HR is, without a doubt, one of the business areas most affected by disruption. That was already the case before the pandemic hit. This development has been further accelerated by Covid-19. In addition to new concepts for remote collaboration between employees, the focus is on personal and professional development of the people in an organization. And just like with the free choice of working hours and location, the emphasis is increasingly on self-determination. The days when middle management had the power to determine the career of the employees are over. Promoting career ownership, meaning that employees are responsible for shaping their own career in a self-determined way (with the manager in the role of a mentor and supporter), is becoming the main task of a future-oriented HR department. Organizations must create the framework for this, a framework of opportunities, if you will. Many large companies are already successfully working with software-based opportunity marketplaces such as the ones we are developing at Tandemploy. Today, we will show you what distinguishes these marketplaces from traditional talent management and why they are becoming more and more relevant. Read more
Corona is driving a long overdue change in the working world – that seems to be the general consensus throughout the past weeks and months. It is evident that through the lockdown, many companies have made their first significant experiences with remote working. Many of them were surprised how well it works and what a positive effect the elimination of business trips and the proximity to home have on people’s productivity. Managers have come to realize that they can rely on their employees even when they are not physically present at the office. These positive new experiences are an important foundation on which companies can build new forms of collaborations. So, do they still need policies then? Legal regulations that influence certain business decisions? Read more
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While others are just starting to address the topic of “digitalization”, employees in 58 countries and 276 cities worldwide are already using the Tandemploy software on a daily basis to network internally for a wide variety of reasons – for mentoring duos, job rotations, project work, onboarding, lunch dates, expert sessions and much more. The SaaS offers a broad range of matching topics to choose from, enabling organizations and their employees to transform into a mobile and vibrant corporate organism. Well-known companies like SAP, Evonik, Haspa, and Lufthansa are just some of the customers (and fans) of the matching software. From their Berlin headquarters, Tandemploy is not only conquering the German economy but is also increasingly gaining traction internationally. In 2020 the “brand eins” magazine listed the software in a row with Google Drive, Github, and Slack. Shortly afterward, America’s most famous morning show “Good Morning America” reported on the “Tinder for Businesses” from Germany. Read more
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The change that has been discussed, philosophized, talked about (talked to death even) for years, is suddenly here. And with a force and speed that has surprised many. In a good way, but not only. The realization that from one moment to the next nothing will be the same as before has unsettled many people. Even if they were covertly aware that the world was undergoing a fundamental change, they didn’t fully understand how this change would affect them until now. It’s too late to dodge the bullet.
We all have to say goodbye to routines, to a feeling of security, and to the idea that the others will know what to do – the boss, the colleague, the expert, the board. Regardless of which organizational level you look at: everywhere people are forced to do new things, to try things out, to throw the familiar overboard, and to go new routes without knowing whether they will bring the desired result. Read more
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Purpose is considered one of the cornerstones of New Work. In “Reinventing Organisations” Frederic Laloux speaks of “Evolutionary Purpose”, that companies of a new type are trying out. At first glance, this may sound a bit esoteric, but it touches upon an essential survival strategy for organizations in a world in which requirements and needs are constantly changing. Because if companies keep returning to their core values, to what drives them, and to WHY they exist, they can always align their actions with these principles, regardless of the external influences they face. Read more
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BPM meets Tandemploy: Since last week the 4.700 members of Bundesverband der Personalmanager (BPM) (Association of HR Managers) can use the Tandemploy Matching-Software to network, find mentoring partners or experts and connect for lunch dates. In our interview, BPM’s Vice President Frank Kohl-Boas and Tandemploy-CEO Jana Tepe share some insights of the collaboration and describe how networking can be an accelerator of change in companies and organizations.Read more
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Is technology the answer? This is – in summary – the central question of a remarkable article recently published by business analyst Den Howlett. The text is based on Siemens’ decision to establish the home office as the standard for more than half of their employees worldwide, thereby transforming their corporate culture. Other large corporations, such as Allianz, have now followed suit with similar announcements.
The discussion about home office is never just about working remotely. The question of how organizations will work after the pandemic has far-reaching consequences – not only for the economy as a whole, but also in terms of a new work-life reality for hundreds of thousands of employees. Read more
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As we all know, normality is a question of perspective. ‘That’s not normal!’ some people might say. Others might ask ‘What is normal?’. And the next group will claim ‘Normal is boring’. And: Who wants to be boring? Don’t we all want to be a little bit different? And don’t we have to be a little different in order to be innovative? But if everyone is different, then what is normal? Does the category “normal” still work in the VUCA world, where things are changing at a rapid pace?
If you’re looking for an easy answer to the question “What is the New Normal”, you will be disappointed. Instead we need to uncover the core values of the organization that we are working for and, from there, pave new paths for collaboration together. The result? – Unknown. And that’s a good thing. Read more
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Nowadays, being in therapy is no longer something to be ashamed of. More and more people openly acknowledge that there are things that they cannot manage on their own. Some might even say it is “en-vogue” to go to therapy. My house, my car, my therapist, and so on. Most likely every development brings its exaggeration with it.
And yet: Perhaps we need some kind of large-scale therapy – in companies! Perhaps a broadly applied cognitive behavioural therapy will finally bring about the much-needed breakthrough in thinking. Maybe only the direct confrontation with the knots in our own heads, which can’t be untied with home remedies, such as the occasional workshop or the diligent consumption of the Tandemploy blog, will help. Read more
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In our series “Employee Experience” we highlight all critical Touch Points of the “Employee Journey”. Today: Letting go of employees.
Layoffs and terminations are drastic experiences in professional life, in both positive and negative terms, and for everyone involved. How appreciative we really treat each other is revealed when we decide to go separate ways. In an interview, Tandemploy co-founder Jana talks about what she learned from past separations, why it can be a good thing to take the departure of employees personally, why a positive employee experience does not necessarily end with the termination and how knowledge transfer can be successful in this special situation. Read more
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The “Gig Economy” has a bad reputation: the US company Uber is on a suing spree, AirBnB has made it necessary to create new rental laws, delivery services and platforms for creative services are under fire. Ok, hold on, Gig Economy – what was that again? – The analogy to the musical gig actually fits quite well. Similar to artists struggling from performance to performance until the big breakthrough comes, freelancers and self-employed people work themselves from job to job, with the big difference that for them there is no prospect of a big breakthrough. That is because these brokering platforms – Uber, AirBnB, 99designs, etc. – claim these for themselves. They are often worth billions, while the actual workers are working under bad, sometimes even illegal conditions.
So, what exactly is desirable about that? Read more
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Many people have experienced the past weeks and months since the beginning of the Corona crisis as an emotional rollercoaster ride. Uncertainty, anger, gratitude, feeling overwhelmed, a spirit of optimism – living and working under completely new circumstances have made the different facets of human emotions visible not only in the personal realm but also between colleagues and superiors. Therefore, leadership in times of Corona requires allowing much more space for feelings. But how much feeling is good in a work context? How much of yourself do you take with you to work? How vulnerable do you want to appear? Should it be ok to show unfiltered feelings at all times? Or only the good ones? And then what to do with the less pleasant ones? Are emotional people possibly even better leaders?
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Since March of this year, Digital Leadership primarily means Remote Leadership. Companies are discovering that being able to work from any location comes with many advantages, but also with new challenges. Ultimately, they all lead to one big question: How much physical proximity does leadership need?
At Tandemploy we also ask ourselves this question again and again. Our 30-person team has been working in many different locations, not just since Corona. At the same time, we have a strong home base with our Berlin office. However, this is not used by all employees to the same extent. How does that affect the team dynamics? How do team leaders manage to make all employees feel involved? And how can digital communication tools promote good leadership instead of hindering it?
Here we summarize our top 5 learnings from seven years of Tandemploy (and ten weeks of lockdown) for you.Read more
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Tandemploy means “think big” – and this also applies to our definition of skills:
”Skill is the infinite potential of people in an organization. It is everything people bring with them and want to contribute.”
(The sky’s the limit and so on.)
