What if data is becoming the new oil?

Last week I had a brainstorm with a great group of thinkers from the investment world on ESG related investment practices and ideas. The focus in ESG is very often on the ‘E’ of environmental, and not on the ‘S’ for social and ‘G’ for governance. In one of the debates I had, we zoomed in on the social aspect of sustainable investing and wondered whether we could foresee a future in which organizations that are data driven will experience a similar societal backlash as the oil & gas industry has experienced? What if data is becoming the new oil?

 

Oil & Gas

For full transparency: I work with a couple of oil & gas and energy companies on the energy transition. They find themselves in quite a difficult situation, because whatever they do, everything is perceived with an evil eye. I don’t want to argue whether or not they are doing the right or wrong things for our future. But the fact is, that they’ve lost a great deal of societal support for their business. Centuries ago, this was not the case. With the introduction of the internal combustion engine the demand for oil grew rapidly and our world (literally) ran on oil. Now, with a lot of environmental concerns the perception has dramatically shifted and it is difficult to foresee whether or not this will ever return to a more positive perception of the industry.

 

Data as the new oil

It’s a catch phrase that you probably have heard a lot in recent years: data is the new oil. In other words: our world is more and more driving on data as the new resource for everything we do. However, slowly but surely citizens and governments are posing questions around the power companies like Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google (etc) have as a result of the data they have collected.

Who does that data really belong to? What does it do to our privacy? Will we allow companies to become more powerful than countries? It’s such questions that might show us a glimpse of a future that is not so positive anymore for data companies. What if indeed, they are becoming the new oil? What might be the negative social implications on our daily lives? And what will that mean for the sustainability of the future? Will their access to data be shut off?

It might not be too easy to turn off oil in our society as so much is indeed powered by it. But how easy is it to turn off the data pipeline? Do we want to have more control over it for the sake of our future? New questions, that need new answers because they determine the possibilities in your future. That is what I believe at least…

 

Written by Jörgen van der Sloot

Founder & Head of Futures at Minkowski

Three driving forces of a moonshot

What is applied creativity?

I’m starting a new writing project on applied creativity. Many organizations and individuals contact us at Minkowski for help in mapping their possibilities in the future. It is not that we tell them what those possibilities are for them. Neither are we able to predict the future, no one can. But what we are able to do, is to help them think in possibilities (rather than in what doesn’t work; or in contrast to a mindset of impossibility). Thinking in possibilities is, I believe, one of the cornerstones of applied creativity. But I’m curious to hear what you think when you hear the phrase ‘applied creativity’? What do you think it means?

 

Thinking in possibilities

Just a few things we do, to help groups of people think in possibilities:

• start thinking from the future: when you take the future as a starting point for your conversation, you will start to think from what can be in the future (the dream, the imagination, the vision you have) as opposed to thinking from the way things have always been done.
• appreciative way of working: when you take the things that work and strive to make those work better, you start with a mindset of ‘yes’ instead of a mindset that says: don’t do this, don’t do that.
• inquisitive thinking: questions have the great ability that they activate your thinking. Good questions automatically drive your mind to search for answers. When you train yourself to respond with the words ‘yes, and…’ you will even push yourself to find more than 1 solution.
• co-create and do: by experimenting and doing it together with others you will explore and learn more. Never seeing one experiment as the only one and appreciating the struggle that co-creation brings will lead you to see, feel and think in possibilities.

But all these things are of course useless if you don’t know how to apply the result to your personal or professional life. That is where the application of creativity comes in. Because creativity shouldn’t be something that happens outside of office doors only during creative brainstorming sessions. Creativity, as natural is it is for human beings, should be something that you can apply daily.

So what does applied creativity mean to you?

 

Written by Jörgen van der Sloot

Founder & Head of Futures at Minkowski

Organizational transformation is impossible… or not?

