The intellectual foundation
Jonathan Griffiths is an award-winning, UK-based keynote speaker on celebrating brilliant humans and workplaces. The ideas on this page are the intellectual foundation of everything he does on stage — original research, original frameworks, and a concept built from twenty years of watching, and experiencing first-hand, how organisations treat their people.
The research
Not clever. Not successful. Not charismatic.
Brilliant — the kind of person you remember long after the meeting ends. The kind of person whose name comes up, years later, when someone says: "I wouldn't be where I am without them."
In early 2026, Jonathan ran a piece of research on that deceptively simple premise. He asked 105 people — across industries, across borders — to rank what they most associate with brilliance in others. No leading questions. No pre-set answers. Just the question, and whatever came back.
The results were not what most people expected.
54%
of respondents put kindness and empathy first
48%
put creativity and innovation last
87%
agree we give more attention to negative behaviour than positive
54%
Kindness first
Not intelligence. Not achievement. Not strategic vision. Three qualities we routinely dismiss as "soft" — and yet there they are, ranked highest of all.
86%
Unknown heroes
Of the people who shaped respondents most, 86% are unknown beyond their own family or small community. Brilliance is local, domestic, and quiet. It is a mum. A teacher from thirty years ago.
83%
Zero cost
Of the acts that made someone's day better cost the giver nothing at all. Only attention. Only time. Only words. The activation energy required to lead brilliantly is essentially zero.
89% of respondents said the people in their lives are generally good and kind. 81% had a small, ordinary act of kindness make their day better within the last week. For nearly a quarter of them, it had happened that very day.
The lived experience of being human, in other words, is overwhelmingly positive.
And yet: 87% agreed that we give more attention to negative behaviour than positive. 59% said modern technology actively fails to reward the qualities people value most. Not a single respondent — not one — strongly agreed that platforms reward kindness.
The world we actually live in, day to day, is mostly kind. The world we are told we live in is mostly hostile. People know both things are true at the same time. Most can't explain the gap.
That gap is what Jonathan's work exists to close.
When respondents were asked who had the biggest positive impact on their life, the answer was almost never anyone famous.
53% named a parent or family member. 26% named a friend. 14% named a teacher or coach. Bosses came in at 3%. Celebrities at 3%.
86% of the people who shaped us are unknown beyond their own family or small community. Only 2 respondents out of 105 named anyone widely famous.
Brilliance is not what we see on stages or in business books. It is local, domestic, and quiet. It is a mum. A teacher from thirty years ago. A colleague who showed up when no one else did.
See the talks →Why it matters for organisations
The Brilliant Humans research doesn't just redefine what brilliance looks like. It reframes what good leadership, good culture, and good work actually require.
We have built organisations around the wrong signals. We promote people for results, not for the way they achieve them. We measure output, not impact. We celebrate the loudest voice, not the most considered one.
The research suggests the qualities that make someone genuinely memorable — genuinely influential in other people's lives — are already present in most workplaces. We have simply stopped naming them, developing them, or giving them the weight they deserve.
83%
of acts that made someone's day better cost the giver nothing
87%
agree organisations focus more on negative behaviour than positive
The signature concept
Most humans are brilliant. Not occasionally, not aspirationally — right now, today, in the way they show up for each other when no one is watching and no one is counting.
The problem is that we are wired for negativity. It kept our ancestors alive — scan for threat, expect the worst, attend to what's wrong before what's right. That wiring made sense on the savannah. It has been ruthlessly exploited ever since.
Tech platforms don't serve content. They serve attention. And the fastest route to human attention is fear, outrage, and evidence that the world is going wrong. Not a single respondent in Jonathan's research strongly agreed that the platforms reward kindness. Not one.
The talk asks audiences to notice what they've been trained to look past — and to question who benefits from them not noticing.
The core tension
What algorithms reward
Fear. Outrage. Conflict. Threat.
What humans actually do
Kindness. Support. Generosity. Courage.
105 people. Multiple countries and cultures.
The qualities most associated with brilliance?
The ones platforms never surface.
Jonathan's 2026 research asked 105 people — across industries, across cultures, across countries — to describe brilliance in others. Not intelligence. Not achievement. Not charisma.
The qualities that came back, again and again, were the ones that almost never trend.
Kindness
Ranked first by 54% of respondents. The quality most associated with genuinely brilliant people.
Empathy
Named alongside kindness. Quiet, costly, and almost entirely absent from how we measure leadership.
