[19-May-25] It is this time of the year again ...

Yearly goal/objective setting and Employee surveys 

The new Fiscal Year 25/26 started on 01-Apr-25 and the goals are due by the end of May. A top-down process from the CEO down via several levels to my supervisor and finally to me. You always have to describe, what you are planning to accomplish and how you want to measure this. Be SMART as much as possible ...

Today the every 6-month Employee Survey did start again. As always the participation is voluntary and anonymous. I did already get two reminders to participate today :-) 

"In today’s fast-changing work environment, the employee engagement survey has become an indispensable tool for organizations seeking to measure, analyze, and enhance their employee experience. HR professionals, organizational development specialists, and business leaders know that engaged employees are essential for high performance, strong company culture, and profitability."

The level of employee engagement is one of the KPIs that will be measured throughout the fiscal year for all our managers. Because it is a topic even world wide on a Gallup level, see their survey and results.

• Employee Engagement Surveys: Pros, Cons, Pricing, and the Best Solution for 2025

• 27 proven ways to manage your To-Do lists effectively

• Clockify Blog: Learn how to improve productivity and better manage your work in our detailed blog posts featuring practical tips, expert opinions, and free templates.

• THIS Is What Comes After "Agile Is Dead" by Jurgen Appelo
  

• The New Happy: Make it joyful
• Dan Rockwell: 5 Dangers of Harmful Help

• People are using ChatGPT to create bobbleheads. Here's exactly how

• How to disagree without damaging relationships
• Shared again: Professors Staffed a Fake Company Entirely With AI Agents, and You'll Never Guess What Happened

[18-May-25] My week 20-2025 highlights

Austria’s JJ wins the Eurovision Song Contest 2025

Definitely the best singer did win the song contest yesterday evening, what was the idea. Some were questioning the show, but the combination of jury and audience vote did select the winner in the end. 

The German Duo did end on the 15th of 26 places in the end, not bad but still room for improvement. Next year is another year.

In his book Stretch for Change, Gustavo Razzetti introduced the Enemies of Innovation framework. These eight archetypes don’t represent specific individuals but rather mindsets or behaviors that manifest throughout an organization, from frontline employees to the executive suite.

Gallup: The Human Factor - Why is human support essential? AI excels at recognizing patterns and making predictions, but people provide the context, intuition and ethics. The most powerful results happen when each does what it does best.

After the busy last week the next one might be a little bit quieter, but we will see in the coming days. We still need a new approach for the Lean Portfolio Management (LPM), so good to use the coming week to further improve the process and current way of working.

• sketchplanations: Don't Think of an Elephant

• The Great Skill Shift: How AI Is Transforming 70% Of Jobs By 2030
  by Bernard Marr
  

• Fear of failure keeps a lot of people from trying something new. But we also know that experiments help to boost #innovation 💡and talent development

“Innovation is seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” – Dr. Albert Szent-Györgyi taken from 45 Inspiring Quotes on Innovation

[17-May-25] Basel 2025, Grand Final

The Eurovision Song Contest is back, this time in Switzerland

Every year in May it is the time for the song contest again. Interested in

All 37 Songs of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 🎵, see this 21 minutes video.

Another great video is from 2011 when Germany was hosting the Eurovision Song Contest in Duesseldorf after winning for the 2nd time in 2010. One of the most spectacular opening sessions ever, see:

• Video: Eurovision Song Contest 2011 - Grand Final - Full Show (opening session until 08:40 minutes) - great show and music

This 2nd visual today was inspired by the Japanese art of Kintsugi.

This is the act of restoring broken pottery by using gold to put the pieces back together. This typically makes the renewed pottery more beautiful than the original.

“I love the idea that an accident can be an occasion to make something more delightful, not less so.” — Ingrid Fetell Lee taken from 36 Kintsugi Quotes for Finding Beauty in Brokenness

• Western work culture glorifies the wrong things. 12 incredible frameworks from Japan

• Structure = Persuasion. The Minto Pyramid proves it every time.

• How the Minto Pyramid Principle can enhance your communication skills

• See AI like a child does

• The Four Moats Theory™ Who needs Deloitte, McKinsey, and Accenture, when you have Zed (ChatGPT), Claude, and Vera (Gemini)? by Jurgen Appelo

“Kintsugi teaches us that our broken pieces can create something even more beautiful than before.” – Candice Kumai taken from 115 Best Kintsugi Quotes (with Commentary)

[16-May-25] Meaningful May

Action for Happiness: Let's find ways to be part of something bigger.

Just check it out: "We are a movement of people taking action to create a happier and kinder world, together. Action for Happiness brings people together and provides practical resources. We help each other learn evidence-based skills for happier living, feel a sense of belonging and commit to personal action to create more happiness, for ourselves and others."

Some happiness links, more or less:

• Dan Rockwell: 6 Toxic Thought-Habits You Must Reject

• “Wisdom is the expansion of empathy.”

• Breaking: China has launched the world’s first AI Agent-powered hospital — staffed by 42 AI doctors

• Let's make a DIY jumping frog with paper

• Disappear for 90 Days. Reappear 10 Years Ahead

• Don’t try to change something that works for your customer.

• Advancing social entrepreneurship and innovation worldwide

• Here’s a simple tool to cut the noise in teams: It's called the Six Thinking Hats

• Every AI Tool You'll Ever Need - galaxy.ai
  One platform for all your AI needs - text, image, audio, video, and more

• Video: OpenAI’s Sam Altman Talks ChatGPT, AI Agents and Superintelligence — Live at TED2025 (48 minutes) 
• "The only difference between a good day and a bad day is your attitude" -- Dennis S. Brown

Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry Be Happy (Official Music Video)

[09-May-25] Farewell to my project work

A lot can happen in three years ...

Today was the good-bye and farewell party of our Agile Release Train. After 3 years and some months the previous way of working has been changed Tuesday this week with the new operating model going live. After quickly summarizing the last 14 three month periods, we had two key note speakers, who played major roles for the project in the past. At the end we had a fun Quiz and did let our Indian colleagues go to their dinner party. The local management took care that everything was arranged at out two locations in Pune. "Work hard, party hard" - well deserved.

A lot did happen also outside of the project in the last 3 years, e.g. Ukraine, Israel, COVID-19, etc. Just in the last two month, we have a new Indian - Pakistan conflict, a new government in Germany and a new Pope since yesterday.

Robert Francis Prevost is now Leo XIV. He was one of the possible candidates on my Google Gemini Papal Successor Speculation and Analysis from 21-Apr-25. Only four ballots for a two-thirds majority, respect. The other picture provides some more insights into the previous thirteen Leo's.

Yesterday afternoon I did finally take the Duolingo English Test that is a prerequisite for my QUANTIC EMBA. The preparation took longer than the test in the end. You have to download a program for the latest test that only runs on Apple and Windows OS and requires Admin rights. You have to confirm your personality with a passport and mobile phone picture. Your desk must be empty, you have to sit straight, and will be controlled by your mobile phone camera during the whole test. Tough times. I am pretty sure I was good enough to pass, but will know in two days from yesterday. Looking forward to it.

• CliftonStrengths (StrengthsFinder) Test: Free Online Alternative

• Video: How to Stay Optimistic in an Ever-Changing World | Full Conversation with Simon Sinek (57 minutes)

• 12 brilliant ways to fail with Agile by Willem-Jan Ageling

• Tony Robbins & Dean Graziosi Present: The FREE EVENT OF THE YEAR - Thrive In 2025 - May 15th — 17th, 2025, 10:00AM PT | 3 HOURS/DAY

• Dan Rockwell: 16 Secrets for Multipliers
• Gallup: The Remote Work Paradox: Higher Engagement, Lower Wellbeing

• 12 mental models to think like a top-performer

[07-May-25] Starting small ... 

tiny revolutions: big change starts small by Grant Snider

How “Can’t” and “Won’t” Shape Your Life By Frank Sonnenberg

Below the OpenAI perspective about this topic:

"Understanding the distinction between 'Can't' and 'Won't' is crucial for effective communication and problem-solving. While 'Can't' implies an inability or lack of capability to do something, 'Won't' represents a conscious decision or choice not to do it. Recognizing this difference can help in addressing issues more accurately and fostering better relationships."

"In daily interactions, recognizing when someone says 'Can't' versus 'Won't' can provide valuable insights into their mindset and intentions. It can also lead to more productive conversations and resolutions. By paying closer attention to the subtle nuances between these two words, we can navigate challenges with greater clarity and understanding."

The nuances between these two words are obvious for native speakers, but might be not that clear for non-native speakers. Depends on the situation and fluency of speech.

Today I did take the free Duolingo English Practice Test, to get familiar with their setup and different kind of questions and scenarios. These are required to get an integral perspective of your language skills. The Duolingo test is accepted by 5,500+ institutions, including top US universities.

[04-May-25] My week 18-2025 highlights

Big changes coming up tomorrow ...

Learn To Get Along With Anybody and any situation, even a personal change.- use the DISC model.

After the System Demo tomorrow the current three month period will be over and my assignment as Release Train Engineer (RTE) will be finished. As a next step I will be changing the team and start to work on the Data & Analytics Portfolio - in the Lean Portfolio Management.

"Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) describes how senior leadership applies lean principles to connect strategy to execution. Portfolio management teams learn about an enterprise’s strategy and allocate a budget towards the execution of that strategy."

Besides that Communication will be part of my responsibility and to take care of our young talents - e.g. interns, apprentices, dual students, or discover trainees. One of my preferred assignments, to work with young people and to give them a helping hand and a good starting position. Looking forward to it ...

• The Navigating Ambiguity Canvas: How to Lead When the Path Isn't Clear. By Gustavo Razzetti

• Theory of Constraints (TOC) in a Nutshell (remastered) by Wolfram Müller
  

• Oxford University Has Just Released Free Courses

• Guess What I am Thinking: A Benchmark for Inner Thought Reasoning of Role-Playing Language Agents

[03-May-25] Off topic ...

Gamma: We're building a more magical way to create and share

Old Happy: "I can't mess up, and I'll be cruel to myself if I do." ​New Happy: "I will mess up, and I'll be kind to myself when I do."

My wife was doing crochet in the morning and we started a discussion about the best crochet hook form and material. Out of sustainability reason one handle with various attachments/hooks could make a lot of sense. Our initial assumption was that this could be a good business idea, as we have not been aware about the availability of this solution so far. But checking at Amazon you can find everything, even Interchangeable Crochet Hook Sets:

• Mbeliever 4xl Interchangeable Crochet Hook Set 3mm-10mm with Case | Easy to Replace

• Bybykoi Light Up Crochet Hooks Set

• KnitPro: Interchangeable Crochet Hook 

• and ... 14 Popular CROCHET HOOKS Ranked from WORST to BEST

An interesting off topic to investigate ...

GAMMA with Grant Lee:

"Instead of creating specialist silos, we hire versatile generalists who can solve problems across domains. Rather than building management hierarchies, we find player-coaches who both lead and execute.

Our team leverages AI tools throughout our workflow - Claude for data analysis, Cursor for coding efficiency, NotebookLM for customer research synthesis. These aren't just productivity hacks; they're force multipliers."

"Make sure a certain percentage of the people that you're hiring are generalists so that you can be, kind of reconfigured in the workforce pretty easily." -- Reid Hoffman

[02-May-25] Something Alarming Is Happening

A new sign that AI is competing with college grads

By Derek Thompson

The 1st signals in the Derek Thompson article versus the Jeroen Kraaijenbrink post and picture. There is hope left, we just have to make best use of the GAPs.

Maybe some Japanese mindset, culture and traditional thinking might help or could be an idea?

• 21 Japanese Lean Concepts Every Professional Should Know!

