The dance between chaos and order...

NaLDS faci assignment #1...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:57:00 +0000

NaLDS faci assignment #2...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:15:00 +0000

NaLDS intro Kevin...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:08:00 +0000

Synchronicity...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 02:10:00 +0000

Today I finished an amazing book; Synchronicity by Joseph Jaworski. Reading through his book has been a profound self discovery experience that no other book has been able to offer. Each page is most beautifully written, such that it gave me a feeling as if I was there with each event. Synchronicity according to C. Jung is “a meaningful coincidence of two or more events, where something other than the probability of choice is involved.” In those moments, it seems as though invisible hands are helping us. Some people might refer to this as luck or faith; I do believe it is part of a subtle leadership sphere where predictable miracles can actually occur when we create the conditions for that.

One sentence perfectly captures the beauty of this book: “when we start to accept this fundamental shift of mind, we begin to see ourselves as part of the unfolding. We also see that it’s actually impossible for our lives not to have meaning.” Once we are able to cross that threshold and allow this shift of mind, we can experience synchronicity.

We will not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

~ T.S. Elliot, Four Quartets

Isn’t that beautiful, I’ve realised through the course of this book that I’m arriving again at places where I started, but this time it is another place. This rediscovery of all that I left, and am left with is more profound than any other experience. This exploration operates at a higher level, a level that is more profound in the sense of being in the flow of things. I’m now getting in the flow of things. Though, I still need to discover how that fits into the situations I’m faced with here in my new home.

If you are interested in leadership, I can only recommend you to read this book and see how synchronicity is operating in your life…

Connectedness...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 01:43:00 +0000

April 2006 is a month I’ll never forget for many reasons. I both love and hate that month. It is when I attended an Art of Hosting seminar, a seminar where we learned how to host meaningful conversations, and how that connects to leadership. Whatever it was that happened during those 4 days, it was a profound experience that up to today I still can’t exactly put in words.

I’ve noticed that ever since I came back, my thoughts have been changing rapidly; new views are emerging day by day, and my personality with it. What I’ve been able to take out of that seminar, I’m thankful for every day. I’ve seen how Art of Hosting can profoundly impact our daily lives, what harvest it can yield. The way I see things, the way I value synchronicity in life, and what I know that I want to do, or maybe supposed to do, I could not be more grateful for that.

After I came back from AoH, I started to read a lot of books that were recommended and ever since it’s been like a constant string of synchronistic events following up on each other. Recently though, I’ve noticed that my thoughts are emerging faster than I’m able to carry into my environment. Every day, my mind is processing new information and I’m barely able to keep up. I have a feeling with all that is emerging in my mind, I’m not ready to be in Germany, working for AIESEC, and AIESEC Germany is not ready for me. Too often I end up in discussions because of lack of mental connectedness. My mind is moving faster than the environment around me, and I have a feeling somebody put me on cruise control not being able to turn it off.

What to do, I feel I’m not getting connected here in Germany because it seems we’re moving in parallel worlds. It’s like when Ghandi said, “India is not ready for me.” Though, I don’t know whether Germany is not ready for me, or I’m not ready for Germany. Maybe I’m missing something; maybe I’m lacking the ability to put the synchronicity into a mental model that makes sense for my environment and for me.

Somebody, anybody help…

Welcome to our office...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 15 May 2007 09:12:00 +0000

Take a look inside where all the work is happening...

A personal gift...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 15 May 2007 08:41:00 +0000

A gift for the MC team of Germany 2006/07. Thanks for a wonderful time!!

My visual DNA...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:57:00 +0000

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 19:04:00 +0000

Enchanted part III...

She just sounds so awefully pure and wonderful live...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 15:08:00 +0000

Enchanted part II...

A beautiful cover of Queen's "One Year of Love", even Brian May was blown of his feet...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 13:12:00 +0000

Enchanted...

A beautiful singer/songwriter, Stevie Ann is the a huge talent. Just listen to the wonderful voice and get enchanted...

Thoughts of the moment...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 14:59:00 +0000

A (wo)man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket and write down the thoughts of the moment.

Those that come unsought are commonly the most valuable and should be secured because they seldom return.

Happy train moments...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 14:55:00 +0000

Funny, I always travel by train; well often so to speak, it’s convenient, especially since I have this free travel pass for Germany. Trains in Germany bring an additional advantage; they have power plugs so you can connect your laptop. Another great advantage coming from the German National Board of AIESEC is the UMTS card that comes with the job, giving you the possibility to have Internet access anywhere in Germany!!