Courage
The willingness to speak, to protect, to act — even when it would be easier not to.
Curiosity
Genuine interest in other people. The quality that makes someone worth knowing and working alongside.
These are not rare qualities. They are not reserved for exceptional people in exceptional circumstances. They are what most humans quietly live by, every day, in the interactions the world never sees.
The keynote of meaning isn't an argument against technology. It is an argument for paying attention differently.
Audiences leave with a recalibration: they have been trained, by years of scrolling, to expect the worst of the people around them. The research says the opposite is closer to the truth. 89% of respondents described the people in their lives as generally good and kind.
The talk doesn't resolve the tension between the world we live in and the world we are shown. It names it, holds it up, and asks the audience to decide which one they want to act from.
That decision — made in a conference room, on a Tuesday afternoon, by someone who drove two hours to be there — is what Jonathan's work is built around.
See the talk →Leadership framework
The HABITS framework grew from a different question. Not "what makes someone brilliant?" but "what does a leader actually need to do to protect their team and create the conditions where brilliance is possible?"
H
Humanity
Lead with genuine empathy. Not as a strategy. As a baseline.
A
Accountability
Model it before you expect it. Own mistakes openly. Hold the same standard for everyone, including yourself.
B
Bravery
Speak up when it's easier to stay quiet. Protect people who are being undermined. Create conditions where honest feedback is safe to give.
I
Integrity
Do the right thing even when no one is watching, even when it costs something, even when the easy path is right there.
T
Transparency
Share openly. Reduce the fear that comes from uncertainty. Model vulnerability rather than pretending it doesn't exist.
S
Sustainability
Build teams, behaviours, and systems that last. Don't burn people out in service of short-term results.
HABITS was developed specifically for leaders navigating, or wanting to avoid, toxic culture — teams where fear-based behaviours have taken hold, where psychological safety is low, and where the gap between stated values and lived reality has become visible to everyone except the people at the top.
It is not a theory of ideal conditions. It is a practical framework for the reality most leaders and teams are actually in.
Each principle has a shadow: what the absence of that quality looks like in practice, and what it costs the team when it's missing. Jonathan works through both in the keynote — the positive case for each behaviour, and the red flags that signal something has gone wrong.
See the HABITS talk →The connection to the research
HABITS does not sit separately from the Brilliant Humans research. It is its operational expression.
If the research tells us that kindness, empathy, and inspiration are the qualities that define brilliance — HABITS is the answer to the question every leader then asks: so how do I actually build that?
Each signature talk draws on one or more of these ideas. Be More Fudge is where the research finding lives in its most human form. Ignore the Algorithms puts the signature concept centre stage. From Crisis to Prosperity is where the HABITS framework gets its full treatment.
See all three talks →Common questions
Want to bring these ideas to your event? Get in touch and Jonathan will give you a direct answer.
Book Jonathan →Jonathan's 2026 research asked 105 people across industries and borders what qualities they most associate with brilliance in others. 54% put kindness and empathy first. 48% put creativity last. The findings form the foundation of his work on stage.
Jonathan's signature concept: humans are wired for negativity, and tech companies have built platforms that exploit that wiring. But research across 105 people in multiple countries found that the qualities most associated with brilliance — kindness, empathy, courage, curiosity — are the ones most humans quietly live by every day. The talk asks audiences to notice what they've been trained to look past.
A six-part leadership framework — Humanity, Accountability, Bravery, Integrity, Transparency, Sustainability — developed to help leaders create psychologically safe, high-trust teams and address toxic culture when it appears.
Each signature talk draws on one or more of these ideas. Be More Fudge is where the research finding lives in its most human form. Ignore the Algorithms puts the signature concept centre stage. From Crisis to Prosperity is where the HABITS framework gets its full treatment.
Yes. Each talk stands alone. Many clients choose one; some ask for two in different slots across a conference day. Jonathan is happy to advise on what fits the audience and format.
"Jonathan Griffiths is not just an expert in his field, but also an exceptional storyteller who connects deeply with his audience. He inspired our students to think critically, embrace challenges, and pursue their dreams with positivity."
Lizzi Matthews Headteacher, Broadwater School
Bring these ideas to your event
If you're planning a leadership summit, culture conference, SKO, all-hands or school event and you want a speaker who'll make the room feel something and then do something — get in touch. Jonathan personally replies to every enquiry within 2 working days.
Book Jonathan →Or email hello@jonathangriffiths.co.uk for bureau enquiries