Best class

This morning we had the best lecture of this week so far. Since last Saturday we are at Northumbria University in Newcastle for the FIBA Time Out Project. It is very special to be together in an inspiring learning environment with 80 different former athletes. Male, female, young, old(age wise), with different backgrounds of culture, race and religion. Together we form a very special group where everybody can feel at home, because we treat each other equally and with respect. If somebody was for years in the NBA and Euroleague of course it is very special and inspiring. But if somebody was not there, it is good to feel that every person in the group counts and is looked at how somebody really is and what qualities he or she can offer. Certainly for me that is the case, coming from a not so good(yet) basketball country. I was never at Eurobasket(just missed it by point differential) or in Euroleague. Still I feel appreciated in this group and am impressed how kind, friendly and respectful former athletes can be. It would be great if more good leaders in basketball will come from this class.

In this morning's inspiring class led by Jamie Callahan and Nicola Patterson about Diversity, Leadership and Entrepreneurship we got great information about this topic, but the best were the interactive assignments and talks we had. In the mixed group we have many personal stories were shared about situations  were groups, teams and organisations could work more effective and efficient by making more use of diversity and leadership. Conclusion might be that there is still more to gain in the world around us...

It is interesting to realise what young people with fresh ideas and lot of energy can do and how they can be useful for future development. In the group assignment of role-play we did with different roles of President, Financial director, HR director, IT director, IT technician, Secretary, Genitor and Intern and we had to work together to solve the problem of overusing social media by the employees. Very interesting to observe how people think through the different roles and how typecasting is applied. Nobody really wanted to listen to the intern, even if he had good ideas. When a solution of the problem was chosen, the IT technician mentioned that we needed more ideas to choose from. It was interesting that nobody paid attention to his wishes, while he should be the one to carry out the chosen solution. How could this be successful without the essential believe, energy and loyalty?

I am glad that in education there is a tendency to take the opinions of students much more serious. Not only by letting them anonymously fill out questionnaires(what they really don't like to do, so we can't take the results seriously), but to have personal talks with them were the right dosis of attention and curiosity will help to get the answers we need for further development. I find the student council at Noorderpoort, where I work,  a good example. Our members of the board are aware how important the information is they provide. Great changes that equality in communication can provide.

The world out there is certainly not like that. For instance in business and sports men are dominating the important positions and in worldwide organisations especially men with a Western-European background. If we look from a leadership perspective, 'globally women's labour force participation rate has decreased over the last 20 years(from 52.4% in 1995 to 49.6% in 2015)' , 'women earn 77% of what men earn', 'only 5.6% (28) CEO positions in S&P 500 organizations are women (January 2017)'.

Different examples of how inequality and inequity make clear that seldom the most out of the potential of people is stimulated, developed and effectuated. Also personal stories from former athletes give plenty examples. How in certain countries foreign players are treated, if a basketball player is too small for the center position and too slow for the power-forward position, that most positions in coaching, management and governance are filled with men, the allowance of a maximum of 2 players with different racial background at a team. All of the examples of bad governance where not the qualities and potential of a person is leading, but prejudice, expectations and projections are. Do you want to find out to find out your implicit associations about race, gender, sexual orientation, and other topics? Find out your implicit associations

During my quest to inspire others in recognition and development of potential talent in every person, I got interested in morality and ethics of people and groups. Now I am reading a book about humanism among the primates, written by Frans de Waal. It is very interesting to read and has a strong relationship with leadership and diversity.

I hope the other lecturers also realise that the former athletes in our class are all unique and learn in different ways. What seems to be common is the desire to be active and interact as we did in the teams we played at. Recognising this and with improvement of their leadership and management they will get the best out of our class. Looking forward towards the next classes with less sending and more interactive and practical learning...