Digital and Societal Transformation ideas-expertise-proces

To take back the sentence from the most famous Belgian, Jean-Claude Van Damme: are u aware ? The first step towards moving to a resilient and sustainable business is actually to take a step back, and understand the global picture and the fast changing environmental, social and market conditions. The SDGS, 19 sustainable development goals, are a recognised framework that can guide to understand this global picture from a holistic and interlinked point of view.  Without important awareness raising across the company, not business plan with real societal impact is deemed possible.  Associated offering: - understanding the SDGs: 90 minute group workshop (ideal  max 20 people) providing a general awareness - aimed for: associations, cross-company, and company level - understanding the SDGs - trainthetrainer: half a day knowledge transfer to a team at company level who can provide the training in-house so that awareness is raised on SDGs - aimed for: company su...

The French Government launched in 2017 a call to create public innovation labs.  After 18  months an an analysis has been performed of the activities and progress of these, report   that can be found in French  here . . What are the most important lessons to be learned from that? The public innovation labs can have different approaches, either internal or external - internal: assessment of the realisations and processes in the public domain - external:   emergence of innovation in the content area The type of actions to be found in a lab are two-fold: - either it is completely integrated, meaning that the lab will follow the complete project   from its start phase till the experimentation of the solution chosen - or it is in 'facilitator' modus, meaning that the lab will intervene at certain key steps in the   project in order to boos/accelerate these. Type of realisations can be - called 'chantier' these are concrete and structured projects that req...

I started the year with a lot of resolutions, and also SDG awareness workshops. The first one took place at the supermarket Beescoop in Schaerbeek. Although only three participants showed up out of 10 foreseen  the motivation and drive more than compensated the limited number.   Walking popped up like a common way of moving both in the street and for leisure; the reason that this is the transport mode with the least external negative impact, and it also reconnects with nature. Also, very quickly the individual commitments seemed to bounce on a systemic limit, as for example in co-housing, one does not have the power to installe solar panels. This week a larger group of 20 came to the session organised at Transforma in Brussels.  The focus here was extended to learning in " 5 steps to include SDGs in your company" and I also presented some examples.  It is clear that sustainability is higher on the agenda of some companies, and that these have under...

Already for 2020 years, the three kings coming from the East are said to have found Jezus in Bethlehem.  This event is celebrated in Belgium every 6th of January. So these three kings brought presents.  Here are the three immaterial presents that I would like to wish to you for 2020: 1. Resilience: be in the mood factor to learn and unlearn, to adapt to the unknowns in 2020, more easy said than done of course as humans like traditions 2. Gardener: have the attitude of a gardener when working on a project: prepare a lot, be patient, involve different stakeholders and find combinations for a healthy ecosystem; be thankful ; also easier said than done when you have to weed out freeriders for example 3. Questions: do not hesitate to bring kind questions in the conversation, one that can help other question and grow out of the status quo Probably in 2020 the stars will be replaced by the UN sustainable development goals as a vision/mission to work to and go there with action...

As usual the agency FJORD has made a nice report with a nice mix of societal and technology evolutions. With an eye on  #civictech and #sustainability evolutions, I was really struck by the first chapter of the trend report 'many faces of growth'. The authors have been able to explain the current dynamics related to climate change etc. They warn that companies shouldn't look at climate change and revolutions as a gimmic, but that it is really important to start from zero to work at business models no longer based on the every financial figures of growth, but to start from the UN sustainable development goals and include the large cost of externalities in the product price. Yeah! I really like that this is put in black and white.  And it is not just some CSR bullshit of companies that should attract them to align with the UN SDGs, it is the essence of their own businesses: beyond the 'shareholder' not looking at the bigger picture of society (environmental ...

And, any resolutions for 2020?   Did you write less unproductive meetings in your top 10?   Probably not, but know that you will spend about 35% of your working time and over 50% if you are in upper management level. Over the years I did spend a lot of times in meetings, and actually tried to make the best out of it, and that is making the meeting report as concise and actionable as possible. If you want your work and in between meeting to be more productive, try the meeting canvas below, that I produced especially for you.   Just before Christmas I released the French version that was a great success, so I moved on to Feel free to adapt in CC commons license: French version:  English version:   The specifics of the canvas: One document for preparing the agenda/ taking minutes / follow-up in between the meetings Clear assignment of specific roles in the meeting Clear indication of what is expected about each point A kind o...

Intro - doughnut economics Kate Raworth wrote the book ‘ doughnut economics ’ already 2 years ago. The book has been one of the best selling economist book in recent history. Kate brings together a lot of information and opposes her views on the prevalent economic models that are still explained in business schools and that in her opinion create havoc and are too narrowly defined. Human activity, she states, has only a limited band-with of possibilities, as it bounces fast on the external boundary that are the limits of our planet and biosphere; the internal limit is about the social justice and the human dignity that has to be raised at a minimal level. Kate brings different disciplines together : systemic views, sociology,… She also dives into psychology, and that’s the field of my blog of today. Because it seems that we humans have been programmed in our evolution in a certain way to make quick decisions related to fight or fight for example in survival. A lot of these ...

