vivaspeakers

Contact

Minette Norman

Inclusive Leadership & Psychological Safety

Most organizations have worked hard to build more diverse leadership teams. What far fewer have figured out is how to lead them. When people don’t feel genuinely safe to speak, to flag a problem, offer unconventional ideas, or push back on a decision they think is wrong, the organization loses exactly what it hired them for.

Minette Norman has spent her career solving this problem from inside some of the world’s most unforgiving technical environments.

Her path to this work is an unlikely one. She graduated from Tufts University with a double major in Drama and French, and ambitions of a life on stage. What she found instead was the early world of Silicon Valley software, starting as a technical writer at Adobe in 1989. Three decades of learning and leading brought her to Vice President of Engineering Practice at Autodesk, where she influenced more than 3,500 engineers across the globe. Those decades taught her that the real challenge isn’t a lack of talent. It’s that most people’s best thinking never gets heard.

She left the corporate world to change that.

As the award-winning author of The Boldly Inclusive Leader and co-author of the Psychological Safety Playbook series, Minette translates her hard-won experience into practical frameworks. Her books have been endorsed by Seth Godin as “a must-read for anyone who cares enough to lead” and praised by Harvard Business School’s Amy Edmondson for offering “timeless practices to help you thrive and lead in an uncertain and challenging world.” Her clients are enterprises in high-stakes, fast-moving environments. Named one of the “Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business” by the San Francisco Business Times and “Business Role Model of the Year” by the Women in IT/Silicon Valley Awards, she brings both the credentials and the candor to change how leaders understand their own role.

As AI reshapes every workplace, the organizations that adapt fastest will be the ones whose leaders build cultures where people feel genuinely safe to speak. Minette shows them how, so their teams feel seen, speak up, and stay.

Signature talks

Today’s leaders recognize the imperative of building more diverse workplaces but often don’t put the same effort towards creating an inclusive culture. Minette knows that an inclusive culture is the backbone of any thriving workplace. Drawing from her award-winning book, The Boldly Inclusive Leader, Minette shares actionable advice to help cultivate an inclusive working environment where innovation and breakthrough ideas can emerge. She helps leaders develop heightened self-awareness, challenge biases, and model inclusive behavior in every interaction.
Psychological safety is the belief that we will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. Teams that have a high degree of psychological safety are the highest-performing teams, the most inclusive teams, the teams that innovate, and the teams that people want to be part of. Drawing from her award-winning book, The Psychological Safety Playbook (co-written with Karolin Helbig), Minette demystifies the topic and offers practical ideas to create a team culture where everyone knows their voice matters.
No organization today can succeed without empathy at the core of its business strategy. But empathy isn’t just about compassion and consideration for customers. It also means making sure all employees feel valued, heard, and appreciated. And that takes work. Minette helps us abandon ‘us vs. them’ mentalities, engage in empathetic listening, and make time for the challenging conversations we’ve been putting off. As Minette helps us understand, the people we struggle the most with are our “empathy teachers.”
Minette shares lessons she learned from her largely unexpected and wildly successful professional career. Graduating from university with a double major in Drama and French, she found her way into Silicon Valley’s software industry and rose from technical writing roles to senior leadership roles. In the course of her 30-year tech career, she learned important lessons in leadership, human connection, and how to craft a more meaningful job no matter where you are in your career journey.

Minette Norman

Most organizations have worked hard to build more diverse leadership teams. What far fewer have figured out is how to lead them. When people don’t feel genuinely safe to speak, to flag a problem, offer unconventional ideas, or push back on a decision they think is wrong, the organization loses exactly what it hired them for.

Most organizations have worked hard to build more diverse leadership teams. What far fewer have figured out is how to lead them. When people don’t feel genuinely safe to speak, to flag a problem, offer unconventional ideas, or push back on a decision they think is wrong, the organization loses exactly what it hired them for.

Minette Norman has spent her career solving this problem from inside some of the world’s most unforgiving technical environments.

Her path to this work is an unlikely one. She graduated from Tufts University with a double major in Drama and French, and ambitions of a life on stage. What she found instead was the early world of Silicon Valley software, starting as a technical writer at Adobe in 1989. Three decades of learning and leading brought her to Vice President of Engineering Practice at Autodesk, where she influenced more than 3,500 engineers across the globe. Those decades taught her that the real challenge isn’t a lack of talent. It’s that most people’s best thinking never gets heard.

She left the corporate world to change that.

As the award-winning author of The Boldly Inclusive Leader and co-author of the Psychological Safety Playbook series, Minette translates her hard-won experience into practical frameworks. Her books have been endorsed by Seth Godin as “a must-read for anyone who cares enough to lead” and praised by Harvard Business School’s Amy Edmondson for offering “timeless practices to help you thrive and lead in an uncertain and challenging world.” Her clients are enterprises in high-stakes, fast-moving environments. Named one of the “Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business” by the San Francisco Business Times and “Business Role Model of the Year” by the Women in IT/Silicon Valley Awards, she brings both the credentials and the candor to change how leaders understand their own role.

As AI reshapes every workplace, the organizations that adapt fastest will be the ones whose leaders build cultures where people feel genuinely safe to speak. Minette shows them how, so their teams feel seen, speak up, and stay.

Minette is based in the USA and is willing to travel internationally.
Visit Minette's Website

Minette is Available For:

Watch Minette in Action:

Minette's Signature Keynotes

The Boldly Inclusive Leader

Today’s leaders recognize the imperative of building more diverse workplaces but often don’t put the same effort towards creating an inclusive culture. Minette knows that an inclusive culture is the backbone of any thriving workplace. Drawing from her award-winning book, The Boldly Inclusive Leader, Minette shares actionable advice to help cultivate an inclusive working environment where innovation and breakthrough ideas can emerge. She helps leaders develop heightened self-awareness, challenge biases, and model inclusive behavior in every interaction.

The Psychological Safety Playbook

Psychological safety is the belief that we will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. Teams that have a high degree of psychological safety are the highest-performing teams, the most inclusive teams, the teams that innovate, and the teams that people want to be part of. Drawing from her award-winning book, The Psychological Safety Playbook (co-written with Karolin Helbig), Minette demystifies the topic and offers practical ideas to create a team culture where everyone knows their voice matters.

Leading with Empathy

No organization today can succeed without empathy at the core of its business strategy. But empathy isn’t just about compassion and consideration for customers. It also means making sure all employees feel valued, heard, and appreciated. And that takes work. Minette helps us abandon ‘us vs. them’ mentalities, engage in empathetic listening, and make time for the challenging conversations we’ve been putting off. As Minette helps us understand, the people we struggle the most with are our “empathy teachers.”

An Unexpected Career

Minette shares lessons she learned from her largely unexpected and wildly successful professional career. Graduating from university with a double major in Drama and French, she found her way into Silicon Valley’s software industry and rose from technical writing roles to senior leadership roles. In the course of her 30-year tech career, she learned important lessons in leadership, human connection, and how to craft a more meaningful job no matter where you are in your career journey.