Presentation Title
Stop doing the wrong things even better

Biography

In early 2006, Sjon Stellinga (1958) was appointed alderman by the council of the municipality of Achtkarspelen in The Netherlands. Before this position, he was working as a consultant, specialized in labour law related issues and organizational development. Sjon was hired by quite a number of well known Dutch enterprises (Dutch postal affairs, KLM, Corus), but the most impressive period by far was his time in Botswana (1996-2000). There, he served the Ministry of Education by organizing a teacher training centre for vocational education. In his book ‘Land in zicht’, published in 2003, he relates and connects his experiences in Africa with today’s modern management approaches. Today, he is still spending his free hours working with a trade union related company, studying the most effective way of organizing the ‘social dialogue’ between employees and management in larger companies.

Notes from presentation:

• From Achtkarspelen in Netherlands.
• An area which is 10,000 years old, then had 30 inhabitants.
• Pruning knife discovered there.
• 5,000 years ago had 3,000 inhabitants (represents x 100 increase in 5,000 years)
• Today has fewer than 30,000 inhabitants (represents x 10 increase in 5,000 years)
• Lots of poverty and starvation in 17th century, which continued for several hundred years.
• Conditions obviously better today, but look in telephone directory and you still see same surnames from centuries ago – still same people, who still feel same hostility towards outsiders. But are they their own enemies to do so?
• Amsterdam has lots of immigrants.
• Young people constantly move away from rural areas to large cities
  • more opportunities, more culture etc.
• But they should become proud ambassadors for their rural area.
• To conclude, officially the biggest challenge is the lack of opportunities, but rural residents should look at their own prejudices and the enemy within.