What happens when the Queens fashion designer, an international renowned singer, a politician, an entrepreneur, a scientist and the founder of Transformation Nomads sit down at the same table? You don't entirely know. And that was rather the point.
A recent gathering at our Haarlem office brought together Sheila de Vries, Laura Fygi, Wybren van Haga, Sjaak Buhling, Dr. Arend van Campen and myself. Journalist Pieter Klein Beernink joined us for the conversation. What followed became a full-page editorial in the Stan Huygens Journaal of Dutch national newspaper De Telegraaf. But what I particularly liked was that the article wasn't simply about Transformation Nomads.
It was about the people around our table.
Different worlds. One table.
On paper, our guests came from very different worlds. The fashion, music, politics, entrepreneurship, science, media and Human Sustainability do not automatically appear together on a conference programme.
Around a table, things work differently. The conversation moved between business and life, consciousness and science, success and change. Different experiences created different perspectives on questions that ultimately concern all of us.
What is happening to the human being in a rapidly changing world? And what are we not seeing when we make important decisions? Those questions are central to our work at Transformation Nomads.
“We measure almost everything in business. But what if one of our most important sources of intelligence is the part of ourselves we have barely learned to listen to?”
— Ronald Heister
From PR of the Stars to Human Sustainability
Journalist Pieter Klein Beernink also connected my work today with a much earlier part of my career. I spent years working in media and communications, including with well-known personalities. Later, my work took me into complex organizations and public-private partnerships. At first sight, those worlds seem far apart. Looking back, I see the same thing running through all of them.
People.
Behind the celebrity is a person. Behind the CEO is a person. Behind an organization, investment, conflict or strategy are people interpreting information, making choices and trying to understand the reality in which they find themselves.
That eventually became an important foundation for what we now call Human Sustainability Intelligence™.
What are we not seeing?
Most organizations already have enormous amounts of information. Financial data, KPIs, market research, professional advisers and increasingly artificial intelligence can tell us more than ever before. And yet important decisions still go wrong. Our work therefore starts with a different question:
What are we not seeing?
Sometimes the missing information lies within the person making the decision. Sometimes it sits between people and systems. And sometimes it lies outside everyone's current field of view.
That is why Human Sustainability Intelligence™ brings together three perspectives: Human Higher Consciousness Intelligence, Societal Intelligence and Early Warning Artificial Intelligence. We look inward, around us and ahead. The purpose is remarkably simple:
to see more of the reality before making an important choice.
Truth before comfort
That also means we don't automatically accept the question someone brings us as the problem that needs solving. An entrepreneur may believe financing is the answer. A leader may believe a team is the problem. An investor may have all the conventional information required for due diligence. Sometimes further investigation confirms that view. Sometimes it reveals something else entirely. Our job isn't to confirm what someone hopes to hear.
More than an article
There was another outcome from our gathering that mattered to me. The full-page feature didn't only introduce Transformation Nomads and Human Sustainability Intelligence™. It also gave editorial visibility to the people around our table, their work and their ideas. That is exactly what we hope can happen when we bring different worlds together.
Not because an outcome is promised or publicity is guaranteed. It isn't. But because when interesting people meet each other in the right setting, unexpected things can happen.
A conversation. An introduction. A new perspective. A collaboration. Sometimes even a full page in a national newspaper.
Not more information. More of the reality.
