What the room
actually said

“I had a 3pm back-to-back so I was genuinely planning to slip out after 20 minutes. I didn't. I'm not sure exactly when that decision happened, somewhere between the prefrontal cortex part and the moment she made a room of 400 procurement professionals laugh at themselves. I flew back and cancelled two vendor contracts we didn't need.”

“I've counted, somewhere around 280 presentations on change management. After 200 you stop expecting surprises. Dorka managed to surprise me. Not in a gimmicky way, more like the feeling when someone explains something you've been doing wrong for years, but without making it humiliating. We had her back six months later for our senior leadership days.”

“I don't write these. Making an exception. Two days after the keynote, three of my direct reports, none of whom knew the others were doing it, sent me essentially the same message. One used the phrase "I finally understand why I've been wrong about my team." I don't know what she did but it worked.”

“She spent maybe 15 minutes methodically taking apart every culture transformation framework I've used for the last seven years. I was in the front row. It was uncomfortable in an extremely useful way. What I didn't expect was to leave with three actual, concrete things I could do on Monday. Usually it's "you need to be more agile" and a QR code to a podcast.”

“I booked her on a strong abstract and one reference call that was just "you won't regret it." Not a lot to go on. Accurate though. The science didn't feel like a credential flex, it felt like she was genuinely trying to explain something she finds fascinating. Also she's funny in a way that doesn't feel rehearsed, which is even rarer.”