WildWildBusiness

Reflections from the East

2006-01-16T13:51:00.000+01:00

Our time at Kalachakra is coming to an end, although experience has taught me that I should not take leaving India for granted until I have actually done so; we still have a 7 hour drive to Hyderabad on a road littered with goats, bicycles and trucks bedecked with images of Ganesh, that seem intent on taking the speedy route to paradise (and anyone one else who might get in the way thank you kindly!). I have just read an article in Time magazine, "Mind & Body How to Get Smarter, One Breath at a Time. Scientists find that meditation not only reduces stress but also reshapes the brain" (http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1147167,00.html); that begins by stating how a Wall Street Executive has a "secret weapon" in the form of 40 minutes daily meditation; and in parallel, refers to Tibetan monks as the "Olympic athletes of meditation". When holding these two points together and sitting, as I am now, in a thrown together internet cafe in Amaravati; surrounded by Tibetan monks - one cannot fail to appreciate the disparity between internal and external wealth. These people have little or nothing and yet we have been met by smiles, kind words, spontaneous greetings without hidden agendas and a general goodwill that has touched me deeply. Whilst having a cup of the local Chai the other day, a monk had hot tea spilled over his back; and I watched in awe as he got up, laughed, made a joke about it and got on with his breakfast (we asked for a discount on his behalf; and the owner responded by giving him a new breakfast and then proceeded to wipe his hands on the monks wet robes). I could not help reflect that this particular exchange, should it have taken place in London, would surely have been cut short by a fit of anger and a flying punch! Tibetan monks begin their training at 8 years old and do in the region of 300,000 hours of meditation to achieve self mastery (comparable to time spent in training by top sports people). Imagine if said Wall Street Executive began to shift his focus of meditation away from helping himself in his job to fulfilling his dreams? Imagine if 10% of top executives used similar meditation techniques - this would have a profound effect on the global economy! From the article; "... a growing number of corporations including Deutsche Bank, Google and Hughes Aircraft offer meditation classes to their workers. Jeffrey Abramson, CEO of Tower Co., a Washington-based development firm, says 75% of his staff attend free classes in transcendental meditation. Making employees sharper is only one benefit; studies say meditation also improves productivity, in large part by preventing stress-related illness and reducing absenteeism. Another benefit for employers: meditation seems to help regulate emotions, which in turn helps people get along. "One of the most important domains meditation acts upon is emotional intelligence a set of skills far more consequential for life success than cognitive intelligence," says Davidson. So, for a New Year's resolution that can pay big dividends at home and at the office, try this: just breathe. " So, back to civilisation soon and looking forward to taking the many lessons learned and putting them into practice. There is an incredible amount to draw from Buddhist Psychology that can benefit Executives and Organisations in the West; however, as I have learnt, making the two fit requires skill, an open mind and above all; patience. Namaste Alexei Levene

May all beings be at peace

2006-01-16T06:50:00.000+01:00

The Buddha's Stupa

2006-01-16T06:39:00.000+01:00

Kalachakra 2006: an incredible journey from west to east and now back again. A journey full of human weakness and optimism. Human wisdom and poverty. I personally have learnt much on this amazing adventure... how not to introduce meditation to westerners, and how to create future self design programmes which provide adequate support tools and relevant teaching. The journey for Wild Wild Business continues in its mission to reframe the Executive Leadership marketplace. I look forward to catching up with friends and colleagues in the coming weeks. And I would like to say thanks to Alexei for his support and loyalty in trying times... and most of all I would like to thank my wife Emmanuelle for her total support and love through all of last year and these last few weeks... and Aurelie daddy is coming home... standby for a big kiss.

Geshela and his family from Tibet

2006-01-16T06:38:00.000+01:00

The medieval and the modern world

2006-01-16T06:36:00.000+01:00

Meditation

2006-01-16T06:33:00.000+01:00

Meditation means familiarity with your mind... the inward journey.

Tibetan Nomads here for Kalachakra2006

2006-01-16T06:32:00.000+01:00

head gear Tibetan style

2006-01-16T06:30:00.000+01:00

Taxi

2006-01-16T06:29:00.000+01:00

A close shave

2006-01-16T06:28:00.000+01:00

Tree of knowledge

2006-01-16T06:24:00.000+01:00

A Red Fire Engine

2006-01-15T15:42:00.000+01:00

This one is for my daughter Aurelie... who is in to fire engines

Another perspective

2006-01-15T15:35:00.000+01:00

The People of the Land of the Snows

2006-01-15T15:29:00.000+01:00

Planning for internal disarmanent

The Art of Happiness

2006-01-15T15:19:00.000+01:00

Compassion is a skill

2006-01-15T15:11:00.000+01:00

I recently heard a journalist question an aid agency spokeperson about 'donor fatigue' following all the disasters in the world... I wanted to be sick when I heard this.

