The only human being who wants change is a toddler who needs a new diaper. This bon mot is especially true if a change is fundamental, if something substantial is changing, if a paradigm shifts, such as the huge Big Data paradigm shift. Now and then, things, technologies, perspectives change dramatically. If you happen to work in an industry experiencing such a change, consider yourself fortunate if you can accept or even welcome it. Many, if
Don“t panic — this headline is much less esoteric as you might think. It came to my mind today, when I saw many people mourning the death of musician David Bowie, quoting him throughout the day. I think it‘s better to internalize wisdom and be who you want to be, instead of merely quoting wise people. For this post, David Bowie“s death and the universal reactions to it are very well suited
As discussed around the same time last year, New Year’s resolutions are not for everybody. Some stick to that convention, others distance themselves for various reasons. I’ll share my personal resolution with you and invite you to try it for yourselves, no matter if you are a believer or not. Whenever I am just saying something derogative about a person or a thing I will immediately pause for a moment and I will not say it. That’s my resolution.
Today, I learned something important. In theory it should be an open secret but realizing that I can use this insight as a practical tool in everyday communications was like a Heureka for me. It’s about changing perspectives — broadening one’s mind. A few weeks ago, my business partners and I decided to coöperate with another team to jointly start a new company. The other team brings in experiences and expertise in different areas which would be
In order to solve complex problems we must join forces, coöperate and collaborate! Let’s Try More Interdisciplinarity!
In countries with a high affinity for soccer, there usually live as many soccer coaches as there are male inhabitants above 6 years. They watch the game and feel inclined as well as empowered not only to criticise but to come up with smashing proposals for enhancement. We find the same behavior in other areas, such as business: imagine you work in the marketing department and you’ve just come up with some
“Finishability” is a qualitative term that describes the ease of being able to screed and finish concrete. But you could also use it in other contexts, such as in communication. If you’re equipped with a certain finishability, people will listen to you, understand you and coöperate with you. Think of finishability as an antidote to information overload, as the Economist’s Tom Standage suggests. One of the integral features of the Internet are links
We tend to start any interaction with our fellow co-humans based on certain expectations. This is true especially for long-term private relationships as well as for business environments. What would happen if we dropped our expectations and interacted without any Interpretation of our counterpart’s reactions? Starting from my personal experiences, I suggest to skip any specific expectation regarding the reaction of your conversational partner for a week or so, be it in
What makes Homo Sapiens superior to other animals? We are weaker and slower, but our brains are 3–5 times bigger than those of our nearest species, the Orang Utans. Are the achievements of building the atomic bomb or inventing the internet the main differentiators? Of course not — what makes Homo Sapiens superior is his ability to communicate and to be social — his cultural foundation. About 300,000 years ago,
I am convinced that in the next few years, we will run every aspect of our lives in a fundamentally different way than we have done before. We’re going to do that because .… it’s possible. We will manage every aspect of our lives based on our own data which we will be aware of for the first time in history. In order to maximize our convenience in dealing with our
Often, I hear people say to one another: “Yes, I understand.” This phrase can be heard in private as well as in business conversations and every time I ask myself if people reflect about what they just said. From a neurological perspective, to understand something means to match that with what is already known by a human being. If you tell me that something has happened because the earth moves around the sun, I’ll accept that
Today, I had a quite strange and unpleasant discussion. It was about business strategy and sales, and the both of us differed quite clearly in our views on how to ‘do it right’. I wasn’t in the best mood, and from my perspective, the other guy behaved in an egoistic, slightly arrogant and selfish manner. He used typical killer terms, such as “totally clear” or “as I’ve always been saying” to underline his