Dagen började med hagel, sedan regn och sist fluffig snö. Det var alldeles för kallt eftersom det blåste så mycket. 

Obama apparently appointed a person who believes he is serving America first and foremost–rather than Israel–as the chair the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. And that’s a “no no” for the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). Check out their statement and their accusations of the guy. It’s totally the man, Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb), just explaining his loyalty to the interest of the people who elected him over any other. The ZOA really doesn’t hear itself talking.

Here is the ZOA statement through JTA:

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has called upon President Barack Obama to rescind his appointment of retired anti-Israel, anti-Iran sanctions Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. Hagel, has who will co-chair the Board, has a long and troubling record of hostility to Israel which has been criticized by both the Democratic and Republican Jewish coalitions.

In fact, the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) posted in March 2007, when Sen. Hagel was seeking the Republican presidential nomination, a detailed list of then-Senator Hagel’s record on Israel that reads as follows:

“In August 2006, Hagel was one of only 12 Senators who refused to write the EU asking them to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

In October 2000, Hagel was one of only 4 Senators who refused to sign a Senate letter in support of Israel.

In November 2001, Hagel was one of only 11 Senators who refused to sign a letter urging President Bush not to meet with the late Yassir Arafat until his forces ended the violence against Israel.

In December 2005, Hagel was one of only 27 who refused to sign a letter to President Bush to pressure the Palestinian Authority to ban terrorist groups from participating in Palestinian legislative elections.

In June 2004, Hagel refused to sign a letter urging President Bush to highlight Iran’s nuclear program at the G-8 summit” (‘Indecisive Senator Hagel has Questionable Israel Record,’ March 12, 2007, National Jewish Democratic Council).

Additionally, Sen. Hagel wrote in a 2002 Washington Post op-ed that he opposed then-President George W. Bush’s refusal to meet arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat saying that “we cannot hold the Middle East peace process hostage by making Yasser Arafat the issue … Palestinian reformers cannot promote a democratic agenda for change while both the Israeli military occupation and settlement activity continue … Israel must take steps to show its commitment to peace” (‘We Shouldn’t Make Arafat the Issue,’ Washington Post, July 19, 2002).

Hagel has stated (in an interview quoted in Aaron David Miller’s Much Too Promised Land) that “The political reality is that … the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here,” thereby implying that Americans who express concern for Israel and see the U.S.-Israeli relationship as a cornerstone of American security have dual loyalties. When once confronted with the charge that he is insufficiently supportive of Israel, Hagel replied, “Let me clear something up here if there’s any doubt in your mind. I’m a United States Senator. I’m not an Israeli senator. I’m a United States Senator. I support Israel. But my first interest is, I take an oath of office to the constitution of the United States. Not to a president, not to a party, not to Israel” (Quoted in ‘RJC: Hagel’s record makes intelligence panel appointment troubling,’ October 28, 2009, Republican Jewish Coalition).

In October 2008, Hagel prevented action on a Senate bill – sponsored by then-Senator Barack Obama – proposing economic sanctions against Iran. Hagel has argued that, “Whether we like it or not, there will be no peace or stability in the Middle East without Iran’s participation” (Connie Bruck, ‘The Odd Man Out,’ New Yorker Magazine, November 3, 2008)

John J. Miller, National Review’s National Political Reporter, wrote the following about Hagel in 2002:

“There’s nothing Hagel likes less than talking about right and wrong in the context of foreign policy. Pro-Israeli groups view him almost uniformly as a problem. ‘He doesn’t always cast bad votes, but he always says the wrong thing,’ comments an Israel supporter who watches Congress. An April speech is a case in point. ‘We will need a wider lens to grasp the complex nature and consequences of terrorism,’ said Hagel. He went on to cite a few examples of terrorism: FARC in Colombia, Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, and the Palestinian suicide bombers. Then he continued, ‘Arabs and Palestinians view the civilian casualties resulting from Israeli military occupation as terrorism.’ He didn’t exactly say he shares this view — but he also failed to reject it” (John J. Miller, ‘Sen. Skeptic (R., France),’ National Review, August 17, 2002).

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “It is clear from Chuck Hagel’s record in the Senate that we have here an unusually hostile figure when it comes to Israel, the U.S.-Israeli relationship and one who shows little interest in dealing with the threat posed by Iran to the U.S., Israel and the world by their seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. That such a figure will have a key role to play on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board is of grave concern. This is especially so when one considers that the Intelligence Advisory Board exists solely for the purpose of providing the President with an independent source of advice on intelligence matters and which reports directly to him.

“We call upon President Obama to rescind this appointment and we call upon other pro-American, American Jewish groups and pro-Israel groups to do the same. In particular, we call upon the National Jewish Democratic Council, which scrupulously noted then-Senator Hagel’s shortcomings on Israel when he was seeking the Republican presidential nomination, to make its voice heard in opposition to this truly disturbing appointment.

