About

Ingrid De Clercq

chief

creativity

accelerator

“I am a free spirit, curious, adventurous, open and positive. My inquisitive nature, deep interest for people and why they do what they do make me a patient listener and perceptive sounding board who gets to the essence before drawing conclusions. All of this flavoured with an infectious enthusiasm, boundless energy and a big smile.”

Ingrid has over 20 years’ experience in projects involving the building out of entrepreneurial cultures, developing, launching and coaching innovation programmes for larger corporations besides guiding young, innovative companies to a model of self-management. She brings her expertise with start-ups to established companies and vice versa. Ingrid lectures on team composition for entrepreneurial teams at Imperial College, London, the University of Brussels (VUB) and Erasmus College in Brussels.

She has been a keynote speaker on Creative Thinking, ‘How to make Innovation work’, Culture Change and Building Futureproof Organisations in Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, Romania and Pakistan.

Ingrid has a Graduate Certificate in Creativity and Change Leadership from the International Center for Studies in Creativity, of the State University of New York, Buffalo, is a FourSight Master Trainer in Mindset Certification and a certified MBTI-trainer Type I & II.

Mark Harling

“I am a resourceful, intuitive, and creative professional who helps people make the choices that will contribute to reaching their ambitions. I hold a passion for improving strategies, systems and organisations. I consider each organisation I work with to be a living system and I aspire to help its people to grow and flourish. I ask tough questions, whilst bringing depth and reassurance to my clients. My signature laughter signals that I’m in the building.”

Mark has over 20 years’ experience in numerous industries in the fields of continuous improvement and organisational transformation. He has worked with real people, humans from the shop floor to the executive suit, helping them achieve their goals through problem solving, and coaching. Mark has guided large scale management transformations and initiatives of self-management.

Mark specialises in corporate strategy and transformation through culture change, helping organisations to evolve towards new natural habits of thinking and doing. He uses applied creativity and complexity theory to support his work on social innovation. Mark also provides personal development and therapy services to individual and group clients, specialising in the LeaderSherpa® program, helping those in leaderships positions reach desired visions and ambitions.

Mark has a Bachelor of MechAnical Engineering from the University of Bath and a Master of Science in Engineering Management from the Eastern Michigan University. He is a qualified therapist and supervisor in the Person-Centred Approach and a certified Lego® Serious Play® facilitator. Mark is also certified in a number of coaching tools like emotional intelligence, Gallup Strengths, Cognitive Process Profile, etc.

And when he’s not working …. Mark is an all-weather long distance motorcyclist, member of the Iron Butt Association (1600 km in 24 hours)

Why Ouzia?

OUZIA comes from “ousia,” a term used in ancient Greek philosophy by Aristotle. In short, ousia means “become what can be,” to realize your potential to self-actualize.

And that is what OUZIA is all about: ensuring people and organisations reach their full potential, and grow into the strongest and healthiest versions of themselves, equipping them to thrive with confidence in a quickly changing environment.

The complexity of the challenges faced by organisations often runs ahead of their ability to address them. We bring a thinking framework that is simple enough to be taught to all layers of your organisation and sophisticated enough to tackle audacious challenges. We unlock employee creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation, embed it in the company processes and match the outcomes to the company goals. Together, we will create an open-minded, bold, solution-focused organisation, ready to face the future.

“We cannot solve our problems from the same level of thinking that created them.” Einstein

Greek philosophy

How Aristotle describes “ousia” in his work Categories is so meaningful that we love to share it – in our own words.

The soul is what puts matter in motion from the inside out—what makes it live. Matter in itself is not structured (even if it looks that way) and is one aspect of what Aristotle defines as”‘ousia”.

The second aspect of ousia is “form”, which is not the physical form but the description of how “matter” will behave and move.

The third aspect of ousia links the form to the matter, makes it move and brings it to life.

When we apply this concept to humans, it translates as follows: our body (ousia, the form) is a composition of atoms and chemical processes (ousia, the matter) that needs an operating system (ousia, the soul) to be able to function, to move, to live, to BE.

What if we apply this to an organisation? An organisation (ousia, the form) is a composition of people, products, buildings, structures, processes, etc. (ousia, the matter) that needs a purpose and a culture (ousia, the soul) to be able to function and come to full realisation.

And that is what we do with OUZIA: we work with you on the three ousias to make sure that your people and your organisation reach their full potential and grow into the strongest and healthiest versions of themselves.