Inspiration to learn about yourself

Do you remember the time when you drove/walked to a library building to search for information on shelves and in drawers? Over a few years, quite an important change has happened in the way we search for information - not least driven by new, efficient and innovative information and communication technologies. Libraries have moved to or are moving to the Internet. Another very important change is that more and more people participate in creating new knowledge. To education participants who are reading this: How will you use the Internet to make your next project/assignment? Take a moment to think about it while watching this interesting 5½ minute video:

At 2 meetings last week in Zurich, I tried with participants, who work for different companies in different industries, to develop initiatives that a company can use to move its culture from one focusing much on control to one focusing more on trust - with the goal of becoming a more successful business. Here is some of the advice that the participants - by working in teams - came up with in a few minutes: * Make employees co-owners. * Make the organizational hierarchy flat. * Promote self management. * Work in small teams. * No fixed working times. * Make coffee zone in the middle of open-plan office. * Make clear goals. * Do what you say you will do. * Live out the company’s values. * Act as a role model. * Make it transparent what people do and say. * Get the right persons in the right positions. * Think of what is best for the company, not about personal benefit. * Do not focus on mistakes. * Encourage people to take initiatives. * Reward people. * Respect people. * Educate, coach,...

Results of research by Jens Kristian Elkjær-Larsen and Lars Goldschmidt from Copenhagen Business School shows that a huge amount of money can be saved by controlling less. We’re not talking about peanuts. According to Mr. Elkjær and Mr. Goldschmidt, there’s a savings potential of several billion Euro – just in Denmark. Commenting on the research, Leon Lerborg, Capacent, mentions the following paradox: “As employees and citizens we don’t want control, but as users/customers we can’t get enough. Source . How much money could the company, you work for, save by controlling less?

Towards the end of this interesting Q&A session at this year’s Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management , Mr. A.G. Lafley, Procter & Gamble , talks about how to build trust. How does/do the company/companies, you work for, build trust?

Many companies still organize like machine bureaucracies – for example by doing one or more of these things: * Making hierarchical structures with several organizational levels and power for decision making centralized at the top – thereby sometimes making the company a slow mover. * Recruiting managers who command and control – for example by focusing a lot on rules. * Promoting 1-way flow of information, for example by not using interactive and collaborative technologies such as blogs or other internet communities, and by only involving employees and other managers to a limited degree – even at information meetings. * Standardizing and specializing work, so people do more or less the same every day - following more or less the identical schedule. Paul Sloane writes here about a different way of organizing. He encourages companies to create online-communities – thereby harnessing the collective creative power of customers. He mentions some of the many possibilities on the Internet. F...

In a recent study , Booz Allen Hamilton found out that companies which directly engaged their customer base around new products had twice the return on assets and triple the operating income of their peers. There are more ways to involve customers and thereby change the role of customers from being passive consumers to being active participants. One way, which can lead to both higher efficiency and more innovation, is using interactive and collaborative technologies such as blogs, LiveChats, polls, as well as document, photo and video-sharing. These and similar internet tools are continuously increasing in numbers and also constantly getting better. Can you give some examples of the way the company/companies, you work for, is/are using or planning to use interactive and collaborative technologies such as the ones mentioned above, or others, to get more and faster feedback faster from customers – and thereby become more innovative as well as efficient?

An important trend of our time is clean energy. In that respect, I’m satisfied living in Switzerland and also satisfied coming from Denmark. Here are a couple of examples why: * In Switzerland, a part of the energy consumed is generated through water power. * Over a few decades, Denmark has built up an important wind energy industry headed not least by the company Vestas . By the way, according to a survey by The Nielsen Company, Switzerland ranks as number one regarding concerns about global warming. A couple of weeks ago, I attended an interesting seminar here in Zurich about Toyota . One of the cars dealt with during the seminar was Toyota Prius , a hybrid electric vehicle. I found out, that much interesting development work is being done to make environmentally friendly cars even better and cheaper. To get some inspiration, take a look at this solar powered Toyota Prius:

When the future is uncertain/unpredictable, it is often a good idea to try things out – not least in order to continuously be in touch with what customers want and to constantly get better. Here are a couple of examples of individuals/companies doing that – thereby also signalling that they are creative and dynamic: * At the US Open, Roger Federer played in blue and white clothes during the day. During night sessions, he was wearing black clothes and black shoes of his sponsor Nike . * Google continuously changes its company logo in various innovative ways. Have a look at some of the company’s different logos here . To get some more inspiration for getting better all the time, listen to this classic . (Although the song was recorded a couple of years before I was born, I still find it great). What do you do to get better all the time?

Searching for fundamental things that help us work more efficiently as well as innovatively and to learn better, I came across a number of things. 3 relatively easy simple initiatives to stay mentally and physically fit struck me: 1. Eat more healthy food. 2. Get more exercise. 3. Sleep well during the night. Regarding idea # 3, I found out that the transitions from wakefulness to sleep are quite important to make the brain function well. Sleeping is characterized by, for example, a reduction of body movement, decreased reaction to external stimuli and loss of consciousness. When you sleep during the night, the neurons/nerve cells organize what you have learnt during the day. The REM phases of our sleep, which in total account for 20-25% of total sleep, are particularly interesting. During these periods, of which we have 4-5 during a night, the body is inactive but the human brain active. In other words, a good night’s sleep makes you better understand the big picture . I sometimes exp...

Reflecting on the BrainTrain concept, that I introduced in my last blog post, as well as the large complexity of the human brain, I came to think of what I’d characterize as a bit of a paradox: On the one hand , each of the many billion neurons/nerve cells, that the brain is made of, is connected with many others, and the human brain performs a huge number of complex tasks such as, for example, accepting information from our senses, letting us think and experience feelings, telling muscles what to do, and controlling the heart rate. Amazing really – when you think about it. On the other hand , many companies organize as if the Internet had not been invented - in ways that limit people from using the full potential of their brain and developing their (often) multiple talents: - Making hierarchical structures consisting of departments with narrow responsibilities and centralization of power at the top. - Putting a strong focus on specialization by recruiting people who - for a long time ...