“Any American who is concerned about Iran’s drive to obtain nuclear weapons, maintaining the Israeli-U.S. relationship and supporting Israel in its legitimate fight to protect her citizens from terrorism should oppose this appointment.”

I think Obama is going to give them the finger on this one. Israel is not in the position they had just early this year when Obama tried to appoint Charles Freeman as National Intelligence Council and the man ended up resigning over insane slander and pressure from the Israel Lobby. Gaza, Goldstone, the feud over settlements that is embarrassing Obama so much, the rise of J Street, etc all happened and is happening so fast that the it marks a real shift in the power of the traditional Israeli lobby.

The President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB) is getting two new co-chairs–former Senators David Boren of Oklahoma and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska:

“I’m very pleased that these two distinguished Americans have agreed to serve as co-chairmen of my Intelligence Advisory Board,” Obama said in a statement released by the White House. “They have been leading voices on intelligence and security issues, and they represent the bipartisan consensus for a strong and smart national security policy. They have my full support, will report to me, and will have the full cooperation of my National Security Council staff and the organizations represented here.”

Perhaps this position might be a warm-up for bigger and better things for these two gentlemen?

… ein kreativerer Titel fällt mir momentan leider nicht ein. Ich dachte mir, ich schreibe mal wieder ein paar Zeilen und lade ein paar Bilder hoch, für die Leutchen die es interessiert, wie es mir hier in Lund so ergeht.

Major News (man verzeihe mir meine englischen Einwürfe, ich spreche zu 99% englisch hier): Meine Kurse haben endlich angefangen. Genau genommen hat ein Kurs angefangen (“Education, Culture and Lifestyle in Sweden”), dieser allerdings Vollzeit, 7.5 ECTS Punkte in 4 Wochen. Gruppenarbeit spielt hier eine deutlich größere Rolle als in Deutschland, und ich bin positiv davon überrascht, wie gut das funktioniert. Vor Beginn des Kurses war ich fast anderthalb Monate “kursfrei”, was damit zusammenhängt, dass die Kurse hier blockweise stattfinden, und meine gewählten (ohne mein Wissen zum Zeitpunkt der Wahl) alle in der zweiten Semesterhälfte stattfinden.

Minor News: Freizeitgestaltung. Früh morgens aufstehen, mir ein paar Klamotten überziehen und mich auf die Straße gegenüber vom Wohnheim stellen. Feueralarm, 3 mal in einer Woche (und keiner davon Probealarm). Jedoch keine ernsthaften Schäden.

Weiterhin fotografiere ich gelegentlich aus dem Fenster, zum Beispiel wenn es hagelt…

… oder kurz davor:

Um die Zeit vor Beginn meines ersten Kurses totzuschlagen, habe ich beschlossen ein neues Instrument zu lernen. Und weil hier ja alles so teuer ist, konnte es natürlich kein großes teures Instrument sein, also habe ich mir ein kleines billiges gekauft: 250 SEK (ca. 25€) für eine Ukulele im örtlichen Musikladen.

Auf dem Bild (hinter der Kamera Lolo aus China, glaube ich): Roommate Niels (aus Belgien) und ich in der Küche:

Natürlich verbringe ich nicht meine gesamte Zeit im oder vor dem Wohnheim, gelegentlich fröne ich auch der vielseitigen Abendunterhaltung in Lund, zum Beispiel Open Mic Night (Smålands Nation) oder Wisecrackers All English Comedy Club (Västgöta & Helsingkrona Nation), teste Pubs oder verlasse Lund um mal die Nachbarschaft auszuchecken (womit ich natürlich Malmö meine).

Malmö ist ein Kapitel für sich, so etwas wie der unliebsame hässliche große Bruder von Lund, der sehr komischen Dialekt spricht (Skånska, deutlich intensiver als in Lund, obwohl nur 10 Minuten mit der Bahn entfernt). Skånska oder auch schonisch ist so etwas wie eine Mischung aus Schwedisch und Dänisch und klingt, als müsse man sich übergeben.

Dafür ist Malmö größer und hat viel, was man in Lund nicht findet. Zum Beispiel größere Konzerte (Devildriver, Killswitch Engage und In Flames werde ich mir dort im November und Dezember anschauen), eine Lasertag Arena (awesome! Foto von Tobi, auf dem Foto ich, Tobi und Emrah) und ein Eishockey Team, die “Malmö Red Hawks”.

So, nun neigt sich mein großes Update dem Ende zu. Demnächst: Ein letzter Heimaturlaub bevor ich im Juni 2010 wieder nach Hause zurückkehre: National Poetry Slam in Düsseldorf!

das wetter meints gut heut mit mir
damit mir nicht langweilig wird hier
regnets und schneits grade nicht
nein, es hagelt ganz dicht!

This years Training Camp, which Coach Weber called the most competitive in his time here in Cincinnati, wraps up this week. The camp saw potential ‘Clones spend most of their time practicing behind closed doors down at USBA; they did have two public sessions at Northlands Ice Center, which will serve as their new practice facility. I was able to check both sessions out and was impressed with what I saw.

