Alan Iny
Internationally recognized consultant, author of Thinking in New Boxes
Seth Goldenberg
Entrepreneur, design visionary, and author of Radical Curiosity
EpicDecade
Seth Goldenberg is a designer and entrepreneur who believes in the power of asking good questions to solve big problems. A former VP at Bruce Mau Design and the founder and CEO of Curiosity & Co., Goldenberg helps organizations rediscover the power of inquisitiveness and curiosity. Known for his thought-provoking and highly tailored talks, Goldenberg has helped hundreds of executives across Fortune 500 companies transform business models, stoke innovation, and impact social change.
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About Seth Goldenberg
Seth Goldenberg is the founder and CEO of Curiosity & Co., a purpose-driven design, business, and innovation studio propelling cultural change. Formerly known as Epic Decade, Curiosity & Co has tackled a series of high-profile projects to solve some of the most ambitious economic, public health, and environmental challenges with Fortune 500 clients such as Apple, American Express, and PepsiCo, leading non-profit organizations, and regional governments. Curiosity & Co. also hosts IDEAS Salons – custom-designed exclusive retreats and conferences attended by Nobel Prize winners, senators, and executives from companies.
In Radical Curiosity (August 2022), Goldenberg presents a bold framework for individuals, businesses, and communities to thrive during a time of significant reinvention. He shares his strategic inquiry-based methodology to answer some of our most complex challenges, and argues that because we value knowing above learning and prioritize doing over thinking, curiosity has become an endangered species. Only by rediscovering the power of questions can we hope to rewrite the commonly held “legacy” narratives that no longer serve us and to remake our organizations, our politics, and our lives.
Seth Goldenberg blends his diverse practices of philosophy, experience design, and storytelling in his energizing and forward-thinking presentations. He encourages his audiences to challenge commonly held beliefs, rethink our social systems, and envision more innovative business models. A popular speaker, Goldenberg has brought his revolutionary ideas to SXSW, the College Art Association, Brown University, Duke University, Virginia Tech University, Florida State University, and the University of Denver.
Prior to founding Epic Decade, Seth Goldenberg was Executive Director of Massive Change, the Vice President at Bruce Mau Design, the interim chief marketing officer of the state of Rhode Island, the interim Chief Design Officer of the highest funded biotech start-up in history Intarcia Therapeutics, and founder and curator of the civic engagement program for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Dialog: City. He oversaw projects for Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios, the City of Liverpool, Microsoft, and MySpace. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, Wired, The Chronicle for Higher Education, Providence Journal, and The Boston Globe.
Seth Goldenberg graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and has a Master’s degree from the Maine College of Art.
Contact us about booking Seth Goldenberg for your next event.
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Speaking Topics
Curiosity as a Leadership Imperative in an Era of Cultural Change
One of today’s most original thinkers, Seth Goldenberg, blends modern-day philosophy, business strategy, and design thinking to challenge: How can we revive the lost art of asking essential questions to envision and realize flourishing futures? In this urgent and charismatic presentation, Goldenberg deconstructs methodologies that he has introduced to hundreds of executives from Fortune 500 companies and leading cultural organizations, shares insightful case studies in the cultural landscape, and champions how to install curiosity within the very operating system of organizations and our personal lives.
Long-term Thinking and the Century by Design
We need to move beyond quarterly reports and 3-year plans to embrace and thrive in todays complexities. But, thinking in a multi-decade- and century-scale is not the norm. How could business be guided by generational thinking? Seth Goldenberg is a radically curious entrepreneur who has helped high-profile companies build their capacity for ambitious long-term value creation. Goldenberg delivers impassioned guidance to business leaders on how to lead through questions not answers, retaining talent by fostering curiosity, and moving beyond sustainability towards the generational legacies our present yields our collective futures.
From the Great Resignation to An Era of Awe
The future of work is being disrupted, reimagined, and redesigned - aligned to a new generation of cultural values. The Great Resignation is impacting everything from the employee experience to the customer experience to global supply chain. At the center of this is the experience economy. Seth Goldenberg helps organizations architect the conditions for human potential to flourish through a new breed of experience design centered on curiosity and awe. In this talk and workshop Goldenberg helps participants harness the power of such principles found in Radical Curiosity as unlearning, upending indicators, incongruity humor, slow work, sensory experiences, and fourth places.
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Praise for Seth Goldenberg
Praise for Radical Curiosity
During this era of fundamental change, Radical Curiosity invites and challenges us to reexamine, with intention and humility, what we need from one another. By doing so, we discover that our interconnectedness is the key to how we can survive and thrive.
— Roni Zeiger, MD, Head of Health Strategy, Meta; former Chief Health Strategist, GoogleSeth Goldenberg’s deep commitment to curiosity taught me how important it is to ask essential questions. The right questions connect our minds and hearts, and that’s how we achieve greatest outcomes.
— Denise Young Smith, former Vice President of Worldwide Human Resources and Talent, AppleRadical Curiosity is the antidote to the languishing state that so many of us find ourselves in, and with this beautifully written book, Seth Goldenberg awakens the gifts we all possess: wonder, optimism, and the fearlessness to reverse destruction. He shows us the way to heal and, in doing so, to flourish. Don’t just read this book; be this book.
— Bruce Vaughn, Vice President of experiential creative product, Airbnb; former Chief Creative Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering -
Books by Seth Goldenberg
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Media About Seth Goldenberg
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Featured Title
Radical Curiosity
“This book is a new operating manual for humankind that everyone needs to read. It engages both your brain and your heart in wonder and possibilities.”—Ivy Ross, Vice President of Design for Hardware, Google
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