WorldBlu LIVE invited six guest bloggers to blog about WorldBlu LIVE 2005 throughout the 3.5-day event. Invited bloggers included:
- JANESSA GANS, Middle East Expert
- SUZANNE GOLDSTEIN, Social Enterprise + Product Design + Innovation Consultant
- ALEXANDER KJERULF, CEO, Happy at Work
- THOMAS MADSEN-MYGDAL, Entrepreneur, Investor, Blogger, Designer + Activist
- CHRIS RAYMOND, Global Business Strategist
- MARIO TOSTO, Entrepreneur and Metaphysician
Check out their insights, observations and ah-ha! moments below.
Bashar Al-Naher mentioned the movie "What the bleep do we know". If you'd like to know more about this movie it has (of course and in a throwback to David Weinberger's keynote speach) it's own Wikipedia page.
Alexander's Weblog | 12:52 PM
"The quality of life depends on the quality of questions you consistently ask yourself." - Bashar Al-Naher, Representative of the Prime Minister of Iraq
Susanne's Weblog | 12:40 PM
Language matters. The words we use help shape the way we think - no doubt about it.
And here's the thing: The old-school way of doing business has a well-established, shared vocabulary that we all know and have learned and practiced over and over. We have it down.
The vocabulary that describes the new-school way of doing business of organizational democracy, however, is not that well known. What do we mean when we say democracy? When we say information-sharing? When we say freedom-based leaderhip?
Therefore, one of the steps in spreading OD, is to create a common, shared, democratic, new-school vocabulary. We took a crack at this at friday night's open space session, where we worked on defining both the old and the new dictionary. Here are the concepts that emerged:
Old-school vocabulary:
- Hierarchical
- Boss
- Manager
- Roles
- Reporting
- Accountability
- Scale
- Incentive
- Innovation
- Globalization
- Assets
- Bodies
- Resource
- Hierarchical
- Training
- Management
- Assembly line
- Linear
- Rule
- Casual friday
- Supply and demand
- Model
- Bottom line
- Glass ceiling
- Privilege
- Direct report
- Fired
- Benefit package
- Bureaucracy
- Permission
- Clearance
- Approval
- Executive
- Golden parachute
- Control
- Established procedure
Democratic vocabulary:
- Listening
- Life long dignity
- Engagement
- Fearless
- Rotating leadership
- New way to elect and reward CEO's
- Alignment of people
- New accounting
- Wholeness
- Transparency
- Relevancy
- Free market
- Passion
- Living systems
- Round table
- Collaborative
- Meritocracy
- Transparency
- Free flow of information
- Foozeball machine
- Set expectations
- Common sense of purpose
- Unity of purpose
- Self-synchronize
- Systemic
- Alignment
- Positive correlation
- Open source
- Eco-system
- Organic synchronization
- Winsabada
- Fun
- Collaborate
- Respect
- Listening
- Humility
- Open
- Receptive
- Risk taking
- Debate
- Excellence
- Mutual intent
- Satisfaction
- Trust
- Ideas
- Education
- Open door policy
- Transparency
- Bottom-up
- Ownership
- Leadership
- Ongoing dialogue
- Listening
- Cooperative
- Self-driven
- Passion
- Network
- Flexibility
- Team work
- Adaptability
- Inter-dependent
- Dialogue
- Share data
- Shared vision
- Fallibility
- Choice
- Shared opinions
- Receptive
- Revolutionary
- Empowerment
- Freedom-oriented
- Purpose driven
- Size consideration
- Network self-correction
- Improvisation
- Resilience
- Balance
The work of democracy entails creating a common vocabulary. This doesn't need to be global, it can be within a team/group/organization.
Alexander's Weblog | 09:54 AM
Friday evening's open space session used a method called World Café, a way of constructively structuring dialogue that is inherently democratic. You can read more about it here.
Alexander's Weblog | 09:40 AM
