Géraldine decides to start training in Non-Violent Communication at the beginning of 2023. She was lucky enough to follow the basic modules with Pascale Molhlo. Their exchanges were rich, and a link was created…

Pascale has been a medical doctor since 1984, a hospital doctor for 15 years and a certified NVC trainer since 1996. Pascale herself was trained by Marshall Rosenberg, not in a training room but in the field, accompanying him to many countries, including conflict zones. She sees NVC as a “natural extension of her vocation as a caregiver, enabling people to regain their power to act and interact in accordance with their own values and with respect for others”.

She is a facilitator at heart, having learned the trade in the field alongside a man whose teaching principle was: “Don’t do anything if it’s not fun and play!

After Géraldine, it was Richard’s turn to discover NVC with Pascale…

Today, the journey continues, as it’s the whole ImpaQt team and 2 MMAPPER-certified facilitators, Jean-Marc Dollinger and Magali Geffroy, that Pascale took on board at the beginning of March for another trip to continue our individual and collective journeys and enrich our NVC key practices.

During the 3rd quarter of 2023, Richard Géraldine worked on the development of key questions that will enable an individual to position himself. They have also integrated the notion of “bonus” questions that will enable each individual to take the lead in positioning themselves according to their current reality.

In contrast to this innovative questionnaire, existing positioning tools offer a “photo” of the self, the danger of which is that it is perceived as an immutable truth.

For us, self-knowledge is a journey over time. And the only person who can ultimately position himself is the person himself, taking into account a diversity of self-views.

This represents a total change of prism, a “pathfinder” approach where the pawns can move as the reflection progresses.

In short, our positioning application project is progressing well, and the journey is exciting.

And we’ll soon be ready to launch a pre-test phase to test the background so that we can submit a solid specification to programming experts. Are you interested in taking part in this pre-test phase?

How to prevent burn-out?

We sometimes come across people on the verge of burn-out in the course of our coaching work. I have a poignant anecdote on this subject: that of a man who, during an act of development, declared: “I would be ready to sacrifice everything for my work”. I can still remember the expression on his face when his words were returned to him…

By the way, what is burn-out?

Burn-out, a syndrome of physical and psychological exhaustion, is the final stage of chronic work-related stress… which has not been managed in time. It is characteristic of people with a committed and/or perfectionist nature. Because, as Richard often says, we all have the defects of our qualities…

In my opinion, the causes of burn-out are both internal AND external. They are both linked to an individual’s shortcomings AND to excesses in collective demand. In the same way, I believe that lasting solutions can only be found individually and collectively.

The beginnings of a burn-out manifest themselves as follows: when the VERY becomes TOO MUCH and/or the FEW becomes NOT ENOUGH: too much load, too much pressure, too many action plans, too much too much… and not enough time, not enough prioritization, not enough support, too much not enough…

What are the keys to preventing burn-out?

In my opinion, the 1st key to preventing burn-out is a good understanding of ourselves, our needs and our warning signs, those subtle behaviours – such as difficulties in delegating or a tendency to see only what’s wrong – which, when they become long-lasting and intense, can gradually lead us to burn-out when we are in a (too) demanding professional environment.

The 2nd is to build caring teams where people know each other well and are attentive to each other. So, when a member of the collective is in difficulty, the collective can offer support, which will be all the easier if a spirit and practices of co-development are established.

And how can MMAPPER help prevent burn-out?

As an individual positioning tool, MMAPPER enables an individual to visualize the fact that he/she is no longer in balance, or even in danger of breaking down, when he/she positions him/herself at one or other of the extremes – on the TOO much or NOT ENOUGH side of the cursor. And once it has been appropriated as a tool for personal and professional development, MMAPPER then enables the individual to define relevant objectives and implement concrete actions, if necessary with the support of the collective.

Géraldine Berruto

2024: make an impact

Why this slogan?

Of course, there’s the nod to ImpaQt, which was all too tempting…

In fact, this new slogan seemed an obvious, logical follow-up to “2023: add your touch”. Because it’s only when everyone makes a positive contribution by adding their own touch of personal color that a collective can evolve and step by step create a vision, a coherent image that makes sense.

While writing this editorial, I looked up the origin of the term ‘impact’. It comes from the Latin ‘impactum’, from ‘impigere’, to hit. This echoes what we experience in the course of our coaching work: in-depth transformation of an organization does not take place without clashes… In fact, it is often the expression of dissonance that enables harmony to be created at the end of the process.

This also echoes the role of the facilitator – or that of the manager-facilitator – and the art of the challenge, which enables us to move individual and collective lines, while taking care, thanks to an acute awareness of ourselves and others, not to do too much or too little. Another story of cursors…

Happy reading,

Géraldine Berruto
Co-managing director