[02-Jun-23] About empathy and more ...

Can We Walk in Another Person’s Shoes?

“When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That’s when you can get more creative in solving problems.” -- Stephen Covey

In the last couple of days several issues happened that could have been managed better with a little bit more empathy and imagination to be somebody else - for creative problem solving.

Our current government is a coalition of three parties and all together are lacking a base level of empathy in the meantime. Too much discussion and battling, not really solution oriented and the population started to complain month ago.

At work a decision has been finally taken after a long time of negotiation and now the community is split in two camps. The one is happy that all stays unchanged and we keep going as before. The other camp that was driving for a disruption, something new, scale-able and reliable, will now get a lot of pushback as money, time and resources are limited.

Finally an issue in the project that could have been avoided with a little bit more communication between the team members and a higher level of empathy - walking some time in the shoes of a team member and taking a different perspective. As this did not happen, we had an escalation and did clean up the mess today, could have been avoided. Maybe next time.

Enjoy your weekend and go for a walk.

• Video: Teamwork motivational video
• Video: How Elon Musk Would Run YOUR Business mit Joe Justice — Hands-on Agile EXTRA
• TheNewHappy: Look within

• Artificial intelligence is transforming our world — it is on all of us to make sure that it goes well

• Comparing Population Pyramids Around the World

• Finland is on track to meet some of the world's most ambitious carbon neutrality targets. This is how it has done it

• The Definitive Guide to Scrum PDF

• How to Create a Culture of Change Acceptance

• Roberto Ferraro: Measure the right thing

• Olina Glindevi: THE COACH vs THE MENTOR

[29-May-23] Having good conversations

Had some free time for testing Wordpress today

Once again a great sketchnote from Tanmay Vora today. More details about the Creative Commons license mentioned in the top left of the picture, see at CC BY-NC-ND.

Besides the Website Builder that I am currently using for my BLOG on the new website hosting platform from ONE.com, I could also use Wordpress offered by them as alternative and maybe better to run a BLOG? To be confirmed.

As I do not have enough time right now, to easily switch between the two environments, I started with a test environment some weeks ago. See Wordpress-BLOG-Test. I am still far away from being an expert, but started with some easy and obvious functionality. The long list of available plug-ins is very helpful to come to a pretty professional environment quickly, with respect to security, quality and maintenance.

One of the advantages I see already is that Wordpress offers a unique URL for each BLOG post, similar to the setup of my previous hosting company. Want to give it a try? See [29-May-23] The Six Leadership Styles by Daniel Goleman for example. Thanks in advance for checking, as I did install a visitor counter plug-in today, more traffic might be realized quickly? We will see, looking forward to your interest :-)

• FREE resources to use, to master AI if you want to succeed in the next years

[28-May-23] The week 21-2023 summary

Two more 4-day-work weeks are coming up

Tomorrow is Whit Monday and on Thursday 08 -Jun-23 we will have Corpus Christi, two more public holidays in Germany and two more 4-day-work weeks.

After 93 years (1930) Germany did play against Canada in the Ice Hockey World Championship final again today. They lost the game 5:2, but did win a medal for the first time after 70 years (1953). Well done and congratulations, a great team effort and success.

I will be enjoying the day off tomorrow.

• The 10 Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (26-May-23)

• How to effectively use the concept of Fluid Scrum Teams in SAFe

• Video: How to Not Procrastinate Under Pressure

• ABC of a People-First Organizational Culture

• The world's first ever AI ballet will soon be in theatres

• How to Learn Anything with the Feynman Technique

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool." -- Richard P. Feynman, American - Physicist May 11, 1918 - February 15, 1988

[14-May-23] The week 19-2023 summary

Generations, #Spirit and Performance ...

Quick recap of the European Song Contest from yesterday evening. Another year another last place for Germany. The song was much better than the final position, but we have to accept the result and add the experience to our collection of failures. Looking closer into the many

rumors and conspiracies around the German outcome will not make a change, so we better focus on a different strategy for a future success.

Another 4-day work week is coming up as next Thursday is Ascension Day, a public holiday in Germany (week 20). Week 21 is a 5-day work week and then we have week 22 and 23 with 4 work days again. The last public holidays before the long break until 03-Oct-23.

Yesterday I did spend some time to look into the capabilities and functionality of Wordpress that could be the alternative for BLOG writing offered by my website hosting company? The challenge and/or opportunity is to find the right balance between the available  functionality and, what is really necessary to write easily and quickly. See my current test results, just starting ...

Have a great next week:

• Video: 5 Tips to Break Your Addiction To Negative Thinking
• Video: Oldest Languages in the World
• Video: All Winners of the Eurovision Song Contest 1956-2023
• Video: Coca-Cola® Masterpiece (advertisement)

• Visualized: The Daily Routines of Famous Creatives

• The 10 Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week   (12-May-23)

• A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a business, project, or individual

• Comic Agile: #236 – The Mental Load (Mother’s Day Special)

[12-May-23] The 9-Box Performance Grid

Copy and Transfer existing and established models

Critique of the 9 box grid
Although the 9 box grid provides a clear way of managing talent and performance, it is not undisputed.

Its biggest shortcoming is arguably its connection to traditional performance management, characterized by a once-a-year, subjective rating by one’s manager. Many companies, including Accenture and Deloitte, have moved away from annual performance reviews, opting for continuous feedback instead. This provides more opportunities to improve performance as well as more data points to accurately assess performance. We highly recommend measuring performance using as many objective data points as possible.

• What is the 9-Box Performance Grid?

• The 9 Box Grid: A Practitioner’s Guide

• What Is The 9-Box Grid Model? 9-Box Grid Model In A Nutshell

In a meeting of our project TRIFECTA (Product Management, Release Train Engineer and System Architect) today we discussed the proper recognition of high performers in the team as well as how to support the team members struggling or needing some outside help.

As two of the three Trifecta members are baby boomers we have experience with the 9-Box Performance Grid from e.g. previous companies, asssignments or projects. In our new roles we are not only heading the project, we are also responsible and kind of the role models for an agile mindset.

Our solution is easy and obvious for and engineer, reuse: Copy an existing and well established model, take the valid critique above serious and transfer the idea into our new agile environment. Instead of one supervisor doing the review once per year, we are asking the whole team to do an assessment of all team members, voluntary and anonymous. This will definitely guarantee many objective data points and hopefully will lead us to a common perspective in the 9-box Grid by team. We will see and are for sure supporting the idea of self-managed and self-responsible teams.

• 20 DANGEROUS TRAPS INTELLIGENT LEADERS STUMBLE INTO BY ACCIDENT

• Fairphone introducing the Fairbuds XL Headphones
• Video: Smoking Kills! Very funny!
• Video: Why Microsoft tested Underwater data centers?

[10-May-23] Are You Living the Life ...

Some insights into different topics.

I am still in contact with the ONE.COM support team. They are working on fixing the daily visitor counter, in the moment still two days behind the current day. But for the loading performance of the start page the feedback is not good so far. The current environment is not really sufficient for a BLOG, but I am looking into their Wordpress functionality as alternative solution. We will see.

The picture today is taken from a Frank Sonnenberg post - Are You Living the Life That You’re Meant to Live?