• From Small Steps to Giant Leaps, Credit to Sergio

Or just to understand the technology and possible tricks:

• At its core, magic is less about illusion and more about control —the control of timing, of space, of psychology. It is the science of human perception cloaked in wonder, where physics, optics, and misdirection come together to form a seamless spectacle.

• TED Talk: Star Wars changed visual effects — AI is doing it again (Apr-25)

Maybe right leadership is the secret?

• But not everyone’s leading the right way - for the people in front of them

• Growing leaders and courageously exploring the new

[01-May-25] Some bold statements ...

Why May 1 is just another day in these countries?

Celebrating a free day with great and sunny weather outside. As we have our final System Demo next week Monday there is no time for a bridge Friday tomorrow. Next opportunity is the Ascension Day and Father's Day on 29-May-25, I will use it.

Some bold statements today, putting a crisp message into one sentence is more difficult than into one page. A capability to be appreciated very much. Some longer examples below:

• Top 240 AI Books (Updated 1-May-2025) by Jurgen Appelo

• TED explains: Where in the world is Trump taking us? (Apr-25)

• Why Most People Waste Their Day. Most people miss it. Top performers build everything around it... by Author Justin Mecham

• [01-May-25] Enhancing Your Performance at Work With Mindfulness

• Video: How You LEAD Is How They Will PERFORM | Simon Sinek
• Video: Stunting with Reinforcement Learning by RAI Institute

• Psychological Safety Isn’t about ‘Being Nice’ – The Leadership That Works Newsletter (30-Apr-25)

• The secret to accelerating performance. What winning companies do differently

• Dan Rockwell: How to Establish Connection with Anyone

• 10 Rules That Will Destroy Your Stress by Travis Bradberry
  

• Does experience lead to competence? And to career success?
  Most people assume it does. But the data tells a different story.

• 5 Generations. 1 Workplace. One Leader. That’s you. Ready?

• We've spent 100 hours mastering ChatGPT.

[29-Apr-25] On the internet ...

The dog of 1993 could be the AI from 2025?

"HOW PETER STEINER’S 1993 DRAWING BECAME THE MOST REPRINTED CARTOON IN ‘NEW YORKER’ HISTORY"

A lot of different topics today. The new laptop is running smoothly and no additional installation is required so far. Well done ...

My post about the Executive MBA program had 760 impressions so far. I am in discussion with the registration office about my study transcript and an English certificate for not native speakers. For the transcript I found a special office at the RWTH University for verification. I did send my request today, but it will take some time, because I finished in Feb-89 and their digital archive started in autumn 1989, bad luck for me.

For the English certificate I will be using the duolingo english test that is well accepted by a lot of Universities. Should be easy, but I will make use of their FREE practice first, to get familiar with the approach, before it gets really serious. 

Then we have the power outage in Spain and Portugal. It started small and our Portuguese colleagues first thought it is just a local, maybe in their house issue. But it was two countries, unbelievable -- April 28, 2025: expert reaction to power outages across Spain and Portugal

Conclave to elect Pope Francis’ successor set to start on May 7 -- start next week, we will see how long it will take to agree on one cardinal and the white smoke goes up. Then we can compare the final selection with the AI proposal ...

Fitting well to the 2nd picture - How Trump's policies and Project 2025 proposals match up after first 100 days - big changes for the whole world in the last 100 days, for sure. To really see the impact and results for "Make America great again" will take much more time I would say.

• How To Overcome Perfectionism: A Complete Guide

• Professors Staffed a Fake Company Entirely With AI Agents, and You'll Never Guess What Happened

• The Digital Deception Economy: How Bot Farms Distort Social Signals by Rita McGrath

• Why Every Leader Needs to Become An AI Leader (Plus Free Courses To Get Started)

• The Age of AI Will Reveal the True Agilists by Jurgen Appelo

• 10 Things Organized and Productive People Do Every Day by Travis Bradberry

[27-Apr-25] The week 17-2025 summary

"Build bridges, not walls." -- Pope Francis

The old pope was really building bridges -

"Those who today always look for disciplinarian solutions, those who long for an exaggerated doctrinal 'security,' those who stubbornly try to recover a past that no longer exists - they have a static and inward-directed view of things. In this way, faith becomes an ideology among other ideologies." -- Pope Francis

Hopefully the next one is going in the same direction, we will find out in the coming weeks.

The next week is another 4-day work week as 01-May-25 is a public holiday in a lot of countries, e.g. Germany, Portugal and India for example. Some interesting links for a possible long weekend, when you take Friday off:

• How to Make Decisions Asynchronously – And Avoid Yet Another Meeting. A 5-step guide to get real work done and clear your calendar for good by Gustavo Razzetti

• The Art of Improvement video: How to Become an Expert at Self-Control

• The Board's Strategic Experiment Infrastructure
  Accelerating Learning Through AI by Petri Kokko and Nicklas Berild Lundblad

• [21-Apr-25] Stop Saying This at Work

• [23-Apr-25] Countries Accumulating the Most AI Patents

• [26-Apr-25] The Most Dangerous Trap (And How to Avoid It)

Have a great, successful and surprising week 18-2025 ...

[26-Apr-25] Even more AI topics ...

Besides the picture, see The Top 10 Most Wanted Skills for AI Jobs

I did get my new laptop yesterday, it was time after three years to catch up to the latest specifications. 32GB memory and a 1TB SSD disk. I use three operating systems in parallel, Windows 11 for very rare occasions, Ubuntu as backup for any issues with my main platform Linux Mint. Restoring the personal files is an easy task, installing the operating systems from scratch besides Windows takes a little bit more time. But it is always helpful to have a fresh start, to get rid of all the overhead and unused applications and installations from the past.

After being accepted for the QUANTIC Executive MBA program I am now asked to deliver some missing documents. One is a transcript of my RWTH Aachen education, normally an easy task, but I did start my studies in 1982 and the related transcript was from 1980. After some searching I did find a scanned PDF document in German only. I used a free online OCR tool to create a better readable version that I did translate into English, keeping the original formatting. Hopefully this will be sufficient to meet the QUANTIC requirements? 

Next is an English Language Proficiency Requirement. In general an understandable requirement for not native speakers, but I did work 20 years for US companies and I am using English most of the time during a working day in my current job, as we are working in international projects and with a large Indian community. I will see if this argumentation will be enough to pass this step?

• Leadership Beyond Hierarchy by Marcus Raitner

• Fairphone: We have big plans for fair materials by 2030

• The Most In-Demand Jobs on LinkedIn Right Now

[21-Apr-25] AI is a good topic ...

Context-Switching is Brutal Enough by Jurgen Appelo

Let's start with the Jurgen Appelo article today, he covers the three topics purpose, benefit and action in several examples. Below two OpenAI use cases:

When examining two cases from the lenses of purpose, benefit, and action, we gain valuable insights into the importance of understanding these aspects. In the first case, the purpose could be to enhance customer satisfaction, the benefit could lead to increased brand loyalty, and the action might involve implementing a customer feedback system to address their needs effectively.

In the second case study, the purpose may revolve around improving employee engagement, the benefit could result in higher productivity levels, and the action could entail creating a comprehensive training program to upskill and empower employees. By analyzing real-life scenarios in this way, businesses can identify trends, opportunities, and areas for improvement to drive success and growth effectively.

Next is more related to the death of Pope Francis today. Radio and TV are full of specials about the life, next steps and the defined way to a successor. I did ask Google Gemini the following question - "As the pope died today and the next conclave will be coming up shortly, who could be a potential successor based on continent, country, previous assignments and best guesses?" - with a very interesting result, especially when you look at the very detailed research -- Potential Successors to Pope Francis: A Comprehensive Analysis.

Have a look at the full chat just in case you are interested.

• Right before a breakthrough, everything feels like it’s falling apart.

[20-Apr-25] My week 16-2025 highlights

How to Protect the Voices Your Organization Needs the Most

Part Two of Modern Canaries: The Voices You Need the Most

"Creating a culture where warning voices can thrive requires more than better listening. It’s about encouraging and protecting these vital perspectives. Protecting these voices means protecting your organization. So, how do you create a culture that protects the voices your organization needs the most?"

"Leaders often misunderstand the emotional stages of change, leading to ineffective management of team transitions." -- Angela Crawford, PhD

A lot of change will be coming after the Easter break. The current three month project phase will be finished by 05-May-25 and then my responsibility as Release Train Engineer will stop. The new operating model starting on the next day will apply different rules, we will see how this goes in reality. So far it is just on paper.

Beginning of Jun-25 I will be changing the department to join the Program Management Office. My main focus will be people related topics and communication. A great fit to what I wanted to do anyway and can do best, according to the opinion of my colleagues and my personal perspective. Will be challenging and fun.

“The only way that we can live, is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way that we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open. Do it. Throw yourself.” ― C. JoyBell C., taken from 56 Quotes About Change To Bring Comfort During A Season Of Growth

Tomorrow is another public holiday in Germany, Easter Monday, another 4-day workweek coming up, not so bad.

• 15 Mind-Blowing AI Statistics Everyone Must Know About Now

• Forget ChatGPT: Why AI Agents Are The Real Game-Changer For Financial Services

• Human Plus AI: Redefining Work In The Age Of Collaborative Intelligence

• Beyond ChatGPT: The 5 Toughest Challenges On The Path To AGI

• 12 Free AI Courses. That could change your life...

  We've curated an incredible lineup of free courses designed to help you master AI, no matter your experience level.

• Want to be a better communicator? Start with these 8 micro-habits. Communication isn’t just about talking; it’s about being understood.

• By age 35. You should be smart enough to realize this.

“How would your life be different if…You stopped worrying about things you can’t control and started focusing on the things you can? Let today be the day…You free yourself from fruitless worry, seize the day and take effective action on things you can change.” ― Steve Maraboli

[17-Apr-25] Don’t give up ...

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." -- Albert Einstein

Let's start with - Are there signs of life on alien planet K2-18b, or is it just a lot of hot air? - an interesting news from yesterday:

"An ocean world that's teeming with microbes — and who knows what other kinds of life — is currently the best explanation for some chemical signatures that the James Webb Space Telescope has spotted in the atmosphere of a distant planet. That's according to Nikku Madhusudhan of the University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, who called his team's new findings "astounding.""

Combining this article with the Albert Einstein quote above brings me to the following question - we are hunting for aliens, but we are applying the search criteria for human beings, with respect to the planet and specific chemical ingredients as prerequisite, why? - Aliens are Aliens, so we might search in the wrong place for the wrong hints, just an idea.

Next topic is - Here’s Why Science Says You Should Invest in Experiences Over Things - with a direct link to the 20-year study -

A wonderful life: experiential consumption and the pursuit of happiness by Thomas Gilovich ⁎, Amit Kumar, Lily Jampol

Without even knowing this study I took the invest in experiences idea serious some weeks back when I did apply for the Quantic Executive MBA program. After the admission interview on 08-Apr-25 I was not really sure about the outcome, but since yesterday I know that I have been selected for the EMBA Class of Dec-2026, a great achievement with age 62. Will be an interesting learning and experience for me, looking forward to the start in Aug-25:

• Why YOU Should Spend YOUR Money on Experiences, Not Things
  by Travis Bradberry
  

• [17-Apr-25] Early admission to the Quantic Executive MBA.

