jan de man

Nine days

It has been nine days since my last post. I'd like to say it has to do with me being very busy (which I have), but it hasn't. I simply have nothing to write/say at the moment. This is not a result of sudden humbleness. Rather I think it has to do with three things:

1. being overwhelmed with all the good content that is out on the web. What can I possibly add? I could of course mirror some of the good stuff I find, but I believe I'm doing that bit on Twitter (my feed shows up here also - to the right).
2. increasing reluctance to be a "broadcaster" and just adding new content all the time. Does the world really need one more blog post?
3. missing the conversation. Since I get very few comments blogging becomes one way communication. Conversation is much more engaging. But most of us are "browsers" on blogs, few of us can generate the kind of buzz/conversation that can go on at the master bloggers' spaces.

Or maybe I'm just tired and need some time off. 

If I don't post anything more before Christmas, I'd like to wish you happy holidays.

//jan

The magic of Twitter - and some old fashioned action

A friend of mine is working on a car sharing scheme for Sweden. He's been in touch with some major players in car industry here in Sweden and things are progressing. One of the inspirations for the project is Zipcar in the US. As it turns out I'm following the co-founder of Zipcar, Robin Chase, on Twitter. 

As it turns out she on Tuesday afternoon tweeted she was in Stockholm for a conference talk. 

As it turns out, I happen to be online just then and see the tweet. 

As it turns out I email my friend who directly the next morning heads for Robin's hotel to see if he can get an appointment. 

As it turns out he happens to bump into her in the lobby. 

As it turns out my friend is able to schedule a meeting the same afternoon (yesterday). 

As it turns out he gets almost an hour with Robin and valuable inputs for his project.

Isn't this just magical? Isn't this the pure beauty and value of connecting? Is this all a result of chance? 

No way.

//jan

What is a publisher these days?

The last couple of weeks I've reflected some on what defines a publisher in this day and age. Up until a few years ago most would probably argue that printing stuff on paper was the key thing. The digital world has obviously started to change this with the arrival of new types of products, like e-books and audio books. Increasingly, I've come to think about what the core of publishing is. It is hardly the different carriers or vessels, instead it has to be the stories. 

Publishing is about stories. Publishing is about detecting good stories, packaging them, and helping the story tellers tell their stories to as many as possible. 

Isn't this a small but neat paradox? New technology has helped us discover that it is not the technology that is the core of publishing. It is the story. We needed new technology to help us discover that we had been blinded by old technology. Once the blindness is gone one can see that publishing can use many different carriers. Even a live performance is publishing!

//jan

Skolan uppdateras

Skrev lite om skolan här - http://jandeman.posterous.com/skolan-uppdateras

/jan

Hur jättarna går under

"Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you." – Jim Collins i How the Mighty Fall

Den 27e november håller jag och några nätverkskollegor ett seminarium om en ny spännande bok från Bookhouse Publishing.  Boken heter på svenska Hur jättarna går under och är skriven av Jim Collins som skrev bästsäljaren Good to Great för knappt 10 år sedan.

Det är lätt att tro att boken bara är en angelägenhet för höga chefer i näringslivet. Inget kunde vara mera fel. Dels är den skriven så den är tillgänglig för alla. Dels är det så att det är vi alla - chefer och medarbetare - som bidrar till om en kultur blir framgångsrik eller går under. Och vi kan alla ha vardaglig nytta av att veta mer om vad det är som bidrar till det ena eller andra utfallet. Chefer behöver jaga medarbetare med fel beteenden - och tvärtom. Alla har en roll och ett ansvar.

Jag är också helt säker på att bokens teser är lika relevanta i alla typer av sektorer och branscher - även om studien är inriktad på företag. Det är ju ändå så att människor är människor och jag har svårt att se att vi beter oss så väldigt olika i en kommersiell eller icke-kommersiell miljö. 

Mer information om seminariet och anmälan här.

Här hittar du också några intressanta filmklipp med författaren.

//jan

Itay Talgam at TED Global - Perspectives on Leadership

I'm in awe over this presentation. What a gem!

//jan

I hate my lists - or do I...?

As most people I have lists to help keep track of my work and personal life. The tough bit is I a little too often misplace my current list. So, I then start a new one. And then the old list tends to resurface after a while and I use both the new one and the old one. 

Another aspects of my lists is that I pick any piece of loose paper I have handy. Never a note book. 

Once I have my paper I write on any blank spot I can find. I start out like a normal list from top to bottom and then after a while I start scribbling anywhere. Sometimes even notes, like a phone number or an email address.

I've more or less always disliked my list habits and have several times tried to use them properly. But I always end up in my old pattern. This has caused some guilt to build over the years. I scorn myself for not being as productive as I could be. But guilt is a naughty and energy consuming feeling to harbor and I need to let it go.

So, I've decided to change perspective. 

My new self-induced story is that I have a perfect list system - for me. And that when I look hard at the evidence I can see it works well with my preferred style of working and the nature of work I do. In my line of work I can't do things linearly. It's constant multi-tasking an over-extending. I allow myself to do stuff not on the list and have realized that my list isn't actually a todo-list. 

It is a don't-forget-list.

Often I find myself crossing off lots of stuff at once, because things have been completed without checking the list. (That's when I normally misplace it, it can be days between list checks.) And in hindsight I can see I tend to do things in more or less the right priority.

But there is one important insight for me from this reflection on lists. Once I check my list, I always assess the whole list before choosing what to do. I never pick the next thing chronologically. I always chose what is most important to me at the specific point in time.

Working through my lists chronologically would never have put me in the place I am today. 

And yes, I am where I want to be.

//jan

A good laugh from this clip!

//jan

Two tracks getting integrated

Work after summer vacation has me on two different tracks. One is the "business as usual" track with my ongoing consulting work - designing leadership seminars, running workshops, facilitating change processes. The other track is business development, of which I have hinted a little here on the blog. This has always been part of my work strategy. I don't profit maximize consulting, instead I try to strike a balance between that kind of work and more entrepreneurial stuff. 

I've always been a somewhat reluctant consultant, and I've never really had the passion to become "the world's best consultant in area XXX". No 10,000 hours here (read Outliers).

What does drive me is developing new projects, concepts and businesses. Always small scale, always networked. I guess what makes me like these processes so much is that I get to work with smart people that CHOSE for themselves to get involved. Like I do myself. This creates a totally different dynamic, a dynamic that I have yet to experience in my client work.

My current business development "portfolio" is probably the most exciting in many many years. One super exciting leadership develpment product in the making, one awesome seminar and a small company with amazing potential that me and a couple of friends are setting up to buy. And they are all magically connected - through people and content. I would love to say more, but it'll have to wait a little.

The beauty of these three projects is that they allow me to integrate my two tracks. And the common denominator is the exploration of and practical experimentation in a new world of work and organization. Now, here I believe I've put in my 10,000 hours. I just haven't looked at it that way before.

I'm hoping this autumn marks a whole new level of work for me. Yes, yes.

//jan

Fail.

I failed big time in writing my manifesto. In fact I realized in the process that there has been an inflation in manifestos. In the late 90's a good manifesto was a big thing. Today there are many good manifestos out there, and adding one more creates little more than a yawn.

Interestingly, my pal Patrick messaged me on Twitter to say that he was planning a post criticizing manifestos, but hesitated because of my announced attempt. He hasn't put it up yet, but I heartily encouraged him to go ahead - first of all because he is dead right, and secondly because we had both come to the same conclusion independently of each other.

Of course I'll eventually get something written on the new world of work. But it won't be a manifesto.

Amen.

//jan