Hoewel ik nog altijd evenveel boeken lees – nog meer zelfs dan vroeger – schrijf ik er hier minder over. Ik deel tegenwoordig mijn inzichten over de titel in kwestie via Goodreads aan de hand van een of twee korte paragrafen. Maar voor dit boek moest ik toch weer naar mijn blog grijpen.

In 2010 publiceerde ik mijn eerste boek ‘Alles is een Verhaal. Ik denk er al een tijdje over na om een nieuw boek te schrijven. Op advies van Filip moet het een echt boek worden en geen plakwerk. Management en people management in het bijzonder zijn mijn stokpaardjes en heb daar ook wel iets over te vertellen. Dus schets ik daar af en toe wel eens een structuur over, en wat eerste ideeën.

Ik heb Marc Buelens altijd graag gelezen, zowel zijn columns als zijn boeken. Hij hanteert een vlotte pen, is een zeer belezen man en legt het net zo goed uit in de klas. Herinner me nog vaag dat ik op VRT van hem een gastcollege kreeg in een mini-MBA.

Dit boek zal me goed van pas komen. Buelens geeft tal van tips hoe je het als auteur van een non-fictie boek moet aanpakken, maar het belangrijkste is wel zijn advies om te schrijven binnen de ‘gouden driehoek’.

De groten en kleine keuzes vat ik samen in een driehoek met als hoekpunten: de lezen, de inhoud en jij, de auteur. (…) Schrijf uit liefde voor je lezers en voor je vak en houd ook voldoende van jezelf. Jij bent en blijft de auteur-deskundige.

In veertien hoofdstukken, ruim 270 pagina’s, verduidelijkt Buelens de drie hoekpunten : de auteur als aanwezige verteller, lezersgericht schrijven, verhalend schrijven, structuur als ruggengraat, helderheid, …

Een aanrader !

Categorieën:books, management, stories

getagged:marc buelens, slimme non-fictie schrijven, storytelling, verhalen

gie zie m’n zeekapiting

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op augustus 14, 2021

Als ik de overgang van mijn onbezonnen jeugd naar mijn junior professionele carrière zou moeten vatten in een cluster aan woorden, dan zou dit er vast als volgt uitzien : Gistel – Oostende – Brugge – Gent – Brussel, VRT, Radio 2 West-Vlaanderen, Golfbreker, Andromeda hotel, Thermae Palace hotel, de kusttram, visrecepten, Mark Lefever, Jessie De Caluwe, Ingrid Jacxsens, …. Een doordeweeks algoritme zou niet veel meer nodig hebben om daar ook Lucy Loes aan toe te voegen.

Lucy was een charme zangeres uit Oostende, alwaar ze zowaar een diva was. The local Beyonce ! Als redacteur bij Radio 2 Golfbreker heb ik ze een paar keer ontmoet en wellicht ook geïnterviewd. Ik zou mijn vrienden bij de VRT moeten vragen om het archief erop na te pluizen. Ik doe bijwijlen een poging om haar liedjes nog wat te zingen, teneinde mijn Oostends, al ben ik dan van naburig Gistel, toch nog wat te onderhouden. Ik heb mijn persoonlijke zeekapiting Filip intussen zover gekregen dat hij een paar lijntjes kan meezingen.

Ze mag dan misschien niet zoveel hits als Beyonce hebben, maar ze staat op Spotify. Voor wie dit levenslied vol wijsheid wil beluisteren : https://open.spotify.com/track/07eieofrSEgMRutmubAPkQ?si=8b42cca292894742

Huisleraar Jozef Simons met twee van zijn leerlingen. Raymond (links) en Joseph (rechts) de Brouckhoven de Bergeyck. By Kasteel de Lovie, Poperinge.

