Anchor 1 Home: Welcome KEYNOTE SPEAKERS Discover our exceptional lineup of keynote speakers who inspire, inform, and ignite change for your next event. To all speakers > HOSTS & MODERATORS Explore our talented hosts & moderators who bring charisma and facilitation to elevate your events to new heights. To hosts & moderators > TEAMBUILDINGS Embark on transformative team-building experiences to strengthen bonds, foster collaboration, and achieve shared goals. To our teambuildings > OTHER SERVICES Go further with our workshops, training sessions, and consulting services, designed to drive excellence. Read More > Speakers in the picture Ann De Bisschop Marnick Vandebroek Rik Vera Orianne Aymard All Speakers > Most popular keynote topics Artificial Intelligence Change Future & Trends Resilience & Well-being Sustainability & CSR All topics Welcome to the premier agency for keynotes, hosting, moderation, workshops, training, and consultancy services. At our agency, we take pride in: ​ A Diverse and Curated Portfolio : Featuring thought leaders of today and tomorrow, ensuring a broad range of perspectives and expertise for your event or organization. Personalized Approach : We always strive for the perfect match between speaker and client, understanding the unique needs of companies and organizations. Swift Responses : Expect a proposal within 24 hours, because we value your time and aim for efficiency in our services. Contact Us Keynotes in the picture How to make a difference? By Merijn Tinga Plastic pollution is a worldwide epidemic. By now we are aware of this but how does real change come about? Read more The AI-Human Co-Creation Workflow By Fiona Passantino Understanding AI and augmenting the Human for non-technical professional teams Read more A Learning Mindset in the Age of Innovation By Katja Schipperheijn Unleash potential with a learning mindset supported by emerging innovations Read more Change Hacking By Florence Pérès Embrace change and challenges in the workplace Read more All Keynotes > Latest Blogposts Three simple principles to increase the chance of success in your change projects 4 0 1 like. Post not marked as liked 1 3 tips for dealing with meeting madness 11 0 1 like. Post not marked as liked 1 New Foundations for a Future-Proof Organisation: 4 elements to survive in a changing world 36 0 2 likes. Post not marked as liked 2 Celebrating Ramadan at Work 39 0 2 likes. Post not marked as liked 2 Some of our Clients Testimonials > Contact Get in Touch Submit Florence Pérès Managing Partner & keynote speaker florence@speakersbase.com Anja Cappelle Managing Partner & keynote speaker anja@speakersbase.com Please, drop us an email or fill out this form. We will contact you ASAP. Talk to you soon! If you would like to join our team of speakers and moderators, we kindly ask you to fill out this form .

Resilience & wellbeing HR, company culture & Leadership Sales, marketing & customer experience The Post-Corona Future Business and strategy Climate, energy & sustainability Technology, transformation & innovation Resilience & wellbeing Fully Charged - A roadmap towards more energy and better results Lieven Van Linden Discover the 3 principles for more resilience and better results. Technology, transformation & innovation How to Stay Human in the Age of AI Rudy de Waele Where will be the value of humans in the workplace of the future? HR, company culture & leadership Embracing Diversity: on complicity and inclusion Julie Brown Fostering collaboration across cultures, genders, and generations HR, company culture & leadership Unleashing Leadership Potential Julie Brown Navigating Success Through Self-Leadership Climate, energy & sustainability From Sustainability to Regeneration Tom De Ruyck 8 transformation codes to help you drive positive change Resilience & wellbeing How's Work? Isabel De Clercq 7 Lies About Work and What Actually Works Business and strategy Mastering the AI-Shock Jo Caudron A strategic view on Artificial Intelligence Technology, transformation & innovation Navigating the New Dimension: A Journey Through Spatial Computing Pieter Van Leugenhagen Embark on a fascinating exploration of the latest computing paradigm that is redefining our digital world HR, company culture & leadership Psychological Safety Najima El Kasmi Unlocking Innovation through Trust and Openness HR, company culture & leadership AI-Integration Strategy for Communication Professionals Fiona Passantino An introduction to multimodal integration for non-technical working teams HR, company culture & leadership AI for managers Richard van Hooijdonk Unlocking the power of artificial intelligence in organizations Technology, transformation & innovation AI revolution Richard van Hooijdonk Revolutionizing with AI: navigating the AI transformation Business and strategy The