Cultivate happiness from within

2006-01-15T15:08:00.000+01:00

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step

2006-01-15T15:04:00.000+01:00

No more heroes anymore?

2006-01-15T15:00:00.000+01:00

Making bread the hard way

2006-01-15T14:55:00.000+01:00

Tea for two

2006-01-15T14:53:00.000+01:00

Or sixty thousand

Me Tarzan!

2006-01-15T14:50:00.000+01:00

The sign of impending danger

2006-01-15T14:45:00.000+01:00

Where is the essence of boat?

2006-01-15T14:40:00.000+01:00

The Lotus Buddha in the river Krishna

2006-01-15T14:35:00.000+01:00

And just one more thing....

2006-01-15T14:31:00.000+01:00

Storytelling... the art of being human.

Colourful Parade of Visitors

2006-01-15T14:24:00.000+01:00

It has to be said that Alexei... who has the Delhi belly... has just composed a Haiku for this picture... whoops too late he has just rushed out... Oh no he is back... Autumn comes early Coloured leaves swept upwards... Oh no he has gone again...

The fully awakened mind

2006-01-15T14:20:00.000+01:00

Work in progress. The second largest Buddha in the world is tiny compared to the innate potential within us all.

Wild Wild Business

2006-01-15T14:15:00.000+01:00

No we are not out looking for the local bank... it is just that the dust here is so bad.

Welcome Goddess

2006-01-15T13:40:00.000+01:00

On the night of the full moon the women of each household draw and then colour the most majestic of patterns to welcome the goddess and bring luck and money to each family. It was an incredible sight to see the drawings expertly made with chalk and drawn with out any rulers etc.

Highest Future Potential

2006-01-13T11:53:00.000+01:00

Peter Senge's new book 'Presence' describes how the blind spot for global business leaders is that they still focus externally on solving problems. Whilst businesses have become experts at harnessing external energy sources they still remain largely unaware of the tremendous force, even more powerful than nuclear energy, contained within each one of us. The organisational leadership paradigm is shifting from the how and the what to the 'who.' And here in India at Kalachakra2006 are the worlds forwemost experts at harnessing internal energy which opens up your heart to your highest future potential and highest future purpose.

The fullness of emptiness

2006-01-06T16:20:00.000+01:00

Greetings from India on a day that has seen numerous near misses with everything from cows to lorries; avoiding Indian police sticks and hoisting a 77 year old lady over a wall whilst a near riot was in progress; and seeing Geshe-la, our resident Buddhist mentor, demonstrate his superior powers to the smiling wonder and awe of all about him. So overwhelming are my impressions that it is difficult to know where to begin. Be it the fleeting smile of a passing child or the streams of scarlet as smiling Tibetan monks walk past, my senses are overloaded to bursting and yet held in a joy that can only be found on the edge. And make no mistake, we are on the edge; of civilisation, of ideas, and soon; of business. This team has come together in the ether and had a glimpse of what could be; of our potential to change business, to truly help humanity and to make a dent in the universe. Mirroring our journey as a team are our personal journeys, and for myself, my potential has once again been glimpsed; and with an open heart I now long to fulfill goals long hidden by fear et al. I am off now to eat some curry and to see what songs the spirits of the night have prepared for us to hear - but rest assured I will join the chorus with abandon and love. Posted by Alexei Levene 06/01/2006

Cutting through appearances

2006-01-04T01:33:00.000+01:00

We have arrived in at Kalachakra 2006... The team are well and discovering a new side to themselves. Everything seems so different and so crazy... the colours... smells... and the amazing people... No that we have discovered we can get internet access we will endeavour to write about about our thoughts and experiences... standby for more news... and pictures

Normal Service will return in three weeks

2005-12-31T22:33:00.000+01:00

Just to let you know that nornal service will return around the end of January when the Wild Wild Business team returns from its first University of the Mind residential retreat in India. I look forward to talking and meeting with all the people who have very kindly e-mailed me during the last four weeks. Happy New Year to you all

Historias que son medicina: Stories are medicine

2005-11-29T15:19:00.000+01:00

WildWildBusiness was drawn from the inspiration and work of Clarissa Pinkola Estes, the author of the runaway best seller 'Women Who Run With The Wolves.' Clarissa is an award winning poet, senior Jungian psychoanalyst, and a cantadora (keeper of the old stories in the Latina tradition). "To my mind, story, in every way possible, thrives only on hard work - intellectual, spiritual, familial, physical, and integral. It never comes easy. It is never just 'picked up', or studied in one's 'off times'. Its essence cannot be born nor maintained in air-conditioned comfort, it cannot grow to any depth in an enthusiastic but non-committed mind, neither can it live in gregarious but shallow environments. Story cannot be studied. It is learned through assimilation, through living in its proximity with those who know it, live it, and teach it... I hope you will go out and let stories, that is life, happen to you, and that you will work with these stories from your life - your life, not someone elses life - water them with your blood and tears and your laughter till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom. That is the work. The only work." The job of WildWildBusiness is to be the cantadora - the keeper of stories of the business world.

