Keynote SpeakerDoug Manuel

Human Connection Keynote Speaker, Former BBC Filmmaker, Creator of the From Me To We™ Methodology, building trust and belonging live in the room

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Doug's 90 second showreel.
Doug Manuel Showreel

Popular Talks by Doug Manuel

FROM ME TO WE™ - THE KEYNOTE: The Cure for the Loneliness Epidemic

What if the thing quietly costing an organisation its best people has nothing to do with pay, pipeline or process? Loneliness is the defining condition of modern working life, and it does not stay at home. It walks into the building every morning, and it costs employers billions a year…
What if the thing quietly costing an organisation its best people has nothing to do with pay, pipeline or process? Loneliness is the defining condition of modern working life, and it does not stay at home. It walks into the building every morning, and it costs employers billions a year in disengagement and lost people. This is not a talk about connection. It is connection, built live, in front of the room. Doug opens with his own story, told without softening, and by the time he reaches what actually worked for him the room has stopped listening politely and started listening personally. Then the room gets up and moves through the three steps of the methodology, ending with the whole audience holding a piece of music that none of them could hold alone. No instruments are needed, so it works in an auditorium, in rows, at any scale. Thirty to seventy-five minutes, for ten people to five thousand, in person or virtual, in English or French.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Name the real cost of disconnection in engagement, retention and discretionary effort
- Settle a room with breath before it has to decide anything
- Move empathy off the values wall into something two colleagues have just done
- Close the trust gap the only way it closes, by knowing someone
- Carry home daily practices that still work on Monday
FROM ME TO WE™ - THE DRUMS: The Rhythm of High-Performing Teams

You can tell a team to collaborate. You cannot tell them what it feels like. Most sessions describe collaboration and hope it transfers. This one skips the description. Ten, five hundred or three thousand people each receive a djembe, and within minutes they are doing the thing everybody has been…
You can tell a team to collaborate. You cannot tell them what it feels like. Most sessions describe collaboration and hope it transfers. This one skips the description. Ten, five hundred or three thousand people each receive a djembe, and within minutes they are doing the thing everybody has been talking about all day: listening before contributing, holding their own part while somebody else takes the lead, and noticing the instant a voice goes missing. Not one of them needs to have played before. Four minutes in, “we’re not musical” stops being true, and it stops being true for everyone at once. Along the way the session does real work, including an active listening exercise and a volunteer from the client’s own team leading the group. For the organiser it is the format with the most moving parts and the least for them to move: instruments are hired locally, delivered the day before and collected the day after, never on show day.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Experience a room where it is safe to be a beginner in public
- Hear the whole before adding your own part to it
- Hold your line steady while somebody else takes the lead
- Notice the instant a contribution disappears, and notice it back at work
- Leave with one specific thing you will do differently as a leader
FROM ME TO WE™ - THE WORKSHOP: Turning Insight Into Operating Habit

A keynote moves a room. A workshop changes how it works on Monday. This is the half day for the teams who actually have to live with each other: smaller groups, more time, and the collaboration practices worked through properly rather than demonstrated from a stage. It is built from…
A keynote moves a room. A workshop changes how it works on Monday. This is the half day for the teams who actually have to live with each other: smaller groups, more time, and the collaboration practices worked through properly rather than demonstrated from a stage. It is built from scratch around the client’s brief, so the content follows whatever is genuinely in the way, whether that is a merger of two cultures, a leadership team that has stopped disagreeing out loud, or a hybrid group that has never all been in one room. Teams map where their own communication really breaks down, practise the listening work inside their real groups rather than with strangers, and leave with commitments they have written themselves rather than been handed. With or without drums.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Map where communication actually breaks down in your own team
- Practise the listening work with the people you work with daily
- Turn a one-off experience into a repeatable operating habit
- Give quieter voices a structure that makes space for them
- Leave with written commitments the team has authored itself

Biography

Doug Manuel doesn’t just talk about performing as one. He creates it live, in real time. A room walks in as individuals and walks out as one. He is the creator of the From Me To We™ Methodology, which he pioneered in corporate work in 2000, and he has now delivered it more than a thousand times, for over 500 organisations, on five continents, in rooms of ten people and rooms of three thousand. Harvard Business School books him, as do the World Economic Forum, Google, McKinsey, PwC, LVMH, Oracle, Shell and BMW. He has taught at IMD every year since 2002, and at CEIBS in China, HEC Paris and INSEAD, with the methodology endorsed in IMD’s book Mastering Executive Education. Oprah Winfrey chose him to open her third Super Soul Sessions. Across those thousand events his sessions have held a Net Promoter Score above ninety percent.

He knows the problem from the inside, because he was it. He was six when he watched his father have a heart attack. His father survived, but his parents were separating, and he was shuttled between two homes until he was eight, when he was sent away to boarding school, surrounded by other boys at every hour of the day and lonelier than he had ever been. It cost him years. He drifted from job to job and could not build a relationship that felt truly authentic. He became a BBC filmmaker with a career other people envied, and still nobody in his life really knew him. One drumming workshop in Oxford in 1996 began to undo it, and within a year he had left television for West Africa, where village life gave him what no career had: people who knew him. He is not offering a cure he read about. He is offering the one that worked on him.

