Keynote speaker · Author · Ex-Google
Everything is working.
Nothing is moving.
Keynotes for organizations that look fine and feel stuck. Most teams don't stall on strategy. They stall on what people won't say, and what leaders won't do about it.
Daniela Landherr spent 15 years at Google, last as Head of Talent Engagement EMEA. Today boards, executive teams and conferences bring her in when everything looks like it's working and nothing is moving.
Keynotes and work with
See it in the room
Thirty seconds on stage.
Want the full talk? Watch Daniela's TEDx talk, the showreel on YouTube or more videos.
The idea behind every keynote
The room agrees out loud.
Then nothing happens.
Organizations rarely stall because people don't care. They stall because of hidden human dynamics, and leaders rarely see them until they've cost a quarter.
Keynotes
Three ways into the same idea.
Psychological safety is the science under all three. Every keynote is tailored to your audience and your moment.
Everything Is Working. Nothing Is Moving.
Why your busiest teams are often your most stuck.
The numbers hold. The meetings happen. Everyone's aligned. And still, nothing moves. Drawing on her book, Daniela exposes the patterns that quietly stall capable organizations, and shows leaders how to interrupt them.
What your audience takes home
- A new lens for why capable organizations stall while everyone stays busy
- The ability to spot the hidden patterns that quietly kill momentum
- Practical ways to interrupt them and get moving again
Best for executive teams, leadership offsites, transformation programs and strategy resets.
The Power of Psychological Safety
It isn't talent that makes teams win. It's safety.
Google set out to find what makes teams succeed, and the answer was psychological safety. Daniela was at Google when that research came out, and coached Google leaders on putting it to work. Through her penguin story, she shows why capable people go quiet, and how leaders get them talking again.
What your audience takes home
- What Google's published research found, and why safety beats talent
- What Google published about building psychological safety, and what it takes in practice
- How to recognize the silence that's costing you, and get people speaking up
Best for conferences and summits, leadership and culture programs and organization-wide events.
Leadership Under Pressure
Pressure doesn't build a team. It reveals it.
Drawing on her work with leaders in high-stakes moments and a leadership simulation run with the Swiss Armed Forces, Daniela shows what happens to trust, candor and decisions when the stakes spike, and how strong leaders keep their people moving.
What your audience takes home
- What actually happens to trust and decisions under pressure
- How to keep a team moving instead of freezing
- Tools to lead with candor through crisis and change
Best for executive retreats, boards at high stakes, transformation and post-crisis teams.
Keynote finder · 1 minute
Not sure which keynote fits your event?
Four quick questions. You get a suggestion, and can send it straight to Linda.
On stage
From boardrooms to 5,400 people.
Track record
The conversation continues after the keynote ends.
"You helped us see what we had been missing."
Head of Operations · Mercedes-Benz
"The audience was still discussing the ideas long after the keynote ended."
CHRO · Sonova HR Summit
"A great combination of warmth, sharpness, humor, and authority."
Leadership conference organizer
"The Penguin Story was my biggest takeaway from everything I heard."
Executive panel · UBS
"'Which hat are you wearing?' became an ongoing discussion."
Leadership offsite · Google
Ways to work with Daniela
Formats that fit your event.
Keynote
Usually 30 to 45 minutes, up to 90. New thinking, and the conversation the room has been avoiding.
Keynote and workshop
Turn insight into action: the keynote, then a working session with your leaders.
Leadership offsite
Facilitated behind closed doors: surface what matters and move what's stuck.
Leadership simulation
The Leadership Retreat Under Pressure: one to one and a half days in the mountains with the Swiss Armed Forces, run by The Human Space. See the retreat ↗
Prefer to write? Use the contact page. Requests go to Linda Hansen Stavast, Head of Operations, who coordinates dates, briefing and logistics.
After the keynote
When the room wants to keep going.
A keynote opens the conversation. With her firm, The Human Space, Daniela helps leadership teams have it: make truth travel at the top, so organizations move.
- Elephants in the Room ↗A half-day session where a leadership team names what it senses but doesn't say, and leaves with owners and timelines.
- Leadership Retreat Under Pressure ↗One to one and a half days in the mountains with the Swiss Armed Forces.
- Leadership Team Journey ↗About 12 months, measured before and after.
- Executive coaching and Space of Choice™ ↗For the moments leaders get triggered.
The book behind the keynote
Everything Is Working. Nothing Is Moving.
How leaders stall progress without realizing it. Nine chapters, nine paradoxes, published June 29, 2026.
- Ask for Honesty. Reward Agreement.
- Agree in the Room. Change Nothing.
- Align Everything. Own Nothing.
- Discuss Every Decision. Make None.
- Everyone's Busy. Nothing Moves.
- Hire the Best. Pay the Speed Tax.
- Measure Everything. Miss What Matters.
- Protect Performance. Lose the Team.
- Stay Close. Become the Bottleneck.
"Crisp, sharp, simply to the point. A practical guide to recognizing and dissolving the well-masked paralysis that inaction creates in an organization."
Arnd K. · former CEO, Sonova
Copies for your team or event: contact@thehuman.space
About Daniela
15 years at Google. Now putting it into practice.
As Head of Talent Engagement EMEA and part of the senior leadership team in EMEA, Daniela coached leaders of large Google organizations, including YouTube and Google Cloud, on psychological safety, and applied it in her own organization of 120 people. In 2022 she founded The Human Space, a Swiss firm that works with boards, executive teams and senior leaders on psychological safety and high-performing teams.
The theory of psychological safety already has a great author. Daniela's work is what happens next: building it inside real teams, under real pressure.
- INSEAD Executive Master in Change · Stanford Executive Leadership Program
- Certified in Fearless Organization (Amy Edmondson), Leadership Circle Profile and Co-Active coaching
- Coaches and teaches in executive programs at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) and HWZ; executive coach at ETH Zurich
- Forbes Coaches Council: articles include "What Happened To Your Last Penguin?" and "Fear Travels Faster Than Strategy"
- The Human Space: three-time Inc. Power Partner honoree (2024, 2025, 2026)
Questions organizers ask
Before you book.
What is Daniela's core topic?
Psychological safety and high-performing teams. Every keynote comes back to one idea: teams move when people feel safe enough to tell the truth, and leaders act on it. Trust, fear, silence and leading through uncertainty are all facets of it.
How long is a keynote?
Usually 30 to 45 minutes, and up to 90 minutes with interaction or a Q&A. We adapt the length to your program.
Are the keynotes customized?
Yes. Every keynote is adapted to your audience, industry, strategic context and leadership reality. Preparation includes a briefing call and, where useful, conversations with stakeholders.
Can Daniela speak online or in German?
Yes. Daniela speaks on stage, online, hybrid and on livestreams, in English, German and Swiss German, across Europe and worldwide.
Does Daniela work with teams after a keynote?
Yes. Through her firm The Human Space, Daniela works with boards, executive teams and organizations in leadership sessions, offsites, coaching and longer journeys. 88% of keynote clients come back for further work.
How do we book Daniela?
Write to contact@thehuman.space with your date, audience and goal. Linda Hansen Stavast, Head of Operations, coordinates availability, briefing and logistics. Fees on request.
Book Daniela
Bring the real conversation into your room.
Tell us your date, your audience and what needs to move.