FuckUp Nights Basel Vol X

It is hard to report from FuckUp Nights Basel: I want to rave about every evening and it might sound cheesy to you already. But it is true, every evening is different and unique with a new mix of people and experiences connecting over a good glass of wine or beer.

THANK YOU to all 60+ participants for coming and contributing in our “Defining failure …” session.

The three untold fresh stories came from three women this time. There was no intention to make it a Ladies Night. It just was! Here are the three speakers you had the honor to meet:

Claudia Raine

After 30 different jobs and professions she tried out, she now owns a degree in International Relations and is a committee member of the Professional Women Group in Basel. Being able to really tell how it feels to be in the wrong job, she helps people stop feeling like they are doing time at their job and move to a job that they love.

It is so cool!

On her way she learned that embracing change and not forgetting to do her research despite a lot of enthusiasm is really the best recipe to reach her goal.

She also became an escape artists and escaped from over 50 escape rooms in 17 cities to date.

Connect with Claudia

 

 

Sina Mehl

“As in everybody elses life,” she says “my life is full of ups and downs and setbacks.” However, her curiosity for the things life has to offer, made her come up with a new plan B for every failed plan A. She decided to do only jobs or projects which excite her the most and feel right in that moment. This is how she experienced many different jobs and found out what she truly wants to do. Embracing the fear of not being perfect doing something you do the first time was her hard lession to learn on the way.

You do need to start!

Organizing self-development events, being a trainer and coach Sina loves to bring like-minded people together who learn from one another, and through that tap deeper into their own truth as well. This is where she does this –

Inside Out Movement

 

Olga Quesada

Olga has a passion to inspire others – in different ways and forms. She did that as a teacher for many years, before she decided that there is more to her life than teaching. Today she is a writer, producer of the Know-how Podcast Series for the Professional Women Group Basel, an Instagram magician and part of the cast in the Vagina Monologues 2018 to empower women. The key question she asked all of us that evening is

Do you really want to spend all this energy to be fighting with your business partner or rather invest it in something new?

A modest, powerful and fun person to be around. She will continue to support FuckUp Nights Basel on our way. Immensly happy about and looking forward to moving mountains having fun on the way.

Connect to Olga

We are looking forward to see you in April 2018

The Organiser

Jutta Jerlich
​www.fuckupnights.com/basel

 

LINKS

FUN Basel Vol X 15.2.2018

Photos at our Facebook Page

Read about previous @FUN_Basel evenings

Launchlabs Basel

#FUN.Basel @FUN_Basel

FuckUp Nights Basel Vol 10

Advertisement

Technology, women and age

My sixty eight years old mother (if you read my last post you’d know we don’t hide our age) is so hook in technology she always wants to know about the latest thing, even if she is going to use it or not. She wants to know how it works and what it is used for.

She graduated as a Chemistry Engineer and worked in the field for some years after graduation, but somehow ten years later she chose Human Resources or it chose her. At that point she was a worker and became the boss of the HR department at the Food Industry Company for the country.

It was there when I saw her passion for new things, read all the company’s  laws to help her co-workers and subordinates. She spent nights working trying to solve every problem she could.

Technology wasn’t that advanced at the time but she always managed to get a new vision on how to do things a better way, less hassle and more time used helping than filling up paperwork.

That`s when computers were introduced to her and a whole new world opened in front of her. She could fill up forms, keep important information in the hard drive, memory sticks and so on, without the need to spend hours writing it up. If my mind doesn’t betray me she was in her late forties and she never once said “I can’t do it” or “it’s too hard for me”. It was like the mere idea of having something new to manage her work, she had to conquer it.

And that’s how I carry my life, I don’t care about my age to accomplish or learn new things. I left my job at thirty seven to start a new career and a Master. I don’t think about how old I feel, look or I actually am, I just think of doing and learning something new and fulfilling my passion.

I was in a meeting a few months back and I was introducing new ideas, not that I’m actually an eager user of that program I was talking about but I know it works in specific situations and when you want to reach a determined audience. My idea fell flat which is totally ok with me. But the excuse I got was –

“I don’t know how to use that, I’m from another generation.”

Immediately I thought of my mom. How she never, ever complaint about her age and still doesn’t.

If there is a new technology, a new idea, a new way of doing things today at her sixty eight years old she still wants to learn about it. And here I have this woman (late forties maybe fifties) in front of me telling me she doesn’t want to get involve in something new because it’s not her generation.

It’s ok to let young people do their thing, but at what point we have to stop our mind, or desire, our passion to allow the new generation to shine?

• Can’t we all survive in this world together?
• Can’t we all learn from each other?
• Can’t we all just live until the last minute without the need to feel or being told how old we are?

Point

Where to start?

I feel like in this picture sometimes, frozen by choices – in a twofold meaning.

What should I focus on?

I just answer this question from a friend without even thinking. While doing so I realized that I am asking myself the same question for so long already and do not have an answer.

I am getting great feedback when I do this. … Actually I do not offer what people ask me. Well, maybe I should. But there is also this … which I really enjoy doing. Hmmm …

What should I focus on?

Here is my answer:

I recommend you to answer yourself the following questions:

What do you like to do best and at the same time, what do you already have prepared to serve those request you get?

