Simon Koolwijk

Regularly when I am called by a call center of a   company doing research or trying to sell me a service, I am mostly addressed as Mrs.   or Ms.   It is an unconscious bias of many telephone operators, who assume that my voice is female, while I am a male.   In our daily routines, we are confronted with many different diversity biases, when we communicate and interact with people. In our journey, understanding biases, there are 4 main biases, that hinder us in building a diverse and inclusive workplace and that easily can create misunderstanding, conflict or not obtaining and motivating the most talented people. 1. Unconscious bias Unconscious bias is implicit. It is unintended and subtle, based on unconscious thought. Typically unconscious bias happens involuntarily without any awareness or intentional control. 2. Affinity bias Affinity bias is the unconscious tendency to get along with others who are like us. It is easy to socialize and spend time wit...

If you do a google search and you type ‘Chief Executive Director’ and you click on photos, you will notice that 90 % of the photos are white males and 10 % white females. You will hardly notice people from another ethnic background. When I was watching the Tedtalk of Arwa Mahdawi, a consultant and expert on diversity and inclusion, I was touched by her story, that the streets in our big cities are changing into multiethnic and diverse places, while our board rooms of big companies are still predominantly white and male. Arwa Mahdawi is wondering ‘Why is the face of power still not changing?’ According to Arwa there are in the US more CEO’s leading big companies called John (17), than there are women being CEO (7).  Somehow, there are still a lot of unconscious biases, which need to be tackled, while the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workplace are outstanding. According to research; Racial diverse teams outperform non-diverse ones by 35 % Teams where men and women ar...

In an online discussion taking place at the E-learning course of Future Learn ‘Understanding Diversity and Inclusion’ I was expressing my concern on how difficult it was to build and sustain relationships with people who are very rich when it comes to sharing meals, going to expensive clubs and dressing up accordingly.  Somebody confronted me online with a question, check how is it for people who earn even less than you?  Ask them, how it is for them to keep relationships with you. This question was really an ‘eye-opener’.  Although I have worked in more than 25 countries, there are still untapped areas and things to learn about diversity and inclusion. The simplest definition of diversity is difference .  Understanding diversity and inclusion embraces acceptance, respect and empathy. It means we understand, that each individual is unique and this is okay.  The exploration of differences and diversity happens best in a safe, positive, and nurturing ...

Agile is an attitude and not a technique with boundaries. An attitude knows no boundaries. So you do not ask yourself 'can I use agile here?', but 'how do I behave agile in this situation?' or 'how agile can we be in this situation?' Alister Cockburn, founder of the agile movement Alister Cockburn calls himself a modern-day bard . He travels from continent to continent, to tell and share his stories of companies and organizations he visited.  According to Alister Cockburn, the key of agile is learning from each other and it is important that this process is facilitated by doing and reflection. Learning is actually a key by-product of a process, when you are producing a product or service for a client.  According to Alister Cockburn ‘Servant leader’ in this aspect is an outdated terminology. In an agile working environment Alister Cockburn is talking about the ‘Hosted leader’, somebody who is accepted by others.   Watch this video interview with Alister Co...

Scrum Scrum is a framework for developing and sustaining complex products. The method has been developed in the early 1990s by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland. Historically Scrum has most been used for complex products, such as software, hardware,  internet applications, technical devices, electronics, schools, managing the operation of organisations and other projects with complex issues.  Read more background material about Scrum at  https://scrumguides.org/ Definition of Scrum Scrum is a framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value. Scrum is one of the techniques, that is applied in an agile working environment. According to the Agile Manifest, Scrum is most effective when; People and their mutual interaction are preferred  above processes and tools; Working results are preferred above comprehensive documentation; Partnership with the client is...

"Seeing our group of HIV/Aids-infected people for 5 minutes on video as long as our Mayor on video, gave us the feeling that we are recognized and seen in our community.”  A women’s leader in a community in Ethiopia expressed this feeling at a community dialogue, where self-developed video stories were shared amongst stakeholders in Ethiopia, when they discussed about the changes, that had taken place in the health sector.  “Seeing ourselves on video, shows how our behavior and attitude has changed in a positive way on how we deal with challenges in the health sector. It strengthens our commitment to continue this process of dialogue amongst the service providers and service users” This story is an example on how video storytelling can make a difference in participatory processes. Video storytelling is a method, where people who have a common topic of interest,   work together to develop a film. The participants are the directors of the film. The purpose is to...

‘Citizens are not afraid anymore to demand for their entitlements! Health service providers do listen better to the demands of their patients. The quality of the health care has significantly improved last year. The treatments have improved, people started to talk positively about the service in the clinic, service providers keep their time schedules, the ambulance service is 24 hours available, hygiene practices have improved and the clinic is clean.’ This is one of the change stories, which was shared by citizens, service providers and government officials who participated in a participatory video intervention facilitated by Redeem The Generation (RTG), a local civil society organization who supports social accountability processes in various municipalities in Ethiopia.  For the whole story consult video:   Behavioral change and service improvements on health care in Matehare, Ethiopia . Social Accountability Social Accountability is a process where cit...

‘Outcome harvesting is an excellent tool for evaluating projects, that operate in a complex environment and that do not have a pre-defined strategy!’    This was one of the comments from one of the participants, who participated in a workshop conducted by Ricardo Wilson Grau, one of the founding fathers of the Outcome Harvesting method.  The workshop was hosted on the 23 rd June, 2015 in The Hague by the Nedworc Association and OXFAM Novib ,   participants were Nedworc consultants and MEL-officers of OXFAM Novib. Outcome harvesting is an evaluation approach, involving all stakeholders in a project,  in a program context where there are no clear relations between cause and effect.  Especially projects that involve lobby and advocacy,  fast changing contexts and unpredictable situations can benefit from the Outcome harvesting approach. In 2013, UNDP selected Outcome Harvesting as one of the 11 major Monitoring and Evaluation innovations. Th...