I had the pleasure to participate in the elaboration and actual facilitation of the second 5G conference organised by the Luxemburg Government.  It was a nice collaboration with the Artsquare Lab team in Luxemburg. Expertise on digital transformation topics helped me to gather top insights in very diverse fields and to line up interesting speakers that looked at societal and technical challenges. Factilitation enabled to: - bring together citizens, technicians and business people to look at important societal challenges related to mobility, e-health, smart city and entertainment.  In 50 minutes teams were gathered who worked on the challenge based on preset personas, factsheets, and finished with an elaborated proposal that was using storyboarding techniques. During the two days an important group of facilitators was working in a collaborative spirit. And the Luxembourg government, the client was happy.

On 14th of November, I headed towards Paris for my first attendance of the govtech summit .  At this packed event the state of play of govtech was celebrated with startups and government representatives. Daniel Korski and the whole team of public.io are the organizers of this year y Govtech summit. There are 4 parts of the event: a meeting zone A break out zone A small exhibition area A plenary auditorium Privilege in the format on panels or fireside chats:   So the role of the moderator I the panel was really important to provide relevant interactions.   This to avoid powering it is I understand. focus on the startups that will get a grip on the govtech market ;   it was a lot one way seeing the startups going into the govtech battlefield, without really understanding the needs and specifics of a public administration.   The answer to silos was just to push entrepreneurial spirit into an administration.   At a certain point I thoug...

I was in Paris mid-November for the Govtech summit.  On my way to the event at the former stock market I could not resist to spot the mobility sharing initiatives in Paris. My first impressions were: - bike lane infrastructure: amazing progress of separate bike lane infrastructure.  If the Paris mayor aims to have 50% bikes versus 50% cars in a few years, this is a real good start. - a very diverse set of mobility equipment on the street: scooters, electric skate boards etc... - second generation experience: station based bikes from the second generation after Decaux lost the market; Boloré electric cars gone, but charging stations of Boloré kept and the space made public for all kind of sharing cars. Cars: Let's start with the overview Autolib chargers have been put back in place by Paris, after the contract with Autolib was stopped for the cars. On the location of autolib, you see other organisation with free floating cars:  ADA , Free2MOVE,  ...

So the Brussels Government has agreed on a clear energy and climate plan, congratz! What about bikes? The paragraphs to be found about bikes  relate explain the following and are related to the 'good network' part of the goodmove.brussels strategy: Building out a network of privileged bike networks to increase the city mobility.  These routes need to follow 5 quality criteria: - consistent  - fast (direct link) - secure - pleasant and comfortable By 2025 the regional bike networks or GFR will be rebranded to the comfortable bike network and will be implemented 100%. The velo-plus network (R21, avenue louise, channel crossing, Ring,...) will need to be finished 50% in 2025 and 100% in 2030. Analysis: - there is a talk of rebranding the existing GFR network - bike routes and bike signage do not seem to be separated in terms of approach - 'good service' talks about services that can be developed for bikers: secure bike places, also for cargo bikes It ...

Mauer park Berlin 2019 I was this w.e. in Berlin. for a rowing sightseeing tour, that went all the way from the Western part near Potsdam till the East and back. Before that a little stroll through Berlin and a must visit to the Mauer Park with creativity in action Ruderclub am Wannsee e.v. Berlin About 80 kilometers rowing in one w.e., a good exercise! The local rowing club had an agreement with the company Bayer as an employee benefit; hence the names of the rowing boat ASPIRIN :) I arrived on Friday and spotted some of the mobility sharing  equipment on the streets of Berlin.  It is interesting to see that compared to Brussels, it seems that there are some serious local players that have a pretty good market share, and that they did not have to stop. Cars Not on the picture: Drive Now with the cars, and 5 other providers of car sharing facilities. Parking in Berlin: I was not by car, but still was amazed by the number of mobile apps that provide a...

Today the CITIP center in Leuven celebrates irs 30rd anniversary.  As a former researcher I was asked to contribute to the lustrum book published. So I sat down this summer in the CITIP offices to write down an inspirational essay, based on my own frustration as advisor in the Brussels Government and based on the links between  technology and law. Here is my contribution also to be found in the lustrum book published.  Enjoy Do we need machine readable laws? I magine we would get rid of the foundation of the Napoleon Code and move to a 21 st century Code, where speed limit legislation could look like this: c lass: kilometers per hour (Variable): value_type = int default_value = 0 entity = car label = “The speed of the car” The state of digital transformation: a pile of legislation The state of digital transformation of the legislative process: ground zero What happens when legislation needs to be implemented? When AI ‘does’ the job Legislation machine re...