Keynote speaker on psychological safety
15,000 people have told him what it is really like to speak up at their workplace. He doesn’t measure to publish. He measures to help groups change something.
- 15,000+responses measured since 2014
- 1,000+talks and workshops delivered
- 500+organisations, from startups to Maersk
- 5–3,500boardroom to main stage
In more than 9 out of 10 teams, at least one person never says what they see.
Including the teams that score well on average. The person who scores lowest usually knows exactly where the problems are. Nobody asks them.
Amy Edmondson introduced the concept. Here she talks it through 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.
Three talks. Each one ends with something the room can do on Monday.
Psychological Safety in Practice
Everyone knows it matters. The gap is between knowing it and doing something about it together. Built on twelve years of measurement data and on his five-step model, The Five Steps from Shared Task to Effect.
Be kinder to each other.
Say the necessary thing in time.
- The five misunderstandings that make most efforts fail before they start
- Why structure beats good intentions every time
- What the best teams do differently, from his own data
Leading Change That Actually Lands
Change works when people talk openly about what isn’t working. In most organisations they stay quiet, and the change fails. From his bestseller Fatale forandringer.
People resist change.
People resist not being heard.
- Why starting with the vision is the wrong place to start
- How to make disagreement useful instead of expensive
- What to do in the first four weeks after the announcement
Lethal Leadership
How can we be the happiest nation on earth and burn out like never before? A hundred years of management principles have raised efficiency and produced enormous growth. They also have a frightening blind side.
You need better work-life balance.
You need a workplace that isn’t built on your guilt.
- The psychological mechanisms that make people blame themselves
- Why motivation, recognition and personal development can do harm
- Leadership as a shared responsibility, not a job title
Amazing. Super relevant. Inspiring. It will be remembered and recommended.
100+ participants, June 2025
That session did something. We moved. Now I’m rereading your books and Amy Edmondson’s.
Executive seminar, December 2024
Fantastic energy. He engaged all of us from start to finish. Ninety minutes was not enough.
September 2025
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.
- Books
- Two Danish no. 1 bestsellers. Livsfarlig ledelse (Lethal Leadership), 20th printing, 50,000+ copies. Fatale forandringer, 5th printing.
- Next
- Psychological Safety in Practice, Djøf Publishing, 2027.
- Edmondson
- Danish editor of The Fearless Organization and author of its foreword, plus the foreword to her two most recent books in Danish. Has taught alongside her in Denmark and abroad.
- Teaching
- External lecturer, Reykjavik University. Sustainable Leadership & Psychological Safety.
- Writing
- Regular columnist, Børsen, the Danish business daily.
- Languages
- English and Danish.
Tell him the date and what you want to change.
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.
cor@christianorsted.com