HELLO

Romke de Haan 

He/Him

LinkedIn

 

Meet the Leader

Romke E. De Haan is an innovative and results-oriented technology leader and executive with over 20 years of experience managing digital experiences for some of the world's largest brands, organizations, and startups. He is a thought leader and top digital strategist with strong expertise in the area of IT modernization. His divergent thinking ability and holistic approach to management and problem-solving make him an asset to organizations seeking leaders who can level-up technology operations and provide a competitive edge.

 

Restorative Leadership Interview Questions:

 

Question 1: What helps you stay creatively courageous when the world feels threatened/like it’s on fire?

 

My job is around finding the threats and disenfranchisements of society. It's important that I stare at the face of adversity with calmness, awareness, and action. This craft that I have developed has given me a skill to utilize my creativity during challenging times. I find myself digging into my culture, and my community to find creative ways to allow the stories that need to be told and uplifted.

Being a collective of many cultures in my ancestry, I find myself of many places, but also in a new definition of what I have been made to be. This allows me to have rich history of stories, practices, and symbolisms as sources of constant creative interpretation and outpouring. 

 

Question 2: Describe a time when your imagination helped you move from fear into action.

 

I find myself to be in a constant state of imagination and wonder. In times of fear I lean my imagination to push towards a hopeful future. I grew up in a very violent neighborhood. I constantly lived in this state of fear, I would use my creativity and imagination to escape the world I lived in. It became a form of survival. No in my adult life, imagination drives my thinking, my passion. I try to instill that imagination in others. To dream of something better.

 

Question 3: What does growth and holding space look like for you after a loss or rupture? 

 

I recently had open heart surgery. I remember waking up from my procedure and finding myself surrounded by tubes coming from every possible section of my body. My mind started to race towards what my outcome was. Was the surgery successful? Did I experience any complications? Is this going to allow me to live longer? My body was in complete trauma. I started to get nervous. I could feel my body shaking. I stopped. Took a deep breath and escaped into my meditative practices. Controlling my breath, calming my mind. Even in all the things I didn't know, I was alive. I was loved. I have a chance to keep going. My meditation was key to my healing. I spent a lot of time in community with my own body. Feeling the trauma it had experienced, I would hold the parts that were shaking, and just say to it, "We are going to be ok." Months went by, and that simple practice gave me so much peace. So much momentum to push forward.

 

 Question 4: How do you protect space for imagination in your team or community? 

 

I recently became President of a global collective of companies. Stepping into a new leadership role, I was asked to reshape the company. I had a new vision, but I did not want my vision to be the only driver of how we steered the company. So I made it a habit to ensure I created a framework of imagination that allowed a collective vision to be created and believed in. Three months later, the team has devised a plan that I also would have not been able to establish. Together we have dreamed a beautiful story. Together we are crafting it's reality. It's critical that every point of the creation has moments to reflect, regroup and revise. As time moves on, so does our understanding. Instilling those aspects into the culture are so important to me.

 

Question 5: What rituals or practices help you (and/or your team/community) name what hurts while still holding on to what’s possible? 

 

Meditation has been a corner stone to holding what hurts for me. For years I was also holding that space for others in group meditations. Using moments to pause, reflect and reimagine in meditation have been a strong driver to allow teams that I have worked with to think about solutions in different ways.

I graduated from a program called homeboyz. It was a program that took youth who were impacted by gangs in Milwaukee into a career in tech. Everyday I would hold a circle for the members to reflect daily on topics to heal through and meditate on possible outcomes of their lives. This daily practice was found to be healing for all of as it was the only space we had in our lives that gave us a moment to reflect on life and the trauma we experienced together.