Help people discover their talents

In this 17½ minute conversation, which I came across via a Twitter update by Paul Sloane, Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way education is done. Towards the end of the interview, Sir Ken Robinson - who, by the way, has a sense of humor that I like - mentions, for example, that creativity is about discovering your personal talents. In this regard, he talks about personalising the curriculum. To teachers reading this, I’d like to ask you to which degree you’re doing just that? In other words, to which degree are you more outside-in than inside-out oriented? To which degree are you, in your teaching approach, more demand oriented than supply oriented?

Gary Hamel: Why should church be a lecture and not a discussion?

During this talk, Gary Hamel asks why church should be a lecture and not a discussion.

Gary Hamel suggests, for example, that more ideas are created, and that a tool like DELL’s initiative IdeaStorm could be a possible tool to use to generate new ideas, more options. As an innovative initiative, Mr. Hamel also mentioned Ebenezers Coffeehouse, which is owned and operated by National Community Church. In this regard, I came to think about a church in Bern, Switzerland, that I wrote about in this blog posting.

Customers are also suppliers sometimes

The other day, I bought Bell meatballs at a COOP shop in Zürich.


Photo source

Some time ago, I also contributed with ideas to Bell on Atizo, an open innovation platform.

It’s an interesting trend, I think, that customers and other people have, through their participation on open innovation platforms and by communicating on various Web 2.0 tools, the opportunity to get involved, i.e. in principle become suppliers of, for example, feedback / inputs / ideas / improvement suggestions / concepts etc. which the respective company can use to make even better and/or cheaper products and/or services.

As I thought a bit more about this phenomenon, I wondered at which supermarkets it is possible for individuals to deliver, for example, fruit, vegetables, bread, marmelade and/or other homemade products to the store. Which supermarkets have you heard of that open up for this possibility of involving external people to participate in generating added value? The question became relevant to me as I was baking a cake some time ago (see photo below) and thought that it would have been great, if the opportunity had existed to also make other people happy by delivering part of the cake to a supermarket.


Regarding this topic, I stumpled upon the following extract on page 74 of the book The Future of Work by Thomas W. Malone:

"What if many tasks currently done by large companies were done instead by temporary combinations of small companies and independent contractors? Taking this idea further, what if most businesses consisted of one single person?"

For more information about different ways of organizing, have a look at this presentation:

3 Ways Of Organizing

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Mobility in Zürich – today and in the years to come

This week, I learned some interesting things about mobility in Zürich by particating in events focusing on environmentally friendly mobility. Have a look at the week’s program by clicking here.

On Tuesday evening, I participated in an event about life in Zürich in 2050. I learned, for example, about how the 3 trends "individuality", "scarcity of resources", and "online and disintegration" will influence the way we live / work / transport ourselves. Reading about the mobility strategy of Zürich, I read, for example, that the part of the population using bicycles to transport themselves will increase, and that investments in, for example, more parking spots for bicycles will grow considerably over the next year. Around Zürich central station, for example, about 1,000 extra parking spots for bicycles will be established until the end of 2010.

On Thursday evening, I participated in a guided bike ride through Albisrieden and Altstetten in Zürich. Here are a couple of photos from the trip:




The mobility days in Zürich ended today with a large event in the centre of Zürich. There were several things to do / learn about. For example, I went for a test drive in this Renault Twingo. What I find impressive about the electric vehicle is, for example, that the car drives very silently. Driving around in the car, you hear practically no noise coming from the car. Positive is also that it’s relatively easy to park the car more or less anywhere due to its small size.


I also stopped by at Mobility and had a very interesting conversation there with a person representing the company. I asked the person the following 3 questions:
# 1. When will Mobility introduce electric vehicles?
# 2. When will Mobility make it possible for people, who use Mobility to drive from A to B, to leave the car at location B, i.e. make it possible for people not to bring the car back to location A?
# 3. When will Mobility use Web 2.0 technologies such as Twitter, blogs, YouTube, and/or Facebook to communicate with people?

As far as I understood from the person, I talked to, all 3 will happen in near future.


By the way, another value creating aspect of the event today was the extraordinary variety of fresh, delicious food and beverages. I had some really fine thai food with, for example, curry, chicken, pineapple and rice.