impact of AI on the future of organisations and humanity Katja Schipperheijn AI is neither hype nor new! However, it is more urgent than ever to include in a future-proof strategy. Resilience & wellbeing From I-care to WE-care Brecht Buysschaert Empowering Well-being: The Journey from Self-Care to Collective Care Technology, transformation & innovation AI Lives? Eddy Willems Navigating the Realities of Artificial Intelligence Resilience & wellbeing How to stay positive in times of trouble? Reframe and Feel through. Johan Terryn Being positive is not a mindset you can just turn on. You need to practise in thoughts and feelings. HR, company culture & leadership Elevate Collaboration with the Transformative Power of Socratic Dialogue! Rudy de Waele Unlock the potential of collaborative thinking and co-creation to foster meaningful dialogue and enhance the art of active listening. Resilience & wellbeing Innovating grief / legacy Julie Brown Transforming loss into a legacy of resilience HR, company culture & leadership Uniting Forces: Team Building and Collaboration Julie Brown Nurturing cohesion and empowering teams to achieve extraordinary results Resilience & wellbeing Disconnect to reconnect Florence Pérès For Better (Working) Relationships in a Hyper-connected World and a better Work/Life Balance HR, company culture & leadership AI in HR: What’s real?! Jochen Roef Clarifying 7 misconceptions about HR technology in 2024 HR, company culture & leadership Cracking the Productivity Code Isabel De Clercq Unveiling Fresh Insights and Shattering the False Promises of Time Management Resilience & wellbeing A Woman at the Top : One Story of Resilience & Self-Leadership Orianne Aymard Brain Hemorrhage Survivor who climbed the highest mountains in the world, Everest and Lhotse HR, company culture & leadership Leadership in Change Najima El Kasmi Turning resistance into growth Sales, marketing & customer experience AI-Powered Sales Fiona Passantino Introduction to AI for the non-technical Sales Professional Technology, transformation & innovation The AI-Human Co-Creation Workflow Fiona Passantino Understanding AI and augmenting the Human for non-technical professional teams HR, company culture & leadership The future of leadership Richard van Hooijdonk Navigating uncertainty in the era of rapid change Sales, marketing & customer experience Inclusive marketing and communication Fatima Llouh The value of inclusive communication HR, company culture & leadership Finding each other in 2024 Elke Jeurissen Every day is a choice, a choice between polarization and connection. Explores the quest for more common ground, at the kitchen table, at work, and in society. Resilience & wellbeing 5 Stepstones to a Whealthy Workplace Brecht Buysschaert Investing in Workplace Well-being, a Win-Win-Win HR, company culture & leadership Making Change Simple Cyriel Kortleven Embrace the power of Simplification to boost the effectiveness of change initiatives. Make it Specific, Smooth & Small. HR, company culture & leadership The power of regret as a compass for the future Johan Terryn How do you use regret as a feedback instrument to make better decisions in the future? Resilience & wellbeing Energetic Balance Workshop Rudy de Waele 🌟 Discover Balance and Prosperity with this Energetic Balance Workshop! 🌟 HR, company culture & leadership Unleashing Excellence: on empowering authentic (out)performance Julie Brown Achieving grand goals through discipline and determination Resilience & wellbeing Thriving Amidst Turbulence Julie Brown Navigating Constant Change and Overcoming Adversity with Polar Expedition Wisdom Future & Trends What matters to consumers: trends for today and tomorrow! Tom De Ruyck 12 consumers trends that highlight what matters to people Sales, marketing & customer experience Questioning the why, the importance of asking the right questions Suyin Aerts Unlocking Success Through Being Inquisitive HR, company culture & leadership Hybrid Work - Working Together Apart Isabel De Clercq Is a Reset Necessary? HR, company culture & leadership High-Visibility Habits for Women at Work Fiona Passantino Support and fuel female professionals on International Women’s Day HR, company culture & leadership Building Bridges: Mastery in Intercultural and Intergenerational Communication Najima El Kasmi Navigating the Tapestry of Diversity in Modern Business HR, company culture & leadership AI-Powered HR Fiona Passantino Supporting the most Human role of them all Resilience & wellbeing Empowering welpreneurs: navigate stress and self-care Elke Struys Unveiling the 4 Levers for entrepreneurial success Business and strategy Wine with a story tastes better Kathleen Van den Berghe Navigating the Red Ocean: Lessons from 14 Years in Wine Entrepreneurship Technology, transformation & innovation The Impact of AI: Chaos or Amazement? Clo Willaerts Navigating AI's Impact on Work HR, company culture & leadership A Bumpy Road with 5 Milestones Brecht Buysschaert Navigating Challenges, Embracing Growth: A CEO's Odyssey through Entrepreneurial Terrain Technology, transformation & innovation Keep your smartphone safe! Eddy Willems Unveiling Smartphone Cyber Dangers and Defense Strategies Resilience & wellbeing Digital well-being: why deconnecting is crucial Frans van de Ven Managing your digital information flows has become critical in ensuring a healthy wellbeing HR, company culture & leadership Building a Strong Organization Ann De Bisschop with the 7 Pillars of Wellbeing load more