Some more interesting links for today:

• Management 3.0: Team Agreement Canvas
• Grant Snider: 12 Rules for Creativity

• Mojo: The Programming Language for AI That Is Up To 35000x Faster Than Python

• The GROWTH Model of Coaching by Kenneth Acha

• 4 SIMPLE QUESTIONS TO CLARIFY COMPLEX CHALLENGES

• A brief history of tech skepticism

• Is fungi the most underused resource in the fight against climate change?

• COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency. Here's what it means

[08-May-23] Gen Z and Baby Boomer ...

Some insights into the different generations

Baby Boomers consist of people born from 1946-1964—making them 56-74 years old as of 2020. Baby Boomers were given the name due to a surge in births during the economic boom after World War II. While they didn’t grow up with technology like Gen Z, they are catching up. Even though more than half, 68%, of the generation own a smartphone, they are more likely to be accessing the internet using a desktop or laptop.

Gen Z is made up of anyone born in 1997 and later. As of 2020, they include people ages 23 and under. Older Gen Zs are starting to make purchasing decisions on their own. Gen Z is now the largest generation, making up more than 90 million people.

As ADSHARK is from North Dakota, United States all data above are related to the US population! Interested in global 2023 data, check the United Nations World Population Dashboard for example?

To make it more specific, I was born in 1962 (a baby boomer) and my two younger daughters are from 2000 and 2003 (both Generation [Gen] Z, year range of 1997–2012).

The Gen Z is now entering more and more the workforce, not only as Interns like most of my applicants, but also as employees. Just lately some of our Gen Z employees founded a NextGenLab to get heard and take action. They had a day with most of our Senior Leadership team members and are strong in marketing their ideas via the internal communication channels.

In my opinion a great opportunity for us in two ways. 1st to better understand their opinion about and needs for the company products, as they are not only entering the workfoce, but also the customer base. And 2nd to balance the upcoming exodus of the Baby Boomer generation and workforce into retirement, e.g. I have another 6 years to go.

Time enough for the required knowledge transfer, regular experience exchange and some mentoring and coaching in both directions. We are short with talents and skilled workers already, the only solution is to train, grow and develop the existing community. Let's start better sooner than later.

The better we will be in doing these transfer activities and the more we talk about it, the easier we can attract new talents from the outside, also a necessary strategy to think about and start quickly.

• Sketchplanations: Feedback fear

• Investment into plastics circularity can help us reach our climate goals faster

• Video: Teamwork and Leadership || Motivational short Animation

• 5 Ways Smart People Beat Stress

• Here Are the 2023 LinkedIn Top Companies

• The Dark Side of Scrum is quicker, easier and more seductive... but it's not Scrum as defined in The Scrum Guide

• Video: Love, Death & Robots Mars Elon Musk

[07-May-23] My week 18-2023 highlights

Back from the ADDI factory tour

The factory tour was great fun and we learned a lot about the company.

"Since 1829, addi has been producing exclusively at the Altena site in Germany. The company is managed in the 6th generation by the owner family. In addition, addi has been involved in local social projects for many years and supports many associations and institutions. addi stands for openness and transparency. Buy “Made in Germany” and help us to continue to act in a socially responsible manner in the sense of sustainability."

30% coverage of the German market, customers in 59 countries and 93% of all products Made in Germany, most of the material from regional suppliers. This and many more information was shared in the opening session. Afterwards we did take a 90 minutes factory tour, the staff did work on a Saturday only for the visitors.   

Interesting and unexpected to see that it takes 25 steps to manufacture a knitting needle. High quality is the main focus and in order to guarantee this they are always looking for new talents with sensitive fingers. They find a lot in other professions, like hair dresser, baker or pastry cooks. 

A great weekend with a nice hotel and food in the Sauerland region.

• The 10 Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week   (05-May-23)

• How to assess your organisation’s digital maturity, honestly

• Goodbye ChatGPT: These (New) AI Tools Will Leave You Speechless

[05-May-23] Welcome from Altena 

Tomorrow we will do the ADDI factory tour

Thanks to Leadership Freak Dan Rockwell for his Blog post and pictures today.

We left early at home to get to Altena in time. After a nice dinner we will get prepared to start the ADDI factory tour tomorrow morning at 09.00 AM. Our hotel is close to the factory in walking distance.

First stop after checkin and on a short walk around the hotel was a wool shop on the other side of the street. The owner is also famous for her Youtube channel, so we had a short fan-moment, just joking :-)

Have a great weekend, we will definitely have fun ...

• Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?

• AI Content Detector False Positives – Accused Of Using Chat GPT Or Other AI?

• How the pandemic has influenced our happiness at work

• The Power of Mindset: How Curiosity And Humility Can Drive Career Success

• 5 Leadership lessons from Ted Lasso

[04-May-23] May the 4th be with you 

Happy Star Wars Day!

Interesting, what kind of holidays are referenced to one single day. Besides the obvious Star Wars Day on May 4th I found 26 other entries. There might be many more? World Password Day and

National Candied Orange Peel Day are two great examples.

 

The coffee meeting with the CEO and the HR lead was very interesting yesterday. Possibly the group of participants was a little bit too large to get into a real discussion, but we covered several topics and could get some rare insights into the thinking process of our leadership team. A really great opportunity.

Today I had the "opposite" meeting with 4 of our Interns for a coffee chat in the Tower Cafe. Also a great experience and really interesting perspectives about a lot of topics, business and none business. With people from France, Africa, Germany and India at the same table, it is easy to find discussion points. Sports, food, cooking, religion and Haribo are only a few examples. More to come ...

We also had the official announcement of the so called "PI Champion" in one of our project teams today. The best junior team member selected by the Product Owner and Scrum Master based on proposals of the team for the last three month project phase. We did run this as a Proof of Concept for this idea, to motivate and recognize the good work of our younger and fairly new team members. To get them up to speed quickly. It did work out pretty well and the selected team members were really happy, but did not have a thank you speech prepared. Maybe next time? The test will proceed in this team and we think about promoting the idea in other teams as well. 

Finally some words about our new Architecture 2.0 approach. We had a technical framework in place, to transport files from our on premise environment into the Google Cloud (GCP). We started roughly two years ago and did setup a new environment from scratch, based on open source and cloud technologies. During the last ~24 month the environment did grow, we made mistakes and learned a lot, changed directions and the scope, and adjusted the capabilities over time. In the meantime it is working well, but we were sure that more is possible.

So we defined the Architecture 2.0 approach. Come up with a fast, simple, standardized, fully automated, scalable and reliable solution that uses latest technology and does, what the existing solution is already doing. But keeping the mistakes and learning from the last two years in mind by reducing the scope to the least necessary. We selected the best guys from all involved teams supporting the end-to-end solution and gave them the ownership to come up with something new in the least possible time, the faster the better. As we wanted to replace the existing solution as quickly as possible.

The self-organized and -managed team did take on this task bravely and came up with useful parts of the solution faster than expected. Really great teamwork and spirit, to get something done together, for the benefit of the whole project. Counts for the experts in the dedicated small task force team, as well as all the other team members who made the move of the experts possible, by standing in for their previous assignments. Nobody dropped a ball, well done TEAM!!