Researchers' Night in Zürich

A large number of interesting research initiatives were presented yesterday at Researchers' Night in Zürich, Switzerland. I found the event good. What I liked, in particular, was the innovative ways the various research initiatives were communicated to the many people who were there to learn about what the individual researchers work on. For example, Georg Traxler-Samek and Richard Zickermann, who work with water power for ALSTOM, demonstrated what they do professionally by doing a fascinating experiment with blue cups. The conversation with the researchers took place on a boat sailing on Lake Zürich.


I was also quite thrilled about the science show on wearable computing. It’s quite interesting to think about what we’ll be capable of doing when our clothes are equipped with small computers. The topic was well and creatively presented by Clemens Lombriser and his colleagues.


What I also found interesting at Researchers' Night in Zürich was the exhibition in tent # 2 focusing on how and when a human being's brain learns. To get an overview of all the topics dealt with in the 17 tents, have a look at the program.

Think strategically when cutting costs

In this 5½ minute talk, Gary Hamel challenges that cost cutting should be done by cutting costs by a certain percentage across-the-board because it is easy. As Mr. Hamel mentions, easy is usually not a good criteria for making a business decision. What Mr. Hamel mentions, fits well to what I read in this NZZ article: A savings program is not equal to using “the lawn mover method”, i.e. cutting the grass equally all over the place and not setting any priorities.

In this interesting 11½ minute Harvard Business interview, Mr. Cesare R. Mainardi, Booz & Company, explains that the challenge is to invest in the activities which cause success and to be as lean as possible in everything else. Reading the strategy+business article titled "Cut costs, grow stronger", an article written by Shumeet Banerji, Paul Leinwand, and Cesare R. Mainardi, I was not least struck by the following extracts – including the exhibit inserted below:

"Releasing what isn’t essential in difficult times will give you greater clarity of purpose, and will expand your critical capabilities for use in good times. Every day, that more accurate self-definition will ensure that every investment decision, every portfolio decision, and every operating decision reinforces the coherence of your strategy. Yes, that will help in terms of cutting costs. But it will help even more in overall strategy."

When reflecting on the challenging topics about cost cutting mentioned above, please do keep in mind that the minute you start talking about people as costs, negativity will take over. In other words, treat people as contributors. And speak frankly with people, who work for the company, about the economic realities your company is facing, while you also explain what they can do to help. Source. In this regard, I learned by watching and listening to a 14 minute interview with Joe Knight, which I embedded in this blog posting, that it’s a good idea to help everyone to see what’s going on in the business financially.

How is cost cutting done at the companies, you work for?

William Kamkvamba: „Trust yourself“

I couldn’t hold back the tears, as I watched and listened to this 6 minute talk by William Kamkvamba.

Survey: Good communication skills outrank other core business competencies

Reading this article and watching the interesting interview with Steve Knight, I learned that good communication skills outrank other core business competencies as the number one skill for corporate recruiters looking to hire MBA graduates. I encourage you to take time to listen well to what Mr. Knight says and reflect on how you communicate.

I’d be very interested to know what you do to become better at communicating?

16 ways to make ideas happen

16 Ways To Make Ideas Happen

View more documents from Frank Calberg Services.

Exhibition about the speed of life in Lenzburg, Switzerland

Today, I spent a couple of hours at the exhibition nonstop at Lenzburg - a town not far from Zürich, Switzerland. The exhibition focuses on the speed of life. I’d like, straight away, to send a compliment to the exhibition concept developers as well as the people solving various service assignments at the exhibition: It was one of the better exhibitions I have experienced in my life. What I like, in particular, about the exhibition is that it is highly interactive. For example, the tour guide acted not least as a moderator involving the guests well by asking us questions about our thoughts, opinions etc. In addition, several of the exhibits were designed in a way that invited guests to do things ourselves and thereby learn better. Here are some impressions from the time I spent at the exhibition:

Already before the entrance of the exhibition, the topic "the speed of life" was, indeed, made very real. To enter the exhibition, you could use either the stairs or this possibility, which is, I experienced, considerably faster:


Before the guided tour, guests were asked to leave their watches and mobile phones at the entrance - another thought provoking initiative.