Just a few weeks ago when I was traveling from Bonn to Brussels, I was working in the train and I noticed that some people were taking pictures of me with their mobile phones, I must have seen at least 2 girls/women taking pictures. I don’t know the reason, I didn’t even talk to them afterwards. I just remember one girl just taking a picture and smiling at me. Isn’t that beautiful… without knowing with what intentions she made pictures of me, without making any remark, she just smiled, an honest and sincere smile (not the smile where people try to hide their prejudices behind a fake emotion). It was surely the best moment of the day, seeing people sitting in trains living in their personal space that is bounded by their seat, this was refreshing.

How beautiful would it be if we could just engage in real honest and open dialogue? Imagine the time we lose on our way from point A to B, time we spend without talking, without noticing the differences we are surrounded by.

The perfect train would look like an open space, where people sit at small round tables. Coffee and tea is served for free as part of the service and people gather and talk. Hopefully I’ll be able to create something like that one day and give all travelers happy train moments…

The world we live in...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 07:12:00 +0000

We don’t really live in the world,

but in the conversations we have about the world
And over that we have absolute, omnipotent power
We have the opportunity to shape that conversation,
and in doing so,

shape the future

A random chat...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 07:11:00 +0000

hey Kevin, you're from Netherlands or you were born in Korea? I didn't get it
both
born in korea
raised in the netherlands, havind dutch citizenship
so your parents are both Korean?
dutch
i was adopted
oh ok, pretty young?
yep
i was 2 years old
no memories of korea
so you have never been there?
no ever since i got to the netherlands i haven't returned to korea
something i'll do someday
do you feel tightly linked with Korea? like you feel Korean?
i don't know
it'a good question
i feel connected somehow to asia
i'm not sure whether it feels the same for korea
i'll find out i guess, as i set foot in korea
it's funny
at ic, i feel so much more connected to the ap network as to the wena
well, it's natural... what you are is not only what you've lived, but where you come from in your past (i mean family history)... you will always feel that strong string
and yet, haven't found a way to somehow do something with it
my family is from 4 different places and I feel somehow connected to those places althought I feel strongly Colombian also... now I can imagine you being originally from Korea
maybe that you will realise going there.. you need to step on where it all began
yep, i'll see and feel it the day i return
for sure, do it... it will be great. When I went to England and Israel it felt really deep... I don't know if I am crazy but it felt like some part of me owned there (my family comes from england, turkey and jewish root, and colombian)..... I really recommend it
wow,
i guess it can do everything and anything with you
you feel it... that's why my family loves to keep traditions and it's kinda difficult and funny hehe.. we celebrate tons of things
that must be such a meaningcful experience being able to taste and feel a culture that close and that influential on you
yes definitively, and specially such different cultures...and in Colombia where every region is a f
different story
yeah, spain showed me that last year, how a country can be so divided in differences
uah! wanna go to Spain!
I swear I love that country..
you lucky bastard
you lived in Madrid eh?
yes
ole tío! really cool
it was definately something that has shaped me lately
Spain?
spain's been a defining part of my life
what was the most deeply definning part?
seeing the real me
discovering the real me
why did Spain did that on you?
something special?
because of the differences, the people, the divide
many reasons
was it you first living abroad experience?
no i lived in belgium as well
and i was reminded not being phyiscally dutch every day in my life
for good reasons and bad reasons
i guess somehow the netherlands have felt abroad as well, just didn't realise it until i lived in spain
mmmm in Spain I was also reminded a lot of times about being Colombian.. which I am proud of but many times it is difficult

Soul searching part two...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 07:08:00 +0000

Walking outside your physical you, feeling part of the air that you are walking in. Today’s been one of those days I just couldn’t get into myself, somehow I’ve been observing me.
Have you ever felt not existent to yourself? Words just slipping through, not exactly knowing the meaning nor impact it has, soul searching… Who am I, Dutch, Korean, a mix, nobody, somebody? Going back to Korea, someday setting foot on the country where I either could have lived now in what conditions, what will it change me as a person?

For many years, I never though of being or belonging to something else as “home”, but lately I can’t define home anymore. Lost in translation as the movie puts it, I don’t know what to say nor where to go, I can’t find a translation for it, the road though seems so simple and pointing me only to go there, find out explore, discover.