When is a skill a skill
If you want to work with skills, the definition should be a bit more specific. Because not only the HR department has clear criteria and classifications, our skill matching software also follows a system that identifies and classifies skills. And: If we want to discuss skills that companies urgently need now and in the future, we need to be clear about what we are talking about. Read more
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In our series “Employee Experience” we will highlight all critical touchpoints of the “Employee Journey”. Today: Professional and personal development
“Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps”, was the title of a successful guidebook published in the year 1998. And even today, people from the entertainment industry fill huge venues with their stories about shoe-buying women and taciturn men. How simple would the world be if we could just label and categorize everyone. But let’s be honest: it would also be a pretty boring world.
Hence: Cheers to diversity! – Many companies would even sign on to that now – at least if a press representative is nearby. The topic of “diversity” clearly shows the difference between employer branding – meaning how companies would like it to be – and the employee experience – meaning how employees actually experience their work environment. Designing a good employee experience (unlike branding) requires that companies, and especially the people in talent management, really know and understand the individual skills, wishes and needs of their colleagues. Making new experiences and encounters possible, when they are needed and desired, replaces classic career development based on the “Design & Deliver” principle.Read more
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Social Distancing has been around longer than Corona. In many companies “keeping a distance” is part of the company culture. What social isolation does to people is now increasingly being highlighted by Covid-19 and it’s consequences. Finally, you might want to say! Because being cut off from other people can be just as harmful for the individual as for the organization as a whole. If you don’t feel a connection to your colleagues or to the company, you may be able to “check off” your to-do list reasonably well, but feel little motivation to contribute ideas and get creative in finding the best solutions that will benefit the organization. A Gallup study has shown, that employees who have a friend or close connection to other coworkers in the company, are 7 times more likely to be invested in the company, than people who feel lonely on the job.
But what does “lonely” mean in the work context? Is everyone that is assigned to a small, closed-off department and sits in an individual office processing excel spreadsheets automatically lonely? Of course not. Loneliness is a feeling that manifests itself very differently and under very different circumstances for many different people. In the work context it is often the result of a lack of permissions, possibilities, and channels for contact with others. And consequently a result of structures, that – consciously or not – lead to social isolation. One could say, that rigid hierarchies and department boundaries have, in many instances, lead to a company culture of social distancing.Read more
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In our series “Employee Experience” we will highlight all critical touchpoints of the “Employee Journey”. Today: Onboarding.
It’s 2008, on a plane to London. On board: an aspiring intern with butterflies in her stomach. Huge anticipation, because getting the position was not easy. She’s really looking forward to giving it her all. The sky’s the limit and so on.
When she finally pushes through the narrow glass door to the offices in the City of London, huge backpack on her back – sweaty but happy – ready for more warmth, a bit of glitter and confetti….nothing happens. Instead of a warm welcome, as the previous email correspondence had led her to expect, her contact person doesn’t even get up from his chair. He is kind of in the middle of something.
She is left standing there and doesn’t know what to do with herself. There is no desk for her. The rom-com she had envisioned in her head of the intern from Berlin that turns the London PR world upside-down is showing first signs of turning into a tragedy.
Will it really turn out to be this terrible?Read more
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In the past few weeks, we have repeatedly been attested war-like circumstances in view of Covid-19. For HR managers nothing new so far. They have been at war for years, the “War for Talents”. This bellicose phrase has become part of the standard vocabulary in the HR field.
There are three main reasons for the tough HR challenges in the talent market:
the global competition,
the demographic shift,
the change in values, especially among young people.
Covid-19 and its aftermath now give the combating parties – companies all over the world – an involuntary cease-fire. The uncertain situation has led to hiring freezes and consequently to free time, which HR staff could and should use to reevaluate whether, over the past years, they have been fighting for the best people with the right “weapons”.Read more
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Employee Experience begins with empathy. If a company’s talent managers really want to understand what experiences people make in the course of their professional life, they have to try putting themselves in their position as best as possible. To feel what they feel. To understand their needs. Only then can they design products that create positive experiences in connection with working in the company.
Wait a second, “Products”?? But employees aren’t customers! Or are they? Read more
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Simply put, a matching process brings together what belongs together. To each their own or a lid to every pot – or rather, learning needs and know-how or project and skills. And here we are, right in the middle of Skill Matching and the question of what the whole thing has to do with the changing world of work. Read more
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Remember May 2018? That was the month the expansion of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was enacted. Months in advance people were up in arms about what this new regulation would mean for software vendors and email marketing (newsletters). Well, and then May came and went and, surprisingly, life continued in a normal and unexcited manner. Wouldn’t it be great if we could maintain that level of normalcy and calm, while engaging in an even more extensive discussion about data that has the potential to radically change the way we work and live? Let’s dive right in. Read more
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2020 could be the year in which we consistently start using good data to facilitate good work flows. Good, in the sense of “good for everyone” – for companies and their goals, for employees and for society as a whole. But also for the sake of planetary resources. Because a resource-conserving lifestyle is closely related to a working world that allows for the freedom to engage in a responsible and conscience lifestyle outside of work.
How can this be successful?
The simple answer might be: through digitalization. If machines took over more jobs and human work could be automated, then everyone would have more time, right?
Unfortunately, it isn’t quite as simple as that. Read more
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In the summer of 2019, we asked 100 people with and without management responsibility to answer the following questions: How well does knowledge transfer work in your company? What sources do you and your employees use to inform you? How well do you know your colleagues? And would you like to learn more from them? We were particularly interested in whether there were differences between employees with and without management responsibility.
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(Employee Communities – Part 2. Get prepared by reading Part 1 here.)
Innovation comes from the community – this was the experience of the Danish company Lego in the late 1990s. Today, 20 years later, we are all naturally active in communities – in social networks, for example. In coworking spaces, good community management has long been regarded as one of the strongest quality criteria. People with digital mindsets are community minded; they think openly and networked oriented.
And what about companies?
If they want to win these people over, they should do the same and rely on networking! By allowing, enabling and – even better – actively promoting the development of employee communities, they open up completely new opportunities for internal interaction, knowledge transfer, and recruiting. Read more
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Denmark, 1998. Lego Mindstorms, a series of customizable and hardware-controllable robots, hits the market. It doesn’t take long for the first adult Lego fans to hack the software and start customizing the robots to their liking. The results are presented on users’ own websites and forums. Lego has two options:
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Learning Out Loud: “If you want to learn something, start teaching it!” – Interview with Ellen Herschel of the Edutrainment Company
Ellen Herschel is a Key Account Manager and Learning Experience Designer at Edutrainment Company GmbH. Together with her colleagues, she designs learning solutions for companies. The aim: to enable employees to implement what they have learned from their everyday work and to keep their desire to learn high. In an interview, she explains how this is achieved, how employees learn in a networked way, and how managers create a good learning environment. Read more
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There are two groups that companies probably know pretty well:
their customers
their competition.
Because they pay a lot of attention to both right from the start: target group analysis, sales pitches, customer journey, competitor analysis, tracking, clustering… and so on. The idea behind it: the product must fit 100%! Then we’ll be successful – and better than the competition.
This thinking certainly has its justification. In 1980. Today, it’s outdated. Read more
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People network all the time: getting advice in online forums, communicating with friends in chats, and sharing information that they find relevant on social networks. At the same time, companies still find networking a hard nut to crack. It’s a shame, because everything they need on the path to become networked organizations is clearly already there: people who know how to network (even if they would not call it that in a private context) and who like to do it – but only if doing so makes sense to them. So, what can companies do to initiate the internal exchange urgently needed to produce innovative solutions? Read more
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A recent study by management researchers Julian Kawohl and Jonas Wieland from the University of Applied Sciences (HTW) Berlin concludes that 64 of the 80 largest medium-sized companies lack digital experience among top management. The scientists examined the lives of almost all managers of the 80 largest German medium-sized companies, including companies such as Rewe, Bosch, Heraeus and Boehringer Ingelheim.
