Bio

For the longest time I've been working in the field of Learning and Development and I wouldn't trade what I do with anything else. Slowly who I am and what I do has become as intimately intertwined as my hand in a glove. One of my mentors once shared his lifelong learning quest with me. In a flash knew what mine was. Since 2006 I've been working, tinkering, experimenting and failing while answering: ''what is learning?''. This is what I now know. Can we really learn in a situation that's threatening? Our brain is wired to avoid such situations. We may smile, we may respond, we might still engage, but to what level? Sufficient for learning? In specific situations our brain becomes plastic, malleable so that new connections may be formed and strengthened. Safety, empathy, appreciation are some of the characteristics of situations that wire our brain for learning. Who we are is the key enabler for what we do. Will you act boldly if you're frightened? Will you truly appreciate another if you're not loving? Will you ask and listen deeply if you're not curious? Will you grow if you're not a vulnerable learner? Learning who we are requires us to look deeply into ourselves and others. So deeply that we can safely discover how we've become who we are. Tread lightly though: here be dragons and fairy kingdoms. Learning is traditionally geared towards equipping people with knowledge and skills, to augment their competencies. The idea is that we should be able to think ourselves into new ways of acting. But isn't it the other way around? That we should act ourselves into new ways of thinking. Over the course of a couple of decades learning has become an act of love for me. My first act is to first shift my own state to one of safety, awareness, empathy and appreciation before I can enter the second act and engage with learners to help them shift their state into new ways of being and acting. With my company Forzes I work with teams and groups and only with individuals at their moment of performance. Willing to serve lovingly. Typically Evert: Enthusiastic and warm | Offers space and appreciates | Learning and curious | Witty | Smart and loving | Brave.