As my train rolls ever closer to Schipol airport this evening, cutting through green fields, traveling by some amazing looking homes, and trying to catch the sun sinking into the horizon, I realize there are only a few hours left of being in the Netherlands on this trip. I have been here since early Wednesday evening, and have presented the User Adoption Strategies workshop twice (with a couple of flavours and in two cities). Many thanks to the team at Silverside for the invitation to come back, and for organising for me to present two workshops – one public and one private. Now it is on to London for a few days of business next week, but with a side trip to Cardiff for the weekend.

A few reflections on my time in the Netherlands:

1. I stayed at the Hilton by Amsterdam airport. It was adequate as a place to sleep the night, but definitely of lower quality than the Hilton in Warsaw. It did, however, have a gym available 24 x 7, which was nice. I made a comment about running to one of the delegates at the adoption workshop on Thursday in Rotterdam, only to be told that he “hated” running, loved cycling, and that that made perfect sense because he was Dutch. I commented that a hatred for running would explain why there was no one else on the treadmills at 4.45am that morning. He laughed and mentioned something about sleeping at that time of the day too.

2. The user adoption workshop at Silverside was the first time their new workshop training room had been used for a public workshop. That was pretty cool, and we learned a bit during the day about how the room worked for a workshop. Roland (Research Director at Silverside) made a few notes during the day about things to do to the room. And of course I rearranged the tables and chairs to suit my purposes for the workshop; thanks for letting me get away with that Roland!

3. The workshop on Thursday in Rotterdam was attended by 24-25 delegates (I thought it was 25, but there were a few people who left / came during the day, and I didn’t keep adjusting up and down during the day). That number – 24 or 25 – was perfect for the small group exercises we did during the day. It allowed five good groups during the first major break-out, and six good groups during the second. Many thanks to each of the delegates for their involvement and participation throughout the day; it had a great vibe to it once we got going.

4. After dinner at a nearby restaurant, we drove to Deventer, arriving late Thursday evening. On Friday I presented the User Adoption Strategies workshop again for a Silverside client, but with a focus on adoption strategies for unified communications / social communications. In getting ready for the workshop (over the past few months), I was amazed at how the word “adoption” in the context of unified communications is almost predominantly used in the sense of “technology acquisition,” as opposed to “helping users succeed.” We had a smaller group during Friday, with 12-20 people attending / participating during the day.

5. And now it’s time to leave. Thanks again to Silverside for arranging everything, and to each of the delegates who attended / participated in the respective workshops. It was great to be back. And many thanks to Roland and Sasja for helping with transportation during this trip.

6. The best question I got during the two days was whether my work on adoption was “just a job (that I tolerated), or a deep-seated passion.” When I mentioned that I had written the various books because they needed to be written (and without a book contract), the questioner quickly came to the conclusion that it was the latter.