Soul searching...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 08:49:00 +0000

What Your Soul Really Looks Like

You are quite expressive and thoughtful. You see the world in a way that others are blind to.

You are a grounded person, but you also leave room for imagination and dreams. You feet may be on the ground, but you're head is in the clouds.

You believe that people see you as larger than life and important. While this is true, they also think you're a bit full of yourself.

Your near future is likely to be filled with great successes and accomplishments. You just need to figure out how to get there.

For you, falling in love is all about flirting and feeling playful. You couldn't fall in love with someone who took life too seriously.

Inside the Room of Your Soul

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 13:20:00 +0000

An Inconvenient Truth - Trailer

German Dutchie has arrived...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 19:26:00 +0000

So this is my first post being in Bonn, Germany. An historical moment... after all the sterotypes and football clashes, and jokes back and forth, a Dutch @er has joined the German MC :)
Last night I arrived in Bonn by train, 1.5 hour delayed. So far for German punktlichkeit LOL, well, the train was quite confortable and I was travelling in nice company (German and Canadian guy, and a Mexican couple), so it definately made up for the delay :)

When I arrived, all my team members were waiting for me :) that was sooooo cool. I actually didn't see them at first, so I already walked out of the station, but luckily they chased me and then I saw them running down the tunnel, with a big AIESEC banner! So cool.
We went for dinner in a restaurant to get to know the whole team better, and afterwards we went to the office to learn the MC roll call and off course champange to celebrate to completion of the team!!!

And now, I am in the office having had a short introduction into AIESEC Germany! And tomorrow... my first regional conference in Bielefeld :) I can't wait!!!!

Oh and for all Dutch people who wonder now what will happen with the upcoming World Cup, off course The Netherlands will win the cup by beating the German team in the final lol ;) haha. And might they not make it that far for some reason, I now can always cheer for Germany as well, alwasy good to have options :)

Rotterdam...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 19:15:00 +0000

This could be Rotterdam or anywhere... Last week I was visiting some friends in Rotterdam :) although the weather was not very cooperative, I still had a great time.
Visited an old friend from Maastricht, who is now working and studying in Rotterdam, stayed over the night and we just caught up with each other lives! I also could have joined the alumni meeting the weekend before, but in the end I decided not to. Usually it means having a lot of people in one room, and the longest conversation that you have is based on the question: "What do you do now?" By the time you explain for the 25th time that you're still in AIESEC, but abroad, you kinda get sick of it. No than I rather spend some quality time one on one, and talk about any random topic for as long as you want without being interrupted. And then, whenever the conversations ends, it ends...

Next day I visited the AI office, as I wanted to catch up with Veronica, and some other people. Also the leverage and expansion teams were there. It was cool, seeing lots of familiar faces, people you haven't seen in a long time. So I decided to stay over. besides, it was Nava his birthday they wanted to go out that night. It's cool, having lots of people around from different countries and different stories. I ended up in some interesting conversations and lots of fun :) The night ended in the Skihut where we sang and screamed the night away.

Rotterdam or anywhere was cool, you can say anywhere as you're surrounded by the world. Looking around you, you see people with different habits, cultures and stories, and it's those stories that make you feel alive. So powerful to share each other's stories. Rotterdam or anywhere, see you soon...

Johari...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sat, 06 May 2006 18:39:00 +0000

The Johari window is an interesting tool to get to better understand your interpersonal awareness. It might be a very interesting tool to find out more about yourself, things you didn't know before and maybe get some things confirmed.

So let's see what I still have to discover about myself :)

Just check the following link: http://kevan.org/johari?name=Kwansu

Personal discovery...

Power-With...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sat, 06 May 2006 15:42:00 +0000

Power-With…

During the last few weeks, I have had some serious problems with some people. I think the problems escalated because of failure to communicate. Taking into account that talking is not necessarily a conversation, I think there was never a meaningful conversation. Rather a waterfall of excuses, and everyone who has seen a powerful waterfall knows that it is very difficult to stop it from pouring water and going against the stream.

But my personality makes me try to swim against it. Some people call it stubborn, I don’t see it that way, I rather see it as making a decision and with that decision changing the destination of the ultimate goal. Because with every decision to act to achieve our initial goal, we change our goals (sounds contradicting?). Well look at it this way: whenever we set goals and based on those goals we decide to act, we make one step to achieve those goals. But as we achieve our initial goal, we have a starting point for new goals and objectives. Thus as soon as we make a decision to act, we already change our current goals and objectives for ones we ar not yet consciously aware of.