He was running his own sessions within two years and has spent the three decades since doing both at once. The villages he returns to every year have almost none of what a Western organisation would call an advantage, and not one of them has a loneliness problem. He founded Lighting Up Lives, a not-for-profit working with rural villages across West Africa, and keeps a home in Abéné, Senegal. He is producing Beats As One, a documentary about the cure to the loneliness epidemic, filmed in Senegal and Guinea, with a nationwide impact campaign across the United States in planning. Doug works in English and French and travels from Miami.

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What clients say about Doug Manuel

“Doug has gone from wanting to share a passion for Africa and the djembe drum, to a consultant and social entrepreneur. Today he is dedicating his life to the discovery of what leadership is all about.” PROFESSOR GILBERT PROBST, former managing director of The World Economic Forum

“Doug keeps coming up with the goods. His sessions break down barriers and help us to look at business issues from a different angle.” SEAN MEEHAN, Director MBA Programme, IMD International

“Doug drove an audience of over 600 people to team up and achieve what seemed totally impossible to every one of them before.” Michel Clement, Senior Director, Oracle

“One of a kind: inspiring, participative, informative, and above all authentic. The perfect prelude for my first Executive Leaders Meeting.” Klaus Peter Feld, Senior Vice President HR, BMW Group

“The best speaker so far.” Group HR lead, Carlsberg

How to book Doug Manuel as a keynote speaker

How do I book Doug Manuel for a keynote speech?

You can book Doug Manuel through London Speaker Bureau by submitting the enquiry form on this page or calling our team. One of our consultants will respond promptly with Doug's current availability, speaking fees and any specific requirements for your event.

What are Doug Manuel's speaking fees?

Doug Manuel's speaking fees depend on the event format (in-person or virtual), the location, the length of the engagement and the level of customisation required. Please contact London Speaker Bureau for an up-to-date fee quote for Doug tailored to your event.

What topics does Doug Manuel speak about?

Doug Manuel speaks on Behaviour, Business & Management, Change, HR, Leadership. Talks can be shaped around your audience, industry and strategic objectives - share your event brief with London Speaker Bureau and we will work with Doug to align the content with your delegates and goals.

Is Doug Manuel available for international events?

London Speaker Bureau can book Doug Manuel for events worldwide, subject to Doug's schedule. Please send us your event date, location and format and we will confirm availability and handle travel and logistics on your behalf.

Does Doug Manuel deliver virtual or online keynotes?

Virtual and hybrid keynotes are now a standard part of the speaking industry. Please contact London Speaker Bureau to confirm whether Doug Manuel is available to deliver a virtual session for your event and on which platform (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, a bespoke studio or your own).

How long is a typical keynote by Doug Manuel?

Most keynote speeches run between 45 and 60 minutes, often followed by a 15-30 minute Q&A. Other formats - shorter conference slots, panel appearances or longer workshop sessions - may also be possible. Share your agenda with London Speaker Bureau and we will confirm what Doug can accommodate.

Can Doug Manuel tailor the keynote to our industry and audience?

London Speaker Bureau will brief Doug Manuel on your audience profile, sector and objectives so the keynote can be shaped around your event. The level of customisation possible depends on the speaker and the lead time - contact us with your brief and we will confirm what Doug can offer.

What languages does Doug Manuel present in?

Doug Manuel delivers keynotes in English, French. This profile may not list every language available; ask London Speaker Bureau to confirm. If you require simultaneous interpretation or a multilingual format, please mention this in your enquiry and London Speaker Bureau will arrange it for you.

What makes Doug Manuel a strong fit as a keynote speaker?

Doug Manuel's areas of expertise include Behaviour, Business & Management, Change, HR, Leadership. To get a clear sense of Doug's style, credentials and how they engage an audience, please review the biography, popular talks and any videos or testimonials shown on this page, or request a detailed speaker brief from London Speaker Bureau.

What kind of events can Doug Manuel speak at?

Doug Manuel can be booked through London Speaker Bureau for corporate conferences, leadership events, internal team meetings, association gatherings and private client engagements where expertise in Behaviour, Business & Management, Change, HR, Leadership is relevant. Details of Doug's background and previous engagements are included in the biography above; contact us if you would like a more detailed list of past clients or case studies.

Does Doug Manuel offer workshops, panels or fireside chats in addition to keynotes?

Beyond keynote speeches, many of the speakers on our roster also take part in workshops, executive masterclasses, panel discussions and fireside chats. Contact London Speaker Bureau with your preferred format and we will confirm what Doug Manuel is able to offer alongside or instead of a keynote.

How far in advance should we book Doug Manuel?

We generally recommend enquiring at least three to twelve months in advance to secure your preferred date with Doug Manuel, particularly during peak conference seasons. Where possible we also accommodate shorter lead times - please contact London Speaker Bureau to check Doug's current availability for your dates.