The Team also played two preseason games against the Toledo Walleye. The first game, played at USBA, saw the ‘Clones control the play but ultimately lose 3-2. The second game played at Toledo’s Tam-o-Shanter saw the Cyclones’ offense come to life and take a 7-4 decision.  John “the Hammer” Hamel’s official recaps for both games can be found here.

As the team gets ready to pack up and head on the road to Elmira, where they will open the season, Coach Weber still has some tough decisions to make before Wednesday, when the final rosters are do. The latest round of cuts inlcude Sam Bloom (F), Travis Winter (F), Jason Woll (D) and Felix Petit (F).

I was a bit disappointed to see Woll and Petit go. I’ve always liked the tenacity of Woll back on the blueline; he played a physical and chippy, yet mostly clean game. He played a solid game but compared to the others in the defensive core, I just don’t think that he had the same skill and someone had to be the odd man out. The Waiving of Petit caught me completely by surprise. The numbers Felix generated in the Junior ranks would suggest that he has plenty of offensive potential. Coach Weber spoke briefly about Felix Monday night at the Coach’s Show stating that Felix was very good on the PP, but didn’t mention much else about it. It’s only speculation but my guess is Felix wasn’t quite solid enough in the defensive zone.

As I type, the Cyclones announced they have released Kyle Hagel from his Tryout Agreement. I can’t say that this really surprises me, I figured that only Hans Benson or Hagel would make the squad. During the preseason game I was impressed with Benson’s skating where a Hagel didn’t really show up for moe other than his fight, which was a solid performance I should add.

The release of Hagel puts the roster at 23.  The ECHL roster maximum for active players is 20 (not including suspended players or injured reserve). The League allows for 3 players to be on active reserve; one on 3-day, one on 7-day and one on 21-day. With creative use of the IR, Chuck will not be required to waive another player. However, that would require someone to be put on the 21-day IR to start the season.

Barring another player release, the next stop is Elmira and the regular season, which makes me wonder; what’s worse than the bus trip to Elmira for a road game? How about the bus trip to Elmira for a HOME game.

-Mike-

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Apple ad, “Think Different”, 1997

Why did Apple’s ad resonate so well with you? After all, how much time do we spend disagreeing. Admit how happy it can make you when your manager praises you for executing well on an assignment. I know I feel it. No “think different”. More like “think excellence”.

But that Apple ad. It was damn good, wasn’t it? Seemed to reach inside us to something else beside the praise we get for doing an assigned job well. It was celebrating some thing in each of us.

John Hagel recently wrote A Labor Day Manifesto for a New World. The post is a call to action for work that better fits our human nature. Our desire for creating better ways to address problems, in ways that fit our personality, interests and skills. To reach our full potential. We’re not all doing this though.

Hagel terms people whose personalities and drive are based on making situations better than what currently exists as “passionate creatives”. There have always been these types, but recent changes in the global economy and shifting market dynamics (e.g. digital technology rewriting one industry after another) are increasing their importance.

Passionate creatives exist within organizations, and as independent entrepreneurs. For those inside firms, Hagel notes:

They experience deep frustration today with the institutional barriers that have been put in their way as they seek to more effectively achieve their full potential.  They want and need platforms that can help them connect with others and drive performance to new levels.

For many of us, even if we wouldn’t label ourselves “passionate creatives”, the point about frustration resonates. How often have you had an idea, but can’t attention for it, nor resources, nor figure out who else to work with? I’ve had jobs like that in the past. You know some things are not working well, and you can see how to improve the product/delivery/business model. But you can’t make headway on iterating through new possibilities.

Hagel’s manifesto is a great read. I want to hit on two points I take away from it:

• What is the role of “passionate creativity” in daily work?
• The gathering of passionate creatives at the edges and the accelerating rate of change in markets

The Role of Passionate Creativity in Work

Very few of us get to live a life of unfettered passionate creativity. The realities of the mundane trump the thrill of the new. And that’s not a fault of the system. If all we did was work on new stuff, there’d be no stability and no scalability. More like mass economic anarchy.

But that’s too heavy handed a look at it. We can be quite productive and help our companies, and careers, while working on tasks that hit our passionate creative sweet spot. A good question to ask is, how much of this passionate creativity infuses our work days?

Take a look at those two Venn Diagrams. They’re saying different things. The left one says that we all have to execute on tasks assigned by others, or assigned by ourselves for the role we fill. In some of that work, we’ll have the opportunity to reach deeper, to deliver creativity on an activity that animates us. But the primary focus is executing on the plans and processes already in place.

The right one indicates a job which is dominated by passionate creativity. Hagel’s call-to-action is more aligned here. We work primarily on things which stimulate and energize us regularly. But there is a twist to this notion. It doesn’t mean spending one’s time on only starry-eyed big picture thinking, producing little of tangible value for your organization. It includes work by those “who are searching for new and creative ways to do the most ‘routine’ tasks.”

Which model of work are we likely to see arise in the next decade or two? Both. Neither. Yes.

