IndyJohar, architect and community builder of the HUB Network,
just recently RT one of my tweets on ViktorFrankl.
In our search of excellence we have to always go the long way
going for a goal that we can't achieve today.
It can be rather uneasy to go that EXTRA MILE and yet as
SethGodin coins it, we are in an "Entrepreneurial Revolution"
What is it you're striving for?
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Myriads of Opportunities Ahead of Leadership
The gist of the study by the Bertelsmann Stiftung:
The Web and its culture have two profound and paradoxical implications for leadership:
- on the one hand, effective approaches to leadership within all sectors are increasingly constrained by the need to accommodate conditions enabled by the Web—such as great ease of connecting, dramatically lower costs of collaboration, and transparency;
- on the other hand, the Web offers those who would exercise leadership—inside or outside organizations and traditional sectors—possibilities for impact going beyond what was previously feasible.
The combined implication offers:
- strong payoffs for leadership that is free from the expectation of or need for maintaining control and avoiding failure [this in my eyes is THE INSIGHT]
A very personal note:
- I am very grate- and thankful to Karlshochschule and its makers new blog on Leadership for providing this excellent piece of insight to go public. Happy to spread the thought more!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Shocking "truth" in the morning
What implication might that have?
What on GDR maps was "white" back in the days is now
the other way round. It seems that the concept of lean and
making things easy is not popular in Eastern Germany.
Is it true what we see?
Due to the the constraints during the GDR times people very
much have understood to create value with what they have.
Meaning that lean thinking is essentially embedded in the "DNA"
of workers, researchers, and people in the Mecklenburg, Sachsen,
Sachsen-Anhalt, Thüringen, Brandenburg.
What is your personal experience?
PS.: The publication "Der Neuerer" ran till 1990 and with it ended
the "lean spirit" in the GDR. More about the background here. [Both
links are only in German, please use GoogleTranslate]
PS.: The publication "Der Neuerer" ran till 1990 and with it ended
the "lean spirit" in the GDR. More about the background here. [Both
links are only in German, please use GoogleTranslate]
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Consciousness of collective mind
DavidBohm's interview at the Bohr
Institute in Copenhagen back in 1989 (!).
Take an hour out of your busy bursty
live, just listen and infuse to the life
around you.
Collective change comes from individual
change lead by an "invisible hand" and
the power of awareness which part in the
game of life we play.
Institute in Copenhagen back in 1989 (!).
Take an hour out of your busy bursty
live, just listen and infuse to the life
around you.
Collective change comes from individual
change lead by an "invisible hand" and
the power of awareness which part in the
game of life we play.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
PULL or PUSH?
Do you have a minute?
Imagine circling above your organization. What do you see? Some people
buzzing around, being in constant action.
So the organization drives and lives - so at least it looks at first sight.
But see, there are some folks who don't make lots of noice, they sit down
and do nothing. Do they really don't do anything worthful? What might
they really do?
Figuring out what the real purpose of the organization is not easy (never was)
and isn't it not the full field of diversity that flows and lives in an organization
that enables to see collectively the purpose (some call it intention) of the
organization, community, society (a group of likeminded people in general)?
.. and whoosh off we go collectively together, wouldn't you think?!
As in a natural eco-system it needs the diversity of players, even though at first
sight it seems they don't fit together or don't see the other's purpose of life. Being
full of just one kind, it would be very much of a "mono culture" doomed to die.
Yet we need both, the DOERs and the SYNTHESIZERs (you could also call
them THINKERs) - and perhaps there are even more of these unknown types
(Thanks a lot for StephenCollins for providing this, and MarigoRaftoupolus for
making me aware of it) in our knowledge driven world.
What is your favorite role in the play of life?
PS.: I have to especially thank JohnHagel and JohnSeelyBrown for their excep-
tional work and book, "The Power of PULL", which is constantly on my hands
and looked and read through.
Imagine circling above your organization. What do you see? Some people
buzzing around, being in constant action.
So the organization drives and lives - so at least it looks at first sight.
But see, there are some folks who don't make lots of noice, they sit down
and do nothing. Do they really don't do anything worthful? What might
they really do?
