We finished the documentary “Met Vallen en Opstaan” (by Trial and Error), a videoportrait of the employees at work in a so-called “Long-Care”. In this Long-Care they take care for two types of clients: 12 clients with a criminal justice order of enforced care by the state (in Dutch: Ter Beschikking Stelling, TBS) and 12 clients with a civil sentence (in Dutch: Rechtelijke Machtiging, RM). Themes: what is the treatment and what is the balance between security and treatment?
It’s a good tradition to stay with our friends in the South of Spain around New Year’s Day to rest, to read a book, to walk in the mountains, to work in the gardens and to talk about life. We enjoyed the (very early) blossom of the almond trees.
In December Walter Link and I interviewed in Brazil a lot of leaders of Companies, NGO’s and the Government. The trip around the leaders in Sao Paolo, Ribeiro Preto and Brasilia was organized by our co-producer Christina Carvalho Pinto (Presidente do Grupo Full Jazz). We had good dialogues with the environmentalist and politician Marina Silva, Guilherme Leal ( co-chairman of the Board of Directors of Natura), Gleisi Hoffmann (Chief of Staff of the Cabinet of Brazil), Leontino Balbo (Executive Vice President of Native), Fabio Barbosa (CEO ABRIL, former CEO Banco Santander), Helio Mattar (President of Akatu Institute) and Marise Barroso (President of Mexichem Brazil). Next months we are going to edit the dialogues for our TV series The Heart of Global Leadership, to be continued in 2012…
In November I was two weeks via PUM at the Media Training Center (MTC) of Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ), already 25 years a leader among non governmental organizations in Nepal. My main task was to be the trainer of a Documentary Film Making Training. The 12 participants came from different organizations and companies in Kathmandu. The slogan of the project was: Dare to dream…..begin with your story.
Sahaj Man Shresta, co-ordinator of MTC, also organized a workshop with 25 journalists and managers of the TV Channel Himalaya TV and a meeting with 20 creatives and managers of ECLIPS, an animation company and training centre for creating and producing animations. I visited also companies of the participants involved in the training to speak about further development of their projects in an international context. All together an enormous energetic creative experience, to be continued in 2012…..
I just came home from San Francisco where Walter Link and I had two intensive dialogues with Isabel Allende for one of the episodes of our television series The Heart of Global Leadership. More interviews in dialogue format will be held in December this year in Brazil. The TV series will be shown throughout 2012 in Brazil. To give you an impression of the topics we made a short summary with excerpts from the dialogues with Isabel Allende, Peter Senge, Nancy and John Kotter, Peter Blom, Doris and John Naisbitt and Marshall Ganz.
One of the speakers of Health 3.0 on September 15th at TNO Zeist was Machteld Huber from the Louis Bolk Institute. She is one of the international health experts who work towards a new definition of Health, just published in BMJ (originally called the British Medical Journal), 30 july 2011. The current WHO definition of Health, formulated in 1948: “A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. This WHO definition of health as complete wellbeing is no longer fit for purpose given the rise of chronic disease. Machteld Huber and colleagues propose changing the emphasis towards “ the ability to adapt and to self manage” in the face of social, physical and emotional challenges. It is easier said than done to develop a new definition, as they wrote in BMJ: “redefining health is an ambitious and complex goal; many aspects need to be considered, many stakeholders consulted, and many cultures reflected, and it must also take into account future scientific and technological advances.” Success!!! See also our new Health website: www.healthinnovationlab.com.
This Summer we travelled through Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. We met beautiful nice and friendly people and enjoyed Nature and Culture. We saw so many things, too many to mention, but I’ll choose two highlights. First the travel with the Public Boat down the Mekong River from Chiang Kong border to Luang Prabang in Laos, a beautiful World Heritage Site. Secondly, the enormous area of Khmer Temples of Angkor in Cambodia. We took a bike to visit a lot of them. Among others I liked very much Ta Prohm (late 12th to 13th centuries), were strangler figs and silk-cotton trees entwined among the ruins. A perfect combination of Nature and Culture.
With my colleagues Walter Link and Hein Dijksterhuis we were four days in Bierghes in Belgium in almost the last part of the Visionary Leadership Program (VLP) with 9 key persons of a bank. Theme of these days: Vision and Transformation. Special guest was Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgium prime minister and president of ALDE.
ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) is one of the 7 political groups in the European Parliament. Guy gave us insight into the political realities to implement a vision. He spoke amongst other things about “the future of the world is multicultural”, the wave of changing society and the role of Europe in the world. He finished his inspiring visit with the words “Optimism is a moral duty”.
We organized an “Away Day” with 18 employees of a public library in “Het Glazen Huis” (glasshouse), a perfect centre in a beautiful rural setting. ( www.glazenhuis.nl ) Motto: feedback on our communication. We became aware that we are all the time sending messages to others both consciously and unconsciously, verbally and nonverbally. Sam Verwaijen, manager and horse whisperer, learned us by experience that feedback on our communication is astonishingly effective when working with horses. It was another step in building a strong team needed for a completely new public library on a new location.
Arthur Zajonc was our special guest at the third workshop of Health 3.0. He led a ‘contemplative inquiry’ to deepen our understanding what our group can become.
Afterwards I asked him to give a short summary and to speak about his own first personal awakening. Arthur Zajonc is professor of physics at Amherst College, Massachusetts, USA and Director, Academic Program, Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.
Out of his work and his long-standing meditative practice Arthur Zajonc has authored “Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry: When Knowing Becomes Love”, translated in Dutch in 2010: “Meditatie”.
Health 3.0 is an initiative by Jan van der Greef (TNO) and Hein Dijksterhuis (UNOO) to unite frontrunners in the Health Sector and facilitate multi-stakeholder innovation across the Health care system. To quote them: “Theory U identifies 4 levels of change:
