Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition

Via TED, where you can find several extraordinary talks by people from all over the world, I came across this 15 minute talk by Steve Jobs. Towards the end of his talk, Mr. Jobs says: "Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."

I was quite moved by this talk. As a matter of fact, I cried a couple of times as I listened to Steve Jobs speak.

7 innovative initiatives at Predigerkirche in Zürich

On Christmas Eve, I attended a service at Predigerkirche in Zürich. The experience was, in more aspects, different than what I have experienced at other churches. I noticed, for example, the following 7 innovative initiatives:

# 1: Each participant was offered to bring home a candle
The idea of once in a while offering participants to take home something tangible such as a candle is quite good, I think. When I now look at the candle I was offered to bring home from this service, I think about the time I spent in the church - including the Christmas music I listened to there.




# 2: The furniture in the church is comfortable
I have been to several churches where participants sat on hard, wooden benches. At Predigerkirche, the benches are covered with leather cushions. And what is even more interesting: There are, in the church, also comfortable chairs. Building on the initiative using comfortable chairs I came to think about an idea: How about placing a full automatic coffee machine at the chairs, so people can enjoy a cup of coffee while sitting there? In this regard, consider the initiative by the church in Bern, Switzerland, that I wrote about here.




# 3: Cosy light from lamps
What I also noticed, while I was there, was that the light was made lighter and darker according to the respective situations throughout the service. For example, the light was made lighter as people were singing and needed to read text. In other situations, the light was made darker making the atmosphere more cosy.


# 4: Music played on a grand piano
Reflecting upon music instruments that I have seen in churches throughout my life, I primarily think of organs. At the service, I attended at Predigerkirche, a grand piano was used. I liked the sound of the music coming from the grand piano. It somehow contributed to making the atmosphere in the church really nice, I think. It would be interesting if other churches would be inspired of this initiative to try out some more music instruments besides organ.

# 5: Kids are invited to play
As I was at Predigerkirche in Zürich, I also noticed this table for kids to play at. Another interesting initiative.


# 6: There’s art on the walls
At Predigerkirche, I saw art on the wall. Reflecting on this initiative, I came to think of this idea for churches: How about inviting artists to show their art such as paintings and sculptures in churches?


# 7: People are invited to read
I also saw some shelves with books at Predigerkirche. Taking this idea further, how about offering wireless lan at churches, so people can use their electronic devices there? Reflecting on this, I'd think many people would appreciate to be able to stop by at a place in the city, where there's no noise, and have the opportunity to read something on their laptops, for example. What do you think?

Fresh design of train stations

One of the things I admire about Switzerland is that basically any place people go, it’s clean. I wrote about that in an earlier posting. Train stations are no exception. They are very clean as well. I have noticed, however, that many train stations in Switzerland tend to more or less look the same and be somewhat grey and dull. Have a look, for example, at these 4 photos from Olten and Langenthal train stations:

Olten train station


Langenthal train station


Olten train station


Langenthal train station


To fix the somewhat dark look of train stations in Switzerland, I came to think about 4 ideas – not least inspired by this posting.

Idea # 1: How about adapting the design of respective train stations to various sites near the respective train station? Here’s an example from Museum Station in Toronto


Idea # 2: How about using fresh colours to make train stations attractive to look at? Below are a couple of examples: Train stations at Munich and Tokyo



Ideas # 3: What if companies, who make paint - or painters - painted the space between the rails at various train stations in bright colours?
In other words, what if the space between rail was, for example, blue, yellow, and/or green instead of grey? To get more inputs on this idea idea, have a look at this and this.

Idea # 4: How about inviting some of the numerous watch companies in Switzerland to sponsor clocks for various train stations across the country?
In this regard, it would be great to think in differentiation instead of standardization, i.e. work towards making train stations look different from another, for example by having local aspects stand out more. Thereby, people on the train may also find it more exciting to arrive at various train stations when driving through the country. More inputs here.

Have a happy Christmas

Christmas atmosphere in Zürich

Below are 5 photos of fine Christmas impressions which I came across in Zürich throughout this month.

The first 2 photos below are impressions from the neighbourhood, where I live.





This photo is from Hallenbad City



The last 2 photos are from the event Friedenslicht at Zürisee / Lake Zürich.

9 places to deliver health services

9 places to deliver health services

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Creating a culture of innovation. 20 lessons from W. L. Gore & Associates

Listening to this 50 minute talk by Ms. Terri Kelly, CEO of W. L. Gore & Associates - a talk that I strongly encourage you to listen to - I wrote down these 20 things that I learned:

# 1: W. L. Gore & Associates has about 8,500 associates. Every person is a company owner.
# 2: People, who work for W. L. Gore & Associates, don’t talk about “expenses”. They talk about “investments”.
# 3: Compensation is determined by peer review. Everyone in a team ranks everyone.
# 4: W. L. Gore & Associates wants small plants and will split up plants that have more than 200-250 associates. Consequently, the company has hundreds of different facilities. This is a catalyst for growth, because it creates a large amount of ownership.
# 5: The company takes a very decentralized approach to organizing things and believes in the power of small teams.
# 6: Mr. Bill Gore hated policy manuals and bureaucratic ways of telling the organization what to do.
# 7: A person is only a leader, if someone wants to follow him/her. For example, Ms. Terri Kelly was nominated by people, who work for the company, to be the CEO.
# 8: There are very few titles. However, in some global markets and cultures such as in Korea, titles are important than in other markets – meaning that many associates in Korea have titles.
# 9: When leaders want something to be done, they have to explain why. This has a positive effect on results, because implementation goes much smoother – thereby saving time and costs.
# 10: Leaders need to create an environment of trust.
# 11: Associates are encouraged to work on things they are passionate about.
# 12: There’s a fundamental belief in individuals. People trust and respect each other.
# 13: Diversity of thought and perspective is encouraged.
# 14: Associates and teams are empowered to make decisions.
# 15: People are free to try things out – and also to kill things quickly.
# 16: People are not punished for failing.
# 17: A key question is whether people like to be part of something greater than their individual contribution.
# 18: New people, who start working for the company, typically do not start in a leadership role. The preferred route is to bring someone in to maybe a strategic marketing role or a technical role or a functional leadership role, where he/she can really display his/her technical skills, functional skills. Then they get the chance to influence the followership naturally.
# 19: Bill Gore wanted to keep things simple and had 4 principles: Freedom, fairness, commitment, and waterline.
# 20: If you focus on the values, it’s probably the biggest contribution you can make as leaders to truly get the full impact of the organization.

I came across this talk via a Twitter update by Marc Sniukas that included this posting.

How innovative people think and do things

I came across a really interesting conversation between Stuart Pallister and Hal Gregersen about the innovator’s DNA. Based on a six-year-long study into disruptive innovation involving some 3,500 executives, Hal Gregersen found 5 discovery skills you need. It would be great to hear your thoughts.

# 1: Associating
Combine pieces of what may seem disparate pieces of information until you have a new idea.

# 2: Observing
For example, watching people do a certain thing/job and finding out what frustrates and irritates them can lead to ideas for a new product or service that can solve the particular problem more effectively. In this example, I observed that some people have a hard time lifting up lids of garbage containers. I wrote a posting about it here mentioning that improvements have been made, as the lids of the old garbage containers were even heavier. The newest solution for getting rid of garbage, that I have seen in Zürich, not also has a better design - it is also even more customer friendly, I noticed. See for yourself by clicking here.

# 3: Experimenting
When things break, try to fix it yourself. For example, when I was a kid, I learned much about bicycles by fixing my bike myself when it broke. In education, for example, I work on continuously trying out new ways and tools of making education better.

# 4: Questioning
To innovate, search for something you’re curious to know more about - and ask questions such as "What if..", "Why..?", "Why not..?", "How could..?"

# 5: Networking
To get new ideas, try communicating with people who are different from you, for example regarding cultural background, age, education, and working experiences.


Mr. Gregersen mentions that you don’t have to excel in all 5 skills. He mentions, for example, that Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com is really good at experimenting, and that Steve Jobs is incredibly strong at associating. Reading the article, I also noticed a couple of other very interesting remarks by Hal Gregersen:
- "At the core of this, all these folks were driven by a fundamental bias against the status quo. They were absolutely uncomfortable with things being the way they are. They wanted to make things change."
- "The adult world in which we live does not value these actions". In this regard, Mr. Gregersen encourages us to once in a while act a bit like a child.

By the way, regarding point # 3, I came across this 2 minute video with fine inputs from Clayton Christensen.

4 people cleaning up leaves on football field with machines

One of the things I admire about Switzerland is that streets, cities, forests, lakes, mountains - well basically anywhere people go - are so clean here. For example, I noticed the other day - I think it was one of the first days of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen - 4 men using blowing machines to collect leaves that had fallen down from the trees at a football field in Zürich. The field is now completely green again. It looks like it has been vacuumed. By the way, the red building in the back on the first photo below is a school building.

What are your thoughts?

Powerful Idea

Source

How P2P loans helped students in Nicaragua

Here’s an example of banking innovation: Via this blog posting, I came across this 3 minute video on which students in Nicaragua, who got loans through Vittana, tell their story.

What is “hygge” for you?

Hygge is a Danish word. Here are a couple of definitions:

"Hygge is a feeling of friendship, warmth, contentment and peace with your immediate surroundings." Source.

"Hygge is a Danish word which has no exact lexical meaning to English, but the closest is "cosiness". However, this word for the Danes is much more complex than that. It involves the environment around you and the feelings you have towards them. It relates to all your physical senses and emotional one too: warmth, fulfillness, closeness, relaxing, and maybe sincereness. Therefore, it is difficult to explain, but the best way is just simply to experience it." Source.

When I think about "hygge", I think, for example, about the use of candles, for example at windows, as well as the use of small table lamps with indirect light. To illustrate a contrast in this regard: Hygge, to me, is not about very strong, bright, direct light coming from a huge lamp attached to the ceiling lighting up an entire room.

To me, "hygge" is, at this time of the year, also about Christmas decorations at home and in the streets. When you experience that people have worked on creating a Christmas culture in and around their homes, it contributes to Christmas being a “hyggelig” time. In other words, "hygge" is about creating an atmosphere where one of the more important competencies is using the heart.

Reflecting on aspects that strengthen the feeling of "hygge", I came to think, for example, about the fact that, during the Winter, it gets dark relatively early in Denmark. I think this may be one natural explanation why many Danes make an effort of making their homes "hyggelige".

Also, I came to think about the fact that, although both "Du" and "De" exist in the Danish language – like "Du" and "Sie" exist in German and "Tu" as well as "Vous" exist in French - the Danes say "du" to each other more often than the German and French speaking populations say "Du" and “Tu” respectively to each other. This, I think, is quite important. Saying "Du" to the person(s) you speak with almost automatically makes the atmosphere more informal, more personal.

What is hygge for you?

Opening film from the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen

Discover UNESCO World Heritage sites with Google Street View

At the end of a previous blog posting, I included links to short videos showing the making of Google Street View for 2 UNESCO World Heritage sites:

- A 1 minute video showing the making of Google Street View for Stonehenge, Great Britain.
- A 1½ minute video showing the making of Google Street View for The Palace of Versailles, which was the principal residence of the French kings from the time of Louis XIV to Louis XVI.

Via this posting, I came across another interesting 2 minute video, through which I learned more about how Google Street View makes it easier and more exciting for us to experience the UNESCO World Heritage sites. You can read more about the alliance between Google and UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, by clicking here.

Health: Focus on prevention

Via this blog posting and the video embedded in the posting, I learned that, in China, some doctors are paid monthly when you are healthy. If you are sick, you don’t pay that month.

What are your thoughts?

What is your real added value?

Have you thought about which customer needs you really satisfy with your products and/or services? Watch this 1 minute video with Paul Sloane to get some advice. For more inputs on company purpose, have a look at this slideshow.