Style

It’s hard to be objective about one’s style, but this is how I would like my work to be perceived :

Customized

I do not know how my knowledge and experience would apply in a new context. This is why I design and run programs with a client team. You know better than I do what your organization requires, the rythm that is adequate for your current challenges, etc. This brings another advantage to my eyes : I love to create something new in my work.

Subtle

I used to work for a company whose motto was : “Big and fast”. Well, I still believe that we need high ambition and vision and that we have to move into action quickly. At the same time, I think that transformation of organizations is a very subtle matter, where indirect and deep actions can have more impact (in the end) than over-marketed heavy projects.

Practical

I enjoy reading and feel at ease with theories and model, but this has only a meaning when it is oriented towards action. I often take my clients concerns or challenges as questions I pose to the books I read or the experts I meet in conferences. Putting theory into practice is great. I also love making explicit with my clients the implicit models we’ve used, or sometimes created together.

Structured

I strongly believe in emergence : when you give people freedom and spaces for deep dialogue, you cannot plan what will happen. I’ve experienced many times how an orginal program had to be totally changed because of what participants would say, discover or create. Nevertheless, I know that there is no freedom possible if the frame is vague or inconsistent. Structure is necessary for emergence, it only has to exist at the right level.

Elegant

Greek philosophy says that the good life relates to three things : truth, justice and beauty. I think that we lack a lot of the latter at work. I am sensitive to that aesthetic dimension in my work and I try to have it present – in chosing (when possible) the places we have meetings, in the way I keep a mark of what’s been said or written, in the way that we talk to one another, etc. Beauty is important in life. So are elegance, simplicity and balance.

Funny

Hey, life is too short for having boring meetings !!! I have 5 children and I enjoy playing with them, laughing, telling stories,… Moreover, science tells us that having fun fosters both performance and learning. We are creative when we are at ease together. So, I pay a lot of attention to the emergence of such a climate.