• Frank Sonnenberg: 99 Ways to Be More Selfless

• ‘The Godfather of A.I.’ Leaves Google and Warns of Danger Ahead

• Your Employees Are Already Using Generative AI: Here Are Guidelines to Help Them Use It Responsibly

[01-May-23] About future jobs ... 

Some insights from the WEF and Visual Capitalist

The Musical visit today was great, very close to the Dirty Dancing film, good music, dancing and acting on a very small stage. A lot of fun for the whole family.

With respect to the future jobs topic of today, you can have a look at:

• World Economic Forum: The Future of Jobs Report 2023
• Visual Capitalist: Which Jobs Will Be Most Impacted by ChatGPT?

Interesting details and Infographics summarizing great content. Besides that not a lot happened during the public holiday today. Going back to work tomorrow and looking forward to the promising topics for the rest of this week. Have a great time ...

• Video: TO-DO LIST FORMULA by Damon Zahariades | Core Message
• Video: Making Lego Car CROSS Gaps
• Video: Making Lego Car CLIMB Obstacles

• Dr. Travis Bradberry: What Makes A Leader?

• THE STATE OF ORGANIZATIONS 2023 REPORT | MCKINSEY & COMPANY

• What Motivates Employees Today? Recognition, Growth and Fun!

• 20 jobs that GPT-4 will replace as per written by GPT-4

[30-Apr-23] The week 17-2023 summary

Looking forward to a really interesting next week

Highlight of the week was the 2-day offsite workshop, great location, food, content and outcome. Could be the start of a longer coaching of the new team that just came together last week?

The next week will be even better, a 4-day workweek, starting with a public holiday tomorrow on 01-May-23:

• 20 ESSENTIAL 4-DAY WORKWEEK STATISTICS [2023]: BENEFITS + REVENUE

• Four-Day Workweek: Everything You Should Know

We will be enjoying the Dirty Dancing Musical that is currently on tour in Duesseldorf. Then on Wednesday the already mentioned coffee talk with our CEO and the head of HR. Might be a good opportunity to discuss some burning topics from an employee perspective?

On Friday I will be leaving early as we have to be in time for the addi factory tour on Saturday morning 09.00 AM. It was a birthday present for my wife two years ago, but could not happen so far due to COVID-19 restrictions. 

addi respectively the company Selter as a successful family business in the middle of the green heart of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Sauerland. Here innovation meets tradition. In our valley in Altena, we produce knitting needles and crochet hooks of the highest quality with the brand name “addi” in the 6th generation and ship them to customers in 59 different countries.

Interesting for my wife and her knitting & crochet hobby and for me as mechanical engineer, to see the factory process and their facility in Germany. Will be a fun week for sure.

• The 9 to 5 Workday is Dead. Here's What to Do Instead

• Are Developers Needed in the Age of AI?

• Understand ‘Microstress,’ Say No to Being ‘Voluntold,’ and More – The Leadership That Works Newsletter

• Feeling Overwhelmed at Work? These 16 Tips Can Help

• The 10 Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (28-Apr-23)

• Video: Do You Struggle With Focus? Practice These 3 Easy Habits
• Video: Agile Epic, User Story, and Feature: Do Names Matter?
• Video: Flying DJI Avata through the Porsche Museum

• Which countries are leading the way with hydrogen?

• “Sometimes to learn you need to unlearn.”

• The history of #AI

[29-Apr-23] A rainy day?

Stop moving around responsibility

Picture left

Picture middle

Picture right

We had an interesting situation in the German soccer league yesterday. The referee made a mistake, as he committed today, and did not give a penalty kick. The game ended 1:1 and the team that wants to win the league this year lost two points.

In the last ten years always the same team did win and nearly 10% of the inhabitants in Germany did not see another team at the top during their lifetime so far. This year it could be different as the top team from the previous years is struggling. There are 34 games every season and you can get 3 points for every game you win. So enough time and opportunities to win the league when you are pretty consistent in delivering your performance, what the team from yesterday is not doing by the way!!

In the end everybody is complaining about the referee today and the one mistake he made, and not the team that did not play good enough to win the game without needing the penalty kick. And nobody knows, if the penalty kick would have been a goal in the end.

So as in the last 10 years all other teams in the league are making too much mistakes and are not playing consistently enough to get a new team on the top. Might happen again this season? Stop complaining about referees and play as good as possible and necessary to win the cup --> Keep Going, Keep Growing or Play in the Puddles! as written on the pictures.

• Visualizing the Biomass of All the World’s Mammals

• How Agile 2 Supports the New AI

[28-Apr-23] Start stepping out ...

Back from the 2-day offsite workshop

Based on the feedback I got and my personal impression as host, I would say the workshop was a success. The first day was all about team building and leaving the comfort zone. The second day about understanding the strength and weakness of the two teams coming together, some first common ground and ideas, and finally to agree first common steps that make sense in the current situation. More to come ...

Another step on my way to become a "Feel-Good Manager" not as part of HR, but directly out of the same department with all required insights to be of help. Makes a lot of sense in the current situation, where another reorganization and general change is just around the corner. "When I feel good, all around me will be feeling good as well" is my slogan and an extension of my Release Train Engineer (RTE) assignment to the next level, as far as I see it.

Next Monday is a public holiday in Germany (01-May-23, May Day), a good start of the week. Then on Wednesday the opportunity for a coffee meeting with our CEO, our head of HR and 20+ colleagues. Looking forward to it and might be a chance to address the Feel-Good Manager idea?

• Agile Product Manifesto

• Why is Agile Coaching ‘More’ than Knowing The Process?

• Fairphone's 2022 Impact Report

• How Smart is ChatGPT?

• Grant Snider: How to Make Poetry Comics
• Frank Sonnenberg: What Turns Customers Off?

• Charted: There are more mobile phones than people in the world

• 7 Learning and Talent Leaders Share the Best Career Advice They’ve Ever Received

[25-Apr-23] Result of the MENTI survey

Only two people did participate in 2 weeks :-(

Not a really great participation, but it was voluntary and nevertheless

I will provide some ideas related to the mentioned topics below:

Coaching

• Top 20 Business Coaches in the World

• 13 Best Business Coaches to Follow in 2023

Mentoring

• We’re Huge Fans of Online Mentoring Platforms (So We Made a List of 26 of Them)

• Mentoring Trends We’re Seeing In 2023: From The CEO’s Desk

Leadership

• The 25 Best Leadership Websites You Need to Check Out This Year

• 100 Best Leadership Blogs

Agile

• 70 Best Agile Blogs and Websites

• Best 16 Agile Tools For Project Management In 2023

Workshop formats

• Check Out These 11 Creative Workshop Ideas

• How to Design and Run a Successful Workshop

Surprises

• Mapped: The State of Democracy Around the World

• TED Talk: My journey to thank all the people responsible for my morning coffee
• Bravely: Learning That Lasts
• Leadership Freak: THE #1 QUALITY OF LEADERS WHO INSPIRE US

There is so much more related to all the proposed topics, I just made a quick selection for YOU today.

