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Ward Clapham—Superintendent (Rtd) is a 28-year veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Until recently, he led the men and women who served within the third largest RCMP detachment in Canada, located in Richmond, B.C.—a diverse multicultural community within the Metro Vancouver area. Ward’s RCMP detachment has been celebrated as one of the most progressive police organizations in Canada. Throughout his career, he and his teams took calculated chances, made mistakes, and forged new paths where others feared to tread. Though difficult at times, Ward’s unshakable vision created new paradigms of leadership within the traditional command-and-control environment of policing.

The results of his vision and courage paid off.  Crime and community problems were significantly decreased. More than 53 countries from around the world have studied the Richmond leadership approach to policing. The Richmond model has also been championed by government and private institutions as the key to successful community safety and public reassurance. 

In July 2008 through September 2010, Ward served as Chief for the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service (Transit Police). In this role, he continued to break with what was not working, infuse effective principles into his organization, and empower and inspire team members.

He is currently pursuing his consulting practice full-time to bring his methodology and processes to a wider audience. Ward’s leadership approach has been featured in D. Michael Abrashoff’s book, Get Your Ship Together—How Great Leaders Inspire Ownership from the Keel Up. FranklinCovey Co. (founded by Dr. Stephen R. Covey) completed a documentary film on the success of Richmond’s proactive policing. And Reader’s Digest magazine described Ward’s work in a full-length story titled, “Something Positive for a Change.”

Ward has recently written and published the first book in his Breaking With series: Breaking With the Law: The Story of Positive Tickets. The second book in this series, Breaking With the Law: Lead Big - Discovering the Upside of Unconventional Leadership, will be release April 2011.

Share this humorous and inspiring journey of discovery with one of Canada’s top cops as he relates tales of confronting and combating the status quo to generate positive change.

Presentations Include:

Breaking With the Law: Lead Big - Discovering the Upside of Unconventional Leadership
Businesses today are jumping on the bandwagon of employee motivation through reward and recognition. But the multi-year study has revealed that at the end of the day it’s not reward that powers the most positive emotions and the urge to succeed. It’s progress.

Over his long tenure in policing, Ward has broken with many leadership beliefs and behaviours that were ineffective and unproductive, hence the title of his book series Breaking With the Law. In the face of sometimes harsh criticism, Ward has discovered the ultimate secret for quantum improvement: Every breakthrough first requires a break with the old paradigms, practices, and principles that tether people and organizations to the status quo.

Ward’s presentation defines and describes the paradigm shift needed to move away from the command and control style of managing people toward a more proactive, unleashing of talent. Ward’s presentation will inspire you to think again about the effectiveness of your current methods and established rules of engagement.

As a master storyteller, Ward will relate his experiences in grappling with out-dated traditions and ineffective behaviours. You’ll be laughing one moment and crying the next as he takes you on an inspirational journey of courage from this “cop out of the box.”

Leading in the Knowledge Worker Age: Social Media - a Real Game Changer
During this keynote presentation and Q & A, the participant will learn about how social media is dramatically changing how we work, build relationships, interact with one another, and finally, exercise leadership.
They will discover how the ease, speed, depth and breadth of communications today is a real game changer for business leaders. The old command and control style is being seriously challenged by more collaborative servant leadership techniques and methods.
Participants will explore how this shift is fundamentally about culture change. And that type of transformational change - which may include updating business practices - must come from the top.  But more than a top-down dictum, it's got to be part of the essence of a business leader today.

Breaking With The Law: The Story of Positive Tickets
Positive Tickets are issued to youth for good behavior. The program is based on the simple philosophy that recognizing and rewarding good behavior will inspire and motivate greater good behavior. Positive Tickets are used as the vehicle to make a connection and build trusting relationships with youth.

Positive Tickets are simply coupons, vouchers, tokens, or notes that have value for goods, services, or some type of credit, acknowledgement, or appreciation.

The Positive Tickets program embraces and acknowledges that people—youth or adults—are the most valuable resource in a community. People are the greatest asset. Therefore, we should constantly strive to recognize and reward our greatest assets for the good that they do.  Positive Tickets is just one of many proactive, intentional, positive initiatives that can transform communities and shift mindsets and attitudes.