Van Kemenade ACT

On the 27th of March the seventh meeting will be held of SYNERGY, the network of Caribbean  leadership in healthcare. This time StMaarten Medical Centre will be the host.

The program always gives room for exchange of questions and experiences. But this time ‘change’ is the central topic.  The program is as follows:

Program SYNERGY seventh meeting  27^th March 2023

Location:         SMMC Training Room on Hamster Drive across from SMMC

11.00               Registration and reception of the guests, coffee

Welcome: by Bregje Boetekees, Operations Manager WYCCF and president of SYNERGY
Round Robin: who is here? And what has happened since…

12.00               Lunch

13.00               Change management by Marlou de Kuiper* and Everard van Kemenade

The first part on change management will dive deeper into the ideas of John Kotter and on Systemic Transition Management (STM) by Thiecke and Van Leeuwen.

STM is based on Peter Senge’s systems thinking and  on Hellinger’s basic systemic principles of Inclusion, Order, and Exchange. STM exposes a process in the undercurrent of ‘the organization in change’. They look from the system ‘organization’ at the language that individuals use, and what this in turn says about the phase of change in the undercurrent. Fascinating! 

16.00               Future networking: by Everard van Kemenade

How do we want to continue from here?

17.00 -18.00    Closing drink at Holland House

  * Marlou de Kuiper is an independent consultant, author and speaker, supervisor and coach. She is an expert in change management in complex environments. On the 25^th of May 2022 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Foundation for Integrated Care. On 8 July 2022 she was knighted in the Orde van Oranje Nassau.

 

Recently an article has been published in the Dutch quality magazine “Kwaliteit in Bedrijf”.

Kwaliteit in Bedrijf is one of the few magazines in the Netherlands left on quality management and it calls itself the platform for organisational development in the Netherlands and Belgium.

In this issue Wil van Erp and I presented the Medusa principles for leadership of Emergence using the educational development of a financial course for the Master of Integrated Care Design as a case.  Hopefully, this article spreads the news and importance of emergence as a paradigm for quality management in a world that is characterised by Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity.

In the end of October and the beginning of November 2022 Van Kemenade ACT executed several trainings again for the White and Yellow Cross Care Foundation and a few other healthcare organisations in the region. This time the Client Centered Care training drew attention.

Even the local press The Daily Herald from October 24th spent an article on it.

Under the titel WYCCF staff complete client centricity course, it is stated that  staff “The staff greatly appreciated the course. Many indicated that the course was an eye-opener and that it already improved the care they give to the clients every day”.

 

 

In the same mission also the sixth meeting already of the SYNERGY network took place where Judith Meijer from Saba Cares led an interesting workshop on research and development.

 

On holiday you get the chance to contemplate about life and death. Some countries inspire you more than others to do so.

We are on Skopelos, a Greek island, that is not crowded with tourists anymore in September.  We stay at a guesthouse called ‘Katerina’. Our view from the balcony is a small chapel.

 

When Katerina was six years old, her mother died. Her father built the chapel for her mother to have a continuous anchor of her existence. Seeing the chapel makes you think of her. I have not met the woman, but how loved she must have been… This is real Quality, Quality of life.

In an article in Sloan Management Review Garvin gives as one of the definitions of (product) quality, that some people say quality is value for money. However, that still does not help much, if you try to find a universal definition. Different stakeholders might value different ‘qualities’ of the product. That made me, years ago,  stop trying to find a universal definition of quality.

In blog #25 I mentioned that I was invited to visit Van Bommel’s shoe factory and enjoyed the way they produce quality. I was introduced to a special way of stitching shoes, the Goodyear-way. This method connects the upper side of the shoe with the shoe sole using pitch thread. That makes it stronger and easier to repair, if in the end the (leather) sole would need to be replaced. The method is used less and less, because people prefer e.g. sneakers, apparently without a leather sole. Doing things in the best way is not always wanted by customers…..

However, last Saturday I managed to buy my first Goodyear shoes. I choose a traditional brogue model. Frans Van Bommel, former CEO of the company, gratulated me with my purchase: “I bought one of the best shoes out of their collection”.  Thanks to Wout van Bommel for making this happen. Being able to buy quality can make someone happy… (for a while).