Deze zomer hadden Filip en ik het voorrecht om het Kunstenfestival Watou 2021 te bezoeken met Chantal Pattyn, als één van de curatoren als onze gids. Samen met Peter Verhelst, heeft Chantal een fantastische selectie gemaakt. En ze waren zo slim om een aantal nieuwe locaties toe te voegen. Zoals het Domein De Lovie, in Poperinge dat een paar honderd kinderen, jongeren en volwassenen met een verstandelijk handicap in de ruime Westhoek opvangt. Het was een gesloten domein, maar zoals de communicatieverantwoordelijke ons uitlegde, de nieuwe directeur wilde het openen. Kunst vond daar terecht zijn plaats. En het was superfijn om af en toe een van de bewoners van het domein te hebben, die het discours van Chantal aanvulden.

Het domein herbergt nu ook een zomerbar, dus moesten Filip en ik daar nog een picon-vin-blanc drinken, vooraleer de aftocht naar Brussel in te gaan. De bar verkocht ook wat postcards. Ik was meteen verkocht voor deze met m’n heldin Lucy Loes. Ze moest het weten, haar liedjestekst op een postcard, en ik die erover blog …

Categorieën:Uncategorized

getagged:2021, lucy loes, watou

a team building recipe

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op juni 20, 2021

I stopped reading management books some time ago. Sure, I still read summaries, pick up the occasional book, and I am a big fan of the Harvard Business Reviews publications and their archives. Tip : they have an excellent subscription model for only 14 euro per month.

Over time, management books have been replaced by gut feeling. The tipping point must have been when I turned 40 and when I was three years in the job of managing Eén, VRT’s very succesfull television channel. By then I was confident enough to enter a meeting unprepared and trust on what both my heart and mind would decide.

I have been managing plenty of teams in my professional life. It all started when one of my mentors, long time talk show host Jan Van Rompaey, asked me to become the editor in chief of his program. I have moved on since then, but managing teams basically became what I do. I often – both jokingly and seriously – tell my staff, that I’m not good at many things, except in building teams.

So here is my recipe. It is no rocket science, just my two cents of gut feeling : build a team, empower it, then coach. Let me explain.

build a team,

As a manager never think you are the centre. Don’t aim to be Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates. You will never be Steve, Jeff or Bill and your pockets will never be as deep. If you want to have impact – and in my case I can only think societal impact – build a team around you who shares the same personal and corporate values. My partner and I had open discussions about our values. The longer we have been together, the better we know what we want to stand for. These values prevail both in our private and professional lives. Building a team is not easy : it may mean departing some of the team members that were on board long before you arrived. Recruiting new ones, spending long hours (over coffee and wine) in understanding what each of your collaborators stands for. And above all, in leading by example. Be your true self, and be authentic. Be your true authentic self.

empower it,

Build a team, then empower it. Once you have assembled the right group, no need to do their job. Don’t micromanage, delegate to the maximum. To the maximum ! Stretch both yourself and your direct report as much as possible in this exercise. In most of my jobs I was in charge of broad responsibilities, often quite complex. I always loved managing more than one ‘factory’ at the same time. My rule of thumb is 20/80. Spend 20 % of your time on 80 % of the business. Most of your team members are perfectly capable of leading their teams, implementing the goals and being successful. Even much more successful than you have ever been in that specific area. 80 % of my times goes to onboarding new staff, setting directions, and managing a crisis which goes beyond the remit of a particular person I collaborate with.

and coach it

Build a team, empower it and finally coach it. When I turned 50 I realised that I had managed almost everything. That in the end every problem is a variant of another. Shizzle is shizzle and in the end you become good in clearing it. Without it you feel lost. So I came into a position where I could divert my energy from helping others to solve problems to coaching them to solve it. I am a trained executive coach, but you don’t need to be trained to be a good coach. Every good manager has the gut feeling to coach.

I am looking back at plenty of excellent teams at the VRT and couldn’t be a more happy Media Director with the current team I have at EBU.