Experiments with the truth

2005-11-29T13:51:00.000+01:00

“Indeed, the most subversive skill of this famously unarmed rebel was his ability to tell stories – stories that came entirely to REDEFINE how people perceived themselves, and what they believed they could and could not do. Nowhere did Gandhi deploy this skill to more powerful effect than when it came to his own life: it enabled him not merely to turn his life into a story, but live it as a story…a magnificent, puzzling, strenuous act of self-creation…the metamorphosis of a fearful, unsuccessful provincial lawyer into a leader who dominated India’s politics for almost four decades, who took on and successfully defeated the British Imperial state.”Sunil Khilnani (who wrote the Introduction to Gandhi’s autobiography) The Story of my experiments with truth by M.K.Gandhi

We Have a Go!

2005-11-29T12:33:00.000+01:00

The 'self-designing' organisation is a vehicle which allows you to disconnect from the status quo.

WildWildBusines

taking the business world by storm

Dead Poets Society

2005-11-28T21:03:00.000+01:00

Plot Summary This is the story of students at the respected "Welton Academy," a preparatory school in Vermont. Such schools were (and often still are) very conservative institutions that serve as high schools for parents who insist on sending their children to the best universities. Welton, like many prep schools, admitted only boys. The movie takes place in 1959.The plot centers on the influence of Mr. Keating, a young and exciting English and poetry teacher, who is determined to teach his students to live life with absolute passion. Mr. Keating, using poetry as his vehicle, teaches his students to challenge the institutions around them.Inspired by Mr. Keating's philosophy of life, many of his students recreate the"Dead Poets Society," a secret club which meets in a cave in order to discuss poetry, philosophy and other topics. The club, which Mr. Keating had created many years earlier when he was a student at Welton, would be completely unacceptable to the conservative school, which discourages students from "thinking for themselves." Indeed, Welton students should be in their rooms, studying only the prescribed materials that their teachers assign. This movie is about what happens when these students decide to pursue their own desires, and to live life with the passion that Mr. Keating encouraged. Ultimately, it is about what happens when a few idealistic students find themselves confronted against conservative forces that resist all change, including the drive for personal self-determination. DO YOU REMEMBER HOW IT ENDS? THE TEACHER GETS SACKED. http://www.eslnotes.com No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to flee and fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams. Jesse Jackson

Leadership is the effective communication of a story

2005-11-28T19:32:00.000+01:00

A story is an idea in action. “A key – perhaps the KEY – to leadership is the effective communication of a story.” Howard Gardner Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership Only those who choose to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. Rob. F. Kennedy Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty or security. Benjiman Franklin Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expedience asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular. But conscience asks the question, is it right. And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor political, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him that it is right. Martin Luther King Jnr It is not enough to understand, or to see clearly. The future will be shaped in the arena of human activity, by those willing to commit their minds and their bodies to the task. Robert.F.Kennedy Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men. Goethe WildWildBusiness

The 'self-designing' organisation: executive team workshop

2005-11-28T16:17:00.000+01:00

The last four entries are still work in progress....I will add some further explanation asap

The executive 'self-design' workshop

2005-11-28T16:15:00.000+01:00

the future beyond consulting

2005-11-28T15:46:00.000+01:00

WildWildBusiness Economic creativity over individual development is the key issue in an economy where products are ideas. Training. Training is a commoditised business...see the entry under 'Human Capital Development is becoming commoditised.' Coaching. Coaching in the business world is a confused mishmash of everything and all things to all men. Coaching, born from the world of sport bears very little resemblance to it's parent figure. For example in the business world you get a coach when you are failing, in the sports world you get a coach because you are a winner. In business the distinction between coaching and training is defined as follows...training is for groups and coaching is for individuals...same stuff just more intensive. In the sports world there is no problems with the concept of a coach for teams or individuals. In general I would describe Executive Coaching as a vehicle that gets people to perform better at achieving the norm and to drive their business goals and their personal goals incrementally. This means that it is high on personal development axis but low on economic value. The word coaching is now becoming a commditised item. You can get a coach for just about anything in the world. It's differential has passed away and we move on. Consulting These guys are very simple. They come in do a job of work. Fix your global supply chain, cut costs, rewrite your strategy and then go. If you are lucky you may get to hire one of their guys. They do a great job but their differential lies with their people. They spend liittle time developing your people...they are therefore high value but low development. WildWildBusiness WildWildBusiness is a gamebreaking strategy that redifines the culture, of innovation, communication and performance.

WildWildBusiness is the story of the future

In the design economy products are ideas

2005-11-28T15:32:00.000+01:00

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/93/design.html

Check out the above link from Fast Company: Bill Breen Interviews Roger Martin the Dean of the Rotman Business School.

http://www.businessweek.com/

Checkout the Businessweek internet site: especially the innovation section and the design blog.