The study thus provides a starting point for active knowledge transfer in a company in two ways: Read more
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/201906Wissenstransfer.jpg450800redaktionhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngredaktion2019-07-19 16:47:342019-09-20 06:54:40Sharing is caring: This is how knowledge transfer in the company succeeds
Agility, knowledge exchange, silo teardown, cultural change, networking: these are some of the major topics in these times of digital change. So it seems natural that we’d find the movement around Working Out Loud (named after the eponymous book by John Stepper) very exciting. But what is this “loud work” anyway? And what exactly does the method have to do with flexibilization, digitization and the dismantling of silos? How can Working Out Loud be implemented? And what does it do in organizations?
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/12/201711workoingoutloud.jpg393700redaktionhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngredaktion2019-04-18 10:32:412020-02-18 10:32:58Make your work visible! – How Working Out Loud works
We live in a networked world in which everything is interconnected. We have unlimited opportunities to connect with people around the globe, to find like-minded people and an expert for everything. Professional cross-company networks such as Linkedin allow us to make contacts around the world, around the clock. Why are we still so badly networked within companies? And how can internal organizational silos be reduced? Here’s why networking is the key to almost all processes of digital transformation, and what we should all do more of to improve our careers:
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/06/201904Matching.jpg450800Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2019-04-08 16:49:242019-06-07 16:56:53It’s a Match – Why We Need More “Tinder” at Work
New Work is definitely a buzzword of our time. It shows up in very different contexts. Sometimes it’s about technology, sometimes about the free choice of workplace and time, and almost always about digital transformation. But how does this change our world of work? And what can New Work do for companies? We clear up the myths and provide short and concrete answers to the question: What does New Work mean exactly? Read more
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/04/201803newwork_Unternehmen-2.jpg461820redaktionhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngredaktion2019-03-28 10:36:192020-02-18 10:56:25What is New Work? Buzzword or Opportunity?
Today, all organizations are intensely occupied with digital transformation occupying to at least some degree, and one may assume that it has thus already reached all company areas. However, this is not the case: the debate about digital transformation and New Work is almost exclusively conducted from the perspective of white-collar employees. But what about production areas? Where does this leave blue-collar employees? Are they not also affected by the change – maybe even more than desk and knowledge workers? And doesn’t digital transformation offer the chance to completely redesign and shape the world of work and jobs (new collar!)?
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/06/201903NewCollar.jpg450800Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2019-03-12 17:01:522019-06-07 17:07:57New Collar – Working together with all employees to shape digital transformation
In this time of social media platforms, a new term comes up every now and then: flash organizations. Very briefly, flash organizations are temporary companies that can be used to quickly and effectively implement complex projects. To do this, optimal teams with the right skills are put together within a very short time. Sounds exciting. It’s reason enough to take a closer look at the “flash organization” model.
At our Berlin office, we work with the highest degree of flexibility – and think in terms of tasks, not in fixed positions. We are always trying new forms and formats of work and trying every day to live what we preach to the outside world. In our 30-member team, all colleagues work in flexible work models. Currently we have three job-sharing tandems, four interdisciplinary project teams, five freelancers and 12 colleagues with a four-day week. We want to introduce some of them today and explain why we do what we do.
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/02/201901flexiblework_tandemploy.jpg461820Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2019-02-12 09:10:452019-02-12 09:10:45Four-day week and Co. – We work so flexibly!
Globalization, demographic change, skills shortage, technologization, automation – external factors have changed the demands on companies and thus on managers enormously. But what does that mean for managers? How must leadership look today and in the future? Which leadership do companies need for digital transformation? And what about digital leadership?
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/11/201809Leadership.jpg461820Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2019-01-15 09:50:552019-01-31 16:55:43Leadership in the time of digitalization
We signed the Diversity Charter in September 2018 and are very excited to be part of this wonderful and important initiative. In this article, we explain the goals of the Charter, why we are part of this initiative, and how important diversity is for businesses today. Read more
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/01/201809ChartaderVielfalt_Tandemploy.jpg461820Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2019-01-14 10:23:442019-01-14 10:23:44For more diversity in the world of work – The Diversity Charter
The digital transformation poses major challenges for companies; the requirements for internal organization and collaboration are changing. Our Tandemploy SaaS offers solutions to the most important problems. And our wonderful new video shows what these solutions look like:
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/10/201809neueArbeitpasstnichtinalteMuster.jpg7201280Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2018-10-11 12:24:142018-11-28 13:27:20Our video for Tandemploy SaaS – New work does not fit into old patterns
Knowledge transfer is currently one of THE topics when it comes to digital transformation in companies. At the same time, dealing with knowledge is also a big challenge. Increased flexibility, higher turnover and greater complexity make companies more vulnerable to a loss of knowledge. Therefore, a good, continuous knowledge transfer has many advantages.
Get out of silos!
Flexibility and collaboration are essential for holistic digitalization. However, neither are not possible in silos. Much of the knowledge lies in the minds of employees. So how can knowledge transfer take place when employees work in their own silos? They need structures and ways of working that not only allow creative, innovative and free thinking, but actively promote it. In companies, therefore, one’s own digital transformation always begins with the successful networking of employees and a flexibilization of the work models and structures – which thus enables a lively transfer of knowledge.
Systematic knowledge transfer contributes to the optimization of work and business processes
Errors and duplication can be avoided
It’s easier to identify problems and turn them into new solutions – through multiple perspectives
Key knowledge is lost less often – it benefits predecessors, successors and the organization
A continuous stream of knowledge develops between older and younger colleagues, from which all sides profit
Different competencies can be combined with each other – thus the team becomes more efficient through a successful knowledge transfer
Experts can be more easily located to share their knowledge
Networking employees and collaborative work also ensure a stronger connection to the company
All these aspects also mean that companies can save time and money. In-house knowledge transfer is therefore worthwhile at all levels: relevant knowledge remains within the company, and employees can work together in a more collaborative manner and complement each other optimally – thereby promoting the ability to innovate. New colleagues find it easier to familiarize themselves and knowledge is available more quickly to all employees.
Although these sound like good arguments, you might still need some help with the implementation.
Here’s the good news upfront: every company already has an incredible amount of knowledge, creativity and innovation potential. What’s missing are spaces to share knowledge, to open and connect silos, and to foster a lively exchange of expertise and ideas. With our Tandemploy SaaS, we connect this valuable and existing knowledge within your company – and support you in your full potential development.
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/08/201807Silo-1.jpg459820Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2018-08-14 12:08:342019-04-17 10:25:15Get out of silos! Competitive advantage through knowledge transfer
In mentoring, experienced workers typically help their less experienced colleagues using their knowledge and help them to develop professionally and personally and achieve their goals. Mentoring is very versatile – but what if you tried it the other way around? What if it weren’t the more experienced, older person who passed on their knowledge, but vice versa? This is where reverse mentoring, in which the senior is coached by the junior, starts.
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/08/201807927A8342-1.jpg461820Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2018-08-07 12:29:472020-01-10 14:33:16Reverse Mentoring: When the leader learns from the newcomer
Digital forms of communication and collaboration are becoming increasingly important in the current climate of digital transformation. In addition, social collaboration is an important prerequisite for a successful digital transformation. This is demonstrated by the results of the “German Social Collaboration Study” by the management consultancy Campana & Schott and the Department of Business Informatics at the Technical University of Darmstadt. What opportunities are there in social collaboration? And why are knowledge transfer and silo removal so crucial?
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/07/201805Remise-Panorama.jpg461820Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2018-07-02 13:36:132019-02-19 15:17:59Breaking through silo structures, increasing efficiency and motivation – with social collaboration
Tandemploy develops software that purposefully and cleverly networks people and knowledge in organizations: to facilitate the sharing of knowledge, to work collectively to make flexible forms of work a reality, and to support digital transformation in companies. But we always try to live what we preach to the outside world. How else could we credibly and effectively make organizations more flexible and use our solutions to inspire a more agile working world?? Small companies like us especially have the freedom and opportunity to act quickly, to be brave and to try new things. Who, if not us, can live “new” work and initiate social change? Who, if not us, is responsible for tomorrow’s work environment, which in the best-case scenario starts today?
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/07/Team.jpg366650Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2018-07-02 13:24:162018-10-17 10:15:24Live what you preach! How we work at Tandemploy.
