Mont Ventoux

There is a tradition in our family to climb the Ventoux at least once a year. It started about 8 or 9 years ago when my father retired.

We usually leave for a long weekend in September and bike the Ventoux from the three sides. During those three days we talk Ventoux, eat Ventoux and drink Ventoux.

For people who have no clue what I'm talking about, the Mont Ventoux is a mountain in the Provence region of southern France, located some 20 km north-east of Carpentras, Vaucluse. It is the largest mountain in the region and has been nicknamed the "The Bald Mountain". It has gained notoriety through its use in the Tour de France cycling race. As the name might suggest, it can get windy at the summit, especially with the mistral; wind speeds as high as 320 km/h have been recorded. The wind blows at 90+ km/h 240 days a year. The road over the mountain is often closed due to high winds. Especially the "col de tempêtes" ("storm pass") just before the summit is known for its strong winds.

For road bicycle racing enthusiasts, the mountain can be climbed by three routes.

South from Bédoin: 1617 m over 21,8 km. This is the most famous and difficult ascent.

North-west from Malaucène: 1570 m over 21,5 km. About equal in difficulty as the Bédoin ascent, better sheltered against the wind.

East from Sault: 1210 m over 26 km. The easiest route. After Chalet Reynard (where the "lunar landscape" of the summit starts), the climb is the same as the Bédoin ascent. Average gradient of 4.4%. (*)

If you take the South or East side, the top of the mountain is a treeless lunar landscape that provides no relief from the weather. The last six kilometres to the top are brutal. In summer it can feel like you are pedalling in a solarium. But when the famous mistral gets going, it can blow a cyclist off his bike. The last kilometres to the top people often consider turning back: too cold (once we had snow), too hot, too windy, ... but then at about 1,3 km from the top you pass the memorial of Simpson where you read:

"there is NO MOUNTAIN TOO HIGH"

and one keeps on biking without thinking

with a (little) help from my friends

Someone asked me whether I’m really in a position to write a book on coaching, resilience and mindfulness. Of course, I’m not.


“Should this type of book not be written by a CEO or an executive ?”, she asked me, “or by a certified coach?”. Sure that would help and certainly add credibility.

“Aren't you an "unresilient" guy from time to time who tries to keep the pieces together on all different fronts?” she went on. Yes, definitely I am.

The questions made me doubt. Should I really continue with this book?

So I started making the list of the “pro’s” and the “cons” and quickly realized that I needed first start thanking a lot of friends, which I did.

But then again should I really doubt?

I don't think so because the content of the book is delivered by real experts in the respective fields:

Catherine has written a chapter of about 20 pages on executive/life coaching. I know Catherine for a while and I know how good she is in her field of coaching; when I read her chapter for the first time, I was really impressed by the content; knowing Catherine I would not have expected anything else. It’s a chapter with lots of examples written with the purpose to demystify coaching.

Jeroen has written a chapter of about 20 pages on performance coaching. Jeroen is a strategy “guru” who is a friend since a long time; we both studied at the Sorbonne in Paris . He just finished his book “Strategy Execution Heroes”, a book which reached after two weeks the bestseller list in several categories on amazon.com.

Björn sent me his chapter last week. Björn is a leading professional in the field of Mindfulness. His chapter is a master piece, here again it’s a chapter written to demystify mindfulness.

Christophe and Sam, our two VANAKAM friends will contribute a chapter on their Indian project. You should take a look at their website to see what they have realized over the last couple of years. Quite impressive! In the book they are telling a bit more about the Mensch Trust, the orphanage and the field hospital. They are currently looking for funds to build the second floor of the orphanage and for the solar panels for the field hospital.

I'm in the process of finishing my chapter which is basically nothing more than the key learnings in my career, no rocket science.

Katie has written an interesting testimonial on the training and development approach at E&Y, one of the big 4 consulting firms.

Maddy is finishing a chapter on the coaching philosophy at Trifinance.

Colleagues of Evelyne will help with the translation and with the editing.

Cathy from Magelaan volunteered to help with the lay out.

Jeroen will share his knowledge on all practicalities and logistics related to bringing a book on the market.

On LinkedIn, we reached the threshold of 100 connectors which are people who have already interest in the book and might help selling it when it’s finished. If the principle of the Tipping Point is right, one only needs 150 motivated connectors to start spreading the news over the entire globe. Out of those 100 connectors, we already have a couple of die hard fans: Alex, Christophe, Karla, René, Katti, Ann, Geert, Piet, Ward, Sven, Kristel, Luc, Kris and several others.

So am I really in a position to write a book on coaching, resilience and mindfulness?

Definitely not, but with a (little) help from my friends I am!

We are getting there!

Strategy Execution Heroes

"Strategy Execution Heroes" a book written by Jeroen De Flander reached the bestseller list on Amazon.com.

Jeroen is already a friend from the time we were both "studying" at the Sorbonne in Paris. He will be contributing a chapter on performance coaching to the NMTH book.

From the flap of his book:

Strategy Execution Heroes will help you get the execution job done. Don't expect complex theories or fancy words. This book gets right to the point and won't waste your time. It will: - Boost your learning with 250+ practical tips revealed by senior executives from BT, Coca-Cola, Lockheed Martin, eBay and many others. - Inspire your thinking with useful insights from top experts such as Sir John Whitmore, Dr Peter Scott-Morgan and Prof. Vincent Lion. - Put your action plan on the right track with 27 valuable downloads.