Check out: Richard Foster and SaraH Kaplan

Creative Destruction: Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market--And How to Successfully Transform Them .

Ideas are the stories of the future

WildWildBusiness

Human Capital Development is becoming commoditized

2005-11-28T14:17:00.000+01:00

Big Blue has recently moved most of its training acivities out of the classroom and onto the desktop. As a result the company has saved around a quarter -billion dollars in annual costs. More important: employees who receive training via desktop computer report higher customer satisfaction scores than do those who get their training in a classroom setting. Thats a particularly big deal, since classroom training is one area where IBM has consistently been one of the best. Moreover, todays training software is primitive to what it will be in a scant five years, let alone ten years when the gameboy generation start their professional careers. Tom Peters, Re imagine, p52

Blue Ocean: Kalachakra.2006.com

2005-11-26T13:57:00.000+01:00

Hi Ralph and the Team this is what a blue ocean looks like. (Picassa2 loaded...and by the way Ralph you dont need Hello now) Wow ! what a week, if not two weeks! This blue represents clarity, calm, new horizon, fun, adventure, joy, happiness, risk, learning, travel, new people, new places. It is the space between our thoughts, between our words and between our actions. Here is born the Wild...because we are employed by an idea we can self-create our future. Can you feel it, can you smell it, can you taste it...

WildWildBusiness

the future beyond consulting

Inspirational Players are the new frontiersmen of business

2005-11-26T11:27:00.000+01:00

“Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

Success today has to be about more than management,

DOING THINGS RIGHT.

About more than leadership,

DOING THE RIGHT THINGS.

What is needed now is Inspiration.

Inspiration will unlock your potential.

To what you can be and what you can do. Inspiration is contagious.

And once you reach what Malcolm Gladwell has called the

Tipping Point -

ALL HELL LETS LOOSE!

Inspiration arouses your commitment to exceed your personal best.

Not to beat the competition in your class, not to meet someone else's expectations of you,

but to exceed your personal best. Inspirational people transform organisations.

They can come from anywhere.

Inspiration does not follow

organisation charts.

We call these people Inspirational Players. Kevin Roberts CEO Saatchi and Saatchi

http://www.saatchikevin.com/

Self-create your future with

WildWildBusiness

Managers are the dinosaurs of our modern organisational ecology.

2005-11-26T10:08:00.000+01:00

The age of management is finally coming to a close – …Nearly unnoticed, a far reaching organisational transformation has already begun, based on the idea that management as a system fails to open the heart or free the spirit. Kenneth Cloke and Joan Goldsmith The End of Management

WildWildBusiness

the 'self-designing' organisation

A Whole New Mind: Dan Pink

2005-11-26T08:14:00.000+01:00

Agriculture Age (farmers)

Industrial Age (factory workers)

Information Age (knowledge workers)

Conceptual Age (creators and empathizers)

“The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind—computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind—creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These people—artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers—will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.” —Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

Learn to find the Business Artist within you with WildWildBusiness

Step out of your habits and self-design your future

Reshuffling Deckchairs on the Titanic

2005-11-26T07:49:00.000+01:00

"Good management was the most powerful reason [leading firms] failed to stay atop their industries. Precisely because these firms listened to their customers, invested aggressively in technologies that would provide their customers more and better products of the sort they wanted, and because they carefully studied market trends and systematically allocated investment capital to innovations that promised the best returns, they lost their positions of leadership." Clayton Christensen, The Innovators Dilemma. It Gets Worse ... "A pattern emphasized in the cases in this study [The typewriter, the DC3] IS THE DEGREE to which powerful competitors not only resist innovative threats, but actually resist all efforts to understand them. Preferring to further entrench their positions in the older products. This results in a surge of productivity and performance that may take the old technology to unheard of heights. But in most cases is a sign of impending death." James M. Utterback, Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation Check outhttp://www.tompeters.com for some great slides on these subjects.

WildWildBusiness has developed a series of

Strategic 'Self-Designing' Workshops

to help executives and organisations

create their future.

Empowering Innovation to Benefit Business and Society

2005-11-25T17:44:00.000+01:00

This fall, join industry leaders and forward-thinkers at the DMI International Summit: Empowered Innovation to examine the role of empowered innovation in the creation of innovative products and services. Organised by DMI and hosted by the Massachusetts College of Art, this event will focus on understanding the role of purpose; the importance of shared processes; and the impact of context on taking new ideas from inception to realisation to benefit business and society. The Summit will focus on learning from each other in a very ceative context. Be prepared to share your expertise and to roll up your sleeves to tackle interactive projects on innovation! To read more about this exciting event check out the Design Management Institute. http://www.dmi.org

…the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who DO

2005-11-25T14:11:00.000+01:00

Steve Jobs CEO, Apple. WildWild Business is about ‘self-designing’ your future. Helping individuals and teams to find the edge of their thoughts and actions; helping to unfold the rich new territory of their imagination from the pages of their heart, helping them to create new highways and byways of thinking and doing. ‘Self-design’ recreates your inner organisational map and fashions a living breathing doorway for human beings to actualise their highest future potential and highest future purpose. In the design economy people will create their own future. "Now more than ever business needs people who can understand change, can cope with change. Can thrive on change. People of guts and spirit. Curiosity and passion. People who are up for the challenge. People who know what's right. And do the right thing. People who have a vision of how business can make The WORLD A BETTER PLACE." Kevin Roberts CEO Saatchi and Saatchi

...WildWildBusiness

the future beyond consulting

We are looking for outlaws, rebels & adventurers who

choose to make a difference...