Figuring out what the real purpose of the organization is not easy (never was)
and isn't it not the full field of diversity that flows and lives in an organization
that enables to see collectively the purpose (some call it intention) of the
organization, community, society (a group of likeminded people in general)?
.. and whoosh off we go collectively together, wouldn't you think?!
As in a natural eco-system it needs the diversity of players, even though at first
sight it seems they don't fit together or don't see the other's purpose of life. Being
full of just one kind, it would be very much of a "mono culture" doomed to die.
Yet we need both, the DOERs and the SYNTHESIZERs (you could also call
them THINKERs) - and perhaps there are even more of these unknown types
(Thanks a lot for StephenCollins for providing this, and MarigoRaftoupolus for
making me aware of it) in our knowledge driven world.
What is your favorite role in the play of life?
PS.: I have to especially thank JohnHagel and JohnSeelyBrown for their excep-
tional work and book, "The Power of PULL", which is constantly on my hands
and looked and read through.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Presentation - special about it?
Yesterday I tapped by chance into a situation where profound change happened in a situation where I (first) perceived a crashing of a "social field".
In the afternoon while walking by I saw an info post about an evening event around cultural pillars in a city (Luzern, Switzerland). Curious as I am, having fun exploring the Unmapped it managed to come to the event (even though with 30 min delay due to a call with a potential client discussing with him the benefit of the lean approach).
The benefit of coming late was that the crowd was already listening to the main presentation (after two pre-presentations) of Dr. ThomasHeld on the Kultur- und Kongresszentrum Luzern (KKL) and its birthgiving process. It turned out to be that he was sort of the facilitator to make the process of establishing a 225 Mio CHF hall on the lakeside in Luzern, which has only 60.000 inhabitants - a huge project!
He told the crowd, that they managed back in 1991 when the project first started to use the "Round Table" concept that was facilitating the GDR transformation in the first months after the Wall had come down (with a smile on his lips). Then after his presentation he offered to answer specific question and quite soon a negative power emerged into the room (so it seemed to me).
And then a strange thing happened: I stayed seated until almost all others had left the room, a few people got to talk with Dr. Held. A few minutes into a feeling where I felt that the positive energy that had fueled up during the past hour had left the room in minutes, I stood up and went to the window, saw some copies on a table close to it and a DIN A3 copy caught my interest. It was the story behind the KKL and the role Dr. ThomasHeld played in it. Reading the first lines of the article gave me the impulse to connect with Dr. ThomasHeld, who still was standing at the podium, thanked him for his inspirational talk.
Not long after (merely minutes) I was invited to join the crowd in a restaurant for some talk. Again there was a constraint - needed to visit an ATM - on my way phoned a dear friend, told her about the first of the evening till that moment. Entering the restaurant with icy hands and a warmed ear (from the phone;-)), my mind was open to what would come to me in the next moments.
It happened to be that I was invited into joining the already filled up table, and the next conversations went on smoothly into fields I never expected, about Singularity University, Twitter (usefulness), and questions on how to cope with complex (almost unsolvable seeming) business problems [such as the vision of the KKL for Dresden].
In a way we all followed - unconsciously the U Process in large chunks - into unknown fields of action and opportunities that emerged through using the set up power of the "social field" that pulled everybody in the direction to make the vision [a new concert hall in Dresden] not staying a dream but rather making it REALITY.
So my very personal PresencingStatus on the events of yesterday:
Good: taking the chance to visit event, follow the impuls to join in the restaurant, asking the bold question "Where can I sit down? Seems to be full." (in the restaurant)
Tricky: Being late, the feeling that the power in the room had left, not jumping too far ahead on explaining Twitter to newcomers
Learned: Going to the Balcony/ Window helps to reframe thinking and the situation, taking unknown chances opens new opportunities
Action: Writing a blog post (what I do right now), visiting "Dido and Aeneas" a second time to learn more about the subtle changes within a social field
In the afternoon while walking by I saw an info post about an evening event around cultural pillars in a city (Luzern, Switzerland). Curious as I am, having fun exploring the Unmapped it managed to come to the event (even though with 30 min delay due to a call with a potential client discussing with him the benefit of the lean approach).
