Be kind to each other, perspective flexibility helps with it.

“I challenge you to show understanding for someone who you find incredibly incomprehensible and maybe even malicious by the end of this lecture… We all have someone like that in our surroundings. Perhaps you think of someone when I ask: ‘Who should absolutely read this book “Addicted to Our Own Rightness”?’.”And the tone for the first Knowledge Day of VCA on November 15 has been set. Lammert Kamphuis tells the attendees at Tempel Amsterdam about how to develop and train perspectival agility. His story is full of inspiring examples and approachable challenges. The audience is hanging on his every word. Lammert Kamphuis encourages everyone to specifically seek out people in their volunteer work whom they do not encounter daily, to engage in conversation with them and train their agility.

After the lecture, the group splits into three different workshops: ‘Deep democracy’, ‘Talentize’, and ‘Making creative contact’, each addressing the theme of Perspectival agility in different ways.

Yonathan Keren from House of Deep Democracy explains the theory and method of Deep Democracy in a nutshell. How can you resolve conflicts, leverage diversity, and make sustainable decisions from there? This method is also directly experienced in the discussion about whether Deep Democracy is a useful method or not.

Karien Hutten from Talentize talks about Clifton Strengths, a method that focuses on enhancing people’s talents. Many studies show that potential growth from strength is much greater than from weakness. By understanding and approaching yourself and others from the perspective of talents, you develop much more enjoyment in work and much more mutual understanding of each other’s behavior.Kim Erkens delves deeper into making contact with people with dementia or a mental vulnerability. How do you make contact when talking becomes increasingly difficult for someone? In the workshop ‘Creative Contact Making’, participants are provided with tools to reach people with dementia or a mental vulnerability and understand misunderstood behavior.

After two rounds of workshops, there is a lunch where attendees enthusiastically discuss their gained experiences and insights. The morning has flown by. The visitors are excited and look forward to more events like this. VCA looks back on an informative, interactive Knowledge Day and is already considering the future. To be continued…

Photographer: Peter Lange