Pseudo-work · Speaker · Author · Chief Leadership
Dennis
Nørmark
The man behind the international bestseller Pseudo-work. He explores why so much of what we do have little value and what happens when we give people back their freedom and judgment.
100 +
talks per year
9
books - non-fiction and fiction
100.000 +
copies of pseudowork sold
2x
Awards: the Harald Mogensen Award & the Glass Key Award
Keynotes
Three talks to choose from
All talks can be delivered in Danish or English, either as a keynote or in a longer format including a workshop.
Dennis Nørmark is a renowned speaker, both nationally and internationally. His talks offer an eye-opening insight into the tasks we waste each other’s time on, and the simple adjustments employees and leaders can make to cut through administrative redundancy.
In many organizations, complexity is met with more management, more procedures, more coordination and more control. But often, these well-intended solutions create the very friction they were meant to remove. It has been the hallmark of Dennis Nørmark to show how organizations unintentionally weaken people’s judgement by designing work around compliance, caution and dependency.
Based on his new book, Return to Judgement, written with internationally recognized organization and management scholar, Professor Mats Alvesson, the talk offers a new way to think about leadership, bureaucracy and organizational complexity. Instead of asking how leaders can control people better, Nørmark asks how organizations can create the conditions in which capable people are trusted to think, decide and act responsibly. He looks at how self-imposed helplessness creates a demand for more rules, more support and more control, and reinforces the very complexity people complain about. The key is finding out how the organizations “views people" and how we make organizational designs to support or challenge these views and make people courageous again
The keynote gives leaders a practical and provocative framework for reducing pseudo-work, strengthening autonomy, improving innovation and building more mature organizations with less friction and more judgement.
The pyramids are collapsing. The old command-and-control structures no longer deliver the results they once did, and employees are demanding that their leaders be humane, empathetic, and kind. We are witnessing a revolution in leadership.
But, in fact, leaders who were brutal, narrowly performance-focused, and controlling have been the exception in history, argues Dennis Normark with the help of anthropology, evolutionary biology, and archaeology. Humans are adapted to servant leaders who demonstrate humility and create results through a community of free and autonomous individuals.
Today’s leaders can learn from the leaders of the past and even from leadership as practiced in indigenous societies. Through inspiring examples of contemporary "chiefs" from successful organizations, Nørmark offers radically new insights into ancient wisdom about leadership. It is a story about who kindness pays off.
Video
See Dennis on stage
The best way to assess a speaker is to see him in action. Here are two samples - one from the stage and a compilation from Dennis Nørmark’s international work.
Books
Books on Work, Culture and Freedom
From management literature to award-winning fiction. The books form both the foundation of the talks and an independent body of work in their own right.
Pseudo-work
With Anders Fogh Jensen
The authors come from both sides of the political divide, but this book is not a meeting in the middle. It is a showdown with an old-fashioned concept of work, and a blueprint for what we can do about it – as employees, as managers and as a society. It is time to think and act differently. Otherwise, we may find ourselves committing the greatest act of self-sabotage in history. First, we must confront one of the greatest taboos of our era: Pseudowork.
Cultural intelligence for stone-age brains
How to work together with Danes and others not like you
When working across cultures, our own habits and assumptions can easily get in the way. Without cultural intelligence, we risk missing valuable opportunities and creating unnecessary misunderstandings. This is especially relevant for people moving to Denmark, where studies show that many highly educated internationals are surprised by the cultural differences.
Return to Judgement
By Mats Alvesson og Dennis Nørmark
Today’s organizations are increasingly complex with many structures, practices and rules to follow. While the organizational head – an administrative knowing better class - becomes larger, the space for people doing the core job of the organization to think outside the box and take personal responsibility shrinks.
About Dennis Nørmark
Anthropologist, author, speaker and consultant. He works with Danish and international organisations including Novo Nordisk, LEO Pharma, Deloitte, Coloplast, BNP Paribas, LEGO, Aarhus University, Roche, Maersk and Novonesis.
Dennis Nørmark has written nine books on culture, leadership, organisations and modern working life. With Pseudo-Work, co-written with philosopher Anders Fogh Jensen, he established himself as an influential voice in the Danish debate on leadership and the future of work. The book has sold more than 100,000 copies and has been published in several countries. In 2023, it was the best-selling humanities book of the year in South Korea.
He is known for making research accessible, engaging and relevant to organisational life. His ability to communicate complex ideas in an entertaining and easy-to-understand way is rooted in his background in theatre, where he worked as an actor, playwright and director. He is also an internationally awarded writer of suspense and crime novels.
Dennis Nørmark has worked as a senior consultant for leading consulting firms and has served as a professional board member in the media and education sectors, including Denmark’s largest media corporation. He is a regular columnist for Danish newspapers and contributes to several podcasts and think tanks.
Reviews
Said about Dennis Nørmark
Wherever Nørmark appears in our international offices, he is highly respected for his inspiring approach. He manages to mix research, anthropology, history and common sense in a way everyone can relate to.
We invited Dennis Nørmark for a number of sessions to inspire around pseudo work in our organization. This has been a game-changer for me for identifying and working with this mindset.
The staff in our department were really excited — Nørmark made it dazzling, entertaining and present.
Dennis hit the target group perfectly. In addition, he speaks perfect English.
Dennis made a strong impression at our conference. His presentation was perfectly aligned with our clients’ expectations, and we greatly appreciated his engagement and collaboration throughout the process.
Contact
Would you like to book Dennis Nørmark for your event?
You can easily send an enquiry using the contact form - with no obligation, of course. You’ll receive a prompt response regarding pricing, availability and any other questions you may have. I look forward to hearing from you!
Other enquiries
If your enquiry is not related to talks or keynotes, you can contact Dennis by email:
dennisnormark@gmail.com