Bookreview: Leadershift

Details

Book title: Leadershift
Tagline:Reinventing leadership for the age of mass collaboration
Author: Emanuelle Gobillot

Previous book: connected leader

Leadershift is the follow up of the book "The connected leader". I found a great video of about 45 minutes of Emmanuelle Gobillot speaking to Google about leadership about the content of his previous book:

Content

In the book Leadershift Emanuelle Gobillot asks the question: “If mass collaboration changes everything, how does it change the way we lead?”. He argues leaders have to led go the concept of them having the experience, expertise and control to bring a group to great end results. Compared to hierarchical leading, leadership in communities is intrinsically linked to narrative, task and contribution rather than power, role and accountability. No longer in charge of direction, the role of the leader is to help the community find its voice. From there their communities will find their own direction and narrrative as they set out to succeed.

The book is written in spoken language and is easy to understand with its rich and entertaining examples towards the concepts it presents. An example is the beginning of a chapter: “This supposed to be the future, so where is my jetpack?”.
Emmanuelle describes four mayor societal trends that bring down the walls of hierarchic leadership:

1. the demographic trend: we have multiple generations working alongside eachother where everybody has preference of their own methods of getting work done


2. the expertise trend: expertise is now to be found as much outside as inside the organisation


3. the attention trend: organisations have to fight harder than ever to capture the attention of employees and customers as information and interaction sources are now abundant and lay claim to the time available.


4. the democratic trend: It is not likely leaders still have direct control over their resources like they used to as people work more and more in all kind of different teams with different leaders claiming the same resources.

These four societal trends make room for new ways of practicing leadership. Emmanuelle describes four shifts in leadership style that are needed to lead in these new times:

1. from clarity to simplicity: clarity within a project is giving you clear tasks, but does not ensure you understand why you need to do the task. Simplicity makes your tasks clear, but lets you understand why you need to these tasks and generates meaning. Simplicity ignites your participation but also actively lets you think about the intentions of a project and how your tasks fit into that wished for end result.


2. from plans to narratives: plans are constantly changing and are not likely to be followed while a narrative will inspire people and is more flexible to changes. Projects nowadays are more influenced by new insights the networked society provides, providing the need to change plans but keep the narrative alive.


3. from roles to tasks: roles define formally where you stand in an organization, but do not define what tasks your will and can perform


4. from money to love: money does buy you time to allow another to keep motivated, but does not ensures mental involvement. Money is therefore a hiegene factor, but does not ensures full commitment.

Imagineering relevance

Emmanuelle explains implicitly why Imagineering is important in the new economy. Some parts of an alinea that connects strongly with the convictions of Imagineering:

• We must “reestablish a sense of meaning in the economic activity”


• “By forcing our organizations to rethink their very essence they will become stronger”


• “It is easier for meaning to be shared when it is co-created”

Imagineering is focussing on collaboration and organisation by dialog and is learning a Master in Imagineering student how to lead this process. This book is focussing on how we need to lead in an age of mass participation. These concepts are strongly correlated I believe.

How to use this book?

Leadershift is a refreshing book that confirms parts of what we’ve been learning at the Imagineering Academy, referring to the networked economy, motivation, societial trends and others. However Emmanuelle presents the material in a very understandable argumentation that makes sense to current leaders in the field and is therefore an excellent tool to convince CEO’s and other deciders upon the relevance of Imagineering. I think this book is explaining in a very accessible way what leadership could look like in a changing society.

Conclusion

I did like to read this book because of the accesible style it is written in, together with the humor the writer uses, the book is entertaining while giving a clear view on how essential leadership qualities are changing. Let’s categorize this book edutainment :-). A must-read for CEO's that want to work with Imagineering and understand why they need to work with Imagineers

Book review Sanne Knitel: ''Who moved my cheese?''

Book review

Title: Who moved my cheese
Author: Spencer Johnson, M.D
Student: Sanne Knitel (093415)

Overview main argument
The book tells the story of two mice (Sniff and Scurry) and two little people (Hem and Haw) captive in a labyrinth. In the book ‘’Who moved my cheese” is cheese a metaphor for everything you want in life. In real life everything what mice want is really cheese but for the two little people cheese is a metaphor for security, success, happiness and financial safety. If we find ‘’our cheese’’ we prefer to cling to the cheese. The cheese-stock is exhaustible, a company reorganises, a partner can leave us, in short uncertainties robbery us. The labyrinth in the story represents where we spend time to look for what we want in life. It can be in your relationship, the organization you work and more.