One of the interactive exhibits in the exhibition was to guess what time it is right now by pointing out the time on a touch screen. As I had left my watch and my mobile phone at the entrance, I, in fact, had to make a guess. As you can see on photo # 2 below, my guess was 27 minutes wrong, i.e. the real time was 27 minutes later than I thought. Another compliment to the exhibition, as the time I spent at the exhibition went faster, you could say, than I thought.




At the exhibition, I also listened to recordings from various experts on the topic. On the photo below, I’m listening to a recording by Sonja A. Buholzer. Ms. Buholzer mentioned, for example, that we need to learn how to say "no". Also, Ms. Buholzer said that we need to take time to think creatively / innovatively in order to create better solutions / more value. This point by Ms. Buholzer very well fits into what I wrote about in this posting and in this posting about global competitiveness.


The last challenge I "threw myself into" today at the mind opening exhibition was answering the question on the photo below. The question really got me thinking. I’ll leave this question open to you and ask you: How do you spend your time usefully?


If you’re interested in reading more about the exhibition, have a look, for example, at the story board.

In the long run, standards of living can be expanded only with innovation

Reading the The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 published by the World Economic Forum, I was not least struck by this part on page 7:

"The final (12th) pillar of competitiveness is innovation. Although substantial gains can be obtained by improving institutions, building infrastructure, reducing macroeconomic instability, or improving human capital, all these factors eventually seem to run into diminishing returns. The same is true for the efficiency of the labor, financial, and goods markets. In the long run, standards of living can be expanded only with innovation."

What are you doing to speed up innovation? How are you challenging status quo, for example at the companies you work for?

Bring education to the people

Via this blog posting, I came across this 1 minute video. Good idea bringing education to the people – on this occasion in Rwanda, Africa.

To which degree are you helping other people to innovate?

Watching this 5 minute talk by Gary Hamel, which I came across via this idea from Big Think, I learned, for example, that change needs to be opportunity driven and continuous – rather than crisis driven and episodic. In this regard, I came to think about this blog posting focusing on the strategic paradox continuous change vs. revolutionary change. Listening to Mr. Hamel speak, I also understood that we need to get much better at helping each other become innovators. In this regard, I’d like to ask you to which degree you are helping other people innovate?

Help out get your street fixed

Listening to this interesting 8½ minute talk by Tom Steinberg of mySociety, I learned about FixMyStreet, a site to help people report, view, or discuss local problems they’ve found to their local council by simply locating them on a map. An example: In this report, a person reported that an old refrigerator had been dumped in a river.

Towards the end of his speech, Mr. Steinberg talks about how they succeeded among local governments in Britain. He mentions, for example, that "it was actually basically kind of doing it". "Coding is quicker than consensus."

What other ideas do you have to help governments move to Government 2.0?

How to stimulate creativity? Go live abroad

Help everyone to see what’s going on in the business financially

To which degree do you appreciate contributions of people who are different than you are?

In a previous posting, I embedded an interview with Mr. Vijay Govindarajan who mentioned that to create an innovation mindset, companies need to bring in new voices. I’d like to ask you to which degree the companies, you work for, do that regularly? In other words: Do you work for companies for whom it is important that people think and behave in the same way? Or do the people, for/with whom you work, welcome diversity, new ways of thinking, new ways of doing things that could increase customer satisfaction and bring down costs? Do they appreciate contributions of people who are different than they are? And how about yourself?

Considering the fact that people - thanks to for example Web 2.0 technologies - increasingly work across a number of borders, for example across functions within a company, across companies, across markets and national cultures, I believe it will be increasingly important to appreciate contributions of people who think and behave differently, i.e. for example try to learn to see things from new perspectives. And there’s a big bonus for a company that welcomes diversity: The people working for the company will train their innovative thinking competencies. And that again will increase the company’s competitiveness.

I came across this 3 minute video through this blog posting.

New opportunities for advertising

Via this blog posting by Guy Kawasaki, I came across this posting including this interesting 1 hour panel discussion on the topic "Is Advertising Dead?". Listening to the panel discussion, I learned, not least, that dialogue among / communication between people / companies is a trend, a new way to approach customers. About half an hour into the discussion, I heard, for example, Tim Kendall, Facebook, saying the following:

"There’s a lot more monetization opportunity when you start thinking about the web in social terms."

What do you think?