Categorieën:management, me, me, myself and I

from bin to brand

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op april 18, 2021

We bought our house in 2002 and had a first major renovation in 2007. The most difficult decision was the kitchen. We visited plenty of stores and made plans, but once we saw the sober line of Antonio Citterio for Arclinea, the choice was easily made. Now almost 15 years later we don’t regret the decision. The industrial design looks as modern as when we installed it.

If we were to design a new refuge we would probably opt for Vipp. Danish Vipp has many similarities with Arclinea, yet it is totally different. And it started as a bin. Holger Nielsen designed a metal bin in 1939 for his wife’s salon and then produced it for doctors and dentists. His daughter Jette wanted to make it available for design lovers around the world. The Conran Shop in London helped commercialising the bin. In 2009 the Vipp pedal bin was added to the permanent design collection of MoMA in New York.

We moved from Copenhagen to New York. And we brought along our own kitchen. In all fairness, the Vipp kitchen was the reason we left in the first place.
Frank Christensen Engeland, married Sofie Nielsen, granddaughter. They represent VIpp in the US.

Vipp is a family business and has extended its products from bins, over kitchens to hotels where you can experience the products. If you buy a kitchen, your stay at the hotel is refunded. That is smart marketing, but the brand’s philosophy is to create sustainable products.

We dream of a world with fewer but better products favouring staying power over fading trends. This philosophy is taken straight out of our pedal bin from 1939.
Morton Bo Jensen, Vipp Chief Designer

“Twenty Homes, One Kitchen” Vipp’s catalogue is on sale online and in their showrooms.

Categorieën:inspiration, trends

getagged:vipp

navigating the art world

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op april 2, 2021

Lately, I’m spending a lot of time with and on art. With art : visiting musea, which is a great break from Corona. This weekend, I have the Tinguely and Kunstmuseum Basel on my calendar. With, as in considering buying art. Unlike what people think, it doesn’t have to be expensive. But also more time on art, reading books about artists & their work, art history, … Even podcasts such as Talk Art are also excellent ways to better understand art.

But art is also a business and being an artist is a job. “Navigating the Art World. Professional Practice for the Early Career Artist” by Delphian gallerists Benjamin Murphy and Nick JS Thompson gives you pretty good insights and tips for the aspiring artist but also for debuting and even seasoned art lovers or buyers. The business, dare I even say industry, has fundamentally shifted and access to artists and buyers is no longer necessarily exclusively owned by the gallerist. Social media give you an opportunity to build direct relationships. This doesn’t mean that galleries no longer have a role to play, as Muryph and Thompson show in the way they run their recently started gallery, which is focusing on emerging and young artists.

In the bookchapter “Patrons” the authors distinct between investment collectors (who access to vasts sums of money and who want to store money in a safe asset that can be sold if necessary), mid-level collectors (who mostly buy from galleries, have a deep understanding of the art world and who want to engage with the artists personally) and new collectors. Most mid-level collectors started as new collectors. This last category buys on a whim or an emotion. Their entire collection may consist of just one piece.

Art is essentially a luxury product, and as such, whilst people may feel the need to buy, this isn’t from an immediate and actual need, but a want. When dealing with collectors, you must strive to understand their needs, and in turn, aim to accommodate them as much as possible. Selling an artwork should not be seen as merely a transaction; a means to end in attaining money but as a mutually-beneficial agreement.
I guess that every art lover sooner or later turns into a collector, even if it is possessing only that one piece. Enjoying art is core for Filip and myself, but now that occasionally extends to buying something. Out of love for the artwork, but also out of love for the artist. Building a personal bond with the artist and the piece before you buy it make ‘the transaction’ much more rewarding.

“A Way Out”, 2017, Marc Van Cauwenbergh. Marc and Filip celebrating the deal.

