Kallokain

I recently had to jump head first from a cliff to escape a T-Rex. I am on vacation, and I can't stand having nothing to do, so, I decided to run a little vacation project. Because I am interested in photography, never outgrew my fascination with dinosaurs, and read the occasional comic, I decided on a Lost World photo comic project. If you are into management, I highly recommend running a non-profit, all volonteer project now and then. Because people won't get paid in coin, you have to do something else: You have to make it interesting and educational. You also have to find the right people: People who share your interests. Preferably people who get a bit obsessed when they are doing something interesting. They need to be creative, and learners willing to try new things. Oh, and they have to be able to work well together. The Plan: The Lost World Running from dinosaurs When I was a child I read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book The Lost World  ( Wikipedia a...

Put yourself in the shoes of a CEO. What is your primary goal? There are many different ideas about that, but I like this one: To ensure that the organisation can survive and thrive on its own terms! Not my idea by the way, but the idea of Colonel John Boyd, U.S. Air Force. No matter what goal you, as the CEO of your organisation, subscribe to, you have a problem: How do you make the organisation move in the right direction? One of your most important tools is the set of managers in the organisation. According to Gallup, companies recruit the wrong kind of talent for management jobs 82% of the time . Why is that? Gallup puts it down to failure to identify the right personality traits, or talent. Though that is probably true, it is unlikely to be the whole truth. There is another thing that matters: Skill matters ! Talent alone won't make a manager great, or even good. Talent is just a measure of the aptitude a person has for a certain kind of tasks. To be good at...

I recently had a cup of coffee with a friend, and the discussion turned to the difference between complicated and complex , and why the difference is important. I have had reason to think about that recently, so I had a couple of examples fresh in my mind, both relating to questionnaires and surveys. As it turns out, many questionnaires you are asked to fill out have a common design mistake: The assumption that the subject under investigation is complicated, rather than complex. It is an easy mistake to make. The result is increased risk that the survey points you in the wrong direction. Let's briefly define what we are talking about before digging in to the meat of the matter: Complicated systems have many parts, but they also have predictable cause and effect relationships. For example, a mechanical watch is complicated. It is also predictable. It runs like...well, it runs like clockwork. Complex systems have parts that can adapt to the behavior of other pa...

The Success to the Successful  systems archetype explains how very small differences, and random factors, can lead to one actor in a system to be hugely more successful than other actors: how monopolies are created why income is so unevenly distributed in many countries why success in the school system leads to success later in life how Microsoft became dominant in the software market ...and many other phenomena. Success to the Successful provides an explanation model for the Pareto Principle , the observation that in many systems, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. To understand the causal loop diagram above: Assume that you have two actors A and B. A and B compete for resources. A and B may start out being equal. That is, there may be no observable difference that would give either a competitive advantage. As long as the system is perfectly balanced, nothing interesting happens, but, if there is a random event that either favors A, or ha...

It is natural to want to avoid conflict, but it may not be the best way. You may be surprised to learn who had the courage to stand up in the face of anger and constructively work to resolve a conflict, and who had not. (Photo: Henrik Mårtensson Yep, that's me. Model: Ida Stranne.) You should not decide until you have heard what both have to say. –Aristophanes, c. 446 AD – c. 386 AD I have seen two interesting cases of conflict resolution recently, showing off two very different methods of resolving conflicts. Even more interesting than the different approaches, is who chose which approach. Read on, you will be surprised, or maybe not. Case 1: Scream and make up In the first case, two people worked together on building something, but they had different ideas, and constantly got in each other's way. They took a break, and decided to go out together, to let their tempers cool off. When they came back, the conflict had escalated to the point where they were screami...

I will spend the day preparing for a really fun day in Stockholm.

I am starting a new business. I am not giving up my work as a business advisor, but I do need a change of pace. Ten years of working to improve other people's businesses have taken a toll. You might think "a change of pace" means I want to slow down. On the contrary, I want to speed up. The very, very slow, cumbersome, and obsolete systems and processes at most companies are very difficult to adapt to. I need to do something challenging, and I need a test bed for ideas. I also happen to love photography, especially trick photography, so, I am setting up a photography business . I am of course applying Maneuver Conflict and Systems Thinking ideas to the new business. Here are some of the things I am doing differently from other photographers: To succeed in business, you need to try a bit harder, and do things other people can't or won't do. Finding a unique segment : Most photographers focus on weddings, portraiture or advertising. I focus on tri...