Turn the library into a digital learning center with a coffee shop

Instead of a library, Cushing Academy is spending nearly USD 500,000 to create a learning center. Examples of investments:
- USD 10,000 for 18 electronic readers made by Amazon.com and Sony.
- USD 42,000 for three large flat-screen TVs that will project data from the Internet.
- USD 20,000 on special laptop-friendly study carrels.
- USD 50,000 for a coffee shop that will include a USD 12,000 cappuccino machine.

Mr. James Tracy, headmaster:

"Instead of a traditional library with 20,000 books, we’re building a virtual library where students will have access to millions of books."

Regarding the future of librarians, I learned that "because data bases will be so expansive, Cushing’s librarians will be more crucial than ever to help guide students and teachers ably through the myriad sources now available and rapidly growing in electronic formats."

Sources
- Mashable
- boston.com
- cushing.org

Manage the present, selectively abandon the past, and create the future

Over at Vijay Govindarajan’s blog, I came across the 3 box strategy below. Mr. Govindarajan refers to the model in, for example, this posting and this posting. Please note that Mr. Govindarajan recommends that companies spend time and attention on all three boxes, particularly box 2 and 3. He also notes that “too many companies ignore these two boxes until it is too late.” Reflecting on what Mr. Govindarajan writes, I also thought about the management dilemma "efficiency vs. trying out somethings new" that I wrote about in this blog posting.

How much time do you spend on box 1, 2, and 3 respectively?

Thoughts on new ways to work

Reflecting on how the way people work change these days/weeks/months/years, I came to think of, for example, the following 3 things:

Thought # 1: Individuals help large companies do tasks
On page 74 of the book The Future of Work by Thomas W. Malone – a really good book that I recommend, I read this:

"What if many tasks currently done by large companies were done instead by temporary combinations of small companies and independent contractors? Taking this idea further, what if most businesses consisted of one single person?"

One way of making it possible for individuals to solve many of the assignments that large companies do today is by using Open Innovation platforms. For example, I think brainfloor.com and Atizo are doing a really good job of making it possible for people to communicate their ideas to a number of different companies.

Another possibility would be that local supermarkets invite individuals to deliver food they make at home. For example, how about inviting people to deliver bread, fruits, vegetables, and other home-made products to be sold at supermarkets?

Thought # 2: Individuals use Web 2.0 tools such as blogs and Twitter
Thinking about another new way of working, I thought about the use of Web 2.0 tools such as blogs – making it possible to communicate anytime, anywhere, and with more or less everyone all over the world. Reflecting on education, for example, I found that there are 11 advantages of using a blog for teaching. If you know some more, please do let me know. As mentioned in a previous posting, leaders of companies will, according to Mr. Soumitra Dutta and Mr. Matthew Fraser, also need to think about using Web 2.0 tools such as blogs and Twitter. Results of a McKinsey Global Survey, that I wrote about in this posting, show that over half of the companies in the survey plan to increase their investments in Web 2.0 technologies.

By the way, brainfloor.com and Atizo, that I mentioned in # 1, also write blogs. You can have a look at the blog of brainfloor.com by clicking here and the blog of Atizo by clicking here.

Thought # 3: Individuals help out at various events
A third example of a new way of working is helping out at events. I’ve been happy to help out at a number of different events. In August this year, for example, I helped out doing various tasks at Icelandic Horses World Championships in Brunnadern, Switzerland.

What thoughts do you have about new ways to work?

Companies gain measurable business benefits using Web 2.0

Reading this McKinsey Quarterly article, I learned about some very interesting results of a McKinsey Global Survey focusing on how companies are benefiting from Web 2.0. Nearly 1,700 executives from around the world, across a range of industries and functional areas, responded to the survey. Here are a couple of extracts:

- 69 percent of respondents report that their companies have gained measurable business benefits, including more innovative products and services, more effective marketing, better access to knowledge, lower cost of doing business, and higher revenues. Companies that made greater use of the technologies, the results show, report even greater benefits.

- Over half of the companies in the survey plan to increase their investments in Web 2.0 technologies.

A question for you: Which Web 2.0 technologies do(es) the company/companies, you work for, use? And how do you use them?

Future of learning

Approximately in the middle of this 4 minute video, Mr. Anthony Minghella mentions the following wise words:

"If you’re held too tightly in school, when you let go, all you do is relax, you haven’t learned to stand alone, and so part of the job of learning is to learn how to continue to learn."