Everywhere!

If I were to offer a single piece of advice that I think, most people could benefit from every day, it would be as simple as:

Bring two books everywhere. 

A book, so that you always have something inspiring to read, if you happen to have an idle moment, and a notebook, so that you always have a place to nake a note, if you should happen to have a thought worth keeping for later use. Think it over: how many spare moments have been wasted on Angry Birds - or whatever happens to be the thing of the moment on the omnipresent smartphone? How many thoughts worth keeping for later use are lost, because they weren't noted anywhere?
All to all those objecting that "unfortunately, I have no space for the two books when I am on the move": let me guess that you always have space for the omnipresent smartphone? Well, then it is easy: install an e-book reader and an application for taking notes on it. And open one of these two, whenever you have the time and the urge to throw a bird...
(Translated from Overalt!)

In praise of good colleagues

In previous blog posts, I have written about how important elements like good leadership, good corporate culture and corporate values ​​are as means to retain people in a workplace - but when discussing with Janice Kobelsky in continuation of my post about the tower that did not lean, it dawned on me that to my experience, one factor is even more significant. Good colleagues. Well, it does not have to be much more than just a single good colleague.
Now I have never been cast in such a way (or rather, my eyesight is not sufficiently good) allow me to spend time on any kind of military service, so I can not comment on the relationships that are formed among brothers in arms - but on a slightly less serious level, among people who remain my very close friends, I count a handful of excellent people who are all former colleagues of a quite exceptional nature.
They are the kind of people that I have always been able to get along with, without any of us having any kind of hidden agendas; where we have never been in doubt that no matter how dire straits we would end up in, we could trust that we would always have each other's back - this even went so far that when some of these people became former colleagues, they told me about their considerations long before they left their position.
Such people are rare. But there is no doubt that when you meet them you should stick to them. Also long after you are no longer colleagues - because they are not only unusually good colleagues; they also have the potential to form unusually good, lifelong friendships.
(Translated from Til den gode kollegas pris, originally published February 14th, 2018)

One of my rare bets

Normally, I rarely venture into betting. But recently I had an opportuninty that I found to be too good to be missed.
I had the opportunity to enter into a bet with a CEO I have the pleasure to know. He has a quite natural interest in the image of his management team within the company - an image, which has the measurable indicator of a score in the annual satisfaction survey filled in by the employees.
This was the foundation, on which I made him an offer: "If you make yourself more physically visible in the offices, start applying Management By Walking Around on the days when you are not out of office on other business - initially, just start visiting coffee machines in remote corners of the offices - I am fully convinced that the Management Team score in the satisfaction survey will increase." The bet concerns a book - the loser will give the winner a book, which book is chosen by the loser.
I am quite certain that I will win. And even if I lose, I still feel that in a way, I will have won - because even in that case, I get the pleasure of picking a good and inspiring book to give away.
(Translated from Et af mine sjældne væddemål, originally published February 10th, 2018)

On the topic of kids and comfort zones

It was while reading a tweet by Janice Kobelsky regarding comfort zones that something all of a sudden dawned on me.

A big part of the role, I have been playing as a parent during later years has basically been the role of what we could call a "comfort zone manager". From the moment, your first child is born, you will constantly have to work with comfort zones.
First of all, in the moment the kid is born, you take a giant leap out of your own comfort zone - a leap, for which you have only nine meager months to mentally prepare for. But from that point in time, work starts on challenging the comfort zone of the child - to give the child the possibilities to move to the very edge of its competences, but never further than where you have an almost certain assumption that the child will be able to handle the situations. At the same time, you also constantly work on your own comfort zone - because there are limits to what you dare expose the poor kid towards. In the beginning, it is actually just as much a question of holding back a kid who is convinced that it is able to do anything - later on, it also turns into a question of persuading or convincing the kid or the young adult to understand that there will be no problems handling the situations that you try to help it handle.
But it all has one thing in common: if you are too happy staying in your own comfort zone, then you will try to stay clear of any borders of the things that you dare expose your kid to. And then you will eventually turn into a helicopter parent, overly shielding the child in order to challenge your own comfort zone. But if you are of the opinion that comfort zones are there to be challenged in order to be extended - then it is time to leave the aircraft and challenge your kids to take responsibility for more and more of the things they do in their daily lives.
(Translated from Noget om børn og komfortzoner, originally published February 8th, 2018)

On the topic of sowing and reaping

Once again, a remarkable post of Rebecca Elvy's made me think - this time about the metaphor of reaping and sowing used about the things we do in our daily lives - and about when to reap and when to sow, respectively.