Work–life balance has become a trendy phrase in recent years. And you still read and hear about it everywhere – about the balance between life and work. Employees demand it, employers promise it, trade unions defend it and media publicize it. This is a plea against this unspeakable word, which is based on a fundamentally nonsensical understanding of our lives
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/05/201804Balance.jpg461820Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2018-05-08 11:47:352018-10-17 10:15:55Work time is life time – why we do not need work–life balance
New Work is definitely a buzzword of our time. It shows up in very different contexts. Sometimes it’s about technology, sometimes about the free choice of workplace and time, and almost always about digital transformation. But what exactly is New Work? And what can it do for companies?
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/04/201803newwork_Unternehmen-2.jpg461820Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2018-04-24 13:53:532019-05-13 17:45:27Buzzword or Opportunity? New Work in Business
Digitalization is and remains the hot topic. Every day, there are new articles that report on digitalization trends and strategies, on the opportunities and challenges of change. If companies want to be successful these days, they must take action to be able to handle these changes. It’s a balancing act to keep an eye on core business and innovation at the same time.
Again and again, the topic of job sharing is associated with women; with the re-entry of mothers after parental leave; with the compatibility of work and family life. At the same time, the working model can do much more – and is particularly appealing to men.
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/201403tandem-jobsharing.jpg393700Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2018-03-27 13:28:372019-01-16 12:25:14Job sharing for men = flexible and appealing work
Be faster, improve your time management and save valuable time. If you take a look at bookstore shelves, you will find that the topic of time optimization is in vogue: here and there, you can eliminate a useless task from your life, delegate tasks or set proper priorities in your date book. The list is long and arbitrary. The paradox is that although this does indeed save time, every single person still has less and less of it. When you dedicate time in one place, it is stolen elsewhere.
In the novel “Momo” by Michael Ende, the “Men in Grey”, who were Time Thieves, mingled unnoticed among the inhabitants of a city and preached thrift as agents of the Timesavings Bank. Gradually, despite saving time, the lives of people became increasingly joyless and unhappy. Only a little girl named Momo recognized the problem and dared to fight against the seemingly overpowering “Men in Grey”.
Inspired by Momo, Jana Tepe talks about today’s world of work in her TED Talk and calls for us to “Stop the Men in Grey! – Start changing the working world today!”
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.png00Marion Hellebrandthttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngMarion Hellebrandt2018-02-02 15:32:232018-09-24 11:48:21“Stop the Men in Grey” – Jana Tepe in her TED talk about today's world of work
Digitization is not something that “simply passes by.” What many may have thought (or hoped?) at the onset has been all too clearly refuted. Digitization is here to stay, it’s advancing – and it’s changing organizations and their business models from the ground up.
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/12/201711arbeit_im_silo.jpg393700dersimonhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngdersimon2017-12-12 10:39:382018-10-17 10:53:27From the hierarchy to the network. Why digitization needs new structures.
Agility, knowledge exchange, silo teardown, cultural change … these are some of our major topics. So, it stands to reason that we find the Working Out Loud movement (named after the eponymous book by John Stepper) very exciting. But what is this “Working Out Loud” anyway? And what exactly does the method have to do with flexibilization, digitization and the dismantling of silos?
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/12/201711workoingoutloud.jpg393700Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2017-11-16 10:39:382020-01-10 14:39:07Make your work visible! – Working Out Loud
Bei Tandemploy gibt es ein besonderes Meeting: Jeden Montag treffen sich die Teammitglieder und jede(r) erzählt von einem Happy Moment der vergangenen Woche, beruflich und/oder privat. Das ist das Happy Meeting. Statt eines langen Meetings, findet nur eine schnelle Runde statt und alle starten fröhlich und motiviert in die neue Woche. Da wir bekanntlich gerne teilen, zeigen wir hier einige dieser Happy Moments. Heute: Unsere schönsten Fundstücke der letzten Zeit.
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.png00Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2017-10-02 17:56:462018-09-24 11:53:44Happy Moments: Fundstücke der letzen Zeit
Projects, projects, projects! They are a driving force for innovation and change, and defining and developing new projects is vital to every company. In most cases, however, project initiation and project staffing are implemented following a classic top-down approach. This is often complicated, expensive, and does not necessarily contribute to a good working environment. In today’s companies, project initiation and staffing can work differently: direct, simple and driven by people. It’s time for a change.
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/12/201708projekte-1.jpg394700Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2017-08-01 17:56:462020-01-10 14:43:28Without projects, there’s no innovation: why companies should rely on their own employees.
Digitalization not only determines our everyday (working) life, it is also changing the entire business world. The associated challenges affect all companies: rapid changes and increasingly complex market requirements, strong competitors, and, above all, courageous disruptors who are breaking new ground with new technologies. Every company has the right prerequisites to not be left behind and to shape their own digital transformation. They just have to be recognized and used.
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/12/201706action-2277292_1920-1.jpg394700Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2017-06-07 17:56:472018-10-17 11:07:23Faster, better, digital! Why “digitalization” only works with teamwork.
Cloud technology is unstoppable and changing the way we work together. But where does the human being end up when more and more data, topics and communication take place in the cloud? And does it make him more expendable – or even more important?
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/12/201706cloud-2104829_1920.jpg394700Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2017-06-01 17:56:472018-10-17 10:31:51"Everyone is in the cloud! – But where is the human being?"
This is how companies – with their own employees – are getting fit for digitization.
Digitization is unstoppable.
Digitization is unstoppable and one of those developments that certainly will not “simply pass by,” even if some may secretly wish that. It is a megatrend that will not only fundamentally change our way of living and working, but also radically transform business models and business purposes. So, what does it mean for organizations – and how is it related to the second big trend, the flexibilization of working models and structures?
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/12/201705experten_im_unternehmen.jpg394700Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2017-05-19 17:56:472018-10-17 10:32:17"The experts you need are already here!"
There are a few prejudices that are seemingly inseparable from the term “job sharing.” For one, many people still think that job sharing is simply part time with a new, nicer name. Additionally, this model is consistently assumed to be much more expensive and, above all, more time-consuming than “normal” jobs. It’s high time to show that these prejudices are just that, and demonstrate the added value that job sharers bring to business.
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/12/201705typewriter-801921_1920.jpg394700Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2017-05-18 17:56:432018-10-17 11:10:08Changemaker – Job Sharing for Self-Management and Cultural Change
Everyone has already heard the term mentoring. In practice, it usually refers to a very classic mentoring approach: an inexperienced mentee learns from an experienced mentor – and to be a mentor or participate in a mentoring program, you first have to qualify. “Reverse Mentoring” (old learns from young) is slowly (and complementarily) gaining traction. However, most of these programs are still controlled top-down, and thus not by the mentors and mentees themselves, but by an organizer. It’s high time to clear off the dust collecting on conventional mentoring programs! Read more
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/12/201705jeder_kann_mentor_sein.jpg394700Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2017-05-10 17:56:472020-01-10 14:05:57Everyone can be a mentor!
At Tandemploy, we have a special meeting: Every Monday, the team members meet and talk about Happy Moments – professionally and/or privately – from the past week. That’s the Happy Meeting. Instead of a long meeting, we just go through a quick round, and everybody starts the new week happy and motivated. As everyone knows, we like to share, so starting now, we will be showcasing some of these Happy Moments. Read more
Who actually decided that almost every task, every job, would fit best into a 40-hour full-time position? Who says that? And who can judge that?
Isn’t that an absolutely crazy assumption? Outdated? Generalized? And, on closer inspection, incredibly inflexible? Doesn’t this (hardly ever questioned) assumption of the ideal 40-hour work week mean that we, as an employer, tend to build in too much capacity for tasks that could be accomplished in a few hours – and far too little for those that clearly require more? Doesn’t it also cause us to force people into a scheme that is not guaranteed to be life-phase-oriented?
Can organizations even transition from being elephants to gazelles when they stick to this very basic thought pattern?