Hagel’s manifesto is not so much a clear-eyed plan for rearranging organizations. Rather, it’s a wake-up call to the corporate world that the nature of work and what employees seek is changing. As he says:

Why will more and more people evolve into passionate creatives? Because we live in a world that is shifting inexorably from an obsession with efficiency to an obsession with learning.  We have come to call this the Big Shift.

In that statement, I draw some conclusions that relate which model above will emerge. First, note that the Big Shift is a shift in “obsessions”. From efficiency to learning. That’s a shift in attention, and in resources. It’s a shift in the dynamics of the supply side of the equation.

What hasn’t shifted is the demand side of the equation. Consumers worldwide still depend on the massive efficiencies that Tayloresque methodologies have brought to our economy.

So there’s the quandary: if we’re all working on things that inflame our passionate creativity, who is minding the massive scalability store?

My sense is that the Venn Diagram on the left is closer to what we’ll see. Enlightened companies will follow the examples set by Google and 3M, encouraging employees to pursue initiatives outside their regular routines. This does a couple things:

• It provides an outlet for growing passionate creativity on a wider basis
• Some of those initiatives will turn into full-fledged projects

The second point then lets employees live a life in the right-side Venn Diagram.

Passionate Creatives at the Edges

Another point Hagel makes is that passionate creatives tend to occupy spaces that are “edges”:

Passionate creatives are everywhere among us, but they are not evenly distributed. They tend to gather on the edges where unmet needs intersect with unexploited capabilities.  Edges are fertile seedbeds for innovation.

Reading this, I was struck by how well this fits with the observation that Gary Hamel made. The pace of change in markets is faster now than it ever has been in history. What this means is that Hagel’s edges – unmet needs intersect with unexploited capabilities – will be more frequently found.

Companies need to get better in pivoting to meet changes in their markets. And this keeps CEOs up at night. IBM surveyed global CEOs in 2008, asking them about their view of changes in their markets. The results are eye-opening:

Collectively, CEOs set their organization’s ability to manage change 22 percentage points lower than their expectations for the level of change they will have to manage — a ‘change gap’ that is widening.

A wide ‘change gap’ there, isn’t it? If Hamel identifies the problem companies face, Hagel identifies the types of workers who will make a difference in addressing the problem. The passionate creatives.

The edges are places of opportunity and uncertainty. It’s hard to know what the demand dynamics are, and existing infrastructure and processes don’t address the changing market needs. New alternatives are emerging, it’s time for fresh approaches by existing firms.

Companies are best-served by allowing employees who are attracted to these changes to pursue innovative ways to address them. Why? They get energy. They get an experimenter’s mentality. They get a happier workforce. Let employees exercise some form of self-organization to accomplish this.

The alternative may be incumbent staffers who have fallen into routines, or have reason to protect the status quo. This does not help companies address rising levels of volatility. Free the passionate creatives!

Passionate Creativity Will Fall on a Spectrum

My sense is that work will evolve, over years and decades, to allow people to shift attention to work that energizes them more fully. It will happen on a spectrum, with daily jobs that fall between those two Venn Diagrams above. Society cannot get away from the requirements of predictability, efficiency and scalability. We’re all going to have elements of our jobs that are routine.

I think Hagel’s post is right on though. It will be a slow change where companies integrate the existing passionate creatives more effectively, and develop the passionate creativity in all employees. Companies doing it well will need to celebrated and publicized repeatedly for the value to be understood more widely in the market.Over time, we’ll see the change.

Note what G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Louis Vitón wrote in this recent Business Week article. Passionate creatives like to “follow the challenges”:

Stop and think about the last truly great person who left your organization. First think about what made that employee great. We bet you name such characteristics as action-oriented, driven, passionate, fun, and genuine.

Now think about where that worker went. Chances are, to a position with a perceived promise of putting his or her talents to better use—moving into a role with greater challenges and opportunities to learn and make a difference. It wasn’t about money.

It will happen. Here’s to the passionate creatives.

As we roll into the 1st preseason game I wanted to catch up on a few things. First, here’s a list of all the guys that have rolled through camp thus far:

Forwards

Sam Bloom

Jonathan Duchesneau

Kenton Dulle

Barret Ehgoetz

Kyle Hagel

Adam Krug

Bryan Leitch

Felix Petit

Matt Pierce

Scott Reynolds

Brett Robinson

Dustin Sproat

Mark Voakes

Travis Winter

Hans Benson

Mike McLean

Jimmy Kilpatrick

Defensemen

Michael Busto

Reid Cashman

Jamie Coghlan

Shawn Fensel

Jason Josza

Kirk Medernach

Brian O’Hanely

Brock Sheahan

Jason Woll

Dwayne Zinger

Doug Krantz

Kevin Roeder

Goalies

Robert Mayer

It appears that Milwaukee has finally gotten around to sending us Jeremy Smith, but nothing official from the team yet.

