Laura Kriska
Global Collaboration Expert | TEDx Speaker | Author 3x | HBR Contributor | Helping Turn Us vs. Them into WE
グローバル・コラボレーション専門家 | TEDxスピーカー | 3冊の著書 | HBR寄稿者 | 「Us vs. Them」から「WE」への変革を支援
New York City, New York, United States
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Laura Kriska is a global collaboration expert, TEDx speaker, and author who helps people build stronger teams across differences of culture, language, geography, generation, and organizational silos.
Her work is rooted in more than 30 years of experience helping people transform “Us vs. Them” dynamics into greater trust, communication, and collaboration. Her career began in Tokyo, where she became the first American woman to work at Honda Motor Company’s headquarters in Japan, and earned a brown belt in judo along the way. These experiences gave her firsthand insight into what enables people to work successfully across differences.
Laura is the author of three books, including The Business of WE, and co-author of the Harvard Business Review article “4 Research-Backed Ways to Help Your Team Collaborate Better.” She is the creator of WE-Building® and TeamMachine®, an interactive simulation designed to accelerate trust and collaboration.
Over the course of her career, Laura has worked with an unusually wide range of professionals—from race car drivers and teachers to pharmaceutical researchers and global business leaders. Her work has been used by teams at global organizations including Accenture, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Toyota, Panasonic, Honda, and the World Economic Forum.
Laura brings research, real-world experience, storytelling, and audience interaction together to give participants practical ways to build stronger relationships and collaborate more effectively—across the room, across an organization, and across the world.
ローラ・クリスカは、グローバル・コラボレーションの専門家、TEDxスピーカー、著者として、文化、言語、地域、世代、組織の壁など、さまざまな違いを越えて、より強いチームを築くための支援を行っています。
30年以上にわたり、「Us vs. Them（私たち対彼ら）」という意識を、より深い信頼、コミュニケーション、コラボレーションへと変えていくことに取り組んできました。キャリアの原点は東京です。本田技研工業株式会社の日本本社で働く初のアメリカ人女性となり、その後、柔道で茶帯も取得しました。こうした経験を通じて、異なる背景を持つ人々が、違いを越えて効果的に協働するために何が必要なのかを、身をもって学びました。
著書は『The Business of WE』を含む3冊。Harvard Business Reviewの記事「チームのコラボレーションを高める、研究に基づく4つの方法（4 Research-Backed Ways to Help Your Team Collaborate Better）」の共著者でもあります。また、WE-Building®の考案者であり、信頼とコラボレーションを短時間で促進するインタラクティブ・シミュレーション「TeamMachine®」を開発しました。
これまで、レーシングドライバーや教師から、製薬業界の研究者、グローバル企業のリーダーまで、非常に幅広い分野のプロフェッショナルと仕事をしてきました。Accenture、Goldman Sachs、Microsoft、Toyota、Panasonic、Honda、World Economic Forumをはじめとするグローバル組織のチームでも、ローラのプログラムやアプローチが活用されています。
ローラの講演では、研究に基づく知見、豊富な実体験、ストーリーテリング、そして参加型のアプローチを組み合わせ、より強い人間関係を築き、より効果的に協働するための実践的な方法を提供します。同じ会場にいる人同士から、組織の壁を越えた関係、さらには国境を越えたコラボレーションまで、人と人をつなぎ、「WE」を生み出すことを目指しています。
Area of Expertise
Topics
AI Can Make Your Team Faster. It Can't Make Them Trust Each Other.
For more than 30 years, I've watched organizations invest in technologies designed to help people communicate faster. Yet one collaboration problem remains remarkably stubborn: people don't share critical information with people they don't trust.
AI is making information move faster than ever. But it doesn't eliminate the human barriers that determine where that information actually goes—across departments, cultures, hierarchies, languages, and the invisible lines between “us” and “them.”