I am announcing four workshops in Stockholm and Gothenburg. Each workshop is limited to twelve people, and the first workshop is in just five weeks, so if you are interested in gaining an advantage over your competition, sign up now: Stockholm: Values to Vision, April 15, Stockholm Business Strategy - Principles to Practice, May 6, Stockholm Gothenburg: Values to Vision, April 22 Business Strategy - Principles, May 13 Why should you care about having a clear vision? A vision is a guiding light: The vision helps you establish a connection with your customers, it attracts the right people to your company, it sets a course to follow when developing strategy and tactics. And yet, most companies have vision statements that are bland, uninspiring, and to be frank, not very useful. In the workshop you will learn how to build a vision guided by your own values. You will learn how to use your values and your vision to shape your mission. And, you will learn...

The Reality Dysfunction is approaching. The picture above is the theme picture for my presentation at Lean Kanban Nordic on the 12th of Mars. I'm going for the jugular with this one... You can read more about the presentation itself here .

The audience was great - Knowledgeable, asked a lot of questions, and there was a very interesting discussion afterwards. I did a trial run for of Reality Dysfunction presentation at Scrumbeers yesterday. The presentation was very well received, though it was much too long. You can read the audience comments and reactions here . The Scrumbeers gatherings are always fun. This time, it was also very, very useful. The feedback I got will enable me to make the final presentation even more fun, and shorter. Lots shorter. My presentations tend to be about as long as a Hollywood movie. I need to cut this one down to 35 minutes or less before I present at the Lean Kanban Nordic conference on the 12th of Mars. I'd like to thank the audience not just for being very interested, kind, and fun to spend time with, but also for giving me lots of useful feedback. I am looking forward to the next Scrumbeer.

The nice people running the Stop Starting, Start Finishing conference in Stockholm the 12-13 of Mars 2013 asked me if I was interested in holding a presentation. Of course I am. I am hard at work on my presentation. Here is what I am going to talk about: Tempo!: The Reality Dysfunction Henrik Mårtensson Henrik Mårtensson How did we end up with so many dysfunctional companies? To fix the problems we face today, we must understand the causes.  Tempo!: The Reality Dysfunction is a romp through the wild side of management history: It starts with a bang, a train crash the 5th of October 1841, with consequences that cause companies to fail in 2013. You will meet the unbeatable fighter pilot, who also figured out how to build an unbeatable organization. You will see what managers must know to lead an Agile development team. You will see how most companies are applying fundamental principles of strategy, psychology, and physics backwards, and hurt and disable themselves ...

Bill Dettmer will hold a course in The Logical Thinking Process in Finland on the 3-5 of April, and the 8-10 of April. Here is a link . Bill is a well known management and leadership expert. He has written several very good books. I heartily recommend his book The Logical Thinking Process . Though I have never met Bill, we have corresponded via email. When I wrote my first book, Tempo!, Bill was very helpful and encouraging. In case you are wondering: The Logical Thinking Process is a method for solving problems. You can use it in business, or your private life. TLTP is great for facilitating communication and understanding. It beats long boring Word documents or bullet riddled Powerpoint presentations hands down. I often use it to visualize problems, to help my customers generate solutions, and to communicate and test solutions before implementing them. The tools are simple to use and very effective.

If you have a special interest, you may see a lot more action in a Google+ Community than on Facebook. After two days in Google's The Photo Community, my photos had garnered more interest than I have been able to build after years on Facebook. Google may have hit it off big with its newest product: Google+ Communities. Two days ago I joined The Photo Community at Google+. The community was created by Trey Ratcliff, a very well known HDR photographer. After two days in The Photo Community, I have gotten into contact with more photographers than I have during the past two years on Facebook. The reason for the different results: The design of the new Google+ Communities. I am an amateur photographer, and I have spent a couple of years building a photo library at Facebook. some time ago, I started doing the same thing at Google+, but initially it was a bit disappointing. I found other photographers, added them to my own photography circle, and posted photos, but there was little...

I was asked to submit a presentation proposal to Stop Starting, Start Finishing, the Lean Kanban Nordic conference, 12-13 Mars, 2013, so I did: Tempo!: The Reality Dysfunction Putting the fun back in DysFUNctional If the proposal gets enough votes, I'll get to hold the presentation. Here is the proposal: Tempo!: The reality Dysfunction puts the fun back in dysFUNctional.  How did we end up with so many dysfunctional companies? To fix the problems we face today, we must understand the causes.  Tempo!: The Reality Dysfunction is a romp through the wild side of management history: It starts with a bang, a train crash the 5th of October 1841, with consequences that cause companies to fail in 2013.  You will meet the unbeatable fighter pilot, who also figured out how to build an unbeatable organization. You will see what managers must know to lead an Agile development team.  You will see how most companies are applying fundamental principles of str...