Due to the 2-day offsite workshop starting tomorrow, I will be back on Friday. Have fun and try checking some of the links above, if you have a little bit spare time available.

[23-Apr-23] My week 16-2023 highlights

World Book and Copyright Day today

"World Book and Copyright Day is a celebration to promote the enjoyment of books and reading. Each year, on 23 April, celebrations take place all over the world to recognize the scope of books - a link between the past and the future, a bridge between generations and across cultures. On this occasion, UNESCO and the international organizations representing the three major sectors of the book industry - publishers, booksellers and libraries, select the World Book Capital for a year to maintain, through its own initiatives, the impetus of the Day’s celebrations."

• Gen Zers are bookworms but say they're shunning e-books because of eye strain, digital detoxing and their love for libraries

• 52 books that everyone should read in 2023

Just in case you had no time or motivation yet to participate in my voluntary and anonymous feedback collection, there are still 2 days left. Please use the link https://www.menti.com/27ksa3j43s to share your opinion and ideas, thanks a lot in advance.

Tomorrow we have the Sprint-1 demo of our current 3-month project phase, not a lot to show yet, but always a good opportunity to stay in contact with the customers and stakeholders. And to gather some early feedback in the current phase.

Besides that 2 days left to finish my concept sheet with the detailed timing of each activity for the 2-day offsite workshop starting on Wednesday. Really looking forward to it.

Wish you a creative and successful week with some learning experience.

• "Starting a company is like jumping off a cliff and assembling the plane on the way down." -- Reid Hoffman

• Global EV Production: BYD Surpasses Tesla

• The 10 Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (21-Apr-23)

• The Future Of Computing: Supercloud And Sky Computing

• Video: The largest cities in the world(1950-2023)
• Video: Largest Population In The World 1950 - 2023

• How to Encourage Employees to Break the Rules:
  What drives workplace rule-breaking and when it’s worth encouraging it by GUSTAVO RAZZETTI

“Reading an hour a day is only 4% of your day. But that 4% will put you at the top of your field within 10 years. Find the time.” – Patrick Bet-David, taken from 41 Fearless Patrick Bet-David Quotes That’ll Motivate You

“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.” -- Maya Angelou, taken from The 100 Best Quotes About Reading

[21-Apr-23] RAPID UNSCHEDULED DISASSEMBLY??

IT TURNS OUT SPACEX BLEW UP STARSHIP ON PURPOSE

My phrase of the week is definitely "Rapid Unscheduled Disassemply". In the agile mindset - fail fast, fail often as long as you learn something out of it - SpaceX had a great time until 4 minutes after lift off and a perfect learning experience. A lot of sensors did collect data and the next time it will be better, for sure. A quite expensive MVP I would say - "(MVP) is a concept from Lean Startup that stresses the impact of learning in new product development. Eric Ries, defined an MVP as that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort." - a little bit like a crash test with a real Bugatti Veyron for $1.9 Million, painful but it needs to happen.

The MOTIVATION workshop on Wednesday was great and the team had a surprising learning experience I would say - a challenge to change. The outcome was very helpful and can be implemented easily in the coming weeks. 

Today the concept and content of the two day offsite workshop for next week was approved by my customer, just one small change could be added in 5 minutes. Will be fun and I am really looking forward to it. A lot of reuse from previous workshops combined with some new stuff - copy and transfer - good when you have a growing portfolio of activities that you can easily combine for new requirements.

After feedback from the support team I could switch the Start page of my BLOG back to the small Welcome page that starts much faster than this page. Hopefully they could gather enough data - like SpaceX this week - to improve the environment for the next launch :-), we will see and experience shortly? 

Just in case you did not have the chance and time yet to participate in my feedback collection via MENTI https://www.menti.com/27ksa3j43s please do so NOW or in the coming days, would be very much appreciated, to come up with topics that you are interested in or that make you happy? So far we have e.g. mentoring, coaching, workshop formats, leadership and agile as proposals, but only from two participants in the survey :-( from around 100 vistors daily not a lot!! A little bit more would be great - participation is anonymous - don't worry.

• Many of us cannot imagine our lives without the Internet. But the technology is still young; only 60% of the world’s population was online in 2020.

• Sahil Bloom: The OODA Loop, Identity to Actions, & More

• WHEN DEVELOPMENT WORKS AND WHEN TO LET THEM GO

• Paraphrase Plagiarism Checker – Is Quillbot Plagiarism?

• 4 TOOLS FOR SELF-REFLECTION EVERY LEADER NEEDS

• Frank Sonnenberg: Nobody Can Do This, Except You

• Listen & Learn with these 12 Agile Podcasts

• Our Brain Typically Overlooks This Brilliant Problem-Solving Strategy

• Recalibrating assumptions on AI

• Dependencies Make Us Better

• Video: Starship short film
• Video: The Inside Story of ChatGPT’s Astonishing Potential | Greg Brockman | TED
• Video: Gems - Museum
• Video: World’s First Rocket-Free Kinetic Space Launch | Future Space Tech 2021 | Futuristic
• Video: Definition of Done vs Acceptance Criteria
• Video: Wisdoms of the Day IG

[18-Apr-23] Learning is worth it ...

There is no way around lifelong learning

For a short period of time I had to switch the Start Page of my BLOG back to the initial BLOG 2.0 page, to give the technical support team time to measure the real performance and loading times. The daily visitor counter is still having issues, but some improvement is already visible.

At work I did get a new laptop today after 5 years, as the old hardware was not compatible with the new Windows 11 operating system anymore. I am not a Windows or Mac fan, because I am more into Linux. But in a work environment Windows is still the standard, so you just have to get used to it and learn about the changes. The Windows logo is now in the middle of the menu bar and not on the left side anymore. Hopefully this UX (User experience) adjustment was not too expensive :-) The rest of the look and feel is getting closer to a Mac is what I heard from a colleague, who cares.

The best thing was a super smooth transition between the two laptops, thanks a lot to the support team, just login and waiting for the initial profile load and setup. Then I could proceed with my work as before, with double the memory and much more power now, a good day.

Tomorrow is the MOTIVATION workshop with a team of 13 people and the concept for the 2-day offsite event next week is nearly finished. One of the ideas will be Speed Feedback. At the end of Day-1 the 6 participants will have the opportunity to give each other feedback for one minute each. So 5-times giving and getting feedback will be a very good learning experience and a good preparation for Day-2. What did go well and what could be improved? What do the others know or did realize during the day that is not known to the individual? Will be an interesting approach, let's see.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): Technology Mind Map - Infographic
  

• These outdated mindsets and regulations are holding back urban mobility: Experts

• 10 SURPRISING JOB INTERVIEW QUESTIONS THAT IDENTIFY THE RIGHT PEOPLE

• Building Your Own Agile Team Maturity Assessment

• The 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐲𝐜𝐥𝐞 provides a roadmap for how we can continually adapt, grow, and evolve.

"The Johari window is an exercise that helps you gain a better understanding of yourself and how others see you. It was created by psychologists Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in 1955 as part of their work on group dynamics. Fun fact: “Johari” is a combination of their first names."

[15-Apr-23] AI-thinking ...

Do we need a nomenclature and new words for AI?

