Ways to listen better

When I work as graphic recorder, it happens more than once people come to me and say ‘Great work, oh, I wish I could draw like you…’  The essence of my work is not the drawing part…it’s the listening part.  Being fully focused, listening to what is said, synthesizing and structuring… are the key elements.

Want to be a better listener?  Check the 5 ways in this visual summary of this TED Talk. And know: practice, practice, practice!

I wish you could be happy 366 days in 2012.

Click on picture to download pfd.

Tatjana Gürbaca will be the new opera director at the Staats Theater Mainz for the 2011-2012 season. She stands for an inspired and contemporary approach to the repertoire, with a strong dramaturgic background.
In the Flemish Opera, home to this TEDx Flanders event, she was invited to direct a Tsjaikovski-trilogy with Mazeppa and Jevgeni Onegin. She was praised for this trilogy in the prestigious Jahrbuch (Yearbook) from the specialist journal Opernwelt. Today, she will direct us into the thriving world of what opera has become today : what is Opera in the 21st century?

And at TEDxFlanders the choir of the Vlaamse opera treated us to a rehearsal for their latest show. You will be amazed by their performance…

Don’t be rich, live rich!

Nomadz.nu is two thirty somethings’ experiment in lifestyle design to try and live like digital nomads, traveling while working remotely. During 2010, Catherine and Ine made a trip around the world, to 3 countries in particular, and set foot in several others. They did all this while working, questioning the current life templates they grew up with, believing in one meme: Don’t be rich, live rich!

Catherine and Ine teach you how to take clients and work projects with you on vacation, while meditating in a Thai Buddhist temple, savoring delicious wines in Argentina or driving a vintage car right next to the ocean in South Africa.

Do I want this badly enough?

Champion skydiver Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld is one of the most experienced competitors and coaches in the history of Formation Skydiving. He made his first skydive in 1980 and has made more than 15,000 career jumps to date.

He has been a role model for every competitor, no matter what their level. He motivates and encourages skydivers to build teams and experience the same excitement and challenges that he himself has been through. His book “Above all else” was published last month.

In 1992, Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld was in a plane crash that killed 16 of his fellow skydivers and left him in a coma for 6 weeks with life-threatening injuries. With his broken neck caged in a halo brace, he planned the most astounding comeback.
Dan is now a six-time World Champion and coaches teams around the world.

His story underlines the power of the human spirit and its ability to overcome seemingly impossible odds.

Mahatma Gaga, the art of followership

““It’s NOT about social media – it’s ALL about followership!”

In an insightful and entertaining talk on followership, Jamie identified three questions critical to generating a strong following: who am I, who are we and where are going.

Jamie Anderson is Professor of Strategic Management at Antwerp Management School. Recently named as a “management guru” by the Financial Times, he has also been included on a list of the world’s “top 25 management thinkers” by the journal Business Strategy Review.

Jamie’s research and teaching focuses on the interconnectedness between leadership, strategy and change, and he has advised a range of Fortune 500 firms on approaches to corporate renewal.



In his talk about ‘the Art of Followership’, Professor Jamie Anderson suggests that there can be no leaders without followers in any societal domain, and discuss the behaviors that inspire loyalty, commitment and unity of purpose amongst voters, customers and fans.
Central to his presentation will be a provocative comparison of the remarkably similar followership approaches pursued by Mahatma Gandhi, the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India, Steve Jobs of Apple, and the contemporary pop-singer icon Lady Gaga.

Small dreams, big ideas

Visual harvesting of Aagje Beirens’ talk at TEdxFlanders.

My Machine is an initiative for children of all ages who want to create their own ‘dream machine’. Primary schoolchildren invent a ‘machine’ (an IDEA) which is developed further by university college students (a DESIGN) to be finally built by pupils from technical secondary school (a MACHINE). Throughout the project, children and students can use the expertise and assistance of various companies and organisations to build the smartest (or craziest) machines.

Decolonize western minds

Growing up as a second generation Rwandese in Antwerp, Olivia Rutazibwa tried to convince herself that racism didn‘t exist here. But the more she had to explain to people that she not only ‘came from Antwerp’ but was in fact born here , the more she had to accept that it existed.

