Hidde de Vries

Through inspiring and sometimes poignant stories, research, and practical tips and techniques, Hidde shows you how to work and live smarter. The finale form and content in consultation.

How do you ensure that you

• set the right priorities?
• create, see, and seize opportunities?
• handle change better?
• develop a growth mindset?

How can you achieve more by working smarter instead of harder? In this talk, speaker Hidde de Vries reveals the secrets behind effective time management and sustainable productivity. With an accessible and practical approach, based on scientific models and everyday situations, he teaches you how to not only get more done, but also create more time for yourself.

Hidde translates complex data from the health sector into concrete tips you can apply immediately. This is not abstract theory, but a hands-on session that boosts your energy, increases your resilience, and helps you focus on what truly matters. After this session, you’ll have the tools to balance your work and personal life and function more effectively.

In this talk, Hidde de Vries explores why focus has become rare in the modern workplace and how organizations can create structural change. He shows how constant digital stimuli, ad-hoc requests and poor meeting structures lead to a loss of productivity, engagement and creativity.

Using behavioral insights and neuropsychology, Hidde offers a practical alternative: from inbox-driven chaos to deep work. He introduces concrete tools such as “silence blocks,” the 45-minute meeting, and team agreements that support healthier work rhythms. No time-management tricks, but a fundamentally different way of working.

This session is perfect for leaders, teams and HR professionals who want to create more calm, rhythm and results in their work environment.

Pain point: Teams are overstimulated, fragmented and constantly “busy,” yet make little real progress.
Promise: Learn how to restore calm and direction in your organization to achieve more output, energy and job satisfaction.

Work pressure is not an individual problem; it’s a system flaw. In this hands-on talk, Hidde explains precisely why well-intentioned vitality programs often have little effect: they focus on the symptom, not the cause. He shows how small structural adjustments think work rhythms, meeting structures and leadership style, create immediate and noticeable relief.

Hidde combines science with real-world examples and demonstrates how organizations can enable ownership and recovery behavior. Whether you’re a leader, policymaker or team member, this talk gives you the tools to stop managing stress and start preventing it.

The result? Teams that are more productive without working harder, and employees who not only stay, but thrive.

Pain point: High work pressure, increasing stress complaints and energy dips within teams lead to absenteeism and turnover.
Promise: Discover how to adjust both behavior and context to build resilience instead of depleting it.

Behavior change doesn’t fail because of unwillingness, but because of the wrong approach. In this inspiring yet confrontational session, Hidde de Vries shows how organizations can structurally build new behavior—without motivational speeches or quick fixes.

He translates behavioral science into the workplace: from nudging and habit loops to default settings and feedback systems. He focuses on three crucial levels: the individual, the team and leadership. Don’t expect inspiration without action. This session is designed to create immediate movement.

Perfect for organizations that don’t want culture change on the wall, but in people’s behavior.

Pain point: Organizations want behavior change, but struggle with resistance, relapse and lack of accountability.
Promise: Learn how to anchor behavior change in the structure, culture and routines of your organization.