I’m reading a book that inspires me to ask more questions. I like questions anyway, but in “Rock your Idea. To change the world with ideas” by Martin Gaedt, one is downright encouraged to ask excessive questions. “Questions bring ideas and change,” it says, and “questioning habits brings new things to the world.” I especially like the statement, “Everything works differently.” Because hey, why not? The author suggests asking questions at every traffic light, in every traffic jam, in every waiting room, at every imaginable opportunity: 44 in one go. Anyone who does this regularly (practicing questioning, so to speak) increases his question fitness and comes up with completely new ideas. Even a “throw-away question” can make the difference. The chapter ends with a clear request: “Asking good questions is trainable. So, get to practicing!”
I felt directly challenged and tried to go with my gut to ask 44 questions about the world of work, the issue closest to my heart.
https://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/201601teamwork_in_companies-1.jpg394700Alicia Metzhttps://www.tandemploy.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/03/Logo-Tandemploy-Distance-Corona-300x65.pngAlicia Metz2016-05-07 17:56:442018-09-24 12:00:45Everything is different! 44 questions about the world of work
Opportunity Marketplaces: When employees invest in themselves, everyone wins
HR is, without a doubt, one of the business areas most affected by disruption. That was already the case before the pandemic hit. This development has been further accelerated by Covid-19. In addition to new concepts for remote collaboration between employees, the focus is on personal and professional development of the people in an organization. And just like with the free choice of working hours and location, the emphasis is increasingly on self-determination. The days when middle management had the power to determine the career of the employees are over. Promoting career ownership, meaning that employees are responsible for shaping their own career in a self-determined way (with the manager in the role of a mentor and supporter), is becoming the main task of a future-oriented HR department. Organizations must create the framework for this, a framework of opportunities, if you will. Many large companies are already successfully working with software-based opportunity marketplaces such as the ones we are developing at Tandemploy. Today, we will show you what distinguishes these marketplaces from traditional talent management and why they are becoming more and more relevant. Read more
Remote work laws: Why we (unfortunately) need more of them!
Corona is driving a long overdue change in the working world – that seems to be the general consensus throughout the past weeks and months. It is evident that through the lockdown, many companies have made their first significant experiences with remote working. Many of them were surprised how well it works and what a positive effect the elimination of business trips and the proximity to home have on people’s productivity. Managers have come to realize that they can rely on their employees even when they are not physically present at the office. These positive new experiences are an important foundation on which companies can build new forms of collaborations. So, do they still need policies then? Legal regulations that influence certain business decisions? Read more
From job sharing platform to talent marketplace – the story behind the strongest HR-Tech brand in the DACH region
While others are just starting to address the topic of “digitalization”, employees in 58 countries and 276 cities worldwide are already using the Tandemploy software on a daily basis to network internally for a wide variety of reasons – for mentoring duos, job rotations, project work, onboarding, lunch dates, expert sessions and much more. The SaaS offers a broad range of matching topics to choose from, enabling organizations and their employees to transform into a mobile and vibrant corporate organism. Well-known companies like SAP, Evonik, Haspa, and Lufthansa are just some of the customers (and fans) of the matching software. From their Berlin headquarters, Tandemploy is not only conquering the German economy but is also increasingly gaining traction internationally. In 2020 the “brand eins” magazine listed the software in a row with Google Drive, Github, and Slack. Shortly afterward, America’s most famous morning show “Good Morning America” reported on the “Tinder for Businesses” from Germany. Read more
Dare to trust! – With these 10 cultural techniques companies create confidence in times of crisis
The change that has been discussed, philosophized, talked about (talked to death even) for years, is suddenly here. And with a force and speed that has surprised many. In a good way, but not only. The realization that from one moment to the next nothing will be the same as before has unsettled many people. Even if they were covertly aware that the world was undergoing a fundamental change, they didn’t fully understand how this change would affect them until now. It’s too late to dodge the bullet.
We all have to say goodbye to routines, to a feeling of security, and to the idea that the others will know what to do – the boss, the colleague, the expert, the board. Regardless of which organizational level you look at: everywhere people are forced to do new things, to try things out, to throw the familiar overboard, and to go new routes without knowing whether they will bring the desired result. Read more
Purpose: If You Don’t Ask, You Don’t Get
Purpose is considered one of the cornerstones of New Work. In “Reinventing Organisations” Frederic Laloux speaks of “Evolutionary Purpose”, that companies of a new type are trying out. At first glance, this may sound a bit esoteric, but it touches upon an essential survival strategy for organizations in a world in which requirements and needs are constantly changing. Because if companies keep returning to their core values, to what drives them, and to WHY they exist, they can always align their actions with these principles, regardless of the external influences they face. Read more
BPM goes Tandemploy: “In the future, organizations will have a competitive advantage if they see their entire workforce as a talent pool.”
BPM meets Tandemploy: Since last week the 4.700 members of Bundesverband der Personalmanager (BPM) (Association of HR Managers) can use the Tandemploy Matching-Software to network, find mentoring partners or experts and connect for lunch dates. In our interview, BPM’s Vice President Frank Kohl-Boas and Tandemploy-CEO Jana Tepe share some insights of the collaboration and describe how networking can be an accelerator of change in companies and organizations. Read more
Is technology the answer? – How corporations can create a humane and measurable New Normal
Is technology the answer? This is – in summary – the central question of a remarkable article recently published by business analyst Den Howlett. The text is based on Siemens’ decision to establish the home office as the standard for more than half of their employees worldwide, thereby transforming their corporate culture. Other large corporations, such as Allianz, have now followed suit with similar announcements.
The discussion about home office is never just about working remotely. The question of how organizations will work after the pandemic has far-reaching consequences – not only for the economy as a whole, but also in terms of a new work-life reality for hundreds of thousands of employees. Read more
New Normal: 5 impulses for a New Normal in organisations
As we all know, normality is a question of perspective. ‘That’s not normal!’ some people might say. Others might ask ‘What is normal?’. And the next group will claim ‘Normal is boring’. And: Who wants to be boring? Don’t we all want to be a little bit different? And don’t we have to be a little different in order to be innovative? But if everyone is different, then what is normal? Does the category “normal” still work in the VUCA world, where things are changing at a rapid pace?
If you’re looking for an easy answer to the question “What is the New Normal”, you will be disappointed. Instead we need to uncover the core values of the organization that we are working for and, from there, pave new paths for collaboration together. The result? – Unknown. And that’s a good thing. Read more
The human factor: with therapy and technology into the future
Nowadays, being in therapy is no longer something to be ashamed of. More and more people openly acknowledge that there are things that they cannot manage on their own. Some might even say it is “en-vogue” to go to therapy. My house, my car, my therapist, and so on. Most likely every development brings its exaggeration with it.
And yet: Perhaps we need some kind of large-scale therapy – in companies! Perhaps a broadly applied cognitive behavioural therapy will finally bring about the much-needed breakthrough in thinking. Maybe only the direct confrontation with the knots in our own heads, which can’t be untied with home remedies, such as the occasional workshop or the diligent consumption of the Tandemploy blog, will help. Read more
EX-it: Why it is good to take layoffs personally
Employee Experience – Touch Point #3:
In our series “Employee Experience” we highlight all critical Touch Points of the “Employee Journey”. Today: Letting go of employees.
Layoffs and terminations are drastic experiences in professional life, in both positive and negative terms, and for everyone involved. How appreciative we really treat each other is revealed when we decide to go separate ways. In an interview, Tandemploy co-founder Jana talks about what she learned from past separations, why it can be a good thing to take the departure of employees personally, why a positive employee experience does not necessarily end with the termination and how knowledge transfer can be successful in this special situation. Read more
Short-term internal assignments: Gig Economy – with people in mind!
The “Gig Economy” has a bad reputation: the US company Uber is on a suing spree, AirBnB has made it necessary to create new rental laws, delivery services and platforms for creative services are under fire. Ok, hold on, Gig Economy – what was that again? – The analogy to the musical gig actually fits quite well. Similar to artists struggling from performance to performance until the big breakthrough comes, freelancers and self-employed people work themselves from job to job, with the big difference that for them there is no prospect of a big breakthrough. That is because these brokering platforms – Uber, AirBnB, 99designs, etc. – claim these for themselves. They are often worth billions, while the actual workers are working under bad, sometimes even illegal conditions.