Filip often spoke of one of his art teachers at the Sint Lucas art school in Ghent, “who had now moved to New York”. When we came across an exhibition at gallery Van Caelenberg in Aalst we visited and bought one of his works. The gallerist was so nice to bring two pieces to our house to present them on the spot in our bubble so that we could deliberate which piece to buy. We were happy that Marc Van Cauwenbergh accepted an invitation for diner to be reconciled with his work.

Personal relationships als bring us to Geert Verbruggen. A friend for over twenty years. When we met first he was an architect. He changed his mission in life to become a cook/artist and now an artist/cook. When reading the book I had him in my mind all the way. His work changed over the years and we now have two of his works, of two different periods in our collection. As he is constantly growing and evolving this will definitely be not the last painting we buy.

“Abstract Poison”, 2020, Geert Verbruggen

I really welcome this book as it gave me fresh insights as an art lover and potential buyer. I think it can also support artists at whatever stage they are in their career. Marc & Geert, a copy of the book is on its way.

Categorieën:art, creativity, inspiration, me, myself and I, waow

getagged:delphian gallery, filip notteboom, galerie van caelenberg, Geert Van Beek, marc van cauwenberg, navigating the art world

gay love stories so often end badly

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op maart 28, 2021

One of the books that had a big impact on me as a young man and on my sexual identity was “Maurice”, written by E.M. Foster, only published after his death in 1971. Ivory Merchant turned it in a beautiful film, that was re-released in 2017 to celebrate its 30th birthday. It tells the love between Maurice (James Wilby) and Clive (Hugh Grant). It was true love, but in the end Clive opts for a (heterosexual) marriage and prefers to live in a lie. Maurice will find lasting love with Alec (Rupert Graves), a staff member of Clive’s household. The story is set in early 20th century when homosexuality was still considered a crime. Remember Oscar Wilde. The book covers other themes such as class, which makes the context of showing real emotions only more complex. The film captures this subtly.

Accepting being gay, or not is a recurrent theme in literature. Recently André Aciman covered it in his coming of age book “Call me by your name”. The scene when Elio (Timothée Chalamet) gets a call from Oliver, back in the US and married, is heartbreaking. By the way, the screenplay for this film was written by James Ivory, who directed “Maurice”.

It feels to me that gay love always has to end sadly in these books and films, for at least one of its protagonists.

And yet, it occurs to me now that we can never run with our lies indefinitely. Sooner or later we are forced to confront their darkness. We can choose the when, not the if. And the longer we wait, the more painful and uncertain it will be.

I rarely rate books five stars on Goodreads – three stars is my average – but the debut novel of Tomasz Jedrowski is touching and very well written. Jedrowski was born to Polish parents and studied both at Cambridge and the Université de Paris. The novel is set in the early 1980s against the violent decline of communism in Poland. Ludwik and Janusz lead a secret love life. The system doesn’t accept homosexuality and so the choice is to life the system or to be expelled by it. Janusz flirts with the system and the girls all the time to get the benefits from a communist regime. Ludwik will do that only once, and it will be to ultimately run away from hypocrisy, including Janusz. Both will find happiness in a new ways, but their true love – this gay love – is broken. I really recommend the book and I am sure it will be turned into a film. Will James Ivory still be around ?

Last point : although set 40 years ago, it is horrifying that Poland seems to be reviving that era, where the system doesn’t accept true love between people of the same gender.

“Swimming in the Dark”, Tomasz Jedrowski, Bloomsbury, 2020, multiple translations.

Categorieën:books, waow

getagged:andre aciman, call me by your name, em foster, ivory merchant, maurice, swimming in the dark, tomasz jedrowski

dear reader, according to Cathy Rentzenbrink

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op maart 6, 2021

Reading has saved my life, again and again, and has held my hand through every difficult time …

I pick up and smell them before I even buy books. At home I have a separate shelf for ‘books about books’. And unless the smell of the books merge with the smell of me, my home and my beloved ones I don’t really own them.

