Van Kemenade ACT

Sometimes it lasts months before a scientific article is reviewed and published.  This article was underway for almost a year. However,  the results are still valid and we are happy that publication finally took place.  (Actually, it was my second publication this week that got accepted, see post #96).

This article was based on a simple questionnaire distributed in a feedback culture training for staff of White and Yellow Cross on St. Maarten. The topic of the questions was what kind of a feedback culture staff wanted. One would expect that people of different ages and country of origin have different wishes. Especially this is expected from staff belonging to GenZ.

This was not confirmed by the results. Staff differs in their opinion, but not along the lines of age or country of birth.  This means that management does not have to take specific measures for specific age groups or cultural background.  General recommendations apply. Ensure high-quality feedback. (The feedback should be continuous, open, specific, objective, fair and honest) and emphasise its importance .

The article Co creating a Feedback Culture in a Healthcare organization in the Caribbean  was written by me with support from Zuleima Violenus-Salmon, Healthcare Psychologist at WYCCF. It can be found in the Social Science and HumanResearch Bulletin, Vol. 03(05): 556-564, May 2026. Or here.

 

On several occasions I mentioned the Concept of the Four Quality Paradigms that Teun Hardjono and I developed.  I already talked in post #  87 about Eltjo Bazen, a master student that used the Concept to analyse the European Standards and Guidelines and the additions to the standards that Quality Assurance Agencies (QAA’s) use in their daily practise.

Now, the scientific article on the matter by Bazen and me is published in the Journal of Quality in Education.

The main conclusion is that the QAA’s add standards that make it possible for them to cope with more complex context the higher education institutes are in.  Although the use of standards and emergence seem to be contradictory, they seek ‘standards’ that make emergence possible. This is an important conclusion, especially in a moment of time, when the ESG’s are being revised.

The full article can be found here.

I participated on Thursday March 12 in the National Improvement Day in Fort Voordorp in Groenekan (Utrecht). It was organised by Kwaliteit in Bedrijf and NNK (Dutch Network of Quality).

It was an interesting day with worthwhile discussions and workshops. What triggered me most was the workshop by Gerben Bekooij called anti-fragile.

The term antifragile is coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder,  published already in 2012. . Taleb’s thesis is that in a volatile world with a lot of destructive uncertainty, the wise economic strategy is to be antifragile: protect the downside but prepare to benefit disproportionately from potential external negative events and in all cases avoid fragility. Being antifragile means thriving and growing stronger from stress, chaos, uncertainty, and failure, rather than just enduring it like something resilient. This concept  turns life’s inevitable disorder into an advantage through deliberate habits and mindset shifts.

Gerben in his workshop also drew attention on his books: Resilience and More resilience proclaiming less compliance and control, but more trust and craftsmanship.  A slide from his presentation:

What is the purpose of breaks, to stop the car? No, it allows the car to go faster with confidence. Mario Andretti

 

 

Onlangs heb ik de Engelstalige podcast van Teun W. Hardjono en mij opnieuw vormgegeven. Ditmaal heb ik ervoor gezorgd, dat de auteurs vernoemd worden en de tekst in het Nederlands.

 

November 25th the tenth meeting of the Caribbean Leadership Network in HealtCare took place on the friendly island of Sint Eustatius. The Sint Eustatius Health Care Foundation hosted the meeting and Mademi Velland from VTV Consultancy was the facilitator.  She is the new secretary of SYNERGY. Over twenty participants joined the meeting coming from healthcare institutes on  Sint Maarten, Statia and Bonaire.

The theme of the day was ‘Technology in Healthcare’.  A presentation and workshop was given by Marga Nonneman, specialist in geriatric care. Members of SYNERGY can find the agenda, power point and evaluation results   as well as a short video, greeting the former secretary, on the protected website http//:www.synergy-act.nl .