• Chaordic leadership

    While going through my bookmarks, I came across this article, where Dee Hock, the founder of VISA, explains his ideas of chaordic organization and leaderhip.

    Here’s a sample from the article, that talks about when organizations achieve peak performance:
    Every choreographer, conductor, and coach — or for that matter, corporation president — has tried to distill the essence of such performance. Countless others have tried to explain and produce a mechanistic, measurably controlled process that will cause the phenomenon. It has never been done and it never will be. It is easily observed, universally admired, and occasionally experienced. It happens, but cannot be deliberately done. It is rarely long sustained but can be repeated. It arises from the relationships and interaction of those from which it is composed. Some organizations seem consistently able to do so, just as some leaders seem able to cause it to happen with consistency, even within different organizations.

    If this speaks to you, then you need to read Dee Hocks book “birth of the chaordic age”.


  • mblogging

    I’ve been mblogged. And I think I want one myself.


  • World laughter day

    The first sunday in may is world laughter day. This is arranged by the global laughter movement, who see laughter as a way to promote opennes, peace and love. The world laughter day was celebrated all over the world today, and the biggest gathering was in Copenhagen. I went there with my friend Carsten, and we laughed together with around 2000 others. Great fun.

    I took a course with the laughter club a couple of years back, so I’m actually a certified laugh instructor. The principle behind it is, that you do laughter exercises wich stimulate laughter, without you actually laughing at anything. It sounds weird, but it works extremely well. If there’s a laughter club near you, I can only recommend that you try it.


  • Storytelling in action

    If you’d like to see a really good storyteller in action, now’s your chance. On six evenings in may, Svend-Erik Engh and guest speakers are telling stories in Kongens Have in Copenhagen. I heard him twice last year, and he’s really good.

    You just show up at the appointed time, and the stories roll. He’s got mats to sit on and blankets for everyone if it gets cold. And it’s free. Read more about it here.


  • Quote

    That’s hard ta say,” said the little chief. “Ya can’t never predict what old Coyote will do. Just about everything that could turn out two ways or more was invented by him, back when he Changed the world the first time. Before that, as ya may or may not know, everything could only turn out one way. There weren’t no crossroads, fer instance. Only straight paths that didn’t bend. Toss a coin, it always came up heads. And nobody died. That’s one o’ the things Coyote changed. He brought the wobble inta the world. Everything that turns out one way but could just as easy turn out the other. Good or bad. Dead or alive. Hungry or with yer belly nice and full.

    – Michael Chabon in his brilliant new book Summerland


  • Book review: What should I do with my life?

    Good question, huh? What exactly should you do with your life? Where is that one job that will make your life eternally happy and remove all doubt about whether you’ve made the right choice?

    Well, Po Bronson has talked to a lot of people who have faced that very question, and he has some good news and some bad news for us in this book.
    (more…)


  • Seminar pictures

    The first Arena seminar was a tremendous success. You can read more about it here, and there are pictures here. Who would’ve thought that you can combine storytelling, visualization and happiness at work, but judging from the feedback we got, we pulled it off. More seminars are sure to follow!


  • Invitation: Arena startup

    I’d like to extend another Arena invitation. The time has come to get Arena started, and we’re doing this on wednesday april 30th. from 17:00 at Arena on Nørrebrogade 14B.

    Arena is an Open Space in the heart of Copenhagen. Arena is shared office space, shared ideas, meeting space and much more. Arena is whatever we make it.

    You can read the entire invitation and sign up here.


  • Storytelling, visualization and happiness at work

    I’m arranging a seminar on storytelling, visualization and happiness at work. It will take place in the new Arena space in N?rrebrogade 14 B in Copenhagen on friday the 25th of april from 16:00 to 18:00. We’ll start with an introduction to storytelling by Henrik Kristensen, an introduction to visualization by Ole Qvist-S?rensen and I’ll talk briefly about happiness at work. Then we’ll invite everybody to discuss the topics, and how they interrelate.

    Participation is free, but you need to sign up by sending me an email at alexander@kjerulf.com.


  • More Open space

    Last friday I helped Lars Pind run his OpenACS conference. He’d decided to do it as an Open Space meeting, And since he did all of this for free, for the benefit of the OpenACS community, I decided to offer my assistance. It looked like everybody had a great time, and a lot of work certainly got done. You can read all about it here, including the details of what may be the first party ever, to have a piano delivered in the middle of it.

    And monday I helped Carsten Ohm arrange a meeting for entrepreneurs in Nørrebro and creative people from IKI. The meeting was a mix of impro theater and Open Space, and it worked beautifully. So chalk up two more points for Open Space. The record still stands: Every Open Space meeting I’ve ever experienced has been a success.



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