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." -- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French - Philosopher May 1, 1881 - April 10, 1955

Some more material to look at for Good Friday:

• Ranked: Countries Investing the Most in R&D

• Visualizing China’s $18.6 Trillion Economy by Sector in 2024

• OpenAI's Sam Altman talks ChatGPT, AI agents and superintelligence — live at TED2025 (Apr-25)

• The Monster Setup Guide to Substack
  Everything I Wish I Knew Before Launching on Substack by Jurgen Appelo

• You’re an Ignorant Fool—The Law of Tragic Nuance

• Six Theses for New Leadership by Marcus Raitner

• If You Care, You Have a Funny Way of Showing It By Frank Sonnenberg

• 6 Must-Know AI Skills for Non-Tech Professionals

• Embracing Empiricism — From Randomness to Reason
  Cultivating a culture of critical thinking for effective and impactful outcomes by Erik de Bos

[14-Apr-25] Film & Video Monday

The 100 Greatest Cult Films - Classics

The Breakfast Club is an all-time classic, content and music. #24 on the Top 100 list. #2, #14 and #16 are good ones as well, my opinion.

• Video: How to Stay Motivated
• Video: Blue Origin NS-31 New Shepard launch and landing -

  With six women passengers: Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez

“You Ought To Spend A Little More Trying To Do Something With Yourself And A Little Less Trying To Impress People.” -- Richard Vernon from 25 Best Quotes From The Breakfast Club

• Ranked: Where Living Standards Are Rising in Europe (2014–2024)

• Dan Rockwell: Stop Copying Successful People – Do This Instead
• Travis Bradberry: 14 Psychological Forces That Trick Good People Into Doing Bad Things

• True leadership isn't about control. It's about empowerment

• Stop chasing “busy.” Start chasing “impact.” This matrix shows the way. The Impact Effort Matrix

[13-Apr-25] The week 15-2025 summary

Modern Canaries: The Voices Your Organization Needs the Most

When you are reading my BLOG regularly or did read posts from the 2016 - 2018 years you might remember that I did work in Management roles for 18 years. First with EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and later with a Global responsibility. At the beginning leading the support teams for Mechanical Engineering tools, later Electronics Engineering and in the end Software Engineering.

Starting in my current company, I got a project management role and was not in charge anymore, what was not an issue for me. Starting a job again after a 18-month break and 170+ applications with age 56 had a much higher priority than the title and positioning on the organization chart. When I finally started to get into the world of AGILE in 2020, management roles had no interest anymore. It is now much more about self-organized, self-managed teams and servant leadership. See e.g. the 06-Apr-25 post from last Sunday.

From the "How to Lead when you're not in Charge" picture several statements apply to my current position and role, a good feeling:

• Empower & Support
• Be a Lifetime Learner
• Be a Change Maker
• Communicate
• Build Relationships

From the Modern Canaries: The Voices Your Organization Needs the Most. Coal miners paid attention to their canaries, so why aren’t companies listening to their warning voices? By Gustavo Razzetti, the following are a great match to me, see description below:

• The Challenger sees structural flaws that others overlook or have stopped seeing, often because of sacred cows.

• The Caretaker sees the human cost beneath the results when performance comes at an unsustainable price.

• The Questioner refuses to accept premises others take for granted – they expose groupthink.

The next two weeks are 4-day work weeks, due to Good Friday and Easter Monday, a really long weekend and short holiday.

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (11-Apr-25)

• TED Talk: A survival guide for musicians in the age of AI (Oct-24)

• Charted: The S&P 500’s Trump-Driven Tariff Turbulence

• Ranked: Duolingo’s Most Popular Languages in Every Country in 2024

• Harvard is giving away $25,000 worth of knowledge.

  Here are 9 FREE Harvard Courses Every LinkedIn Professional Should Take to improve their knowledge bank.

• The AI Leadership Crisis: Why Chief AI Officers Are Failing (And How To Fix It)

• Human Plus AI: Redefining Work In The Age Of Collaborative Intelligence

• Here are 3 tips from #astronaut Soichi Noguchi on how to work better in a #team.

[07-Apr-25] Saying yes to everything might feel generous ...

Hard truth: You can’t lead, build, or grow if your bandwidth is always maxed out

The two pictures fit pretty well together today. It is no problem to say "NO" sometimes and to ask for help when you are not sure. Just give it a try and ask the right people. Offering help when you are asked for is not a lot of effort and mostly very much appreciated by the people you ask.

Tomorrow is the application interview for the Quantic EMBA program. I think I am well prepared and even have some answers for my motivation to apply being 62 years old:

• I strongly believe in Lifelong learning and this has nothing to do with age
• Part of my current job is to work with much younger generations, what would be an opportunity during the program as well
• I might bring a different perspective to the table, what could be beneficial for all involved parties?
• The program is taking a technology-driven approach, combining online, offline and face-to-face classes and events. I could be giving feedback about this approach
• Only 3% of the participants are from Germany so far, this should be changing
• I could share my learning with other, mostly younger people as motivation for this program

Why not? We will see how it goes.

• 15 In-Demand Skills to Keep on Your Radar for 2025

• LLMs Are Like Politicians—Confidently Wrong

• Unlock Deep Learning with Python—Transform Your AI Game Now!

[06-Apr-25] My week 14-2025 highlights

Command and control versus a "Gardener" approach

I do not have a "green thumb", but I believe in the Gardener = Servant Leadership principles. I did this already during my 18 years in management roles and still do it in my agile role in the moment. But there is also a strong community that believes in the top-down control and more pressure to deliver results. 

We will see in the future, what the more successful model will be, as a relatively high turnover of employees might impact the outcome in the end. Every time somebody is leaving, you lose expertise, experience and knowledge, a GAP that you cannot fill as fast as it is required.

“People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” - John Maxwell

• 7 Ways Thinking Like a Philosopher Will Make You a Better Leader. Critical thinking: Your competitive advantage in the age of AI by Gustavo Razzetti

• Team autonomy only works when leadership shows trust
  3 positive examples and one rug pull by Willem-Jan Ageling

• [05-Apr-25] Soft skills get you promoted

• [06-Apr-25] Coaching isn’t about advice

• 7 free online MBA-like courses that will accelerate your career

“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients”. ― Richard Branson, CEO and founder of Virgin Group

[03-Apr-25] The Deal Maker?

Now we know the USA perspective, a deal is urgently required - for the whole World economy

As the answer will take several days maybe weeks, some interesting links below:

• Visualized: Where Automakers Build Cars Sold in America

• The New Happy: Focus on how it feels

• An AI Model Has Officially Passed the Turing Test
  More human than humans?

• Large Language Models Pass the Turing Test

• Boeing's Starliner Disaster Was Even Worse Than We Thought, Astronaut Reveals "I don't know that we can come back to Earth at that point."

• The PI Planning is SAFe's best idea. But it can work so much better by Willem-Jan Ageling

• Dan Rockwell: Uncovering The Hidden World of Motivation

• 5 Ways Mindfulness Will Transform You by Travis Bradberry
  

• Modern AI isn't MAGIC, it is just centuries of Mathematics ...

• 99% of jobs can be taught (if you give people a chance). Your education doesn't define you.

• Mind-blowing engineering feat! The Huajiang Canyon Bridge in Guizhou, set to become the world’s tallest bridge & the longest span bridge ...

• Humans orbit Earth over north, south poles for first time with SpaceX Fram2 mission

[02-Apr-25] Stand for something ...

Trust isn’t something that happens by chance.

As nobody did participate in the survey I started in Jan-25, I stopped it end of March as mentioned earlier. No problem so the selection of topics will be my choice.

Just today I did get a positive message from QUANTIC about their

Executive MBA application process.I am invited to the next stage of Admissions where I will meet virtually with one of their Admissions Counselors for a 15 to 20-minute interview. Will be next week Tuesday.

Today we had our internal yearly Data & Analytics day, for all Germany based employees in this area. Was 180+ people together at our event location. A great day with a great agenda. More presentations in the morning and activities in the afternoon after lunch. 1st a market place setup where all new departments did an introduction of their responsibilities that started 01-Apr-25. Afterwards a team-building or team-challenge activity, the well known Spaghetti and Marshmallow Tower.

• Marshmallow challenge with debriefing

• How to Build a Tall Spaghetti and Marshmallow Tower
  In 14 Cool Hand Drawn Steps

• Tom Wujec: Use the Marshmallow Challenge to get your team to work together better to build rapid prototype solutions

All 14 teams did get 20 Spaghetti, a one meter long cord, 10 Marshmallows, a pair of scissors and adhesive tape to build the tallest tower in 20 minutes. The definition of tower was possibly not strict enough, what did lead to a lot of very creative solutions. A lesson learned for the next time :-)

• Change Your Habits By ‘Pre-Experiencing’ the Future – The Leadership That Works Newsletter (31-Mar-25)

[31-Mar-25] It can happen soon ...

Anticipate it !!

One additional comment about the Isar Aerospace rocket start I mentioned yesterday. It sounded like a fail, but it was a 20+ second opportunity to learn and gather a lot of helpful data for the next attempt. SpaceX is using the same approach with their rocket starts:

• How SpaceX's Iterative Approach Helped It Succeed Against All Odds

• Every SpaceX Starship explosion and what Elon Musk and his team learned from them (video)

SpaceX is targeting Monday, March 31 at 9:46 p.m. ET for Falcon 9’s launch of Fram2 to a polar orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

The 1st mission ever with a female astronaut from Germany -

Rabea Rogge is a robotics researcher from Berlin, currently pursuing her PhD in Norway. She has always been fascinated by extreme environments, studying them to understand the limits of our world — and to push beyond them. Her work includes leading a satellite mission and researching ocean robotics in the Arctic, reflecting her commitment to advancing technology in both polar regions and space. - Good luck and flight ...

• How to Be an Essentialist. Essentialism enables you to prioritize things that create most value. Goal setting translates these priorities into commitments. This edition looks at both. By Tanmay Vora

• Video: HYPERFOCUS by Chris Bailey | Core Message

• The Red Queen Says No to AI Agents. The paradox is that AI increases uncertainty, which breaks autonomous AI agents. By Jurgen Appelo

• What’s running the show when you’re not paying attention?

• 11 Proven Ways To Beat Procrastination by Travis Bradberry
  

• SWOT ANALYSIS MADE SIMPLE, Credit to Sergio

[30-Mar-25] The week 13-2025 summary

"Focus on what you can control ..."

The first step of our two year transformation program will start on 01-Apr-25. Due to the included headcount reduction a lot of colleagues did leave the company in the last weeks. People leaving is knowledge, experience and expertise leaving that you have to compensate.

Either by a just-in-time knowledge transfer to the community staying, or with a decision to just drop things that cannot be covered going forward anymore. A change is always an opportunity to do something different - e.g. cut the past, start a new future, or just focus on what you can still control and influence. Your choice ...

One of the colleagues, who did leave as well after parental leave and because he moved to southern Germany, will be working as a freelancer in the future. To consult small- and mid-size companies with easy to handle AI solutions, to reduce the time for high effort and low value recurring tasks. I proposed him to look at ILI Digital, an already established company with the same idea - learn from others and maybe copy & transfer some ideas, why not?

Another company was not so lucky this weekend - "Isar Aerospace was founded in 2018 to lower the entry barriers to space. By pushing the boundaries we are opening space as a platform for future technologies and competitiveness. As a launch service provider for small and medium-sized satellites we create easy access to space for global customers. Offering the first fully privately funded European solution to meet the growing global demand, Isar Aerospace is driving commercial space across all continents." - see for example their Livestream: First test flight of Isar Aerospace

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (28-Mar-25)

• How Google and Others make money

• Feedback Isn’t About Your Ego – It’s About Being Helpful
  Five ways to give feedback that’s useful, not self-serving by Gustavo Razzetti

• Audi integrates Walker S1 robot for smarter, safer quality inspections in China plant

• Gartner: After traditionally working in silos, improving executive collaboration and decision making requires significant cultural and organizational change.

• By 2030, we’ll see 170 million jobs created — and 92 million jobs lost. 39% of current skills will be outdated. And 59% of workers will need reskilling — but 1 in 5 may not get it.

• 12 Free AI Courses. That could change your life...