In the projects I’m involved in at Minkowksi I usually run into two kinds of people. There are those who believe they can change the world (or less ambitious variations of change) and that the companies they work for can change. And then there are those who don’t believe that (big) companies can change, which contributes to organizational transformation. They believe that whatever is, just is, and you should focus your energy in other places. The dialectical relationship between these two positions goes way back. In fact it goes thousands of years back to the old Greek philosophers Heraclitus and Parmenides. When you understand the difference between these two perspectives it can help you applying the possibilities of the future to your organization. Here’s how…

 

Panta rhei

I’m sure I’m going to do short on the work of these great Greek philosophers. My apologies to the real philosophers among you all for paraphrasing these ideas here. The phrase ‘panta rhei’ (everything flows) was spoken by Heraclitus. To go short, it means that change is continuous. Everything is always changing. Just like the water in a river is always moving, you are never able to step into the same river twice. Even if you would be able to stand still, the word around you moves on and changes continuously. But Heraclitus also believed in the unity of opposites. Meaning that he believed that his panta rhei and the opposite perspective should be held into account at the same time. In the end everything is becoming in accordance with logic and reason.

 

What is, is

In contrast to Heraclitus position, Paremenides wrote in his poem ‘On Nature’ that reality is one and change is impossible. He distinguishes between truth and opinion and argues that the latter is just an illusion. So, when you find yourself in a conversation with someone that argues that the world can be changed, while you think things just are the way they are, you find yourself in a millennia old philosophical conversation. So what can you do with this understanding?

 

What do you do with this as an organization?

At Minkowski we are strong believers that everything can be changed. We are in the business of organizational transformation after all. But we also believe that you need more than just the believers to make any change sustain for the future. The ‘non believers’ are part of your culture and play a very important role concerning applying future possibilities to your organization. And of course, it is not that the non believers don’t have a perspective on the future – it is just different from yours.

In our sessions we help groups to formulate the reasoning on their future perspective using the Wheel of Reasoning. This tool helps you to articulate your position on the future in a logic structure. The opposites as described above then form the outer limits of the cone of possibility that maps all the possibilities you have as an organization in the future. There is no single truth for your future. Thus, it is much better if you hold these opposing positions of the future as possibilities, to enable you to adapt (in the present).

 

What do you do with this as an individual?

More importantly the question is what do you do with this understanding as an (professional) individual? First off: you have to allow yourself to step into the shoes of your conversation partner. Don’t try to convince him or her of your opinion, but rather try to understand the other persons position. You can do this in two ways:

1. Keep asking why; not to be obnoxious, but just to dig a little deeper into the argument. It is likely that this will give you great insight on what some thresholds are that you have to overcome. Or it can greatly inspire you with some triggers and new ideas for your own future. When the answer you get is: ’that’s how things are’ you can always slightly shift to: ‘since when has this been the case?’
2. Respond (vocally or not) with the words ‘yes, and…’; try to follow along in the statement that somebody is making by adding thoughts to it  (even if you don’t agree with it). See if it will change your perspective or not.

Both these strategies work to get better informed on the position that your conversation partner is holding. It can then provide you with valuable solutions to move forward. Whatever you do, don’t respond (even in your mind) with the word ‘but’, because that will keep you both in the position that you are in and will not bridge the gap between you two.

It takes a bit of practice to do this. The more you do it the better you will get at it. And don’t be afraid to fail at first…

 

Learn more

If you want to learn more about mapping the possibilities of the future for your organization get in touch with us or send me message.

If you want to dig deeper into the ideas of philosophers, I can greatly recommend the School of Life to learn more.

 

 

Written by Jörgen van der Sloot

Founder & Head of Futures at Minkowski

1000 Moonshots

This week we’re launching a new initiative of Minkowski called ‘1000 moonshots‘. We believe that we need some more unconventional thinking to solve some of the world’s most urgent problems. Moonshot thinking is a widely known approach to aim high and develop bold ideas that can impact the world. There are many examples out there of great moonshots and Google has even set up its own Moonshot Factory. But we wanted to develop something that allows everyone to develop bold ideas in a very fundamental way. A thousand moonshots is just that: a toolkit, a workshop, an event session to massively collaborate on the toughest problems. We believe that creating and sharing thousands of ideas, increases the chance of some ideas actually making a difference.