What's very important in the story that the mice and the little people find at one day cheese in the Cheese Station C. They are all very happy with the finding and day after day they come back to the Cheese Station C to get the cheese. There are differ between the mice and the little people: the mice always explore their surrounding when they are in the neighbourhood of Cheese Station C. The little people where very comfortable with the whole situation and this feels like security, success, happiness and financial safety.

Then the story turns: the cheese disappeared from Cheese Station C. The mice and the people react very differently.

Mice: Sniff and Scurry
The mice are surprised but they choose a new direction to find new cheese. They didn’t analyse the situation because change happens. When change happens they know how to deal with it and they immediately start a search for a new Cheese Station. And after a few days they find the new Cheese Station with cheese that was even better than the old cheese.

The little people: Hem and Haw
The little people react very emotional, because Cheese Station C felt like their home. They were shocked, outraged, scared and don’t know what to do. In their comfort they didn’t notice that the cheese was reducing. They felt that the situation was unfair, they stayed in Cheese Station C and hoped that the cheese come back. But the cheese was gone.. After a period Haw felt weak and decides to look for other cheese. He was very afraid of what might happen to him, he was afraid of the unknown. During his seek he was writing life lessons on the walls of the labyrinth like ‘’ Çhange happens, Anticipate Change, Enjoy Change’’. Him stayed in Cheese Station C, it is not clear if he ever reach the new Cheese Station.

The first part of the book former classmates talk about a class reunion about change and how to deal with them in their lives. The second part is the story about the mice and the little people and how they react on the changes in their lives. The third part of the book brings you back to reality in a playful way. It gives you insights in how change processes work at people

Reflection
I like the book because of it’s simple language, it’s metaphors. The book is easy to read and makes you think about yourself and the way you behave and react in change situations. The book deals with fear and show you how to deal with it to overcome yourself. The changes can give you also new opportunities, both businesslike as private. For me sometimes change is scary but the book shows you that change can also be fun. The book gives seems very simple but there are a lot of things in life we do not see anymore. We take it for granted. A few things were very important insights for me after reading this book:
1. If you don’t change you ‘’die’’.
2. If you keep an eye on the little changes you are able to accept the bigger changes more easy.
3. Old beliefs doesn’t lead you to the new ‘stuff’’.
4. If you let go of the fear you will be free
5. In a change situation you have to find new paths for everything you want in life.

For me reading the story was perfectly timed because I just lost my job and I was in a change process myself. The book helped me to view the situation with a helicopter view and I could see the change process in perspective. The book made me smile because of the metaphors and the simple way the author wrote about these difficult and complex change processes.

Value of the book for Imagineering
Imagineering is ‘’a design approach to value co-creation making use of imagination. It’s a way to create a new appealing ‘’lens’’ to find ‘’a blue ocean of uncontested market space’’ that inspires all stakeholders to co-create’’ (Nijs, 2009). Imagineering is a way to approach organisation transformation. As Imagineers we use the Roadmap (Inspiration phase, Creation phase, Exploration phase and Organisation phase) to realise transformation in organisations. Changes are in every part of the Roadmap during the transformation. Alexander de Vries mentioned in one of his lectures: ‘’You have to be in a nothing to loose modus, then you are free’’.This is exactly the lesson I learned from this book. You don’t need control, you need trust for transformations. When you are still in control, you are not driving fast enough. Trust make people grow, but trust is scary for a lot of people. So you need guts to create trust. Trust starts with purpose. Why are we here? Imagineering is a construct which also is able to construct trust.

As an Imagineer / change leader you first have to know yourself to reach something. The book helps you to understand how you react on changes, you are able to compare yourself with the mice and the little people. From a Imagineering point of view it is important to start from a positive thing in change. If we look to the story ‘’Who moved my cheese” the mice are positive to the change and the little people are scared. So in this story we can learn a lot from the mice.

Disney - A wonderful world

The wonderful world of Disney has inspired many people from all over the world and can be seen as best practice when it comes to exceeding guests expectations. In this review I will note down the key elements in how they create this magical world through the interpretation of the following books;

• Inside the Magic Kingdom – Tom Connellan
• The Disney Way – Bill Capodagle and Lynn Jackson
• Creating Magic – Lee Cockerell
• Be our Guest – Disney Institute
• The Imagineering Way – The Imagineers
  

Disney obviously is a huge brand, therefore the focus of this review lies in Disney as a location brand with its themeparks and resorts. This means that I will not talk about the dozens of co-creation platforms Disney is involved in and the way they inspire communities to do good and make benefits for society at large.