Secondly, if you’re planning on heading down to USBA for tonight’s preseason tilt against the Toledo Walleye, here are the guys you definitely won’t see in action: Jonathan Duchesneau, Kenton Dulle, Adam Krug, Kirk Medernach, and Shawn Fensel. Duchesneau, Dulle Krug and Medernach were released and Fensel was suspended.

I had a chance to check out the public training camp sessions and was impressed with the size and speed of the squad. Chuck has some tough decisions to make regarding who will stay and who will go; just about any of the guys who may not make the team can play at this level and are guys we would have welcomed with open arms last January.

I’ll be updating later with my impressions of tonight’s game later tonight.

-Mike-

Much has been written about collaborate teams within organizations to encourage creativity and much has been written about “Creative Abrasion” – creating a culture where ideas are challenged and new “intersections” are constantly made.   The two ideas are not mutually exclusive; they can co-exist within one organization, even though they may seem to be Opposites.   In fact, companies that are able to encourage both behaviors seem to be benefiting in the present economic environment.

Can a company culture support both?

Creative Friction

What do we mean by Creative Abrasion and what  causes this sort of friction within companies?

The terms was apparently created by Jerry Hirshberg, founder and president of Nissan Design International (NDI).  Xerox Parc leader John Seeley Brown refers to “creative abrasion” as: ideas that really rub against each other productively as opposed to destructively.”

A good example of creative abrasion was the birth of the Apple Macintosh computer.  It’s a well-known fact that Jobs took the original team out of the mainstream organization, created a sort of “skunk-works” within Apple, to complete the entire product (hardware, software) without having to deal with the hierarchy or politics of Apple corporate.  What is less often discussed is WHY this particular team was so successful.  Jobs – a stickler for detail – who often became involved in the smallest of details, created an environment of creative abrasion among team members.    The heart of creative abrasion was DIVERSITY, although it might not have seemed this way from afar.  The team members themselves, where hand-chosen by Jobs – and included a very wide array of artists, musicians and deep thinkers – even though you could label them all “software programmers”.

Diversity of talents, viewpoints, cultural differences, etc – this is what enables abrasive behavior, because the team with diversity will challenge itself.  Here is what Jobs himself had to say about this:

Creative Collaboration, too

At the same time, many  companies deep in creative culture stress the importance of collaboration among employees, across departments and even with customers.  Ed Catamult, CEO of Pixar, writes about the “peer driven” collaborative process for problem solving and creating movies: “Everyone is fully invested in helping everyone else turn out the best work…it’s all for one and one for all.”    Collaboration, on the surface, seems to make sense.  If the technology group at Pixar, can work well with the Production and the production team can work with the story-writers, and they all can work with the technologists to create incredible graphics, then it would seem collaboration is key to success.

Some good definitions and thoughts on forms of collaboration were discussed recently by Hagel, Seeley Brown and Davison on the Harvard Business School Publishing blog.

Collaboration seems to be the opposite of Abrasion – or is it?

Creative abrasion and collaboration can co-exist

The way these both can co-exist if leaders determine the best spot in the problem-solving or ideation process for each of them.  For example, the typical problem solving process goes like this:  choose/identify specific problem à generate (ideate) possible  solutions to the problem à choose from among best solutions à test out possible approaches, refine à choose best solution and create action plan for it.

When  creative abrasion occurs in the identification of problem, or identification of best solution, then politics, opinions and different ways of looking at the world may get in the way of making decisions.  If abrasion  occurs, however,  in the Ideation step, however, it allows for a confluence of opinions, options and ideas to emerge.  Creative abrasion can be very helpful because it unleashes the Power of Diversity.

When collaboration occurs during Problem Definition and refinement, and in Solution-gathering , the organization benefits – the company components are all working together in setting up for success.  But like-minded thinking and collaboration in the Ideation or brainstorming phases of a project may lead to “ho-hum thinking and lack of new ideas.  Pixar describes it like this – during meetings peers work together, but once the process of ideation is over, the ultimate decision as to which ideas to implement falls to the movie’s directors.

Ultimately a skilled creative leader is able to recognize the needs for both collaboration and  and organize the process, participants and stages of development in such as way as to benefit from both “Creative Abrasion” as well as “Peer Collaboration”.

