Do you feel valued as customer?

Hello,

It is a world, where everywhere in each magazine, on house walls, or in newspaper you can read -actually around the globe-: 

"We do whatever the CUSTOMER wishes! Customer comes first!".

• What is meant by that?
  
• How many times have you been asked on how the service or a product should be delivered to you?
  
• When you deal with service hotlines - how welcomed do you feel?
  

Today, while having had a small but nevertheless nagging service issue to be dealt with a service hotline, I felt like just a "number" not a valuable customer.

Of course there had been a service hotline, actually two as my two issues couldn't be handle by phone call throughput (should be possible nowadays).

Makes me wonder why companies are not ASKING their CUSTOMERS for advice to deliver better or even wished services?

What has been your most positive experience as a customer and your personal involvement in solving a problematic (small or large) matter?

Best regards,

Ralf

The Knowledge Worker 2.0

Peter Drucker, the famous management guru has defined what a knowledge worker is back in '59 and time has set a changed profile nowadays:

I Am Knowledge Worker 2.0

Stephen Collins' great presentation and talk (you will find him on Twitter as trib).

How do see yourself in the business world?

 

Cheers, Ralf


PS.: After over a decade still amongst the best presentations I have seen on what a knowledge worker is in the digital age. Thanks a lot, Stephen! 

Reflection Time

"Pool-Hall-Dog

(.... story best read in the original)

If we don't let go, we make prisoners of ourselves.

To be fully free to create, we must first find the courage and willingness to let go;

Let go of the strategies that have worked for us in the past ...
Let go of our biases, the foundations of our illusions ...
Let go of our grievances, the root source of our victimhood ...
Let go of our so-often-denied fear of being found unlovable.

You will find it is not a one-shot deal, this letting go. You must do it again and again and again. It's kind of like breathing. You can't breathe just once. Try it: Breathe just once. You'll pass out.

If you stop letting go, your creative spirit will pass out.

Now when I say let go, I do not mean reject. Because when you let go of something, it will still be there for you when you need it. But because you have stopped clinging, you will have freed yourself up to tap into other possibilities - possibilities that can help you deal with this world of accelerating change."

(Taken from "Orbiting the Giant Hairball" by Gordon MacKenzie, p. 216)

Bigger than Best Practices

...just found that on Insidework

Wouldn't that be excellent?

Ralf

Innovate OR Die - what's your choice?

The last three days were packed of new experiences around organizational learning. How it works, what different settings foster or not foster the change towards learning, what pressures from outside it needs (How do you learn something new when there is no need?), how do different cultures learn or perceive learning?

I met with Iiro from Finland on Thursday to fine-tune a presentation about Team Academy and the ways they learn over there in teams (we had earlier exchanged thoughts and had talked about it via Skype - a flawless collaboration tool for making communication easier). The presentation was scheduled for Friday and so we could also sense how the participants who were also part of the conference (which was about innovations in logistics) were living the "learning".

How do you think the setting of the conference was?

Agenda, presentations, panel discussions (about 10-15 min after the presentations), social networking during the breaks

...of course that is not what Team Academy is like and so our presentation was a Shock (at least in a way, as the offices at Team Academy are open space, there are dialog rooms with armchairs, not learning what you are normally told by your professor but what you sense is necessary for you to learn).

After our presentation everybody was immediately leaving the room - except one quy who seemed to be really inspired of what we had talked about earlier.

A good feeling that new ways of learning are appreciated (even though by a small minority right now - how to step out of the regular learning mode?)

In the afternoon the same day we moved further -not so much for a second presentation- but for taking part in a World Café at Genius-Hellerau to find out with a group of around 20 interested other people (CEOs, consultants, students, former employees, ...) how organizations learn compared to individuals.

To be honest the answer could not be given and even further questions aroused out of the dialog amongst us. --- the new learning cycle had started off and we will meet again in December for a follow meeting in Dresden.

Do we learn from answers or questions? I wonder what really drives new learning.

Cheers and if you feel like sharing your own thoughts on that topic please feel free to comment.

Ralf

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas, .........