Many times we forget the answers to this question because we do not feel that we are actually doing work. We just do it. Other people can answer you this question in a flash. Asking others around you to answer.

If you do not have others to ask, try this trick to ask yourself like this:

1. What is the easiest for you to deliever?
2. Is the answer to question 1. in your genius / purpose?
3. If yes, go for it. If no, take the next one in line and answer the same questions.

Good luck!

Thanks a lot, Naseem, for asking this question in the forum!

Inspirational regards

Jutta

LINKS

Knowledge disappears

From a match to the lantern

Where did the quest take you?

Here is how the story started:
It started with a match …
It started with a match … Part II

Stunned at my success at truing a match into 59 francs I called in to what would be my last transaction. I was running out of time. It was another gift shop with lost of items that looked more expensive than they were. The assistant and I hated and started to select what might be a good trade.

We both know that the retail price is no where near the acquisition price so I thought I was on to a good thing, that is until the owner came back in. At first she, the owner, was somewhat shocked at my proposition but rapport is a beautiful thing.

Remember I am in Zurich and to start with this lady wouldn’t open up in English. with a bit of banter, and pointing out that I am only doing what one of her posters on the wall was saying …

”If you don’t ask for what you want, you won’t get it”,

we became friend in trading. The big challenge here, for me, was she didn’t rate the price tag on the fake lavender. She told me in fact that the quaintly was awful (not her word obviously) and not worth anything other. That said I now believe this to have been a savvy negotiating tactic as I walked out of this shop with a proper gift.

A beach style lantern complete with candle and a price tag of 94 francs.

From a single valueless match to a lantern priced at 94 franc in just over an hour.

So, what can I learn from this?

• in any negotiation make sure you are talking to the budget holder
• in any negotiation the other person is always negotiating too
• build rapport and keep it building politeness and humour go a long way
• value and price are not always related

 

CREDITS

Thanks to Martin Daubney for sharing his learning experience
www.inspirecoaching.com

Martin is a successful Executive Coach with many years of experience working with large corporations and Small Business Owners. He helps leaders to overcome limitations to their growth.

“Liberating potential & creating edge both exemplified through encouraging of people to step outside their comfort zone and then in coaching to help them deliver.”

LINKS

www.industryrockstar.com

Facebook Page

#kaneandalessia

 

It started with a … match

How did the quest continue?

Here is how the story started:
It started with a match …

On the quest to understand what value is:

Over the road was a small independent florist. My strategy, as it emerged was to target business owners rather than franchises or chain shops. On the way in I noticed some small plants outside for between 12 and 18 francs.

A birthday card for a small plant? Now that has to be a good deal (for me). It was nice and cool inside but as I entered I noticed the 4 women who worked inside, and fortunately one of them was the business owner. She patiently listened to my story, delighted in my feature and benefit sale of the new and unused birthday card, revelled in the banter and did the deal on a real lavender plant. Onwards and upwards.

Success breads success and bored with my own I entered a gift shop that had a sale on. This time the owner was not in the shop and would be away some time. However, on hearing the story it was clear the two ladies in this shop wanted to help.

Mu(r)seums Tag

Was alles dahinter steckt: Die Vorbereitungen und Arbeiten zur Erstellung des Theaterstücks “Wasser”

Wie schon 2015 nahm Elisabeth Feiner auch heuer wieder die Einladung zur THEATERFABRIK WEIZ mit ihrer Klasse an. Die in die dritte Klasse aufgestiegene 3 C hat sich an ein spannendes und wichtiges Thema gemacht:

„WASSER“

Vor dem Theaterprojekt standen umfangreiche Vorarbeiten am Plan:

1. Zunächst Wortschatzarbeiten, da keines der Kinder Deutsch als Muttersprache hat. Das Erarbeiten von Redewendungen mit Wasser machte allen viel Spaß.
2. Erfahrungen der Kinder mit Wasser wurden gesammelt :
   Die Flussraumführung mit Dipl. Ing. Katharina Schüssler und ihrem Team aus der Abteilung 14 Wasserwirtschaft, Ressourcen und Nachhaltigkeit des Landes Steiermark war besonders beeindruckend.
   Auch am Experimentiertag waren die Kinder mit voller Aufmerksamkeit bei Auftrieb, Schwimmen, Wasserverschmutzung und -reinigung bei der Sache. Zirkuläres Denken, Denken in Kreisläufen, dass alle Teilsysteme in Kreisläufen miteinander verbunden sind konnten erfahrbar und erlebbar gemacht werden.

Am Mu(r)seums Tag konnten sich die SchülerInnen intensiv mit dem Hauptfluss der Steiermark beschäftigen. Die Führung: „ Da rinnt noch viel Wasser die Mur hinunter” brachte viele Erkenntnisse:

• Die Mur wurde als Transportweg, Wäscheplatz, Fischwasser  usw. verwendet.
• Wir bauen ein Wasserrad – im Rahmen der Murausstellung, um zu erfahren, wie man die Kraft des Wassers nützen kann.
• Verständnis zur Veränderung von Wassernutzung, Wasserbringen, Wasserwegen – die Murausstellung diente als Grundlage, die im Sachunterricht weitergeführt werden konnte.

Der Zugang der Kinder zum Thema Wasser wurde ein bewussterer, respektvollerer und gewissenhafterer.