Too often we cannot see past the colour of other people’s skin. We all have preconceptions about non-Europeans. We think they are poorly educated, refugees or criminals. This is reinforced by our media and education.

Olivia tells us how to decolonize our minds… it’s day to day work!

Can pills change our morals?

Does your sense of fairness depend on what you ate for breakfast? Can Prozac influence your judgment of what is right or wrong? How can we encourage people to care about the welfare of others? Molly Crockett’s research addresses these questions. She believes that understanding the brain can enable us to design environments that promote cooperation instead of selfishness.

Why listen to her?
Molly Crocket tells us that our values change dependent on what we eat. Using blue cheese as a starting point, she continued the food motif but went on to explain how small changes in our chemical balance can have a real effect our values. While facts are still facts, a morality pill could make us more open to questioning our own values and could make negotiations on moral issues easier and more fruitful.

Molly’s research has taken her far from her native Southern California, where she studied psychology as an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles. Molly’s curiosity about brain chemistry led her to the University of Cambridge, where she completed her PhD in neuroscience as a Gates Scholar. Now she collaborates with economists at the University of Zürich and neuroscientists at University College London.

World peace and other fourth grade achievements

On the verge of enlightenment, John Hunter’s father told him that he needed to get something else too: a job. When he did succeed in getting hired as a teacher he asked what he was expected to do. The answer gave him the enlightenment he had been seeking: what do you want to do?

In one of the most inspiring talks at TEDxFlanders John explained a little about his World peace game. The multi-level game teaches kids how to solve all the world’s problems and be a better person at the same time. Not bad for fourth graders. He gives examples of the girl who took it on herself to start a war to avoid a bigger one and slow-talking Pablo, who became a leader over the course of the game.

Saturday 24 Sept…a fabulous event took place… TEDxFlanders.I was invited for visual harvesting aka graphic recording.Over the next days I will post the ‘harvest’ of the wonderfull talks, which will be uploaded to YouTube soon.

Civilization needs a new operating system, and fast!
Bernard proposes new and alternative ways of thinking about money and economy.

Watch the interesting talk…

Dos Winkel discovered a passion for diving off the coast of Aruba many years ago. He has returned many times to lose himself in those beautiful waters. However, over the years, he began to notice things were changing. Where were the big fish? Where were the sharks? Was the paradise he had discovered all those years being slowly lost to over-fishing and pollution?

He discovered that half of the fish we catch are thrown back, dead. He discovered that we are eating fish with levels of PCBs well above the European norms. He discovered we are killing the oceans.

Dos wants us to save the oceans by leaving the fish in them. They produce calcium carbonate which takes up carbon dioxide, reducing the acidification of the ocean. But he doen’t just want us eat less fish, he also wants us to eat less meat, as meat production accounts for 20% of greenhouse gases. Looks like we all need to become vegetarians.

(text from TEDxflanders blog) 

The Shibumi Strategy

Visual summary of Matthew E. May’s interesting book .

And why won’t you try to use a Daruma Wish doll.

I’ve one in my office… looking at me with one eye…till the goal is accomplished.

Another way to look at my work…

Visual Harvesting enables groups of people to work together in highly effective, collaborative and satisfying ways.  Visual Harvesting is real-time visualization created from the content generated by the group. It integrates both sides of the brain and supports group processes. Capturing the content in real time pictures gets the group excited. Everyone contributes, which builds ownership.

Visual Summary of TED Talk ”We are the stories we tell ourselves”

The 25th of August I will organise a day around storytelling.  This TED Talk is a nice warm up.

What stories are we telling? About ourselves? About our organisation? And most of all: ‘If we don’t tell stories, we go mad!”

Mark McGuinness, a writer and coach running Lateral Action to just launched Money for Creative People,  a new course for creative artists, freelancers and entrepreneurs, teaching the mindset and money skills that will help succeed commercially as well as creatively.

The lauch started with  a 75-minute audio recording full of practical advice to help artists achieve their creative and commercial ambitions, by showing  how to avoid the typical ‘money mistakes’ made by creatives – and what to do instead.

I made a visual summary of this talk, so  you find all the nuggets of wisdom on one page.