Happy NewYear 2015

We found out the video is not working on a tablet or phone. Probably due to copyright and the fact that Youtube only wants to show video’s if it can show ads before.
(The video was created with IPhoto on a mac. If you have an idea, how we can solve this please let us know.)
If you can see the video and you like it, will you like it on youtube, that is something my children see also.

 

Let’s look back at what the year that 2014 brought us…

  • Just like in 2013 we have published on Retroflection one tweet every day to make people think. Started on the 1ste of Januari 2010. In 2014, we added 15 people.
    A big thanks to our 73 people Retroflection team. (That said we always look for people who can bring new questions and statements …)
  • After the strong CoachRetreats year in 2013, Oana and me slowed down a little. That resulted in only 6 CoachRetreats in 2014. The good part for me, is that these happened without any support of me. Self-organisation at it’s best. Now it’s time to find more people to organize CoachRetreats in other cities/countries. A big thank you to Oana and all local organizers for all their work in 2014.
  • This year thoughtJockey.org  did not get much attention, although the trust experience still proves to be OK. And again, I can still stand behind what is written.
  • Who is agile in Australia (and New Zealand) was published.
  • I made sure that I don’t receive any royalties from the current local country versions of who is agile as the current books are also really self-organizing teams.
  • I failed in publishing my books on amazon. Shame on me.
  • As always I keep investing in myself, I spend 26 days learning new skills at conferences and training.
  • A big thanks to all the conferences that invited me to speak. Thank you for your trust. I had a wonderful time at each and every event I was. I was most impressed by a bunch of highschool kids that are using scrum to learn chemistry. (I learned about DOF from them.)
  • As you can see in this years video, I did a presentation with my 12 year old son at Failing.Forward. it was a real nice experiment, especially as he did not yet have English at school and the conference was in English. The standing ovation he received at the end, told us it was a successful experiment. You can read about it (in Dutch) here
  • I have stepped 4.730.443 steps this year. That is 5.795 km, or 601 km less than last year, probably due to the fact I did not run this year.  I also had two pair of shoes that completely broke down on me. Even when I was living of wellfare, I never had that. I guess the quality of cheap shoes has gone down dramatically… (Sorry Guido, I’m one of these men, who don’t like to spend money on quality shoes..) Or maybe that is because I did 5795 floors, which was 661 more then last year.
  • This year I found a developer helping me out to relaunch the PairCoaching community site. He has trouble setting up a wiki for the PairCoaching domain. Is there anyone who has experience with a setting up an open wiki, who wants to help out? The PairCoaching community will love you for it.
  • I started coaching CoderDojo and even took on the role of LeadCoach. My three children joined and two of them have brought in their own friends.
  • For my hometown Gent, this was a sad year, we have lost quite a few people that felt part of our town. I’m personally most shaken by the loss of Luc De Vos, an artists that I knew before he even made his first record, and that has inspired me in many many ways. It was also one of his songs that inspired us in 2007 to create our first New Years video. We do pray ourself lucky we saw his last concert at the Gentse Feesten. To remember him we also played one of his songs during a x-mas party with my son and sister. 

On a personal level, we now have 2 children with a double digit number.

  • Geike at age 7 already knowing very well what she wants and does not want to do.
  • Bent going alone to school by bike. Sometimes coming home alone and already studying before we come home.
  • Joppe going to a bigger school, 7 kilometers by bike with a bunch of friends. What made me most proud was he stayed with a friend who fell on the way to school, risking to be late for a test. Life is all about priorities. He has his priorities right.

 The plans for our new home got accepted and although we did lose a lot of time for multiple reasons. We did make a progress and looking forward to see the new house grow this year.

Yves