Roel as a speaker

Roel sees himself as a performer more than a speaker. His presentations are bursting with energy and audiences everywhere appreciate the unique combination of depth and humour they contain. He operates at all organizational levels, from the boardroom to the work floor.

As a practical man, he invites his audience to accompany him for a ride in a well-thought-out rollercoaster of theory, lively anecdotes, crowd interaction, appealing visuals and sometimes even a musical coda. Equal parts confronting and disarming, his talks not only capture attendees in the moment but also inspire them to really take action when they leave the room.

The themes of Roel’s lectures and workshops are Project Management, Product Development and Leadership. They focus on the WHAT and the WHY, but especially on the HOW: applying these methods in non-ideal practical situations. The central thread is about how to turn reactive behaviour into influencing behaviour in one’s professional and private life.

In coordination with the client, Roel will cover topics such as:

  • The essence and application of project management methodologies and leadership theories;
  • How the essence of project management is reflected in both Agile and traditional methods;
  • Transforming from a (20th century) manager to an (21st century) influencer;
  • Project management for start-ups;
  • Excellent behaviour as a project board: being in charge and letting go;
  • How combining Project Management and Systems Engineering leads to success;
  • From talking about each other to talking with each other: collaboration between hard- and software development;
  • Implementation of Agile thinking and Scrum doing;
  • Self-organization: how and when (not) to do it and what it means for the parties involved;
  • Consciously engaging with the creative process; finding the balance between structure and freedom.

After reading the manuscript of The Complete Project Manager, Roel’s publisher called him “untainted.” What he meant is that few share his ability to bring together seemingly contradictory methods in such an astute manner and separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to innovations and hypes without offending anyone in the process. His contribution is therefore exceptionally useful when people with disparate visions, different preferred methodologies or opposing points of view within an organization have to be made to see eye to eye.