 

SingularityU Summit in Brussels

One of the launching partners of SingularityU invited us to host the first ever 1000 Moonshots session. During the Summit of SUBenelux in Brussels we hosted a 90 minutes session that led to 50 bold ideas that are aiming to solve world problems. With a special guest participant from ESA, Aidan Cowley we had a nice example of what moonshot thinking can create. ESA is working on traveling far beyond the moon to other planets. For this they are trying to build a base on the moon in the most sustainable way possible. Aidan’s example of bold thinking set off the participants to generate ideas for energy, learning, climate, All of these ideas will be published shortly on the 1000 Moonshots website.

 

SingularityU Summit in Milan

Up next is the 1000 Moonshots session during the SingularityU Summit in Italy where we will host it for a thousand participants all at the same time. If you would like to participate in this session let us know (or you can sign up for the Summit tickets here).

We greatly appreciate any feedback or questions on the project. If you have ideas for hosting a session, want to work on your companies’s challenges or if you want to run a 1000 Moonshots session yourself, let us know.

Written by Jörgen van der Sloot

Founder & Head of Futures at Minkowski

The greatest story ever told

 

 

5 tips for impactful meetings

After holidays, you will always feel re-energized and jump back into things at work. In our experience, organizations start planning for their offsites (big and small) soon after the summer has ended. It is a time to formulate plans for the end of the year, wrap things up or execute the last tactics of the plan for this year. Nevertheless, how do you make sure that those planning sessions, get-togethers, strategy meetings and visionary offsites are most effective without hiring a professional (outside) facilitator? That is where we can help. Here’s some tips on how you enable more impactful meetings!

 

Practice makes perfect

I’m always surprised that teams in organizations have meetings that take hours (sometimes even days) to develop plans, visions and strategies. Very often the result of such meetings is that they drain energy by much talking and no action at all. Consequently, when they hire me to facilitate and design a session for them, the response is always: this was so energetic and effective. That’s key for impactful meetings. The reason for this is quite simple: I’ve simply hosted and evaluated thousands of those meetings and sessions. And practice makes perfect.

Because it’s my expertise and I do it daily I have numerous techniques that I can apply. Also, I have a broader set of experiences compared to you, who might only do this a couple of times a year. Sometimes, all you need is just some outside reflection on the program you have in mind, and insert a few steps that I have learned are very effective to do. So: I invite you to make use of my experience for the design of your own session without having run it for you.

 

Your session design sparring partner

Various clients that I have worked with regularly come back to me with the same question as phrased above. They don’t need a facilitator to host their offsite, but they simply want some feedback on what they have in mind. My role for them is to be a sparring partner in the design of a session. I hand them exercises, improve the flow of their day(s) and make sure that they balance the energy of the session to enable impactful meetings. As one client said recently: “Every time we spar together I always get new ideas to improve my meeting. You always give it a twist that has a big impact on the outcome”. This client motivated me to write this to let others know that this is something we do at Minkowski. So, if you need someone to help you improve the design of your session – let me know.

 

Tips and tricks to improve your session

If you don’t want to call me, here are a some tips to help you out. Of course the goal, the setting, group size and deliverables of every session are different, so it is difficult to make suggestions that always work. However, there are a few things that you might take into account when designing your next offsite.

 

5 tips to enable impactful meetings:

1. Always take time for a check-in and check-out. Good check-ins and -outs are related to the goal of your day, but also allow the participants to step away from their day-to-day activities. Creating the time for this will highly improve the engagement of participants.
2. Base your design on at least one design question that captures the essence of output you want. A design question always starts with the words: how might we…?
3. Signpost regularly and think of this in advance. Participants are part of a shared narrative (or process) that has to be easy to understand. After each beat in the program, they have to be reminded. Reminded about where they came from, where they are now, what’s next and why you are taking these steps as a group. Yes, this also means that you reflect on what you’ve done. You’re continuously creating and telling a story together, and as the facilitator you are the storyteller.
4. Mix between moments of divergence and convergence to keep the energy high. In other words: make sure that you have moments that expand the thinking and moments when you make choices, cluster, rate or make decisions.
5. Try as much as possible to sit in a circle. Make sure that people can see and hear each other always. People that are seated in rows can’t see each other face to face. Also, half of them can not be heard by the other half.