So whether you are a future manager preparing for the challenge or an experienced senior executive, get ready to boost your execution skills. Become a Strategy Execution hero and turn your great strategy into great performance.

GET IT ON AMAZON.COM!

Seth Godin's version of the tipping point

Viral growth trumps lots of faux followers
Many brands and idea promoters are in a hurry to rack up as many Facebook fans and Twitter followers as they possibly can. Hundreds of thousands if possible.
A lot of these fans and followers are faux. Sunny day friends. In one experiment I did, 200,000 followers led to 25 clickthroughs. Ouch.
Check out the graph on the left. The curves represent different ideas and different starting points. If you start with 10,000 fans and have an idea that on average nets .8 new people per generation, that means that 10,000 people will pass it on to 8000 people, and then 6400 people, etc. That's yellow on the graph. Pretty soon, it dies out.
On the other hand, if you start with 100 people (99% less!) and the idea is twice as good (1.5 net passalong) it doesn't take long before you overtake the other plan. (the green). That's not even including the compounding of new people getting you people.
But wait! If your idea is just a little more viral, a 1.7 passalong, wow, huge results. Infinity, here we come. That's the purple (of course.)
A slightly better idea defeats a much bigger but disconnected user base every time.
The lesson: spend your time coming up with better ideas, not with more (faux) followers.

With the entire NMTH-team we commit to deliver on the green-curve! Keep on spreading the word ...

KOOP EEN STEEN EN BOUW MEE AAN VERDIEPING TWEE VAN HET WEESHUIS !

Het weeshuis in Uthani is dringend aan een tweede verdieping toe. Dit was de gedachte die wij hadden toen we in Januari met onze meter Dominique Monami onze kinderen in Tamil Nadu bezochten.

Sinds de opening (mei 2005) van het tehuis is er heel wat veranderd. Het aantal kinderen nam aan het begin van ieder schooljaar stelselmatig toe. Eerst waren er een tiental meisjes, maar heel snel ging het crescendo. Tot we, begin 2009, het cijfer van 55 kinderen haalden en beseften dat dit, in de huidige omstandigheden, meteen ook het hoogst haalbare was. Enkel, heel sporadisch, maken wij hier een uitzondering op, wanneer ons een meisje wordt voorgedragen, wiens toekomst accuut in gevaar is.

Deze politiek kan echter niet blijvend verdedigd worden. Wij zijn er bij Vanakam vzw immers altijd prat op gegaan dat ons “tehuis” voor de kinderen een echte “thuis” kon zijn. Waar ze, in alle rust en omringd door familiale waarden, zorgeloos konden opgroeien. In een omgeving die hen ook de nodige vrijheid en privacy schonk.

Niet alleen is het zo dat het aantal kinderen is gestegen. Bovendien is het zo dat de kleine meisjes van toen ook jonge pubers zijn geworden, die dan ook meer plaats innemen. Niet dat wij blind waren voor de dit probleem van plaatsgebrek, maar in de euforie om eerst ons ziekenhuis af te werken, hebben wij de uitbreidingsplannen uitgesteld.

Nu kan dit dossier niet verder op de lange baan geschoven worden. Voor het begin van het volgend schooljaar, begin juni 2010, willen we dan ook het tweede verdiep af hebben. De uitbreiding zal ons dan meteen ook toelaten nog een aantal nieuwe meisjes bij ons te verwelkomen.

De budgettering van deze nieuwe bouwplannen bedraagt 60.000 euro. Vanakam vzw wil deze gelden verzamelen door de verkoop van echte bouwstenen. Zo zullen er 60 stenen verkocht worden aan de som van 500 euro per stuk en 30 stenen aan 1000 euro per stuk. Al deze stenen zullen genummerd worden en gesigneerd door onze meter Dominique Monami. Elke koper zal ook hierbij een certificaat ontvangen en zijn/haar naam zal ook in de muur van het weeshuis gegrift staan.

Een extra reden misschien om individueel of in groep een steen aan te kopen. Vanakam vzw dankt u voor het vertrouwen en hoopt op 3 juni 2010 al de stenen te mogen overhandigen tijdens een receptie waarop alle kopers uitgenodigd zijn.

Christophe & Sam

Diner in San Francisco

In the beginning of my career, I have been working for Levi's and had the privilege to be invited a couple of times a year to the Levi's headquarters. It was on one of my trips to San Francisco that I had diner with Vince, my boss. Vince migrated with his family from China to the Bay Area when he was a kid. He was an executive at Levi's with an impressive track record. He retired a couple of years ago.

Vince had a pretty interesting view on career development. While having diner with a view on the Golden Gate Bridge he told me:

the first 10 years of your career, you have to become an expert in your domain: work hard, study hard, look for opportunities, take opportunities, take some risk, don't worry about money but don't forget to live your life.

the next 15 years of your career, you should consolidate: apply what you learned the first ten years, give it your personal touch but also get a broader view on the world, on business, on art. Get to understand the big picture but again don't forget to live your life.

the last 15 years of your career, you have to start giving back to society: teach, write, mentor and live your life.

We had this conversation about 12 years ago but I still consider it as one of my key "milestone-mentoring-moments".