What happens if you put 100 logistics people into a conference room for two days somewhere in the southern outskirts of Berlin?

Many presentations, more connections than old connections, new ideas, action for your presentations, .......

Something else?

Hm, if it happens to be that someone of TEAM ACADEMY is around things are surely shaking up. In the beginning slowly, as the early grumbling of an earthquake, the word-of-mouth is spreading around (everybody gets a glimpse of the guy's t-shirt which says in large letters "INNOVATE OR DIE" - there will be another one tomorrow (a t-shirt I mean;-))). 

Not sure what connections he -the Finish guy- is making during dinner, what I do know is that an exeptional exiting day is breaking in about 10 minutes.

More shake-up of ordinary innovation management ways, the team entrepreneur type of innovation is coming into the open.

What it will be to be - we don't know yet and yet we know it will be different!

Looking forward to a great day.

Ralf & Innovate or die (the Finnish Guy) 

Innovation networks - can they grow across boundaries?

Today something interesting happened: a long held back idea got a chance to get back into the water of thinking!

Years ago while working on a container-tracking-solution and bringing it to potential customers (of course they didn't quite know what to with it as they had used their phones normally for getting the necessary information) I was inspired what benefit such information could bring to the whole system (faster information, resource saving, quality enhancement, transparency, connecting people (solving issues on the underlying processes - as the tracking-tool was used as an commonly understood artefact).

Then a few years past, changed the company, and again the topic with information came up: couldn't be certain interior parts of a product (such as a car) marked with RFID, barcode or similar to be traceable?

Sounds like a great idea - but as you may suspect there is always something in the way: the money:-((

So the thought long-term and lean orientated solution (no looking up in a microfiche, easy traceability for customer service of parts built time, quality management (checking the exact charge of a specific part at the supplier), etc.) sounded great and yet no start to do.

....quite some time passed, the innovation is waiting on hold.

Then at a rainy day south of Brussels, the surprise journey starts off which lead back into the innovation of logistics.

To make the story short, while at a job interview in Belgium (currently I am seeking a new job - innovation in the "broader sense" logistics would be just perfect!) I got an invitation to join the "Arrival of the Penguins" (=new students) at TEAM ACADEMY (for me at least - and I guess quite a few other folks) the most famous university for Team Entrepreneurship up in Finland (by the way, Finland finished best at the PISA Study a few years back - guess why?), became part of the TEAM WIEN at TEAM ACADEMY and I got even invited to co-do a presentation with them in Germany at a conference on innovations in logistics.

Sometime in your lifetime your dreams become true (even after years and various drawbacks) and so while in Finland about two weeks ago I learned about an innovation project SEMPROM, which focuses also on the idea (not yet an innovation;-)) I had a few years ago.

What have I learned and you could perhaps take away:

1. If you have a great idea and everybody tells you that is not doable and crazy you know you are on the right track

2. Keep the idea in your head (present unconsciously!) and find the more general use

3.  Tell the story of your idea when you sense that people get the idea around i

4. Talk to diverse parties in different countries, connect to other innovators or creative people with lots of ideas in their minds - two sparks can ignite a real sustainable fire:-))

5. If it hasn't worked by now get back to No. 2 (in the meanwhile you will get feedback, new insight, new learning, having done a lot of mistakes, reframing the idea in your mind)

6. Innovate! (or die) - that is the slogan of one of the Team Entrepreneur Companies at Team Academy

Good luck in your own journey:-))

What is your story?

Cheers, 

Ralf

A surprise visit to Finland

One week ago, while on the way to a job interview in Brussels (the world is going global;-)) my interview partner mentioned that he would be going to Finland to see the "Arrival of the Penguins".

Probably you frown your forehead as I did and ask, "What do you mean? Penguins in Finland around that time of the year? What are you talking about?".

Pretty soon it became clear what he meant: "Penguins" are the new students at Team Academy who were due to arrive in Jyväskylä on Monday, 25th of August 2008.

A phone being held to me with a peeping sound - the number of a Team Academy guy had been dialed already- made it all too clear: I was invited to come up north joining in the Team Academy Experience.

What to do? No ticket, no stuff for the cold north, no idea what was coming.......questions over questions.