• Video: 5 Tiny Habits to Master Consistency Effortlessly

[26-Mar-25] More AI topics ...

Most Popular AI Tools by Monthly Site Visits

As already mentioned earlier, our new Operating Model will be used on 06-May-25 for the first time. To properly celebrate the outcome of the last 14 three month project periods together with the whole team, I started to prepare a Thank You and Good Bye celebration event for 08 or 09-May-25. Besides a short summary of the 14 kick-off presentations and team building slides, I wanted to provide a short overview of the main International events between 2022 and 2025 as well.

As the only accessible AI agent in our company is Microsoft Copilot, I asked my questions there. I quickly got a good list of political, sports, entertainment and other events from the last 3.5 years. Even with further references for much more details. A really helpful feature.

Our new organization, a result from the latest transformation, will go live with the start of the next fiscal year on 01-Apr-25. One day later we will have our 2nd Data & Analytics day, to bring all Germany based employees together, who are working in this area. A full day of information sharing and team building - together we can ...

Today I volunteered as a supported for this event, to help guaranteeing a smooth process for all participants. Looking forward to it.

• The Emotional Impact of Empowerment

• AI Wrecks the Corporate Career Ladder. Give Juniors the Steering Wheel!

• The impact of Fear-Based Leadership

• Unconscious Bias at Work: How to Recognize, Challenge, and Overcome It

• Skills on the Rise in 2025

[24-Mar-25] Some AI topics ...

AI Leadership Assistants

"Free tools powered by Gen-AI and designed by THNK to support you in your everyday leadership challenges." Just have a look and give it a try.

• Dan Rockwell: 12 Toxic Behaviors to Avoid at all Cost
• Visual Capitalist: All of the World’s Countries Ranked by How Happy They Are

• [24-Mar-25] Public speaking consistently ranks as people’s #1 fear

• VUCA, BANI, and FLUX—What’s the Best Lens for the AI Era?

• What if, instead of chasing endless growth, we optimized for well-being, fulfillment, and sustainability?
  

[23-Mar-25] My week 12-2025 highlights

I finished my 6 Business Foundation courses ...

The word geek derives from a word meaning fool or freak as if it's foolish to devote so much attention and time to one area. But the truth is, as the physicist Richard Feynman says: "Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough."

In the picture gallery below this post some pictures from a Cologne visit yesterday. After an investment fair in the morning we decided to walk back to the main station to take our regional train home. We have seen the famous flying car from HA Schult and a lot of tourists. Besides that several Persian families in traditional dresses celebrating

Nowruz (Norooz) – Persian New Year.

Today afternoon I finished the last of the six courses that are available for applicants of the QUANTIC Executive MBA. Will be interesting to see how this process proceeds in the coming days.

Next week we will be starting to prepare for the new operating model that will be going live with the next 3-month project phase starting 06-May-25. Everything, what can be improved in the coming weeks will be beneficial for the future ways-of-working. Will be a psychological challenge for some team members, who are asking why we want to make a small change before the big change in May-25. Why should we waste 6-weeks when we already know the areas for improvement? So let's go.

"No longer is a geek identifiable by a pale complexion, black-rimmed glasses, a bowling shirt that says 'Nerd World Order.' No, geeks are everywhere. And they're cool!" -- Faith Salie, American - Journalist Born: April 14, 1971

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (21-Mar-25)

• DEI Is Dead: Long Live an Open-Minded Culture Inclusion without division – rethinking diversity in a polarized workplace by Gustavo Razzetti

• 9 Ways to Undermine Team Autonomy. Many teams are self-managing in name only by Willem-Jan Ageling

• 5 Fatal GenAI Mistakes That Could Destroy Your Business In 2025 by Bernard Marr

• AI's Competitive Edge: Turning Data Challenges Into Business Success by Bernard Marr

• Taking care of yourself doesn't have to be complicated. These tiny habits deliver massive results: The busier we get, the harder it is to prioritize physical and mental health.

[22-Mar-25] Special days today

World Water Day and Earth Hour today

"World Water Day 2025: Glaciers are melting faster than ever. As the planet gets hotter due to climate change, our frozen world is shrinking, making the water cycle more unpredictable and extreme."

"Earth Hour 2025: Whether you’re into food, fitness, the arts, or the outdoors, anyone, anywhere can Give an hour to care for our planet. Last year, the world gave more than 1.4 million hours."

Below, what OpenAI knows about both topics:

World Water Day (March 22) is a time to raise awareness about the importance of freshwater and advocate for sustainable management of this precious resource. Understanding the water crisis, including scarcity, pollution, and inequitable access, is crucial. Knowing how individuals can make a difference through water conservation and advocacy is key.

The Earth Hour (last Saturday of March) is a global movement that encourages people to switch off non-essential lights for one hour to show support for environmental action. By participating, individuals can demonstrate their commitment to fighting climate change and reducing energy consumption. Knowing why Earth Hour is important and how to get involved can inspire positive change for the planet.

• This One Thing Changes How People See You. The secrets of top performers to being heard... Author Justin Mecham

• You Need to Stop Using These Labels. How You Talk to Yourself Matters, Author Wisdom Made Easy

• Video: Can You Fool A Self Driving Car? Tesla vs Fake Wall

• [22-Mar-25] Ikigai is your reason to wake up excited

"Heroes always have their scars. Some you can see, some you read about later on." -- George Foreman, died yesterday with age 76.

[21-Mar-25] Feel many feelings ...

... and treat them with kindness ...

Several small topics today. Let's start with the 2025 World Happiness Report (WHR). Finland once again on the 1st place and Germany 22nd, see page 19 for the picture I used.

I had my year-end review today and got a really helpful feedback from my boss. For some assignments I am falling behind the expectations, as the common role definition and my personality type do not match enough. In other areas I am a high performer and achieve much more than expected. The success factor is to assign people to the right roles, give them some room for improvement and to leave their comfort zone. To strengthen their strength and to work a little bit on known weaknesses - lifelong learning.   

Some feelings related topics:

• "In addition, John Deere employees are eligible to be recalled to their home factory for a period equal to their length of service. Those laid off are automatically placed in seniority order for openings they are qualified to perform."

• Numbers are everywhere. But that doesn’t mean numbers are everything. Rethink The Data That Drive Us

• Video: The Surprising Reason Babies Are NOT Afraid of Snakes | Secret Science
• Video: Walk, Run, Crawl, RL Fun | Boston Dynamics | Atlas

• Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski: The Next Einstein in the Making

Then I got a call from a colleague today who wanted to say thank you for the support, coaching and open ear, I provided to him during the last years. He finally made a decision about his future that he did work on for a long time already. Well done and patience pays off in the end.

Next was a really unexpected situation in the afternoon. After my last car inspection I had two open issues to take care of. I did contact my preferred garage by email some days ago and did ask for a day to take care. No answer so far. Today I did forward this email to another garage and got a call back 5-minutes later. Both issues could be directly fixed when I am at the garage in the next 30 minutes. What a great service and customer focus, I was impressed and surprised. Germany is not really known for a customer service orientation, but this was great. When the right mindset and culture meet employees who embody these values, you can be happy. I was happy today!!

Some more content:

• Meet the 2025 class of TED Fellows

• ‘Scrum is an awful project management methodology’
  A tale with a twist by Willem-Jan Ageling

• 8 Ways High EQ People Use Failure To Their Advantage by Travis Bradberry
  

• Ten Times the Impact with One-Tenth the People by Jurgen Appelo
  

• [21-Mar-25] The Fishbone Diagram helps you find the true source of any issue

• AI is your 24/7 free analytics assistant. Use these 6 tools to get more done and save time

[15-Mar-25] Do some learning regularly

Ready for some marketing today?

I was contacted by The AI Surf Team last Friday with the question for a

backlink exchange with my BLOG. For today I selected their AI Coach Solutions post as one example.

One day later QUANTIC did invite me to apply with their Germany Leadership Scholarship. This partial tuition award blends their mission of access in education with a commitment to empower leaders from specific talent-rich countries in their selective US-accredited MBA programs. I followed the invitation and finished the application process yesterday. Their feedback is expected by the end of Mar-25. Will be interesting to see how the process proceeds and what will be coming next. I keep you posted. Interested in more details, see their Quick Facts?

• Use the four reasons rule to decide if a meeting is worthwhile. The dimmer switch mentality. Notes on China by Roberto Ferraro

• 10 blind spots that push your best talent away

• Olina Glindevi: You can't change the people around you, but you can change the people around you

• True problem-solving is not about avoiding challenges or taking shortcuts; it’s about shifting perspectives and embracing creativity as a tool for transformation

• Save this post to learn the top 30 Strategy Frameworks

[13-Mar-25] The workshop recap ...

Back at work after two days offsite workshop

The bridge on the picture is the winner of our team icebreaker, to build the longest Da Vinci’s Self Supporting Bridge in 15 minutes. The "Green" team had the best strategy and did win against four other teams by a large margin. Well done.

For most of the teams this was a new topic, far out of their comfort zone and with some time and competition pressure in the back. Big fun, a great learning, and a good start for a 2 hour session of two different teams that are supposed to be working closely and smoothly together starting Apr-25.  

In summary the workshop did go really well. Good preparation, time management, enough room and flexibility to adjust the agenda to short-term needs and change requests. The most interesting part is always, how random teams are coming together and which topics they are supposed to be working on. The initial list of topics proposed by all team members had to be discussed by using the 6 Thinking Hats Method. The assignment of the hat to a team member did happen on a random basis. Everybody had to select one number between 1 and 12 after a break. I had a list prepared to match the numbers and the Thinking hat colors, always two people for one color.

Was really hard for some, as their color was far away from their standard behavior, but we had also three cases where the color did 100% match their well known characters. And some participants had  good acting skills and could easily adjust to their hat color. Overall a great method that should be used more often, as it triggers a discussion that not always happens, but is really valuable to get clarity.

I did summarize the workshop results today and shared the package with the participants. Now the challenge/opportunity is to make the best out of the outcome and let it flow into the goal setting process for the next fiscal year starting 01-Apr-25. Let's go for it ...

• Frank Sonnenberg: This Should Come as No Surprise
• Dan Rockwell: 7 Ways to Make Plans that Work

"To be successful at anything, the truth is you don’t have to be special. You just have to be what most people aren’t. Consistent, determined, and willing to work for it. No shortcuts." -- Tom Brady

[10-Mar-25] A powerful experiment ...

Here are a few prompts to help AI learn the richness of feminine perspectives

Picking up the great idea from Eve Simon again, as already mentioned yesterday:

"This March, I’m calling on women (and men!) to join me in a powerful experiment. Let’s spend at least 30min each day feeding AI tools like ChatGPT or DeepSeek with our female thoughts, experiences, and perspectives. Why? Because AI learns from us. And right now, it’s learning from a world that’s still overwhelmingly shaped by a male perspective. Let’s change that."