If you always think in straight lines then you will keep going round in circles

2005-11-25T14:00:00.000+01:00

"Reactive learning is governed by downloading habitual ways of thinking, of continuing to see the world within the familiar categories we are comfortable with. We discount interpretations and options for action that are different from those we know and trust. We act to defend our own interests. In reactive learning, our actions are actually reinforced habits and we invariably end up reinforcing pre-established mental models. Regardless of the outcome we end up being right. At best we get better at what we have always done. We remain secure in the cocoon of our own worldview, isolated from the larger world." Peter Senge et al, Presence Please read this book it really opens the heart and mind to a new way of doing great business and finding your own purpose as a leader. Our normal way of thinking HIJACKS our highest future POTENTIAL and highest future PURPOSE. Who we are is the real question? "Who we are and the inner place or source from which we operate, both individually and collectively." "Our Blind Spot is WHO we ARE not the what and the how." If everybody THINKS the same then nobody THINKS! The silent killer of new ideas is the status quo a terminal disease triggered by fear, uncertainty and doubt whose symptoms are self-censure, compromise and consensus. And if we don't change direction we are likely to end up where we are headed ....................... Chinese Proverb Generally Corporate Education, Personal Development and Training can be characterised as learning the routes and names of a cities metro map... It's about travelling the route faster and faster-searching for greater efficiencies within the commonly accepted highways and byways of human thought and action. Feedback, a technique employed by business training schools from the behavioral school of psychology, is used as a means to keep people on the right tracks... this is about external control. It is about the optimisation of human skills and knowledge. This is business as normal. But, let's face it, no one ever contemplates changing the map. I mean, that would be crazy… Wouldn’t it…?

Expert Beginners

2005-11-24T16:29:00.000+01:00

When they think they know the answers People are difficult to guide When they know that they don't know People can find their own way Lao Tzu - Tao Te Ching The 'self-designing' workshops and retreats are about discovering your beginner's mind; this mind lies in the space between your habits of thinking, talking and acting. It requires real work and bravery because you have to go places that most people choose not to. Economic creativity is a matter of self-creation and its constraints are our unobserved habits of mind, speech and body. "Language is a plan of our mind" When we choose to examine the very foundation of our experience then we discover that the way we conceive ourselves, and our outside world is a matter of language, social convention and shared concepts. Nothing is actually fixed.

The key to understanding the art and practice of an unfrozen mind... (to find out the way in which my thinking has progressed you can check out my original website http://www.unfrozenmind.com) ...is to fully appreciate that our experience is organised into pre-established patterns. Once we recognise that our minds are conditioned then we can retrain the mind to realise your highest future potential and highest future purpose. The research being undertaken into the benefits of meditation, training the mind, and neuroscience demonstrate that we can take charge of our own experience and redirect it in a positive and nourishing manner. http://www.mind&life.org

Zen Master Seung Sahn talks about embracing 'don't know mind.' This 'not knowing' is where our experience of body, speech and mind is not born from habit. Following 'don't know mind' means embracing failure, repeatedly making mistakes. True learning takes place when we let go of what is secure and known and embrace the unknown future. Being an expert beginner means that you have to fully embrace the practice of self-love and outward compassion. When leaders operate from these key principles then their organisation changes...because it frees their people from the fear of making mistakes and being wrong, or not knowing the answer. An expert has to protect himself, an expert beginner is open to learning and new possibilities.The truth is if you are not making mistakes then you are not learning. Check out http://www.tompeters.com he preaches this code to business leaders and is brilliantly captured in his book Re-Imagine: business excellence in a disruptive age.

