Dr. Marcus RaitnerGradual fabrication of thoughts while writing.
Remote work and leadership at a distance is based on purpose and trust. Where these are missing, the corona crisis becomes a crisis of purpose and trust. One can learn from this — or reboot the previous operating system of the organization as quickly as possible.
With the first loosening of the exit restrictions, in many offices the ramp-up back to the pre-Corona cult of presence begins, because real work can only be done in the office and only under supervision.
After weeks of distributed cooperation it is time to draw a balance. This blog parade is itself an exercise in distributed asynchronous collaboration, a virtual retrospective to reflect on the opportunities and limitations of home office and remote work, in order to identify success factors and prevent us from falling back into the old rut.
Although the SARS-CoV‑2 virus is certainly not a welcome but nevertheless a good reason to reflect on how to deal with complexity and decision-making in complex to chaotic situations. The Cynefin framework by David Snowden provides a very helpful framework to this end.
The prelude to a dystopian novel about the absurdity of surveillance in everyday life four years after the outbreak of the great pandemic.
Is this art, or does it need clearing away? The crisis is leading to consolidation in many places. Short-term earnings today are inevitably gaining the upper hand over speculative ideas for the day after tomorrow. The art of ambidexterity, however, cannot be cleared away for this very reason! Diversity and dissent are especially important now to find the right balance.
The crisis is accelerating digitalization. Distributed collaboration from home rather than together in an open-plan office is suddenly the standard. But how does leadership at a distance succeed? Some incitements to reconsider from the Manifesto for Human(e) Leadership.
Despite the prescribed and advised spatial distance, people move closer together and show more interest and understanding for each other. If we could preserve this for the time after the Corona pandemic and do not immediately fall back into old patterns, much would be gained.
Now that so many people are working at home, the question arises how to work together well remotely. Spatially distributed collaboration does not only happen through video conferencing, but also and primarily requires written and asynchronous communication.
Do fish have to climb trees? Of course not! So why are employees regularly asked to work on their weaknesses? It would make more sense for everyone to accept weaknesses, make them irrelevant through appropriate organization and thus deliberately make strengths productive.
How can employees be motivated? Not at all, actually. At least not from the outside. Real motivation comes from within and has its origin in the insatiable human need for growth.
Agility is often associated with speed and efficiency. In fact, agility accelerates learning in uncertain and complex environments, but not the delivery of a well-planned scope.
Leadership begins with self-leadership. Only those who are self-sufficient instead of emulating others or an ideal can develop the potential of the people entrusted to them and awaken hope in them.
Personalized responsibility in the form of a “single wringable neck” is the means of choice when it comes to reliably shaping cooperation in organizations. With each such role, however, the level of organized irresponsibility increases.
Good leadership requires integrity more than charisma. Integrity creates a climate of safety in which people can thrive, while charisma often leads to complacency and arrogance and keeps people small and dependent.
How companies become blinded by their successful products to innovations that creepingly start on the unattractive periphery of their market and from there penetrate the market.
Leadership takes place in and through relationships — leadership is relationship. We determine whether these are filled with fear or with equal dignity, the counter-proposal to the authoritarian education of the Danish family therapist Jesper Juul, which can very well be transferred to other leadership relationships.
The Manifesto for Human(e) Leadership is now also available in English as a paperback and e‑book at Amazon. Please help me spreading the word!
How many rules does cooperation require? Less is more. For instance in traffic, as Hans Monderman’s concept of shared space shows. But also in organizations: fewer rules lead to more responsibility and lively cooperation.
The new decade could not have started better. After Marie and Ella, our lives were blessed with another big little miracle last night. Overwhelmed, speechless and incredibly proud…
Unused human potential is often referred to as the eighth type of waste in Lean Management. And rightly so, because it is the creativity of “ordinary” workers that enables the continuous improvement and elimination of the classical seven types of waste.
