Keynotes

Talks on where decisions are really made in organizations and who bears the consequences.

I speak about what I work on as a consultant and write books about: organizations that know more than they act on, AI whose consequences nobody has assigned, and decision structures that have more effect than the best intentions. Every talk is based on a finding I've worked out and documented in a book. Your audience goes home with a question it can put to its own organization the next morning.

Topics

Four topic areas, each based on a book. I tailor the talks to your occasion, your audience and the time you have.

Organization under AI

Based on the book Cheap to Make, Costly to Check (2026)

Cheap to Make, Costly to Check

AI under control, consequences out of control

A system sorts forty-one bids in seconds. The purchasing manager reads ten and signs. Public debate argues about AI that might get out of control. In companies, AI that does its job is already expensive today: making has become cheap, checking and answering for it hasn't. The talk shows where this checking load goes when nobody assigns it, and how a managing director can tell where it ends up in their own company.

Your audience takes away two questions for every use of AI in their own organization. Who owns this decision? And can the person who owns it answer for it at the pace available?

A look at the slides · swipe or scroll sideways to browse

Variant for leadership teams: Who owns this decision?
A short talk, then the group works on its own case. It uses the situation analysis from the book. In fifteen minutes it shows whether a use of AI needs an explicit rule and who actually does the checking today. At the end, each manager has placed one use of AI from their own area. 90 minutes to half a day, up to about 30 people.

For managing directors of mid-sized companies, business associations, chambers, advisory and supervisory boards · Keynote 40 to 60 minutes with discussion, online, or on site in German-speaking countries

To prepare the group that will hear the talk, the free white paper What AI Tests in Your Rules works well. Each of its ten questions ends with a measure you can take in your own company. Read the white paper

About the book: Cheap to Make, Costly to Check · Website of the series: organization-under-ai.com

Afterwards, the Checking Load Assessment uses the data in your business systems to measure how much checking time already goes into AI results in your company. To the Checking Load Assessment →

The Silent Power

What AI already decides in your company

One program suggests the supplier, another pre-sorts applications, a third bundles orders. Often nobody decided this, it was the default setting at purchase. Such defaults apply like rules, and in the end management has to answer for them. The talk shows where AI already pre-decides today and how management finds the settings it is responsible for.

Your audience takes away a list of the programs with AI functions in their own company, and for each one the question of who approved its settings

For management in companies with 100 or more employees, advisory boards and associations · Keynote 40 to 60 minutes with discussion, online, or on site in German-speaking countries

Newsletter: The Silent Power (in German)

In the annual mandate you see each quarter which new AI functions arrive in your software, and you adjust your rules to them. To the annual mandate →

How organizations decide

Based on the books Eigentlich wussten wir das (in German, out in February 2027 with Versus, Zurich) and UNMANAGED (LID Publishing, London)

Why organizations know more than they act on

The knowledge is almost always there, it just doesn't reach the decision in time. The talk shows four filters through which reality disappears in organizations. Formats decide what becomes visible. What can be said decides what gets spoken. Narratives decide what counts as relevant. And a frame of reference ties it all together without anyone noticing. Plus a simple tool for leadership teams to record decisions and review them after 30, 60 or 90 days.

Your audience takes away the four filters as a checklist for their own organization, and the Clarity Loop as a tool for the next decision

For conferences, leadership meetings and large mixed groups · Keynote 45 to 60 minutes with interactive parts, for smaller groups also with a self-check in the room

The free Pattern Check shows in three minutes which pattern is slowing your organization down, no sign-up needed. Free first steps →

From appeal to operating system

When collaboration gets stuck, managers get a training course and teams get a workshop. Behavior hardly changes, because the roles, rules and routines that produce it stay the same. The talk draws on the data from UNMANAGED, collected in more than 500 organizations, and shows what organizations with effective management have set up differently: how decisions are made, how work is coordinated and how much freedom the structure leaves.

Your audience takes away a view that moves from the individual manager to the system around them, and a first sense of where their own system slows them down

For HR and organizational development, leadership meetings and associations · Keynote 40 to 60 minutes with discussion

The Management Baseline shows where your own system slows you down, measured against a benchmark of 458 organizations. To the Management Baseline →

When care gets expensive

Some of what slows organizations down counts as care internally: the extra approval meeting, the report nobody reads, the coordination round that spreads responsibility across many shoulders. Each of these practices once had a good reason. The talk shows how sensible habits turn into a system that misses its own goals, and how to find the practices that now cost more than they protect. I also show how to count in two weeks which checks find something and which only cost time.