Picked up “Dear Reader. The Comfort and Joy of Books”, by Cathy Rentzenbrink and didn’t “smell” the book in the first two chapters. But then Rentzenbrink had me in her book spell.

The author started as a bookseller but now lives of her writing, her book critics and the writing classes she gives to prisoners amongst others. This book is a mix of a memoir (her personal story), lists with recommendations on books to read, a summary of some of these books and all very well structured around key events in her life. The love of her parents, the death of her brother, her first job as book seller, her husband and son, ….

Every book holds a memory. When you hold a book in your hand, you access not only the contents of that book but the fragments of the previous selves that you were when you read it.

Memoirs is one of the genres I like most. A world of fiction melts with the real world.

Categorieën:books

getagged:cathy rentzenbrink, dear reader

another history of art

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op februari 27, 2021

I have an art historian at home. Full time. For more than 20 years already. Whenever I mention something art related – Rothko, rococo, Jean-François Millet, the Sixteen Chapel, …. you name it – I get context. When we travel – and we love travelling – Filip is my private guide. That is very, very handy but it also makes me lazy. No need to consult a travel guide or hire the audio headphones and push the right number, he is there. How priviledged am I !

As a souvenir of those visits we buy plenty (too many) art books and catalogues which I read through afterwards. I learn. The time is lacking for now to go to classes but being an avid reader I decided I would devote some of my 2021 reading time to the art history classics. “Another history of art, 2500 years of European art history” by professor Koen Jonckheere at the RUG Rijksuniversiteit Gent, is not yet a classic, but could become one. The book helped me to get a holistic view to the ad hoc context I get from Filip. For the time being the book is only available in Dutch, but editor Hannibal often brings out major titles in English as well.

The book – ant that makes it unique – is not a chronological overview of 2500 years of European art, but evolves around five chapters with Kazimir Malevitsj “Black Square” from 1915 playing a central role. Jonckheere’s five lenses are : art as a product; the concept of art; art and science; art, power and religion and finally form and content. Malevitsj and his art feature at the beginning of each chapter.

My stack of 2021-to-read-books is growing by each book I finish because it leads to another book I have to read. The pandemic has helped me to read more than I usually do. Will have to see, how I manage the numbers beyond COVID19 but I have made it a priority to read some of those other art classics.

“Another History of Art”, Koen Jonckheere, Hannibal, 2020

I have have checked the bookshelves at home and under the header ‘classics, history of art’ this is what I’m going to pick up next :

E.H. Gombrich, “The Story of Art”, 1950, 2016 revised and redesigned luxury edition, Phaidon.

Simon Schama, “The Power of Art”, 2009, Vintage Publishing.

H.W. Janson, “History of Art”, 1997

Anyone joining me in reading ?

Categorieën:art, books, creativity, inspiration, my interests, travel

getagged:another history of art, koen jonckheere

on connection by kae tempest

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op februari 5, 2021

Empathy is remembering that everybody has a story. Multiple stories. And remembering to make space to hear someone else’s story before immediately telling your own.

If you are a book lover and tell it to the crowd; if you are a book lover and give a lot of books, sooner or later you end up with plenty of stacks. The stack : to read and selected by myself. The stack : to read and received by others. Two stacks : download a fragment, both on Kindle and Books. That is a lot of books ! Luckily people know my taste, add some serendipity, which makes it becomes a discovery for me.

My colleague and friend Ezra gave me and his team “On Connection” by Kae Tempest. I had to google them but was intrigued by the title. Authenticity is one of my main values and authentic authenticity is definitely one of my top 5 management principles.

Creative connection is the use of creativity to access and feel connection and get yourself and those with you in the moment into a more connected space.

Connection or real connection comes close to authentic authenticity. I love this English word “rapport”. To establish rapport. There is rapport or there isn’t. Well, to create rapport you probably have to read this book.

We are empathetic beings who feel for each other. Our very success as species is rooted in our ability to be aware of each other’s needs, to notice each other’s pain and to experience deeply felt physiological and emotional empathy.

