Internationals dinner

We've had our third internationals dinner, this time at the restaurant Edel in Amsterdam. Click here to see a video: http://www.debaak.nl/en/deBaakTVint

Intercultural coaching - how it's NOT done

Teaching Baseball as Second Language in China

NY Times, 5 July, 2008

BEIJING — On a dusty, shoddy baseball field here this spring, Jim Lefebvre, manager of the Chinese national baseball team, gathered his players and demonstrated the Red Sox slugger Manny Ramírez’s philosophy on hitting.
“If you hit it here,” Lefebvre said, acting as if he were hitting a ball after it passed his body, “you drive a Chevy.”
“If you hit it here,” he said, pretending to hit the ball as it crossed the middle of the plate, “you drive a Cadillac.”
“But if you hit it here,” he said, pretending to connect a smidgen earlier, “you’re in a Rolls-Royce with a chauffeur! Get it? That’s how much money they have. They don’t count it, they weigh it!”
The players, who speak little English, stood by, looking puzzled. Yi Sheng, the third-base coach and unofficial team interpreter, struggled to relay the story.
Yu Lei, a pitcher, giggled and said in Mandarin: “The coach has got a good sense of humor. We all like his gestures. But, no, I can’t say we understand him most of the time.”

-- To see entire article, click here

Strategic direction

"We strive to be recognized as a partner in international learning. Our goal is that by 2010 our clients will naturally see us as an authoritative institute, on the European continent, with which they can partner to address leadership and other business-related topics in an international context. "

-- from Strategienotitie 2008 - 2011

The Future of Learning and Work : Big Thinkers Forecast the Next Big Moves

This article from Ingeborg:

Recruiting, training and managing will continue to be in great demand, but they are about to undergo substantial change. Prominent thought leaders in the field of learning and work (Malcolm Gladwell, Howard Gardner and Richard Florida) forecast the skills that will be needed in the upcoming labor market and the future challenges for workplace training. How will organizations attract and retain top talent? What will be the prevailing personality of the next generation of managers? The reflections consider characteristics of the future workforce, the importance of learning in hiring and retention, the changing role of trainers, and the importance of coaching.

For network link to full article, click here.

Today's term

Being here at the ASTD 2008 Conference in the US I've had the chance to update my knowledge of the training world. Yes, the emphasis is on the training world in the US, but there is a very strong international contingent. There are 100 members of the NVO2 group from the Netherlands alone, and a very strong representation from South America, all parts of Asia and the Middle East. Germany has a huge area reserved in the Expo, the trade show portion of the conference.

Anyhoo, today's term is "SME". In my experience, recently updated by my interactions here, has always been that "SME" is the equivalent of the Dutch "MKB", small and medium enterprises. However, the most common use of "SME" in the training world appears to be "Subject Matter Expert." These are the content-providers within companies: those who provide the technical background and knowledge for training: technicians, professors, and others who provide the raw content matter for the particular training that is being delivered. A minor use of the term "SME" is "self-made expert", someone who by the dint of their own efforts has become an authority on a given subject.

For network link to doc, click here.

Repatriation

This adaptation from an email to a colleague:

"How is it being back in the US? Being here is great. It's a different world. Even though it's my own country, it's always a shock coming back: the tempo, the commercialization, what's important/not important. When I come back here I think back to my adopted country and think of all those people there who are warning against the "Americanization" of Europe, the Netherlands in particular. Sure, there are some trends, largely symbolic, that may look American to an outsider. But in terms of what these trends mean in terms of value systems . . . Like I said, it's a different world."

San Francicso - Baghdad by the Bay

"When I was a child growing up in Salinas we called San Francisco 'The City.' Of course it was the only city we knew, but I still think of it as the City and so does everyone else who has ever associated with it... San Francisco put on a show for me. I saw her across the bay from the great road that bypasses Sausalito and enters the Golden Gate Bridge. The afternoon sun painted her white and gold -- rising on her hills like a noble city in a happy dream... New York makes its own hills with craning buildings, but this gold and white acropolis rising wave on wave against the blue of the Pacific sky was a stunning thing, a painted thing like a picture of a medieval Italian city which can never have existed. I stopped in a parking place to look at her and the necklace bridge over the entrance from the sea that led to her. Over the green higher hills to the south, the evening fog rolled like herds of sheep coming to cote in the golden city. I've never seen her more lovely."

-- John Steinbeck, "Travels with Charley: in Search of America", 1960