The benefit of coming late was that the crowd was already listening to the main presentation (after two pre-presentations) of Dr. ThomasHeld on the Kultur- und Kongresszentrum Luzern (KKL) and its birthgiving process. It turned out to be that he was sort of the facilitator to make the process of establishing a 225 Mio CHF hall on the lakeside in Luzern, which has only 60.000 inhabitants - a huge project!
He told the crowd, that they managed back in 1991 when the project first started to use the "Round Table" concept that was facilitating the GDR transformation in the first months after the Wall had come down (with a smile on his lips). Then after his presentation he offered to answer specific question and quite soon a negative power emerged into the room (so it seemed to me).
And then a strange thing happened: I stayed seated until almost all others had left the room, a few people got to talk with Dr. Held. A few minutes into a feeling where I felt that the positive energy that had fueled up during the past hour had left the room in minutes, I stood up and went to the window, saw some copies on a table close to it and a DIN A3 copy caught my interest. It was the story behind the KKL and the role Dr. ThomasHeld played in it. Reading the first lines of the article gave me the impulse to connect with Dr. ThomasHeld, who still was standing at the podium, thanked him for his inspirational talk.
Not long after (merely minutes) I was invited to join the crowd in a restaurant for some talk. Again there was a constraint - needed to visit an ATM - on my way phoned a dear friend, told her about the first of the evening till that moment. Entering the restaurant with icy hands and a warmed ear (from the phone;-)), my mind was open to what would come to me in the next moments.
It happened to be that I was invited into joining the already filled up table, and the next conversations went on smoothly into fields I never expected, about Singularity University, Twitter (usefulness), and questions on how to cope with complex (almost unsolvable seeming) business problems [such as the vision of the KKL for Dresden].
In a way we all followed - unconsciously the U Process in large chunks - into unknown fields of action and opportunities that emerged through using the set up power of the "social field" that pulled everybody in the direction to make the vision [a new concert hall in Dresden] not staying a dream but rather making it REALITY.
So my very personal PresencingStatus on the events of yesterday:
Good: taking the chance to visit event, follow the impuls to join in the restaurant, asking the bold question "Where can I sit down? Seems to be full." (in the restaurant)
Tricky: Being late, the feeling that the power in the room had left, not jumping too far ahead on explaining Twitter to newcomers
Learned: Going to the Balcony/ Window helps to reframe thinking and the situation, taking unknown chances opens new opportunities
Action: Writing a blog post (what I do right now), visiting "Dido and Aeneas" a second time to learn more about the subtle changes within a social field
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Small solutions to instant issue
Just coming from a meeting with communal IT folks.
Three presentations (two Powerpoint, one story telling) -
which one you think was most interesting?
The last one given as a story, with some short live screens.
It was about to handle emails and archiving them.
Due to European Commission regulations there have to
be overall IT procedures to ensure that, also for email.
However the pressing need happened when for a trial
old emails were necessary. This resulted in, "I have a
DREAM!"
A simple button to archive emails and connect them
with relevant paper and other electronic documents.
Just a couple of hundred € for reprogramming the GUI
(Graphical User Interface), a small testing group of
dedication users - and of we went having a small part
of the future BIG Solution.
What have we learned: take a problem as a chance, start
small, solve what is really relevant and use the learnings
for the bigger project already under way!
This was again a great example of LEAN THINKING.
Three presentations (two Powerpoint, one story telling) -
which one you think was most interesting?
The last one given as a story, with some short live screens.
It was about to handle emails and archiving them.
Due to European Commission regulations there have to
be overall IT procedures to ensure that, also for email.
However the pressing need happened when for a trial
old emails were necessary. This resulted in, "I have a
DREAM!"
A simple button to archive emails and connect them
with relevant paper and other electronic documents.
Just a couple of hundred € for reprogramming the GUI
(Graphical User Interface), a small testing group of
dedication users - and of we went having a small part
of the future BIG Solution.
What have we learned: take a problem as a chance, start
small, solve what is really relevant and use the learnings
for the bigger project already under way!
This was again a great example of LEAN THINKING.
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