Upon closing a book and before I rate it at Goodreads I ask myself what that book did to me. In most cases this is not about the summary or core idea of the book (although I do make mind maps of books of which I want to memorise the content). In most cases it is about the feeling that sticks. In the case of this Kae Tempest book, it are the quotes that stick. I leave you, Dear Reader of this Blog, with two of their quotes :

I’ve felt connection countless times, but I don’t create it. I don’t know why sometimes I’m connected and other times I’m not. All I know is it’s a collaborative, communal feeling that takes the whole room or none of us. It seems like it comes through me if I can get myself out of the way. But any interference will impede it. Trying to make it happens stops it in its tracks;

And to conclude :

For words to have meaning, they have to be read.

Categorieën:Uncategorized

getagged:kae tempest

it was a good year …

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op december 30, 2020

Before you comment on the title of this piece, I agree : it was an unprecedented year and bad in many, many ways. But every coin has its flip side and 2020 was extremely good in some ways too. Apart from realising that my bubble is the right one and a very pleasant want to live in, this pandemic year gave me the opportunity to read a record number of books and learned me how walking is one of the best management tools there is.

almost 100 books

On average I read 50 books per year. Not all of them are thick pageturners. The number includes art catalogues and essays featuring as a small gift book on the shelf of my favourite book store, apart from the mainly Anglo-Saxon literature and management books that caught my attention when reading the book reviews in The New York Times or De Standaard.

This year I doubled that amount to almost 100. I would never had thought that this was possible and I doubt if I will be able to do better before I retire. Books have always given me pleasure, beauty, provocation and insights but his year they gave me comfort. In most languages when the Word of 2020 was chosen it was something COVID19 related : unprecedented, quarantine, “knuffelcontact”, … It’s a pity that comfort wasn’t chosen, because that is what we had to find when we had to quarantine in this unprecedented year.

Books gave me a lot of comfort and were a way of escaping whilst in lockdown. Books send you around the world. In 2021 I will touch base with the real world again, but never without having a book nearby.

management through walking

Another way to escape 2020 was by walking. According to Life Cycle I did 4.092.843 steps in 2019. I will have to wait till midnight December 31 to discover how many steps I did in 2020, but I expect I will have beaten that number too. I must have seen every corner of Geneva and Brussels, escaping Corona with a podcast in my ear.

As most professional meetings happened online for over 9 months, managing personal relations was difficult. Informal one on one chitchats are almost impossible in a virtual meeting. The number of meetings even increased as you now are online one click away from another meeting room. You can easily do 10 meetings in day and 2021be ‘present’ with tens or hundreds of people. Decisions were taken, but often I lacked context or granularity. Personally I tend to take decisions out of the board room, when I test my assumptions over a diner, reflect with someone before I take a stand. None of that was possible, until I took my direct reports for a walk. It was chitchat, bonding, checking in on their personal lives and going through the agenda of what would have been a traditional 1:1. I still would prepare an agenda, send it out in advance and then throw it away, being guided by wherever are walk was leading us.

2021 will be a good year and my bubble, my books and my professional walks will be there to stay.

Categorieën:management, me, me, myself and I

getagged:2020, books, corona, pandemic

Jean Philip De Tender

everything is a story

slimme non-fictie schrijven

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op september 5, 2021

gie zie m’n zeekapiting

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op augustus 14, 2021

a team building recipe

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op juni 20, 2021

build a team,

empower it,

and coach it

from bin to brand

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op april 18, 2021

navigating the art world

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op april 2, 2021

gay love stories so often end badly

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op maart 28, 2021

dear reader, according to Cathy Rentzenbrink

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op maart 6, 2021

another history of art

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op februari 27, 2021

on connection by kae tempest

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op februari 5, 2021

it was a good year …

everyone and everything is a story

Geplaatst op december 30, 2020

almost 100 books

management through walking