 

 

If you want to learn more, let’s have a chat!

Written by Jörgen van der Sloot

Founder & Head of Futures at Minkowski

From best practice to next practice

Transformation of organizations might be one of the most difficult things to do. Complex systems (like an organization) have a tendency to be very resilient. This means that they revert back to an old state quickly; or need a stong force to change the system. To break that resilience you can do two things: hit it as hard as possible, or make sure that the feedback loops of the system are changed from within. The latter will probably work better for you then the first… Therefore, you need to move from a best practice, to next practice !

 

An external force for change

Many consulting firms attempt to do the first: put a lot of force on an existing system to change it. They bring in an army of their consultants to help an organization change, but as they always remain an external force, soon after they’re gone the company reverts back to their old ways of working. The best that can be accomplished is a best practice: the company now operates much more efficiently. There’s great value in that, but it doesn’t prepare a company for their next practice: what are the ways of working in a future situation and how can we transform towards it? I believe that you need a different approach to accomplish that type of change.

 

An internal drive for transformation

Complex systems are much more resilient than we sometimes hope they are, but they can be pushed towards tipping points of transformation by smaller incremental changes. These smaller incremental changes can be accomplished when the transformation is not only aimed at the organization as a whole, but also on the people that operate inside the system. These people can start to function as the smaller incremental changes that tip an old system over. But just like organizations, people are complex (biological) systems. And just like in biology it is very hard to change people. How often have you started a new diet, exercise routine or any other New Year’s resolution to find out that after a while you have returned to your old habits? Your core beliefs and habits are so resilient that they always return you to where you were before. So, what do you do to change this?

 

Changing the feedback loops of your organization

One of the best ways to enable a transformation is to change the feedback loops that make the system so resilient. What are the inputs for the system and how are they related to the outputs? This may sound vague and abstract, but there is an ‘easy’ way to identify this. The best way to describe the feedback loops in a company is to (1) excavate the anecdotes that are being told inside the organization (laying bare the limiting beliefs) and (2) to create new narratives for ambitious change (after the tipping point). These stories are mechanisms of feedback. If you are able to change these narratives, individual people can start to change incrementally. At Minkowski we do this with a tool called Stories for Change that we have developed over the last decade. We’re working on a tool to excavate those anecdotes as well.

 

When do you know you are close to a point of transformation

Tipping points in complex systems are moments when a (disruptive) change occurs. The time after a tipping point is fundamentally different from the time before it. You get closer to such a turning point in your history when the variation in change is rapidly increasing. It can be the moment when the incremental actions of most people in your organization are adding up and make such big waves of change, that a transformation becomes inevitable. The system will most likely then find a new equilibrium again in a next practice.

But you are also close to a tipping point when the system has become (too) stable or static! In biology those moments are very worrying (and in business too). The complex system then simply has come to a standstill and (unintended) disruption is bound to happen shortly thereafter. So the question you can ask as a company: have we become so efficient in our operations that changes don’t occur anymore? If so, then let it be a warning sign for you that things are about to change very fundamentally. A best practice is not always the best recipe to prepare for a next practice…

Thanks to my dear friend Maria Souza for pointing me towards the analogies between biology and business (and I’ve probably misinterpreted a few beats here and there Maria).

 

 

If you want to learn more, let’s have a chat!

Written by Jörgen van der Sloot

Founder & Head of Futures at Minkowski

Kickstart for successful meetings

How can you start a meeting and make the outcome more successful as a result of that start? Let me help you out with the ultimate kickstart for successful meetings! Choose wisely for which meeting in the coming weeks you want to use this exercise, as you can not keep on using this one. Usually it is a nice exercise to bridge goals for your personal life with the intentions you have professionally. It has become a classic Minkowski exercise. Discover the kickstart for successful meetings!

 

Always start with the ‘WHY’

Simon Sinek has argued for a long time that organizations should start with describing their why (only after they’ve answered that question should they focus on the ‘how’ and ‘what’). Raimo van der Klein suggested that companies should start with the who, even before they start with their why, because if you don’t have the right people your why doesn’t make any sense at all. Both those questions are relevant for organizations, but also for individuals.

