Friday 23 January 2026 | Conference with George Kohlrieser: Leading with Empathy in Times of Crisis | International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, Geneva | Exceptional Event

Visual created based on a portrait of George Kohlrieser, photo credit: Olivier Vogelsang / HR Today

CoCreate Humanity is honored to welcome George Kohlrieser to launch its 2026 Conference Series.

In December 2024, Hélène Ros, President of CoCreate Humanity, had the privilege of meeting George Kohlrieser on the IMD campus. During their exchange, Hélène presented the association’s initiative to provide professional peer support to humanitarian workers in distress.

Touched by the mission, George generously offered her a place in one of the world’s most prestigious leadership programs: the High Performance Leadership (HPL) program. George's offer was a gesture of support for Hélène in her leadership role within a volunteer-based team. She attended the HPL program in March 2025, an experience that profoundly transformed her life and vision.

George’s words continue to guide Hélène in her efforts to lead the CCH team.

She holds a powerful dream: that George’s message will inspire leaders throughout the humanitarian sector. She hopes this January conference will be the beginning of many meaningful co-creations—driving real change in mindset and organizational culture to better support the mental health of our suffering humanitarian colleagues.

LEADING WITH EMPATHY IN TIMES OF CRISIS

Presented by George Kohlrieser,

Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour, IMD

Event organized by CoCreate Humanity with the kind support of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum. A huge thank you to Pascal Hufschmid (Executive Director), Rama Putera, Carolyn Polhill, Pierre-Antoine Possa, Alice Baronnet and Café Hinivuu's staff.

In a world increasingly defined by uncertainty, conflict, and trauma, humanitarian leaders face not only logistical and operational pressure—but a deeply human one: how to lead with heart, even when hearts are breaking.

"Leading with Empathy in Times of Crisis" is a transformational session that will explore how leaders in the humanitarian sector can foster strength, clarity, and connection in the most demanding contexts. Drawing on decades of research in conflict negotiation, leadership psychology, and high-stress performance, Dr. George Kohlrieser—renowned hostage negotiator, organizational psychologist, and IMD professor—offers a framework for resilient and empathetic leadership grounded in secure base theory.

This conference will directly address the psychological burdens humanitarian leaders carry, including:

• The emotional and mental toll of prolonged exposure to trauma

• Navigating burnout, moral injury, and decision fatigue

• Creating secure bases for teams in fragile contexts

• Courageous conversations: leading through loss and ambiguity

• Reconnecting to purpose without bypassing pain

Participants will learn:

• How empathy, when rooted in strength—not sentimentality—becomes a tool for resilience

• Practical strategies for sustaining presence and clarity under pressure

• Ways to foster cultures of psychological safety and mutual care in humanitarian teams

• How to turn personal adversity into growth, even in the darkest moments

Through real-life stories of frontline leadership, hostage negotiations, and organizational transformation, Dr. Kohlrieser will demonstrate how even in the face of chaos, human connection is the strongest leadership tool we have.

WHY THIS MATTERS NOW

In 2024, humanitarian work has reached a dangerous tipping point: record levels of violence, diminished funding, and rising psychological strain on staff. As CoCreate Humanity’s mission highlights, healing must come from within the community—through peer support, shared experience, and empathetic leadership.

George Kohlrieser’s message aligns deeply with this ethos. His core belief—that we are wired for bonding, not isolation—is the foundation of this call to action: to lead with empathy not as a luxury, but as a necessity.

INTENDED AUDIENCE

• Leaders and team coordinators in humanitarian aid and development

• Field staff and peer supporters navigating high-stress environments

• HR and mental health professionals working in the humanitarian field

• Anyone seeking to balance performance with humanity during crisis

  
  

FORMAT

• 60–90 minute keynote

• Optional: post-conference Q&A or peer-dialogue circles facilitated by CCH team

• Bar & catering at Café Hinivuu after the conference

  
  

WHO IS OUR SPEAKER?

George Kohlrieser is Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior. He is an organizational and clinical psychologist, hostage negotiator, award-winning author, consultant, conference speaker, and media commentator. His research, teaching, and consulting activities focus on high-performance leadership, high-performance teamwork, conflict management, change management, dialogue and negotiation, coaching, stress management, work-life balance, and personal and professional development.

In his work, he draws on various scientific disciplines such as attachment theory, brain science, cognitive science, social neuroscience, and performance studies. He is best known for his use of the hostage metaphor as applied to leadership development and his secure base leadership concept and its impact on high performance.

A hallmark of high-performance leaders is the ability to influence others through all levels and types of communication. High-performing leaders are able to unite diverse team members by building common goals, and even shared emotions, by engaging in powerful and effective dialogue.

Kohlrieser completed his doctorate at Ohio State University, where he wrote his dissertation on cardiovascular recovery of law enforcement leaders following high-stress situations. His research has made significant contributions to understanding the role of self-mastery and social dialogue in helping leaders sustain high performance.

After becoming a licensed psychologist, he worked with the police department of Dayton, Ohio to reduce homicides in domestic violence situations, and was held hostage himself four times during this period. He then started to teach hostage negotiation techniques at the Dayton Police Academy and worked at a psychiatric hospital, teaching mental health professionals how to work with chronic schizophrenics. These roles early in his career led him to his deep conviction in the power of emotional bonding and what it can accomplish. He has since worked with the police, the military, and humanitarian organizations in hotspots such as Israel, the Palestinian territories, and Croatia, as well as with police departments and police academies around the world. He has taught crisis management and hostage negotiation to the FBI, the Los Angeles Police and Sheriff’s Departments, the Senior Command Academy in France, and the Dutch and German Police Academies.

