Word-Dancing Together Towards Noble Outcomes

The Communication Doctor's keynotes are thought-opening sessions with a scientific backbone. They can be delivered as a keynote, a public lecture, or a facilitated reflection session, depending on the context. The series below consists of four talks that can each stand on their own, while also forming a continuous reflection on language, culture, interaction, and meaning. Intercultural Communication Under the Lens What we really need beyond clichés about language and culture The Ecology of Conflict The third outcome beyond winning or losing Understanding Japan in the West: The Case of Aikido Between meaningful appropriation and empty banalisation Aikido: A Modern Tradition History, context, and meaning About Greet Publications Book Greet The keynotes are available in Dutch, English, German, and French. Keynotes with backbone | Communication Doctor 1. Intercultural Communication Under the Lens What we really need beyond clichés about language and culture Intercultural communic...

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 ...

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...

[ ABC  is the Association for Business Communication.] This October (15–18 October 2025), I had the privilege of joining the Association for Business Communication’s annual conference in Long Beach, California. It was a vibrant gathering of scholars and practitioners dedicated to exploring how communication shapes organizations, leadership, and learning. I was fortunate to contribute in two very different formats: a 20-minute presentation and a two-hour workshop. Each offered its own rhythm, its own kind of attention, and its own possibilities for connection. The presentation, From Embodied Practice to Linguistic System,  followed a more traditional academic structure: a slideshow, clear sections, and the familiar discipline of fitting a complex argument into a tight time frame. In these twenty minutes, I first traced how experiential learning — including aikido-inspired pedagogy — deepens clarity, engagement, and retention far beyond what knowledge transfer alone can achiev...

  [ ABC is the Association for Business Communication.] From 4 to 6 June 2025, I had the privilege of attending the ABC Regional Conference at NHH in Bergen (Norway), themed “Building Bridges Between Business Communication and Management.” Bergen was beautiful, even in the rain, cold, and wind. Against this dramatic backdrop, the NHH campus offered a warm and stimulating environment for exchange. The conference brought together scholars and practitioners to explore business communication in all its contemporary complexity. Bergen, view from the fish market 📷 Greet Angèle De Baets Topics that resonated Throughout the three days, I attended sessions on crisis communication , CEO letters , visual communication , teaching confidence , corporate social advocacy , the normalisation and (self-)orientalisation of intercultural communication , self-awareness , and many more. The diversity of topics reflected not only the scope of the field, but also the growing need to address complexity,...

There is no single accepted definition of conflict. The many definitions, whether they refer to international, political, religious, cultural, generational, organisational, interpersonal, or intrapersonal conflicts, focus on the incompatibility of concerns (Thomas & Kilmann, 2012, p. 2) , adversarial values (Dorjee et al., 2013, p. 115) , and the collision of cultures (Lewis, 2018) with the connotation that conflict is a negative, destructive, or inhibitive force. In reality, conflict can be healthy. It can bring to light previously unseen pressures or discontents, promote problems to be addressed, and improve understanding of goals and motives (Mohammed et al., 2009, p. 4) . Upon moving away from the negative connotations, conflict becomes more of an intriguing challenge and its resolution can be found in communication. Approaching conflict with a positive outlook, coupled with effective communication, can turn conflicts into opportunities. | Excerpt from the author’s  doctor...

The idea of national identity remains prevalent in this day and age, shaping how individuals and societies perceive themselves and interact with others. This perceived identity consists of behaviours and values that are reinforced through everyday experiences. Robert Dilts’ logical levels is a model that explains the relationship between behaviour and values, helping us understand how national identity may influence intercultural communication. Additionally, Michael Billig’s concept of banal nationalism provides insights into the subtle ways ideas of national identity are continuously reinforced in daily life. By integrating the model and the concept of banal nationalism, we can explore how national identity operates at different cognitive and behavioural levels, shaping both cultural self-perception and intercultural interactions. Dilts' model, however, does not apply solely to national identity; it was originally developed to explain the different levels of an individual's pe...

Considering that many intercultural misunderstandings, whether innocent or not, have their origins in inequality and not just difference (Blommaert, 2005, p. 77), the need to achieve a goal together, even if only for strategic purposes in the military, diplomacy, and business, has often led to results. The results are generally an effort of either cooperation or competition; similar processes take place in everyday micro-level intercultural encounters. When an intercultural interaction leads to an effective — and preferably appropriate — outcome (Deardorff 2006, 256), it is indeed at least because the interlocutors have a goal they want to achieve. Intercultural interaction ‘does not just happen’ (Deardorff 2009, xiii). Kecskes (2018) explained that intercultural communication relies more on emergent common ground, because of the limited availability of core common ground resulting from little or no mutual prior experience. Co-construction, which is the co-creation of emergent common g...