Disney’s DNA
To frame the focus of Disney as a location brand I would like to start with the DNA of Disney as it is translated into a vision statement, essence statement and mission statement of Walt Disney World, which can be seen as their most important location;

Vision statement
Walt Disney World will always be dedicated to making dreams come true. In this magical world, fantasy is real and reality is fantastic. A wonderful sense of community awaits where all are greeted as welcome guests who become cherished friends. For all who work and play here, Walt Disney World will be a source of joy and inspiration

Essence statement
Walt Disney World is a magical passage into a world of fantasy and adventure. Here we can wish upon a star, experience the impossible and bring our dreams to life. Together, treasured friends discover a wonderland that dazzles, delights, and renews through all the seasons of a lifetime.

Mission statement
Our mission is to honor our heritage and continually reinvent Walt Disney World.

Growing a service culture
With these statements you can already see that there is a big emphasis on cultural aspects. Walt Disney has put this in a beautiful quote; "You can dream, create, design, and build the most wonderful place in the world... but it requires people to make the dream a reality."

The thing that creates the magic at all of the Disney parks around the world are the people working there. This means that Disney needs to create a service culture in which people understand they can make a difference. They do this by taking their corporate storytelling as the basics for all of the actions they perform.

The first step they take is to translate their corporate story into smaller themes, which can be seen as location specific artefacts. This means that these themes are living themes which provide meaning and direction. The next step is to translate the chosen themes into three delivery systems; their people, its setting and the processes of interaction. These are the touchpoints Disney uses to communicate an image to its guests.

The key elements within the delivery system people are the language and rituals they use. This way Disney is able to transform daily routines into daily rituals. For example with language they use theatre jargon, which means that employees are called cast members, that jobs are roles, that attractions are rides and shows, that interviews are auditions and that there is an onstage and backstage area. Remember; Words create worlds!

Also with showing directions cast members learn to use the Disney point. In this ritual you use two fingers to show where people need to go to instead of one. As you can imagine this is something which unites people internally as well as it does show integrity towards its guests.

In line with this thought Disney uses their casting as an opportunity to immediately show the total identity of the corporation, which contributes to its natural selection of new cast members. After a successful audition, the first thing new cast members do is begin learning how to deliver Walt Disney World’s brand of quality service.

This is done in a two tiered approach, the first tier is conducted at Disney university with Traditions (guess why it is called like that). In this training the goal is not to put someone into Disney but to put Disney into their hearts. Being a Traditions facilitator therefore is seen as a huge honor. The second tier occurs on the job and encompasses the location specific information that is needed to perform in the different themes within the resort. Again you see that everything falls under the umbrella concept of creating happiness.

With the setting there is a distinction between high touch areas, where plenty or interaction is possible, high show areas, where vivid presentations are build and high tech areas, where efficiency and safety are the primary focus. The key element in this delivery system is to only tell one story at a time.

The processes have to do with the way work is done. One of the processes is plussing, which is a process of continuous improvement. With plussing every employee can give feedback on what they experience. For example a cast member rode Pirates of the Caribbean once and felt that something was missing, but couldn’t find out what. Walt Disney encouraged him to ride it over and over again until he knew. After a couple of rides the cast member came back and found out what was missing; there were no fireflies. You can imagine what happened next. In order to make sure that all of the processes go well Disney has a huge source of tools which help cast members to solve all of the issues which come across.

Combining all of the three delivery systems Disney makes it possible to create Magical Moments. These are pre-organized special moments in which guests experience something extra-ordinary. But maybe even more important it is a high-touch moment which reinforces the meaning of Walt Disney World to its cast members.

One of these magical moments happened to a family at a Walt Disney World hotel. The family included three little girls still young enough to take their teddy bears with them. At the end of the first day, the family returned from one of the parks to their hotel room. There, seated around the table, were the three bears with cookies and milk placed before them. The little girls were delighted, of course, and the following evening they urged their parents to hurry back to the hotel. This time, the three bears were placed sitting up in bed reading Mickey Mouse books. One can imagine the joy this scene evoked in the youngsters. The third evening, the girls found their beard again at the table, but this time they were arranged as though they were playing cards.

