Frank Garten helps leaders and teams discuss what others avoid and turn tension into stronger collaboration.
5.00 of 5
Top rated!5 of 5
Frank, I have very much appreciated your approach to develop my leadership skills. You rapidly earned my trust and respect in this sensitive subject. The most remarkable testimony comes from my colleagues as they are recognizing a significant difference.
Mark Schulz
Commercial Excellence Manager at Borealis
Frank Garten is a facilitator, keynote speaker and advisor helping professionals discuss the undiscussable. With a direct, thoughtful and pragmatic approach, he supports leaders and teams in navigating conflict, improving collaboration and communicating with greater clarity. Drawing on years of international leadership experience, Frank helps organizations turn tension, cultural differences and opposing perspectives into stronger cooperation and better results. His keynotes, workshops and facilitation sessions are known for being insightful, practical and highly relevant to modern organizations working across borders, functions and personalities.
Frank Garten is one of the most experienced voices on communication, conflict navigation and collaboration across differences. As a facilitator, keynote speaker and advisor, he helps leaders and teams say what needs to be said — especially when conversations are difficult, sensitive or avoided altogether.
Organizations today operate across cultures, departments, generations and personal perspectives. Misunderstandings, unresolved tension and unclear communication often slow down decision-making and collaboration. Frank helps professionals address these challenges directly and constructively. His work focuses on creating clarity in conversations and helping teams use differences as a strength rather than a barrier.
With a combination of sharp analysis, warmth and practical tools, Frank creates sessions that are engaging, reflective and immediately applicable in everyday work life.
Clarity in conversations is at the center of Frank Garten’s work. He believes that many organizations lose valuable energy and opportunities because difficult conversations are postponed or avoided. Through his keynotes and workshops, he helps leaders and teams develop the confidence and skills needed to address tension early and productively.
Frank specializes in helping smart professionals collaborate across borders, functions and personal differences. He works with organizations that want stronger dialogue, healthier team dynamics and better collaboration between people with different perspectives and backgrounds.
His sessions often explore topics such as:
Participants leave with practical insights and concrete approaches they can immediately apply in meetings, negotiations and everyday interactions.
Before becoming independent in 2010, Frank Garten built an extensive international career at Philips and NXP in the semiconductor industry. He held leadership positions in global general management and later led the Learning & Development function within the company.
This experience gives him a deep understanding of the realities leaders face in complex international organizations. He knows how pressure, cultural differences, conflicting priorities and organizational politics can affect communication and collaboration.
Frank has negotiated global deals, led international teams and worked across cultures himself. His advice is therefore always grounded in real business experience rather than theory alone. Audiences appreciate his ability to combine strategic insight with practical relevance and relatable examples from international business life.
Frank Garten originally started his professional journey with a PhD in Physics and Chemistry. His analytical mindset remains visible in the way he approaches communication and organizational dynamics: curious, sharp and always focused on understanding the deeper patterns behind human interaction.
At the same time, Frank is known for being highly pragmatic and down-to-earth. He avoids abstract jargon and instead focuses on practical conversations, behaviors and tools that create immediate value.
This balance between intellectual depth and practical application makes him a trusted advisor for leaders, management teams and international organizations looking to strengthen collaboration and communication.
Frank is also the author of four books on collaborating across differences. His work explores how people with different perspectives, cultural backgrounds and professional identities can work together more effectively without avoiding disagreement or tension.
A recurring theme in his work is “perspective intelligence” — the ability to understand and work productively with different viewpoints. In a world where organizations increasingly depend on diverse teams and global collaboration, this capability has become essential for effective leadership and innovation.
Frank’s sessions challenge audiences to rethink how they approach disagreement and communication. Instead of seeing tension as something negative, he demonstrates how constructive conflict can strengthen trust, improve decision-making and create stronger teams.
Frank Garten is an engaging and thoughtful speaker who combines expertise with authenticity and humor. Audiences value his honest and no-nonsense style, as well as his ability to create reflection without losing practical relevance.
Whether he is facilitating leadership sessions, speaking at international conferences or guiding team interventions, Frank creates an atmosphere where meaningful conversations can happen openly and constructively.
Based in Utrecht in The Netherlands, Frank works with organizations around the world. Outside of work, he enjoys running, swimming in icy waters, reading non-fiction and appreciating a good glass of white Burgundy or red Barbera.
