The stakeholder has gone quiet.
Nobody has done anything wrong.
Nothing in the method covers this.

A team that agreed in the workshop does something else. A decision gets made in a room where you are not sure you are allowed to disagree. You notice something is off before you can explain why.

Something similar happened before, but not quite like this. Your own experience does not settle it either.

VONK starts there.

VONK is a twelve-week programme for people working in digital transformation.

You bring a real situation from your own work. A small group of 8–12 professionals helps you look at it properly. You decide what to try. You try it, and you come back with what happened.

Who it is for

I am not defining this by age, seniority or job title. A consultant three years in and a programme lead with fifteen years both reach the point where the usual answers run out. What differs is the situation they reach it in, not whether they reach it.

One thing does matter. You need to be doing this work now, on something real, with consequences attached. Without that, VONK has nothing to work with.

Your real work is the material

Not case studies. Not exercises written by someone who was not there. The meetings you are actually in. The stakeholder who went quiet on you last week. The thing you tried that worked better than you expected, and the thing that did not.

You also work on situations other people bring. That is not a favour you are doing them.

Different people see different things in the same situation. One person notices an assumption you did not know you were making. Another read the stakeholder differently. Another asks the question you had not thought to ask.

That is the part you cannot do on your own.

At the heart of VONK is a loop we use to work through real situations

It is a loop rather than a list, because acting creates new information, and new information takes you back to the beginning.

NOTICE: Something catches your attention. Someone reacts differently than you expected. A conversation feels off. Or you have the sense that something deserves another look.
FACTS: What actually happened? Separate what you know from what you have interpreted. What did someone actually say or do?
FEEL: What do you feel or sense about what happened? Your response is information. It may tell you that something matters. It is not proof of what is happening.
ASSUMPTIONS: What are you assuming? What story have you already started telling yourself about the stakeholder, the situation, or what it means? And what else could be true?
OPTIONS: What could you do? Open the situation up before you decide. Generate possibilities, including the ones you would normally dismiss too quickly.
WEIGH: Which option makes sense to try, based on what you know now? There may not be a perfect answer. You are choosing a considered next move, not predicting the future.
ACT: Try it. Then pay attention to what happens, because the outcome gives you new information.

Borrow perspective, not answers

One more thing runs alongside the loop, and it is not a step in it. At any point you can borrow perspective. From another participant, a colleague, a mentor, your own earlier experience, a book.

Someone else's view helps you see more of your situation. It does not replace your decision about what to do in it.

That distinction is why the group works the way it does. Nobody is there to solve your problem. You leave with more perspective, and the decision stays yours.

You may not always know the answer. But you'll know how to start.

What this looks like in practice

Imagine this situation.

An ERP rollout is technically on track. The plan is green. The workshops have happened. A key stakeholder agreed with the approach.

Since then, they contribute less. Responses are slower. Their team has started questioning decisions you thought were already made.

Nothing is officially wrong. But something does not feel right.

The instinct

How do we get this stakeholder back on board?

In VONK

NOTICE: What made you notice something had changed?
FACTS: What did they actually say or do, and what are you interpreting?
FEEL: Frustrated, worried, defensive, unsure?
ASSUMPTIONS: Have you already decided they are resistant?
OPTIONS: Ask a different question? A one to one conversation? Observe for longer? Do nothing yet?
WEIGH: Given what you know now, what is the most useful next move?
ACT: Then see what happens.

Not: here is what you should do.But: what could you do, and what happens when you try?

Why twelve weeks

One session can teach you the loop. It cannot give you the thing that changes how you work, which is running it on your own situations, more than once, and finding out what happens.

You bring a real situation. The group helps you work it through. You choose a next move. You go back to your own project and act. You notice what happens. You bring that back.

Then it goes round again. A different situation, or the same one further on.

Twelve weeks is long enough for that to happen several times. It is also spaced enough that a situation is still live when it reaches the group, and that you have room to act between one conversation and the next.

Most of VONK happens between the conversations, in your own work. That is the design, not a gap in it.

The rhythm

We start together in week one. We meet again in weeks three, five, seven, nine and eleven, and close in week twelve. Each conversation lasts around 90 minutes to two hours and takes place online.

Between conversations, you go back to your own work. There are no extra assignments to complete. Your work is the practice.

There is also a WhatsApp group for participants who want to stay connected between conversations.

What VONK is not

It is not confidence coaching. Confidence may turn out to be a side effect. It is not the promise.

It is not personal development detached from work. No personality questionnaires, no strengths assessments, no self-discovery exercises. Everything in VONK is anchored in a real situation from real work.

And it is not a programme where I tell you what you should do. My experience supports the conversation. It is not the answer key.

My experience goes last.

I facilitate. That is a decision about sequence, not modesty.

You bring the situation. The group asks questions. The group offers possibilities. Together you look at why each one could work and why it might not.

Only then, if it is useful, I add one more possibility. And when I do, it gets the same treatment as everyone else's. Why could that work? Why might it not?

Twenty years in this field means I have been in a lot of these rooms. It does not mean I know what you should do in yours.

In the first conversation I will probably talk the most. After that, I hope you will.

Where this leads

VONK is not designed to make difficult situations disappear. It is designed to change how you navigate them.

Sometimes what you try will work. Sometimes it will not. Both give you something useful. The outcome is data.

Over twelve weeks the aim is that you get better at noticing what matters, separating fact from interpretation, questioning your own assumptions, seeing more options, and making a considered next move.

Not because someone gave you the answer. Because you are developing your own way of navigating when there is not one.

That is what I mean by a professional compass.

Is this The Vonk Playbook, delivered live?

No.

The Playbook starts with what I learned in twenty years of digital transformation. VONK starts with what you are experiencing in yours.

They share a worldview. They do not share a curriculum. You do not start from my five rules.

Interested in the next VONK group?

I'm preparing the next VONK group. I haven't set the dates yet. Leave your email and I'll let you know when the next round opens.

Thinking about VONK for a team? Start a conversation.