WildWildBusiness is the space between our thoughts, words and actions from which unfolds new narratives, that unite teams and individuals to 'self-create' their organisations and design their own future. Toby Coop 'Self-Creative' Director Wild Wild Business

Blue Ocean Strategy

2005-11-23T13:30:00.000+01:00

"How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant." W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne Last week was an incredible week. A team of amazing people including business leaders, consultants and Meditation masters conducted a series of meetings and workshops which resulted in the mental foundation stone being laid of The University of the Mind UOM and its operational arm WildWildBusiness WWB whose aim is to reframe the Executive Leadership education marketplace. Our 'Blue Ocean' strategy is based on the marriage of two concepts: one of economic creativity and the other of individual and team inner-development. From a strategic point of view we firmly believe that Coaching, Training and Consulting are becoming increasingly commoditized products...Kevin Roberts CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi has even reported that MBA's are becoming commoditized. There is no doubt in my mind...my opinion...that staying in the race will be painful and will end in tears. Stepping out of the race and redefining the rules of the game...called by De Bono surpetition...is our game and that is our goal. We are quite candid in our dream of starting a revolution of the 'business mind'...helping top executives discover their highest future potential and live their highest future purpose...helping to create 'self-designing' organisations. To support this goal we have outlined the structure of two organisations. The first is 'The University of The mind'...UOM...this will operate as a non-commercial foundation. The second is the operational arm...the business arm...called WildWildBusiness. The job of WWB is to sell and deliver world class Leadership training. (More on WWB later)

UOB In more detail...

The University of the Mind will be a center of excellence catering for two groups of people. The first group will be the CONSULTANTS from the WWB who will under go a five year rigorous training and examination programme. And the second group will be individuals and organisations requiring a different level of support and training. The UOM will be based around two core disciplines. The first discipline is the 'science of the mind'...this will be a five year training programme created and supported by leading meditation experts and scholars from Tibetan Buddhism (providing us with tools, techniques and know how)as well as leading authorities from western social and psychological scientific disciplines. The second discipline will be also be a five year training programme based around learning the key business and design skills of creativity, innovation and strategy: this will involve not just a theoretical understanding of 'design' but will also include a rigorous practical dimension supported by some of the worlds leading designers and innovators. The first UOM 'science of the mind' training programme for business leaders will take place in India in the first two weeks of January 2006. The training programme will be lead by Leading Tibetan Meditation Masters and scholars. We will be making a documentary of this training programme...more news to follow. If you feel inspired to help, support, join or just want more information...then contact me at toby.coop@unfrozenmind.com We are following that well known principle of Kevin Roberts CEO Saatchii and Saatchii Ready, Fire, Aim so beware things may change

In the design economy organisations will create their own future

2005-11-22T21:37:00.000+01:00

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world," this quote from Ghandi is the heart essence of the 'self-designing' organisation. It is now used by leaders and top consultants to demonstrate that the key to real change and innovation must begin with an inward journey to discover who you really are and your real leadership challenge in life. I really do encourage everyone to revisit Chris Argyris and his work on how 'Good Communication Blocks Learning.' Check out the HarvardBusinessonline. What follows is only a snapshot of his work...please read his paper in detail. Imagine that you are facing a difficult problem at work or at home. It's a problem that requires a face to face meeting to solve the issue. Spend some time thinking about it. Then take a piece of paper and divide it in to two. Mark the left handside column 'A' and the right handside 'B'. In the 'B' column write down the actual dialogue between the two of you as it takes place..what you said 'Q'...and then what they said 'A'...continue till you have completed at least three pages. Then move accross to the 'A' column and write down all your unsaid feelings and thoughts. In brief what you will discover is that on the 'B' side of the paper...you operate from three key principals of self-censure, compromise and consensus... the very opposite of an open and honest dialogue...whilst the 'A' side is characterised by fear, uncertainty and doubt. The line down the middle of the page is the status quo and its gravitational force never allows the 'A' side to surface on the 'B' side. Chris Argyris called this gravitational force skilled unawareness. The WildWildBusiness 'Self-Designing' workshops and retreats are aimed at helping business leaders transform their GRAVITY, the governing principles, which dominate the creation of experience...in short WildWild Business helps them to learn how to design their experience rather then their experience design them. The challenge of organisations in the design economy is to move from the 'B' side to the 'A' side. If we turn our page horizontally so that the 'B' side is uppermost then we realise that our highest future potential and highest future purpose is to be found down where our most deepest fears and doubts lie. The successful outcome of this inner voyage can be understood as creating an 'emotional differentiation' for the individual and the organisation... Carefully watch your Thoughts for they will become your Words Manage and watch your Words for they will become your Actions Consider and judge your Actions for the will become your Habits Acknowledge and watch your Habits for they will become your Values Understand and embrace your values for they will become your destiny Mahatma Gandhi In short WildWildBusiness is about creating high economic creativity through high individual and team inner-development... in the design economy organisations will create their own future...thus the The'Self-Designing'Organisation. Toby Coop 'Self-Creative' Director WildWildBusiness