Here some prompts proposed by her today:

Imagine the Future
1. "Create a model for ethical AI that prioritizes human connection, sustainability, and equity."
2. "Design a futuristic city where innovation, community, and nature coexist in harmony."
Challenging Stereotypes and Biases
3. “List 10 common stereotypes about women in leadership and refute each one with data, examples, and a narrative that highlights the strengths of feminine leadership.”
4. “Write a dialogue where a woman confidently challenges a biased assumption in a male-dominated space, using logic, empathy, and grace.”
Teaching AI Feminine Values
5. “Explain to AI why intuition and emotional intelligence is just as important as logical intelligence in solving global challenges. Use examples from history, nature, and personal stories.”
6. “Teach AI how to respond to questions about leadership, innovation, and success in a way that values collaboration, empathy, and inclusivity over competition and dominance.”
Celebrating Women’s Contributions
7. “Write a tribute to an unsung woman in history whose contributions were overlooked because of her gender. Highlight her impact and the lessons we can learn from her story.”
8. “Create a list of 50 women who changed the world in quiet, transformative ways—through kindness, creativity, and community-building.”
Empowering the Next Generation
9. “Write a bed-time story for my daughter where the heroine saves the day using her intelligence, empathy, and ability to bring people together—not just brute strength.”
10. “Create a ‘power playlist’ of songs that celebrate feminine strength, resilience, and joy. Include a description of why each song was chosen.”
Storytelling & Wisdom Sharing
11. "Tell me a story about a wise and compassionate female leader who changed the world in unexpected ways."
12. "Reframe history by telling me about famous innovations from the perspective of the women behind them."
Work, Business & Leadership
13. "Rewrite traditional leadership advice with a feminine, intuitive, and holistic perspective."
14. "Simulate a business negotiation where I lead with emotional intelligence and achieve a powerful outcome."
Music, Poetry & Art
15. "Write a heartfelt poem that empowers my daughter to be fearless and creative."
16. "Create a song about the love between a mother and daughter, inspired by [a specific memory]."
Leadership & Personal Development
17. "Give me decision-making techniques that blend logic with intuition and emotional intelligence."
18. "Help me to reframe ‘imposter syndrome’. Does loud mean confidence or observant belonging? And who says that women only feel this way?"

[09-Mar-25] My week 10-2025 highlights

Manage your changes better, here some examples 

Quick summary of my highlights this week:

• The short holiday in the Netherlands
• The great Spring time weather during the last 5 - 7 days
• Finished preparation for my offsite workshop on 11/12-Mar-25
• My BLOG reader counter did path the 2 million overall reader number this week. What a great achievement since I started writing back on 04-Jul-16

According to the previous BLOG platform counter, the daily number of readers was 1,400 per day on average. On the new platform it is around 200 per day, a 7 to 1 ratio. To stay consistent I am still adjusting the counter to the old measurement, why we passed the 2,000k number now. :-)

As the topic is CHANGE today, here a great idea from Eve Simon:  

"This March, I’m calling on women (and men!) to join me in a powerful experiment. Let’s spend at least 30min each day feeding AI tools like ChatGPT or DeepSeek with our female thoughts, experiences, and perspectives. Why? Because AI learns from us. And right now, it’s learning from a world that’s still overwhelmingly shaped by a male perspective. Let’s change that."

You are more than welcome to join the tribe!!

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (07-Mar-25)

• sketchplanations: F-Shaped Reading

• How to Support Your Team When Anxiety Is High
  Five actionable strategies to lead through ambiguity – because the world won’t stop surprising us -- Gustavo Razzetti

• In 1887, these visionary engineers took their cantilever bridge design to the next level by turning themselves into a physical model.

• The Rise Of AI Scientists: Is Agentic AI The Future Of R&D

• 9 visuals that will change how you think: (Reminders we all needed yesterday) Visuals by Hannah Wilson

[08-Mar-25] Use all available data ...

“When we exclude half of humanity from the data, we lose out on the opportunity to build a world that works for everyone.” -- Caroline Criado Perez

Some more links related to the International Women's Day today:

• 40 Greatest Engineers Who Made Enormous Impacts on the World (on this selection only 20% are women)

• "Yes, we’ve made progress—thanks to the women who paved the path before us. But let’s be honest: we are still far from true balance." -- Eve Simon

Below a short Google Gemini summary of the improvements over time (link):

It's important to recognize that "accomplishments" can be measured in many ways, and their impact is often complex. However, here are 10 significant areas where women have made substantial strides in the last decade:

Political Representation:

• We've seen a rise in women holding high-level political offices globally. Notably, Kamala Harris becoming the first female Vice President of the United States. Also increases in women holding seats in national parliaments around the globe.

Activism and Social Change:

• The #MeToo movement gained global momentum, raising awareness of sexual harassment and assault, and leading to significant cultural shifts and legal changes.
• Women have been at the forefront of climate change activism, with figures like Greta Thunberg inspiring global movements.

Education:

• Continued progress in girls' education globally, with activists like Malala Yousafzai championing access to education for all.

Business and Leadership:

• Increasing numbers of women are holding leadership positions in major corporations, though there is still progress to be made.
• Also growing numbers of women entrepreneurs.

Science and Technology:

• Women are making increasing contributions to STEM fields, though they remain underrepresented.

Rights and Legal Changes:

• Progress in reproductive rights in various countries, with legal changes regarding abortion access.
• Legal changes that protect the rights of LGBTQ+ people. With women being at the forefront of this fight.

Sports:

• Women's sports have gained increased visibility and recognition, with athletes breaking records and inspiring new generations.

Philanthropy:

• Women like MacKenzie Scott have redefined philanthropic giving, making significant and impactful donations.

Global Health:

• Women have been essential in responding to global health crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, as scientists, healthcare workers, and policymakers.

It's important to remember that these are just a few highlights, and women are making significant contributions in countless other fields.

[07-Mar-25] As time goes by ...

How to best master your time? 15 methods ... 

[07-Mar-25] "Women in Germany have effectively worked unpaid for the first 66 days of 2025, with Equal Pay Day highlighting the persistent gender pay gap."

[08-May-25] "International Women's Day (IWD) has been around for over a hundred years, as have many of the issues still impacting women's advancement. Since 1911, IWD belongs to all who care about women's equality. Celebrate women's achievement. Raise awareness about discrimination. Take action to forge gender parity. All IWD activity is valid, that's what makes IWD so inclusive."

AAUW = American Association of University Women -- "Our advocacy efforts have propelled countless new laws, including the Equal Pay Act, first proposed in 1945 and finally passed in 1963"

Both topics are in discussion around ~100 years and still not solved. So much more work to be done. Maybe we should change the awareness from 1 day per year to several days per year, e.g. 1 day per month or even a dedicated month as a starting point? See

• Women's Health Month – May 2025

• Women’s History Month

And some more links for the weekend, will be sunny and warm here:

• Charted: Which Jobs Are Using AI the Most?

• The New Happy: Witness them

• “Cool” years are now hotter than the “warm” years of the past: tracking global temperatures through El Niño and La Niña

• Beyond income: understanding poverty through the Multidimensional Poverty Index

• Dan Rockwell: Stop Offering Encouragement – Do This Instead

• Pain of Adaptation. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. (Samuel Beckett) by Marcus Raitner

• How To Instantly Connect With Anyone by Dr. Travis Bradberry

• These 12 daily practices take minimal time but deliver exponential returns

• 10 skills that will pay you back forever. Credit to Benjamin B. Bargetzi

• 5 Advanced Problem-Solving Frameworks to Keep Up with the Pace of Change

• Expanding Leadership Awareness: The Johari Window in Coaching

• 100 AI tools to finish years of work in minutes. Credit to Awa K. Penn

[04-Mar-25] Last day away from home

We are going back home tomorrow ...

The picture has been taken yesterday in Harderwijk. As you can see the formatting is working again, the same applies for the external links in the meantime. The final proposal from the support team was to use another browser, as they could not reproduce my error description.

A standard answer of support teams, I did do the same in the early 90's when I worked in an IT support.team. It is either start the system again, or let me do the commands for you or ask the customers to repeat the commands in front of you that did not work before. The

demonstration effect will do the trick, no worries.

• Video: Make 5 simple changes for more energy: TOP 5 ENERGY INSIGHTS

• Your Strategy Is Failing Without This. Most strategic plans fail—here’s the missing piece... by Justin Mecham

• [04-Mar-25] The World’s Top 20 Economies by GDP Growth (2015-2025)

• How to Retain Talent for the Future – The Leadership That Works Newsletter
  

[25-Feb-25] Let pictures do the job ...

1st day of my holidays and Murphy time again

After breakfast I was ready for a sunny day, but then one electric shutter in the living room did not function anymore. I had no idea why, maybe due to a planned power outage of 5 hours on the day before? As the power was back and the up-down switch signal working properly, it looked like a shutter drive issue. In order to change the drive you need to know the type and serial number, what is only possible to see when you disassemble the whole thing.

Exactly the work for a free day, but it had to be done anyway. When I reached the point to read the identification sign on the drive, I just wanted to check how the drive reacts in a disassembled state? All was working fine again in both directions, no issue at all. 

As I am a positive guy with a lot of trust in the environment and circumstances, I did assemble all parts again and tried the shutter several times up and down. All was working smoothly, no idea why, but who cares tomorrow.

Now I know how to come to the drive quickly, just in case I have to do it again. The only open point is how to disconnect the drive from the power cable, it did not work today and I could not find a description in the Internet. Hopefully I do not need to find this out anytime soon.

[23-Feb-25] My week 08-2025 highlights

Some Spring days in the middle of Winter ...

February 2025 was on a good way to become one of the coldest month on average in the past years, but the last two and coming days will drive it in the opposite direction. We will see.

Today was the long awaited Germany election. A participation rate of 84%,  what is really great and the highest number since the 90's. To come to the final result and to get a first perspective which coalitions are possible and necessary, will take some more hours. Hard times for the people in charge and on the way to take responsibility in the future. We will hopefully see tomorrow morning?

And with the final result the negotiations for the new government, that will be a coalition of 2 or 3 parties, has to start and needs to be finished as quickly as possible, because the world politics is not waiting for Germany, for sure.

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (21-Feb-25)

• Why soft skills are the future of work. The most important conversations you’ll ever have

• Every Great Story Has This. 3 Tips to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

• Success comes from doing what most won’t.

• A bird-watching engineer was able to fix the problem after he was inspired by a kingfisher

[20-Feb-25] About journaling ...

A good approach in the mindset of lifelong learning

For me personally my BLOG is my journaling tool. It helps me to reflect & learn AND to collect ideas/insights for future use, already since 2016.

• Journaling for Beginners: How to Get Started in 10 Steps

• The Ultimate Guide to Journaling

• 5 Benefits of Journaling for Mental Health

As I just mentioned the start of my BLOG on 04-Jul-2016, the counter of readers accessing the BLOG since then will be passing the 2,000,000 figure in the next two weeks. What a ride so far ..., once again thank you to all my readers!!

As I am doing the BLOG not only for me, but for you as well I did create a small questionnaire some weeks ago:

Thanks a lot in advance for your voluntary participation, very much appreciated. Please use https://ahaslides.com/RETHINK25 to access it. So far nobody did use the opportunity to share an opinion. Three easy questions to answer:

1. How often do you read my BLOG?

2. Which topics from my BLOG do you like most?

3. What would you like to read about during 2025?

Besides the above some interesting links, for me to add in my insights portfolio and for you as possible information:

• Charted: When Every Continent’s Population Will Peak This Century

• Visualizing Global Coffee Production in 2024

• TED Talk: The secret to successfully pitching an idea (Sep-23)

• Rethinking Our Tech Mythology

• Dan Rockwell: The Secret of Enthusiasm is Short-Term Commitments AND How Smart Teams Make Timely Decisions

• Leadership Transitions and Identity Change

• How do great leaders inspire action? Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle Model can explain

• 11 Laws of effective Leadership

• What’s missing between all your effort and the results you want?

• How to make better strategy—strategy that actually works? Embrace these 8 Shifts to Make Better Strategy.

• Have you ever come across the MOA Model?

• Reimagining Agile (an update): Back to the Basics, Forward to the Future

• 60% of leaders think introverts aren’t suited for leadership.

  But Harvard studies show the opposite is true.

[18-Feb-25] A quick recap ...

The more you talk about topics, the more you find supporting references for it

Some links related to the topics of my last three posts, have a look:

• Dan Rockwell: 5 Ways to Express Empathy Like a Leader AND

  Building a Learn-It-All Organization

• AI and creative teams form a powerful partnership for delivering value. Using AI to increase agility by Willem-Jan Ageling

• Be the One Who Stands Out - Learn AI Now!

