As an ideas junkie, I’m passionate about exploring what makes good ideas. For me, journeys are always productive in generating ideas: a train ride, a cycle or a flight always prompts some valuable scribbles in the obligatory moleskine. It’s why I’ve taken mini ‘inspiration jaunts’ (see my book ‘Juggle! Rethink Work...’for more on this) throughout my career and why I’m taking a train to Paris next month to start my third book.
Last week I met up with Martijn Sjoorda for what is becoming our bi-annual lunch. Martijn is Research Director at Fresh Orange in the Netherlands and is an expert in organisational development. Martijn takes the ‘ideas + journeys’ formula beyond the individual; his company takes teams on train journeys across Europe to help unlock innovation and explore leadership potential. After lunch we had a stroll and I asked Martijn to explain the science behind taking journeys; why changing our environment is so productive.
I know it's only early days, but this year I'm really enjoying extending my network and meeting new people. One of those has been Martijn Sjoorda. Martijn is a smart guy who helps people and businesses change. He’s a Partner in Dialogic Leadership and Fresh Orange in the Netherlands and we ‘met’ in April 2008 via the website of Tim Ferriss’ '4 Hour Work Week' where I saw a comment he’d posted. I got in touch and sent him some propaganda about my own book; I’m not sure what he thought about my unsolicited email, but fortunately he happened to like my website. We started a dialogue. 20 months later - and after one aborted attempt in Amsterdam - we finally met last week. I love random connections coming to fruition like this; too many people try to contrive 'networking', forgetting the importance of serendipity and coincidence.
Martijn's over-riding passion is to make organisations nicer and healthier places to be in; he despairs at people who leave 70% of who they really are at home. Martijn’s got a great take on people and business so I took some time to grab a short interview with him.