It's ok to talk about the 's' word 'spirit' in business

2005-11-22T15:37:00.000+01:00

Just received this note below and e mail connection to spiritinbusiness.org from our man in London Alexei Levene, who has just voluntereed to join us in India and our journey...more on that later. http://www.spiritinbusiness.org/board.php Alexei is setting up a meeting with one of the guys to connect us....keep us informed Alexei. Alan Wallace, a noted scholar, wrote a book about The Taboo of Subjectivity:Towards a New Science of Conscience. NewYork:OUP,2000. It seems, we are breaking the final taboo at last...lets hear your comments. "Introducing Spirit in Business Amsterdam, October 1999: "Compassion or Competition ?", a forum on "Human Values in Business and Economics" attended by 400 invited guests from business, politics and civil society, including H.H. Prince Willem-Alexander. The speakers, H.H. The Dalai Lama, former Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, PwC global managing partner Jermyn Brooks, economist Hazel Henderson, societal leader Geoff Mulgan and distinguished discussants inspired a community around the integration ofour deeper selves, values and aspirations with our entrepreneurial endeavours and leadership. In April 2002, SiB convened in New York, with 550 executives present. SiB formally launched. For the first time, Fortune 500 leaders and business publicly accepted that it was OK to talk about the "s" word, "spirit" in business. In June 2003, the third major SiB event, alongside a Women's Forum, held in San Francisco with 350 participants. The following SiB event, the 2004 Forum "Great Leaders Good Leaders ", was held in Zürich, Switzerland, on Sept. 30-October 2, 2004, deliberately a more private, smaller gathering. Raison d'etreWith the current vacuum in political and business leadership degrading respect, value and confidence, SiB is building a community of leaders and entrepreneurs who operate daily from their internal compasses, inspiration and inner values, who understand that integrity, creativity and ethics are internally formed rather than legally, organizationally or politically imposed. Leaders who are authentic and caring, as well as being driven by passion, bravery and imagination to build new and better enterprises. Globalization and the complexity of economic systems require us to adopt new ways of learning, knowing and operating which recognize interconnectedness, oneness and diversity. These are the central features of the modern scientific worldview and, in fact, of life itself. Values-based conduct and stewardship emerge as the natural qualifications for leadership / entrepreneurship and as the source of strategic insight into, and inspiration for, corporate citizenship, sustainable practices and business performance. The experience of interconnectedness and consciousness - which is closely associated with "spirit" - also opens the door to unlocking our creativity, purpose and vision. True leadership - responsible, authentic, conscious, innovative, inspired - is a product of both our mind, heart and spirit. Toby Coop..one day I will figure how not to be Ralph...

Today is a 'good day' to get fired

2005-11-22T00:30:00.000+01:00

Today I got fired for believing in an idea. An idea that management has outlived itself and needs to be replaced by something which revitalises the human spirit. Not my set of ideas, but I have packaged a new way of leadership development based on designing experience...called 'self-design'..... which is quite revolutionary and unique...something which I firmly believe in and was the reason I was given this job. Steve Jobs talks about making a dent in the universe...we talked about making the world spin on our fingertips. I am employed by an idea, not a job title, and when action is allied to a higher purpose, magic happens. And for a small group we have been making magic...a team of Krauthammer people, customers and an external team of friends, who have been really great to work with and who have claimed a great place in my memory. An idea, if it's worthy of its title, should be by definition dangerous. It is dangerous because it threatens the status quo which seeks to control and suppress it. Control born of fear. Control born of doubt. Control born of ego. And control equates to the suppression of your soul, your dreams and to a great extent your life. And this is skilled unawareness, a cycle of defensive routines, which trap organisations into thinking, they are moving forward, when in fact they are going around in circles. And today that mode of blind vision, of remaining in a state of 'learning not to learn', reached its pinnacle. The status quo is a force equal in power to gravity, a force hidden to the naked eye, which keeps an organisation at perpetual rest. In the design economy products are ideas. Therefore organisations should be places where ideas, great ideas, are born developed and launched. Places where people are set free to think their greatest thoughts and do their greatest deeds. Organisations, which unchain the human heart from doubt and set the mind free to create and innovate, become legends and their products become the heroes of the future. When we are all employed by ideas that are greater than ourselves, then we set the human spirit free to walk a new path, to set the world alight with recovered dreams, aspirations, hopes and emotions. Leadership is about being employed by an idea, not a job title. Leadership is about uniting an organisation around a narrative of possibility- a story that transforms the future. The self-designing organisation is about making a marriage of your 'highest future thoughts' and 'highest future actions.' Leadership is about creating more leaders not followers. In the design economy organisations should make themselves redundant...they should become vehicles that help people become employed by an idea greater than themselves, ideas which stretch the imagination to the edge---the edge where business becomes a force for good---good for its people and good for the planet. Organisations are created to control, to manage, to limit. Self-designing organisations are ruled by ideas- in which the only limit is testing the edge of the future - the edge of your current thoughts - the edge of your fear of change. Self-designing organisations Ctrl Alt and Delete themselves in favour of employing people based on a call to arms on a vision, a dream, that reorganises the possible, "to imperfectly seize the unknown." An organisation is created around habits. Habits which control our thinking, talking and doing; habits that are anchored in the past and where success is measured incrementally, and where our dreams are murdered, silently in the dark, by optimisation. Our blind spot is in not understanding how these habits organise our experience and edit our perception accordingly. A self-designing organisation is organised around transforming those same habits into an idea. It is about developing habits with eyes and ears that operate on a 360-degree bandwidth. The unknown is only that which has been excluded by the routine of habit. Yet thought is just one mode of transport in the mind that keeps you trapped in the past. Riding that space between your habit of thinking, speaking and doing is just another mode of transport. This space between your habits is the unfrozen mind. It is where your true potential as a leader lies. It is where your true story lies, unmarred by habits. This is about designing experience, about learning the tools and skills to create your own future. When you employ people by ideas you don’t have to worry about job descriptions or organisational structures. Heart and passion replace business cards, and organisational charts tumble down from the sheer faith in the idea- and then 'we become a force of nature.' Well there is a small group of us who are lead by an idea. And I have news for you, when you are employed by an idea you cannot be sacked. Toby Coop Self-Creative Director (ex-Krauthammer International)

