My lectures are, of course, adapted to the client’s situation and wishes. Four main areas of subject can be distinguished:
1. Interpreting the signs of the times.
2. Visions.
3. Leadership.
4. Personal development.
Often themes from these four different areas are woven together which is to some extent clear from the titles of the lectures which I have given in various connections.
Interpreting the signs of the times
Many ask what sort of times are we in fact living in. There are many good signs. If we look back over the last few centuries there has been enormous development. But there also exist many worrying, even threatening signs, not least in the field of the environment. Behind the self-assured political and economic rhetoric, therefore, uncertainty is making itself felt. Are we really heading the right way, or is there a need for a more thorough reassessment of our basic ideas in our view of how a positive future is to be created? And in that case is it possible to make out the contours of such a reassessment?
The main purpose of my interpretations of the signs of the times is a practical one. Quite simply I wish to try and help my clients to find a perspective on history and the future that will make it possible to make a better contribution to the creation of a good future by means of wiser and more far-seeing actions in the present.
Visions
When the future is uncertain the demand for visions increases. Our age is no exception. Most self-respecting enterprises want therefore to have a vision.
The problem, however, is that knowledge of what is demanded of a vision so that it will be worth the name is often insufficient. The obvious result of this is that many so-called visions might be well formulated, but in practice they lack the inspiring and guiding energy which a true vision possesses.
In my lectures on this particular area I make it clear which criteria must be fulfilled for the vision of a business enterprise to be regarded with reason as being fully adequate. And I can if it so wished make a judgment on the worth of a actual vision in the light of these criteria.
The purpose of these lectures is to try and sharpen my client’s insight into the fact that an adequate vision for an enterprise is an extremely powerful instrument for shaping the future.
Leadership
My hobby horse where leadership is concerned is that a person leads as he or she is. That it is impossible to ignore the fact that it is one’s worth as an individual, one’s personal maturity, which decides what form of leadership that person practises.
But leadership is not only a question of psychology and personal characteristics, but it has of course an organizational or institutional side. My point of departure in this matter is that the future belongs to those learning organization that are guided by a vision. And so my lectures on leadership aim therefore at clarifying what demands are made on leadership for it to create, maintain and lead such an organization.
Personal development
The learning organization is quite rightly held up as a model of the way to handle the complex demands for change and renewal that are so strong in our time. But what is it that really makes an organization a learning one?
The answer to this question is of course the people in the organization, that is to say, without learning people there would be no learning organization.
In my lectures on personal development I therefore bring out the meaning of the notion the learning person. I emphasize above all his or her maturity. That the person is someone with integrity, that is, with a strong identity and at the same time a gift for empathic relationships. That the person can communicate clearly with a respect for the integrity of others, can handle conflicts in a creative way and without bitterness arising, and has much sensitivity to the need for freedom and to the tensions that will arise in the so important creative process needed to bring about innovations.
The purpose of these lectures is partly to make it clear that in a time of increasingly tough competition the personal development of the employees is a matter of great strategic importance, and partly to pass on a number of thought-provoking tips and reflections that everyone can use as an aid in his (or her) own personal development.
Lecture titles
To develop living visions
To be a colleague in a learning organization
Wavering political leadership
A way of life for learning
Reading the signs of the times
Hope in times of unrest
How to create a lasting vision?
Is it possible to love one’s work?
Wisdom in chaos
The leader’s dream – farsighted changes and personnel in on the act
Leadership and responsibility
Leadership development
Reality round the corner
Vision or despair
Visions, ideas and goals
The significance of visions
Visions as a driving-force
Vision-based leadership
Visionary thinking