Anchor 1 Home: Welcome WE HAVE THE LEADING SPEAKERS OF TODAY, TALKING ABOUT THE URGENT TOPICS THAT ENGAGE US ALL. Future & trends Sales, marketing & customer experience HR, company culture and leadership Climate, energy & sustainability Business and strategy Resilience and wellbeing Technology, transformation & innovation Our speakers, experts and thought leaders focus on key topics that matter the most in society and business today: ​ Contact us, we'll help you find the perfect speaker Keynotes in the picture How to make a difference? Plastic pollution is a worldwide epidemic. By now we are aware of this but how does real change come about? Change Hacking Embrace change and challenges in the workplace The AI-Human Co-Creation Workflow Understanding AI and augmenting the Human for non-technical professional teams Artificial Intelligence Drivers for Success A Learning Mindset in the Age of Innovation Unleash potential with a learning mindset supported by emerging innovations The Future Formula In search of the rules of tomorrow. Discover more Latest News Three simple principles to increase the chance of success in your change projects 4 0 1 like. Post not marked as liked 1 3 tips for dealing with meeting madness 11 0 1 like. Post not marked as liked 1 New Foundations for a Future-Proof Organisation: 4 elements to survive in a changing world 36 0 2 likes. Post not marked as liked 2 Contact Get in Touch Submit Florence Pérès Managing Partner & keynote speaker florence@speakersbase.com Anja Cappelle Managing Partner & keynote speaker anja@speakersbase.com Please, drop us an email or fill out this form. We will contact you ASAP. Talk to you soon! If you would like to join our team of speakers and moderators, we kindly ask you to fill out this form . WHY? Companies and people need guidance in this rapidly changing world

Do you want to change a certain habit or ensure that your team remains engaged during a change project in your organization? Several studies claim that about 70% of change projects fail. There are numerous reasons why these projects don't go as planned, including organizational structures and procedures, resistance to change among individuals, poor communication, or lacking the right leadership to facilitate the change. What I've observed is that many of these issues often boil down to three main problems: the projects being too large, too complex, or too vague. This holds true not only for large organizations but also for individuals endeavoring to alter their behavior. Understanding how our Brainflix works. I like to use the metaphor of Brainflix to explain the functioning of our unconscious brain. Much like the app Netflix, which offers a vast selection of movies and series, Brainflix represents a platform of habits, routines, and actions controlled by our unconscious mind, which has been running since birth. Our mind manages multiple programs simultaneously, handling tasks such as regulating heartbeat, processing emotions, and performing cognitive functions without our conscious awareness. The capabilities of our brain are truly astounding. While many of the programs running in our lives operate smoothly, our unconscious brain's efficiency in automating tasks can lead to unhealthy habits when outdated programs are at play. For instance, our evolutionary brain's preference for high-calorie foods no longer serves us well in societies with abundant processed foods, contributing to issues like obesity. Moreover, impulsive behaviors driven by immediate rewards can lead to financial recklessness, risky actions, or addictions. Too vague, too complex or too big. As human beings, we can consciously decide to change aspects of these behaviors, and it's entirely possible to cultivate new, healthier habits. However, if these changes are too vague, complex, or extensive, they often meet resistance. Many of our New Year's resolutions (and organizational change projects) fall into one or more of these categories. For example, stating "I want to live a healthier life" is vague, complex, and significant in scope. When changes are overly vague, complex, or significant, our