DELIVERING KEYNOTES | DEPLOYING RESEARCH | DEVELOPING ASSESSMENTS
Haywood Spangler, Ph.D., M.Div., helps clients make complex decisions that include a realistic understanding of uncertainty. From NASA astrophysicists to Morgan Stanley's compliance department to the U.N. Pan American Health Organization, Haywood's engagements are customized to meet the needs of each client.
Haywood Spangler, Ph.D., M.Div., is the founder and principal of Work & Think, LLC.
He is a keynote speaker, a corporate consultant, a researcher, and an author, and formerly interned as a biomedical ethicist at the UVA Medical Center and was an instructor of business ethics at the UVA McIntire School of Commerce. His Spangler Ethical Reasoning Assessment® (SERA®) is used across industries and around the world, enabling individuals to combine critical thinking and values to make complex decisions.
Haywood speaks to a group of community leaders at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
Keynote topics, powered by Haywood's assessment of your organization:
Enhancing your Ethical Reasoning and Personal Judgement
Activating Rational and Intuitive Approaches to Make Complex Decisions
How to Recognize and then Leverage Ambiguity and Uncertainty
Cultivating an Innovation and Creativity Ecosystem
Haywood Spanger News
Presented at the ATD 2018 International Conference and Exposition:
Bridging the Gap: Beyond Sexual Harassment Prevention Policies to Organizational Culture Changes
Based on research with over 2,000 professionals across 20 industries:
Striving for Excellence, Mastering the Skills that Drive Performance
Featured in AMA Quarterly, Summer 2018, Emerging Skills for Developing an Innovative, Agile Culture:
Making Creativity & Innovation More Than a Slogan
As seen in AMA Playbook, February 2019:
To Achieve Organizational Agility, Move Past ‘Command and Control’
A professor, an army officer, a priest, and a philosopher all walk into a bar...and they are all Haywood.
Haywood has an extraordinary ability to connect with all walks of life. He has delivered keynotes at Altria, Morgan Stanley, and the State of California’s Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. Haywood has performed clinical research at VCU Medical School and organizational development research for the U.N.’s Pan American Health Organization. His homiletical commentaries help clergy to develop relevant and illuminating messages, whether they are preaching at a place of worship or at a homeless shelter. Haywood is also the education consultant for Leadership Metro Richmond, where he equips community leaders with the skills to navigate the complexities of public policy and social change.
He brings a rigorous intellectual curiosity and a unique leadership perspective to every engagement.
Haywood earned his master’s degree in divinity from Yale, served as a counselor at a V.A. hospital, and was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1998. After earning his Ph.D. from UVA, he was the rector of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Richmond from 2004-2011 where he grew membership by 60 percent. He established an endowment, managed capital improvements, and supervised paid staff and volunteers. During Haywood’s tenure, parishioners sponsored thousands of Sudanese refugees and today the congregation is multicultural and thriving. Haywood used his vacation time to advise organizations on critical thinking and decision-making based on his academic and rector experiences. In 2011, Haywood launched his consulting practice.
His assessments, turnkey or customized, empower professionals across industries and around the world.
Drawing upon his background in philosophy and psychometrics, Haywood created two statistically reliable, self-scoring preference assessments: the Spangler Ethical Reasoning Assessment® (SERA®) and the Innovation Inventory™ (II™). The SERA® interprets an individual’s decision-making logic and details six types of ethical reasoning. The II™ identifies an individual’s preference for linear and non-linear thinking and their tolerance for uncertainty. Haywood licenses his assessments to organizations both local and global, including to the AMA, a leadership development provider in more than 40 countries. For select clients, he develops custom assessments that provide insights that are new and actionable.
Haywood excels at helping you define and leverage your values—to reduce uncertainty and make better business decisions.
Each client engagement starts with an in-depth discussion. Haywood will ask Socratic questions, acknowledging that he doesn’t have answers, and instead, his questions are intended to help clients clarify goals. Often he will create a research strategy to make a business case, culminating in a keynote to the organization. Clients report that Haywood's presentations are deeply thought-provoking, challenging them to sharpen their ethical reasoning skills.
“Haywood engages his audience with the perfect blend of authenticity, thoughtfulness, intellectual stimulation, and humor. He approaches controversial topics head-on by providing research, diplomacy, and grace to the discussion.”
— Melissa Lubin, Ph.D., Director of Extended Learning, Virginia Tech
"Haywood welcomed our input, and then built on it, designing and delivering an expert program. This ensured that our audience, including experienced professional and senior leaders, was completely engaged."
— Alison Kaufmann, Communications Manager and Women’s Resource Group Chair, Dominion Energy
"Haywood is my thought partner. If you're open to really rolling up your sleeves with someone who brings an incredible intellect, a set of rich experiences, and a dry sense of humor to whatever business issues you're working on, I absolutely recommend Haywood."
— Michael Thorne-Begland, Vice President & Chief Transformation Officer, Altria Client Services