So, what exactly is desirable about that? Read more
Emotional Agility: Why leadership and empathy must go hand in hand
Many people have experienced the past weeks and months since the beginning of the Corona crisis as an emotional rollercoaster ride. Uncertainty, anger, gratitude, feeling overwhelmed, a spirit of optimism – living and working under completely new circumstances have made the different facets of human emotions visible not only in the personal realm but also between colleagues and superiors. Therefore, leadership in times of Corona requires allowing much more space for feelings. But how much feeling is good in a work context? How much of yourself do you take with you to work? How vulnerable do you want to appear? Should it be ok to show unfiltered feelings at all times? Or only the good ones? And then what to do with the less pleasant ones? Are emotional people possibly even better leaders?
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Digital Leadership: Be compass, not big brother!
Since March of this year, Digital Leadership primarily means Remote Leadership. Companies are discovering that being able to work from any location comes with many advantages, but also with new challenges. Ultimately, they all lead to one big question: How much physical proximity does leadership need?
At Tandemploy we also ask ourselves this question again and again. Our 30-person team has been working in many different locations, not just since Corona. At the same time, we have a strong home base with our Berlin office. However, this is not used by all employees to the same extent. How does that affect the team dynamics? How do team leaders manage to make all employees feel involved? And how can digital communication tools promote good leadership instead of hindering it?
Here we summarize our top 5 learnings from seven years of Tandemploy (and ten weeks of lockdown) for you. Read more
Knowledge, competence, talent – what counts in the end: liquid skills!
So what are skills?
Tandemploy means “think big” – and this also applies to our definition of skills:
(The sky’s the limit and so on.)
When is a skill a skill
If you want to work with skills, the definition should be a bit more specific. Because not only the HR department has clear criteria and classifications, our skill matching software also follows a system that identifies and classifies skills. And: If we want to discuss skills that companies urgently need now and in the future, we need to be clear about what we are talking about. Read more
X or exit: Three radical theses on the employee experience – and how it can be done differently and better
In our series “Employee Experience” we will highlight all critical touchpoints of the “Employee Journey”. Today: Professional and personal development
“Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps”, was the title of a successful guidebook published in the year 1998. And even today, people from the entertainment industry fill huge venues with their stories about shoe-buying women and taciturn men. How simple would the world be if we could just label and categorize everyone. But let’s be honest: it would also be a pretty boring world.
Hence: Cheers to diversity! – Many companies would even sign on to that now – at least if a press representative is nearby. The topic of “diversity” clearly shows the difference between employer branding – meaning how companies would like it to be – and the employee experience – meaning how employees actually experience their work environment. Designing a good employee experience (unlike branding) requires that companies, and especially the people in talent management, really know and understand the individual skills, wishes and needs of their colleagues. Making new experiences and encounters possible, when they are needed and desired, replaces classic career development based on the “Design & Deliver” principle. Read more
Social Distancing as company culture? – Move closer together, now more than ever!
Social Distancing has been around longer than Corona. In many companies “keeping a distance” is part of the company culture. What social isolation does to people is now increasingly being highlighted by Covid-19 and it’s consequences. Finally, you might want to say! Because being cut off from other people can be just as harmful for the individual as for the organization as a whole. If you don’t feel a connection to your colleagues or to the company, you may be able to “check off” your to-do list reasonably well, but feel little motivation to contribute ideas and get creative in finding the best solutions that will benefit the organization. A Gallup study has shown, that employees who have a friend or close connection to other coworkers in the company, are 7 times more likely to be invested in the company, than people who feel lonely on the job.
But what does “lonely” mean in the work context? Is everyone that is assigned to a small, closed-off department and sits in an individual office processing excel spreadsheets automatically lonely? Of course not. Loneliness is a feeling that manifests itself very differently and under very different circumstances for many different people. In the work context it is often the result of a lack of permissions, possibilities, and channels for contact with others. And consequently a result of structures, that – consciously or not – lead to social isolation. One could say, that rigid hierarchies and department boundaries have, in many instances, lead to a company culture of social distancing. Read more
There is no second chance for a good onboarding! – Bring new colleagues on board with these tools
Employee Experience – Touchpoint 1:
In our series “Employee Experience” we will highlight all critical touchpoints of the “Employee Journey”. Today: Onboarding.
It’s 2008, on a plane to London. On board: an aspiring intern with butterflies in her stomach. Huge anticipation, because getting the position was not easy. She’s really looking forward to giving it her all. The sky’s the limit and so on.
When she finally pushes through the narrow glass door to the offices in the City of London, huge backpack on her back – sweaty but happy – ready for more warmth, a bit of glitter and confetti….nothing happens. Instead of a warm welcome, as the previous email correspondence had led her to expect, her contact person doesn’t even get up from his chair. He is kind of in the middle of something.
She is left standing there and doesn’t know what to do with herself. There is no desk for her. The rom-com she had envisioned in her head of the intern from Berlin that turns the London PR world upside-down is showing first signs of turning into a tragedy.
Will it really turn out to be this terrible? Read more
“War for Skills”: Get the changemakers out of the isolation of the labs!
In the past few weeks, we have repeatedly been attested war-like circumstances in view of Covid-19. For HR managers nothing new so far. They have been at war for years, the “War for Talents”. This bellicose phrase has become part of the standard vocabulary in the HR field.
There are three main reasons for the tough HR challenges in the talent market:
Covid-19 and its aftermath now give the combating parties – companies all over the world – an involuntary cease-fire. The uncertain situation has led to hiring freezes and consequently to free time, which HR staff could and should use to reevaluate whether, over the past years, they have been fighting for the best people with the right “weapons”. Read more
Don’t mess with your X: Anyone can manage HR! But what about designing HX?
Employee Experience begins with empathy. If a company’s talent managers really want to understand what experiences people make in the course of their professional life, they have to try putting themselves in their position as best as possible. To feel what they feel. To understand their needs. Only then can they design products that create positive experiences in connection with working in the company.
Wait a second, “Products”?? But employees aren’t customers! Or are they? Read more
What is Skill Matching and why should we do it?
Simply put, a matching process brings together what belongs together. To each their own or a lid to every pot – or rather, learning needs and know-how or project and skills. And here we are, right in the middle of Skill Matching and the question of what the whole thing has to do with the changing world of work.
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Dance to the Algorithm: The Tandemploy Data Check – imitation encouraged
Remember May 2018? That was the month the expansion of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was enacted. Months in advance people were up in arms about what this new regulation would mean for software vendors and email marketing (newsletters). Well, and then May came and went and, surprisingly, life continued in a normal and unexcited manner. Wouldn’t it be great if we could maintain that level of normalcy and calm, while engaging in an even more extensive discussion about data that has the potential to radically change the way we work and live? Let’s dive right in. Read more
#BigIdeas2020: Forget the hype around “Big Data” – from now on let’s build a hype around “Good Data”!
2020 could be the year in which we consistently start using good data to facilitate good work flows. Good, in the sense of “good for everyone” – for companies and their goals, for employees and for society as a whole. But also for the sake of planetary resources. Because a resource-conserving lifestyle is closely related to a working world that allows for the freedom to engage in a responsible and conscience lifestyle outside of work.
How can this be successful?
The simple answer might be: through digitalization. If machines took over more jobs and human work could be automated, then everyone would have more time, right?
Unfortunately, it isn’t quite as simple as that. Read more
Study on knowlegde transfer in companies: Employees want to – but are prevented from doing so by structures
In the summer of 2019, we asked 100 people with and without management responsibility to answer the following questions: How well does knowledge transfer work in your company? What sources do you and your employees use to inform you? How well do you know your colleagues? And would you like to learn more from them? We were particularly interested in whether there were differences between employees with and without management responsibility.
HR means community building! – How to build and maintain an internal community – or two, or 20.
(Employee Communities – Part 2. Get prepared by reading Part 1 here.)
Innovation comes from the community – this was the experience of the Danish company Lego in the late 1990s. Today, 20 years later, we are all naturally active in communities – in social networks, for example. In coworking spaces, good community management has long been regarded as one of the strongest quality criteria. People with digital mindsets are community minded; they think openly and networked oriented.
And what about companies?