Bitterkalt ist es schon seit Tagen in RVK. Die Sonne lässt sich nur sehr, sehr selten blicken. Schnee aber gab es bisher nur in den Bergen. Dort liegt, das kann man, wenn man über den Fjord schaut, genau sehen, aber bereits eine ganze Menge. Reykjavíks Hausberg Esja gibt täglich die aktuelle Schneefallgrenze an. Ein Blick aus dem Fenster ergibt: 300 bis 400 Meter, grob geschätzt. Das Thermometer sagt: 1,4° Celsius Außentemperatur. Die Radiatorheizung hinter meinem Schreibtisch kocht: Ein hoch auf die Geothermie! Angenehme 22° Celsius sind es im Büro. Das kann aber nicht davon ablenken, dass die ersten richtigen Schneeflocken heute morgen auf meine Jacke gefallen sind, als ich, um nicht zu erfrieren, ausgesprochen zügig von Haus zur Arbeit gelaufen bin. Langsam fallen sie zu Boden, schmelzen jedoch auf der nassen Straße sofort wieder weg. Zum Glück, denn ich habe keine Sibirienausrüstung dabei. Überrascht bin ich nicht. Das Ganze hatte sich längst angedeutet: von Tag zu Tag wurde es kälter, die Sonnenscheindauer ließ sich meist in Minuten ausdrücken und am 11. September fiel das erste Mal Hagel, wenn auch nur kurz. Als ich daraufhin aus Spaß sagte, dass ich mich bereits darauf freue,  während meines Aufenthalts noch Skifahren zu gehen, wurde ich enttäuscht. Das sei frühestens im März möglich. Ist bis dahin etwa ganz RVK (für alle kleineren “Städte” steht das außer Frage) eingeschneit? Nein, ich glaube, ich will hier weg! Eingeschneit? Noch sechs Monate Island? Nein, eben nicht Island, sondern nur Reykjavík… Das ist unmöglich. Es muss verhindert werden. Wo sind die Chinesen, die könnten doch die Wolken mit Silberjodid (oder was auch immer die während der Olympiade gegen den Regen über Peking hochgeschossen haben) beschießen und schönes Wetter “zaubern”? Das ist auch keine gute Idee. Ohne Internet könnte es noch einsamer werden inmitten des Atlantiks. Golfstrom, ich zähle auf dich! Halte RVK auch diesen Winter eisfrei!

…brukar min mamma säga, och igår blev det nästan sant. Precis ungefär vid läggdags hördes första dova mullret. Åska…? hann jag tänka, sen var det över mig. Och jag menar rakt över mig. Blixt och dunder tillsammans, det dånade mellan bergen. Jag drog ur alla sladdar och tänkte förvirrat att jag borde hålla mig borta från fönstren. Men hur gör man det i detta lilla hus med fönster överallt? Letade ficklampa utifall att, men fick nöja mig med en tändstickask i fickan.

Och så detta hagel. Största i mammaminne, och det bara höll på. Smattret mot torntaket var öronbedövande.

Ibland känner man sig mycket liten på jorden, trots ens storlek. Att vara utlämnad åt naturens krafter, ensam i ett litet hus…

Ja, det var intressant.

Nu återstår frågan om jag ska klippa gräset nu, med allt hagel kvar i stora frostiga kakor, eller om jag ska vänta tills nästa front rullar in. Vad månde den innehålla för spännande väder?

Was ist das? Der Hagel der Naegel!

Ibland så regnar det isbollar (hagel) och det tycker grabbarna är jätteroligt. Då samlar de allt hagel i hinkar och leker sedan snöbollskrig samt att de försöker imponera på oss och få oss att känna på detta väldigt kalla haglet. “har ni sett sånt här förr?!?” ropar de. 

 Wir erwarteten gestern Besuch von Bekannten und schon Tage vorher wurde überlegt: Was sollen wir den Gästen zum Essen vorsetzen? Da wir dieses Jahr erst  dreimal gegrillt haben, beschlossen wir: Sonnabend ist die Gelegenheit das vierte Mal in Angriff zu nehmen. Opossum baute glücklicherweise in einer geschützten Ecke des Gartens ein Pavillon auf und  bereitete alles für den Abend vor.  Tische, Stühle und Grill wurden mit Hilfe von Alpha aufgestellt, und wir warteten auf den Besuch. Zehn Minuten vor Ankunft der Gäste bezog sich der Himmel, und es fing natürlich an zu regnen. Als unsere Bekannten kamen, schien wieder die Sonne und wir konnten mit dem grillen beginnen. Wie konnte es anders sein, nach kurzer Zeit schüttete es wie aus Eimern und dann hagelte es auch noch. Komischerweise haben wir fast immer Pech mit dem Wetter, wenn der Grill bei uns angeschmissen wird. Für uns schon eine normale Situation. Grill unter den Überbau, wir unter dem Pavillon, was soll es. Da es sich nach dem Regen sehr abkühlte, sind wir anschließend ins Haus gegangen und haben noch einen schönen abend gehabt.

Ich bin zwischen den Welten gelandet.

Erst waren es nur Tröpfchen, dann Tropfen, dann ein Wassersturz. Genau in der Mitte zwischen Start und Ziel. Unter dem letzten der Alleebäume auf meiner Strecke halte ich mein Fahrrad an. Die Flucht unter den Schutz der Blätter soll nur solange wie der Guß dauern.

Einer der Momente im Leben, über die ich im Nachhinein nicht sicher bin, wie ich mich entschieden hätte, wenn ich vorher gewusst hätte, was auf mich zukommt. (Ohne es direkt mit Kinder kriegen und Eigentum erwerben vergleichen zu wollen…) Ebenso wert, zu den Momenten der verpassten richtigen Gelegenheiten zu zählen. Weil es nach einem kurzen Regenguß aussah – und sich stattdessen in einen anhaltenden Wasserfall wandelte.

