Tag: Modern Workplace

Lead in the now

August 28, 2016 by philipp68

Here a few thoughts how our individual history, our past can influence our ability to create a better future. Deciding based on past experiences By putting yourself, your history, at the center of your decisions, you let your past shape everyone’s future. You unconsciously create boundaries within everyone has to operate, because you’re trying to protect your colleagues from repeating your own, bad experiences. Trying to protect the people you’re supposed to lead is the right thing to do. But we should remind ourselves […]

Categories: Life & Work • Tags: Attachment, Attitude, Leaders, Modern Workplace

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Sketch: Rolling along

November 22, 2015 by philipp68

The last post was about the essence of leadership. But what happens when you step into the unknown? Inspired by Shel Silverstein’s beautiful allegory The Missing Piece Meets the Big O2 I drew the following sketch about the process of learning. Learning is an emotional roller coaster. Afraid of failure we will hesitate to start. Why not wait another month to collect more data for the journey ahead? The first step will take a lot of courage, because we will feel that […]

Categories: Sketch • Tags: Fear, Modern Workplace, Wisdom

Comic: What is a Leader?

November 12, 2015 by philipp68

These last couple of weeks I have been spending a lot of time discussing what it needs to create a work environment where people can thrive. Here a short comic style summary, what I learned about leadership. I strongly believe that a great work environment is a place where everyone is encouraged to lead. It’s a place where you’re asked to dream about where you would like to go and find time and space to share what you believe in […]

Categories: Comic • Tags: Emotion, Fear, Heart, Leaders, Mind, Modern Workplace, Teaching

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Sketch: The dance of mind, hand and heart

October 21, 2015 by philipp68

Creating is a dance between mind, hand and heart. It does not matter what we do nor how good we’re at it. The dance is always the same. I strongly believe that the key to happier work is to learn how to let this internal dance happen in a way so that mind, hand and heart all get their turn. Let’s dance Let’s have a look at today’s sketch. It shows hand, mind and heart dancing together, creating a drawing. […]

Categories: Sketch • Tags: Action, Heart, Mind, Modern Workplace, Wisdom

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Sketch: What do you do?

September 13, 2015 by philipp68

We often define ourselves by what we do. For many of us this is a paid job, raising a family or taking care of a loved one. I believe a first step towards more job satisfaction is to stop judging ourselves by what we do and instead use our work as an opportunity to get to know who we are. Job snobbery We live in a world where the first thing we’re often asked is: “What do you do?” Alain de […]

Categories: Sketch • Tags: Attitude, Ego, Mind, Modern Workplace

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Sketchnote: Shawn Achor on the happy secret to better work

October 25, 2013 by philipp68

Sometimes the economical and political realities at work can crush even the best of intentions, making us see obstacles as problems not opportunities. I remember a meeting some weeks ago. We were discussing approaches to create a better future for our clients and ourselves. What started off with the best of intentions ended with the realization that we currently didn’t have the time or resources to make our dreams come true. Heads hanging, dreams crushed, everyone was slowly getting up […]

Categories: Sketchnotes • Tags: Happiness, Meditation, Mind, Modern Workplace

Sketchnote: Nigel Marsh on how to make work-life balance work

February 17, 2013 by philipp68

I just finished “The Sketchnote Handbook” by Mike Rohde and decided to practice my listening and sketching skills watching “Hot to make work-life balance work” by Nigel Marsh. Sketchnoting is like Yoga for people who like to draw: You are fully emerged in the experience, because mind and body are closely working together to create a personal, artistic expression. It’s a lot of fun and trains your mind and hand. Watch Nigel’s talk! My sketchnote might make more sense to you […]

Categories: Sketchnotes • Tags: Balance, Modern Workplace, Sketchnote, The middle way

Playing games to learn for life

December 20, 2012 by philipp68

Playing a game like Monopoly with a couple of friends can be all joy and laughter, as long as no one gets too attached to the outcome. The moment we become desperate to win, anger and frustration can surface and turn a simple game into an awful fight between friends. This desperate attachment to succeed is often present in our life. We think that more status, money or fame will help us to win in life. Life is not about […]

Categories: Life & Work • Tags: Attachment, Emotion, Gamification, Meritocracy, Modern Workplace

The Circle of Power

December 4, 2012 by philipp68

We often think that life and work gets easier, if only we were in charge, had more control over our environment and the people around us. Power feeds the ego and for a moment it will feel great. But as soon as that feeling wears off, we will look for the next step up the career ladder, starting an endless journey for power. Power per se is nothing bad, but power alone can never be the goal. We first need to learn to […]

Categories: Life & Work • Tags: Bhagavad Gita, Modern Workplace, Power

Laugh more – Laugh wisely

October 1, 2012 by philipp68

I just came back from a 3 hour a day laughing holiday. The laughing part was completely unexpected and very welcome. A big hug to all In Sabina Yogis for this wonderful week! It made me realize how laughter creates a strong bond between complete strangers, bridges cultural differences and helps us connect to our inner kid, our true self. Let’s find out how we can bring back more laughter from our childhood to adult work and life. Your inner […]

Categories: Life & Work • Tags: Heart, Laughter, Modern Workplace

To see the whole, we need to forget about the parts

September 16, 2012 by philipp68

All we hear, see, smell, taste or feel is analyzed by our mind. It makes an incredible job in creating an amazingly detailed description of everything we experience. We call this description reality. What we keep forgetting is that we only experience a fraction of the whole. Our mind tends to focus on what we already know, because the unknown gives us a fuzzy feeling. To put together the broken jewel of wisdom we have to learn how to stitch […]

Categories: Life & Work • Tags: Intuition, Modern Workplace, Wisdom

Dear Robots: It’s time to take your helmets off

August 25, 2012 by philipp68

Many years ago my father gave me the book “The Star Diaries” by Stanislaw Lem. The book is a collection of the incredible voyages of space traveller Ijon Tichy. It was one of my first science fiction novels. I loved it. The eleventh voyage is a parable of living in a country, where everybody upholds the official ideology no one actually believes in. Having grown up in the “Peoples Republic of Poland” Lem knew, what he was talking about. As […]

Categories: Life & Work • Tags: Action, Bhagavad Gita, Illusion, Modern Workplace

A process can never teach us patience

August 12, 2012 by philipp68

Where does this fascination for processes come from? I think processes can be beneficial, but at the same time inhibit our ability to deal with the often-chaotic “reality”. By wrapping “reality” in a process we hope to stay in control, reduce the complexity of the world. We hope that the process will serve as a guide and tell us how to interact in a group. Instead of trying to stay calm, interacting freely with the people around us to solve […]

Categories: Life & Work • Tags: Compassion, Illusion, Modern Workplace, Process

The meeting room: an opportunity to learn and teach

August 1, 2012 by philipp68

Participating in meetings or steering boards of a larger cooperation or committee can be a source of frustration and anger. The leaders on the board are disappointed because their expectations are not met and the experts are frustrated because the leaders don’t seem to understand most of the things they are trying to explain. Truth is, most difficult problems can only be solved with the help of both strong leaders and brilliant experts. It’s time for both sides to learn […]

Categories: Life & Work • Tags: Action, Experts, Leaders, Meetings, Modern Workplace, Teaching