Bringing out the best in people, the next level?

2005-11-21T13:16:00.000+01:00

Your world in 2015, 10 trends that are coming up and can change the world in the next 10 years. (taken from 'Ode, magazine for intelligent optimists', dec 2005). "Trend 6: WHO ARE YOU? Maybe this is too easy: we are in this world to be ourselves. No 2 individuals are the same. That is our biggest gift. (....) Our true challenge is to take part in society as our true self, not as timid, rightless serfs who execute other people's ideas. Still we live in a world in which men as managers and politicians take decisions that at home, as fathers and neighbours, they would never take. We see bureaucrats and subordinates execute tight rules that they themselves do not believe in. This enormous lack of authenticity, especially with those IN POWER, is a huge source of cynics in society. (...) People who realise their 'calling' are of a tremendous importance to those around them. They are a source of inspiration and give a new meaning to their own life. This often shows by a strong desire towards a direct personal experience that leads to direct involvement and responsibility. (....) They try sincerely to bridge the gap between what happens in their office and what happens elsewhere in the world. They unite their world." This article was waiting for me on my doorstep when coming home from Paris, last Saturday. For me it puts into words perfectly why I want to be involved in this project. What we are doing is setting up a branche of training and coaching that will go beyond training very useful skills and attitudes. Then where does it take us? To BRINGING OUT the authentic BEST in us. It accelerates our discovery towards our calling in a way that we did not imagine possible. If it is the next thing to happen, then who is going to be the guide in the process for the business community? This is wildwildbusiness. Now I have only spent three days with this crew so far, but I already know for a fact 3 things: 1 this is the next level, beyond what we are bringing today 2 it is already bringing out the best in me: after two years of being constantly tired I feel connected, I am on fire and doing things I did not know I was able to do. 3 'wildwildbusiness' as a name was well chosen, because this idea will take the (business) world like a storm. Even though I have no more doubts, I still have a million questions. One of them is how you feel about all this, and I can only imagine you have a few things on your mind yourself. This forum is meant to share them, in whatever politically correct or incorrect way. So come on! Let's have it! That too is wildwildbusiness....

Open Note by Ronald Meijers

2005-11-18T14:05:00.000+01:00

In June of this year Toby Coop was appointed as Knowledge Creator (external jobtitle:Creative Director) at Krauthammer International...He probably is the first such a person appointed to any human capital firm and certainly the first to Krauthammer.....and he is now 'airtraffic-controlling' a process that has started with the purpose to 're-define our 'didactics' ...

Toby has been working on concepts like Imagineering, Unfrozen Mind and Life Design for over 4 plus years and is now seeing them come to fruition within Krauthammer...we believe that we are about to design a new space in the market. ....with great potential for our beautiful firm to prosper and grow....with a lot of work in progress....and nothing 'final' yet.....

Currently we are running a series of workshops in Paris with people from Krauthammer Ã¡nd a customer, which we will conclude with an evening showin which the team will tell stories they have created as real life samples and means of defining a future strategy for the business...illustrating the process of 'strategic imagineering'.

On behalf of the 'Life Design Team' (formerly known as The Magnificent 7) I am happy to invite you to this Special Event and to enlighten yourself and the team with your presence.

Please let us know that you will be there!

Looking forward to unforeseen & unexpexted encounters

With kind regards,

Ronald Meijers Executive Board Krauthammer International

Hello & Welcome

2005-11-18T09:30:00.000+01:00

Hi there and welcome to the accompanying blog about the "WildWildBusiness" project which kicks off today in Paris. Currently everyone is pretty busy to set up the stage for the event which is actually happening on a ship on the Seine river in Paris tonight. Toby Coop the initiator of the event together with various people from Krauthammer International arranged this event in order to engage a larger set of people from the organization in the idea of empowering business executives in a dramatically different way. While I (Ralf Beuker) joined the team yesterday for the first time I will pass to Toby who will write some lines about what we are going to expect tonight! Stay tuned :)