Jan Booij .
Area of work:
Public domains
Specific field of expertise:
Internationalisation, Innovation, Governance & Leadership
Type of work:
Nowadays: Consultancy, coaching, study trips, geo-political topics
What does ENIEC mean to you or your work?:
Surprises
More about Jan
I always work with the same fascination: connecting worlds. My career began within the walls of healthcare organisations, at Haga Hospital in The Hague, with GGZ Delfland in Delft (psychiatric care), and later as a director in the care of older people in a superdiverse The Hague (Nursing homes, elderly homes, homecare, elderly housing) and as a director within national and municipal advocacy organisations and youth healthcare. The real contact, seeing what was needed by people and professionals, that was the backdrop against which all my later initiatives were painted.
My work as the owner of JBA was like a house with two wings, which reinforced each other. In one wing, I helped organisations to become modern and resilient in a superdiverse society, for example through the network Divers Den Haag and Voor(t)gaan in Verandering which I co-founded. In the other wing, my international work took place, with a very special long-term collaboration with the Chinese city of Suzhou and other Chinese cities that began in 1998, during the time as worked as director in elderly care. In this, I visited China so often and served for years, till nowadays as a bridge-builder between European and Chinese knowledge and experiences in the field of care and welfare.
As a natural extension of this connective work, I have been very active as a chair and speaker. I have had the privilege of doing this at conferences in The Netherlands and all over the world, with the most special experiences being in China. For me, however, the most beautiful part of these moments was never the stage (conferences can be so dull) itself, but always the conversation or debate that arose afterwards, the real contact from which new insights and connections grew.
Throughout the years, my guiding credo has always been: "Anders kijken naar hetzelfde" - "looking differently at the same thing". The moment you think you know how things are, is precisely the moment to actively seek out material and perspectives that cast doubt on or challenge that view. Only through this continuous curiosity can you keep learning.
Our decades of experience at the helm and under sail aboard the Cato Delia have taught us that even the slightest change in course can reveal an entirely new world. Obstacles that once seemed insurmountable can suddenly vanish, showing that there is often far more room to manoeuvre than first appears.
Around this central house stood and stand more 'pavilions' that characterised and still characterise my work. For instance, together with Grete, I was a co-founder of ENIEC and although we worked so hard, especially during the preparations 2005 - 2007, it ultimately became a wonderful journey. ENIEC has always been a uniquely valuable meeting place where you encounter so many remarkable people. What makes it special is that we all as members come together annually, driven by a shared will to contribute to a better world. Within this community, you are there first and foremost as a person and a fellow human being; your professional role comes second to the genuine human connection and shared purpose. I enjoy being active within ENIEC in a supportive role.
Together with Thijs Vink, I still organise study trips with geopolitical themes based on Global Majority items as a starting point, all over the world, because nothing sharpens your thinking like genuinely encountering other perspectives.
As member and chairman of supervisory boards, I used this experience for good governance.
These decades of connecting and building have also gained a personal follow-up. More and more often, questions come my way, or arise in conversations, from people facing a new step in their career. Therefore, I also use my experience as a coach, to guide them in their personal and professional quest.
Although I scale back back my activities step by step, I remain active where my heart lies: in the connection with Asia and other continents, in organising study trips that broaden our perspective, and in this personal coaching work. Whether it was care, governance, international cooperation, or personal development, for me it has always been and remains about the same thing: building bridges between people, cultures, and organisations to achieve mutual understanding and better solutions.
Immersing yourself in another's perspective is the ultimate way to gain insight into your own.
ENIEC Communication Group
Since two years i am active in the communication group, with my wonderful colleagues Miina, Thuzar and Ferhan, and in this we work closely with Nikolett, who is closely involved in communication within the board
As the ENIEC communication group we support our network in various ways to make our ENIEC mission more visible and impactful. Through relevant media, such as the ENIEC newsletter, we share the story of ENIEC, highlight key developments in our respective fields, and showcase the work of you, as ENIEC members. We support the ENIEC board and working groups with their communications and actively seek collaboration with other media platforms that can help us promote our mission.
A key part of our work is making our members more visible, not just externally, but also within the network. We want you as members to get to know each other better, appreciate each other’s work, and feel more connected to ENIEC. In doing so, we build a stronger and more cohesive community.