An appreciative leadership style
An underexposed subject so far is Disney’s leadership style. This is described by the ability to establish and manage a creative climate in which individuals and teams are self-motivated to the successful achievement of long-term goals in an environment of mutual trust and respect. Quite servant isn’t it! Again the focus is on openness and the appreciation of every individual, which encourages creativity and fun at work.

All of this together results in Disney’s business model; Leadership -> Cast excellence -> Guest satisfaction -> Business results! A model which focuses on a network of people at the first place and therefore it emphasizes on value-in-context, a true service-dominant logic approach.

Master of Imagineering
Within the framework of the Master of Imagineering I think that these books together really help to understand what it takes to create a strong concept brand. But in my opinion it is not really necessary to read all of them. There is quite some overlap in the tools which are mentioned and because of the strong basics the message of most of the books is similar. This review therefore can be seen as a summary which connects the dots.

My advice therefore is to buy the book ‘Be our guest’, because it is efficient in its writing and it invites you to rethink your business step by step; easy and understandable. Also the book ‘The Imagineering Way’ is highly useful as a source of inspiration. The other books are nice to read if you want to know some in-depth information but do not particularly offer anything new.

Finally, I have been a cast member myself and I have experienced all of the things mentioned above which have guided me with my Disney transformation. And isn’t that what made Disney famous anyway?! Think about all of the transformations in all of the Disney movies you know; Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, Princess and the Frog; Transformations are at the core of Disney’s purpose!

Do more than imagine… Live the dream!

Rob van Vlokhoven

Book presentation Fresh Fish

This bookreview is written by Lieke van der Zanden. 

It was posted under the name of Carlijn Simons, since lieke was unable to post it. 

A remarkable novel about lasting changes at your work.

Subject: Change management.

This book describes the subject which most of us are dealing with at the moment. Trying to give people a new lens, which changes their perspective and eventually changes their mindset. It is a book about the worldwide used training program: Fish!

I advise you to watch the following video before reading the book review on YouTube:

FISH! Culture story (trailer)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNDP9jLuzXU&feature=related

The world famous Pike Place Fish market in Seattle is one of the sources of inspiration of this method.

Why it is meaningful to my personal story?

 The first time I read this book was 2 years ago, during my minor Imagineering at the Academy for Leisure. This book is a translation of theories into a practical example. It is fun to read, easy to relate to, it sticks with you and best of all it inspires you!

At the moment I’m a bit struggling at my Application Company as I was standing in front of my bookshelf looking for inspiration and new energy. This book is a good practical example about organizing change. Because implementing is one thing but to make sure that it is a lasting change, which continues in the future, that’s the biggest challenge.

 Overview of the content

 Starting the process of changing is easy but it is a real challenge to let it be a change forever. To realize lasting change, you need dedicated and committed employees. In the beginning of every major change initiative, external energy is always needed. That energy can be used to attract everybody’s attention. But external energy is only effective on the short term. In the long term external energy needs to be replaced by natural energy. This is energy that makes the change part of the companies culture, part of the mindset of people. Because in the beginning the new (external) things are the sources of new energy but in the long term you have to find deeper and more connected sources of energy to keep it alive.

For many companies vision is only something on paper. The recognitions of highlights in a vision are only reflected upon when it is brought back to life in peoples daily work. This is what they call “Vision moments”, moments on which you as employee can show what the vision of the company means to you. According to the book, there moments are the trick to  keep the vision alive; by experiencing individual but also collective vision moments.

But how do you realize that? Were do you start?

It is very simple; Start dialogues with people about their work and about “It”.

“It” is your personal part of the vision. Most of the time a vision is of strategic level and much broader, but has nothing personal in it for employees. Your own individual part of a vision is different for everybody and has to be more specific. You can find it by talking to other people and talking about your part of the vision. By talking about your own “It”, new energy arise. Almost everybody likes to talk about the personal things which make them proud of themselves.

The following questions could be used as an example;

-       On which moment of the day do you express the vision? (being aware of it)

-       Which experience are you trying to create for your customers and people around you?

-       How do you make the vision personal?

-       How can we support each other to keep our way of working alive and vital?

Coaching is what they describe as the present we can give each other to keep our vision strong and alive. If it is about the way we do our job, or the way we work together. Feedback has to go in every direction. Coaching is no ego trip. We only do it for the vision.

In your application company you need to follow your own path. The best guideline the book gives is, give commitment and trust, have it in yourself, your process and give it to the people you work with.

Find “it”

Live “it”

Coach “it”

If everybody understands these 3 stirring principles it is time for action. You’re ready to start your journey to reach your destined goal. Because commitment and trust is something abstract until we go in to action. This is what you can do to make them more ‘visible’.

