Jef Staes

Jef Staes is a leading authority in Belgium on Learning processes and Innovative Organizations. With 20 years of experience in dealing with learning and innovation, he currently assists organizations and companies in their quest to find a comprehensive answer and approach to the changing dynamics of today’s market.

Based on a professional career as software engineer, training manager and Corporate Learning Officer, he now focuses on the urgent need for culture change and the role of Human Resources Management in Learning and Innovative Organizations.

“Why don’t organizations learn and innovate fast enough?”

Jef Staes offers an answer to this question. As a business speaker he not only awakens companies, but also presents them with a unique concept to guide them through the necessary changes. Change processes in the field of management and learning, should always aim to dramatically increasing the flexibility and the power to innovate of workers, teams and organisations.

His Engine of Innovation® Concept was first brought to paper in a Dutch book 'The re-exam of a management generation' in 1999. His latest book 'My Organisation is a Jungle' (May 2008) further explores the dramatic difficulties Innovation faces in most organizations today. Through the use of rich metaphors and exciting parallels, he engages you in the story of the Red Monkey.

Jef Staes has given hundreds of lectures on culture innovation bringing a variety of different perspectives to this subject and this for a very diverse audience (Conferences, Education, In-company, Associations...). He was a speaker at different international conferences such as HumanTech (Kiev), Online Educa (Berlin), Front End of Innovation Conference (Munich), UCISA Conference (Glasgow),…. He is also a visiting lecturer at the most renowned management schools in Belgium.

His most important project is the Engine of Innovation® Consortium. This growing network consists of several companies and organizations from various sectors. Together they share information and best practices. But most importantly they initiate shared change projects guided by the Jef’s Engine of Innovation® Concept.