My project (Projekt Arbejdsgl?de) is moving along nicely. I’ve created a website for it here, and the first two workshops will be held in february.
If you have any comments on the website, or would like to join a workshop, please let me know.
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Book review: Feel the fear and do it anyway
This book is about the fears that we all have in our lives to some degree. Fear of failing. Fear of succeeding. Fear of decisions. Fear of aging, of loss or of helplessness.
The books basic premise is, that your aim should not be to get rid of your fears. You should feel your fear, but not let it stop you from doing things you really want to do.
The book describes three levels of fear. The first level is the actual event that you fear – say losing you job. The second level is the deeper fear, triggered by the first level – eg. rejection (if being fired would make you feel rejected). Beneath that on the third level there’s only one fear: The fear that you won’t be able to cope. If you knew in advance that you could take it, there would be nothing to be afraid of. So all fear reduces to fear of not being able to cope.
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Book review: Down and out in the magic kingdom
Cory Doctorow has written his first novel. It’s a science fiction story, set in the Bitchun society about 100 years from now, where the world has turned disneyesque.
I liked the story, and I loved the neat, far out or just plain weird ideas and concepts. What’s most remarkable about the book though, is that it’s available either in a dead tree version or for free on the net. Yep, you can download the whole book to your PC or palm or just read it in the browser as I did.
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Book review: The customer comes second
The title of this book is a deliberate provocation. After endless messages about putting the customer first, Hal Rosenbluth, CEO of Rosenbluth International, says you should “put your people first and watch’em kick butt”. (Rosenbluth International is a world leader in corporate travel management, with over 5.000 people in more than 50 countries).
The same principle works so well for Southwest Airlines, as described in the book “Nuts!“. And indeed there seems to be many similarities between the approaches taken by Southwest and Rosenbluth, and the results they achieve.
Both companies enjoy huge financial success. They both lead their markets in quality of service and customer satisfaction. They both have a motivated, caring work force, willing to go very far for their customers, each other and the community. They both care deeply about people, and strive to make work a place where people learn, have fun and grow. They both hire people who have the right personality, and then train them to have the right skill.
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Exercise: Talking stick
Talking stick is an excellent way to promote better and deeper dialogue. If you need to slow down the pace of a discussion, to make room for more reflection and listening, consider trying it. It’s really simple. Basically, you find a stick (or some other object), and whoever holds the stick can speak, everybody else listens. When you’ve finished talking, you can put down the stick (for somebody else to pick up), or you can hand it to somebody, allowing that person to speak.
It sounds almost too simple to work, but it does. It usually has several effects:
People listen more to what is being said, in stead of waiting for their turn to speak.
People don’t talk too much. If you’re constantly holding the stick, you’ll notice, and pass it on.
The pace of the discussion slows.
There’s less disagreement.There’s a detailed description of talking stick here.
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Quote
Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence – when it helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weakness of our condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.
– Martin Luther King
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Book review: Nuts!
Nuts!, Southwest Airlines crazy recipe for business and personal success is the story of Southwest Airlines. Lars Pind told me about this book, and I have to agree: It’s a joy to read about a company that values freedom, creativity, people and, yes, love.
If your driving principles are love and fun, can you still make a profit in todays harsh business world? Well, here’s a few stats on Southwest:
- They’re the only airline in America who have had a profit every year since 1973
- They’ve grown from 3 planes and 250 employees in 1973 to 200 planes and 25.000 employees in 2002
- They service twice as many customers pr. employee as any other airline
- They have never mass-fired employees
- They have the highest customer ratings
So there!
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Quote
Rational structures of control inhibit creativity. Managing as if people had souls requires that we de-mechanize management and instill it with the diversity and depth of our own humanity. The point is to respect people and allow them to make the fullest contribution they can. We need more reflection in business not more strategizing. Meditation takes thinking even further because it allows for the wisdom of the heart to interweave with the knowledge of the head.
– John Dalla Costa
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Book review: Getting past no
The next lot of books arrived from Amazon yesterday, and I speed-read the first one in a couple of hours.
This book is the sequel to “getting to yes”. The first book outlines the classic techniques for skillful, issue-based negotiations. The sequel, subtitled “Negotiating with difficult people”, presents strategies you can use when the methods from the first book don’t work.
The book’s only 140 pages long, but well presented, well structured and with lots of illustrative case stories from difficult negotiations. And hey, it’s 6$ at Amazon. Read the two books, if negotiation is a part of your life – and isn’t it always?
