Christian Ørsted
Keynote speaker and advisor on psychological safety
15,000 people have told him what it is really like to speak up at their workplace. He brings that to the stage: not the theory of psychological safety, but what actually happens when people try.
- 15,000+responses measured since 2014
- 1,000+talks and workshops delivered
- 500+organisations, from startups to Maersk
- 5–3,500boardroom to main stage
What the data says
Nearly half the teams he measures are helpful. And silent.
47% of teams. On a scale of 1 to 7, helping each other scores 5.7. Talking openly about what is difficult scores 4.9. In those teams, mistakes, doubts, disagreements and bad news stay in people’s heads. From more than 15,000 responses across over 170 organisations.
About Christian
He builds a bridge between what an organisation knows and what it talks about.
Christian Ørsted is a leadership advisor, author and keynote speaker. He has been the leading voice on psychological safety in Denmark since 2014, and he works in English across Europe, the Gulf and Asia.
He is known for saying things directly and for making the difficult thing talkable. Audiences get something to laugh about along the way, and they keep talking about it afterwards. That is what organisers mention most: the conversation doesn’t stop when he leaves the stage.
In conversation
Amy Edmondson talks about leadership and psychological safety with Christian.
Christian is the Danish editor of Edmondson’s The Fearless Organization and wrote its foreword. They have taught together in Denmark and abroad.
Keynotes
Three keynotes with inspiration and something everyone can do immediately after.
One
Psychological Safety in Practice
Psychological safety is the belief that you are respected, welcome and valued when you share mistakes, doubts, questions, disagreements and ideas. It is about the quality of collaboration, not about comfort. It is a means to better results, greater wellbeing and stronger learning.
It is about being comfortable. It is about the quality of your collaboration.
Everyone knows it matters. But between knowing it and actually doing something about it together lies a wide gap. This talk builds a bridge between what an organisation knows and what it talks about. Christian draws on his practical experience and twelve years of measurement data, showing precisely what separates the best teams from the rest.
- The five dangerous misunderstandings that make even experienced leaders shoot themselves in the foot
- What the best teams do differently, from his own measurements
- His five-step model, The Five Steps from Shared Task to Effect, also the core of his forthcoming book
Two
Fatal Changes, or: Together Through Change
A talk with hope in it, for anyone who wants us to shape change for the better. We tell leaders that resistance to change is simply human nature. But is the myth of resistance in fact one of the most damaging myths in modern management?
People resist change. People resist not being heard.
Christian starts somewhere other than most. Not with the vision, but with understanding and acknowledging the reality people are actually in. Only then does a credible way forward make sense.
- Why the myth of resistance costs more than the resistance itself
- Concrete tools for building the safety and the sense of community that make change possible
- Particularly relevant for organisations in merger, restructuring or major transition
Three
Lethal Leadership
Based on Christian’s bestseller Livsfarlig ledelse, a Danish no. 1 now in its 20th printing. How can we be the happiest nation on earth and still burn out like never before?
You need better work-life balance. You need a workplace that is not built on your guilt.
Relevant to anyone interested in the psychology that governs our everyday working lives. Christian focuses on leadership as a shared responsibility, and on what both leaders and employees can do to make collaboration better.
- The psychological mechanisms that make people blame themselves instead of the system
- How motivation, recognition and personal development can do harm
- Can be booked with a particular focus on leaders, on employees, or on mixed groups
Beyond the keynote
After the talk: Make it stick.
Measure
A pulse measurement of a team or a leadership group shows where collaboration actually breaks down, instead of guessing. Results can be benchmarked against Christian’s own dataset from more than 150 organisations.
Workshop
The group works with its own results, identifies concrete areas to act on, and leaves with a plan. Half a day to two days, built on the five-step model.
Advise
Ongoing sparring with an executive team, a leadership group or a single leader. Sometimes one session before a difficult decision. Sometimes a programme across a year.
What organisers say
Amazing. Super relevant. Inspiring. It will be remembered and recommended.
That session did something. We moved. Now I’m rereading your books and Amy Edmondson’s.
Fantastic energy. He engaged all of us from start to finish. Ninety minutes was not enough.
Booking
Inquire about dates how a keynote can make an impact.
Replies within one working day. For anything urgent, call or text +45 23 90 27 00.Send the date, the audience and roughly what you want people to do differently afterwards. That’s enough to get a real answer on fit and fee.
Need photos, a short or long bio, talk descriptions or technical requirements? Ask, and it will be in your inbox the same day.