So, as soon as the problem occurred, I decided not to act according to expected behaviour instead I took the position of an equal in the situation. For me it would have been easy to accept the problem and try to get out of the situation as soon as possible. But I tried to ask questions, invite for conversations and look for either solutions or underlying reasons.

Just so it happened that today I was reading an article about the concept of Power-With. A concept that tells us that people who are dominated should try and seek ways to level even with the dominator and vica versa. In other words, not to accept Power-Over situations, but as soon as you feel that you’re in a Power-Less situation try and refuse that position, try to transform the situation and the other person until you are in a Power-With situation where both parties can speak on a normal basis where we actually try and find our full human potential. In any situation that is not Power-With there is an unbalance in the relationship and unbalance usually means obstruction of improvement, it creates a situation of power struggle. A person that is in a Power-Over position will find it very hard to maintain that position if approached by the Power-With position.

Just thought it was really interesting to find a theory that kind of describes how I like to go against the stream. Not accepting that Power-Over position of the other party but trying to converge and end up in a situation of Power-With. Now it seems that the problem is almost solved. Hopefully I can keep a balance in Power-With in future situations, I think I’ll dive into this issue to find some more useful information…

Meaningful…

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sat, 06 May 2006 15:42:00 +0000

Meaningful…

So, back home in The Netherlands after an interesting week in Lithuania. Art of Hosting Meaningful conversations was the seminar I attended. In total only 16 delegates, but that was actually perfect, for once not too many people present so you can get that closer atmosphere. Besides the seminar was at the same time and place as the International Trainer Conference, in the beautiful small town called Druskininkai.

Nobody knew exactly what the seminar was about, so we were all kind of clueless about what to find, especially since the seminar only took three days and the agenda seemed so “light”. But nevertheless the seminar had something curious and intriguing about its content, it was in fact an experiment by Engage! InterAct since the content was normally not meant for young people but let’s say “business people”.

The seminar turned out to be very useful in many was. It covered some concepts we were already familiar with but it also spread some new light on existing knowledge and concepts as well. I was very satisfied that I applied for the seminar.

But the concept “meaningful conversations” for me already was something that I use frequently. AIESEC conferences usually for me don’t have any meaning just for the content itself. Take International Congress 2005 in India, the fact that it was in India and around 600 people form over 90 countries were there was more exciting than the agenda and the sessions. I can even say they were rather boring, and I don’t think that’ll change for International Congress 2006. The important impact, output, significance or meaning that IC had was purely based on the meaningful conversations I had. Conversations that started out of a random encounters, and could easily last till 6.00 in the morning. That to me is meaning, not the agenda itself. Outputs can always be found on the website, everything that we should know as delegate will be written in a document, but the conversations cannot. You cannot read back a conversation that you never had, it’s something that just happens on the spot, randomly, unexpected and with any person.

Art of Hosting was the same. Soon we will get a CD with outputs, great, useful and I’ll definitely have a look at it. But the conversations I had with some people, people I didn’t know, never met before and I did not plan to have a conversation with, they are meaningful. Random conversations, random topics, random moments, random people.

Now even when the conference is over, the conversations continue with some of them. Some conversations have become a relationship in terms of me being a mentor for some, and others are still ongoing, because there was never an end.

So now I’m looking forward to some post-conferencing, endless conversations, randomly starting with the virtual communication channels we have. And who knows, maybe we can continue them physically at some other random conference.

Random meaning everywhere…

Can't sleep...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 03:31:00 +0000

It's 4.37 in the morning, I can't sleep, a problem that I've taken with me from Spain I guess. During the last few months I've barely slept "regular hours", instead my whole rhythm just moved a couple of hours forward. Anyways, now I'm just one of those people who doesn't know what to do and thus is surfing the internet for some news and reflecting on things that occurred lately.

Isn't it funny, how in AIESEC we always tell ourselves that we should work for our identity, for our vision, for what we've been doing for so many years now. Well ironically that’s a big lie, since AIESEC hasn’t always been that “fair” as it actually started as something quite elite, discriminating between Europe (West) and the rest of the world. Luckily we could let go of that box thinking and we have been growing and expanding throughout the years. But it’s interesting to look back at the impact we actually had in the past or recent history.

