Actually, I didn’t want to write about my book “Mittelmaß und Wahnsinn” (Mediocrity and Madness) again today. But then I came across this article on SPIEGEL Online (“Erfolgreiche Teamarbeit – Diesen Typ braucht jede Gruppe”) and I ended up regretting that I hadn’t found this gem before. (Future) Martians NASA plans…
This topic cuts close to the heart of my book “Mittelmaß und Wahnsinn” (Mediocrity and Madness). I am a strong believer in takers of responsibility. Only those who take responsibility stand a chance of achieving something. Consequentially, the design of organisations needs to foster taking responsibility. Yet with responsibility alone,…
The people consulting me on writing my book “Mittelmaß und Wahnsinn” (Mediocrity and Madness) tended to urge me towards providing THE ANSWER. “It’s easy to see what’s going wrong but that’s of no avail. We have to look forward, not back!” is a very common notion in today’s corporate meeting…
Another (English) teaser for my book “Mittelmaß und Wahnsinn” (Mediocrity and Madness). This is a bit of a sensitive one. It is about consulting and consultants. Like most of the book, that chapter tends to be more on the provocative side. At the same time I am working as a…
“Mittelmaß und Wahnsinn” has a few weaknesses (it has some strengths, too). One is that it is available in German only (for now). In order to mitigate that a bit, I’ll write a series of posts that provide some impressions. Let’s begin with the title. For the alliteration’s sake, I…
We are living in a multiverse. Not (only) in the sense that word has to a physicist but in a very practical sense, too. (By the way, if you are interested in multiverse physics, I strongly recommend Max Tegmark’s book “Our Mathematical Universe“) Ever so often, I discover one of…
Every day, I find these inspirational quotes on LinkedIn, most of them reportedly from people that are commonly admired. I have to admit, I am one for this kind of quotes. The good ones go straight from my brain to my heart and spread warm emotions over my whole body.…
Probably ever since mankind learnt to express ideas, simplification has been a key concept. “Mammoths are good” (food) and “sabre-tooth tigers are bad” (predators). Simplification is a way to survive in a complex environment (“Don’t play with the matches!”). Yet even then, mammoths could be dangerous and sabre-tooth tigers might…
The current fad in the way of working together is “super-collaboration”. Everything and everyone is expected to connect to everything and everybody else. Excessive mail-distribution lists have been the early beginnings (well, that was another age). Today it’s collaboration platforms, (misunderstood) “chapters”, open plan office setups and — most of…
Blame on you, customer! Not long ago, we had a broken tap. I don’t want to go into detail, it was broken. The plumber within myself decided to substitute the tap himself. The digital convert within decided to order it on the web. Ordering spare taps is not like —…