UNSER ZIEL
Verantwortung spürbar und erlebbar machen, alles Tun hat (Aus)wirkungen, ob es ein kleines Rückhaltebecken ist, Licht,  welches man brennen lässt oder auf der Bühne steht und mit der gesamten Klasse ein Theaterstück spielt.

“Eine der großen Herausforderungen waren die Probearbeiten mit einem Kind, das eine A-Typische Form des Autismus hat. Die Kinder wollten aber, dass auch dieses Kind dabei ist und mitspielt.”

Elisabeth Feiner

Mehr als nur das Theaterstück ist der gesamte Weg dorthin bemerkenswert. Ich möchte dieses Beispiel eines aussergewöhnlichen und darum umso interessanteren Lern- und Erfahrungsweges durch meinen Bericht darüber nicht nur sichtbar machen und Elisabeth den gebührenden Dank aussprechen, sondern auch gern weitergeben und animieren, auch in solchen Bahnen zu denken.

Ein herzliches Dank ergeht an alle, die uns bei unserem Tun unterstützt haben …

LINKS

Theaterprojekt Wanted 2015

CREDITS

Theaterpädagogin Gudrun Maier

Die Theaterfabrik in Weiz hat die Bühne zur Verfügung gestellt, Vera und Kathi haben die Theatergruppen begrüßt und ihre Fabrik vorgestellt.
Eine der insgesamt 8 Spielgruppen kam sogar aus Wien angereist.

Der Landesverband für außerberufliches Theater in der Steiermark LAUT! hat die Aufführung mitorganisiert und gesponsert.

Die Kampagnen des Christoph Kolumbus

Überzeugen und Zustimmung finden
oder
was die Fähigkeit zu Überzeugen mit dem Leben und Wirken des Christoph Kolumbus zu tun hat

#kurtgallusschmid #persuasion.ch

Ich hatte das Glück, Kurt Schmid auf einem meiner Wege zu begegnen. Letzte Woche habe ich seinen Persuasion Workshop besucht.

In der Zeit der Informationsüberflutung wird die Fähigkeit zu überzeugen immer wichtiger.

Warum?

Weil man ja nicht alles gelesen haben kann … .  Tatsache!

Ärzte beispielsweise können die Mengen des neu produzierten Wissens nicht mehr aufnehmen. Auch wenn Sie jeden Tag 2 neue Forschungsergebnisse Ihrer Fachbereichs in Ihren Wissenspool aufnehmen, sind sie trotzdem nach einem Jahr viele hundert Jahre hinter dem aktuellen Stand des Wissens.

Ja … soviel Wissen wird produziert und wir – wir alle – leben in einer Zeit, in der es wissenschaftlich bewiesen ist, dass wir die Mengen neuen Wissens nicht mehr bewältigen können.

Es wird zu einer Schlüsselqualifikation, überzeugen und Zustimmung finden zu können. Gerade bei wichtigen Themen, die unsere Gesellschaft und damit uns alle betreffen, ist es essentiell, die notwendige Unterstützung vieler finden zu können, um etwas zu bewegen.

Selten gibt es im Leben Erfahrungen, die wirklich einen bleibenden Eindruck hinterlassen. Erfahrungen, die einen bewegen und befähigen, etwas neu oder anders zu tun oder auch nicht mehr zu tun.

Die Arbeit mit Kurt ist so eine Erfahrung. Sie führt zu praktischen Änderungen im Leben.

Danke Kurt, für die 7 Techniken der Überzeugung – ein Werkzeug, um alle wichtigen Punkte im Auge behalten zu können.

www.persuasion.ch

P.S.:

Sie wollen wissen, was dies alles mit Christoph Kolumbus zu tun hat?

Danke, dass Sie bis hierher weiter gelesen haben.

Kolumbus war zwischen 1484 und 1492, also 8 Jahre lang, unterwegs auf Königshöfen und sonstigen Orten, an denen einflußreiche Persönlichkeiten zu finden waren, die als Geldgeber für seine Entdeckungsreise zu begeistern waren.

Überzeugen ist kein Pitch, sondern eine Kampagne, die 3 bis 6 Monate dauert. Die Regel sagt, dass es mindestens 7 Kontakte sein müssen. Im Zeitalter der digitalen Medien sogar 77 Kontakte.

Erst am 17. April 1492 wurde ein Vertrag zwischen den Monarchen Spaniens und Kolumbus über eine Expedition. Der Vertrag sicherte Kolumbus, im Gegenzug für das Bringen von Gold und Gewürzen, zehn Prozent der Profite aus dem Verkauf der Güter, Statthalterschaft über die gefundenen Ländereien und den Titel Admiral der Weltmeere zu und bestimmte, dass Kolumbus für Spanien einen westlichen Seeweg nach Ostasien suchen sollte.

Die Zeit zum Planen Ihrer Kampagne ist da!   Welches Argument pass zu wem?

 

Interesse am Persuasion Workshop teilzunehmen?
Sie möchten einen Workshop für Ihr Unternehmen buchen ..

Name

Email(required)

Comment

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Δ

KURT SCHMID

Er hat die Schweizer Niederlassung des globalen Kommunikationsnetzwerks Lowe & Partners Worldwide geleitet. Er war Präsident des Verbandes der Schweizer Kommunikationsagenturen. Als Social Entrepreneur hat er eine Agentur für nachhaltiges Marketing gegründet. Heute ist er Präsident von WWF Schweiz und der Stiftung Domicil.

