In my fifties I became aware, that I’m always coming from the whole and I always see the relevant whole in a given situation. As I see it now, developing integrality and wholeness is part of who I am. This quality enabled me to create all that is lifemaps and integrallifemapping.com. The experiential knowledge at the basis of the scenarios and of the lifemaps projects I am offering comes from a career in business and in government, powered by a drive for self-expression and societal innovation. A burnout experience and an awareness raising process drastically changed the situation, leading to an inner journey. Questions arose: how do I view the world now? Where is my place in it? How can I remain positive when the life conditions on earth are deteriorating? What will I do? New scenarios were developed to help me reassess my principles and find direction. While guiding groups of four in lifemaps projects, my own process of enquiry and development continues. I’m sharing bits and pieces in my Blog.
To me work has always been my life’s work. Key areas of expertise: strategy, helicopter view, analysis & synthesis, context awareness, structuring, information technology, systemic advising and change. Biologist. Personal development, see the ebook Life in 3 questions. New business development in the corporate industry, for government, to win and deliver large-scale contracts with long-term partnerships. Core roles: seeding the field, weaving a web of connections, creating conditions for success and giving direction, developing a joint vision, inviting all stakeholders to commit the best of themselves and to choose collaboration over competition. I always set an overarching higher goal, to achieve results with value for the stakeholders and the whole system. Co-author of a book about community and place-based business models by Jan Jonker, Professor em. Sustainable Entrepreneurship. I incorporate everything I’ve done and learned in my life in my Integral Life Mapping work. Linkedin profile.
In this phase of life my mission is more to promote awareness raising than it is to take action. So how can I still make my contribution to care for the planet? One of the strengths of lifemaps is precisely the physical, the tactual, working with products on the basis of paper… I therefore design private measures for myself. I cleared out my excess clutter, took part in a communal living experiment, became a vegetarian, got rid of the car and bought solar panels. More sustainability measures are taken recently, such as installing insulated glass windows at home (the workplace). Last year my focus has been to create more diversity in my garden and develop semi-wild areas. This year’s focus is to develop more knowledge about non-food (consumer) products. I use organic produce, avoid products with environmental impact, travel less, buy less stuff and try to do more with what I already have. Together with others I pick up litter in the neighbourhood. For Lifemaps.NL I aim to purchase materials and services from companies with clear sustainability objectives and with proven experience in this area. I am keeping lifemaps in the paper form. It works well. Happily people tend to keep their completed poster instead of throwing it in the recycle bin for used paper.
For one of my former employers, UWV (Social Services) Data Services, I designed and hosted a lifemaps project about corporate values and vision building for teams. Projects in the years after that – always responding to an innovative initiative – were delivered: as a committed participant and workshop host in the Veerhuis, as an ambassador for an inclusive and flexible employment market in Werken in Netwerken, as a co-creator of the BOOST013 lifemap workshop for Tilburg Municipality, as an active member of the IHBV group for highly gifted entrepreneurs, and as a partner of Inspiration at Work. Thanks to the experiences and stimulating collaborations in these past projects, it became clear, that lifemaps could be of real value and that it would be worth the effort to develop more scenarios in accordance with the big vision of Humanity’s Code of Care.