unconscious brain tends to resist, resulting in a fight, flight, or freeze response, ultimately maintaining the status quo. While we may exert willpower to enforce a new habit temporarily, the automatic pull of old behaviors eventually takes over again. A simple strategy to address many of these challenges is to make changes—both personal habits and organizational changes—more specific, smooth, and small. Make it Specific A straightforward approach to initiating change is by asking yourself: Can I visualise the desired behaviour? If the answer is affirmative, it indicates that the change objective is sufficiently specific. For instance, if your organisation aims to prioritise sustainability, clarity is key in outlining the expected actions from employees. Simply stating a desire for sustainability lacks clarity; specifying actions like "reducing energy consumption" remains ambiguous. However, setting a clear expectation such as "every employee turning off lights & computers in the evening" can be easily depicted with a mental image, enhancing clarity and facilitating implementation. An intriguing perspective is to place trust in locals. Just as we rely on locals for restaurant recommendations while on vacation, we can extend the same trust to our employees. Encouraging them to articulate specific tasks and habits necessary for fostering a more sustainable, agile, or client-oriented organisation can yield valuable insights. For example, individuals in the accounting department may propose different actions compared to those in the sales team. Imagine providing employees with a personalised commitment list, allowing them to select five actions from a pool of fifteen potential ones. Such an approach not only empowers employees but also increases the likelihood of tangible, meaningful change taking root within the organisation. Make it Smooth Our unconscious brain tends to shy away from complexity, struggling to find a starting point and often succumbing to resistance. When it comes to change, there are three psychological resistances: reactance (a need for autonomy), skepticism (a need for security), and inertia (a need for energy). Acknowledging and understanding these resistances allows us to proactively consider how to positively influence these factors. It's essential to recognize that our brains naturally gravitate towards simplicity and autonomy, yet they resist change due to ingrained psychological tendencies such as the need for autonomy, security, and energy. By acknowledging these resistances upfront, we can develop strategies to address them effectively, paving the way for smoother transitions. For instance, to enhance customer and employee satisfaction, empowering frontline employees with a client budget allows them autonomy in addressing client needs. The Ritz Carlton exemplifies this by allocating a "Wow" budget of $2000 per client, enabling employees to decide how to address client challenges independently. This approach not only increases employee satisfaction by giving them autonomy but also enhances customer experiences as employees can respond to individual needs promptly and creatively. While providing employees with increased security may not always be feasible due to rapid changes, embracing humility as a leader and involving employees in decision-making can be an effective strategy. Creating a platform for employees to express concerns and focusing collectively on solutions rather than problems fosters a culture of engagement and empowerment. By acknowledging that leaders don't have all the answers and encouraging open dialogue, organizations can tap into the collective intelligence of their teams to navigate uncertainty and drive positive change. Moreover, when individuals understand their tasks and harbor no concerns yet fail to act, nudging them in the right direction can be beneficial. Nudging involves subtly influencing behavior or decision-making without impeding freedom of choice. For example, altering default options in a meeting reservation system to 45 minutes instead of an hour resulted in 80% of meetings adhering to the shorter timeframe, fostering a more positive organizational atmosphere with time for interpersonal connections. This demonstrates how small changes in default options can lead to significant shifts in behavior, ultimately contributing to a more productive and cohesive work environment. Make it Small When a change project looms large, individuals often feel overwhelmed, resorting to familiar habits to avoid the stress of where to begin. This pattern is mirrored in organisations, where grand ideas lead to extensive planning, meetings, reports, and expanding initiatives. The antidote? Embrace small experiments. Why experiments? Because, in experimenting, the focus is on the process, not the outcome. The