Prof Richard Ryan in Finland: How to Lead Engagement for Well-Being and Performance

Prof Richard Ryan in Finland: How to Lead Engagement for Well-Being and Performance

In modern work, the quality of employee motivation plays an increasing role in determining which organizations succeed and are able to be creative in highly competitive environments. But how to best lead employee engagement to unleash the human potential?

Join us for an inspiring afternoon at Aalto University on Tuesday, June 3rd, where we explore how leaders can foster engagement to enhance both well-being and performance.

Our keynote speaker is Professor Richard M. Ryan, one of the world’s leading researchers on human motivation and well-being, and the most cited living psychologist on earth. 

Prof. Ryan is the co-developer of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), a widely recognized framework for understanding human motivation across domains from education and healthcare to business and sports. The theory has famously proposed that inner motivation is much dependent on the satisfaction of three psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. His keynote will offer profound insights into how leaders and organizations can cultivate environments that support deeper engagement, well-being, and sustainable performance.

In addition to Prof. Ryan’s keynote, Assistant Professor Frank Martela will offer actionable insights about how to best lead engagement. His talk will build on both research and real-life examples of leaders building success through allowing the employees to flourish. Frank is Finland’s leading expert on inner motivation and well-being, who has collaborated for over a decade with Ryan, and has given keynotes on hundreds of Finnish companies and written several books on how to lead motivation and how to live a more meaningful life.

Event details:

• Date: Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025
• Time: 16:00–17:45
• Location: Aalto University, Otakaari 1, B-hall
• Speakers: Professor Richard Ryan and Assistant Professor Frank Martela
• Audience: Leaders and practitioners interested in leadership, organizational development, and how to support motivation and well-being
  
   

Registration: Free of charge, but seats are limited. Registration link https://forms.gle/3sKJwr78SRR97C6z5 

Speaker BIOs 

Richard M. Ryan, Ph.D., is a Professor at the Institute for Positive Psychology & Education at the Australian Catholic University and Professor Emeritus in Psychology at the University of Rochester in New York. Ryan is a clinical psychologist and co-developer of Self-Determination Theory, one of the leading theories of human motivation. With over 450 scientific papers and books in the areas of human motivation, personality, and psychological well-being, Ryan is among the most cited and influential researchers in psychology and social sciences today. Reflective of Ryan's influence internationally, he has been recognized as one of the eminent psychologists of the modern era, and The Australian recently listed him on the Lifetime Achievers Leaderboard as one of Australia's top 40 researchers.

Ryan has lectured in more than 100 universities worldwide, and consulted with numerous organizations, schools, clinics, and health-care initiatives. Recipient of distinguished career awards from multiple societies for his contributions to the field on motivation, personal meaning, and self and identity, Ryan is also a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Educational Research Association, and an Honorary Member of the German Psychological Society (DGP). He has held numerous editorial posts, including having been Editor-in-Chief of Motivation & Emotion. He has also been a James McKeen Cattell and Leverhulme Fellow, and a visiting scientist at the National Institute of Education in Singapore, the University of Bath, UK, and the Max Planck Institute, Berlin.

Frank Martela, is a internationally recognized expert of motivation, well-being, and sense of meaningfulness and how leaders, organizations, and nations can support them. He is an Assistant Professor at Aalto University, Finland, and has two Ph.D.’s from organizational research (2012 Aalto University) and practical philosophy (2019 University of Helsinki). Besides extensive list of publications in top scientific journals such as Academy of Management Review and Personality and Social Psychology Review he has written for Harvard Business Review, CNBC, and Scientific American Mind. As a leading expert on why Finland is so happy, he has been interviewed by New York Times, CNN, BBC, Fox News, Le Monde, New Scientist, and Discover Magazine, among others.

Frank is an engaging speaker that has spoken in hundreds of companies about engagement and motivation at work and how leaders can make people thrive. He has also given speeches in universities on five continents, including Harvard and Stanford as well as a speech for the New Scientist Big Thinkers series. His latest book is Stop Chasing Happiness – A Pessimist’s Guide To a Good Life (Atlantic Books 2025). His previous book A Wonderful Life – Insights on Finding a Meaningful Experience (HarperCollins 2020) was translated to 29 languages. Frank’s scientifically grounded but accessible speeches lead you to understand what organizations and states can do to make people thrive in order to unleash the human potential.

The event is organized by the Open Strategy research project at Aalto and Oxford University.

Welcome!