Thinking

This is an attempt to look into my head, into how I approach things, the mental models I’m using to interpret the world around us and to interact with it. Might be a bit abstract here and there, is not complete nor accurate.

Still, I think it helps to connect before we might connect.

• About seeing Problems
• We can’t see the problems to be solved by using the same kind of thinking we always used.
• About Agile Working
• All these fancy names are only trying to do one thing: Bringing back common sense, that got lost in so many places.
• About transformative change
• Now what?

About seeing Problems

There is a famous quote by a famous man:

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

Albert Einstein.

And that’s true! We need to challenge our thinking, unlearn the things that served us for so long, learn new mental models to find new solutions. However, there is more:

From my experience it starts already with being able to see the problem in a lot of scenarios. If we lack the mental models to see what happens in a systemic manner, to zoom out and question ourselves and our current ways of doing, we might not even see the problems we’re supposed to solve.

We can’t see the problems to be solved by using the same kind of thinking we always used.

Thomas Krause

Hence I see it as part of my role to help learning and making use of mental models that help us with today’s challenges.

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About Agile Working

I once had a longer conversation with a colleague. She is a UX Designer and someone I would call a lateral thinker, bringing easily together things from very different camps.

In this conversation we covered a lot of topics that were prominent in the company back then: Lean, Scrum, Agile, Design Thinking, Management 3.0, OKR… to name a few. After a while she concluded with:

All these fancy names are only trying to do one thing: Bringing back common sense, that got lost in so many places.

Unnamed colleague at A.

I couldn’t agree more. And I would add that we should use all these practices, frameworks and thinking models sparely and wisely, mixing and matching them as needed in our context.

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About transformative change

For a couple of years I worked as a corporate rebel and concealed change agent. By trying to establish a long list of smaller and bigger changes in the company, I uncovered a couple of patterns that make (transformative) changes more likely to succeed:

1. Transformative change rarely happens in the center of a system, it needs to germinate at the fringe of an organization.
2. If the seed should continue to grow in the center of the system, it’s the responsibility of the ones in power AND the change agents to build bridges, to go beyond their belief systems.
3. If it flourishes in the center of the system, it might become different, too different for the ones initiating the change.
4. They need to let go and make place for the ones who nurture it from now on.
5. It’s all about resonance - between human beings and between systems.

These learnings still influence the way I’m approaching change today. I’m working with sponsors of change, corporate rebels and change agents building bridges to make sustainable change more likely.

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Now what?

This is just a small set of examples about my thinking and my belief system when working with teams and companies.

If one or the other topic resonates with you (in whatever manner), I’m more than open to talk to you or to meet at one of the conferences/meetups I attend next. Eventually, don’t forget to connect.