Reflection; the value of the book for Imagineering

The combination with Imagineering could be very strong.

Developing a vision based on the core values of a company and a vision. Translating that to a high involvement experience concept.  And using that concept as a translation of the vision and using visions moments to show that it is alive. It is about starting the dialogue. Finding your own “It” and spreading the word around. It all starts with having REAL Conversations.

External energy’s can help to motivate people in working in a new way but after a while those external energy’s aren’t good enough anymore. It has to come from natural energy instead of external energy. I believe the inspiration guide is equal to this principle. It has to be something, which triggers people to start, dialogue’s but that’s just the outside. It is all about what happens inside, in the mindset of people. That has to change and be lasting.

Inspiration

And as my coach told me this week, maybe I could say to you; “Welcome to the real world of large enterprises”. I now found the answer to the question; What is my story to inspire them?

Maybe my plan did not work out the way I hoped and expected, but I am not ready to give up and this book shows me simple guidelines and tips. So the next thing what I am going to do is; Talking with people, REAL conversations to start a new inspiring dialogue! 

Thank you for reading with me,

Lieke

Book review ‘Het Innovatieplatform’ – Frans Nauta

The book has only been released in Dutch, but there is not much imagination needed to understand that the title of it means ‘The Innovation Platform’.
This Innovation Platform (IP) is an actual platform consisting of businessmen, politicians and board members from higher education institutions, under the chairmanship of the then current Prime Minister Balkenende and writer of the book, Frans Nauta, as secretary. This platform still exists (see http://www.innovatieplatform.nl/), however Frans Nauta has quit his secretary function and unravelled the successes and failures of the IP in this book.

Setup of the book
The basis for the book has been Nauta’s personal dairy, which a friend / mentor of him told him to do since the day he was asked for this honourable job. As a result, the book is very personal and detailed into specific conversations the author has had.
The book gives an insight into the political gameplays and the bureaucracy where (most) governments are known for. Moreover, the book gives a quite humoristic (but realistic) picture about it and emphasises that the Dutch government wants (or does not want) to put on innovation.
After all of the 24 chapters Nauta gives some lessons, bonus tips and survival tips which can be taken into account in generally all business environments.

Story in short
In August 2003, via a telephone call from Prime Minister Balkenende, Nauta becomes secretary of the Innovation Platform, a very honourable function for him, since he has been striving for The Netherlands to focus on innovation of the knowledge economy with his own institution ‘Nederland Kennisland’ (since 1999). Nauta regards Finland as a school model example of what to establish with the IP.
As from his own research, Finland’s success as innovative country is no co-incidence. In 1985 the Science and Technology Policy Council was established to deal with the problem of huge resignations due to automation and the moving of work to cheap-labour countries. At that time it was already clear that current jobs could be preserved, but only for a short due. The Finnish sought after an offensive strategy: Finland as a country with ideal circumstances for start-ups of knowledge based industries. The government started to invest in more high employed people, more researchers in technical educations, a more international oriented culture and a population that speaks English well. Furthermore they saw how Stanford University (in the U.S.) was cooperating with businesses and copied this model to establish ‘research parks’ close to universities. Furthermore Finland was educated by bankers from Stanford what ‘venture capital’ was and the Finnish applied this. All this became the corner stone of the success of Finland’s current strong economy.
Nauta knew that this result could be copied to The Netherlands, but only by a consistent strategy (which took Finland nearly 25 years).
At 22 August 2003 the IP was presented to the public, consisting of 18 members of which businessmen, people from higher education institutions and politicians. However, in this large group it was hard to decide what the shared goal was, even more so because there was a political game going on to use the IP for allocating the EUR 140 million for innovative projects.
This struggle became even more a clash of interests when higher education institutions also battled for the government money, and there were a few of the board members of those institutions in the IP. Also from the media there was much negative news on the IP, which was now forced to start producing something. A list with practical annoyances that needed to be resolved was there quickly, however, also this attempt was held back by bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, the outside world got tips that the IP had to spend up to EUR 800 million on innovation, which was not true. The IP only was there to make plans for the cabinet, and could not give fiats to certain projects. Nevertheless they were threatened as if they had.

