“The secret to better thinking isn’t about what you know, it’s about how you think”.

-Toby Groves Ph.D.

Join Toby from anywhere

In-Person Events

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Hybrid Events

Dr. Toby Groves

Speaker, Researcher, Writer, and Founder of Cognificent Learning

I’m a researcher, speaker and writer on decision-making and thinking quality. I created the personal thinking management system, using targeted cognitive strategies to improve the quality of our thinking and our lives.

I also produce and host events tackling important socio-psychological topics. My thinking strategies are used by thousands of decision-makers charged with making some of the most important decisions in our society. I have a Ph.D. in psychology and studied forensic and organizational psychology. Previous clients include Prudential, Deloitte, Ecolab, Time Warner, Credit Suisse, KPMG, Baker and McKenzie, LLP., Federal and State government agencies, and many more.

Most Requested Speaking Topics

 “It’s not what you know, it’s how you think”

Customized specifically to each expert audience, this class helps you attain the most important and elusive of skills – the ability to be a better thinker, this class helps you attain the most important and elusive of skills – the ability to be a better thinker. You’ll learn habits and strategies that dramatically improve judgment and decision-making. You’ll learn how to break down mental barriers and alleviate mental fatigue. You’ll learn how to achieve new levels of mental clarity, flexibility, and resilience. You will also benefit from better overall mental wellness and be more resistant to stress and burnout. Attendees leave as more powerful and confident thinkers and better communicators and problem-solvers.

Major subjects:

  • Decluttering your mind for clarity and mental bandwidth
  • “Micro-habits” that transform judgment and decision-making
  • A “thinking audit” process that will change your world
  • Using “gamification” to solve tough dilemmas
  • The science of trust
  • How to see patterns others don’t see
  • Regulating and optimizing your mental resources
  • High-stakes decision making

Click here to request a detailed program outline pdf for this topic

An innovative and interactive session that taps the areas of neuroscience, psychology and biology to understand how science, emotion, and ethical decision-making interact. 

Instead of critiquing how our minds are supposed to work, this session delves into the fascinating world of how our minds actually work when we face difficult problems where a ‘best choice” doesn’t seem to exist.  The talk will also explore why ethical codes have too often failed and how to improve individual and organizational ethical reasoning. 

Major Subjects:

  • Using the Mind-lens model to understand ethical reasoning
  • Why model codes of ethics fail
  • The science behind organizations “Ethical DNA”
  • Understanding the psychology behind “Tone at the Top”
  • The interaction between critical thinking and ethics
  • Breaking myths about motivation related to decision making
  • Ethical decision-making under pressure
  • Are ethics and morals “fixed” or can we learn to improve

Click here to request a detailed program outline PDF for this topic

This session features the latest behavioral science, interactive audience experiments, and compelling real-life stories to disrupt everything you thought you knew about fraud.  It will spur you to challenge “sacred cows” of the industry and help you develop better thinking approaches to detect, deter, or investigate fraud, waste and abuse.  Learn why many of our basic assumptions about fraud are flawed, why some widely accepted investigative practices are more harmful than helpful, and how auditors and investigators sometimes unwittingly assist fraud schemes. 

Major Subjects:

  • How we unwittingly assist in the production of misleading information
  • The neuroscience of psychopathy
  • Behavioral profiling
  • The new psychology of skepticism
  • Cognitive errors including attribution and overgeneralization
  • How experience, intuition, and assumptions can cause cognitive errors

Click here to request a detailed program outline pdf for this topic

 You’ll never think about fraud the same way again

Finding Fraud is a very different kind of fraud event. It presents deep behind-the-scenes research and multiple perspectives from all sides of fraud investigations that will challenge everything you thought you knew about fraud. The presentation features new analysis and never-heard-before details about some of the most instructive cases of our time.

Forensic psychologists, interrogation experts, victims, auditors, law enforcement, researchers, and perpetrators provide a fascinating look at cases through their eyes. The session is presented by psychologist and researcher Dr. Toby Groves, a past CPA, fraud investigator, and business owner who was also at the center of a large, news-making fraud that went undetected until he turned informant. Dr. Groves, trained in forensic psychology and forensic accounting, brings content from his ten-plus years of fraud research and connections made from 500+ industry events including famous white-collar criminals and even prison to the stage in this fascinating session that is sure to thrill auditors and investigators.

Major Subjects:

  • Replacing the fraud triangle and other outdated “sacred cows” of the industry
  • Going deep behind the scenes of a criminal prosecution
  • Secrets of a forensic psychologist
  • What’s working in the fight against fraud
  • Why behavioral profiling isn’t helping and what will
  • An insider’s explanation of how fraud can go undetected for years or decades
  • How auditors and investigators unwittingly assist fraud schemes
  • Does more prison time and other punishment deter crime?
  • Why some ethics codes result in more fraud instead of less
  • The top mistakes made by auditors and investigators

Click here to request a detailed program outline pdf for this topic

“The secret to better thinking isn’t about what you know, it’s about how you think”.

-Toby Groves Ph.D.

Join Toby from anywhere

In-Person Events

Capture The Same Energy

Virtual Events

From Your Couch

Hybrid Events

Or In-Person

Dr. Toby Groves

Speaker, Researcher, Writer, and Founder of Cognificent Learning

I’m a researcher, speaker and writer on decision-making and thinking quality. I created the personal thinking management system, using targeted cognitive strategies to improve the quality of our thinking and our lives.

I also produce and host events tackling important socio-psychological topics. My thinking strategies are used by thousands of decision-makers charged with making some of the most important decisions in our society. I have a Ph.D. in psychology and studied forensic and organizational psychology. Previous clients include Prudential, Deloitte, Ecolab, Time Warner, Credit Suisse, KPMG, Baker and McKenzie, LLP., Federal and State government agencies, and many more.