Last Thursday there was a TV discussion about AI and the transition that we are already in or that is ahead of us. It covered e.g. topics like AI ethics, general control initiatives/processes/institutions, personal data protection, Watermarks for AI generated videos, pictures or text,

where do we stand technically and what can be expected in the near future?

The also from Elon Musk supported initiative - Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter from 22-Mar-23 - was part of the discussion as well. Musk wants to pause AI development for 6 month, but why? Because he has so much insights into the current technology development progress, or he wants to catch up with other AI leaders?

A guy who plans to connect brains with computers (Neuralink), develops software for self-driving cars (Autopilot) and is working on the Tesla Bot to manufacture his cars much faster, definitely has the insights. And he did found a new artificial intelligence company called X.AI on 09-Mar-23 - really interesting, especially the timing. But let's believe in the positive of people before the opposite can be confirmed.

The most interesting part of the discussion was the topic, if AI is able to think or not?

THINKING: "the process of forming an opinion or idea about something, or the opinions or ideas formed by this process"

To avoid the discussion or philosophical exchange, if any AI system is able to think or not, what might be really difficult to proof by the way, it could be easily solved by using a different nomenclature or words?

A useful analogy might be the naming issues/conflicts of vegetarian or vegan sausages, burgers or bacon? Why should something that looks like a sausage or has the form of a sausage, but is out of e.g. pea protein, be called sausage? Only because the marketing department is not smart enough to find new names or the customers are so used to the "old" names that a change or transition is not possible or takes too long? As a side note I did ask ChatGPT to help:

"I plan to do a marketing campaign for a vegan sausage and I am looking for product names. Can you please propose 20 appropriate names, the words sausage, vegan, veggie and meat are not allowed? Some fantasy names would be great." - here examples:

1. Herb & Spice Links

2. Savory Bites

3. Plant Delights

4. Nature's Bangers

5. Zesty Sticks

6. Faux Franks

7. Garden Grinds

8. Vitality Bites

9. Bold Bites

10. Flavor Fusions

11. Pure Energy Links

12. Earthy Snackables

13. Wholesome Bites

14. ...

Some are not so bad ...

Back to the new names idea. As Apple starts everything with "i" and Elon Musk with "X", why not using "AI"? Like proposed in the headline - AI-thinking. This would give some clarity and could manage expectations, kind of a Watermark? Something to think about ...

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." -- Albert Einstein, German - Physicist March 14, 1879 - April 18, 1955

Please share some feedback via the MENTI link in the headline, would be really great and very much appreciated. All voluntary and anonymous, thanks a lot in advance !!

[12-Apr-23] Some minor adjustments

Further improvement of my BLOG environment

Same message as yesterday - The daily visitor counter of my web hosting company is still not working properly - their technical team is working on it, we will see how fast this solves the problem?

In the discussion with the service agent I mentioned the slow loading speed of the start page and he proposed GTmetrix to find improvement ideas. By connecting the new Welcome page to my web address the GTmetrix Grade improved from F to B in the meantime. Same for the SEO score, no complaints about the slow speed anymore.

2nd change is to add a new counter on the Welcome page, just to double check the clicks, as the daily visitor count is still not working. And then the request to ask for YOUR opinion and ideas in the coming 14 days, just use the MENTI link in the headline or here. Thanks a lot in advance any feedback is very much appreciated.

The picture today is like a Venn Diagram - "Venn diagrams are diagrams used to visually depict sets, relationships between sets, and operations on sets. The Venn diagram shows the relationship among sets using circles and the area they cover concerning each other.

A Venn diagram, also known as a set diagram, depicts several set operations like set intersection, set union, and set difference. We may also use it to represent subsets of a set."

90 years ago Montserrat Caballé was born, "a Spanish operatic soprano, admired for her versatility and phrasing and for her performances in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi, Gaetano Donizetti, and Richard Strauss." You might know her from the opening song of the Barcelona Olympics together with Freddie Mercury? She died Oct-2018.

61 years ago my Scottish friend was born, he is celebrating his birthday today, congratulations and party on.

In the coming days I will have a look into the capabilities of Originality.AI - "by far the most accurate AI (Chat GPT, GPT-2, GPT-3, GPT-4, Bard and ONLY Paraphrase Detection (quillbot)) Content Detection tool on the market."

• Exploring the Future of Skill-based Organisations

• Try creating your own personal SWOT for career development or at your team level

• These book summaries will save you 1000+ hours of reading

• Frank Sonnenberg: What Would You Give Up to Get What You Want?

• Ageling on Agile: A great new Fluid Scrum Teams use case

• The Evolution Of AI: Transforming The World One Algorithm At A Time

[11-Apr-23] More about words ..

It is just a matter of the right perspective, or not?

The daily visitor counter of my web hosting company is still not working properly, but I learned today that I am not the only one who realized it. Hopefully it gets fixed quickly?

I have seen the Comic Agile cartoon today and it did perfectly fit to my post from yesterday about "the power of words". This time the word is PROJECT and the meaning of it according to PMI (Project Management Institute) versus the Scrum Guide.

PMI: "All projects are a temporary effort to create value through a unique product, service or result. All projects have a beginning and an end. They have a team, a budget, a schedule and a set of expectations the team needs to meet. Each project is unique and differs from routine operations—the ongoing activities of an organization—because projects reach a conclusion once the goal is achieved."

Scrum Guide: "Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems. Scrum employs an iterative, incremental approach to optimize predictability and to control risk. Scrum engages groups of people who collectively have all the skills and expertise to do the work and share or acquire such skills as needed. Scrum combines four formal events for inspection and adaptation within a containing event, the Sprint. These events work because they implement the empirical Scrum pillars of transparency, inspection, and adaptation."

Similar words and similar content I would say and the same is mentioned in the cartoon. The difference is more an ideological one and the responsibility of the team doing the work - in the PMI Waterfall world they have their line management taking care - in the Scrum Agile world the teams are self-managed, -organized and -responsible, what makes a big difference. 

With my 4 years experience in the Agile world and 26 years in the Waterfall world before, I clearly see advantages for the self-managed teams and their motivation, only issues is the line management that is loosing more and more control / responsibility, without any proper replacement for it. Taking over an agile role could be a great way out, but this requires a personal change, what is not so easy to do.

Maybe the new Management 3.0 practice - Connection Circles - could be a good approach to get some clarity for the necessary change, just give it a try?

I selected the VALUES picture today, because I will be using the topic personal and team values in one of my coming workshops. Interested to find out your personal values?

• The Ultimate List of Core Values And How To Find Yours

• The Ultimate List of 400 Personal Values (PDF)

[09-Apr-23] My week 14-2023 highlights 

Easter week and holidays ...

Easter Sunday and the best possible movie on TV - Life of Brian - from Monty Python. Possibly not the preferred movie of the church, but a great learning experience of British humor and if you like to get a Latin lesson.

Next film after this is Monty Python and the Holy Grail (from 1975), an even more special kind of humor.

My website hoster seems to have a technical issues today, on Sunday. So I will finish the post quickly, have a great next week.

