I’m leaving monday for DC and the Worldblu Forum on democratic organizations. It WILL rock, and I’ll try to blog :o)
Category: Speaking
My speaking gigs
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Worldblu Forum
Traci Fenton of Worldblu wrote to remind us all that:
We’re now about six weeks away from the launch of THE WORLDBLU FORUM in Washington, DC, October 26-29th!
The theme
Rewriting the Rules of Business for a Democratic AgeThe big idea
Organizational democracy and freedom-centered leadership and what it means to YOUThe take-aways
HOW organizational democracy can recharge your company
WHY freedom-centered leadership matters
WHAT tools and skills you need to outsmart your competition and get in front of the business shiftThe speakers
Everyone from CEOs to best-selling authors, technology gurus to high-stake revolutionaries, former prime ministers to movie producers (see list)The audience
Dynamic thought-leaders from around the worldThe setting
Washington, DC?s only five-star hotel, the stunning Mandarin Oriental. Situated in the heart of Washington DC?s monuments and museums, the hotel offers breathtaking views overlooking the Potomac Tidal Basin, Jefferson Memorial and Washington Monument. This urban resort features elegantly hip guest rooms, a 10,400-square-foot spa and fitness facility with indoor pool, and the award-winning CityZen and Caf? MoZU restaurant. (I just had lunch at Caf? MoZU last week; it was outstanding.)The updated program
http://worldblu.com/forum/program.html Nutritious and delicious!You can register here
http://worldblu.com/forum/registration.htmlThanks to everyone for spreading the word. The response has been fantastic and I can?t wait to see you all in October!
I’m going. Are you going? If you’re going from Denmark, we’re organizing a trip to make it real easy for you.
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10.000 people watching
Yesterday we had the annual Ecco Walkathon in Copenhagen, an event where people can sign up to take a walk for charity. They walk 6, 10 or 15 km. and for every km, every person walks Ecco (shoe maker) donates 5 kr. (a little under a dollar) to a charity of their choice. It’s a wonderful combination of exercise, party and charity drawing in around 20.000 people.
And Maria Hartung (a fellow instructor from the SATS fitness chain) and I volunteered to do the warm-up. For 10 minutes. Twice. In front of 10.000 people each time.
Let me tell you: I was nervous. I teach aerobics three times a week to 20-30 people. I’ve performed shows in front of 200-300. But this was a couple of orders of magnitude larger. So going on stage was a challenge. And a blast. MAN it rocks, being on stage in front of such a large audience.
The first time we went on, I snapped a picture, so this is what 10.000 people look like from the stage and this is what it looked like from the crowd.
Being up there, the buzz is incredible, the adrenaline pumps and you get this enormous rush. I want to be a rock star in my next life :o) But most of all, I want that large an audience again. Soon.
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WorldBlu Forum
The most interesting and cutting-edge business conferences of the year will be The WorldBlu Forum on organizational democracy.
It’s in DC on October 26-29, and the participants will all be leaders under 40. Organizational democracy is one of the most crucial concepts organizations must learn to suceed in the future. The current trend clearly shows, that organizations that get this live, thrive and develop. Not to mention the fact that the people who work there have a lot more fun :o)
Among the speakers are:
Mart Laar – former prime minister of Estonia and a man who knows intimately what democracy is about
Peter Block – author of two of my favourite business books
Mads Kjaer – CEO of Denmarks best workplace
Alexander Kjerulf – Hey, that’s meI just KNOW it will rock, and I can’t wait for october to come around. You can register for the conference here.
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Conference on change and happiness at work
We’re arranging another conference on happiness at work, and this time the focus is on how to be happy during changes. Read more about the conference.
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Back from Goa
We’re now back from Goa after two wonderful weeks that seemed to contain a little of everything and a lot of pool-side relaxation. Here are some pictures, and here are some highlights from the trip:
* Feeding, riding and washing elephants. Not to mention being washed by an elephant.
* A bookshop so cheap, that I bought 40 books to take home and give away.
* The incredible service at the hotel.
* The food. Aaaahh, the food :o)
* Finding that once again, the happy at work project inspires people. We may even get the happy at work project India going, and if that’s not an interesting idea I don’t know what is.
* Stirring up trouble at the Open Space on Open Space conference :o)
* The sunsets.
* Meeting so many wonderful people – both locals and at the conference.
* The insane traffic. Cars, trucks, scooters and motorcycles. And bicycles and pedestrians. And cows, dogs, goats and more cows.
* Fooling around with the new camera. Excellent! -
In Goa
Well, Patricia and I are taking a break from lazing at the pool enjoying the Goan sun to sit in the business centre and write a few emails, and I thought I might give a short update for those of you not here and for those of you coming later for the Open Space on Open Space conference.
Executive summary: This place rocks!
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Happy at work – world-wide
At the Interactive Organizations Conference 2004, I offered the idea of creating an international IO, based on the happy at work project.
Instead of getting all theoretical, we could simply organize around the purpose of making people happy at work, and create an IO for just that. Here’s the idea: We already have some proven methods and technologies in the work we do in Denmark. We have lectures, a workshop, a book, a game, a video, a conference and much more. All of this we are willing to give away to anyone who’s interested in using it, and we’ll make this the basis of the world-wide happy at work project.
If you’re interested in participating in this drop me an email. The exact details are still a little hazy – but mostly, I think it could be a LOT of fun :o)
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Interactive Organizations Conference
The interactive organization is one that is less dominated by traditional control structures and where people are more free to do their work. Interactive organizations (IO’s) are therefore more efficient, adapt faster to changes in their environment – and they’re a lot more fun to be in. They can also be chaotic and frustrating :o)
I’ve been a leader and participant (in interactive orgs everyone is both) in three different organizations which were interactive, and I can assure you, that I will never again work in a “traditional” workplace. I could simply never function again under the old, inflexible ways defined by the org chart.
So when I heard that the first conference on IO’s was being organized in Krakow I knew that I had to be a part of it. The term Interactive Organization was defined in Harrison Owen’s book The power of spirit, how organizations transfrom and describes what a workplace organized around Open Space Technology might be like.
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Manifesto for growth
I’m currently putting together a two-hour session on change. One of the hot topics in management today is change management, and I would argue that you can’t manage change if you don’t understand change. So I’m looking at change from a lot of different angles right now: Science, philosophy, common sense, psychology, biology etc…
And then somebody pointed me towards Bruce Mau’s An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth, and while I may not agree with all of it, it certainly stimulated my thinking on growth. And of course growth and change are, if not identical, then at least related. Here’s my favourite bit from the manifesto:
2. Forget about good. Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you?ll never have real growth.
