Digital and Societal Transformation ideas-expertise-proces

New normal  Hallo beste kleinkinderen, In het midden van de Corona COVID19  crisis op 6 mei 2020 heb ik mijn 20 jarig huwelijk gefeest van 1 uur  gebruikmakend van het dan populaire video-ZOOM platform  Ik ging met mijn vrouw langs in virtuele tafels  om iedereen te begroeten.  Het leek allemaal nog leuk en iedereen beloofde dat er na Corona periode veel  champagne zou vloeien. Tijd om even stil te staan wat er sinds die ZOOM sessie, 20 jaar geleden  gebeurd is.  De eerste Covid  patienten opname curve was aan het afzwakken en iedereen sprak over het ‘nieuwe normaal’ met een jeugdig  enthousiasme om de draad van het leven weer op te pikken zoals ervoor, zonder fysische afstanden. In juni 2020 bleek het Corona virus niet echt verdwenen te zijn , en de vroegere  eengemaakte Schengen  reiszone werd een lappendeken van veilige en niet veilige zones; toegang tot die zones was enkel  mogelijk via gemilitarise...

What the post apartheid reconciliation in South Africa learns us for the new normal in post-covid period. Happy Freedom day! On the 27th of April 1994 the first general democratic elections in South Africa paved way for a definitive closing of the Apartheid period.  The transition from an Apartheid regime to a democracy with general elections lasted 5 years ( from the liberation of Nelson Mandela in February 1989 till the elections on 27th of April) Systemic design analysis I have learned  the systemic design toolkit ( https://www.systemicdesigntoolkit.org/ ) invented by Belgian company Namahn, as a holistic structure to trace back these 5 years, and the decisive elements that have paved the way to a democracy.  This route was full of personal 1-1 leader talks, personalities , alignments,  internal battling, mournings, forgiveness, reconciliations,  violence and individual sorrow.  It was an interesting exercise to try to map these five years...

Happy to share the first co-created outcome of the TOKVIL community looking at positive and negative impacts of government covid-19 related actions on the SDGs #sdg2030 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lB6RxPSwgLS3sPAY6sKdZx1onPbGh9YH/view?usp=sharing

Frederik Laloux, Reinventing Organizations: An Illustrated Invitation to Join the Conversation on Next-Stage Organizations  explains the freed enterprise; a model for moving into the 21St century in your company structure ad freeing the potential Kate Raworth in Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist   basically wrote the exact blueprint of a new economy that is based on the needs of the planet and humans first. It explains the errors in the economic models. Jeremy Rifkin in Zero Marginal Cost Society is looking at the new cooperation model of commons and zero marginal cost to build something Naomi Klein, Author of the theory of shocks, her 2018 book No is not enough inspires us to build a new narrative.

Announcing an exceptional keynote speaker, David Stulík for the next TOKVIL online meetup on public policy innovation. Register on meetup to get the online details https://www.meetup.com/tokvil/events/269812148/ Content: - How are you doing? How do you move public service and policy to the 'new' normal - Keynote "the Czech approach" , by David Stulík, Senior Analyst of the European Values Center for Security Policy, Prague (*) - UN SDG frame SDG 3 and SDG 4 co-creative session about best and worst examples we have seen/heard about a public service response to COVID 19 Fast forward discussion on fast-track digital transformation, best practices in providing inclusive service for all, making democratic decisions online etc, co-creating with civil organisations,... Technical: We are use the video system in open source JITSI; try it beforehand, it is working on smartphone and on Google chrome (with plugin) * David Stu...

Suddenly your habits of meeting people, citizens, teams has to move online.  Are you prepared for it? Of course there are the first hurdles to take that are more of a technical issue: choose an online program, get everyone on board and the hardware to support it. Than there is the management of the online experience of the technical tools and how to have a real meeting experience that goes beyond the screen. There enters the superpower of your meeting facilitator: a person dedicated to organise the content of your meeting, to work on the dynamics, keep the time etc and the good spirit. The role of the (human) moderator in online meetings is a crucial element to activate collective intelligence. Some of my recent experiences acknowledge this, and also I learned that: - preparation is crucial x2; - find some 'coffee-break' moments in the online meeting to relax; - time the online meeting down to max 2 x 25 minute chunks, because after that it becomes very tiresome; - be g...

I have been giving several workshops over the past months on the SDG sustainable development goals and the picture of the priority in circles of the SDGS have come back to me several times. Legend: The largest circle are the planetary boundaries; within these boundaries, the second circle of people needs, and within that boundary the economic human activity.   The last area of human activity is dependent on the viability of the two previous circles. People needs With the Corona virus the second circle with SDG 3 health focus is claiming its importance and put under stress.  The underinvestment in healthcare facilities is painfully shown. The human (economic) activity circle (SDG 7, 8, 8, 11) is shrinking at a rapid stage, due to measures to reduce the   speed of spreading of the Corona Virus like quarantine:  reduced industry, reduced transport, stockmarkets plunging, restaurants and bars closed,... One could easily see now the interlinked effe...

With all the Corona stuff going on and people becoming crazy and confined; why not think about walking in the nature? The walking paths are not crowded, you will keep enough distance with the other walkers, if any, and you will improve your immunity system. Being connected to nature is the best cure of all times. Do you want some ideas?  Check out here for Flemish area in Belgium https://wandelen.groteroutepaden.be/nl/wandelroutes/dagstappers These routes can by the way be integrated into your favourite app.

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...