For me, the motto for 2019 was going with the flow. A lot has changed and a lot has simply emerged from the present situation and the existing possibilities. The…
The Manifesto for Human(e) Leadership was never conceived as a textbook or reference work. However, despite and because of its brevity, it is surprisingly well received as book. The…
Again and again I hear and read that we have to meet the people on their ground and have to win them over for a successful change. I consider this very…
Digitalization is driving human labor out of the value chain. It only continues what robots and automation have begun long before. You can feel threatened by this, but…
Agile transformation is not a change project designed by consultants and ordered by top management, however much some people selling panaceas may propagate it. Agile transformation is a joint learning…
This is the title of a central chapter in Bodo Janssen’s new book “Kraftquelle Tradition. Benediktinische Lebenskunst für heute” (Amazon Affiliate-Link). Companies are more than just places of value…
Less working hours lead to more and better results. What may sound absurd has recently been impressively demonstrated by Microsoft in Japan. In August, all 2,300 employees had…
Never I have been a devotee of the concept of work-life balance. It suggests a separation that I am not willing to accept. If something has lost its balance, then it is…
Which responsibilities do organizations bear for society? Is it enough for them to fulfill their respective purpose to the best of their ability or do they also have…
The biggest hurdle for companies undergoing an agile transformation is the perceived loss of control. At its core, agility means self-organization. The more decentralized decisions are made, the…
Leadership unfolds its impact always in two dimensions: on the one hand there is the Why, which manifests itself in a common purpose and attractive vision and on the…
Less, but better. This motto of the famous German designer Dieter Rams should guide us not only in the design of products, but also in the design of…
Are you tired of endless meetings and a never-ending cycle of office life? The Simple Sabotage Field Manual, published by the Office of Strategic Services (predecessor of the CIA) in 1944, reveals tactics for undermining productivity and morale in organizations. Even today, these tactics are alarmingly relevant.
What does Netflix have in common with a nuclear submarine? Although at first glance they couldn’t be more different, their exceptional leadership culture is very similar. Reed Hastings, CEO…
How can we become (more) agile? Many of my conversations begin with this question. So someone wants to work differently, wants to become agile or more agile. The…
What on earth did Mark mean by that question? Why did he want to know what “assignment” T. had? After all, it was only supposed to be a small…
Just like T., the protagonist in last week’s fragment of my novel “On the Handrail into the Decision-Making Circle”, many people are confronted with the same situation several…
His first group meeting. They gathered in one of the numerous meeting rooms, whose dismal functionality immediately suffocated every trace of creativity. In general, the whole building — although completed…
So, a position in the corporation after all? For him, this was his first real application ever. He previously never had to apply formally, it always happened somehow. One…
Servant leadership in general and the misunderstood role of the Scrum Master in particular is mostly underestimated. The effect of this kind of leadership is rather indirect; like…
Three years of agile transformation at BMW Group IT have taught me a lot about organizational change and I have summarized it in three principles. But I also learned a lot about…
From three years of intensive work on the agile transformation in the BMW Group IT, I see three essential success factors. First, the transformation always starts with the why…
Times of change are times of uncertainty. A typical reaction to this uncertainty is the call for heroes and strong leaders who bring order into chaos and show the…
The naive and intuitive use of language sometimes mixes and overlays things that should be clearly distinguished. Popular among editors are, for example, the terms apparently and seemingly.…
The term dichotomy goes back to the Greek dichotomía (διχοτομία) and means dividing in two. A false dichotomy is the suggestion that there are only two mutually exclusive alternatives…
Leadership no longer means command and control. It is no privilege, but rather a service. And this service is to empower and enable people to lead themselves independently in…
Anyone who imitates Spotify or introduces SAFe or obtains imitated or falsified agile frameworks and disseminates them as best practice will be punished with futile ritual practices of…
Children are awesome. And sometimes they are an awesome challenge. To be honest, our two daughters are this every single day – more than once. Young children in…
Several so called agile transformations ultimately end with people dancing rock ’n’ roll instead of a slow waltz in Titanic’s ballroom and some beautifully decorated deckchairs. And even if…
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