<\/i> go back<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div> I work independently, but not alone. I always work with others.<\/p>\n Tackling complex change<\/strong> Collaborating around our profession<\/strong> Here more than there<\/strong> If you would like to know more about my institutional affiliations, explore their websites: NSOB<\/a>,\u00a0SIOO<\/a>,\u00a0TG<\/a>,\u00a0OOA<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> I support change efforts, especially around societal challenges such as climate, education, and health care. My work is rarely limited to organizational change itself: we address internal changes only when they are needed to create greater impact externally. The issues I work on are rarely controllable or predictable. That means the approach cannot be known in advance, much less rolled out as a project. In such cases, I treat change as an ongoing process of understanding more deeply, designing more intelligently, and acting more powerfully. I work on societal challenges, first and foremost. That means I do what the challenge calls for, not necessarily what a client wants or what I personally prefer. Those three do not always align. Innovation, after all, often requires breaking with routines, which can make it contentious. Societal challenges are multifactorial: social, economic, political, cultural, and psychological. As a change professional, developing both an understanding and a feel for them requires a lifetime of learning without ever being done. That is what I have enjoyed doing, and still do.about who I work with<\/h1><\/div>
\nThe most intensive collaboration happens when we are trying to effect change or create knowledge. I then spend a stretch of time alongside those involved, especially those who act as change agents and connecting weavers. Sometimes that lasts for years, and those bonds take on real meaning. I have that, for example, with the City of Amsterdam, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative. Such connections go beyond individual assignments; they also create a shared interest in the underlying themes and in other people working on them. Examples include transitions involving livable cities, international development, and sustainability.<\/p>\n
\nLess intensively, but over a longer period, I work with peers: people who regard processes of change, consulting, organizing, learning or research as their profession\u2014sometimes as their main occupation and sometimes as a second vocation. Together we conduct research, develop new ideas and practices, exchange perspectives, or write and publish. I have trained many fellow practitioners but now leave most of the teaching to them; I occasionally take a guest role to explore the boundaries of our field and the questions that keep nagging us. Some of these collaborations have an institutional tint: I am a senior research fellow at NSOB (the Netherlands School of Public Management) and an associate partner at Sioo (Inter-university Centre for Development in Organizational Studies and Change Management) and Twynstra Gudde (a management consultancy firm). I am a Certified Management Consultant (CMC), a registered training provider (CRKBO), and active in professional networks such as OOA (the Dutch Association of Management Consultants). Just as important are the personal networks that cut across those institutions, with steady companions. In recent years, I have worked closely with Leike van Oss, Katrien Termeer, and Mark van Twist.<\/p>\n
\nThese days, I work mainly in the Netherlands. In the past, I often worked abroad: in Africa, elsewhere in Europe, and, to a lesser extent, in Asia and the United States. That experience helps me recognize distinctly Dutch patterns\u2014patterns that sometimes help us and sometimes get in our way. I now prefer to focus on contributing where I live, travel less, and work in my own language. That said, exceptions prove the rule: if something further afield comes along and makes perfect sense, I will engage. Without exception, I now deliberately limit my workload and choose carefully whom I work with, precisely so I can act with enough attention and depth.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/hansvermaak.com\/en\/files\/hans-vermaak-1.jpg\" "\\"hans-vermaak-1\\"")
<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>about what I do<\/h4><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\nRead more <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\nabout how I work<\/h4><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\nRead more <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\nabout what I stand for<\/h4><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\nRead more <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\nabout my experience<\/h4><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\nRead more <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":2,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3465","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t