Posts filed in:2024

six wishes for 2024 (6/6): truth

One of my highlights of 20231 was an open air live concert by Cat Stevens / Yusuf at Stadtpark Hamburg. After the concert, my son and I played many of his songs for a couple of weeks, and one whose lyrics stuck with me was “In the end” where each verse starts with: “You can’t bargain with the truth”2. Of course not, we’ll all say and nod, it’s the truth. But then, being truthful: We all cover small blunders with pretty little lies; we all package unpleasant feedback in ornate narrations; we all push the big inconvenient truths of sickness, old age, death, or climate collapse to the margins of our minds. All these non-truths helps us function in the world, and we rightly call them smart, kind, or practical. But the truth within doesn’t go away – just like in that other famous song fragment: There is a truth in everything, that’s how the light gets in3.

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six wishes for 2024 (5/6): emotional literacy

One of the hardest tasks in my consulting work1 is the assessment of the emotional landscape in a given room at a given time. It’s always a mixed bag: Firstly, my own emotions, secondly, others’ emotions, thirdly, emotions arising from the interaction, and fourthly, leftover emotions lingering in the space. There’s the pride I experience when a chosen method works like expected, there’s the passion a client brings about growing their business, or their envy of a competitor’s recent marketing success, there’s (almost always) the greed to get more done than can possibly be squeezed into the allotted workshop time, and there’s (quite often) some unused anger littering the workshop room’s ugly carpet. Seeing, sorting, and purposefully including (or excluding) these emotions is heavy lifting, over and over again.

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six wishes for 2024 (4/6): action & reaction

In the musical ‘Hamilton’1, when prearing for the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson twice refers to the third Newtonian law: “Every action has its equal opposite reaction”2. In the context of the election, this points to the emerging two-party system of the United States. In the context of the ongoing rivalry between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, it prepares the audience for the escalation of their conflict, ending in the fatal duel on July 11, 1804. In the context of the inner struggles of the musical’s characters, it reflects on the bitter fact that those who take sides, by that very act, always also create enemies.

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six wishes for 2024 (3/6): authority

As a consultant1, I’m used to people asking me for my view, opinion, or advice. At the same time, I’m painfully aware that on most issues I’m commenting on, I’m not an authority. My clients usually are better experts in their fields of business, have a more comprehensive perspective on their goals and targets, and know their employees, suppliers, customers, and other interested parties much more deeply than I ever will. Still, they engage me to help them solve their problems, because they seek out my authority not in the “what”, but in the “how”. When working with them, I recommend the best paths and methods to solve their specific problems – all the time keeping in mind that it’s their problems, not mine. Therefore, when the collaboration is going smoothly, they fully own their “what” while taking my guidance on the “how”.

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six wishes for 2024 (2/6): solidarity

In the story of Billy Elliot1, the miner’s son who takes an interest in classical ballet and – despite his fathers initial resistance – ends up successfully auditioning for the Royal Ballet School2, there’s a scene where Billy almost gives up on his auditioning plan because of the family’s lack of funds. For a moment, Billy’s father considers breaking the miners’ strike, but then a much bigger solution emerges: All miners join forces and give whatever little money they have in order to finance Billy’s audition. In this magical moment, solidarity – the miners’ credo from the first act – and individuality – Billy’s dream of becoming a classical ballet dancer – merge into one.

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six wishes for 2024 (1/6): routine

Every morning and every evening, I brush my teeth1. Being honest with myself, this is the only daily routine that I truly, consistenly follow each and every single day of my life. Whenever I read about highly successful CEOs who get up at 3:12am every morning to do 108 minutes of vipassana meditation, followed by an hour of swimming at triathletic performance levels, topped with a thorough runthrough of the major news channels from all five continents, and garnished with a regionally sourced, vegan breakfast in the loving company of their seven teenage children and caring husband2, I feel like a sleazy sluggard.

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