• The 10 Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (07-Apr-23)

• See the Key Findings From the Gartner 2023 Board of Directors Survey

• Sailing towards the twin transition: How shipping can use digital to decarbonize

• 100 AI tools which make your task easy and everyday life easy

[08-Apr-23] About Pablo Picasso

50 years ago Pablo Picasso died in 1973

"Probably Picasso's most famous work, Guernica is certainly his most powerful political statement, painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War."

A great artist with an interesting journey during his private and "business" life. Have a great Easter time.

• 7 eye-opening Japanese concepts that will transform your life

[07-Apr-23] Welcome to my BLOG ...

Quick introduction to manage expectations

Today is Good Friday a bank holiday in Gemany and a lot of other countries, even the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is closed. Means for me some days off, as next Monday is a bank holiday in Germany as well and then I have 3 more days holiday. Well deserved after two pretty busy weeks. The planning for the next 3 month project phase did go smoothly and we closed it with a Team Building session yesterday.

We had face-to-face sessions at 4 different locations in 3 different countries and the rest of the team did participate online. Not everybody lives close enough to a company location, to get their easily for a one day get-together. The team members who did come together at one location had a lot of fun and I am pretty sure this was not the last time to close a planning phase with a team event.

As I made some small marketing for my personal BLOG yesterday during the team event and my daughter is spreading the info about the existance of my BLOG with her friends lately, I am just using the opportunity to welcome some new readers today. As I am a strong believer of treating new and existing customers in the same way, also a warm welcome message to my one-time, many-time and every-time readers. Your support is very much appreciated every day!! 

I did write my first BLOG post on 04-Jul-2016, some excerpts below: 

• Why now? After nearly 10 years working for my company I took the opportunity for a voluntary leave, as I needed a change and was not happy anymore with the current situation as IT Manager. I am in Garden Leave now, having suffcient time to look for new opportunities and to RethinkAndFocus. A Blog or Online
  Diary looks like a good idea to share my thoughts regularly and to describe, what is happening during my current journey in a central place?

• To be very clear at the end of this introduction. I am doing this for me and not for money. The links and references I am using are there to support my thoughts and arguments and not for any sponsoring or advertising purposes.

So in summary my personal journal with a lot of diverse, interesting and fun content, with details as far as I am searching for it. Looking for  more? You can download all my BLOG posts since 2016 as eBOOKs from my Downloads page for FREE. You are welcome ...

The Teambuilding session yesterday had two focus points. A Personality Type overview for the whole team and to come up with an Elevator Pitch for our project. A lot of fun and time to leave the personal comfort zone. We used the 16Personalities test, great effort-outcome ratio, and a lot of details and supporting material are available. More personality test:

• The 23 Best Personality Tests In Ranking Order (2023 Update)

• 14 Free Personality Tests That’ll Help You Figure Yourself Out

• 12 Free Personality Tests You Can Take Online Today

• Or on "My new business", just scroll down a little bit

We had a 70+ % return rate in the team, could cover all 16 Personality Types in the team and were pretty in line with the country profiles. A great outcome and team spirit!!

• Video: Behind the Screens | The Dark Side of the Smartphone Industry | Fairphone

• DISAPPOINTMENT – NAVIGATING A DELIGHTFUL PAST

• TED Talk: What will the dream car of the future be like?

• If you open a meeting with icebreakers, end with these wrap-up equivalents for better closure

• Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2023

• 3 ways cities can promote new, greener mobility services

• Do You Understand the Impact of Your Leadership?

• Accelerating performance in a winner-takes-most world

• Here's why making phone calls can be great for young people's wellbeing

“Your real personality identity is not an option, it is the foundation for your happiness and health.” -- Diana Dentinger

[02-Apr-23] The week 13-2023 summary

About Coaching versus Mentoring ...

 

I have seen the video on LinkedIn today with the headline "See how Coaching can help you break your mental barriers". As the difference between Coaching and Mentoring is not easy to define and understand, here the try to explain it from the article referenced above.

"Whether this individual takes support from a coach or a mentor, depends on many things. If you need to discover the journey from Point A to Point B by exploring yourself, then you should choose a coach. Choose a mentor if you want instructions and lessons from previous experiences." I think the monkey behaves like a dog coach in the video as both discover the journey over the river, with the monkey in the lead. What do you think?

The coming week has just 4 working days, as next Friday is a bank holiday in Germany (Good Friday). The same with Easter Monday on 10-Apr-23. Until then four busy days left with the two new Interns arriving tomorrow and the next 3 month project phase starting with two days planning and the team building session and come-together on Thursday. Get ready to rumble ...

• The 10 Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (31-Mar-23)

• Here are 8 ways the world can tackle water scarcity

• 6G Is Coming: What Will Be The Business Impact?

• Who spends the longest time in retirement?

• The Finnish Secret to Happiness? Knowing When You Have Enough.

"It's very difficult to innovate without requiring people to do something different. And whenever you require people to do something different, you're talking about change." -- John P. Kotter, American - Educator Born: February 25, 1947

 

Everything is well prepared for the 2 planning days next week. We have enough content for three month work and our kick-off presentation is nearly finished. Only the homework for the Team Building session needs some more speed as the response rate is below 50% so far. In order to have a statistical relevant result my target is 75% or more. But as the participation is voluntary, too much pressure will not help. Regular daily reminders have to be the solution until next week Wednesday, we will see.

In the last two days I could agree to host two new workshops for April. The Motivation Driver workshop again for a whole department and a new workshop for 2 days off-site that will be discussed in more details on Monday. With my portfolio of workshop content I am ready to fill 2 days by reusing existing content in combination with some new ideas, depending on the requirements of my customer. More to come ...

• Leading the Five-Generation Workforce – The Leadership That Works Newsletter

• Grant Snider: Creative Wisdom
• Video: Seven Mistakes You'll Definitely Make as a Product Owner

• What is green steel and why does the world need more of it?

• WHY WE OVERCOMPLICATE THINGS

• 4 REASONS WE MAKE DUMB DECISIONS AND 7 WAYS TO MAKE SMART DECISIONS

• Gartner: 4 Emerging Technologies You Need to Know About

• Ecosystems for the rest of us

• Thriving in the AI Revolution: Eight Essential Insights for Navigating the ChatGPT Era

• Why smart siting of renewable energy is crucial for people and planet

• Huge Group Calls for Temporary Pause on AI More Advanced Than GPT-4

Have a great and relaxing weekend.

[29-Mar-23] Some historical data

From 7 to 69 to even more years ...

 

Great achievement and a really sustainable approach taken by Fairphone. The operating system was updated for 7 years, the phone hardware is still supported and you can buy spare parts for the modular system. Really a role model.

Yesterday the Belgian team did win against the German soccer team for the 1st time after 69 years. A great success for Belgium and their team that is in a positive flow in the moment anyway. For the German team the already difficult situation is getting even worse. A lot to be done until the UEFA EURO 2024 starts in Germany on 14-Jun-2024.

Finally the visit of King Charles III in Germany today. I wanted to check, when the last British King did visit Germany, but was not really successful. His mother was just too long the Queen.

