I was surprised, and not positively, when I realised that the level of awareness of the world our children have, is lower than the level we had at a similar age. This in spite of the many more sources of information available to them. To learn about the world, we had to watch the news, … Continue reading True growth comes from conflict in your mind
Author: Ben Broeckx
Professor and academic director internal audit at Antwerp Management School - Writing about leadership, management and governance - Interested in any system that can be explored, analyzed and deconstructed. By day also Director Public Benefits & Public Affairs at Sodexo Benefits & Rewards Services Belgium.
The ultimate to do app
A personal productivity tool that integrates seamlessly with your way of working but gets out of the way when you need to get into the zone remains the Philosopher's Stone of personal management. We aspire to that optimisation by adopting tools which aim to help us manage our multiple to do's across our responsibilities. The … Continue reading The ultimate to do app
What are you?
You, like every one around you, have that one distinguishing characteristic. Something that defines you. Likely the first thing that people that know you will mention when they describe you to someone who has never met you. It is the anchor your friends have in their minds when thinking about you. It is what resonates … Continue reading What are you?
Yes, but …
I dread those words. "Yes, but ..." indicates one of our suppliers, team members or colleagues both agreeing with a conclusion but denying responsibility for it. "Yes, but ..." is by its nature a defensive stance. It indicates entrenched interests, a hidden agenda. It does not bode well for the rest of that sentence, nor … Continue reading Yes, but …
Due diligent behaviour in COVID times
The pandemic the world has been confronted with the past year has almost no upsides. Too many people have died and more will die before we get on top of this. But there are lessons to be learned from the experiences during the pandemic. These lessons provide valuable insights into how to do work better … Continue reading Due diligent behaviour in COVID times
Belgium missed the eCommerce train once, and we are missing it again
The late '00's and the early '10's of this century saw an eCommerce boom, first across the US, then across Europe and Asia. In our little corner of Western Europe, we saw the entrepreneurial Dutch start up eCommerce initiatives such as Coolblue and bol.com, which have turned into resounding successes. We saw the arrival of … Continue reading Belgium missed the eCommerce train once, and we are missing it again
The necessity and guilt of doing deep work
Today I was unsure what to write about. Which is interesting by itself. After all, there are many subjects that interest me and are of interest to me, there are many ideas sitting in lists in my Roam Graph (and yes, that is a shameless plug for Roam Research, do check it out if you … Continue reading The necessity and guilt of doing deep work
A leader’s role in leading a team
One of the key tenets of leadership is that you, as a leader, are responsible to first make sure that your team is capable of delivering. Now, that is a simple sentence, but implementing is is anything but. Let's look at that sentence again: "As a leader, you are responsible to first make sure that … Continue reading A leader’s role in leading a team
Injecting drive in our educational system
Previous posts focused on what is wrong with our current educational system. I am not breaking any new ground here, please read anything that the late Ken Robinson published in the past 20 years and you will find a much more detailed and developed set of ideas for the future of education. We are not … Continue reading Injecting drive in our educational system
Education based on intrinsic motivation
Yesterday I wrote about my frustration with the current state of our education. You can go ahead and read that post here, but in essence it comes down to the observation that our adherence to industrial-type education is failing to prepare us for the future. Now, preparing for the future is a broad concept, but … Continue reading Education based on intrinsic motivation
Exploring The Black Box 