Jan van der Spoel

About Jan van der Spoel

Organizations are investing massively in AI and digitalization to become more agile. But technology solves little if your people are stuck with each other.

Leadership has fundamentally changed in recent years. Decisions need to be made faster, with less certainty and greater consequences. The result is that leaders are less daring. They avoid risks, postpone choices, while new competing technologies do push forward.

Research shows that organizations with a high level of trust are worth 4× more, make about 30% more profit, and retain over 80% of their employees longer.

Jan van der Spoel shows that the real blockage rarely lies in strategy or structure, but in invisible trust patterns within teams. Patterns that no one explicitly names, but that do determine how decisions are made, how openly dilemmas are discussed, and how agile an organization truly is. With his 360° Trust Compass™ – described in his book 360° Trust – Jan makes these patterns visible and manageable. Not as a soft theme, but as a concrete moral and strategic compass: it shows where you stand, where tension exists, and why change stalls or accelerates.

Jan is trained as a concept designer and worked for over 25 years as a creative director for brands like Unilever, Philips, and KNVB. There he learned to dissect complex issues and translate them into clear concepts. He applied that approach to trust: from invisible to visible, from abstract to workable.

What this means in practice:
For C-suite: see how trust patterns block or accelerate your strategy and which interventions truly make a difference.
For management teams: learn how to help your people perform better by consciously leveraging trust – in coaching, development, and team management.
For professionals: work becomes more enjoyable, collaboration more pleasant, and results better – without endless meetings or unclear relationships.

As a speaker, Jan brings not abstract theory, but direct clarity. His keynotes and masterclasses provide leaders and teams with concrete insights they can apply immediately: which patterns block them, where trust is under pressure, and which initial interventions have the most effect. No inspiration without tools, but a workable compass for decision-making in complex environments.

Jan speaks for boardrooms, leadership teams, management events, and large conferences. Each keynote and workshop is fully tailored to the theme of your event and the specific challenges of your audience. Available in Dutch and English.