Keynote speaker on innovation and design thinking.

Innovation and design thinking. Four signature keynotes on winning buy-in, the FORTH method, leading through uncertainty, and seeing opportunities others miss.

Start with the change you want to create in your audience.

Ask yourself three questions:

1. Do you want inspiration or action?
A good innovation keynote should do more than entertain. It should inspire people to think differently and move towards action.

2. Do you want confirmation or confrontation?
Innovation is often blocked by silos, risk aversion, short-term thinking and internal politics. Choose a speaker who is willing to address those realities honestly.

3. Do you want theory or practice?
Look for someone who can connect innovation thinking with real experience of what happens when people inside organisations actually try to innovate.

There is science behind the power of storytelling too. Research by Hinyard & Kreuter, published in the peer-reviewed journal Health Education & Behavior, shows that storytelling can influence how people think and act. A good keynote should therefore do more than inform. It should move people.

My own keynote style combines storytelling, humour and more than twenty years of practical innovation experience with a direct, sometimes confronting approach.

That works very well when an audience is ready to look honestly at what is holding innovation back.

If you mainly want entertainment, predictions about the future or somebody who tells everyone they are doing a wonderful job, I may not be the right innovation speaker for you.

So before selecting any keynote speaker, ask one final question:

What should my audience THINK differently, FEEL differently and DO differently after the keynote?

Then choose the speaker who is most likely to create that movement.

Most keynotes are forgotten within a week.

Not because the speaker was bad.
Not because the stories weren't inspiring.

But because the audience leaves with nothing concrete to do differently.

For me, a keynote only really lands when people take away one thing they will change on Monday morning.

One different conversation.
One decision they will make differently.
One experiment they will start.
One innovation barrier they will stop accepting.

Inspiration matters.

Energy matters.

Storytelling matters.

But they are not the destination.

Action is.

That is why, when preparing a keynote, I always ask myself:

What do I want these people to DO differently afterwards?

Because applause lasts a minute.

A changed behaviour can last much longer.

That is what a great innovation keynote should achieve.

It is not that they have better ideas.

They have the courage to pursue opportunities others overlook, and the perseverance to keep going when the first attempts fail.

James Dyson is a great example.

He built 5,127 prototypes over five years before perfecting his breakthrough bagless vacuum cleaner.

5,126 attempts didn't quite work. He kept going.

This is exactly what I stress in my keynotes.

I call it innovation discipline.

Because innovation is not just about creativity and ideas. It is about having the courage to start, the discipline to learn, and the perseverance to continue when things do not work immediately.

That is one of my main messages when you hire me as an innovation speaker.

And the Dyson story makes it tangible.

Successful innovators:

• See opportunities others miss.
• Have the courage to act.
• Learn from failure.
• Persevere.
• Keep moving until it works.

Ideas are everywhere.

Innovation discipline makes the difference.

30 to 60 minutes, or developed into interactive workshops of 2 to 4 hours.

Email gijs@gijsvanwulfen.com with your event date, audience and format.

Audiences at organisations such as BBVA, Airbus, 3M and international innovation summits in Poland, South Africa, Belgium, Brazil and Canada describe Gijs as a colourful, engaging and inspiring storyteller who is provocative, accessible and moves audiences to take action on innovation.