goal is to discover which processes best foster lasting habits. Actions should also be small—super small. Conditions for small actions: cost less than one euro, completed within five minutes, and started within 24 hours. If these conditions aren't met, it's likely still too ambitious. While having big dreams is commendable, the key is to take small, manageable steps. The journey toward a goal is composed of numerous small steps, sometimes with ups and downs. Celebrate small successes along the way. Enjoy the process, and acknowledge your achievements, even those from the past, as a source of energy for current endeavours. Consistency in small daily actions trumps sporadic intensity. James Clear's quote, "Every action you take is a vote for the person you wish to be," underscores the power of identity in habit formation. Small steps connect you to a desired identity, reinforcing habits. Consistency in small actions aligns with the brain's programming, creating a chain reaction of positive habits. For instance, incorporating a daily five-minute walk may influence healthier lunch choices, illustrating how one small experiment can trigger a cascade of positive changes. Embrace the power of small experiments for lasting transformation. We hope that these three principles can help you to increase the success rate of your change projects - personal behaviour or organisational change projects. If you want to dive deeper into this topic, Cyriel Kortleven - the author of this post - has a very insightful keynote on this topic.

Blogpost by Isabel De Clercq. Last week I came across the following visual on LinkedIn. Visual material always makes the grade on social media. So do decision trees. But I’m going to be honest with you: Decision trees deeply annoy me. They simplify things! The elegantly styled tree is telling us one thing: we are all idiots; just follow the arrows and hocus pocus problem solved. What the drawing of the tree isn’t telling us is the quality of the soil feeding it. That soil often oozes pestilential elements. I see three of them: Toxic element number 1: we confuse being together with value-creating collaboration. Bringing people together does not always guarantee true, productive collaboration. Do the following situations sound familiar? Decisions need to be made in the meeting. The person entitled to take decisions is absent. The meeting is used to push a great deal of information to a large number of people. Participants have put themselves on mute and are happily tapping away on their mobile phones. The meeting was meant to be a brainstorm. It is immediately hijacked by the more extravert and those higher in rank. Well, there is no decision tree that can compete with that. Toxic element number 2: macho-behaviour. Careful, also manifested in people with breasts. Some organisations worship a culture of secrecy: meeting marathons where power is exhibited, preferably around a physical table. To be allowed to attend these meetings = to get information first hand = to be important. Well, there is no decision tree that can compete with that. Toxic element number 3: chaos. What if work processes are not clearly defined in your organisation? What if it is not clear who is allowed to make decisions? What if there is doubt about when to throw a task over the wall for someone else? What if there has been no clear agreement about who can determine when something is good enough? Or, what if the information that people need isn’t clearly structured? Well, there is no decision tree that can compete with that. Being constantly available for one another. Always having to ask other colleagues questions to be able to do your job. In my opinion, this does not portray a sense of togetherness or of a strong culture. It is rather a symptom of badly organised work – of carelessly structured information and knowledge – a small heap insipidly held together by 4 walls. Decision trees are handkerchiefs for the bleeding. They just shush the symptoms. In my workshops and keynote speeches I invite participants to dig deeper. To grab the roots of evil with two firm hands. I then put them to work, together with the team, on the basis of strong statements and assignments. Some examples: Meetings are intrusive moments. They veer us away from the real work. That real work: what is that exactly? Make a list individually and with the team. Which meetings in the past weeks were scheduled because our work processes are not defined clearly enough? What should be done to clarify those work processes? Which meetings were scheduled because the information colleagues needed was nowhere to be found? Do you want to grab the evil in meetings by the roots? Don’t hang around in decision trees. Dare to look down at what lies in the ground. And I will gladly guide you along the way.

