LinKS blog

Much has been written about Innovation lately - almost everything is about what and why. It seems that attention is on creative processes, fuzzy frontend or even stage gate optimization. Some how very instrumental.

The idea of diversity in group formation, social networks and relation building is in contrast not very offen represented in that discussion. Why is that?

I think some of the answers is to be found in the misunderstood and misinterpreted necessity for costcutting and overall optimization of production. And, what maybe is more important, because Human Resources in many organizations still is “compared” with other production facillities.

In recent years there has been an evolving movement towards explaining the obvious link between the number of and types of relations in personal networks to overall company innovation capabillity - and a new understanding of the importance of technology is definitly part of that picture.

How do your organization cope with “Knowledge Management” and Innovation capabillity? And do you see the same picture?

Today I went to the final rehersal before the grand concertos on Sunday and Monday Nov. 27, in Trinitatis Kirke at 19.30. Several LinkS alumni will be there to follow the Blue Tone trail. They meet outside at 19.10 the latest.
Today, I will invite you on a journey into a new perspective - seen from the Alto. Last time I did this pice is 10 years ago as a soprano, so I am up for a change of view. So, I brought my recorder in the pocket to illustrate the experience from the inside.
The Maria Vesperae by Monteverdi is one of the very early pieces of classical music. Through this piece we understand the transformation of Gregorian music to classical music - this is a universe rather special and 400 years old. There are a few years to go before the Blue Notes where invented!
At the same time this recording is a live chance of looking into the world of the conductor and a choir, soloists and orchestra. Per Enevold is conducting Trinitatis Kantori - www.kantori.dk and is one of our beloved conductors in Scandinavian choir music. Several international honours belongs to Per Enevold who have been conducting both in Europe and the USA.
You can listen directly on your PC or find your earphones to catch the comments of a world class conductor - tells you a lot about leadership.
I will follow up with an interview with Per Enevold when the concertos has come to a grand finale…
Enjoy these selections…
Maria Vesperae Lauda Jerusalem
Maria Vesperae Ave Mari Stella
Maria Vesperae Finale

I attended W2 in 2003, and just like all of you, my nice binder proudly fills the bookcase together with all the other nice binders from different events I have attended over time. I have instituted a new habit: Every 12 months (just about), I spend one hour reviewing the binder, what I learned and how I have used it in my work. If I can’t find one single thing in the binder that I want to implement during the next 12 months, I throw the binder out.

Reviewing the W2 binder, this time I decided that I wanted to use concretely the concept of innovation by modifying the function of the system in larger systems rather than breaking the system into components and trying to improve each component.

What are you doing to your binders on the wall?

As management theory has changed direction during time, so has music a long tradition of different approaches. According to the classical music tradition, a scale is a hierarchical stairway which most often consists of seven pure tones in either major or minor, with a keynote as a basic condition. In a classical view a piece of music must express a certain scale and finish at the keynote.

Some musicians are convinced that new pieces of music is to be created in an incremental way, an improvement of existing approaches, based on above conditions. Other believes that new music can only be created in a tense intersection between music traditions and approaches. In the meeting of different approaches it’s often impossible to separate the principles from the different approaches; instead the meeting is an expression of best practice across approaches. In some of these mixed traditions (ex. blues, jazz and African music) the so called ‘blue tones’ appear as an expression of distorted constellations and innovative improvisation with for example no respect to the classical scale of tones and with no specific keynote. In blues the melody can be singed in minor while the accords is played in major, which gives an exiting tension of blue tones in the music, an approach that many modern traditions has adopted. But in spite of this anarchistic approach and artistic degree of freedom, each piece of music is often expressed in a certain dogma way, where the composer follows a more or less conscious plan and common accepted rules and norms in the creation of the musical expression.

Like this mixed music approach LinKS Advice composes new knowledge in a tense intersection between members, and the events and teams are compounded to create the best conditions for innovative improvisation among members and for composition of new knowledge. With the common Wharton principles in mind; the thinking in syntheses, the mental models, the scenarios and personal experience, each member in LinKS Advice contributes with unique and distorted qualities, which in the right constellation creates the blue tones.

Which qualities do you recognize as most important in creating blue tones?

I had the most extra-ordinary experience this thursday - I met Ged at the INDEX: launch of awards 2007. Ged is in the Jury and I am in the Board. What is WEF and Ged doing in CPH? Well, I hope Kigge Hvid, CEO of INDEX: will chat to us about that. Kigge will be on W7 to Wharton. www.indexaward.dk

Ged Davis is a rare species. Sharp in scenarios and a background from Shell and a fresponsible, intelligent view on the future of this planet. The executive of the future. We talked for a long time - here are just the first couple of minutes to give you an impression. I hope to see Ged here at the LinKS Blog in the future. Ged Davis, CEO WEF

Last year 6 Danish people went to DAVOS and Anders Fogh Rasmussen flew in for a short while - not excactly an overwhelming Danish presence. I wonder if we should consider checking out DAVOS World Economic Forum, annual meeting, January 24-28 2007? www.weforum.org.

