Who is Jef Staes?

Jef Staes (Belgium, 1956) , is an architect and keynote speaker in the field of learning & innovative organizations. With an extensive pallet of experiences and confronting insights, he not only makes clear where education, managers, executives and policymakers go wrong, but also offers solutions to transform organizations into (real) learning and (disruptive) innovative organizations.

Jef is the author of 'I was a sheep', 'My manager is a hero' and 'My organization is a jungle’. Today his most challenging projects are the development of the Red Monkey Story and the Engine of Innovation Operating System, and bringing them to the market with Red Monkey Company.

After a career as Software Designer in digital telephone, Project Management, founder of an In-Company Open Learning Center, Training Manager and Corporate Learning Officer (Siemens Belgium), he now assists CEO’s and organizations to find a comprehensive answer to the changing dynamics of today’s market.

It is the fusion of his experience in digital and his experience in the field of learning & development that forms the basis of a unique, confrontational and pragmatic view on the needed cultural transformation to cope with todays challenges. He has learned the hard way that technology, and now Artificial Intelligence, don’t transform organizations into learning or innovative organizations but cement organizations in their current status.

To use technology as an enabler for learning and innovation you have to be confronted with the real challenge: “Why don’t organizations learn and innovate fast enough?”

Since he became an independent keynote speaker and author he gave hundreds of keynotes for all kinds of organizations … whether it is for smaller groups or really big events, his passion and energy remains the same. No one will ever forget his metaphors and mind opening concepts.

I am a PErsistant Keynote Speaker

After been active as a keynote speaker for more than 20 years you start to recognize ‘2 kind’ of speakers.

One kind of speakers are what I call ‘Trend Watchers & Reporters’. They are great in seeing the trends that are happening in our world. Whether it is in technology, health care, automotives, education, energy, climate change, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence or ‘you name it’. The best speakers I know are great story tellers and are able to enlighten participants in what is happening and what could happen (‘Thought Leaders'). I’m not this kind of speaker. I don’t have the passion to watch the trends & report. I’m rather a user of what is happening the moment I need it. Trend Watchers & Reporters have a great time today … everything is changing so fast they almost can’t keep up with adapting or switching their content.

I’m a keynote speaker of the ‘second kind’. The ‘Persistent Keynote Speaker’. They are persistent in finding solutions. I’m persistent in finding a solution to change organizational cultures into real learning and disruptive innovative organizations. It’s a ‘quest’. If you look at my keynotes from 20 years ago and now, you will still recognize the same quest but also a great evolution in answering that question. Every year and every keynote brings me closer to the solution. But maybe that’s the real meaning of ‘entrepreneurship’. To never give up, to be persistent! Most entrepreneurs I know are persistent.

“Without this persistence, ‘Trend Watchers’ would have no stories to tell.”