If they want to win these people over, they should do the same and rely on networking! By allowing, enabling and – even better – actively promoting the development of employee communities, they open up completely new opportunities for internal interaction, knowledge transfer, and recruiting. Read more
Employee Communities – Part 1: How professionals with a digital mindset work
Denmark, 1998. Lego Mindstorms, a series of customizable and hardware-controllable robots, hits the market. It doesn’t take long for the first adult Lego fans to hack the software and start customizing the robots to their liking. The results are presented on users’ own websites and forums. Lego has two options:
Lego opts for the latter – and thus, unplanned, initiates a customer community.
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Learning Out Loud: “If you want to learn something, start teaching it!” – Interview with Ellen Herschel of the Edutrainment Company
Learning Out Loud: “If you want to learn something, start teaching it!” – Interview with Ellen Herschel of the Edutrainment Company
Ellen Herschel is a Key Account Manager and Learning Experience Designer at Edutrainment Company GmbH. Together with her colleagues, she designs learning solutions for companies. The aim: to enable employees to implement what they have learned from their everyday work and to keep their desire to learn high. In an interview, she explains how this is achieved, how employees learn in a networked way, and how managers create a good learning environment. Read more
People Analytics: Know your team just as well as your customers!
There are two groups that companies probably know pretty well:
Because they pay a lot of attention to both right from the start: target group analysis, sales pitches, customer journey, competitor analysis, tracking, clustering… and so on. The idea behind it: the product must fit 100%! Then we’ll be successful – and better than the competition.
This thinking certainly has its justification. In 1980. Today, it’s outdated. Read more
Putting the Lid on its Pot: How to Start Active Networking in Your Business
People network all the time: getting advice in online forums, communicating with friends in chats, and sharing information that they find relevant on social networks. At the same time, companies still find networking a hard nut to crack. It’s a shame, because everything they need on the path to become networked organizations is clearly already there: people who know how to network (even if they would not call it that in a private context) and who like to do it – but only if doing so makes sense to them. So, what can companies do to initiate the internal exchange urgently needed to produce innovative solutions? Read more
Sharing is caring: This is how knowledge transfer in the company succeeds
A recent study by management researchers Julian Kawohl and Jonas Wieland from the University of Applied Sciences (HTW) Berlin concludes that 64 of the 80 largest medium-sized companies lack digital experience among top management. The scientists examined the lives of almost all managers of the 80 largest German medium-sized companies, including companies such as Rewe, Bosch, Heraeus and Boehringer Ingelheim.
The study thus provides a starting point for active knowledge transfer in a company in two ways: Read more
Make your work visible! – How Working Out Loud works
Agility, knowledge exchange, silo teardown, cultural change, networking: these are some of the major topics in these times of digital change. So it seems natural that we’d find the movement around Working Out Loud (named after the eponymous book by John Stepper) very exciting. But what is this “loud work” anyway? And what exactly does the method have to do with flexibilization, digitization and the dismantling of silos? How can Working Out Loud be implemented? And what does it do in organizations?
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It’s a Match – Why We Need More “Tinder” at Work
We live in a networked world in which everything is interconnected. We have unlimited opportunities to connect with people around the globe, to find like-minded people and an expert for everything. Professional cross-company networks such as Linkedin allow us to make contacts around the world, around the clock. Why are we still so badly networked within companies? And how can internal organizational silos be reduced? Here’s why networking is the key to almost all processes of digital transformation, and what we should all do more of to improve our careers:
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What is New Work? Buzzword or Opportunity?
New Work is definitely a buzzword of our time. It shows up in very different contexts. Sometimes it’s about technology, sometimes about the free choice of workplace and time, and almost always about digital transformation. But how does this change our world of work? And what can New Work do for companies? We clear up the myths and provide short and concrete answers to the question: What does New Work mean exactly?
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New Collar – Working together with all employees to shape digital transformation
Today, all organizations are intensely occupied with digital transformation occupying to at least some degree, and one may assume that it has thus already reached all company areas. However, this is not the case: the debate about digital transformation and New Work is almost exclusively conducted from the perspective of white-collar employees. But what about production areas? Where does this leave blue-collar employees? Are they not also affected by the change – maybe even more than desk and knowledge workers? And doesn’t digital transformation offer the chance to completely redesign and shape the world of work and jobs (new collar!)?
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Flash organizations: matching optimal teams
In this time of social media platforms, a new term comes up every now and then: flash organizations. Very briefly, flash organizations are temporary companies that can be used to quickly and effectively implement complex projects. To do this, optimal teams with the right skills are put together within a very short time. Sounds exciting. It’s reason enough to take a closer look at the “flash organization” model.
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Four-day week and Co. – We work so flexibly!
At our Berlin office, we work with the highest degree of flexibility – and think in terms of tasks, not in fixed positions. We are always trying new forms and formats of work and trying every day to live what we preach to the outside world. In our 30-member team, all colleagues work in flexible work models. Currently we have three job-sharing tandems, four interdisciplinary project teams, five freelancers and 12 colleagues with a four-day week. We want to introduce some of them today and explain why we do what we do.
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Leadership in the time of digitalization
Globalization, demographic change, skills shortage, technologization, automation – external factors have changed the demands on companies and thus on managers enormously. But what does that mean for managers? How must leadership look today and in the future? Which leadership do companies need for digital transformation? And what about digital leadership?
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For more diversity in the world of work – The Diversity Charter
We signed the Diversity Charter in September 2018 and are very excited to be part of this wonderful and important initiative. In this article, we explain the goals of the Charter, why we are part of this initiative, and how important diversity is for businesses today. Read more
Our video for Tandemploy SaaS – New work does not fit into old patterns
The digital transformation poses major challenges for companies; the requirements for internal organization and collaboration are changing. Our Tandemploy SaaS offers solutions to the most important problems. And our wonderful new video shows what these solutions look like:
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Get out of silos! Competitive advantage through knowledge transfer
Knowledge transfer is currently one of THE topics when it comes to digital transformation in companies. At the same time, dealing with knowledge is also a big challenge. Increased flexibility, higher turnover and greater complexity make companies more vulnerable to a loss of knowledge. Therefore, a good, continuous knowledge transfer has many advantages.
Get out of silos!
Flexibility and collaboration are essential for holistic digitalization. However, neither are not possible in silos. Much of the knowledge lies in the minds of employees. So how can knowledge transfer take place when employees work in their own silos? They need structures and ways of working that not only allow creative, innovative and free thinking, but actively promote it. In companies, therefore, one’s own digital transformation always begins with the successful networking of employees and a flexibilization of the work models and structures – which thus enables a lively transfer of knowledge.
Advantages of good, continuous knowledge transfer:
All these aspects also mean that companies can save time and money. In-house knowledge transfer is therefore worthwhile at all levels: relevant knowledge remains within the company, and employees can work together in a more collaborative manner and complement each other optimally – thereby promoting the ability to innovate. New colleagues find it easier to familiarize themselves and knowledge is available more quickly to all employees.
Although these sound like good arguments, you might still need some help with the implementation.
Here’s the good news upfront: every company already has an incredible amount of knowledge, creativity and innovation potential. What’s missing are spaces to share knowledge, to open and connect silos, and to foster a lively exchange of expertise and ideas. With our Tandemploy SaaS, we connect this valuable and existing knowledge within your company – and support you in your full potential development.
Reverse Mentoring: When the leader learns from the newcomer
In mentoring, experienced workers typically help their less experienced colleagues using their knowledge and help them to develop professionally and personally and achieve their goals. Mentoring is very versatile – but what if you tried it the other way around? What if it weren’t the more experienced, older person who passed on their knowledge, but vice versa? This is where reverse mentoring, in which the senior is coached by the junior, starts.
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Breaking through silo structures, increasing efficiency and motivation – with social collaboration
Digital forms of communication and collaboration are becoming increasingly important in the current climate of digital transformation. In addition, social collaboration is an important prerequisite for a successful digital transformation. This is demonstrated by the results of the “German Social Collaboration Study” by the management consultancy Campana & Schott and the Department of Business Informatics at the Technical University of Darmstadt. What opportunities are there in social collaboration? And why are knowledge transfer and silo removal so crucial?