After several attempts (for instance: working on key markets to invest in) the IP agreed to see ‘relationships’ as the key: relationships with businesses and higher education. Having them literally close together (via the Silicon Valley model) would have a synergetic effect and attract even more venture capital. It would also encourage entrepreneurship of students at higher educations. The main indicators to deal with as IP were;
- Quality of education
- Education rate of the population
- Quality of research in The Netherlands
- Investments of companies in R&D
- Foreign students and knowledge workers
- Start-ups coming from higher education students
- Market share of Dutch companies in growing markets
- Return-on-investment of companies from new products and services
Finally in 2006 (after Nauta already left the IP) this so-called Knowledge Investment Agenda (‘Kennisinvesteringsagenda’) was signed by 21 parties, which was basically a money claim for the new cabinet.
Nauta reflects on his secretary function (August 2003 till December 2004) as no fun, but docile. Let’s say a ‘failed practice’ in stead of a ‘best practice’. After this he was a regular member of the IP for one more year, but the illusion that he would change The Netherlands and its economic power with this did not come to life. However this is not specifically a problem of the government: whether it be The Hague or a large company: change perish in the centre of the power. Sometimes it works, but more often it will not, because it is so busy in this centre. The IP could not be successful then, but at the same time minister Hoogervorst got an important change of the Dutch care system through the cabinet (for the first time in 20 years). Needed is a sense of urgency (to speak with Kotter), plus a bit of luck. For real change you seldom need to be in the centre of the power.

The lessons and tips
Hereunder is a selection of he lessons and tips that Nauta gives in relation to the content of the book. I made a selection of what I find useful (for instance in situations in my application company):

Lessons
1. Do it or don’t do it at all: both the employer and employee need to be dedicated.
2. Listen! By making and feeling yourself responsible for everything, life becomes lonely. ‘The power to say no’ is a popular form of power in The Hague; you can only practise this if you listen.
3. Intuition does not lie & ego is a bad adviser.
4. Set the mood at the beginning, otherwise others will do that for you (and put emphasis on their own priorities).
5. They are just people. CEO’s and prime ministers behave like people: so also the good and bad human aspects.
6. Negotiate at the gate. If you are too much impressed at the start, you may be not assertive enough, however this is a crucial moment.
7. Inspire and motivate your people: give them responsibilities and inspiring projects.
8. Taking a decision is not the same as executing. Involve an executer in the decision-making process; this will make things go faster.
9. If there are no key players in your project, it will fail.
10. Find your true ally and your real blockade.
11. Without a shared vision, people will put their own priorities and statements first.
12. Tell them! Important business people and politicians are flooded by information. They will not read your reports (etc.), so tell them what they need to know in a short presentation.
13. Confront the brutal facts. If someone has the courage to name hard facts, support him/her.

Bonus tips
1. Do not plan your jobs strategically; do a start-up of what you are passionate to do and the work will find you.
2. Play a lot of table tennis: informal contacts are the best ways to get to know the atmosphere best.
3. Honestly relaxed? The best way to find out if it is fake of true friendliness is to check whether you are relaxed yourself. Is you breathing deep and calm?

Survival tips
1. The rule of speed: in essence if there are two parties if you are in a hurry and the other is not, he will make you struggle and negotiate hard. Speed is only effective if the other party is also in a hurry: doing business together is running smooth.
2. Arrange a working space close to your client: business is done in between two meetings.
3. Be politely brutal: on a way which could be between the rules of the company / law / etc.
4. Do not be a shepherd of cats: whatever you do it is not possible to arrange them in a herd.
5. Get a mentor or someone who helps you reflect on yourself. Especially on important moments: a talk of two minutes is enough.
6. Limit your accessibility: read your e-mail twice a day, answer your phone two hours a day. It will make you more productive.
7. Bring painful news on a Friday afternoon before the holidays: just a few people will notice it.
8. Keep a dairy!

About the author
Since 2007 Frans Nauta has a professorship (lectoraat) in ‘Innovation in the Public Sector’ at the HAN University. This particular sector has been on the background in research to innovation; this professorship aims to put ‘best practices’ covered. More information: http://www.han.nl/start/graduate-school/onderzoek/lectoraten-kenniskringen/innovatie/ and http://www.lectoraatinnovatie.nl/

Connection to my Application Company / Imagineering
However the book is just an actual reading book and no economic textbook with models and new ideas, it offers quite some information and tips on the topic of change management and leadership. All this in a quickly readable form and with the knowledge that all content has happened in ‘the real world’. Several rules of ‘Leading Change’ by Kotter (1995) and ‘Speed’ by Meyer (2009) get woven into the text (without literally referring to these authors).
To me ‘imagineering’ is about transforming (whether it be people, company structures or value systems) and a lot of this comes back in the lessons and tips in this book, like: having a shared vision, knowing when to take the lead, etcetera.
The author is connected to my application company (HAN University) and a highly respected professor. His interests for the public good and national politics are easy to catch and it is a boost for my research which partly deals with his matter of expertise: innovation in the public domain.