As so many other people, I am a descendant of a long line of people who were into farming - my grandparents, as well of two sets of aunts and uncles, earned their living from farming, and one thing that was for certain when we went to visit them was that we always were able to predict what they were doing before we came there, from just a glance at the weather and the calendar. Because in agriculture - at least in the Northern European part of the world, there is most definitely a time to sow and a time to reap.

And the metaphor of sowing and reaping is still very appropriate - because at certain times, we seem to spread our resources on the ground around us with no apparent return on investment, while at other times it becomes obvious that spreading our resources was a very good idea, because our effort comes back to us manifold.

But to us who have left farming behind, the world is quite different from what our ancestors experienced - because where they could easily tell from the weather and the calendar when it was time to sow, and expect a certain return to come at a more or less predefined time determined in detail by nature (apart, of course, from disastrous times of harvest failure), our situation is much less predictable. When we sow, we have no idea when the time comes when we will be able to reap (if ever), and have no certain reason to expect what we will be able to reap, if the time actually comes.

For me, the only conclusion is that given these conditions, we must sow whenever we have got any surplus of energy to spare for that purpose. We have no reason to believe - nor even hope - that we might reap anything from it, but still: what we sow will certainly make more use if we spread it, rather than hoarding it, only for it to decay (if you allow me to stay in the metaphorical universe of farming). 

And then again, we still might one day see that there will be something to reap from what we have sown. And we will realise that while this happens, we actually have fun, spending time in flow, sowing our surplus resources - and that we stumble upon people in the process; people that we inspire and who hope to inspire us in return.

So there is no reason to stop sowing for long - sowing develops us and the people who surround us, and we might actually reap manifold from it at some undefined point in time. Whereas hoarding what we could sow - or only sowing based on detailed calculations indicating that the related harvest is certain: to me, it just does not lead to anywhere constructive. Part of the fun, actually, is the thought of "I don't have any idea of whether this will lead to anything I can reap - and if it does, I have even less of an idea about what will come out of it."

(Translated from Noget om at så og høste)

On the topic of bicycles and mutual inspiration

Mutual inspiration as it best is just like riding a bike - the way the pedals are mounted on a bike, at an angle of 180 degrees between the two pedal arms, makes the two legs of the human body work together in a perfect way: once one pedal has reached the bottom moved by one foot, it has at the same time put the other pedal in the optimal position to let the other foot push it down, after which it it is time to wait while the other foot makes its contribution. In the same way as two people in committed conversation or other interaction constantly have the opportunity to bring the common understanding forward. If the human body had had more feet, the metaphor could easily be extended to conversations among several people.
The metaphor can also be used to illustrate when the mutual inspiration is less optimal. If the two parties fully agree, they will have difficulties bringing each other further onwards - similar to the situation when a cyclist stands on one pedal with both feet. It might move that pedal to the bottom position faster, but once you get there, progress is limited. Or if one of the parties does not contribute - well, you can sit ever so correct on the bike, but if one leg hangs down passively and does not pedal, you will not get anywhere.
But the important thing is: if you sit correctly on the bike, and both feet participate, you go forward in a way that feels like you hardly have to make an effort. Which is exactly as mutual inspiration works when it is at its best.
(Translated from Noget om cykelture og gensidig inspiration)

On the topic of team composition

Recently, I have been quite occupied by thoughts about diversity - about the positive sides of surrounding ourselves with people who bring other things to the community than what we bring ourselves.
I found one of the interesting metaphors I have seen in the discussion in a post by Wendy Woolfork on LinkedIn - originating from the question "What kind of team would your team be if everyone on it had your exact attitude" - perhaps it would be better, if the team was composed with greater diversity.

I think that the universe, from which Wendy's post originates - the world of sorts - is a very suitable one to start out from. It is worth considering in relation to e.g. a soccer team: a player can be the best defender in the world, but if the team were composed solely of players with the exact same mentality, it is very likely that the defense would be world class, but the goals necessary to reach the finals would never be scored. Or you could have a team of the finest forwards with a flair for scoring excellent goals - but if no one passes the right balls to them, the goals will never be scored.
So I am actually quite convinced that the best teams are composed with a wide range of diverse people, who challenge each other with mutual respect and respect for the diversity of the team, headed by a leader capable of providing the space for the team members to flourish. In that way, we will reach the championships - or whatever the metaphors of sports translate into in the worlds, in which we operate on a daily basis.
(Translated from Noget om holdsammensætning)