Facilitator’s ABC: Binary

Cord Oliver Molthanattitude, facilitation, leadership

Is either-or a satisfactory choice to engage with something or someone? The food is good. The boss is stupid. The colleague is likeable. The defeat is bitter. It makes life easy. Open the drawer, put something or someone in it, add a judgement: voilà my way to see the world. I wonder if a facilitator can work like that. Participant …

Facilitator’s ABC: Touch

Cord Oliver Molthanattitude, facilitation

The room is full of people. Ten, fifteen, twenty…… the number does not matter. They are there and mostly expecting things of which they themselves are not aware. The surface attitude ranges from open rejection to expectation-free endurance. And yet, deep down, they all hope that something will happen that has meaning. Meaning for one’s own self, for one’s own …

Facilitator’s ABC: Expectations

Cord Oliver Molthanattitude, facilitation

Shortly before nine o’clock in the morning. The room is slowly filling up. A coffee cup in hand here and there. A yawn. Phones to the ear. Mutual greetings. Focus comes slowly. And then the facilitator approaches the topic step by step and – as learned as important in many trainings – asks for the expectations of the participants. And …

Facilitator’s ABC: Point Thread Bandwidth

Cord Oliver Molthanattitude, facilitation

One large room. Thirty-one people from one organization. Many have long tenure with the company. Diverse departments. All connected to technology. The big boss comes in and says why everyone has come together and where to go. No questions. No resentment. Big boss leaves. Facilitator takes over. Greeting. Warming up with each other. Question: do you all know why you …

Rethink, Redefine the Idea of Work

Adminattitude

by Christelle Kamanan, contributing journalist, August 2022 The job market, as it is, is not wanted anymore. With all the progress in technology and other areas, there is no point in having most people spend that much time working. It’s urgent to rethink and redefine the concept of having a job and its role in society. Other paradigms are flourishing …

The Future of Work

Cord Oliver Molthanattitude

by Chrsitelle Kamanan, April 2022 Well-being, a fair work-life balance and a meaningful job are part of the top criteria of the working class. It accompanies the urge for drastic changes to face environmental and social challenges. Companies undertake them with Future-of-work, which should provide employees with more self-accomplishment, efficiency and agility. This model is supposed to pave the way …

Don’t care about being authentic

Cord Oliver Molthanattitude

by Christelle Kamanan, January 2022 Authenticity is the current buzzword. People speak of being authentic either to define a brand or to speak about personal objectives and relationships. It does not make much sense, and it is useless and vague. Being authentic does not indicate what you want, and it also does not say anything about you. Claiming authenticity equals …

Facilitator’s ABC: abundance

Cord Oliver Molthanattitude, facilitation

A = Abundance There is so much to do, says a poster of the FDP for the federal election 2021 in Germany. Probably true. There is always plenty to do, especially if you know or have mastered something. Topics are interwoven, a thought leads to an association leads to an expression of opinion and before you know it, a new …

Facilitator’s ABC: speed

Cord Oliver Molthanattitude, facilitation

S = speed I do speed! One of the five priorities for managers in the new normal is speed. Things should happen quickly, says one of the large consulting firms. The digital must be implemented quickly, resilience should be anchored quickly in the organization and among employees, new collaboration models should be developed as quickly as possible…….. . Whatever you …

The Unknown & Normality

Cord Oliver Molthanattitude, facilitation

Extraordinary events interrupt the more or less steady flow of routine work with noise. Man’s first reaction to the loud interruption is fright. This is followed by the question of how to cope with the unknown and how to reintroduce, bit by bit, tested small routines that come closer to the goal of normality desired and strived for on all …

Critical Thinking

Cord Oliver Molthanattitude, leadership

The Probem Everyone thinks. It is our nature to do so. But much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed, or downright prejudiced. Yet, the quality of our life and that of what we produce, make, or build depends precisely on the quality of our thought. Shoddy thinking is costly, both in money and in quality of …

Unexamined life

Cord Oliver Molthanattitude

What does it mean to live an examined life? By John Dennis, Science and Enlightenment fan “The unexamined life is not worth living” is one of Socrates’ most famous statements from Plato’s Apology. …… In my opinion living an examined life has different meanings for each individual: For Cicero the examined life was a life rooted in honesty and serving …

Customer Experience

Cord Oliver Molthanattitude

The company is a leading global manufacturer of standard software, services and solutions. His name appears on my phone bill with a monthly amount for a service I purchased. I would like to cancel this service. The number that appears on my phone bill only gives me a busy signal when I call. The reception of the German head office …

Umdenken: complexity

Cord Oliver Molthanattitude

If complexity and uncertainty are too great for the average educated person in a responsible position, the very same person should have the idea and courage to ask someone who is familiar with the subject. Some ideas: logicians, scenario thinkers, probability calculators, philosophers, complexity researchers, design thinkers…to mention a few. They all exist. Are they heard?

Facilitator’s ABC: how to think

Cord Oliver Molthanattitude, creativity, facilitation

T = Lateral Thinking Rightness is what matters in vertical thinking. Richness is what matters in lateral thinking. Vertical thinking selects a pathway by excluding other pathways. Lateral thinking does not select but seeks to open up other pathways. With vertical thinking one selects the most promising approach to a problem, the best way of looking at a situation. With …