My name is Ruben van der Laan. I work with change and innovation since 1999.
Since mid 2011 I am based in the Netherlands, working globally.

‘Ose être nomade, crée et rigole’

 

My adventure with innovation

Organizing innovation is one of the biggest challenges organizations face nowadays. As entrepreneur I need to innovate, all the time. So this leads to trials, various forms of cooperation and many failures along the way. By flinging ideas to the wall, I can see what ideas stick and which ones should be discarded because they fall to the ground.

Here are 2 of the sticky ones:

• The New Staff Meeting (or Het Nieuwe Werkoverleg in Dutch) for team collaboration and team flow in new work models,
• From Public Service to Own Business (or Van publieke taak naar eigen zaak in Dutch) for civil servants that leave their employer to start their own company

 

My adventure with change

My move to Bangkok at the end of 2008 proved to be my biggest change so far.

I love to tell that my move was because of a lost bet. This is true. My partner and I were both looking for an international broadening of our experience. The bet was: the first to find an opportunity the other will follow. And so it happened. The choice was a big leap in the void, but it was a positive one. It provided me with two opportunities: to work in an international context while starting my own independent practice on change and innovation through participation.

 

My adventure with participation

My adventure with participation started at the weekly staff meeting of my first job. One of my colleagues always took a nap; sometimes short, sometimes for almost the entire meeting. The meeting leader just let it happen and so did we, happy to leave the hierarchy do its non-interventionist job.

It showed the failure of our meetings and their low level of engagement. And it triggered my passion for real participation, for creative and engaging meetings, for teams that function.

It also gave me one of the most engaging stories to introduce my work. I started to feel the power of this adventure some time ago. Now I tell it almost every time when leading a meeting, running a workshop or giving a keynote.

 

I hold a Masters degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Delft University of Technology.
I work in English, Dutch, French and Russian.

I am member of:

• IAF: International Association of Facilitators
• AIN: Applied Improvisation Network
• Toastmasters International

Click on the following links for:

• my services
• clients I have been working with
• my contact details

On a less professional level I love taking pictures. For some examples have a look at Sherry in Bangkok (site in Dutch)