The world is changing, rapidly and fundamentally. Several economic, ecological, technological and demographic trends are reinforcing each other and have a ginormous impact on our society and on the business world. Technological evolutions are at the heart of those changes. The different innovation waves are following each other in ever quickening succession and force companies to adapt more rapidly than ever. This article describes four characteristics which companies should adopt in order to survive. Time is pressing. A company unable to continuously question and reinvent itself, will not manage to defend its competitive position. This is a trend which is already clearly visible. The average lifespan of an organization has decreased drastically. In the 20s a company would exist for an average of 60 years; these days this average reaches a mere 3-5 years. Today, 25% of the companies seen as market leaders in 2020 lost that position, in most cases to new competitors which did not yet exist 15 years ago. The examples of companies which do excel at reinventing themselves are well-known. Netflix was started up in 1997 as a postal order company renting out videos; these days it is a global player in audio-visual content streaming. Uber also proves that it does not shy away from looking at the future: the company is realizing that self-driving cars are a major threat, which is why they are adapting their strategy by already ordering no less than 500 self-driving Tesla cars for pilot projects. New business models Although digital technologies play an important part in changing business models, companies should not forget that technology is only one of the aspects of change. You can fully test robotics and virtual reality, but the mere embracing of today’s technologies does not prepare you for the waves that will follow. Innovation should not be limited to innovation labs and R&D departments. Rather than thinking about digital transformation, companies should focus on how to transform their entire organization in order to be ready for the future. The main challenge is that companies cannot go through that transformation if they continue to function as before. The bureaucratic business model with a clear hierarchy and sharply defined roles and function profiles forms a barrier for that transformation. Bureaucracy is a concept of the late 19th century which no longer does the trick in a world of continuous change. A different way of working and thinking is required, which needs to penetrate throughout the entire organization. For many companies this will not be an easy task. A recent study in the US has shown that a mere 13% of all collaborators are sufficiently passionate about their work to help build change, a disappointingly low result. The road to 'change' We can define four crucial characteristics for changing the tide and surfing on those waves of change: togetherness, empowerment, collaboration and habit. Togetherness and 'purpose' are very closely related. Companies need to have a clear goal and must be able to prove their relevance, both to clients and collaborators. These days we notice a true Copernican revolution in the brands world. Copernicus was sentenced to death because of his conviction that the world is not at the center of the universe. A continuously increasing number of brand producers are also coming to that conclusion. Consumers care less and less for brands. A recent study by brand specialist Havas reveals that if 93% of the brands ceased to exist tomorrow, the consumer would not care all that much. Furthermore, one of our own studies has shown that consumers only really care about 5 brands, each of those contributing something functional, emotional and societal to them. Relevance pays off A company’s societal contribution is becoming increasingly important. David Jones, former Havas CEO, describes it as follows: "We need to move from marketing to consumers to mattering to people". Unilever is very well aware of this fact. The company has set itself the target to make each of the group’s brands ‘relevant’ within 3 years. The first brand having gone through the transformation is Omo, the detergent. On a functional level, the starting point was a qualitative product. Children’s dirty play clothes need to be clean after a wash. In order to address customers on the emotional level, Omo has started up a program to share parenting tips & tricks with young parents. As for the societal level, new playgrounds were installed in several suburban areas in the UK, giving children access to a better social development. No eye-catching sponsoring, only a small mention that the playground is a part of Omo’s and Unilever’s 'Dirt is Good' program. You may wonder whether this is really a company’s role in life. But it is. Studies show that so-called 'meaningful brands' obtain 33% more profit than their competitors, on average. So doing ‘good’ does indeed pay off. Companies should also prove this relevance to their collaborators. Many changes are taking place in what makes employees happy in their job. The new generation which is now entering the workforce attaches more importance to the difference they can make themselves and the difference a company makes in the world than to how much they are making and what status a job will give them. Besides, this trend is also increasingly