I first encountered this problem inside Honda's headquarters in Japan, where I became the first American woman to work there. Since then, I've worked with thousands of professionals across four continents while pursuing the same fundamental question: What causes people who see themselves as “us” and “them” to start behaving like “WE”?
In this interactive session, we'll explore why AI can accelerate work without necessarily strengthening collaboration—and what research tells us about creating the conditions human cooperation requires.
Drawing on social psychology, my Harvard Business Review collaboration work, and three decades of real-world experience, participants will examine the behaviors that determine whether people speak up, exchange information across boundaries, challenge assumptions, and build relationships outside their familiar circles.
Participants will leave with practical, research-backed actions they can immediately use to strengthen trust and collaboration in an increasingly AI-driven workplace.
Target audience: Leaders, managers, HR and People & Culture professionals, and anyone responsible for building effective teams in an AI-driven workplace.
Format: Interactive keynote or conference session; adaptable to 30–60 minutes. No technical or AI expertise required.
Your Biggest Collaboration Problem Isn't Technology. It's Us vs. Them.
Every organization has invisible lines separating “us” from “them.” Headquarters vs. field. Sales vs. operations. Leaders vs. employees. Remote vs. In-person. Long-time employees vs. newcomers.
These divides can look like communication problems, personality conflicts, or cultural differences. But decades of social psychology reveal something more fundamental: humans quickly categorize people into “us” and “them”—and those categories influence whom we trust, whose information we value, and whom we choose to help.
I've spent more than 30 years working with thousands of professionals across four continents on a practical question: Can organizations deliberately turn “Us vs. Them” into “WE”?
In this interactive session, participants will identify the invisible Us/Them boundaries operating in their own organizations and experience how seemingly small changes in behavior can begin to cross them.
Drawing on social psychology, my Harvard Business Review collaboration work, and decades of experience with global organizations, I'll introduce the WE-Building® approach, share real-world success stories and practical actions participants can use to expand relationships, increase information sharing, and strengthen collaboration across organizational divides.
Participants will leave with a simple way to diagnose where Us/Them dynamics are undermining collaboration—and specific actions they can take to start building WE.
Target audience: Leaders, managers, HR and People & Culture professionals, and anyone responsible for improving collaboration across teams, functions, locations, or cultures.
Format: Interactive keynote or conference session; adaptable to 30–60 minutes. No prior knowledge required.
Your Global Team Is Struggling. What Can You Do About It?
When I became the first American woman to work at Honda Motor Company's headquarters in Japan, I quickly learned something that has shaped more than 30 years of my work: cultural differences are inevitable and predictable. Collaboration failure isn't.
Yet when global teams struggle, we often focus on “them.” Americans are too direct. Japanese colleagues don't speak up. Headquarters doesn't understand the local market. Remote colleagues aren't engaged. Sometimes these observations are valid—but focusing on them can leave us waiting for other people to change.
After working with thousands of professionals across four continents, I've learned that you don't need to become an expert on every culture to become a more effective global collaborator. Anyone can become a WE-Builder™—someone who successfully navigates differences and builds stronger relationships across cultures, languages, and borders.
It starts with two ingredients that are free and available to everyone: a genuine desire to bridge a specific Us/Them gap and a willingness to honestly examine your own behavior.
In this interactive session, participants will identify a real Us/Them gap in their own work, examine the behaviors that may be reinforcing it, and learn practical, research-backed actions they can take to start bridging that divide.
Drawing on social psychology, my Harvard Business Review collaboration work, and more than three decades of cross-cultural experience, I'll share real-world successes and failures that demonstrate how individual behavior can change global working relationships.
Participants will leave with something more useful than another list of cultural differences: a practical way to become a WE-Builder and start improving a global relationship they already have.
Target audience: Leaders, managers, HR and People & Culture professionals, and anyone working across cultures, countries, languages, or global teams.
Format: Interactive keynote or conference session; adaptable to 30–60 minutes. No prior cross-cultural expertise required.
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