• Sahil Bloom: The Personal Quarterly Review
• All you need to know about Python: Real Python Tutorials
• An interesting approach to hiring talent: SOLITA - Join a community of diverse talent who embrace each others’ (im)perfections

• A COMEDY MAKES PFIZER’S CHIEF CORPORATE AFFAIRS OFFICER FEEL ALONE

• Are You Honorable or Afraid of Getting Caught?

• AI And You: How ChatGPT Can Take Your Career To The Next Level

[26-Mar-23] My week 12-2023 highlights

Some more comments to the videos from yesterday

 

The Steal like an Artist video very well supports my personal belief that "Stealing with Pride" and "Copy and Transfer" is not just a minor proof of the laziness of engineers, but also an appreciation of the work of other people. Using their great work and idea as basis for reuse or a new development is a high level of valuation. Think about it.

Spending the 1hour and 6 minutes on the Leadership and Purpose video with Simon Sinek is really worth it. Yes you can do a lot in one hour, but this video is full of great ideas, story telling, real life examples and a basis for further learning and investigation. Great stuff!! Some related material to check out:

• Four Seasons People page

• THE VISION OF FOUR SEASONS

• The 5 Practices of the The Infinite Game
• Barry-Wehmiller Guiding Principles of Leadership
• Barry-Wehmiller Launching our Cultural Journey

• Bob Chapman, CEO and Chairman at Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc

“Everyone wants to contribute. Trust them. Leaders are everywhere. Find them. Some people are on a mission. Celebrate them. Others wish things were different. Listen to them. Everybody matters. Show them.” – Bob Chapman

Had a busy last week and the coming week will be even more busy. We start with the System Demo tomorrow, the presentation of our project results from the last 10 weeks. A lot of good stuff to show to our stakeholders and as great motivation for the coming three month. Tuesday the workshop with the homework, the team is expected to come up with a slogan or logo for their project. Will be interesting to see, how the different personality types will handle this.

On Tuesday we will be starting with our Innovation, Knowledge Sharing and Learning phase, always happening in the last two weeks of a 3-month project phase, we call it IP-Sprint. For the rest of the week we will be preparing the next planning phase starting 04-Apr-23. Much to do ...

• Grant Snider: The Two Types of Stories: Expanded Edition

• Chat GPT-4: The AI-Powered Best Friend We've Always Dreamed Of?

• Sketchplanations: What drives us: autonomy, mastery, purpose

• 20 Steps to Achieving Anything by Daryl Daughtry, Publisher

• 8 Top Tips to Boost Your Learning (Infograph)

• Video: MindSpring Presents: "Everybody Matters" by Bob Chapman

“Management is about telling people what to do, and leadership is about allowing people to do what they’re capable of doing.” – Bob Chapman, taken from 25 Inspirational Business Process Improvement Quotes

[24-Mar-23] Getting ready for the fun?

Give an Hour for Earth by spending 60 minutes doing something - anything - positive for our planet.

 

"Earth Hour 2023 to rally more people than ever to join the Biggest Hour for Earth" on 25-Mar-2023 at 08.30 PM your local time.

After a two days break back to the blogging fun. Sometimes you just need to focus on something else to refresh your mind. A lot of good stories and links came up during this time, a small collection for you today.

During table tennis training yesterday I did play against a much younger team member, I assume the age difference was 40+ years? Experience and overview beats youth and speed. Exactly the same, what I experience when I play against our oldest player who is 80+. You can run as fast as you want when you are always too late and the other player takes advantage of your weak points. Something the younger player had to accept as well in the end after losing two sets and the game. Next time is a new chance ...

Yesterday I had a coffee break with three of our Interns. A really interesting come-together, one coming from Vietnam, from India and Zimbabwe. All students in Germany, even speaking German, respect. These kind of meetings are great for cultural awareness, we had an interesting discussion about Easter, what it is and how to celebrate it. Next month we have three new starters from Germany, France and Cameroon to extend the already very diverse community. Looking forward to it.

Do you remember your school times and how you handled making your homework? I am confident it has nothing to do with skills, but is mainly driven by your attitude!! For the next two workshops I did ask the participants to prepare a small homework, just doing a personality test, as we will use the results during the session. After several reminders there are still people who are not aware, their listening or reading skills need some updates, and the majority of the rest is just waiting until the last minute. You can still do it on the day of the workshop, in the bus or before the lesson like in school, you could make something up or just copy the result of a colleague? 10 - 40 years after they finished school and nothing really changed, must be attitude. With the result of their personality test they might understand better why? We will see next Tuesday.

• The New Happy: Whatever happens, be kind to yourself
• Video: Storytelling Through Characters at Disney Parks I SXSW 2023

• Ten great illustrations on #personaldevelopment and #growth

• 7 WAYS TO MEET THE NEED TO FEEL SEEN, HEARD, AND UNDERSTOOD

• Frank Sonnenberg: Terrible Role Models Make Great Teachers

• Video: He's The Best Teacher Ever , Teacher of Life Lessons

• The Top 4 Examples Of How ChatGPT Can Be Used In Telecom

• 3 WAYS TO BRING YOUR BEST SELF

• How vertical farms could boost food production in India

• Scott Ambler: The time to fight back against artificial intelligence is now

• How many steps a day do we really need to take? Here are the facts

• Here's how to get older adults exercising

• The 10 Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (24-Mar-23)

[21-Mar-23] The Lots Of Socks Campaign

Getting people talking on World Down Syndrome Day, 21 March

 

"World Down Syndrome Day (WDSD), 21 March, is a global awareness day which has been officially observed by the United Nations since 2012. The date for WDSD being the 21st day of the 3rd month, was selected to signify the uniqueness of the triplication (trisomy) of the 21st chromosome which causes Down syndrome."

See two impressive lists of successful people:

• 10 Inspiring Famous People with Down Syndrome (2023)

• 10 Of The Most Successful People With Down Syndrome (2019)

"I always say I am Pablo Pineda and that I have Down’s syndrome. There is a big difference between 'having' and 'being.' 'Being' can crush you down and 'having' shows it is only one feature." – Pablo Pineda, the first European with DS to graduate with a university degree - taken from 21 Quotes from Extraordinary Individuals with Down Syndrome

• Verbal to Visual video: The Map of Emotions

• Jason Sudeikis and ‘Ted Lasso’ cast meet with Biden for mental health discussion

• 3 WAYS DOGS AND PEOPLE RISE

• 5 Reasons Why Most Attempts to Create a Coaching Culture Fail

• 3 strategies that can future-proof the global food system

• Comic Agile: #234 – SAFe Flow
• Video: Two 2-minute Rules to Beat Procrastination (in 2 minutes)

"People with Down syndrome can do anything. They just do it at their own pace. Give them a chance, and you will be rewarded beyond your greatest expectations." -- Madeline Stuart, taken from Madeline Stuart Quotes

[05-Mar-23] The week 09-2023 summary

Great customer loyalty workshop, more to come ...

 

The workshop had been delivered on Tuesday and the summary from all departments last Friday was promising. Now we just have to make an improvement plan and deliver it quickly. Any further change will help.

Another workshop is already planned, I will host the Motivation Driver workshop again for a whole department. To combine some learning and teambuilding.

