Word-Dancing Together Towards Noble Outcomes

Mijn keynotes zijn denkopeners met een wetenschappelijke ruggengraat. Ze kunnen gebracht worden als keynote, publiekslezing of denksessie, afhankelijk van de context. De volgende reeks bestaat uit vijf lezingen die elk op zichzelf kunnen staan en tegelijk samen een doorlopende reflectie vormen over taal, cultuur en betekenis. De keynotes kunnen in het Nederlands, Engels, Duits en eventueel Frans. Keynotes met ruggengraat | Greet Angèle De Baets 1. Taal tegen de meetlat Wat is taal eigenlijk?  Over grenzen, ongelijkheid en de wetenschappelijke blik op taal We gebruiken taal voortdurend, maar wat we taal noemen, blijkt veel ruimer dan woorden alleen. In deze lezing schets ik hoe de wetenschappelijke kijk op taal is geëvolueerd, wat vandaag als taal geldt en waar de grenzen liggen. Dat blijkt verrassend relevant voor communicatie, onderwijs, samenwerking en voor iedereen die zich bewust wil verhouden tot taal. 2. Interculturele communicatie onder de loep Van alledaagse ontmoetingen ...

How can you make professional communication training at once more engaging, easier to understand, and more memorable? That question was central to a research project that ran from December 2022 to December 2023. All participants took part in a communication training programme based on an interaction model developed from recent research. This model was implemented differently across groups: some groups worked exclusively with cognitive knowledge transfer and exercises, while others combined the model with explicitly embodied movements and principles drawn from aikido. From Training to Publication The analysis of the results has since been published. This process took time, as is typical of rigorous academic research. The article went through a double-blind peer-review procedure: independent experts assessed the study anonymously, without knowing who the authors were, while the authors in turn did not know the identity of the reviewers. This procedure guarantees a critical, careful, and ...

The Association for Business Communication (ABC)  brings together scholars, educators, and practitioners who share a commitment to advancing business communication research, teaching, and practice worldwide. Left to right: Greet Angèle De Baets, Gail Flanagan, and Marlies Whitehouse Taken during the 90th International ABC Conference in Long Beach, California, October 2025 ABC operates through a strong international network, with regional representations across the globe, including Europe, Middle East, and Africa ( EMEA) . From 2026 onwards, Marlies Whitehouse (Switzerland) will take up the role of Regional Vice-President EMEA, succeeding Ursula Lutzky (Austria). I would like to thank Ursula for her sustained commitment and leadership over the past years, and I warmly welcome Marlies in her new role.  My sincere appreciation also goes to the many members who actively shape this community through their work and engagement, including colleagues such as  Gail Flanagan ...

In communication training, learning outcomes are often framed in terms of techniques: better questions, clearer arguments, more effective structures. In our mixed-methods study on aikido-based communication training, however, participants consistently described something different. They spoke of eye-openers , surprising insights , and experiences that continued to resonate long after the training ended. Physical interaction: Powerful understanding Rather than listing newly acquired techniques, many participants characterised what they learned as edifying : physically learning from the aikido as a theoretical model for interaction and communication. The following excerpt is taken word for word from our article: When screening the open-text answers, most participants in the aikido-embodied groups reported that they found the interaction skills they learned to be edifying: ‘gave a few eye-openers in conducting conversations’ (Nina, Aikido-Embodied Group D), ‘a very interesting experience...

One of the most consistent learning outcomes in our mixed-methods study on aikido-based communication training was tranquillity . Not tranquillity as relaxation, but as a trainable form of self-regulation that directly affects how people communicate. Tranquillity is a skill The following excerpt is taken word for word from our article: Qualitative analysis of the observations, transcripts, and surveys showed that tranquility was a highly popular learning gain in the aikido-embodied groups. Nora (Aikido-Embodied Group A) reported how she benefitted from learning tranquility skills through posture and breathwork: ‘Working on my grounding and breathing to communicate from a stronger position and thus have better conversations. Applied twice already with brilliant results.’ Louise (Aikido-Embodied Group A) shared that she used tranquility in her daily communication at work, adding her catchline in capital letters: ‘CENTERING AND ATTENTION TO THE LOWER ABDOMEN.’ During the plenary feedbac...

Inzichten uit recent onderzoek Hoe maak je een professionele communicatietraining tegelijk boeiender, beter begrijpbaar en makkelijker te onthouden? Die vraag stond centraal in een onderzoeksproject dat liep in van december 2022 tot december 2023. De deelnemers volgden allemaal een communicatietraining gebaseerd op een interactiemodel dat was ontwikkeld vanuit recent onderzoek. Dat model werd in verschillende groepen op een andere manier uitgewerkt: sommige groepen werkten uitsluitend met cognitieve kennisoverdracht en oefeningen, andere groepen combineerden het model met expliciet lichaamsgerichte bewegingen en principes genomen uit aikido. Van training naar publicatie De analyse van de resultaten is intussen gepubliceerd. Dat proces nam tijd, wat eigen is aan degelijk academisch onderzoek. Het artikel doorliep een double-blind peer-reviewprocedure : onafhankelijke experten beoordeelden het onderzoek anoniem, zonder te weten wie de auteurs waren, terwijl de auteurs op hun beurt niet w...