Coaching, Mentoring and Accompaniment

Individual, Team, Organisational Development

If your team is dysfunctional; your unit or organisation is facing a difficult change process; you are struggling in your collaboration with other organisations; your self-confidence is low, and you are unclear where you want to go and how to get there? We can help you if you are ready to address the situation. Wherever you are will be the entry point. We draw on techniques from Partnership Brokering, Being-at-Full Potential, Organisational and Relationship Systems Coaching, Appreciative Inquiry, and Mindfulness-in-Action, to create the positive atmosphere and energy that will allow you to find your way out of the impasse towards a brighter situation.

Mentoring and coaching

Mentoring is on-the-job accompaniment, of individuals or teams, to guide and support their learning-by-doing. More effective but more time consuming than a training session.
Unlike mentors, coaches do not provide guidance and do not demonstrate how something can be done. They believe that the answers are within individuals or teams and help them discover those by asking questions and creating the space for their discovery and decision.

Training
Design &  develop and (co-) deliver an entire training or contribute to yours with particular sessions.
On different thematic aspects of conflict reduction and peace work, and governance improvement.
Based on adult learning principles

Learning events & opportunities 
Learning events can be in other formats than ‘training’ – the most common being the ‘workshop’. But many events or tasks (participatory analysis, reviews, evaluations, partnership discussions etc.) can and should be turned into learning opportunities.
Organisational development support and advice

CHANGE FATIGUE AMONG CHANGE AGENTS: Seeing it and attending to it.

At GMI we are in constant conversation with different drivers of change, accompany and advice some change processes, and teach fundamentals of change management.  This has drawn our attention to a little recognised phenomenon: deep fatigue among those seeking to be drivers of change. One group are ‘intrapreneurs’, change makers within their own organisations who do not have senior formal authority. Another group are those seeking to change larger systems, such as the political dynamics in their society; a network they are part of; a sector they work in. Within such larger systems, all of us of course become intrapreneurs. The challenges are exponentially greater, and so is the demand on our sources of positive energy.

Change fatigue manifests itself in different ways. The result however is the same: you are short on positive energy and therefore not at your best.

At GMI, we continue to create spaces for system change activists to reflect on their repertoire of tactics and techniques and to broaden it. But now have become more mindful that “The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervenor.” (William O’Brien - CEO Hanover Insurance) So now we intentionally build in attention to and care for possible change fatigue, for our own wellbeing and the inspirational quality of the work we are called to do. Intrigued? Then read more here.

YES BUT or YES AND? - HOW DO YOU RESIST NEGATIVITY AND CULTIVATE POSITIVITY?

In some countries, people overall seem more gloomy and negative than in others. Why is that? Does it affect you?Some individuals tend to take a negative, skeptical or even cynical, attitude to every proposal for positive change. How do you deal with that? Explore this a bit further, and get some tips here.

From good to great - developing the full potential of ECOWEB

GMI (Smruti) and Harmen Van Dijk facilitated wellbeing sessions with 15 members of the senior management team of ECOWEB, a Philippines-based NGO. Working in an area affected by conflict and natural disasters, the COVID lockdowns added to their burden and stress. The sessions were delivered remotely through interactive technology. They consisted of discussion sessions around the different Being States from the Being at Full Potential framework. Developed and tested first in the private sector, GMI is now also introducing approach to local/national not-for-profit sector. The ‘Human Potential’ frameworks start with exploring the four Being States: 1) Being inspired, 2) Being Abundant 3) Being in Service and 4) Being aware. In each state we explore the deeper dimensions of behaviours and attitudes which are levers that can open up reflections and discussions leading to change. The session also includes short informative sessions on wellbeing and exercises and techniques that people can take away and practice. Different facilitators provided a safe space for discussion and providing their expertise. The sessions have included poetry, songs, dancing and exercises and lots of laughter.

Here are some of the poems that have inspired discussions:

The Guest House

 By Rumi

This being human is a guest house

Every morning a new arrival.

Joy, depression, meanness,

Some momentary awareness comes

As an unexpected visitor,

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they are crowd of sorrows,

Who violently seep your house

Empty of its furniture,

Still treat each guest honourably

He may be clearing you out

For some new delight

The dark thought, the shame, the malice

Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in

Be grateful for whatever comes

Because each has been sent

As a guide from beyond.

 For Katrina’s sending

 Henry Van Dyke

Time is too slow for those who wait

Too swift for those who fear

Too long for those who grieve,

Too short for those who rejoice

But for those who love

Time is eternity

Radical Gratitude Spell

Adrienne Maree Brown

a spell to cast upon meeting a stranger, comrade or friend working for social and/or environmental justice and liberation:

you are a miracle walking

I greet you with wonder

in a world which seeks to own

your joy and your imagination

you have chosen to be free,

every day, as a practice.

I can never know

the struggles you went through to get here,

but I know you have swum upstream

and at times it has been lonely

I want you to know

I honor the choices you made in solitude

and I honor the work you have done to belong

I honor your commitment to that which is larger than yourself

and your journey

to love the particular container of life

that is you

you are enough

your work is enough

you are needed

your work is sacred

you are here

and I am grateful

Client Feedback

Thanks so much for helping me to find myself again. I really appreciate it. I believe I am now on the right path towards full recovery. I am also convinced I am able to continue on the positive path with the insights you gave me. I am really grateful that you choose to help me on this journey that can sometimes be lonely and challenging.

I would say that you are really insightful. you have a unique way of helping your clients to find solutions to their own challenges. Further, you have a talent in healing them to have confidence in their own unique qualifications and abilities.

Feedback on Coaching - NGO leader

“I wanted to thank you for providing us with an open atmosphere that was conducive to different types of exchange. You brought out positive thoughts/reflections from many of us. The calm and serenity with which you approached the challenging/hurtful conversations was desperately needed. I only regret that we did not have an additional day to get through more of the muddy waters! "

“I have very much appreciated your ‘savoir être’. You reminded me of who I am and where I would like to go. You reawakened my courage and confidence that I can and will find my way and that I have to go for it.”

Participants in a team coaching retreat

“If your organisation is looking for a genuine, generous and thoughtful organisational consultant, with diverse tools and frameworks at hand, then Koenraad is the person you seek. Particularly because he also has strong listening and sensing skills and thinks creatively and strategically. His approach is such that it enables learning for the team and for everyone within it. Working with him was both a valuable experience and a delight.”

Jean Paul Chami, Founder and Director at Peace Labs (Lebanon)

“We asked Koenraad on very short notice to support us with our annual retreat. He was confronted with challenging team dynamics, but he managed, over the two days, to unlock certain blockages within our team and planted promising seeds for change and sustainability. We liked his thoughtful and holistic approach and his facilitation style. Koenraad is very good at sensing people and situations and navigating teams in a wise and non-obtrusive way through stormy situations to help them to find a more balanced mind-set.”                               

Marc Probst, director SAD

Thank you for your excellent programme this weekend. In our post-event survey 84% of participants rated the facilitation as very to extremely professional, while 92% of participants rated the retreat as very to extremely effective. This feedback speaks for itself!”

Survey among 15 Chairs of Boards of Wikimedia national chapters

Despite having worked in non-government sector over many years, I have not had a chance to fully comprehend how to grow professionally and felt somewhat hopeless sometimes. The Human Potential Assessment results gave me a brutally honest picture of where I am right now. The outstanding thing about the tool is it gave me not only clear diagnosis of current status but helped me to vision what I can achieve. (Those arrows and colour panels are so useful!) Having coaching conversations with Smruti was another step to own my present and future.

NGO staff in Myanmar