Kohlrieser now uses this experience in the world of executive education and corporate leadership training, focusing on how to resolve conflicts through dialogue and communicate with stakeholders, politicians, investors, community members, and protestors – particularly when these people are adversarial, aggressive, or emotional.

He believes that high-performing leaders need to be able to use hostage negotiation techniques in any personal or business relationship to ensure they are never a hostage to anyone, unleash potential by turning losses into sources of inspiration, and influence others through words, dialogue, and negotiation.

At IMD, Kohlrieser is the Founder and Director of the flagship High Performance Leadership (HPL) program, an intense six-day IMD program for experienced senior leaders, and the Advanced High Performance Leadership (AHPL) program for former HPL participants. He also directs the Inspirational Leadership online program, which was awarded a Gold Medal for the best advance in unique learning technology by research firm Brandon Hall. Furthermore, Kohlrieser co-directs the Leading Under Pressure three-day IMD program aimed at preventing human error and unlocking leadership resilience.

He works with a wide range of organizations on high performance leadership and teamwork, conflict and change management, dialogue, negotiations, and stress management, and has advised Accenture, Amer Sports, Borealis, Cisco, Coca-Cola, HP, Hitachi, IBM, IFC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Mondelez, Morgan Stanley, Motorola, NASA, Navis, Nestlé, Nokia, Pictet, Rio Tinto, Roche, Santander, Swarovski, Sara Lee, Tetra Pak, Toyota, UBS, and many others.

Kohlrieser has won numerous personal and program awards during his career, and his 2006 best-selling book Hostage at the Table: How Leaders Can Overcome Conflict, Influence Others, and Raise Performance was named Best Business Book of the year by French business leaders association Dirigeants Commerciaux de France and Best Management Book of the year by German business bookseller Managementbuch.de. His second book, Care to Dare: Unleashing Astonishing Potential through Secure Base Leadership, was listed among Soundview’s best business books of the year in 2013.

He frequently speaks at management and professional conferences around the world including the World Business Forum, the World Economic Forum, and the United Nations. He has been a speaker at TEDx talks in both New York and Lausanne, and he appears regularly on global business content hub WOBI, where he recently delivered a two-day masterclass on the psychology of negotiation.

A notable media commentator on issues related to leadership, conflict, aggression management, and hostage negotiation, he also had his own highly acclaimed radio call-in talk show in the US for over 10 years and has appeared on the BBC, CNN, ABC and CBS. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, the Financial Times, Forbes and other leading newspapers and magazines.

He is also Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and was recently named Honorary Professor at Amity University Uttar Pradesh in India. He has held adjunct faculty member positions at Union Graduate School in Antioch, Ohio, the Fielding Institute in San Francisco, and Zagreb University in Croatia, and is past president of the International Transactional Analysis Association and a former advisory board member of the NeuroLeadership Institute. He is a member of the Society of International Business Fellows (SIBF).

REGISTRATION & VENUE

• Only 90 seats available: please register at info@cocreatehumanity.org

• Donation based-entry: QR code available in the conference room

• Donation based-entry: donation by Twint or bank transfer

Bank details

​Account name :  CoCreate Humanity, Geneva

IBAN : CH29 0900 0000 1525 2475 2

BIC | SWIFT : POFICHBEXXX

PostFinance Ltd | Mingerstrasse 203030 BernSwitzerland | Suisse

TWINT (Switzerland only)

Via phone number : 079 369 30 60

Or via QR code below (transaction fees apply)

Musée International de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge / International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum

Avenue de la Paix 17, 1202 Geneva - Switzerland.

Salle Henry Dunant / Conference room Henry Dunant.

From Geneva Cornavin train station

Buses 8, 20, 60 / Stop: Genève, Appia

Tram 15 toward Genève, Nations + 8-10 min walk

GEORGE KOHLRIESER - BOOKS

George Kohlrieser – an international leadership professor, consultant, and veteran hostage negotiator – explains that it is only by openly facing conflict that we can truly progress through the most difficult business challenges.

In this provocative book, he reveals how the proven techniques and psychological insights used in hostage negotiation can be applied successfully to any personal or business relationship.

Step by step, he outlines the seven key factors that anyone can use to remove the blocks that stand in the way of resolving tough problems and shows how business leaders, in particular, can develop and access the skills they need to create trust and a positive mind–set in their companies. Source : IMD

Have you ever been led by someone who cared for you like family, and dared you to achieve more than you ever thought possible for yourself, your organization, and even society?

Award-winning author of Hostage at the Table, George Kohlrieser, along with his co-authors Susan Goldsworthy and Duncan Coombe, explain how becoming a secure base leader releases extraordinary potential in others. Care to Dare shows you how to become a Secure Base Leader so that you release your followers from the fears that get in the way of their performance. It shows you how you can unleash astonishing potential by building the trust, delivering the change, and inspiring the focus that underpins sustainable high performance.

Care to Dare will take you on a journey where you will discover your own secure bases, past and present, and determine how you can be a secure base for other people in your life at work and at home. Source: IMD