Three Leadership Lessons, Two Days of Tech and One Takeaway “Our company is like a steam train. Steam trains have been very useful in the past. Nevertheless now we need to become the F35.” These were the opening lines of a senior leader at an IT company of more than 8000 employees, addressing roughly 400 of them. Accompanied with some striking images of each object, it really stuck with me and with many other attendees of the symposium as well. At first I thought the comparison was a little absurd. On second thought, my interpretation was: The organization's existing structures may have been extremely successful. The problem is that yesterday's successful design may not meet tomorrow's environment. What followed was a story about ideas and measures already taken how that leader intends to change culture in her organization. One specific measure was a motto that was given out: “Ask for pardon, not permission.” I find it hard to imagine building a healthy failure culture wi...
Deliberate planning and acting make teams more resilient Brittle bridges over beautiful Bonn As a “self made Bonner” it worries me to see what is going on in Bonn. Because of my deep affection for Bonn it hurts me that lately it has frequently been the center of attention in the media for reasons nobody can possibly enjoy: One of its three bridges over the Rhine river was shut down on short notice due to risk of failure. Apparently a combination of insufficient maintenance, inadequate oversight, and decades of increasing traffic led to severe damage that went unnoticed until some dangerous cracks were discovered. Most Germans still remember the sudden and unexpected collapse of a bridge in Dresden in September 2024. One incident is a tragedy. Two are patterns. However Bonn’s Bridges merely symbolize a wider misconception: people’s illusion with change happening ‘by accident’ or being brought to them, rather than having some agency in it and driving change. Von Moltke, Eisenhower and Ty...