TITEL De rust van een krijger SUBTITEL Monoloog over de professionele mens LANGUAGE Dutch PUBLISHER Obeliskboeken ISBN 9789464611618 SIZE 213 x 132 x 30 DATE 07 Nov 24 PAGES 240

The pre-publication in English is available on demand (pepik@meneerdeleeuw.nl).

English back-cover pre-publication april 2023

This book is my account of what it is like to be a practitioner committed to serving complex societal fields. This is how I meet the world in my practice.

I do this exploration in an experimental way. I sense, dance, draw and reflect my way through the unruly reality that I am engaged in. A reality that is far bigger, far more complex, far more subtle, and far more beautiful than I can express in concepts, logical models or abstract management theories. And in the midst of all this sensing, in the confusion of letting go of what I use to orient myself, I catch glimpses of what I call to be a professional human.

You will not find any theory in this book. There will be no handouts with practical steps. You will find lived-through experiences, told like stories. These stories are like waves breaking onto the shoreline. Each wave is an attempt to sense a situation; to dislodge a pebble and carry it further along the beach of my awareness.

Thinking about it, this book is for people who have quite a few more years of professional life ahead of them, but who are not likely to change their career and who therefore feel the urge to find new ways of making their professional life worthwhile.

Reviews

“As an experienced professional in the field of transitions and complex issues, I immediately recognize the value of this book. Pepik Henneman does not offer theoretical frameworks or step-by-step plans, but something far more important: lived experiences and honest reflections. This makes the book particularly relevant for people who want to complement their analytical thinking with more intuition, creativity, and humanity. The book is thus a valuable, authentic guide for those who are not afraid to let go of their professional convictions and make room for wonder.’” - Yves de Weerdt-

“No theory, no step-by-step plan, but stories about how to make genuine contact. Contact that touches people. To fall a little bit in love with one another each time. To show how, through genuine connection and vulnerability, you can create momentum in social transitions. It calls for a different way of speaking. Different behavior. To act from a place of love rather than fear. To communicate from your heart, not just your head. Because what moves people is not what they know, but what they feel. -Thijs Mackus-

“Pepik writes about humanity. About what it means to be human in your work. He shows how you can give concrete expression to that, and what that does to yourself and your surroundings. In doing so, he reveals not only his beautiful sides, but also his rough edges. His hospitality, his ability to help people grow, but also his ego, his judgment, his doubts. It is precisely in that complete humanity that the power of his story lies. It is not the polished successes that linger, but the imperfections, the mishaps, the coincidences, and the rough edges that give his story meaning. They reveal that change does not arise from control, but from presence. What perhaps touches me most is his insight that our own impact on the world can never be fully captured at the moment we act. An intervention does not stop with the person who carries it out. It resonates. It continues to move beneath the surface, through others, in reactions, in small shifts in behavior and attention.” - Charlotte Oldenbeuving -