Heute begleitet er NGO’s, Unternehmen, Start-ups, Teams in Anpassungsprozessen und unterstützt sie, Ihre Anliegen, Ideen und Projekte erfolgreich zu vermitteln.

www.persuasion.ch

FUN.Basel Vol II

FUN Basel geht in die zweite Runde

Wir sehen uns am 7. Juli 2016 im Lohnhof

Damit wir diesmal auch den Innenhof benützen können, ersuchen wir an höherer Stelle um schöne sommerliche Abendtemperaturen.

Platz reservieren

Wir freuen uns auf drei interessante Geschichten von:

• Alexander Ramseier
• Marne Platt
• Martin Daubney

Gespannt auf den Abend, bis Donnerstag nächste Woche

Herzlichst
The Organizers Team
Jutta & Isabelle

Am Theaterfestival in Weiz

Ein Sachthema auf die Bühne bringen ist keine einfache Sache. Die Texte und Szenen mit den Kindern erarbeiten, auch nicht. Vor allem mit so vielen verschiedenen Nationen und einem Kind mit Autismus. Meine Hochachtung!

Leider konnte das Theaterstück medientechnisch nicht (ausser durch einige Fotos) festgehalten werden.

Ich durfte die Gruppe begleiten und miterleben, wie lehrreich und gleichzeitig beruhrend das Thema verarbeitet wurde. Für Sie hier nun der Inhalt des Stückes in groben Zügen:

TiSCH (Theater in SCHÖNAU) – Wasser

Die Wassertropfen können tönen – Ein Gedicht über von Jams Krüss erzählt davon.

Die Wassertropfen sind an der Quelle und „sprudeln“ hervor.

Wasserfragen werden gestellt, jedoch nur mit einer Gegenfrage beantwortet.

Danach treffen Menschenkinder auf das Wasser und missbrauchen es als Müllhalde. Das Wasser wird krank und leblos. Die Menschenkinder werden durstig, aber das verschmutzte Wasser können sie nicht trinken.

Also bauen sie eine Kläranlage. Die Menschenkinder erzählen über ihre Gefühle und fragen sich, ob das Wasser auch Gefühle haben kann. Sie werden darüber aufgeklärt, dass das Wasser Zustände haben kann – Aggregatzustände. Das Publikum durfte fühlen: Eiswürfeln und Wasser wurden gereicht.

Danach brauchten die Menschenkinder Strom und da bauten sie sich ein Wasserrad. Aber ohne Wasser ging nichts.

Also kam das Wasser und die Reise der Wassertropfenkinder ging weiter ans Meer. Dort angekommen, das große weite Meer genießend, feierten die Wassertropfenkinder ihr Ziel.

Jedoch die Sonne tauchte auf und verlangte: „Wassertropfenkinder, ihr müsst weiter!“

Am Ende wurde das Gedicht: Wasserkreislauf noch einmal mit Klanginstrumenten dargebracht.

Ich bin gespannt, ob und wie es nächstes Jahr weitergeht und freue mich, wenn ich wieder dabei sein darf …

LINKS

Theaterfabrik 22. und 23. Juni 2016

Theaterfabrik in Weiz

LAUT! Landesverband für außerberufliches Theater Steiermark

Theaterprojekt Wanted 2015

High impact learning stories

Looking for people open to share their high impact learning stories @FUN_Basel

Die erste FUN Abend war sehr erfolgreich – wir hatten 60 Besucher und eine sehr positive Atmosphäre, die allen – Speaker wie Besucher – erlaubte, Erfahrenes und Gelerntes zu teilen.

Besonders gefreut haben wir uns über den Bericht am selben Tag in der Basler Zeitung, der weitere nicht angemeldete Besucher zu uns brachte.

Die kommenden Termine

• 7. Juli 2016   Speaker Slots    Tickets
• 22. September 2016   Speaker Slots
• 10. November 2016   Speaker Slots

Passt einer der Termine in Ihren Zeitplan?
Wollen Sie einen Speaker Slots reservieren?

Sprechen Sie mit uns über einen Speaker Slot – wir melden uns bei Ihnen:

Email(required)

Submit

Δ

——————- v — E N G L I S H — v ——————-

The first FUN.Basel was great – we had about 60 participants and a great atmosphere where people – speakers and visitors – could really share the experiences and what they did learn from them. It was wonderful to have a one page article in Basler Zeitung about FuckupNights and our event that day which brought us a few more non-registered people.

We have the next event dates planned now:

• 7. July 2016   Speaker Slots    Tickets
• 22. September 2016   Speaker Slots
• 10. November 2016   Speaker Slots

Does one of them fit into your calendar?
Should we reserve a speaker slot for you?

Speak to us about a Speaker Slot – we will contact you:

Email(required)

Submit

Δ

high impact learning @fun_basel

TICKETS

Funbasel Tickets July 7, 2016

LINKS

FUN.Basel Speakers Briefing EN
FUN.Basel Speaker Briefing DE

REVIEWS

A phenomenal opening
Erstmals in Basel
The first time

Erstmals in Basel

Tabu Thema oder Fakten

Auf Seite 2 der Basler Zeitung schreibt Christoph Hirter am Donnerstag, 12.5.2016, fast eine ganze Seite über die FuckUpNights, eine Veranstaltungsreihe, die 2012 in Mexico geboren wurde.