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Live what you preach! How we work at Tandemploy.
Tandemploy develops software that purposefully and cleverly networks people and knowledge in organizations: to facilitate the sharing of knowledge, to work collectively to make flexible forms of work a reality, and to support digital transformation in companies. But we always try to live what we preach to the outside world. How else could we credibly and effectively make organizations more flexible and use our solutions to inspire a more agile working world?? Small companies like us especially have the freedom and opportunity to act quickly, to be brave and to try new things. Who, if not us, can live “new” work and initiate social change? Who, if not us, is responsible for tomorrow’s work environment, which in the best-case scenario starts today?
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Work time is life time – why we do not need work–life balance
Work–life balance has become a trendy phrase in recent years. And you still read and hear about it everywhere – about the balance between life and work. Employees demand it, employers promise it, trade unions defend it and media publicize it. This is a plea against this unspeakable word, which is based on a fundamentally nonsensical understanding of our lives
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Buzzword or Opportunity? New Work in Business
New Work is definitely a buzzword of our time. It shows up in very different contexts. Sometimes it’s about technology, sometimes about the free choice of workplace and time, and almost always about digital transformation. But what exactly is New Work? And what can it do for companies?
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Innovation AND efficiency? Organizational ambidexterity
Digitalization is and remains the hot topic. Every day, there are new articles that report on digitalization trends and strategies, on the opportunities and challenges of change. If companies want to be successful these days, they must take action to be able to handle these changes. It’s a balancing act to keep an eye on core business and innovation at the same time.
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Job sharing for men = flexible and appealing work
Again and again, the topic of job sharing is associated with women; with the re-entry of mothers after parental leave; with the compatibility of work and family life. At the same time, the working model can do much more – and is particularly appealing to men.
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“Stop the Men in Grey” – Jana Tepe in her TED talk about today’s world of work
Be faster, improve your time management and save valuable time. If you take a look at bookstore shelves, you will find that the topic of time optimization is in vogue: here and there, you can eliminate a useless task from your life, delegate tasks or set proper priorities in your date book. The list is long and arbitrary. The paradox is that although this does indeed save time, every single person still has less and less of it. When you dedicate time in one place, it is stolen elsewhere.
In the novel “Momo” by Michael Ende, the “Men in Grey”, who were Time Thieves, mingled unnoticed among the inhabitants of a city and preached thrift as agents of the Timesavings Bank. Gradually, despite saving time, the lives of people became increasingly joyless and unhappy. Only a little girl named Momo recognized the problem and dared to fight against the seemingly overpowering “Men in Grey”.
Inspired by Momo, Jana Tepe talks about today’s world of work in her TED Talk and calls for us to “Stop the Men in Grey! – Start changing the working world today!”
From the hierarchy to the network. Why digitization needs new structures.
Digitization is not something that “simply passes by.” What many may have thought (or hoped?) at the onset has been all too clearly refuted. Digitization is here to stay, it’s advancing – and it’s changing organizations and their business models from the ground up.
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Make your work visible! – Working Out Loud
Agility, knowledge exchange, silo teardown, cultural change … these are some of our major topics. So, it stands to reason that we find the Working Out Loud movement (named after the eponymous book by John Stepper) very exciting. But what is this “Working Out Loud” anyway? And what exactly does the method have to do with flexibilization, digitization and the dismantling of silos?
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Happy Moments: Fundstücke der letzen Zeit
Bei Tandemploy gibt es ein besonderes Meeting: Jeden Montag treffen sich die Teammitglieder und jede(r) erzählt von einem Happy Moment der vergangenen Woche, beruflich und/oder privat. Das ist das Happy Meeting. Statt eines langen Meetings, findet nur eine schnelle Runde statt und alle starten fröhlich und motiviert in die neue Woche. Da wir bekanntlich gerne teilen, zeigen wir hier einige dieser Happy Moments. Heute: Unsere schönsten Fundstücke der letzten Zeit.
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Without projects, there’s no innovation: why companies should rely on their own employees.
Projects, projects, projects! They are a driving force for innovation and change, and defining and developing new projects is vital to every company. In most cases, however, project initiation and project staffing are implemented following a classic top-down approach. This is often complicated, expensive, and does not necessarily contribute to a good working environment. In today’s companies, project initiation and staffing can work differently: direct, simple and driven by people. It’s time for a change.
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Faster, better, digital! Why “digitalization” only works with teamwork.
Digitalization not only determines our everyday (working) life, it is also changing the entire business world. The associated challenges affect all companies: rapid changes and increasingly complex market requirements, strong competitors, and, above all, courageous disruptors who are breaking new ground with new technologies. Every company has the right prerequisites to not be left behind and to shape their own digital transformation. They just have to be recognized and used.
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“Everyone is in the cloud! – But where is the human being?”
Cloud technology is unstoppable and changing the way we work together. But where does the human being end up when more and more data, topics and communication take place in the cloud? And does it make him more expendable – or even more important?
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“The experts you need are already here!”
This is how companies – with their own employees – are getting fit for digitization.
Digitization is unstoppable.
Digitization is unstoppable and one of those developments that certainly will not “simply pass by,” even if some may secretly wish that. It is a megatrend that will not only fundamentally change our way of living and working, but also radically transform business models and business purposes. So, what does it mean for organizations – and how is it related to the second big trend, the flexibilization of working models and structures?
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Changemaker – Job Sharing for Self-Management and Cultural Change
There are a few prejudices that are seemingly inseparable from the term “job sharing.” For one, many people still think that job sharing is simply part time with a new, nicer name. Additionally, this model is consistently assumed to be much more expensive and, above all, more time-consuming than “normal” jobs. It’s high time to show that these prejudices are just that, and demonstrate the added value that job sharers bring to business.
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Everyone can be a mentor!
Everyone has already heard the term mentoring. In practice, it usually refers to a very classic mentoring approach: an inexperienced mentee learns from an experienced mentor – and to be a mentor or participate in a mentoring program, you first have to qualify. “Reverse Mentoring” (old learns from young) is slowly (and complementarily) gaining traction. However, most of these programs are still controlled top-down, and thus not by the mentors and mentees themselves, but by an organizer. It’s high time to clear off the dust collecting on conventional mentoring programs! Read more
Happy Moments: The “Tandem Bears” from Beiersdorf
At Tandemploy, we have a special meeting: Every Monday, the team members meet and talk about Happy Moments – professionally and/or privately – from the past week. That’s the Happy Meeting. Instead of a long meeting, we just go through a quick round, and everybody starts the new week happy and motivated. As everyone knows, we like to share, so starting now, we will be showcasing some of these Happy Moments.
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Do away with positions!
Who actually decided that almost every task, every job, would fit best into a 40-hour full-time position? Who says that? And who can judge that?
Isn’t that an absolutely crazy assumption? Outdated? Generalized? And, on closer inspection, incredibly inflexible? Doesn’t this (hardly ever questioned) assumption of the ideal 40-hour work week mean that we, as an employer, tend to build in too much capacity for tasks that could be accomplished in a few hours – and far too little for those that clearly require more? Doesn’t it also cause us to force people into a scheme that is not guaranteed to be life-phase-oriented?
Can organizations even transition from being elephants to gazelles when they stick to this very basic thought pattern?
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Everything is different! 44 questions about the world of work
I’m reading a book that inspires me to ask more questions. I like questions anyway, but in “Rock your Idea. To change the world with ideas” by Martin Gaedt, one is downright encouraged to ask excessive questions. “Questions bring ideas and change,” it says, and “questioning habits brings new things to the world.” I especially like the statement, “Everything works differently.” Because hey, why not?
The author suggests asking questions at every traffic light, in every traffic jam, in every waiting room, at every imaginable opportunity: 44 in one go. Anyone who does this regularly (practicing questioning, so to speak) increases his question fitness and comes up with completely new ideas. Even a “throw-away question” can make the difference. The chapter ends with a clear request: “Asking good questions is trainable. So, get to practicing!”
I felt directly challenged and tried to go with my gut to ask 44 questions about the world of work, the issue closest to my heart.
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