Details
Frans Nauta, 2008, Het Innovatieplatform, 204 p., ISBN 9879052616957, Sdu Uitgevers BV, Den Haag, Creative Commons licentie.

I hope some of the lessons and tips that I conducted from the book are useful to you.

Best regards,
Bram van Boekholt

Business Model Generation -

Business Model Generation describes how to use a business model as a tool instead of a theory. The five main sections guide you through the business model know-how. This book is a practical book, plug and play. If you just start reading, even if you never heard before about business models, you will have some sort of understanding about business models. The build up of the sections and the use of popular examples accomplish this.

First chapter explains the Business model canvas. The canvas is used to explain all factors in the business model that makes it a success. Indeed after a good understanding you will be able to talk about business model much easier. A shared language therefore is the main goal of this chapter. The definition of a business model in this book is: A Business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value.

Starting to read this chapter you will notice that some of the blocks and explanations are not SD-logic based, like the following definition; “The Value Propositions building blocks describes the bundle of products and services that create value for a specific customer segment” (p.22.). On the other hand they already talk about co-creation in this first chapter and that is for an Imagineer a comfortable landmark.

The first chapter is closed with an example of the business model of Apple. Off course a well-known example, in this case a good way to explain it even more.

Chapter Patterns is interesting. They describe 5 different types of business models. Now you really get a feeling about the importance of understanding and talking about business models. Unbundled models, Long tail, Multi-sided platforms, Free as a business model, and Open Business models. Especially the last three models are in the Imagineering way of thinking. It is not all new, but you will have some “aha” moments. It will be a tool to explain your principal how to earn money with an Imagineering based business model.

The design chapter can be amazing for people that never have been in touch with creative techniques. For imagineers I believe it is nothing very new and complementary. They describe Story telling, Scenarios, Visual thinking, Customer insights, and Ideation. Main principle of this chapter is that business model generation is about designing. “Business people need to become designers.” Especially in the thesis phase of our master, you need to remind yourself once in a time about this principle. You need to take in account lots of different factors. In my opinion the emotional and the “fingerspitzengefuhl” is also very important and is one of the ingredients of a designer. In the book they describe that we need some tools for making a design attitude possible. I that sense I agree that it can be useful for non-creative people and to evoke positive and creative thinking.

Strategy gives you the opportunity to place your business model into the real world and context. Now you can exam and review your business model. In this section they describe the Blue Ocean Strategy and mention the ambidextrous organization. In my opinion this section is a bit obvious material, not really in line with the rest of the book.

It becomes more logical starting with the last chapter Process. They provide you with a good described model / process to design a business model. The five phases are; Mobilize, Understand, Design, Implement, and Manage. Each phase is described and complete with the recommended techniques you can use. If you read this through you will see it is very common with the Imagineering Roadmap. Mobileze; assabeling a Mars-team, Understand is Inspiration researching the environment and understand your clients, and so on.

Conclusion

I will use this book in my application company for two reasons. One is that it gives me a sort of guide together with the Imagineering Roadmap to lead the process to a new and sustainable business model. Second reason is that it is a highly visual and nice designed book. The book is very attractive to graph and go true for the people in my application company. It will give them a feeling with business models.

On the other hand, it is for imagineers not very new and complementary. The theories are not new and even sometimes based on GD-Logic. The description of the modern business models are useful to get an extra feeling with them.

Should you read it? Not necessarily. Are you working with business models or designing one, yes you should. But the theory is not that refreshing and deep.