The answers to them will also shift over the course of time. You shouldn’t just answer it once and never come back to it. I’d suggest to revisit them regularly. Not only from a strategic perspective but also on a personal level. Ask yourself more often why you are doing what you are doing? And pose those question to the people around you as well. When you do, you’ll be much more aware of your own purpose in life, that of your organization and that of your team. It will also make you more aware of the purpose of the meeting you are about to start when you begin with asking: ‘why are we here’? And when everyone is aware of the reason for spending that time, the effectiveness of your meeting will increase.

 

Don’t ask once, ask five times

Every program that I have ever designed therefore always starts with that ‘why’ question. It is posed to every single participant. After the exercise (which only takes 15-20mins) the rate of success for the session jumps up. Participants always have different motivations for participating in something and when they are given enough time to share their intentions their commitment and engagement with the process grows. Even when you are just having a conversation with 3 others: start with the why. But also when you are facilitating a session with 300 others: start with the why.

 

The 5x Why Exercise

Ask participants to find one other person to do this exercise. During the first round one of you asks the other: “Why are you here?” and then the other replies. The interviewer repeats this question 5 times and listens to the answers given. After the 5th time the interviewer shares what he or she heard: what was the essence of why your partner is participating in this conversation, meeting or event? You now swap roles and repeat the exercise. If you were asking the question you will now reply to the other person asking you: “why are you here?”. When everyone is done, reflect on the exercise and share each other’s intentions.

 

Facilitating intention

When you are truly being a facilitator in this exercise (when you are asking the question) and listening to the answers with attention, then you will give your partner a great present. A deep insight on what they have uncovered themselves: their reason for being there and a realization on how they can give their personal purpose space in the purpose of the organization they’re working for.

 

If you want to learn more, let’s have a chat!

Written by Jörgen van der Sloot

Founder & Head of Futures at Minkowski

How to start collaboration: The power of questions

How to start collaboration? As a leader, it is vital to pose challenging and motivating questions, particularly when confronted with crises and uncertainty. Effective questioning may help you connect with others, gain their trust, and endorse collaboration and participation in your team. The ability to ask questions is just as vital as listening when it comes to finding hidden possibilities, producing superior outcomes, and reducing unanticipated hazards. That is the power of questions.

 

How to start collaboration through the power of questions

A famous quote from Confucius reads: “the man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”  I’ve always liked that quote, but I think there’s even more to a question than just getting smarter.

Because for me, initiating collaboration almost always starts with a question. I think I spend 80% of my time preparing for a session on formulating the right questions: because a good question begs for an answer. Your brain can simply not ignore it. And thus you are activated to participate and collaborate.

 

Let others formulate questions 

Having people answer questions is not the only way to start an interaction. Having people formulate questions themselves is also a great way to activate them. So sometimes instead of me coming up with the questions I just let the participants themselves come up with questions.

I actually came to the realization that formulating questions is just as powerful for starting collaboration and engagement through my kids. Especially with my 13-year-old son. I think many of you will recognize the passiveness of a teenager when you ask them how school was, or how things are in general. I always got one worded answers like: ‘fine’, ‘boring’, ‘good’, etc. At first I tried to come up with better, more intriguing questions. But I always failed.

Whereas in my professional life I’m quite successful in asking questions and getting meaningful answers in my personal life I was not at all. How was that possible I always wondered? Of course one of the big differences between my 13-year-old son and a participant in a session lies in the willingness to collaborate. My son, obviously is not willing.

 

Developing your skills

So… In our family we came up with a ‘game’ during dinner: you spin a bottle (or fork, or knife, or whatever is at hand) and whoever the bottle points to has to come up with a question for all the others to answer. It started out with questions like: what is your favorite color (from my 5-year-old)? Or: don’t you think I should get more allowance (from my 13-year-old)? But over time the questions got more intriguing and led us into deeper conversations about life and death, love, emotions and how to deal with them, etc. And my 13-year-old is now also engaged when someone else asks a question.

So how to initiate collaboration? Meaningful collaboration almost always starts with a question.

 

If you want to learn more, let’s have a chat!

Written by Jörgen van der Sloot

Founder & Head of Futures at Minkowski