Duncan Stevens Gives 70 Ramboll Leaders New Tools for Collaboration and Influence

With Duncan Stevens, behavioural psychologist, keynote speaker and best-selling author

"Thank you so much for attending our event - everyone loved your keynote and I believe they will certainly be applying the principles you shared to increase their collaboration and influence skills. The performance at the end was incredible. Thank you so much for contributing to the success of our leadership conference"

Simon Oliver-Jorgensen

Director of Strategy and Business Development at Ramboll

OUTCOME 1

Leaders, one approach

Ramboll’s leaders left the conference with a shared way of working across teams and a clearer direction.

OUTCOME 2

Two skills, one habit

Leaders began to treat collaboration and influence as one habit: listen first, then ask so people say yes.

OUTCOME 3

Principles in action

Practical principles from the keynote that leaders could apply in their next project meeting or client call.

THE CHALLENGE

Ramboll needed its leaders sharing expertise and bringing people with them, not working in separate lanes.

Ramboll is an engineering consultancy where big projects depend on specialists working across teams, and where leaders rarely get to simply give orders. Around 70 of its leaders came together for a leadership conference at a moment when strategy was moving faster than the habits that hold a business together.

Simon Oliver-Jorgensen, Director of Strategy and Business Development, invited Duncan to give the keynote. He wanted leaders to leave with practical ways to collaborate and influence more effectively, and a session the room would remember.

DUNCAN’S SOLUTION

A tailored keynote on collaboration and influence, with an on-stage behavioural psychology demonstration to finish.

Before the conference, Duncan spoke with Simon’s team to learn how Ramboll’s leaders work across projects, where influence matters most and what they’d want to use straight away.

He built a 45-minute keynote around collaboration and influence, with practical principles leaders could apply in their next project meeting. The session finished with an on-stage behavioural psychology demonstration that pulled the ideas together and left the room talking.

THE RESULT

Leaders who left ready to apply what they’d heard.

Simon Oliver-Jorgensen said everyone loved the keynote and he believes Ramboll’s leaders will apply the principles to build their collaboration and influence skills. He called the finish to the session incredible and thanked Duncan for contributing to the success of the leadership conference. In the survey, 97% of leaders said they’d recommend Duncan.

The audience survey below shows how the session landed with the people in the room.

Planning a leadership conference and want it to end on a high? Check Duncan’s availability or explore his Beyond Collaboration keynote.

THOUGHTS FROM DUNCAN

Collaboration only works when people know how to bring others with them.

In a business built on expert teams, good ideas still need someone to carry them through. So I pair collaboration with influence: listen first, frame an idea around what the other person cares about, then ask in a way that’s easy to say yes to. I finish with a demonstration that lets the room feel it, because people remember what they’ve experienced.

Ramboll’s leaders were warm, sharp and generous with their attention, and I’d love to work with them again.

HOW RAMBOLL'S LEADERS RATED DUNCAN'S COLLABORATION KEYNOTE

97% of Ramboll’s leaders would recommend Duncan, and 98% are extremely or highly likely to use his takeaways. The words they used most to describe the keynote were inspiring, practical and interactive.

Survey of 70 Ramboll leaders, completed straight after the keynote.