The only thing that was clear was: THAT IS A CHANCE OF A LIFE TIME!

Sitting in a small restaurant south of Brussels with my interview partner, Charles van der Haegen, I decided: Check it out, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is not too far away and on my way to Amsterdam.

...and so it became true: landing on Finish soil on Sunday night around 11pm, arriving at the hotel downtown (where already some other folks heading to the same destination had taken their rooms earlier that night), and getting up the next morning around 5:30am in order to meet the others and catch a train up to Jyväskylä at 6:30am.

A mere three hours later the felt dream became reality: welcome to TEAM ACADEMY!

....and it has been taken on new hights, connections, friendships, learning, reflecting ever since:-))

Dresden - UNESCO World Heritage exchanged for bridge

Good morning,

in a few hours at the UNESCO World Heritage Meeting in Quebec it will be decided whether Dresden will hold on to its world heritage title (given in 2004) or not.

The reason for being put on the "red list" is the planned -and already well under way- construction of the so-called "Waldschlößchenbrücke" over the river Elbe right in the middle of the phantastic river landscape.

Despite constant discussion -over the last ten years- whether the new bridge really is suitable for the sensible area due to its large dimensions and concrete, bold and rather modernistic construction.

Actually there are pretty diverse parties arguing whether the bridge is necessary or not or which other way of crossing the river could be appropriate to hold on to the World Heritage Title as well as keeping the landscape as exceptional as it is now.

The pressure to build the bridge comes from the fact that the most southern bridge of Dresden, the "Blaues Wunder" ("Blue Wonder") (a steel construction perfectly fitting into the landscape) is reaching its end of use time (no trucks allowed any longer, busses are crossing with a mere 30 km/h). There has to be a new river crossing - that can't be denied!

What is not clear what will the future impacts of the "Waldschlößchenbrücke" for Dresden and the tourism. Especially intangible effects have not yet be taken into account especially in comparison with the benefits for the car owners (that would have easier river crossings available).

Let's hope for the best and that holding onto the World Heritage Title will make a major shift in the bridge planning inevitable. If holding on to the "Waldschlößchenbrücke" should be preferred than the World Heritage Title should be taken away - in order for the UNESCO to stay to its word !

Let's create the future we would like to see

Ralf

PS.: By the way, how can the effects of the World Heritage Title on a region be measured? Isn't this what Richard Florida says about "Who's My City" and what makes regions special?

Caux Round Table - wonder what this is?

Hello,

a few weeks ago while getting an email from a dear friend from Australia he mentioned that he is giving a talk at the Caux Round Table after finishing his holidays of about three weeks in Europe.

Somehow the name "CAUX ROUND TABLE" struck my head and I remembered that I must have heard and read about earlier this year, not quite sure in which context. Some short searching in my recently bought books (Real Lean by Bob Emiliani) and the postings at the Lean Thinking group brought positive outcome.

I had read about the Caux Round Table earlier!

What has struck me is the fact that someone from Australia is coming up to Europe to give a talk there and on the other hand this initiative is pretty unknown (to my personal experience) and not spoken about in Europe or Germany.

The interesting main point of the Caux Round Table Principles for Business (1994):

"Introduction

The Caux Round Table believes that the world business community should play an important role in improving economic and social conditions. As a statement of aspirations, this document aims to express a world standard against which business behavior can e measured. We seek to begin a process that identifies shared values, reconciles differing values, and thereby develops a shared perspective on business behavior acceptable and honored by all.

These principles are rooted in two basic ethical ideals: kyosei and human dignity. The Japanese concept of kyosei means living and working together for the common good enabling cooperation and mutual prosperity to coexist with healthy and fair competition. "Human dignity" refers to the sacredness or value of each person as an end, not simply as a mean to the fulfillment of others' purposes or even majority prescription..."

The focus definitely lies on the people side that business leaders so often underestimate in their local turfs.

How can we get started to achieve what we truly want? (and that is definitely not more money in the pocket alone - either for organizations or people in general).

If it doesn't make sense to you yet please state so while commenting on it.

Cheers,

Ralf