Das spätsommerliche Blätterdach nutzte mir rein gar nichts. Die Hose klebte wie durchs Wasser gezogene Leggings an meinen Schenkeln, das Wasser schien wie von selbst aus den Schuhen zu fließen. Mein grüner Ledermantel verhinderte wenig. Trotz des aufgestellten Kragens spürte ich, wie sich der Regen nicht nur vom Scheitel auf den Weg entlang meines Halses und meines Rückens machte. Den Kragen stellte ich weniger wegen des Regens sondern wegen des peitschenden Hagels auf. Wasabi-Pea große Hagelkörner. Massen. hagelten. auf. mich. herab. Gleichzeitig schwillt der Wasserstrom zu meinen Füßen bis zur Bordsteinkante an und ich fühlte mich an Fluten in Thailand erinnert.

Surrealer Klimawandel? Als die Hagelkörner meine Wangen auspeitschten, dachte ich nicht darüber nach. Ich schloss die Augen. Dachte gar nichts. Sah und spürte: Wasser. Als ich die Augen wieder öffnete, stand ein Transporter vor mir an der Ampel. Das junge Paar bot mir winkend einen Platz neben ihnen an. Wirklich unglaublich zauberhaft. Ich war mindestens klatschnass. Lachend winkte ich ab. Ich hatte mich der Situation ergeben. Mir gefiel mein Standort.

Auch wenn die Sporttasche fast bis aufs letzte Handtuch durchnässt war. Irgendwann ließ der Regen nach. Ich kehrte nicht um. Mein Sportclub hat ein Schwimmbad. Ein wunderbarer Moment, es mal wieder zu nutzen und mich hinterher in der Sauna durchheizen zu lassen. Herbstanfang.

Wat zou er gebeuren als je er 100 kilo peren in gooit?

Nu loopt er een rechtszaak tussen de Raad van State en de gemeente Kapelle, die de vergunning voor het antihagelkanon heeft afgegeven. De Raad van State is van mening dat de knallen te veel geluidsoverlast voor de omgeving veroorzaken.

Het moet geen pretje zijn om in de omgeving van Kattendijke te wonen. Flitsende onweersknallen die ook nog eens worden vergezeld van een portie fruitige drukgolfknallen. Het lijkt me raadzaam om asielzoekers met een oorlogsverleden een plekje buiten Zeeland te geven, zodat hun oorlogstrauma’s niet opengereten worden door de Janhagels van deze provincie.

Ja, Janhagels noem ik ze. Een naam die al in de 17e eeuw aan zeelieden werd gegeven vanwege hun opgefokte gedrag. Een naam die ook nu van toepassing is op fruitboeren die hun welvaart boven andermans welzijn willen plaatsen.

Geld is heilig in een ik-gerichte wereld. Van nature is ieder mens een Janhagel wanneer zijn bezit wordt bedreigd. En hoe rijker een mens is, hoe janhageliger hij wordt.

Nog even en er worden Lamborghini’s met een antihagelkanon verkocht. Ter bescherming van het peperdure koetswerk. En de tijd dat er enorme ventilatoren op de duinen komen te staan om de stormen terug te blazen is niet ver meer verwijderd. Ja, er bestaan zelfs ArenA plannen voor Nederland. Een soort dak dat bij hevige regenval kan worden gesloten.

De grensgebieden van Duitsland en België liggen nog wat dwars in verband met de afwatering. Wellicht dat we België gunstig kunnen stemmen door de Westerschelde een paar meter dieper uit te baggeren dan gepland. En Duitsland moet te paaien zijn met een VW monopolie in Nederland. Ik rij zelden in het buitenland, dus doe mij maar een Golfje met slicks.

Henk van Blijderveen

Big institutions will become more relevant than ever—once they focus not just on efficiency but on providing platforms for individuals to systematically experiment, learn, and innovate

By John Hagel and John Seely Brown and Lang Davison

Posted on The Big Shift: August 11, 2009 8:29 AM

“Bye, bye, organization guy.” Those words start the first chapter in the estimable Daniel Pink’s Free Agent Nation, published in 2007. In that book, Pink observed how increasing numbers of people in the US are choosing to work as independent contractors, temps, and on a project-to-project basis.

Workers were leaving big corporations, Pink said, to get away from “unfulfilling jobs, dysfunctional workplaces, and dead-end careers.” As readers of our blog will recognize, we see this dysfunction as the inevitable result of the industrial-era model in which most of today’s big companies remain stuck.

In the industrial-era model, companies focus on efficiency above all else—on getting things done at the lowest cost possible. In the name of efficiency they boil their business operations into routinized practices that suppress the creative instincts of their workers, who become standardized parts of a predictable machine. They not only suppress the creative instincts of their workers, they ultimately suppress the individuals themselves. The push-driven programs of these institutions require standardization and predictability. But individuals, especially passionate ones, are ultimately unique and unpredictable.

