How will we work in the future? Certainly not like we did yesterday? The assembly-line approach – mountains of paper, piles of ring binders, constant phone calls distracting us from the task at hand, plus endless meetings where the most talkative participants ramble on in monologues and nothing gets decided; and then the managers dictate […]
„Teamwork has always been crucial to individual survival and humanity’s extraordinary success, but its importance has been amplified by the new reality of our hyper-connected environment,“ writes Dr. Hannah Critchlow, a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge and author of the bestseller *The 21st Century Brain*. Phew – that’s a huge relief for us here […]
As mentioned, Chinese science fiction author Cixin Liu (The Three-Body Problem) originally coined the term, referring to the vast, dark interstellar space, in whose expanses alien advanced civilizations may exist. Since they have no common language, it is virtually impossible to express peaceful intentions during initial contact, which is why Cixin Liu assumes that a civilization […]
One Thirty thousand years ago, there was a maximum of 300,000 anatomically “modern” humans living worldwide. They shared the planet with anatomically less “modern” humanoids, who were hardly friendly toward each other, as it can be assumed that the two groups were unable to communicate. Thirty thousand years ago, only about 30 percent of the […]
Continuing from the previous post: The four “revised” pairs of values that we propose in the “Manifesto for Adaptive Organizations 2025” Sustainable outcomes over rapid outputs (Delivering continuous value that lasts is more important than quickly producing the next MVP.) Comment: Focus on creating lasting value for stakeholders rather than rushing to produce multiple minimal […]
Around a quarter of a century after its publication, the “Manifesto for Agile Software Development” is something of a sacred text for the agile scene and New Work. The four pairs of values in the manifesto are like statements of law. As a reminder: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive […]
Let’s not fool ourselves. On the one hand, everything always turns out differently, and on the other hand, it always happens faster than we think. AI, for example. It was announced a long time ago, but then it crashed into the human cerebral cortex like a comet. Kind of scary, right? The highest recorded IQ […]
What will the world look like in three years’ time? Technology no longer moves forward step by step—it runs. At the same time, restoration is trying to assert itself as a vision of the future. What is the sum of both trends? Quite possibly ambiguity. The economy is keeping a low profile. Consultants are advising […]
„It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness“. Charles Dickens wrote this 165 years ago (the beginning of “A Tale of Two Cities”). Right, certain things repeat themselves. People in the year 2025: happy and saddened to death, optimistic […]
What is pointless work? Unnecessary work that has no meaning in the sense of a meaningful contribution due to its superfluousness? Correct? Well, let’s find out … David Graeber, an anthropologist from the US, wrote „Bullsh*t Jobs: The Rise of Pointless Work—and what we can do about it.“ The book is intended as a blow […]
Like Ikigai, Tebiki (手引き) is a Japanese word meaning “guidance”, “guide” or “introduction”. It is made up of the kanji 手 (te) for “hand” and 引き (biki) for “pull”, which literally implies a kind of “hand guidance”. Tebiki for companies is a development by Robert Hopp and the author of this article, based on the […]
Ikigai is a Japanese concept for the realization of goals. Its origins can be traced back to the Heian period (794–1185), where the term evolved from the word gai (meaning “shell”), which symbolized value and worth. The term ikigai combines two words: Iki (生き), meaning “life” or “alive”, and Gai (甲斐), meaning “worth”, “benefit”, or […]
“Management is like smoking. You know it’s unhealthy, but you still can’t stop.” A friend said this to me. Sounds tough, right? Perhaps also wrong. Unfortunately, it’s not. In volatile, rapidly changing environments, the old decision-making processes are far too slow. Escalating from the bottom up no longer works. Neither does handing down decisions from […]
In 2018, McKinsey analyzed over 5,000 projects and found 56% failed to meet return expectations, 45% exceeded budgets, and 17% were catastrophic enough to endanger company survival. By 2020, only 10% of major projects were completed on time, within budget, and met expectations. Fast forward to 2024, studies show a brighter picture: 20-40% of major […]
Discover how trust networks—the self-organizing team structure that emerged in 1990s film production—can revolutionize modern business operations. This case study explores how organizations can adopt these proven principles to build more resilient, creative, and efficient teams while enabling faster decision-making and innovation.
In the vast landscape of organizational change, we are explorers. We come from diverse worlds—music and art, research and journalism, theater and literature—bringing fresh perspectives to the challenge of business transformation. Through our varied experiences in projects large and small, we’ve discovered a fundamental truth: the way we think about organizational change needs to change. […]