Vaney Hariri — Keynote Speaker · Culture Architect

The Work

That is the work. That has always been the work.

How we develop the people who lead these things — how we support them, challenge them, keep them from going alone — that is what determines everything else.

I pick up a rock and I hand it to someone. And I ask them: what is this?

Most people say: a rock.

But that's not what I'm asking.

I'm asking — what does this rock become in your hands?

Because a rock in the hands of one person builds a home. In the hands of another, it breaks one down. Same rock. Different hands. Different outcome.

FROM THE TALK

There are many things that will not happen as a result of activism. But everything will happen as a result of action.

HARIRI · TEDXSIOUXFALLS

The schools we trust with our children. The businesses that shape our economy. The governments that hold our communities. The households we build our lives in. The technology that runs through all of it.

These are rocks. And none of them — not one — has a conscience of its own. No built-in code of ethics. No moral compass pre-installed. Their direction, their impact, their legacy — that all lives in the person holding them.

So the question is never just: how do we build better institutions? The question is: who are we building to hold them?

Signature Talks

Talks built from practice, not theory

01 · TEDxSIOUXFALLS 2026

Customer Culture

Why treating leaders like products to be rated and discarded is producing the leadership failures we keep criticizing — and what it costs the rest of us.

REQUEST THIS TALK →

02 · TEDxSIOUXFALLS 2019

Low on Leaders

18 minutes on why leaders go alone, and what it costs us. The rock story — what it actually takes to develop leaders in a community that says it wants them.

WATCH THE TALK →

03 · ANNUAL · SIOUX FALLS SD

CultureCon

Updates, events, and community. The full Think 3D Solutions archive of keynotes and talks.

WATCH ON YOUTUBE →

FEATURED · TEDXSIOUXFALLS 2019 · LEADERSHIP: IT DEPENDS WHO'S HOLDING THE ROCK

The Real Problem

The environment you built — or didn't build — is.

Most teams aren't failing. They're just running on a culture nobody designed. It formed around whoever showed up, whatever got tolerated, and every conversation nobody had. That's not a people problem. That's a design problem.

The Default

Culture forms around whoever shows up
Consumes culture
Leaders manage compliance
People go through the motions

By Design

Culture built for who you need to become
Builds culture
Leaders develop people
People understand why they're here

Let's talk →

The Full Picture

They came in today carrying something.

Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it's their mother's diagnosis. Maybe it's six months without anyone telling them they're doing good work.

You'll never know — because you built a system for roles, not people. The teams that outperform? They account for the human being, not just the position.

who is holding them?

About

Practitioner first. Speaker second.

Vaney is a leadership development practitioner and strategic advisor — co-founder of Think 3D Solutions, co-author of Think 3D, and a civic leader who has spent over a decade in confidential one-on-one work with leaders across industries.

The frameworks come from the rooms, not the research stacks. That's the difference your audience hears.

FIRM Co-founder, Think 3D Solutions — culture and leadership consulting · letsthink3d.com

CIVIC Human Relations Commission (chair, 5 yrs) · Downtown Sioux Falls Inc. · City Arts Commission

COMMUNITY Bridging the Gap — Phoenix Initiative & Leaders of Tomorrow

VENUE Culture Cove — retreats & leadership intensives, Meckling SD

VANEY HARIRI · SIOUX FALLS SD

The Book

Think 3D: Radically Maximizing Human Potential

Think 3D book — Tamien Dysart and Vaney Hariri

The complete framework. What it means to be a full human being in an organization that only sees your job description.

Beyond the org chart. Beyond the job description. The work of becoming someone an organization — and a community — can actually count on.

Get the Book →

Beyond the Org Chart

Start making community.

Customers want what they want. When they want it. For what they want to pay. That mindset doesn't stay in commerce. It bleeds into how we treat each other. At work. In neighborhoods. In how we show up for the people around us.

Customer Mindset

Consumer culture taught us to rate, review, and discard. Applied to people, it produces isolated leaders managing optics instead of leading — and followers waiting to be satisfied instead of contributing.

Citizen Mindset

Real community means the person changing the trash liner, the teacher in your kid's classroom, the driver, the builder — those are your people. Not your service providers.

The Work Within

It is not acceptable to walk around like you're not talented.

Being around someone brilliant — who doesn't believe it.

You think staying small is humility. It's not.

The people who invested in you — their time, their failure, their sleepless nights — they didn't do that so you could play it safe. Your gifts aren't yours to waste.

We have real problems to solve. We cannot solve them with people hiding from what they're capable of.

What I Believe

Same Vaney.

Whether it's a keynote for 3,000 people or a Tuesday morning post — the voice doesn't change. Sharp. Direct. For you.

A culture will emerge whether intended or not. But if it's not one you invest in — it'll be one you pay for.

You can't build leaders in isolation.

Culture isn't what you say it is. It's what you tolerate.

Bad cultures don't call us. People trying to get better do.

Leaders go first. But they cannot go alone.