Your audience takes away a handful of questions to spot such habits in their own daily work

For leadership meetings, strategy days and internal events · Keynote 40 to 60 minutes, works well as an opener

Afterwards, in the Rule Inventory, we go through ten of your rules and choose one of five options for each. To the Rule Inventory →

Where knowledge gets stuck

Based on the book Kein Naturgesetz (in German, 2026), on why the survival of our civilization is a decision and no certainty

Why organizations and states fail at the same blockage

A large majority sees climate change as a serious problem, and still little changes. I know the pattern from organizations: knowledge that exists doesn't reach the decision, because the structure where decisions are made stops it. The talk puts state and company side by side. It shows who is really at the table and what blockages have been overcome before, and what that means for organizations that want to clear their own.

Your audience takes away the question of which frame their own organization decides in, and who could change that frame

For public events, associations, foundations and conferences in Germany, Austria and Switzerland · Keynote 45 to 60 minutes with discussion

About the book: kein-naturgesetz.de (in German)

Sentences that feel like facts

Beliefs that keep sustainability decisions in companies stuck

“For us, sustainability is a cost issue, not an investment.” Sentences like this sound reasonable and spare you a decision. The talk shows where they come from, what purpose they serve and what they cost the company. Plus a method from my consulting work to name and test entrenched beliefs without exposing anyone.

Your audience takes away their own organization's beliefs, named and tested, and a method to keep working with them

For sustainability formats, company events and management in mid-sized companies · Keynote 40 to 60 minutes, or interactive for smaller groups

Learning under AI

Based on the book Fertig ist nicht gelernt (in German, 2026), on how children really learn in the age of AI

Done isn't learned

How you can tell that someone has learned something

Now that a machine can do homework in seconds, a finished assignment no longer shows whether someone has learned anything. The talk puts the evidence for and against AI in school side by side, from primary school to the final years, and shows why learning about AI is the basis for learning with AI.

Your audience takes away the question of how their own school will tell in future what has been learned, and the evidence to talk about it

School workshop “Prüf es” (Check it)
In two lessons, a ninth or tenth grade class checks real AI answers, first on a trap, then on tasks from their own lessons. It's available for math and for physics, and tablets are enough.

Pro bono for schools in German-speaking countries, in German. I give the talk and the workshop without a fee. Only travel costs apply.

For schools, parents' evenings, school authorities and teacher training · Talk 45 to 60 minutes with discussion, workshop two lessons

The book as a free PDF: fertig-ist-nicht-gelernt.de (in German)

Your occasion, your topic

Does your event need a topic of its own? Then we connect your question with what I see in organizations and in the data. If you like, a short survey of the participants comes first, and the talk picks up what the answers show.

Formats

I offer keynotes, short talks and dialogue formats for different occasions and audiences. Content, tone and the share of interaction depend on your occasion and your audience. In English I speak online worldwide, and on site in German-speaking countries.

Suitable for

• leadership meetings
• strategy days
• customer and partner events
• associations and networks
• internal days on the future and on change

Online talk

about 20 min. + discussion  |  total: 40 to 60 min.

Up to 50 participants · interactive · worldwide

from €2,000

plus VAT where it applies

Keynote with a working session. For leadership teams of up to about 30 people, any talk can be extended with a working session, from 90 minutes to half a day, from €4,900 plus VAT where it applies and travel costs.

Books for participants. If you want, I bring signed copies of the matching book, for larger groups too, at the retail price. In English these are Cheap to Make, Costly to Check and UNMANAGED.

A NOTE ON BUDGET & TERMS

The topic fits, but the budget is tight?

I also work with smaller organizations, start-ups, public institutions and nonprofits, on terms that suit the context. Make me a counteroffer: tell me your budget, and I'll reply within two working days.

Counteroffers are treated confidentially and are not binding.

Request

A short message is enough. I'll get back to you within two working days, and then we'll work out together whether and how it fits.