3 reason’s to wear a seatbelt…

Today I am helping my kids school to reward people for wearing a seatbelt. When my kids take their seatbelt of while driving, I pull over. These days they tell me when I forget to buckle them up. For their safety and mine.

Update: We also counted the number of people wearing a seatbelt and the [...]

XP Days France 2008 - Paris, je t’aime…

On Monday 05 may & Tuesday 06 may my father and I were in Paris. Instead of visiting this beautifully city we enjoyed the people from the French Agile community.
Although the organization before was rather chaotic, XPDay.FR 2008 itself was splendid.
The first thing I noticed when we arrived was the Job Board. Hey [...]

Artikel over Bootcamp gepubliceerd in Bizz magazine

Vorige week verscheen een artikel in Bizz Magazine over BootCamp. Gino Marckx zegt daarin dat BootCamp: “Het is de beste opleiding die ik ooit heb gevolgd”
Als je geintereseerd bent in coaching-seminaries moet je zeker Bizz van Mei 2008 kopen. I quote “Bizz testte een aantal originele of populaire coaching technieken die afwijken van het traditionele [...]

De top 10 van redenen om nee te zeggen tegen “Reboot to Team 2.0”

1) Mijn projecten eindigen op tijd en binnen budget zonder probleem.
2) Elk team waar ik mee gewerkt heb had een gedeelde visie
3) In vergadering doen we alleen wat resultaat opleverd
4) Niemand steekt de schuld op management of iemand anders, als ze niet krijgen wat ze willen.
5) Iedereen deelt zijn beste ideeen onmiddellijk
6) Ideeen worden onmiddellijk [...]

Does your company work with external project managers/project leaders/Project coaches?

As a a freelance project coach, I am sometimes confronted with the fact that a company only wants to work with internal people. I’m trying to understand what is their motivation. To do that I asked these questions on linked in yesterday.
Does your company work with external project managers/project leaders/Project coaches? What are the advantages [...]

Leadership game / Jeu de direction accepted in Agile 2008 (Toronto)

I’ll check in.
I’m GLAD our leadership game got accepted for Agile 2008 in Toronto
I’m SAD my father can’t participate with me
I’m GLAD, I found a great replacement with Bernard Notarianni from Octo
I’m MAD, AFRAID as it will be the first session we’ll do together.
I’m AFRAID about shipping a lot of lego’s to Canada.
I’m SAD [...]

Why I follow Gestalt Therapy Training (GTO)

I like to improve myself. It’s not that I am unhappy with myself, but I feel that doing nothing to improve myself is like going backwards.
On the projects I worked on, I tried to learn something everyday. I quickly discovered I learned faster by reading non-fiction books. Then I realized that I could learn even [...]

XP DAYS France in Paris

This year I am going again to XP Day Paris.
We have proposed three sessions, two of them have been accepted.
The communication game we did in Mechelen at XP Day Benelux.
The other was a brand new session about Self-organizing teams (See my talk about the Myth of Self-organizing teams)
At the same time the organization has moved [...]

Perfection game on Dutch Scrum Article

More and more companies are going agile. For a small company it is the best way to outperform your big competitors. For a big company it’s the cheapest way of working. (Some big companies have to much money to care about this.) Still I am happy that more and more companies ask me to teach [...]

Tips for/from FP: Famous Partners

This weekend at the end of my GTO weekend, the partners were invited for a small session.
During the first 2 years of the gestalt therapy training, we focus mainly on personal growth. (And trainers show us how to work the gestalt way.)
This means that these 16 people that follow the training talk alot about their [...]

Our first family meeting with a 5 year and a 3 year old.

As you can see in our family’s newyears video, breakfast at our place is always a “heroes happen here” event.
When my partner has breakfast with the kids alone: it works fine.
When I have breakfast with them it is ok too. The challenges start when we are both there.
We tend to have both our own way [...]

Praise public and long, blame private and quick!

Some time ago, I was working as a project coach. Everything was fine, I was working with a great team, iterations were delivered on time.
Their was a small problem in the company. One person did not deliver on time. The person was nice, but he constantly under delivered.
I proposed to the CEO to [...]

Home again…

I’m Checking in
I’m GLAD I’m home with my family again.I’m SAD the second European Reboot To Team 2.0 (BootCamp) is overI’m GLAD it was even better then last timeI’m GLAD we have shipped on time every time (10x) this week and will do this another 81 times the next 9 months.I’m MAD a lazy Belgium [...]

Top 10 reasons to say NO to BootCamp

The next European BootCamp has just been announced.
Paircoaching.net holds another Reboot to Team 2.0 at Koningsteen from 15 till 20 june 2008.
To avoid that we have to much people joining, I ‘m posting our top ten reason why people should NOT follow a BootCamp.
1. My projects effortlessly complete on schedule and in budget every [...]

Reboot to Team 2.0 starts today

I don’t pretend that people will learn soft-skills at one week Bootcamp. As I told a few managers this week: you will change. I just can not predict how you will change. I do know that people that come out of bootcamp are much more focused on achieving results.
I will check in the way [...]

5 conditions for effective punishments

The punishment has to be relative intense.The subject should feel it as a punishment)
It has to be giving promptly. This is one of the problems with the current law system. There is too much time between the crime  and the punishment.The person has to feel that it is related. Even when he/she knows it is [...]

Positive and negative ratification/punishment

 

 
Consequence = adding a stimulus
Consequence = remove a stimulus

Behaviorincreases
positive ratification
Behavior is followed by adding a pleasant stimulus
negative ratification
Behavior is followed by removing an unpleasant stimulus

Behaviordecreases
Positive punishment
Behavior is followed by adding an unpleasant stimulus (Disapproving looks, shouting… Negative punishment
Behavior is followed by removing a pleasant stimulus (Ex Time-out)

 
Punishment in this blog post is not the same as [...]

Shaping by means of successive approach

In most cases behavior what we want to learn to people (or pets) , is seldom behavior that spontaneously would appear. In that case it would be impossible to ratify when it occurs.
So what is a parent, team leader to do?
Well you can build the training in little steps.
Let’s look at how circus tamers do [...]

Reboot to team 2.0 is the perfect follow up after a CSM (Certified Scrum master class)

Sven followed a great CSM with Joseph Pelrine. (I have followed already multiple courses with Joseph. including my own CSM. I agree he is great.)
Svens next step is learning about self-organizing teams.
I have a few tips for Sven and every other CSM.
1) Check out my post about self organizing teams.
2) As I told you [...]

Test: Are you a real leader?

Vacature has posted a test about leadership today.
They make the difference between management & Leadership. I found some of the questions strange, that is, my answer was not among the possibilities. (This says as much about me as about the tests.)
I have 43 on 50. I am happy with that. For my work as an [...]