approaches, all within a risk-free and dynamic learning environment.
The Wallbreakers® workshop session will begin with an overview of basic change management principles, models and theory, this section can be tailored to the change framework in your organization. The facilitator will then provide a basic overview of the simulation and then begin the simulation. The entire workshop is designed to be completed in 90 minutes short version, or 180 minutes standard version.
See the Workz website below for more information on the Wallbreakers® simulation game.
Publications
Grady, Victoria (2025) The Faces of Change: Craft change management strategies based on staff’s response styles. TD Magazine. April 2025. https://www.td.org/content/td-magazine/the-faces-of-change
Grady, Victoria, (2024) Five Ways to Think About AI’s Role in Change Management. HR Dive. May 2024. 5 ways to think about AI’s role in change management | HR Dive
Grady, Victoria and McCreesh, Patrick. (2022). Stuck: How to WIN at Work by Understanding LOSS. Routledge Taylor Francis, New York, New York.
Grady, Victoria. (2022). "Making a Transitional Space in the Workplace: How to Bring People to Change." CEO World Magazine: https://ceoworld.biz/2022/05/06/making-a-transitional-space-in-the-workplace-how-to-bring-people-to-change/
Grady, Victoria (2021). 3 Tools to Help Leaders Steady Their Teams During a Transition. Harvard Business Review. March 2021. https://hbr.org/2021/03/3-tools-to-help-leaders-steady-their-teams-during-a-transition
Goldberg, Deborah, Solay, Tulay, Kitsotis, Panangoitis, Grady, Victoria, Elward, Kurt, and Nichols, Len. (2021). “Burnout Among Primary Care Providers and Staff: Evaluating the Association with Adaptive Practice Reserve and Individual Behaviors.” Journal of General Internal Medicine. January. DOI: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33420562/
Grady, Victoria and Grady, James (2021). Step Up For Your Firms Survivor’s. Washington Business Journal. February 12. https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2021/02/12/viewpoint-step-up-for-your-firm-s-survivors.html?b=1613090754%5E21857933
Grady VM, Soylu TG, Goldberg DG, Kitsantas P, Grady JD. A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Primary Care Practice Characteristics and Healthcare Professionals’ Behavioral Responses to Change. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing. 2021;58. https://doi.org/10.1177/0046958021996518
Behind the Scene Interview at TEDxColumbiana
Contact
Interested in discussing collaboration or speaking opportunities? Let’s connect. I look forward to hearing from you.