Should you buy it? Yes, it is a very nice book to show and read. It is well designed and a piece of art on itself. If you receive the book at home, you will have a good feeling. The feeling of the quality of the cover and the paper and the satisfying feeling that you have the book and be member of Osterwalder, the business model Guru!

http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/

http://www.businessmodelalchemist.com/

http://alexosterwalder.com/

http://ch.linkedin.com/in/osterwalder

Book review 'Our iceberg is melting'

Our iceberg is melting

Our Iceberg Is Melting is a fable about a colony of 268 penguins facing a dilemma. At first sight it seems a simple story, the use of cartoons enhances this feeling. After reading and re-reading you’ll explore the story under the surface. This book contains within the story and characters a powerful message about the fear of change. The latter in combination with a process how to motivate people to face the future and take action.


let’s meet the key playersThe main characters are: Fred, Alice, Louis, Buddy & NoNo. Fred loves knowledge, he a strong observer. Louis is the head of the colony, Alice is member of the leadership team & specialized in communication, Buddy is one of the young inspiring penguins; he is able to built bridges between the different groups within the colony. NoNo he is a senior member of the colony and weather forecaster. His standard reaction is: NO.
Meet the virtual actors at www.ouricebergismelting.com

The story in a nutshell
Fred experienced on an adventurous trips that the iceberg, they live on, shows certain crackers. What to do with this information?
Fred is not part of the leadership team and doubts …who & how to contact. He is convinced that the habitat of his colony is in danger. Fred decides to contact Alice and tells her about his findings. Alice informs the leadership team and invites them to join Fred on a trip to check the situation themselves. The members are not interested in this; they are too busy with their daily routine.
Alice is looking for alternatives (how to address the topic) she is successful in asking Louis, to invite Fred for their next meeting.
Fred presents his findings via a new & unexpected idea: the model of the iceberg.
Fred puts the model in place at the meeting venue, the evening before. When is arriving the next day all board members are standing around the model and talking. After Fred’s presentation there is a great silence.
NoNo ‘breaks the ice’ with his first reaction: a madly of creative options to say NO. Fred is getting insecure, Alice shows him to stay calm. Alice wants to set up a general meeting, this idea scares the other team members. Fred is offering a test idea. Fred explains his plan and get’s a go.
An exploring team is created, the first expedition can begin, experiences & insights are shared afterwards. An old cultural standard has been changed in a creative way by the children. By doing so new options are available now to find solutions for a challenging future.

Set up of the book
The fable is presented in 115 pages. Kotter invites to reflect on the story and the process. An overview follows of the most remarkable changes & a more in-depth view on the role of thinking & feeling.

The roots of the bookKotter wrote the book ‘Leading Change’ (1996) and won an award for being the best selling manager’s book. Kotter designed his famous 8 steps for change. Six years later Kotter wrote ‘a new chapter’ with Dan Cohen: The heart of change. Their most important insight where:
•people are less temped to change themselves and others based on facts & analysis, they prefer inspiring experiences;
•the speed of change is getting faster and faster & 90% of the companies have a tendency to ignore the relevance of change;
•the way of handling change becomes an important competence for more people than only the top management;
•middle and lower management had hardly no knowledge about how to react on & handle with change;
•the need of urgency should be addressed more powerful.

In that time Kotter met Rathgeber, together they designed a training model based on a penguin colony.The next step was the book: Our iceberg is melting.
The aim of this book was to change behavior, based on the power of a good story.
Good narratives can inspire big groups of different people to come into action.
In my humble opinion there is an interesting parallel between step 1 (create a sense of urgency) and the policy the authors used to promote their fable...

Online support
the book is only one tool in the Kotter change management tool box. His company also offers workshops and online tools like websites: www.ouricebergismelting.com ; www.theheartofchange.com and www.johnkotter.com
Online you can meet Mr. Kotter via a selection of video clips in which he presents his books and explains his theories.
These tools are also easy to use for the more mobile living & working members of the 21st century.



Mr. John P. Kotter …
•Emeritus at the Harvard Business School
•A graduate of MIT & Harvard
•Cofounder of Kotter International www.kotterinternational.com

The connection with my application company
I used the 8 steps guideline to reflect my active knowledge and my task at the application company.
I use the content in two ways: What is happening at my application company & what is happening in the field.
o basic: more insight information about change, the need & the process
o I created a MARS team
o communicate, communicate: I’m part if the online communication group
o empower broad based action: My task is to set up a Community of Practice
o generate short term wins: I wrote a tourism vision & I’m part of the event Day of the Dike

In general
o I think it is of great value that both individuals and groups can learn from the fable.
o Even when you are not part of an obvious change management process, the content prepares you for the future.
o The Dutch edition is easy to as a starting point for a creative session about change and/or change leaders.

Book details
Our Iceberg is Melting, Kotter, John & Rathgeber, Holger, (2005) publisher St. Martins Press, New York; translationin Dutch 2007 7th edition, publisher Business Contact www.businesscontact.nl - ISBN 978-90-470-0092-1

Give yourself a break and read this book !
Wilma Lankhorst