Auf den FuckUp Nights – kurz FUN – in Basel geht es um Unternehmungen, Projekte und Initiativen, die schief gelaufen sind. Es gehört dazu. Fehler, Änderungen, Stop Orders … sie gehören zu jedem Entwicklungsprozess.

Warum?

How to be a quilt maker

Tina Seelig – a Neuroscientist by education, a catalyzer by profession. She challenges your assumption by putting out simple ground rules for triggering creativity.

Take the time to listen to her talk on TED
A crash course in creativity: Tina Seelig at TEDxStanford
18:15

Inside: Knowledge – Imagination – Attitude
Outside: Resource – Habitat – Culture
~ woven together

The parts of the innovation engine – or how to increase imagination:

1. Framing and reframing problems
Determines the type of answer you will get

2. Connecting and combining ideas
Putting together what is not obvious or does not really match

3. Challenging assumptions

You need to get deeper in your innovation engine:

• Pay attention
• Use your knowledge
• Have the right attitude to spark your creativity

Take all in to make a quilt maker

 

 

“Nothing can be looked at in isolation”
Tina Seelig

Why do powerful leaders not do more good?

Check out this very interesting report from the University of Lausanne:

The most interesting finding for me is

“Honesty does not shield a person from mis-using power.”

Thanks to Dan Ariely’s Blog

SOME STUDIES ON POWER AND CORRUPTION

John Antonakis, Professor of Organizational Behaviour at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, and his colleagues just came out with a new paper on power and corruption (and Testosterone).

Important and fascinating — and for sure worth the 14 min of this video

 

Start of the 2014 Creativity Engineering class

October 1st is the day when the Creativity Engineering class starts every year. This one is the 8th time. The registrations for the class have been growing since the first time the class was offered. This year we received almost 250.  Thank you for your overwhelming interest.

Students interested come from various backgrounds and study focuses with national backgrounds from all over the European Union and a few from beyond.

The first phase is the IDEA and TEAM FINDING phase where people present ideas they would like to develop and find team members who want to join them on this path. This year we are running a pilot to check out if the use of the MakerSquare platform is useful for us.

Why do I decide to do this? I wanted to see how the this statement
“By bringing together teams of passionate, curious, like-minded people and enabling crowd-sourcing of under-utilized resources, we aim to create new paths towards innovation, discovery, and entrepreneurship.”
taken from the MakerSquare “What we do” page does really apply to reality.

The best is that feedback from all participants will be fed back to the MakerSquare developers team.

Excited to see how this will work out. A new adventure and twist to our pathway!

I am happy to have had Martin Asmus on my side to support such a large group of participants every year. Thank you very much, Martin.
This year I found another supporter, Carina Müller, who will be supporting the pilot with me.

All the best for the course, have fun in what you do!

Jutta Jerlich

Warum Japan irgendwann den Anschluss verliert…

This is a post in German I published in different blog on May 2nd, 2011. It was written out of frustration about the boredom I experienced during my studies in Japan. Please note that this is a generalisation of the situation and I am aware that there are schools in Japan, which have an excellent education system. I just want to post it here as a start for a discussion about education in Japan.

Wenn ich an Vorlesungen an Deutschland denke, bin ich wahrscheinlich sehr verwöhnt, denn wir sind immer kleine Gruppen, der Dozent kennt meist unseren Namen und wir müssen – ganz wie in der Schule – uns melden und beteiligen. Aber selbst bei meinem Besuch an größeren Unis mit mehr als 100 Studenten in einem Raum, kann ich immer noch mit Gewissheit sagen, dass die Aufmerksamkeit der Studenten um ein Vielfaches höher ist als in Japan.

Ich traute mich nicht schlafende Studenten zu fotographieren …

Dienstags, 10:40 Uhr – “Leadership & Negotiations” im zweitgrößten Vorlesungssaal des Wirtschaftsgebäudes mit rund 40 Drittsemestlern und einem motivierten Professor. Und trotzdem sind die ersten drei Reihen konsequent frei und schlafende Studenten an der Tagesordnung. Liegt es am langweiligen Unterricht? Kann es jedenfalls nicht sein, denn Okumura-sensei erklärt gut, macht Übersichten, die verständlich sind, bringt lauter interessante Beispiele und nimmt Bezug auf aktuelle Geschehnisse. Und trotzdem schreiben alle Studenten nur das mindeste mit und sitzen eher gelangweilt da – obwohl offiziell nicht mal Anwesenheitspflicht ist.