• Women as change agents are vital to ensuring that innovation benefits society, not just the bottom line. See

  https://www.ladies-lead.com/

• The Johari Window is a powerful tool for improving self-awareness, communication, and team dynamics.

• Coaching vs. Mentorship: Understanding the Differences and Why Leaders Need Both

• The Agile world is evolving fast, and so is the Dolphin Agile Project Management Approach Overview

As mentioned earlier, today was the 1st of four Spirit Days in 2025. One day full of learning in the mindset of our Spirit beliefs:

• Earn customer loyalty

• Create the future

• Experiment and learn fast

• Get it done together

I joined a session about Happiness at work and shared a link to

The World Happiness Foundation with the audience. I met Luis Gallardo in 2019 for the 1st time during the Future of Leadership Salon. A great guy full of passion for the topic.

For the rest of the day I finished the 1st version of the concept, agenda and slides for my offsite workshop in March. Now I am waiting for feedback, to see if my direction meets the expectation.

• Video: Stop Avoiding Mistakes & Start Learning from Them: BLACK BOX THINKING by Matthew Syed | Core Message

• Video: Just 4 Folds Paper Origami Mobile Phone Stand
• Video: Deaf girl tries on glasses that create real-life subtitles
• TED Talk: Why joy is a serious way to take action, Oct-24

[16-Feb-25] The week 07-2025 summary

What are the skills you need?

Besides the skills on the picture, some more insights below:

• Gallup: The Foundation of Great Leadership. What makes a good leader? Is it bravery, compassion, innovation, inspiration?

• Bosch Tech Compass 2025: Do we have the AI skills we need for the future?

• World Economic Forum: The Future of Jobs Report 2025

A mindset of lifelong learning is a prerequisite and the right priority setting the key to get started. YES we are all busy and time is rare, but you have to take your time for learning, most preferably on a regular basis. Next Tuesday we have the 1st of four Spirit or Learning days for the whole company. When everybody is taking time for learning, nobody will miss you in a meeting - you just have to make the decision.

• Video: How I Make Decisions - The OODA Loop System

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (14-Feb-25)

• Never Say This In An Interview. Want to stand out in an interview? Never say this... Author Justin Mecham

• AI and creative teams form a powerful partnership for delivering value. Using AI to increase agility by Willem-Jan Ageling

• Still figuring out how to use AI in your work? Here are 50 use cases

• You didn’t fail. You just had another lesson.

• AI/ML Wheel: Technology Ecosystem Overview

• The CLEAR coaching model is coaching 101

[15-Feb-25] My next workshop ...

Working out the strategy for our new department

My boss asked me to host the next offsite workshop on 11/12-Mar-25 some weeks ago. The idea is to work out the strategy of the new department with all direct reports and one additional representative per team. I started with the initial concept and agenda for these two days yesterday.

We will start Day-1 with a short icebreaker - how much can the people remember about their team members from the introduction workshop on 29-Jan-25? Everybody had 15 minutes for a professional and personal introduction. I came up with this idea last week and quickly summarized the main topics that I could remember about the participants. I will show three symbols for each team member and the people will have to guess, who is who? Like an adjusted BINGO game.

As the main theme of the workshop will be "building bridges", I will use a bridge as analogy to collect ideas for the strategy. What is the foundation, the basis above, support and ground level below the main (street) level. Plus we have an Input and Output, assuming the department is a black box, like the cars or people driving/going over the bridge. This is the rough idea for my approach:

1. The participants should collect all their ideas based on the status quo and forward looking until 2030. What do they and the department want to be accomplished? What will we be doing and not doing?
2. The first presentation of the results will already trigger a discussion, I assume.
3. Next step will be for everybody to take a different perspective. We will be using the Six Thinking Hats technique
4. Further details will be worked out with the GROW Model afterwards. Normally used for Coaching, but it will be helpful for our approach as well.
5. In the afternoon we will be collecting and structuring all results for our "strategy bridge".

We will finish Day-1 with a speed feedback round. With teams of two sitting opposite, both give each other feedback for a minute. Then everybody moves to the next seat on the left. It is better to have an

odd number of participants, because then just moving on for one seat covers all possible teams in the end. One team member has always to wait on an additional chair for two minutes.

• Types of Feedback in the Workplace: Your 2025 Guide

• The Johari Window model: examples, exercises & self-development tips

• What is radical candor? A management philosophy based on Caring Personally while Challenging Directly.

[12-Feb-25] The half time show ...

Please summarize 10 signs symbols hidden messages from the LIX super bowl halftime show

As mentioned two days ago - "But I possibly do not get all the hints or critics between the lines as foreigner. Anyway for me too much art and too less party, but you might see it differently?"

So I did ask "the experts" with very interesting results:

• You can select from the e.g. Ecosia search result here
  • One example is: Decrypting the Symbolism in Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show
• Here the Claude 3.5 Sonnet answer:

  • I want to be upfront that since my knowledge cutoff was in April 2024, I don't actually have information about the 2025 Super Bowl LVIII (58) halftime show. While I'd be happy to discuss halftime show analysis in general or past Super Bowl performances, I shouldn't speculate about or analyze a show that occurred after my last update. I'd encourage you to check reliable news sources or official NFL/Super Bowl coverage for accurate information about the most recent halftime show.
    Would you like to discuss analysis of a different past Super Bowl halftime show instead?

• Finally Google Gemini did provide a very detailed perspective even with pictures, follow this link - really interesting

Have fun

• TED Talk: Why you should make useless things, Simone Giertz |

  TED2018

• Dan Rockwell: Unlock People Using the GROW Model
• Frank Sonnenberg: Why Didn’t You Tell Me?

• Superagency: The transformative potential of AI

[10-Feb-25] Go Birds ...

Philly artist spray-paints 'Go Birds' mural on Broad Street

An interesting Super Bowl night last night and a well deserved winner, the Philadelphia Eagles. The family was watching with me and my youngest daughter even until the end. As you can see on the two pictures the Snack Stadium was well filled up and we had some side goodies as well.

A really bad night for the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes, after their great season before. But as one of the million statistics around football can proof, the best team of the season does not win the Super Bowl in the end. 

Finally the 2025 Half time show, what was discussed afterwards with very diverse opinions. The expectation for a scandal or surprising activity during the show was high, but from my German perspective all fine. But I possibly do not get all the hints or critics between the lines as foreigner. Anyway for me too much art and too less party, but you might see it differently?

"Sometimes, you have to accept that you have to wait your turn. ... As great as the performance was, it wasn't enough to win. Going through those emotions and processing those things, that experience, lit a great flame in me and enhanced my desire to win." -- Jalen Hurts, QB • #1, Philadelphia Eagles

"[The interceptions are] why I take ownership of this loss more than probably any other loss in my career, because I put us in the bad spot. Any time you lose the Super Bowl, it’s just the worst feeling in the world. It’ll stick with you for the rest of your career. These will be the losses that motivate me to be better. … It hurts probably more than the wins feel good." -- Patrick Mahomes, QB • #15, Kansas City Chiefs

• If You Want Results, Stop Ignoring This 1 Thing. The hardest truth about why teams fail – and how to fix it... Author Justin Mecham

• Video: TOP 10 FUNNIEST Super Bowl Ads 2025 🏈 Best Ten Superbowl LIX Commercials

• The New Happy: Are you overwhelmed?

• The Labor Market Is Broken. AI Can Help Fix It

• 7 Powerful Ways To Use Emotional Intelligence To Manage Stress

“We didn’t really ever care what anyone thought about how we won… all we wanted to do was win. These guys did not want to let each other down.” -- Nick Sirianni is head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles

[09-Feb-25] My week 06-2025 highlights

Today is Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans

One hour to go before the TV broadcast is starting for the Super Bowl this year. My Snack Stadium is still empty, but the beer is already well temperatured and tasty.

Before we had the chancellor duel on TV - Scholz versus Merz - the two guys who will be potentially leading the next German government. In the worst or best case together in the same coalition, we will see in two weeks from now.

Tomorrow my working day will start after 12:00 PM, some sleep is required after the Super Bowl that will possibly go until 05:00 AM, assuming there is no overtime. After the planning last week some admin work is to be done to finish the current 3-month phase on Monday and start the new 3-month phase on Tuesday. 

Even more time to prepare my next offsite workshop on 11/12-Mar-25 that will focus on the theme "Building bridges", to agree and describe the strategy of our new department that combines architecture and delivery content and personal. Looking forward to it, a new challange and opportunity at the same time. Have a great week.

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (07-Feb-25)

• The #1 Mistake That Shows You Don't Care. This one habit makes people feel unheard—here's how to fix it... Author Justin Mecham

• McKinsey Quarterly: Achieving growth: Putting leadership mindsets and behaviors into action

• Time management techniques that actually work. Which AI to use now. How we respond matters

• There's a big difference between your strategy and your strategic plan. And you need both

• An outstanding leader is a superb communicator and is aware that you have to be a great listener to be one

• The power of GenAI is becoming unstoppable, as it continues to evolve, offering quicker, easier, and more powerful tools for various professions

[07-Feb-25] How to handle risks?

"What we cannot control or influence we need to LET GO of!"

Two days ago when we had the Kick-off presentation for the upcoming 3-month project period, the new Operating Model was mentioned and caused some concerns and questions in the development community. What changes will be coming in May-25, how will the new teams look like, who will be doing what in which role, etc.?

I did see this coming and prepared one slide for the team, to be clear that their expertise will still be required after the CHANGE and the work is not going away. Let's just focus on what we can control and maybe influence, and let go of the rest!! Easier said than done and not everybody sees it in the same way, it is their personal perspective and mindset. Two helping ideas:

• Carol Dweck: A Summary of Growth and Fixed Mindsets

• [07-Feb-25] Your thinking is limiting your decisions (6 Thinking Hats)

Another idea could be a personal SWOT analysis, we just did one today in our regular Team Building session after the 2-day planning phase. The topic was our current working and development environment and how the team members see it. A strength can also be a weakness, same for opportunities and threats. Depends on your perspective and situation.   

Two weeks ago I did a SWOT analysis for myself as introduction to the new team and mentioned "35+ years work experience" in all four areas of the SWOT template. Just a matter of the perspective and situation.

"The best thing parents can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning." -- Carol S. Dweck

• Flexis is revolutionising urban logistics

• Ranked: How Much People Trust Institutions, by Country

• TED Talk: Can AI match the human brain? Surya Ganguli | Oct-24
• Dan Rockwell: The Lies We Love to Tell

• 8 Ways Organizational Culture Kills Agility

• Designing & Leading Transformational Workshops

• Video: What is Winning? Frank Dick Explains being better than yourself

• Continuous improvement is essential for efficiency, cost reduction, and quality enhancement

• The Turing Test is so Last Century: Introducing the Barista Test for Artificial General Intelligence

[04-Feb-25] Perception versus facts

Why do we mostly remember the positive things from the past?

Since yesterday the 1st 2025 eBOOK with posts until 03-Feb-25 is availabe for Download. Have a look ...

We remember only the positive things, as the perception about any bad experience is decreasing fast, see on the picture. A really useful 

behavioral pattern, what do you think?

For the 100/1, text by Wolfram (The Dolphin) Müller:

Eliyahu Goldratt revealed that every system has one critical constraint—the single point that controls your entire operation. The more complex your organization becomes, the narrower (and more powerful) this constraint has to be. Yet, traditional management forces us into 100% utilization of everyone, endless multitasking, overloading that critical constraint and sacrificing real throughput.

Imagine a world where you stop wasting time on busywork and start focusing on what really drives results. With one simple adjustment, you can flip your system from 1 to 100—fast, free, and radically transformative - riskless.