In the coming week the portfolio management team will decide about priorities and focus topics for the next three month project period that will start after Easter on 11-Apr-23. Still a lot to be prepared, a good story line for the teams about the coming objectives, helping them to finish the current 3 month period and getting ready for the next one. We start tomorrow.

• Video: Watch Tesla Reveal Walking Optimus Robot (Investor Day 2023)
• Video: NEW WORLD RECORD | Men’s Pole Vault | Mondo Duplantis, 6.22m (20ft 5in)!

• The 10 Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (03-Mar-23)

• GPT-4 Is Coming – What We Know So Far

• Ocean treaty: Historic agreement reached after decade of talks

• 9 Questions That Should Be in Every Employee Engagement Survey

• The promise and challenges of sustainable travel products
  

• International Women's Day 08-Mar-2023
  

[03-Mar-23] Connecting the dots

Use the same approach for different areas

 

When I write a new BLOG post, I copy the old one and adjust the date first, to keep the overall format and page layout in sync. I just realized that my last post had 29-Feb-23 as date, it is now 01-Mar-23 :-) Next check is always the Mobile Phone formatting, text with date goes before the 1st picture!!

I did add a new link on my Interesting Links page - What is Tall Poppy Syndrome? - interesting Infographic and read.

The six Ms of strategy on the picture do fit to other areas as well. For example people applying for a new job in a new company:

• When you are applying for a job, you bring your experience, expertise, skills and attitude as products and services
• Your customer is your potential new employer
• What you can bring to the table needs to fit to the expectations of your customer
• Do not underestimate the cost of hiring versus the revenue you could generate for the employer
• Your purpose and the purpose of the company you apply for need to match on a high level (e.g. 75+ %), to make both sides happy 
• The market and company situation and their willigness to change old thinking processes and ways of working will impact your application experience. Something you cannot really influence

Not so far away I would say.

The consolidation of the customer loyalty workshop results today did show a lot of commonalities in the different departments:

• The need for action versus why should the change work this time?
• Everybody has painful stories, what is not working well and in parallel many ideas how to improve or change
• Customer centricity and being driven by financials might cause conflicts at the beginning, but should be in sync later on
• Lower results in customer loyalty from the employee survey could mean a more realistic and less biased view of the situation?
• Listening to the dicussion today, the six Ms could also fit well for this topic? What do you think?

[01-Mar-23] Customer Loyalty again

Quick summary of the workshop and more ...

 

Finally yesterday we had the Customer Loyalty workshop that was mandatory for all departments. The public transport strike had minor impact and as I had the data/opinion collection parts prepared for a hybrid setup, we could easily support two team members on the phone. In the end even the people in the room did use the online data collection possibilities, much easier for me to consolidate the results and less paper handling and waste.

We collected, what people SAY, THINK and FEEL about our company. In two rounds we shared our personal opinion and what we hear from friends and social media. A good collection of information and due to different sources from 13 participants, pretty accurate I would say.

Next step will be a consolidation from all department workshops for our CFO. Hopefully the results will be used to initiate a customer centricity initiative and mindset, there is definitely room for improvement. As the idea of my adjusted workshop was to combine the required data collection with a learning experience, the Empathy test was very much appreciated. Some people were surprised about the questions and even more about their result. 

In alignment with the Customer Loyalty workshop I started to read a new book that came out the first time in 1993, 30 years ago.

• The only thing that bothers is the customer by Edgar K. Geffroy

The German title is "Das Einzige, was stört, ist der Kunde: Clienting ersetzt Marketing" An interesting journey back in time, a lot of stuff is pretty new (back in 1993), some stuff is really visionary, and surprise, surprise still valid in 2023. What did we do in the last 30 years, not really focusing on customers I would say. And especially Germany is not famous for customer service and orientation --> The only thing that bothers is the customer ...

In 1993 there was no Google search, Social Media and iPhone yet, crazy times.

• Watch The Incredible 70-Year Evolution Of The Cell Phone

• From the garage to the Googleplex

• The Evolution of Social Media: How Did It Begin, and Where Could It Go Next?

[24-Feb-23] Transformations

How we change ...

 

Some changes were required to be compliant with the SEO guidelines on my BLOG platform. I did update the My new business and Beratung & Coaching pages. New URL, some clean-up and adjustments on both sites. Besides that I had to search for a broken link, it took some time to find it in the 12-Dec-22 post. Now all is fine until further notice.

I am doing my BLOG for fun and interested readers and not for money or top SEO rankings, so I do not have to be perfect. And the hosting platform is it not either, as all posts since 08-Dec-22 are part of one long text now and there are no unique URLs per post anymore. Exactly the explanation that I gave to an interested marketing guy today, who wanted to place some articles or links on my BLOG for small money. We will see, if he is still fine after my explanation and how this opportunity will go on?

Next Tuesday I will have the Customer Loyalty workshop at our location with 16 team members. Should be fine as all is prepared right now. Only issues is another strike of the public transport system in Duesseldorf. The union wants to put a lot of pressure on the next negotiation round with the employers. We will see how many more rounds and strikes are required to come to a final agreement?

• Ranked: Biotoxins in Nature, by Lethal Dose

• 5 SIMPLE WAYS TO PRACTICE BEING PRESENT EVEN BUSY LEADERS CAN TRY

• What does it mean for a species to be at risk of extinction?

• Global economic inequality: what matters most for your living conditions is not who you are, but where you are

• 4 WAYS TO DO LESS AND GET MORE DONE TODAY

• 5 Simple Habits That Will Make You a More Successful Talent Leader

[19-Feb-23] The week 07-2023 summary

My holiday week is nearly over

 

On the picture the Railway Station in Zandvoort, a city at the beach with a lot of history and the Formula 1 circuit as mentioned yesterday.

A combination of different buildings and holiday region styles together in one location, not really my style, but it seems to be really attractive for tourists and visitors of the Formula 1 race, once per year.

Tomorrow we go home, to have one more day off before I go back to work on Wednesday.

Have a great and surprising week.

• Ranked: America’s Best Places to Work in 2023

• Will ChatGPT Put Data Analysts Out of Work?

• As more electric vehicles hit the road, our charging habits must change - here’s why

• Everything you need to know about hydrogen in the clean energy transition

• Cities aren't designed for women. Here's what's needed next

[18-Feb-23] Famous Haarlem people

A lot of painters on the list I shared yesterday ...

 

The picture is called - De Tuin (The Garden), 1893 by JACOBUS VAN LOOY. He is one of several painters on the list of famous people who were born in Haarlem, the city close to our holiday location. More details in the following article, just in case you need more details - 4 Surprising Facts About Haarlem in the Dutch Golden Age.

Today we made a nice walk at the beach and even the sun came out, but it was still windy and not really warm. Nothing to be concerned about with the right clothes and shoes.

Windy, low temperatures and cold water, I could feel it through my

rubber boots, but perfect conditions for Kite Surfers, we have seen a lot of them. Really a high-speed sport and a good fit to the Circuit Zandvoort - HOME OF THE FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN DUTCH GRAND PRIX - that is close by.

The Excel sheet overview is taken from the Website statistics provided by my Blog hosting company today. In total 9,203 visitors since 08-Dec-22, the start date on the new platform. Visitors are coming from 90 different countries, really interesting distribution around the globe.

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