SPEECHLESS by Hanne Røislien : Ideas, speaking and advisory work on culture, community and human capacity.
MAKE CULTURE YOUR CAPACITY.
We help people build culture, strengthen communities and expand what they can achieve together.
SPEECHLESS
WHY SPEECHLESS EXISTS
We believe in the power of strong communities.
Culture shapes how we see the world, how we relate to one another and what we are capable of together. Speechless exists to help build cultures and communities that strengthen people, create belonging and make more possible.
Because a better world is something we build together.
Hanne Eggen Røislien
Culture expert. Author. Advisor. Speaker.
I have spent three decades studying culture where its consequences become impossible to ignore, from military organizations and cyber to war, conflict and international affairs.
My work combines research with lived experience to understand what culture does to us, between us, and to what we are capable of together.
Our Purpose
Why Culture is the Heart of Every Community
Speechless helps organizations and communities understand the invisible forces that shape human behavior. We provide the research-backed insights and strategic advisory needed to build resilient, innovative, and deeply connected cultures that expand what is possible together.
KEY NOTES
Ideas that change how you see culture, people and what we can do together.
Hanne Røislien brings together research, powerful storytelling and three decades of experience from military organizations, war and conflict, cyber and international affairs. Her talks make complex ideas accessible and deeply human, leaving audiences with new perspectives, energy and a desire to act. Through Speechless, we offer three keynotes:
CULTURE IS HARDCORE
Culture is not the soft side of anything.
Culture shapes how we think, behave, belong, adapt and act together. Drawing on three decades of research and experience from military organizations, war and conflict, Hanne shows what culture actually does, and why understanding it changes what becomes possible.
45–60 minutes
YOU GET STUPID UNDER ATTACK
When we feel threatened, our world gets smaller.
We think differently. We see other people differently. And the boundaries between “us” and “them” become sharper. Drawing on research, war and lived experience, Hanne explores what happens to people and communities when fear takes hold, and how culture can help us resist the shrinking of our world.
45–60 minutes
HOW TO BUILD THE CULTURE YOU ACTUALLY WANT
Knowing what culture is gets you halfway. Knowing how to shape it is what makes the difference.
This talk is about the concrete moves that form, shift and anchor culture over time. Hanne shows what actually changes culture in practice, and the surprisingly simple things we often overlook when trying to create the culture we want.
45–60 minutes
Built For Your Needs
WORKING SESSIONS: FROM IDEA TO PRACTICE
Service One
Service Two
Service Three
Service Four
CULTURE IS CAPACITY
See the culture you actually have.
A working session that helps participants identify the cultural patterns shaping how they think, work and act together. What strengthens your collective capacity? What gets in the way? And where is the gap between the culture you say you have and the culture people actually experience?
90 minutes / Half day / Full day
BUILD THE CULTURE YOU WANT
Move from understanding culture to actively shaping it.
What should you preserve? What needs to change? And what concrete practices, behaviours and choices will make that change real? Participants work with their own culture and leave with clear priorities for what to strengthen, stop and start doing.
Half day / Full day
BUILDING THE WE
Strong communities do not happen by accident.
A working session about belonging, trust and the boundaries of the “we”. Participants explore what brings people together, what quietly pushes them apart, and how to build a culture where people feel part of something they want to contribute to.
90 minutes / Half day
PEP & PREP
One question. Hanne’s brain at your disposal.
Bring something you need to think through: an idea, a difficult decision, a cultural challenge, a project, a presentation, a change you are trying to make, or simply something you cannot quite make sense of.
There is no standard presentation and no fixed framework. We talk, challenge assumptions, find patterns and work out what matters and what to do next.
90 minutes · One to one or small team
Hanne Eggen Røislien holds a PhD in religion and culture and has spent her career combining academic research with work in complex real world environments. Her experience includes:
• Norwegian Armed Forces, including serving as Special Adviser on Culture to the Norwegian Chief of Defence and extensive work with military professional culture and the Cyber Defence
• War and conflict, with years of experience from the Middle East, including Iraq, and current work related to Ukraine
• United Nations and international affairs, working across military, humanitarian and international environments
• Research and academia, with extensive research on culture, meaning, identity, military organizations and human behaviour
• Strategic analysis and advisory, advising senior leaders and organizations on culture, change and complex human dynamics
• Public analysis, as a regular expert commentator on war, conflict, culture and international affairs
• Author and speaker, translating complex research and lived experience into ideas people can understand, remember and use.
"Research gives me the tools. Experience has taught me where to look."