Ich finde das schade, denn eigentlich sollte doch die Universtität der Ort sein, wo man genau das lernt, was einen interessiert, nicht wahr? Aber scheinbar nicht hier, denn wie so oft spielt hier nicht nur die Einzelleistung eine Rolle, sondern auch der Name der Uni. Der öffnet einem dann schließlich den Weg ins Berufsleben und bist du einmal drin in der Maschinerie, ist es schwer herauszukommen. Letztendlich ist es in den meisten Fällen egal, was du studierst, solange du den Namen der Uni hast – bestes Beispiel, vier Leute auf meiner Arbeit im Hotel haben Jura studiert! Wenn ich höre, wie im International Center der Universität beraten wird, dass maximal drei Monate Austausch geraten wird, weil man sonst Zeit verliert, dann finde ich das schade. Hier wird eher darauf geachtet, dass man gleichzeitig mit allen im gleichen Alter den Abschluss macht. Kein Wunder, dass so nicht wirklich Motivation aufkommt, wenn man alles nach Plan macht und trotzdem einen Job bekommt. Das Bestreben wie in Deutschland der Selbstverwirklichung ist hier nicht so stark ausgeprägt. Und somit fehlt die bei uns oft geforderte Auslandserfahrung oder selbst das Bestreben ins Ausland zu gehen, denn Japan ist ja schön. Und warum sollte man es denn verlassen, wenn auch innerlands alles vorhanden ist?

Noch viel erstaunlicher, es gibt im Unterricht keine Fragen! Man schreibt eben nur das mit, was auch angeschrieben wird, denn genau das wird auch wieder abgeprüft. Bis jetzt hatte ich nur sehr wenig selbstständiges Erarbeiten von Lösungen. Und man fällt ja auch unangenehm auf und stört den Lehrer. Was allerdings mal ganz interessant wäre, denn andererseits sind die Dozenten absolut ungebildet in Pädagogik. So manche Typen, die da vorne stehen, haben noch nie eine Masse unterhalten müssen, bzw. Wissen an den Mann gebracht. Monotone 90 Minuten ohne Unterbrechung! Aber in den Seminaren, d.h. kleine Gruppen geleitet von einem Dozenten, wo man sich einmal pro Woche zu einem bestimmten Thema austauscht, wird trotzdem nicht mehr geredet und eigentlich wäre ja das die beste Möglichkeit, um so richtig herzhaft zu diskutieren, oder?

Diese Kultur wie Deutsche sie haben, sich auszutauschen, Standpunkte zu vergleichen, ist hier absolut unterentwickelt. Japaner legen Wert auf die Harmonie und Unstimmigkeiten würden das trüben und somit hat der Dozent recht, denn wie könnte man dem Dozenten widerspechen? Das entschuldigt aber nicht die mangelhafte Präsentationsfähigkeit! Also, drei in Kleinstschrift vollgeschriebene Blätter, die einfach heruntergelesen werden, wäre bei uns in der achten Klasse schon durchfallreif gewesen. Handout, übersichtliches Erklären, Fragestellung, bitte! Aber wenn sowas auch nicht verbessert wird, wie soll es dann weitergehen?

Was kommt dann am Ende heraus? Studenten, die keinerlei Präsentations- und Diskussionsfähigkeit besitzen und die nun erstmal drei Monate in der Firma lernen, wie man sich zu verhalten hat und wie alles gemacht wird, also eigentlich das, was ich erwarte, dass man es in der Universität lernt. Geht man dann überhaupt zur Universität, um zu lernen? Nein, Frauen können sich ja einen Mann angeln! 😀
Und das bestätigt mich letztendlich in meiner Theorie, dass Japan eine breite Masse hat, die einfach nur mitschwimmt und die wirklich innovativen Sachen von Leuten kommen, die da herausfallen (s. Visual Key, etc.). Und solange kein Bestreben besteht sich großartig mit dem Ausland auszutauschen und Vergleiche zu ziehen, wird hier alles fröhlich in der Blubberblase so weitergehen, bis sie platzt.

Genug Dampf abgelassen, Uni macht ja trotzdem Spaß. Aber als eine der wenigen Ausländer im Unterricht einen einfachen Sachverhalt zu erklären, während sich keiner von den Japanischen Studenten meldet, ist schon verstörend.

The universal language

The key of sharing and collaborating on ideas is of course communication. And for communication not to lead to misunderstandings the same set of rules and values is important, which in a simple way can be just the language. As I am writing this blog entry in English it is obvious that I did so, because it will be understood by a wide range of people. It is not my first language and after years of using English and even being able to have serious conversations using it, I still feel that there are certain things I will never be able to express as I wanted to. The other way around, I feel more comfortable talking e.g. about Design Thinking in English, because I learned and worked with it solely in English.

I had the opportunity to spend some time in South America this year. This was something new and challenging to me. I’ve been to Asia quite a lot, but South America has an totally different, interesting cultural context and I had fun exploring it. One of the things I noticed quite soon was that although a lot of people spoke English, a lot of people did not. This is the same in a lot of Asian countries, but in contrast to Asia, it is not perceived as a lack, if you do not speak English. It was even the other way around that I felt I did not make enough effort to communicate in Spanish! I had plenty of situations when even amongst travellers the common language was not English but Spanish and I had a hard time keeping up, because my Spanish is beginner’s level at best.

It was kind of an eye opener to me. Until now I somehow expected everyone everywhere to speak English. It might have been a bit arrogant of me to expect that, because besides English there are other languages such as Spanish and Chinese that is spoken by a large number of people. I do not want to imply that we should all switch to a different language, but just looking at the development, we might have to think about other languages than English. Who knows what will happen in a few years if you look at the development of the Spanish speaking population in the United States, which is constantly growing. Or the great amount of Chinese speaking population on earth. This is an appeal for being open minded to other languages than English and making an effort learning Portuguese, German, French, Japanese, you name it. Do not automatically expect others to speak English, but agree on a language that is most comfortable for all.