Book Frank Garten for your event if you are looking for a keynote speaker who helps leaders and teams communicate with clarity, navigate difficult conversations and collaborate more effectively across differences.
5 of 5
Frank, I have very much appreciated your approach to develop my leadership skills. You rapidly earned my trust and respect in this sensitive subject. The most remarkable testimony comes from my colleagues as they are recognizing a significant difference.
Mark Schulz Commercial Excellence Manager at Borealis
5 of 5
Frank’s personality and style of coaching made it easy to open up, be self-reflective and accept constructive feedback. His calm nature, tone of voice and encouragement smile made even the most challenging tasks enjoyable.
Sharon Sequeira Head of Portfolio Management Office at Philips
5 of 5
Attending 4 days of influencing and communication strategies was truly an inspiring experience for me and my team members. Have rarely had such a big impact with training into my daily life at work.
Johanna Hainz Chief Information Officer at Damco
5 of 5
Frank made us reflect on barriers to collaboration and our silo-attitudes. He is instantly trusted by the team, and gently confronts us with our own mindset.
Mahrou Kharazi Product Manager at Philips Healthcare
Keynote by Frank Garten:
Unwelcome perspectives lead to faster, better decisions
In global businesses, daily stressors make us ignore unique perspectives. Many leaders will recognize these dilemma’s:
We converge fast to keep momentum, then spend weeks undoing a decision nobody believed in.
The loudest voices dominate; people with inconvenient views go quiet until after the meeting.
We claim “diversity of thought,” but pushback often is just theatre: the final decision is already made.
Blind spots never get talked about, but show up in rework, delayed milestones, and delayed decisions.
I need quicker, clearer decisions that stick, without groupthink. And I need real buy-in from the people who execute.
DISAGREEMENT, RUN WELL, IS THE SHORTEST PATH TO DECISION SPEED.
Perspective Intelligence is the discipline of deliberately taking in radically different mental models. It turns controlled disagreement into speed. We widen and sharpen inputs, then test our views rigorously so the best idea survives contact with reality.
Learn the 3-Step ‘Blind-Spot Scan’ to state the core of the idea, expose hidden assumptions, and hunt evidence that may destroy our views. Then we run the ‘5-Minute Red-Team Drill’: it follows tight roles and exact prompts to pressure-test plans rigorously, without blame.
Perspective Intelligence leads to faster decisions, fewer reversals, and genuine buy-in because dissent was used, not ignored. This keynote is provocative, practical, and usable the same day. If you dare to face different perspectives.
PERSPECTIVE INTELLIGENCE TURNS UNWELCOME PERSPECTIVES INTO EXECUTION POWER.
Frank’s keynotes are lively, funny, yet grounded in deep research about the topics he is speaking about. Striving for maximum interaction, he will invite the different perspectives living in the room. Use his keynotes as a katalyst to discuss the undiscussable with your teams, or include a talk by Frank in the next offsite when different – and perhaps unwelcome – perspectives should be heard.
Keynotes are 30-75 minutes and always tailored to the needs of your audience, and your intentions for the event.
Keynote by Frank Garten:
What great leaders do before the lawyers arrive.
Conflict is avoided by most. The fear of discomfort and rejection hold us back. Even in business context where the stakes are high:
Conflict is a resource, not a fire to avoid. Tension should be treated as an early signal that competing views are at work. The goal is to use these to our advantage: surface what’s really at stake, remove politics, and focus on the decision that moves the business.
Handled early, conflict is your fastest tool to good decisions. We start by mapping what others miss: avoidance patterns, triangulation, and the “polite” tells that predict escalation. The ‘Early-Warning Map’ makes tensions visible, names interests and power, and shows where to cut in.
Learn to make the unsaid sayable, without drama. Set a shared outcome, invite dissent from participants, and test assumptions in plain language. The conversation about the competing views is run with tight roles and rules, so defensive responses don’t overtake rational moves.
Then we make choices stick. We clarify ownership, identify derailers, kill unnecessary roadblocks and bring conversations back to polite, yet sharp and clear. Especially in a global, multi-cultural setting, conflict is a source of higher quality and better decisions, if handled with tact.
CONFLICT, EARLY AND WELL-RUN, IS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE. WAIT, AND YOU FUND LAWYERS. ACT, AND YOU GAIN SPEED.