Small wonder our 2009 Shift Index (PDF) found that only about 20 percent of today’s workers are “passionate” about their jobs—defined as loving what they do and working for more than just a paycheck. The Index also found that the most passionate workers were least likely to work for a big corporation.

Which raises a disquieting thought: will big corporations soon be filled only with people too timid to work on their own—the bureaucrats, the clock-watchers, and the resolutely non-talented? Will corporations slowly crumble under their own weight as inertia overwhelms their ability to respond to external events, and their talented people flee to become independent agents?

On the contrary, we believe big institutions will become more relevant than ever—once they focus not just on efficiency but on providing platforms for individuals to systematically experiment, learn, and innovate. As scalable learning replaces scalable efficiency big institutions will become more appealing to talented individuals. In fact, we believe they will become an irresistible magnet for passionate people seeking to amplify their individual efforts to develop faster.

We can think of at least two big reasons why this will occur. First, companies will wake up to the fact that knowledge workers—who exist at every level of the firm—are the ones who monetize intangible assets. Companies that don’t nurture them will lose the very workers most responsible for creating profits. That compels big institutions to re-conceive their operations, organization, and strategy through the talent lens, especially as competitive pressures continue to intensify and performance deteriorates—long-term trends documented in our recently released Shift Index.

So, corporations increasingly need talented individuals to survive. But why would talented individuals join or remain in large corporations? Why wouldn’t they simply strike out on their own and leverage the digital infrastructure to connect with other individuals?

This leads to the second reason we believe that large-scale corporations will remain a prominent feature of our professional landscape: because they will be best positioned to develop and support scalable, long-term, trust-based relationships. Think about it. Even the most accomplished networker supported by social networks like Facebook can develop only a limited number of trust-based relationships. On the other hand, a large institution could scale these kinds of relationships far more rapidly and broadly than any individual could.

Imagine if a well-respected, global firm decided to create the right platform to foster these kinds of relationships, not only among its own employees, but across a worldwide network of diverse external partners. Not only could such a large institution get bigger but—because of the collaboration curve—it would generate increasing returns to scale, accelerating growth for both individuals and the firm. How could any one person, on their own, replicate the scale of relationships such an institution would offer?

Long-term trust based relationships matter because, in the Big Shift era, tacit knowledge is what allows all of us, individually and collectively, to keep up with a fast-moving, unpredictable world. Tacit knowledge, which we all have but experience great difficulty in expressing, is typically created and exchanged only in long-term, trust-based relationships. To access valuable tacit knowledge, in other words, we need scalable networks of relationships, supported by shared practices. Since people can’t ever access as many relationships on their own as they could as part of a larger institution, they will face significant disadvantages by remaining independent.

Now, of course, this assumes a dramatic transformation in the institutions that we have today, from institutions that flourish by suppressing individuality to ones where individuality must flourish in order for the institution to do the same. This will not happen overnight. But companies will eventually awake to the opportunity—indeed the imperative—this transition represents. Long-term competitive pressures ensure that the old guard institutions will wither and eventually die if they don’t.

From this perspective, we believe the current flight of passionate and talented people from institutional confines represents a transitional event rather than a permanent shift to a “free agent nation” or “e-lance economy.” People are fleeing today because our current generation of institutions undermines talent development in the name of efficiency. As a new generation of institutions emerges the current flight from institutions will reverse.

Do you agree with this perspective? Could individuals develop their talent more rapidly on their own than by participating in a new kind of institution completely focused on talent development? What might institutions do to build a distinctive advantage in talent development?

John Hagel and John Seely Brown are co-chairman and independent co-chairman, respectively, of Deloitte LLP’s Center for Edge Innovation. John Hagel writes a blog at Edge Perspectives. Their monthly column, Innovation on the Edge, explores what executives can learn from innovation emerging on various forms of edges, including the edges of institutions, markets, geographies and generations. Sign up here for an RSS feed. Lang Davison is the former editor-in-chief of The McKinsey Quarterly and is the executive director of the Deloitte LLP Center for the Edge.

Kom precis hem till mina föräldrar i Skoftebyn, det har haglat utav bara helvete här. Kolla bara!

Baksidan, augusti 2009.

Hagel bredvid tändsticksask, så man förstår hur stört det är.

Jag tror nästan att moder jord hade pms idag, det kom nämligen ett helvetes moln över nästan hela västra götaland känndes det som och totalmördade oss stackars sommarklädda människor som bara vill cykla hem ifrån jobbet. Som jag till exempel… Idag har vi alltså fått: regn, hagel, sol, kyla, värme, åska och fan vet allt! Men jag hoppas det spricker upp nu för snart skall jag och Alexandra på Bob hund! Det fick bli valet efter de svåra besluten jag fick ta itu med för nån dag sen. Så nu skall jag snart hoppa in i dushen så bär det av till Götet! Och här kommer lite bilder ifrån regnet

Det ser ut som snö, men är hagel -.-

Och till sist lite PS ^^ Nu sticker jag till götet, haej!