entering the world of older generations. Transparent strategy Empowerment is a second important characteristic. There are different ways to empower collaborators. First, by clearly communicating about the strategy and second, by also sharing insights which support the strategy. This will help collaborators to better realize the strategy. And third, by giving the collaborators more autonomy. It is important for companies to properly understand the reason behind certain decisions. At the moment this too often is not the case. Insights into a strategy should go viral, so to speak, in the entire organization, so that everyone can start believing in them and act upon them. A second important element in that respect is collective intelligence. Decisions made by the entire organization are bound to have more impact than decisions pushed forwards by management. The implication that is created is much greater; furthermore managers are informed of so-called blind spots in their decision process. Autonomy is a closely connected aspect. Give collaborators a say in how to fill in the company’s strategy. Hotel chain Ritz-Carlton learned the lesson well: every collaborator who is in direct contact with hotel guests gets a €2,000 budget to turn a complaint into a positive experience, into something which could be an opportunity for improvement. Never underestimate the importance of involving collaborators in the strategy and of giving them more autonomy, because, in the future, human capacities will become an important differentiator. In 2035, 50% of the jobs as we know them today will have disappeared. The majority will have been taken on by robots and artificial intelligence. That is what we need to prepare for now, because when the time comes, we will totally need those typically human capacities to make the difference. There already are some examples today. In Eatsa, a vegetarian restaurant in California, robotics are used for taking orders, serving meals and paying for them. This frees up time for the ‘real’ collaborators to look after the customers on a more relevant level. All these technologies will make craftsmanship and emotional intelligence very importance in the customer relationship. Collaborators running the show The new role of knowledge workers will be very similar to 'intrapreneurship'. A great example is Adobe, the software company; they have reinvented themselves repeatedly and are now trying to reach innovation quicker via Adobe Kickbox. The Kickbox contains a $1,000 credit card, an inspiration booklet and a description of the innovation process. Every collaborator is free to use that $1,000 to develop something new. The only condition set by Adobe is that developments which may be relevant for the company are also shared with the company. So far, 400 collaborator projects have been shared. They will probably not all turn into something successful, but Adobe is convinced that the chance of 'the next big thing' being one of them is larger than that of the two projects R&D is working on. What Adobe is doing, is not just a story of trust and giving autonomy, but also giving a chance of failure. ‘Collaboration’ comes third in the 'survival characteristics' list. A company’s capacity of internal and external collaboration determines its chance of success to a major extent. There are three conditions for reaching successful collaborating. The first is that it needs to be 360°, which implies collaborating with consumers, collaborators and other stakeholders. That is how you reach new insights which will not be obtained in any other way. Second, the collaboration needs to happen all the time, anywhere. You rarely hear people say their best insights came to them in the office or during a brainstorm session. The best ideas occur in the shower or the car. And third: 'fail faster & better'. In other words: invest your time wisely. At Google they have banned the word 'prototyping'. Google refers to 'pretotyping' because even making prototypes takes too much time and is too expensive. KLM-Air France is following suit: e-commerce team collaborators are no longer to make PowerPoint presentations. Those who have a new idea develop it, test it, share it with the target groups and if they are still convinced that it has potential, then they make a 2-slide report which can be presented in 20 minutes max to obtain a budget. The new business as usual The last characteristic, 'habit', is related to the 3 others. Focusing on one of the 3 is not sufficient. Nor is working a little bit towards all 3. These have to evolve into new habits. Changing habits - and most certainly bad ones - is not done in one single speech or with one single manifest. Togetherness, empowerment and collaboration need to be embedded thoroughly in the organization. The four characteristics combined form the acronym TECH; no coincidence as technology will play an important part in how we transform our organizations. We can also learn a great deal from the world of technology; not so much from all the crazy Silicon Valley stories but more from those companies’ habits. Our companies face a major challenge but it isn’t impossible to realize a change and to get collaborators willing to build the company’s future. Tom De Ruyck is the author of this blog post. The topics he addresses can also be booked in the form of a keynote speech.