Frank’s keynotes are lively, funny, yet grounded in deep research about the topics he is speaking about. Striving for maximum interaction, he will invite the different perspectives living in the room. Use his keynotes as a katalyst to discuss the undiscussable with your teams, or include a talk by Frank in the next offsite when different – and perhaps unwelcome – perspectives should be heard.
Keynotes are 30-75 minutes and always tailored to the needs of your audience, and your intentions for the event.
Keynote by Frank Garten:
Face, time, and decision power – the economics and psychology of global negotiation.
Negotiators in an international context know the frustrations:
In this talk, we turn cross-border negotiation into applied economics and psychology: face, time orientation, and hierarchy represent value, and the behaviours of the negotiators and their mindset determine the rest of the outcome. The goal is price-protected agreements that survive Monday.
High-quality, complex negotiations start with mapping real authority beyond the room, reading silence and delay without panic, and using plain-language probes that keep face intact. You’ll get a Cultural Stakeholder Map to identify decision-power and veto points, plus ‘Silence-Decoding Rules’ to test intent without forcing a corner.
Then we choreograph concessions so reciprocity, timing, and signaling protect margin and trust. And while the primary focus is often on external dynamics, internally, we lock a single message between HQ and regions so you don’t bid against yourself. The outcome of good preparation: higher close rates, cleaner deals, fewer “unknown blockers,” and fewer reversals post-negotiation.
YOU DON’T LOSE ON PRICE. YOU LOSE ON MISREAD POWER, FACE, AND SILENCE. FIX THAT, AND VALUE STAYS IN.
Frank’s keynotes are lively, funny, yet grounded in deep research about the topics he is speaking about. Striving for maximum interaction, he will invite the different perspectives living in the room. Use his keynotes as a katalyst to discuss the undiscussable with your teams, or include a talk by Frank in the next offsite when different – and perhaps unwelcome – perspectives should be heard.
Keynotes are 30-75 minutes and always tailored to the needs of your audience, and your intentions for the event.
Keynote by Frank Garten:
Practical tools and a non-activist approach to inclusive leadership
Recognize this about culture in your team and office?
Meetings stay “polite”: the real risks and dissent live outside of the meetings.
People self-censor: speaking plainly feels like a risk to your career, so issues surface after the cost is sunk.
Leaders swing between DEI theatre and silence: standards blur, trust drops, politics rises. We do not really value everyone, although our words say we do.
We chase external hires while insiders with hard data stay quiet or get ignored.
When DEI is deprioritized, the unheard voices go underground and form a resistance army.
We need an inclusive culture: make the unsaid sayable, use disagreement as input, keep standards high, and turn friction into decisions that hold.
Diversity is often about counting the numbers, and inclusion lives in the shadow of it. But true inclusion leads to faster, better decisions under pressure. Organizations should replace the activist DEI talk and optical diversity with honest conversations where truth gets told to power. We strive for a shared outcome, strip status games, and make space for hard truths without lowering the bar.
Mindset and rituals build inclusion. ‘Intellectual-Humility Sprints’ let leaders model doubt in 30–60 seconds, inviting the dissenting views in the open. ‘Say-the-Unsaid Rounds’ turn vague tension into plain language, with prompts and rules that protect people and standards. Disagreement gets channelled and used to advantage, instead of being suppressed.
Then we decide. The Decision-by-Difference Method converts diverse inputs into options, trade-offs, and a clear final decision with an owner, and buy-in from the team. We measure candor rate, decision speed, and reopenings. Result: more candor, better choices, stronger teams: without the soft and activist language that often surrounds DEI efforts. Replaced by clarity.
INCLUSION IS A DECISION PRACTICE: NOT A POSTER WITH DEI SLOGANS. DIFFERENCE BECOME FUEL WHEN USED WELL.
Frank’s keynotes are lively, funny, yet grounded in deep research about the topics he is speaking about. Striving for maximum interaction, he will invite the different perspectives living in the room. Use his keynotes as a katalyst to discuss the undiscussable with your teams, or include a talk by Frank in the next offsite when different – and perhaps unwelcome – perspectives should be heard.
Keynotes are 30-75 minutes and always tailored to the needs of your audience, and your intentions for the event.
Watch speaker Frank Garten in action
Watch speaker Frank Garten in action
Watch speaker Frank Garten in action