P.S.: I had the most fun conversation with a Belgian guy, who did not speak English, but Spanish and French. I speak neither Spanish nor French, but English and still, we somehow talked about all kinds of things. We agreed on a mix of Spanish with English and a few words of French and voilà, we were having a great time talking

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Wings for Life – Uplifting Experience

#netacad
#worldrun

The Wings for Life World Run is the first time ever that a global race took place in 33 countries and 34 locations at the same time. For me it was the proof that we can all do something together at the same time. It was the proof that the technology we have at our fingertips can actually bring us together and unite our minds and spirits for one cause.

This is just wonderful and a very powerful realization.

How did the idea for participating in this event get started?

Having worked with teachers and students for many years, I started to hear from teachers over and over that students do not read their study materials any more, everything is too long or too much. There is no motivation to learn. There is too much information out there and it is hard to choose. In contrast, in a conversation with a friend, he was telling me about the motivation – no actually much more than that – the dedication of Iron Man competitors or Marathon runners. I started to think about how I could find a way to put such kind of passion into learning. I went on a quest to discuss this with students and they told me that it would be great for them to see real life implementations of networking technology they can study and learn from.

Then the Wings for Life World Run project was presented to me and it made “klick”.

In technical terminology the technology that made this event possible is called nowadays called Internet-of-Everything Technology and Networking Technology is at its heart. I am supporting and promoting the Networking Technology Education Program for the IT Solutions provider Cisco Systems, the Cisco Networking Academy. This Education Program is in 165 countries and with its 1.000.000 students worldwide it is called the largest classroom of the world.

Such an event happening was the invitation from life, the unique opportunity to connect people with passion to learners by allowing them to take a look behind the scenes to understand the technological solution and see in front of their own eyes what it takes in terms of team work and leadership to implement a global race. To have this opportunity alone is great but there was another challenge I added. We shared the information and knowledge gained with the larger international network of learners in the Networking Academy program in many countries.

Here are my reflections about how it all went:

Did the experience prove true to your expectations?

The answer is a definite YES.

It is actually more than a Yes, because it exceeded my expectations. Being able to meet the people who had the idea of a World Run and the huge team who made it reality is more than I could imagine. Each single person is fully committed to making the event a success with his or her heart and mind. This energy will touch you. It will inspire you.

Every group member took his own time to feel the energy in its full power.
“Wow, this is exactly what I would love to do as a job …”
“… you started your company with 25?”
“I need to plan for this next time … .”
“ … thanks … it is great to be here.”

It is so exceptionally motivating to see a world that is doing the run together as ONE. Being part of this effort by making it a learning experience adds another level that should help to unite the youth in making the world theirs.

Did the students really learn what you expected them to learn?

Our group with Felix, Maximilian, Ivica, Nathan and Kevin was just great. The group was diverse – they were all from different backgrounds, with different interests and skills, at different stages in their life – and at the same time they were all ambitious, open to each other’s views and ideas which helped immensely to quickly find a way to work as a team. It was amazing to feel how sad we all were when our time together was over, including me. They all learned to communicate and share their knowledge in a team and for a larger network. A skill that is so important for any job in life, but rarely ever taught in school or university.

What was the most important for me: I could see the spark in their eyes when they fully understood the essence of my message. How do you know when that happens? Usually a person is rather quiet at that moment and you can literally see this moment of understanding, this insight in their eyes and facial expressions.

What was not so good or needs further improvement?

My real world learning activity was not that easy to explain. It is a complex collaboration on more than one level between five stakeholders who could not have done this alone. It is only possible to be successful if all partners bring their part to the table. Multi stakeholder partnerships are hard to explain and require not only the right attitude but also the ability to recognize an opportunity at the right point in time and in the fitting context.

It is just hard to explain to someone. It is hard to put in a few words. We live in a time of information overflow and people do not (have the time to) read any more. Marketing and Communication have to be short, precise and if possible, less than 140 characters, to be used in twitter messages to catch the interest of readers. Well, this is extraordinarily difficult when trying to explain a project that requires a multi stakeholder partnership to realize.

It seems that people are not able any more to identify opportunities and projects that are worth their time and effort. Continuing this work I will have to find better ways to explain the opportunities or find different words or images to make people understand their significance.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH
I want to thank each and everyone who did take the time to read the materials and to speak to me. Each single person who involved him or her in this project did so because of a personal relationship with me or another person I personally know or work with.

Thanks for trusting in me and my initiative.
I will build on this foundation we created for future collaboration and the next Wings for Life World Run on the 3^rd of May 2015.

Wishing you lots of Christmas for 2014

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, a religious event and a widely celebrated cultural holiday.  When you ask people the question “How do you celebrate Christmas?” or “What does Christmas mean to you?”, you will get quite diverse answers.

Everybody has a different way of celebrating. In some places Santa Claus comes through the chimney and delivers gifts to children on the 25th of December. Where the population is predominantly roman catholic, the birth of Jesus as the “Christkind” is celebrated on the 24th of December with a family gathering and attending church service.  In other countries Christmas is a festivity with a more commercially motivated.

