Interviews and Speeches
This commencement video captures Elmira College’s 2026 graduation ceremony, featuring honorary degree presentations, heartfelt introductions, and an inspiring keynote address by alumnus Dick Richardson. Blending humor, personal stories, and leadership lessons from his career and life, including surviving the “Miracle on the Hudson”, Richardson encourages graduates to embrace multiple perspectives and value the transformative impact of their education. The ceremony also highlights outstanding student achievements, valedictorian speeches, and the conferral of degrees across programs, celebrating a milestone moment for the entire graduating class.
This interview delves into Dick’s journey from working in corporate environments to founding Experience to Lead, a company focused on creating experiential learning opportunities for executives. He highlighted the value of learning through real-world experiences, such as visits to NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center, which helped executives expand their leadership perspectives. Dick shared how challenging it was initially to convince executives to engage in these outings, but once they experienced them firsthand, they recognized the transformative value.
Drawing inspiration from his time at Elmira College, Dick explained how his educational background shaped his approach to leadership and learning. His commitment to experiential learning was rooted in the belief that adults learn most effectively when the learning is directly relevant to their personal and professional lives.
In this speech, Dick focuses on the leadership lessons he learned from his time at Elmira College, particularly how it shaped his approach to problem-solving and leadership.
Dick shares a fun story about a time he had to fly to Ireland to solve a business problem at IBM. Three different leaders from marketing, manufacturing, and finance each had their own conflicting views on how to approach the issue.
Despite the differences, the speaker used the concept of “doublethink”—holding two contradictory ideas at once—to help everyone understand each other’s perspective and work together to find a solution. It was a challenging but rewarding experience that showed the power of embracing different viewpoints to solve complex problems.
In this episode of Leadership Story Talks, Jerome Deroy and Julienne Ryan welcome Dick Richardson, founder of Let’s Think Smart, leadership development expert, and survivor of the Miracle on the Hudson.
Dick shares his remarkable experience aboard Flight 1549 and what it taught him about human behavior in moments of crisis.
The conversation moves from an unusual storytelling ritual during IBM’s transformation to the role of stories in helping people navigate change, envision the future, and discover their own capacity for leadership.
You’ll Hear:
– What surviving the Miracle on the Hudson revealed about fear, courage, and our instinct to help one another
– How an IBM leader used storytelling and ritual to help employees embrace organizational change
– Why leaders need to make their vision of the future vivid, specific, and relatable How everyday crises can be navigated through practical behaviors that reshape our thinking
– Why staying calm just a little longer can make a difference when things go wrong
