Making the invisible visible for a room.
Talks that don't summarise, translate, or inspire from a distance. The thinking comes from being inside these organisations: pattern recognition built over 20+ years of doing the work, not observing it. Audiences leave with language for the dynamics they've been living but couldn't quite name.
Each talk is drawn from the essays and from 20+ years inside complex organisations: SEEK, Go1, Envato, Smiling Mind.
All of the talks are grounded in the thinking behind The Operating Model Is the Work — each takes a pattern and brings it to life for a specific context and audience.
Signature talks
Read the essayThe full approach
The Hidden Work of a Product Operating Model
This talk names what's actually happening when good work disappears into an organisation: the invisible architecture, where it breaks, and what it takes to change it.
Suits: Product conferences, executive forums, boards navigating digital transformation
Insight breakdown
Why Good Ideas Get Ignored
The problem isn't a shortage of good ideas; it's that organisations are structured to resist them. This talk examines the hidden dynamics that cause promising thinking to stall. Audiences leave with a sharper vocabulary for the patterns they've been living in.
Suits: Executive teams, leadership offsites, culture and innovation forums
System legibility
Making the Invisible Visible
The most consequential work in any organisation is the work that nobody officially assigned. This talk draws on the legibility component of the approach: how the unnamed (unspoken assumptions, informal power, undiscussed constraints) shapes outcomes more than any stated strategy.
Suits: Leadership offsites, executive programmes, people and transformation forums
Pattern recognition
What Foresight Actually Looks Like in Practice
Foresight isn't prediction. It's a discipline: a set of habits and structures that help organisations recognise the patterns forming before they become crises. This talk applies the recognition and naming components of the approach to strategic foresight, distinguishing genuine signal from the theatre of strategy.
Suits: Strategy summits, people and culture forums, senior leadership teams
Recent Talks
Other talks: Future Assembly, Lean Startup Melbourne, Carsales Women in Business Guild
Also listed with Saxton Speaker Bureau.
What event organisers say
Layla is one of those speakers that delivers truth, because she's actually done the work. She's also witty, disarmingly intelligent and an absolute pleasure to work with.
Organiser
Future Assembly
Layla spoke at our Carsales independent Guild created to showcase women in business. Layla is a storyteller with the presence of a friend, which made everyone feel they could connect with her words. I highly recommend Layla as a speaker and coach.
Organiser
Carsales Women in Business Guild
Layla did a talk on 'Finding Superheroes for your Organisation' at our Lean Startup Melbourne event. The talk was received very well by the 400 attendees. The content was original and insightful. Her delivery was very engaging, which the audience responded well to.
Organiser
Lean Startup Melbourne
Read the essays
Every talk is drawn from published essays. The essays are where the ideas are developed, argued, and made legible. Reading them gives you a clear sense of what a talk from Layla will bring to your audience.
Book me to speak
If you're planning a leadership offsite, executive forum, or conference and want a talk that names what's actually happening in organisations (not just describes it), get in touch.
I customise every talk to the audience and context. Tell me who's in the room and what you're hoping they'll leave with.
Based in Australia. Available internationally.