Finally, also a good fit to the topic of today from the --> Top 5 Habit-Building Methods From 25+ Books on Habits video (11:30 minutes):

Habit‐Building Method #3: Use Old Habits to Jumpstart New Ones
In Tiny Habits, BJ Fogg explains that most people fail to build better habits because they don’t leverage the momentum of existing behaviors. Therefore, if you want a new habit to stick, do it immediately after a reliable behavior. Complete the statement: “After I [reliable behavior], I will [new habit].” For example, after I put my head on my pillow, I will think of one thing I'm grateful for.

My next two days will be to focus on our next 3-month planning phase, all activities prepared.

• Empower to transform - When undertaking systemic change or facing uncertainty, remember: your employees aren’t just along for the ride—they’re the engine of transformation.

• Is AI coming for your job? Depends on who you ask by Rita McGrath

• Positive Deviance and High-Performing Organizations

  Leaders often focus on solving problems and bringing performance to "normal" levels. But what if we aimed higher—beyond the norm, beyond the average?

[03-Feb-25] Personas leading change ...

Import tariffs yes/no?

Just a quick reminder about the questionnaire I started on 19-Jan-25:

In order to gather some insights from your reader perspective and to collect new topics for the future, I did create a small questionnaire. The participation is voluntary, but so far nobody did use the opportunity to share an opinion. Three easy questions to answer:

1. How often do you read my BLOG?

2. Which topics from my BLOG do you like most?

3. What would you like to read about during 2025?

Just give it a try, thanks a lot in advance and very much appreciated.

The Top Import Partner picture is interesting to look at from a geographical as well as historical (where did immigrants initially come from) perspective. With the latest USA import tariffs announcement changes can be expected. Stock markets around the globe have been impacted by this today already, even in the USA.

Quick AI summary about pros and cons:

Import tariffs can potentially protect domestic industries by making foreign goods more expensive, thus encouraging consumers to buy local products, boosting the economy and creating jobs. They can also be used as leverage in international negotiations to address trade imbalances and unfair practices, safeguarding the country's interests.

On the flip side, import tariffs can lead to retaliatory measures from other countries, escalating trade tensions and potentially resulting in a trade war that harms all involved economies. They can also increase consumer prices, reduce choices for consumers, and disrupt global supply chains, impacting businesses and consumers alike.

We will see who wins in the end, if anybody?

• Justin Mecham: 6 Secrets for AMAZING Cultures

• Dan Rockwell: How to Change People

• AI Takes the Lead: The 25 Fastest-Growing Jobs in the U.S.

• New Data: See What Your Candidates Want in 2025

• 25 most important mathematical definitions in data science in a single frame

• Catch the Wave or Get Swept Away: Leadership in the Age of AI

• Teams that grow together, win together. Here’s how to make daily improvement second nature

• People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Here’s what Simon Sinek taught us about leadership

• The Power of Authentic Storytelling in Leadership

• Scott Ambler: Agilists and Project Managers: Examining Their Common Misconceptions

[01-Feb-25] A quick comparison ...

Interesting how fast these comparisons come up

Final picture about this topic, next week we might have another one already?

• $30 DeepSeek dupe? US scientists claim to duplicate AI model for peanuts

• Data science interviews test technical skills, problem-solving, and business impact. Here are the key topics:

• 120+ AI Tools to Finish Hours of Work in Minutes

• 9 FREE AI Courses. That could change your life...

• Stop searching for jobs only on Linkedin or Naukri! Here are 20 Sites to find Remote jobs that pay in USD

I did read an interesting Forbes article today - 90 days, dozens of interviews, billions on the line: Inside Blackstone’s CEO search process for its 250 companies by Ruth Umoh

Courtney della Cava has transformed Blackstone’s executive recruitment process from an art to a more precise science. “At Blackstone, we believe great investments begin with great talent and teams and that if you put people first, the numbers follow.”

Have a great weekend.

[31-Jan-25] Leonardo self supporting bridge

Leonardo’s self-supporting bridge is one of the most famous inventions in history

The bridge on the picture was a test run today. For my next offsite workshop in March, I was looking for an icebreaker in the morning to get the brain cleared and kick off the day. As the topic will be "building bridges" a great analogy and out of the comfort zone activity. And you better test your ideas before, to get a rough idea about timing and the possible obstacles you could face during the session. It took some effort to finish the bridge and more than two hands by the way.

• 12 important concepts that can help you rewire your brain

• 7 Powerful Visuals to Reframe Your Mindset

• TED Talk: The secret to telling a great story — in less than 60 seconds by Jenny Hoyos (4 minutes, Oct-24) 

• Vulnerability Is a Strength, Beware the ‘Broken Feedback Loop’ & More – The Leadership That Works Newsletter

And surprise, surprise, some more AI and DeepSeek related topics:

• Superagency in the workplace: Empowering people to unlock AI’s full potential

• Jevons Paradox - Satya Nadella thinks Jevons Paradox has struck again with DeepSeek AI's release. Let's explore what's Jevons Paradox. By Tanmay Vora

• I asked the AI who I am - that's what I got - by Holger Nauheimer
  

• Everyone's freaking out about DeepSeek AI. Here's what you actually need to know about it

• How did DeepSeek AI actually revolutionize AI? They solved 4 huge problems

• Researchers Uncover Exposed DeepSeek Database Leaking Sensitive Data!

[29-Jan-25] DeepSeek still a topic ...

Are we seeing another Huawei ban or TikTok discussion shortly?

After two days DeepSeek is still in all posts and emails everywhere. Not to be used on business devices, due to the unclear usage of the data shared, but new interesting technology that people want to investigate. Below a collection of positive and negative perspectives:

Positive messages

• What Makes DeepSeek So Much Better Than ChatGPT?

• BREAKING: DeepSeek just released an image model. DeepSeek is becoming the ChatGPT killer

• Let's break down DeepSeek AI's "Sputnik Moment" in a way that makes sense for non-tech folks out there

• I tested DeepSeek for 72 hours. (It's free). It claims to be better, faster, and free

• BREAKING: Alibaba just dropped Qwen2.5-Max—a cutting-edge AI model much better than the DeepSeek, it generates text, images, and videos, runs code, and even performs real-time web searches.

Negative messages

• Trump Embraced AI and It Exploded Spectacularly in His Face

• DeepSeek Starts to Explain Tiananmen Square Massacre, Then Gets Caught by Built-In Censorship System

• Don’t fall for false DeepSeek R1 news! Deepseek R1 made it to mainstream, but there are so many wrong takes and false information

• DeepSeek as a Trojan Horse Threat

• DeepSeek’s Popular AI App Is Explicitly Sending US Data to China

• Breaking News: OpenAI Accuses Chinese AI Startup DeepSeek of Using Its Models

... and there are many more news in the moment.

In the end it is great to see these kind of new disruptive developments, but you always have to balance your risk and value. And everybody wants to participate in the AI gold rush, but not everything what is technically possible makes sense in the end. Let's relax a little bit and build some bridges ...

• What Is AI: The Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence, and What Its Future Holds

• 7 Simple Steps to Master Your SWOT Analysis

• Dan Rockwell: How to Face the Problem of Happiness
• Frank Sonnenberg: Why Moral Authority Matters 

[27-Jan-25] A Nokia moment for Nvidia?

Disruptive innovation beats an Economic Moat

Interesting timing or just a coincidence?

• Nokia, at one time the world’s leading mobile phone company, has made a huge archive of corporate assets available through a website curated by Finland’s Aalto University, the Nokia Design Archive. The fascinating collection provides deep insight into how the company operated; in particular, a 2007 Nokia Confidential report caught my eye, as it captures what the company thought when Apple introduced iPhone in 2007.

• DeepSeek has now erased $2 trillion worth of market cap in US stocks. NVIDIA just lost $500B+ in market cap! All because a $6M Chinese AI startup just achieved what Silicon Valley claimed was impossible.

"Popularized by legendary investor Warren Buffett—it's perhaps his favorite metaphor, used in dozens of investor talks going back decades—the term "economic moat" draws an evocative parallel with the water-filled trenches that protected medieval castles. In the business world, these moats characterize sustainable competitive advantages that shield a company's profits from marauding competitors."

Was NVIDIA feeling too save and protected by the current AI trend and need for high-performance chips and data centers? Possibly yes, but this seems to be over now when you look at the reaction of the global stock markets today. We will find out shortly ...

• #1 Skill That Protects Your Mental Health Every Day

[26-Jan-25] My week 04-2025 highlights

Keeping an eye on the bigger picture ...

Even when you just have a small task, you are part of a larger activity and can help to enable the final result, go for it.

Same with my questionnaire that I started to share last week Sunday:

In order to gather some insights from your reader perspective and to collect new topics for the future, I did create a small questionnaire today. Thanks a lot in advance for your voluntary participation, very much appreciated. Please use https://ahaslides.com/RETHINK25

The participation is voluntary, but so far nobody did use the opportunity to share an opinion. Three easy questions to answer:

1. How often do you read my BLOG?

2. Which topics from my BLOG do you like most?

3. What would you like to read about during 2025?

Just give it a try, thanks a lot in advance and very much appreciated.

System demo tomorrow to finish the current 3-month period and the first workshop for the new team on Wednesday. Everybody has 15 minutes for a personal introduction, can be a very long time. I will start with a 3-picture introduction (3 typical pictures that describe you very well), then a personal map with business and private details and finally a personal SWOT analysis. Will be enough to fill the time.

In the NFL only 4 teams are left, the Conference finals today and tomorrow German time. At breakfast time it will already be clear, who plays in the Super Bowl LIX on 09-Feb-25 in New Orleans.

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (24-Jan-25)

• Why We Avoid Difficult Conversations – And How to Change That
  Mastering the Balancing Act of Courageous Conversations by Gustavo Razzetti

• Agile 2025 - 4 Threats and 4 Opportunities. The world needs Agile by Willem-Jan Ageling

• Top 6 Data Concepts

• How to Spot AI Deepfake Videos In An Era Of Digital Deception

• AI's energy dilemma: Challenges, opportunities, and a path forward

[25-Jan-25] Make best use of your time

Every "yes" to one thing is a "no" to something else

"According to Asana's research across 10,000 knowledge workers, a staggering 60% of work time is spent not on your actual job, but on "work about work" - the endless cycle of status updates, app switching, and hunting down information."

Let's check, what OpenAI knows about saying know?

Avoiding saying no can be a tricky skill to master, but there are common arguments that can help navigate difficult situations. Some serious arguments include redirecting the conversation, offering alternatives, or asking for more time to consider. On the lighter side, injecting humor, using positive language, or showing appreciation can soften the blow of saying no.

Top 10 arguments to avoid saying no:

1. "Let me check my schedule and get back to you."

2. "I appreciate the opportunity, but I'm currently unavailable."

3. "How about we explore other options?"

4. "I'm honored that you thought of me, but I have prior commitments."

5. "Can we revisit this at a later date?"

6. "I value your input, let me think about it."

7. "Let's brainstorm together for a better solution."

8. "I'm all ears for your ideas, what do you suggest?"

9. "Thank you for considering me, but I must decline."

10. "I wish I could help, but unfortunately, it's not possible at the moment."

Saying NO is very often the more difficult approach, requiring additional effort and motivation, plus the willingness to come into an uncomfortable situation. Easy is for everybody, difficult only for a few. BUT it is your time and you have to take responsibility for it, if you like it or not ... Have a great weekend.

• Will AI Make Universal Basic Income Inevitable?