Today I got a great email from Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard, CEO of Georg Jensen. Georg Jensen won the award from Philadelhia Museum of Modern Art and HKH went to Philly to recieve the honour at a great event at he Museum.

While Hans-Kristian was there, Professor Jerry Wind invited him to the annual Board meeting at the SEI advanced Management Center. What did you experience, Hans-Kristian?

Mads Kjaer, chairman of KjaerGroup, www.kjaergroup.com, has started a revolutionary program, C4-World, designed as a new model of the world economics. Mads Kjaer is member of the LinKS Advisory Board and is one of the best thinkers I ever met. Listen to his key points about about C4 for your self.

It is about solving the problems of Africa to influence tomorrow’s Africa and the goal of creating sustainable development across continents. And guess what, Mads is taking this all the way through the UN, Bono, local African entrepreneurs and the greatest companies of the world. Keep an eye on this project, it will change the way the world goes around.

The Power of Impossible Thinking – Transform the Business of your Life and the Life of Your Business
Authors: Jerry Wind and Colin Crook

It’s nine in the evening and you’re on your way home from work. You go down to the car park and look for your car. You hear footsteps behind you. You don’t want to turn around, but you start walking faster. You remember a story about a robbery a couple of weeks ago. You walk faster, but the footsteps behind you also get faster.

The person behind you is catching up. You get to your car and try to find your keys. You hear the person come right up behind you. You turn around quickly and stare straight at the person. It’s a colleague whose car is parked close to yours. Relieved, you say goodnight and drive home.

The point of the story is that the situation didn’t change, but as soon as you saw your colleague, your perception of the world changed. Only a little part of this drama took place in the cark park; most of it took place in the mental models of your brain.

Research shows that the brain disregards most of the stimuli it receives based on its mental models. The Power of Impossible Thinking deals with how you can become better at understanding the world around you so that you can begin making decisions based on the real world, and not only on the mental models of your brain.

The main point of the book is that in order for you to change your world, you first need to change the way you think, in other words your mental models. If you succeed in doing this, a whole new series of opportunities will open up for you and your company. Or as Albert Einstein wrote, “Without changing our pattern of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought.”

The book recommends a number of methods that individuals, companies and society can use to change their mental models. One such method is to use radical thinkers who in no way fit in with your current life, company or society. Another method is to go out into the world and experience how other people and companies perceive reality.

Even though the book doesn’t solely focus on business, it is relevant nonetheless. Both society and business are focused on innovation, on inventing, developing and selling – activities that our nation will be living off in the future. This requires that we are conscious of – and dare to break away from – our mental models and work with Impossible Thinking.

At CSC, we’ve opened an innovation lab (I lab), where, together with our customers, we develop new solutions to our customers’ challenges. We start changing our mental models by ignoring how things are today, including internal and external limitations, and instead focusing on what we would like in an ideal world. In order to ensure that we don’t resort to the mental models in a traditional customer/supplier relationship, we initially do not enter into a contract for the sale of the solutions that emerge from the sessions in the lab.

The Power of Impossible Thinking is filled with examples of how companies have broken with their mental models and succeeded in changing their worlds. For instance Starbucks is mentioned, which, as we know, transformed a low-priced commodity into an exclusive lifestyle product. An example of an individual is Roger Bannister, the British runner who broke the magic barrier of the four-minute mile in 1954. It was said that it couldn’t be done, but three years after Bannister succeeded, there were 16 other athletes who could run the mile in under four minutes. The mental model was broken.

The book is challenging, and provokes the reader into some very deep thinking. For this reason, it is absolutely recommended reading.

The main points of the book are:

* To change your life, you must change the way you think.
* Constantly question the way you perceive the world.
* If you think the impossible, you can do the impossible.

Recently, I have talked to quite a few managers about the use of modern IT tools to enhance knowledge sharing and innovative problem solving in their organizations. It has struck me that so few managers have heard about blogging, Wiki’s and other “collective intelligence” tools.

I have chosen to devote my monthly column in Danish business newspaper Berlingske, this coming Tuesday, to the subject of “Collective Intelligence”. The conclusion is that if a manager is not keen to learn about tools to enhance collective intelligence, he should retire.

Agree?