I was partly surprised by the recent news in Spain concerning the cease fire by the ETA. According to the news, they haven’t killed people in the last two years. And now they’ve announced a cease fire. The current government is willing to talk, and now all the eyes are on the ETA and Zapatero. Maybe, who knows in the near future it’ll be possible to get both parties around the table and start peaceful conversations about the problems that Spain has been facing for many years. I’d like to think it’s what AIESEC Spain has been working for as well, although sometimes difficult knowing the current reality of the country. Getting together people from different regions is difficult. Getting them to work with each other is more difficult. But getting them to respect each other is the biggest challenge.

Now the recent elections in Ukraine. After the “Orange Revolution” last year, now the country is again voting for new leadership, but democratically. The big question now concerning many people is what will happen after the elections. It’s so interesting to follow that, even though I’m so not aware of everything and the details. But again, it’s part of what we try to do in AIESEC, at least in my opinion.

Peace and fulfilment has a different meaning for people. For me, AIESEC is not only about world peace (what once was the underlying though of many, and still is). It’s not only about bringing cultures closer. To me it is bigger than that. What would peace mean for somebody who has been living in a dictatorship for over 20 years? Or for somebody living in a country where the government censors media? Or for somebody living in a country that has been torn by internal conflict and now there’s nothing that s/he can fall back on, no education, no social system nothing…

Now in Israel, there are so many young people, “our generation” who are not planning to go to the ballot boxes to vote for new leadership. They say it doesn’t make a difference, because there are no competent candidates. Such a shame, they’ve got so many opportunities but don’t see it or don’t have confidence in a handful of people. In my own country children of 13 years old are making videos of people fighting and publishing them on the internet. The only thing that first year students are thinking about is joining a fraternity/sorority to make friends and get drunk. And they actually think that will help them build their CV. The can’t even rely on their personal capacity of finding good friends and actually doing something relevant while they are studying, they think the first thing they need for that is a brotherhood of “fake” friends.

Yeah, there is definitely a need for AIESEC, and there will always be. And that pops up an important question: Do I still want to be part of AIESEC in the year 2006/2007, or better said, does AIESEC still want me?

I always thought I would stay in AIESEC for many years, which is surprising for a Dutch AIESECer (you probably all know the mentality of Dutch AIESECers, and I’m not particularly proud of some part of that). But lately I don’t know anymore. Finished my term in Spain before the end, got rejected by HK, don’t exactly have the profile for being AIER team, and applying for a leverage country or initiative country sounds great but I guess I don’t exactly have the right references to be elected, same goes for the WENA board. And well what’s left next year a part from that? Not much, most countries have elected the new leadership teams. Most probable seems to be the option of going back to university, and finishing my career although this year’s MC term has cost me dearly, since the university took two years of study away from me by claiming that they’ve become “invalid”.

Anyways, still some time to think, at least until the 15th of April since that is the last application deadline for the current options. I’m curious how next year will look like, guess life sometimes is like a box of chocolates and you don’t always know what you will get. So who knows…

Yesterday is history
Today is a gift
Tomorrow is a mystery

Passion...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 15:48:00 +0000

Back home in The Netherlands, my adventure in Spain has ended! Although not finished as I thought it would, it has been remarkably strange. Going there trying to change an entire culture which in the end off course never was a success neither should you change a culture, as it is something of the people. In the end I just wanted to change the mindset or passion of the people, however, that to was too overly optimisitic. Over time I lost a lot of things, money, friends, time, motivation, more money, more friends and more time. Strange enough, one thing despite all the losses increased, I became more passionate about what I hope I have done in and hope to be doing in the future...

AIESEC is fantastic, once you really see the contribution and development of people around you on a personal and professional level, that's the biggest reward for the work we are doing. I've seen people grow, I've seen people challenge their existing worldviews, I've seen many things.

And I was so ignorant when I arrived in Spain, now more than a year later it got me. My mistakes, failures, weaknesses, all have been subject to change for the better or worse, it has changed. If I have become a better person, well that's not for me to judge I guess, but by the people around me. I tend to believe that my presence in Spain has not been for nothing, I hope to believe there is a legacy that I left behind.

You should leave footprints in the heart of other people, and you should seek those breathtaking moments whatever that may be for any person.

Now you tell me, did I leave footprints for you, was I part of breathtaking moments that were lived during the last year in Spain? I hope so, I want to believe I did, and I will do so in the future...