Dave Morris · Writer, researcher, and keynote speaker
Good people. Better tools. The same problems.
Explore what gets in the way—and what changes when we stop asking people to do all the adapting.
Author of Good People Dumb Systems. Founder of Poko. PhD candidate at the University of Wollongong.
Start with what matters to you
The tool changes. The team works harder. The strategy gets a new name. What changes the conditions underneath?
The demands behind the difficulty
When the answer is always “try harder”, it is worth asking what the work is demanding in the first place. This keynote looks at the conditions that spend people’s attention, narrow their options, and make good work unnecessarily difficult.
Book · Good People Dumb Systems
Better together—or just more output?
Delegating a task also changes who frames the problem, checks the answer, and learns from the effort. This keynote explores the human–AI handover: what to delegate, what to keep thinking through, and how to judge whether the combined system is actually getting better.
Practice and inquiry · Poko and Pokodex
The announcement is only the beginning
A strategy can be clear on paper and difficult to carry out. Priorities compete, responsibilities cross boundaries, and the work still has to happen. This keynote examines what leaders need to understand about the people, decisions, and coordination that turn a plan into something people can actually do.
Doctoral research · PhD in progress
On stage, on air, and on the page
For the room asking why a strategy stalls, why work keeps getting harder, or what AI is really changing for people.
Dave brings the questions behind the book, the research, and the work into keynotes, interviews, and commissioned writing. Choose a subject, explore the thinking, and discuss what your audience needs.
Selected writing
Essay
Different minds do not automatically create advantage; systems have to recognise, translate, protect, and use difference well.
Read the essay: Difference Is Not Advantage Until It Has ConditionsEssay
Decision tools are not neutral containers; they shape what feels visible, valid, urgent, and decideable.
Read the essay: Your Tools Are Teaching You What to NoticeResearch notes
WORKING IDEA: AI isn’t making us dumber. It's changing where the thinking happens.
Read the notes: HOW AI IS REALLY AFFECTING USCommissioning an opinion piece, essay, or guest contribution?
Commission DaveResearch behind the questions
Dave’s PhD follows what happens after companies make big strategic moves, such as buying a business, splitting one up, or restructuring. He compares public company records across 21 cases to understand what follows the decision.
PhD in progress. The public overview describes the question, approach, and scope; detailed findings will be shared through the academic review and publication process.
Explore Holding Change TogetherThree keynotes. Distinct foundations.
A book about human demands. Practical work with AI. Doctoral research into what happens after a big strategic decision.
01When effort stops becoming progress
Capable people. Good intentions. The same problems, again.
The book · Human demands and working conditions
Leadership conferences, people and culture events, and teams facing persistent overload or coordination problems.
Draws on Dave’s book, its synthesis of published research, and his experience in organisational strategy.
Explore the book02People and AI
AI can change the output. What happens to the person doing the work?
Poko and Pokodex · The human–AI handover
AI forums, leadership events, and organisations making decisions about AI adoption and the future of work.
Informed by building with AI at Poko, the public work in Pokodex, and Dave’s examination of published research. Practical examples and exploratory work are distinguished from research findings.
Explore the public work03When the plan meets the working day
The plan is agreed. Then Monday happens.
Strategy experience · Doctoral inquiry
Leadership conferences, strategy events, and executive offsites where people need to turn a clear direction into practical decisions and coordinated work.
Draws on Dave’s corporate strategy experience and his doctoral research into what follows big strategic decisions. The PhD is in progress. Explore the study for its question, evidence, and current status.
Read the research overview
The book
The impossible curriculum of life and work.
What happens when the demands keep growing, but human attention does not? Dave follows that question from the individual to the team, the workplace, and the wider world.
Have an audience in mind?