         Christmas tree 2013

The essence of any festival for me is the coming together, meeting family and friends, cooking and eating together. This is what my family does at Christmas. It was not always like that. It developed into this format. The special dish this year was Carp in salt crust and it was delicious. But it was not about the dish. It was about the time spent together and the thoughts exchanged while decorating the tree, preparing the meal and cleaning up afterwards.

This is my feeling of Christmas. I enjoy all festivals of all religions that bring people together, open their minds for each other and lead them back to what connects them: common roots, same goals, shared views on life, friendship and love.

I hope that this kind of feeling was part of your Christmas holidays and I wish you lots more feelings like this for the New Year 2014

I wish you lots of Christmas occasions throughout the year.

Thanks for the thought exchange, support and collaboration to

my family and friends
my colleagues, advisers, mentors and companions
my former students in Japan
my current Creativity Engineering students

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Body language and its effect

Communication happens on so many levels. Words, Eyes, Body, Mail, behavior online by simply clicking “like” on Facebook. It happens every day from waking up until going to sleep when saying good night. But in my opinion communication is underrated. People say they are bad at expressing themselves, they quickly switch to informal language and shorten everything they say with hashtags. We talk differently than 20 years ago and the World Wide Web is a big part of it. But communication is crucial to understand each other. Learning a new language gives you a key to the culture, because it reflects a big part of the culture itself. For example, in Japanese the word “I” is used less than in English or German, which I think reflects the importance of the groups rather than the individual.

One thing you don’t get taught when learning a new language is the body language. You have the stereotypical cold Scandinavian and on the other hand the kiss on the cheek giving South European. But besides cultural differences, body language in your own country is very important. It also has a huge effect on yourself, which Amy Cuddy reflects on in this talk on TED:

I found this video very inspiring and added it to my list about communication. For more info also have a look at these people:

Paul Ekman – One of the leading scientists on microexpressions and body language. He states that the basic expressions are universal and has a lot of interesting insights on how we e.g. mask a lie!
Stefan Verra – This man startles you all over again when analysing you and your body language. He has a lot of knowledge about what you tell others when standing, sitting or behaving in a certain way.

The $4 Million Teacher – Hagwons in South Korea

Referenced article http://online.wsj.com

This article has a few elements and arguments I was very happy to read about. Even better it would be if many other would be read the article and conclude that they are well worth thinking about.

“Tutoring services are growing all over the globe, Sometimes called shadow education systems, they mirror the mainstream system, offering after-hours classes in every subject—for a fee. But nowhere have they achieved the market penetration and sophistication of hagwons in South Korea, where private tutors now outnumber schoolteachers.”

From my own experience I got to know the ones in Japan, called Gakushū juku 学習塾 which have a similar status in society and among students. They are indispensable for many who do not succeed in passing the university entry exams which take place only one a year at the first try.

“Such a shadow education system is both exciting and troubling. Students essentially go to school twice—once during the day and then again at night at the tutoring academies. It is a relentless grind.”

“When attempting to look at the quality of education delivered it is surprisingly hard to answer this question. Research undertaken worldwide is suggesting that the quality of after-school lessons matters more than the quantity. Leading to the fact that the most affluent kids can afford one-on-one tutoring with the most popular instructors, while others attend inferior hagwons with huge class sizes and less reliable instruction—or after-hours sessions offered free by their public schools.”

“The really good teachers are hard to retain—and hard to manage. You need to protect their egos,” says Lee Chae-yun, who owns a chain of five hagwons in Seoul called Myungin Academy.

“Students are the customers,”

“In South Korea, if parents aren’t engaged, that is considered a failure of the educators, not the family.”

This is an interesting statement and here is how this works in Korea: “Once students enroll, the school embeds itself in families’ lives. Parents get text messages when their children arrive at the academies each afternoon; then they get another message relaying students’ progress. Two to three times a month, teachers call home with feedback. Every few months, the head of the school telephones, too.”

Performance surveys are conducted throughout the hagwon schools and by the Korean Educational Development Institute. Performance evaluations are typically based on following points, including questions asked and rated

• number of students sign up for their class
• students’ test-score growth
• passion of the teacher
• how well prepared is the teacher
• respectfulness of students’ opinions
• treating all students fairly

It has to be noted that the satisfaction surveys are given to students and parents.

“Policy makers and planners should…ask why parents are willing to invest considerable sums of money to supplement the schooling received from the mainstream,” he writes. “At least in some cultures, the private tutors are more adventurous and client-oriented.”

“The only solution is to improve public education,” says Mr. Kim, the millionaire teacher, echoing what the country’s education minister and dozens of other Korean educators told me. If parents trusted the system, the theory goes, they wouldn’t resort to paying high fees for extra tutoring.

“To create such trust, Mr. Kim suggests paying public-school teachers significantly more money according to their performance—as hagwons do. Then the profession could attract the most skilled, accomplished candidates, and parents would know that the best teachers were the ones in their children’s schools—not in the strip mall down the street.”

“No country has all the answers. But in an information-driven global economy, a few truths are becoming universal: Children need to know how to think critically in math, reading and science; they must be driven; and they must learn how to adapt, since they will be doing it all their lives. These demands require that schools change, too—or the free market may do it for them.”