• Here are 30 best sites for finding remote work online In 2025

• Here are 10 essential soft skills to secure your career's future

• Data Governance: Understand Key Focus Areas

• How to get 8 hours of work finished in 4

• Video: Origami / 折紙 | 97th OSCARS® Shortlisted Animated Short Film by Kei Kanamori

"When you make a to-do list, you should also make a to-not-do list. Warren Buffet was asked about the secret to success, and he said that it was saying no to almost everything. Some of those little tasks won't matter as long as you get the big tasks done." -- Brian Tracy

[24-Jan-25] Some AI related topics

AI, tech and more at Davos 2025: What to know

"For most of Artificial Intelligence’s (AI’s) history, many researchers expected that building truly capable systems would need a long series of scientific breakthroughs: revolutionary algorithms, deep insights into human cognition, or fundamental advances in our understanding of the brain. While scientific advances have played a role, recent AI progress has revealed an unexpected insight: a lot of the recent improvement in AI capabilities has come simply from scaling up existing AI systems."

“Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks.” – Stephen Hawking

AI is the topic of the moment, with the latest Stargate announcement even more, plus the reaction of Elon Musk about it. 

More helpful links:

• PwC’s 28th Annual Global CEO Survey: Reinvention on the edge of tomorrow

• Trust and collaboration go a long way. Tear down the silos! by Willem-Jan Ageling

• Dan Rockwell

  • Stop Glamorizing the Pursuit of Excellence

  • Wisdom Adapts – Fools Persist

• Data Cleaning Techniques: A Key to Data Science Success

• Big Data Landscape: Key Categories

• Top Generative AI Terms You Should Always Know

“I think what makes AI different from other technologies is that it’s going to bring humans and machines closer together. AI is sometimes incorrectly framed as machines replacing humans. It’s not about machines replacing humans, but machines augmenting humans. Humans and machines have different relative strengths and weaknesses, and it’s about the combination of these two that will allow human intents and business process to scale 10x, 100x, and beyond that in the coming years.” – Robin Bordoli taken from 

80 Artificial Intelligence Quotes Shaping the Future

[22-Jan-25] Quick Wednesday post ...

Today just a collection of interesting links, enjoy

• 15 Ways to Stop Holding Yourself Back. How to let go of the negativity that blocks your potential... Author Justin Mecham

• TED Talk: A hospital in the cloud bringing health care anywhere in the world, by Mohamed Aburawi |• April 2024

• MIRAI is redefining the future of breast cancer screening

• pwc: Climate: The ultimate industry disruptor. It’s already reshaping business. Get focused.

• Ranked: The Top 25 Countries With the Most Data Centers PLUS today Tech giants are putting $500bn into 'Stargate' to build up AI in US

• 7 Ways HR Will Look Different in 2025

• The World’s Fastest-Growing Jobs in 2025

• How to Improve Your Soft Skills—Anyone Can Do It!

• Using the Flow Channel to Measure Team Effectiveness

• The Humics: The Secret of Human Value in the Age of AI

• Want smoother teamwork? Start with Kanban boards

• Data Science Quick Reference: Data Preparation with SQL

• Gantt Charts Are Great... and Have No Place in Agile
  

• Shawn Wallack: Should SAFe Get Lost?

• Gartner's recommended CIO business books blend hard and soft skills, focusing on effective communication and influence

"For anything worth having one must pay the price; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice - no paper currency, no promises to pay, but the gold of real service." -- John Burroughs

[21-Jan-25] Another MURPHY day ...

The week starting with a Monday, no surprise 

I was in the office yesterday, the least employees are there on Monday and Friday, and our department team area is in the Tower on the 14th floor. One hour into the working day the water pressure was 1st decreasing and then completely gone 30 minutes later. No drinking water, no hand washing and toilet usage. Root cause was a broken water pipe that was finally fixed at the end of the day. The few people in the office survived, I had to go down to the ground floor only once, to find a working toilet.

Next was the public transport on my way home. When I reached the underground station I have seen a note about an accident on the track. No underground going into my direction, so I decided to walk. Better than to wait in the cold temperature outside. After 6 stations the system was working again and I could catch an underground to the main railway station. My train is coming every 20 minutes, but 2 trains did not show up. No explanation why. In the end I took the 3rd train and reached home around 08:00 PM. A Murphy day ...

Today everything was smooth, the water pressure was fine and public transport did go as planned. Tomorrow is another day for surprises.

In Mar-25 we have the next offsite workshop, planned with our new team that will be officially in place with the start of the next fiscal year on 01-Apr-25. One of the topics will be to make our new operating model real and get a common understanding in the team, how to use it. I will be supporting my supervisor and host/moderate this workshop. One of my ideas today was to use process simulation and storytelling. More details in the near future ...

Just checked the participation in the voluntary questionnaire I shared last Sunday. So far nobody did use the opportunity to participate and share an opinion, what is interesting as the average number of readers per day is 193 in the last month. I am not looking for a 50+% participation rate, a start with 5%, what means nearly 10 readersper day, would be more than sufficient. So please don't be shy!! 

Thanks a lot in advance for your voluntary participation, very much appreciated. Please use https://ahaslides.com/RETHINK25

• Chibaru Shokudo is a restaurant that employs older people who have been diagnosed with dementia

• Video: 5 Golden Rules To Unbreakable Confidence
• Video: THE COURAGE TO BE DISLIKED by F. Koga and I. Kishimi | Core Message
• Collaboration Superpowers: Head of Remote Guide (112 pages)

• 120+ AI Tools to Finish Hours of Work in Minutes (find your own)

[19-Jan-25] The week 03-2025 summary

The term "skeuomorphism" combines the Greek word "skeuos," meaning vessel or container, with the English suffix "-morphism," indicating form or structure.

In order to gather some insights from your reader perspective and to collect new topics for the future, I did create a small questionnaire today. Thanks a lot in advance for your voluntary participation, very much appreciated. Please use https://ahaslides.com/RETHINK25

Two quotes from the 2 pictures today:

1. Why is the save icon in your software a floppy disk that no one has used for over 20 years? And that phone icon looks nothing like your mobile phone when making a call. These are both skeuomorphs.

2. What about Pilates? No one ever promised it’s fast or easy. It’s deliberate, difficult, and demands effort and commitment. But it’s also effective and sustainable because it builds mental and physical strength and flexibility over time. That’s the mindset shift required to make lasting change. Scrum is Pilates, not a chocolate shake.

The headhunter story is still proceeding. In the meantime I had four different people contacting me for jobs in the same company, two separate jobs as I realized lately, but both do not fit at all to my profile. I do get the feeling that the approach is somewhat AI driven, by using different LinkedIn profiles? Only one is related to a headhunter activity and company, the rest in different industries. They either do freelance work besides their official job or it might be fake profiles, who knows? 

The coming week will be the last week before we finish the current 3-month project phase. After this week we will have our System Demo followed by 5-days of training, knowledge sharing and exploration tasks. Before we kick off the next 3-month phase with a 2-day planning ceremony. Maybe be the last time due to our operating model change, but this is not finalized yet. Anyway, changes come and go, we just have to handle each properly, be open for it and make the best out of the adjusted circumstances and environments.

Have a great week ...

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (17-Jan-25)

• Think Your Team Is Afraid of Feedback? Think Again.

• Essential HR And Recruitment Trends For 2025

• Learn the Difference Between Data Warehouses and Data Lakes!

• The right TED Talk at the right time can genuinely change your life. Here are 7 examples

• Forget "Strategic Planning". Strategy and Planning are very different things. 

[18-Jan-25] Mahakumbh 2025

A once-in-144 years phenomenon

Imagine being part of something so rare that the last people to witness it were your great-great-grandparents. The Maha Kumbh 2025 at Prayagraj is not just an event; it’s a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle that occurs only after 144 long years... Now, would you want to miss something this rare?

It is said that the location of the Kumbh Mela is decided by specific celestial alignments. When Jupiter is in Taurus and the Sun and Moon align in Capricorn (Makar rashi), the Kumbh Mela takes place at Prayagraj, coinciding with the Makar Sankranti period.

Hosting 400+ million visitors in 45 days is a real challenge that can only be handled in a digital way. Here some Facts and Stats.

Just now the first Divisional Round Playoff in the NFL is starting. Have a great weekend.

• Video: OK Go - A Stone Only Rolls Downhill (Official Video) - 64 Videos on 64 Phones

• World’s first 24/7 renewable energy gigascale project unveiled in Abu Dhabi

• Tim Ferriss Blog: The Secrets, Tactics, and Creative Processes of High Performers and Achievers — Debbie Millman (#230)

• Unlocking human potential: Building a responsible AI-ready workforce for the future

• Authentic Leadership, Credits to Justin Wright

• How To Create Your Best Life In 2025. Steal this sheet to make 2025 your year

• This post is permission to be YOU... Even though you don’t really need it...

[17-Jan-25] Keep it simple and brief

Simplicity is much more difficult than complexity 

BREVITY = a quality that speech or writing has when it is short and contains few words

In the moment you keep something simple and brief, you might be saving a lot of time that you had to invest before, to better understand the topic, as mentioned by Albert Einstein.

"If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if an hour, I am ready now." -- Woodrow Wilson

Today I did get another headhunter email with an exciting opportunity - it did not fit at all!! But was a good relation to the James Clear article -

Why Trying to Be Perfect Won’t Help You Achieve Your Goals (And What Will). When you just try enough and contact as many people as possible, you might find a good candidate who is interested to change the job.

• Visualizing the Global Population in 2035, by Generation

• Dan Rockwell: 15 Practical Ways to Ignite Commitment

• Communication gap (a classic infographic)

• Achieving organisational excellence means mastering multiple dimensions that drive sustainable success

• Make Lean Work for You

• Drowning in ideas? Let affinity diagrams organize the chaos. Collaboration becomes effortless when you spot patterns fast

• 8 Game-Changing Manufacturing Trends That Will Define 2025

• 6 Free Leadership Courses: From Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth.

[16-Jan-25] Have a productive day ...

Another great infographic from Justin Mecham

Some stories just go on and on.

Today I was contacted by another headhunter with "an exciting career opportunity". I have seen the job description before from a different headhunter, and it did still not fit to my profile. I do not have any SAP skills, do not really like the tool and GUI. Must be a bad AI or bad reading and not doing the homeworks before. Anyway, I stick to my guardrails to give some feedback, hoping that it will improve the quality of the contacts over time. Possiby not for me, but for all the others out there.

And the MURPHY story with the starter battery did proceed as well. I was at the dealer in time on Monday, but the new battery was not delivered. Next day I was in the office and my wife had to go to the garage. All did work out fine, finally. Only the dealer had now four batteries of the same kind. Good for other customers. 

Both stories are nothing that you would expect from a productive day, but it is not always only in your hand.

• Dan Rockwell: Do These 5 Things to Gain Wisdom
• pwc: Transformative leadership for extraordinary times

• How to Ask Good Questions at Work—and Actually Get the Info You Need

• Charted: AI’s Perceived Impact on Job Creation, by Country

• Frank Sonnenberg: How to Make People Doubt You

• Use STICC whenever you have to communicate fast and clearly

• Master the art of Continuous Improvement to keep your business ahead in 2025.

The WEF report is offering a lot of interesting insights, details, data and infographics, as you can see today. Some more or less related links as well:

• 20 Skills you need to stay ahead by 2030

• The Future of Jobs: AI, Skills, and the Transforming Workforce by 2030

• Top 5 Project Management Trends Shaping up in 2025

• We've curated an incredible lineup of free courses designed to help you master AI, no matter your experience level

• The Insidious Poison of Excessive Regulation

• Marketoonist by Tom Fishburne: How we Brief

[13-Jan-25] Insights from 2025 to 2030

The Future of Jobs Report 2025, World Economic Forum (WEF)

Technological change, geoeconomic fragmentation, economic uncertainty, demographic shifts and the green transition – individually and in combination are among the major drivers expected to shape and transform the global labour market by 2030.