How to find your ikigai

Ikigai is a Japanese concept meaning “a reason for being“. Everyone, according to the Japanese, has an ikigai. Finding it requires a deep and often lengthy search of self. Such a search is regarded as being very important, since it is believed that discovery of one’s ikigai brings satisfaction and meaning to life. Many (smart) organisations are trying to find a way to motivate […]

12 enemies of adaptability and what to do about it

Hierarchy Top-down, control based hierarchies discourage individual initiative, lead to slower reaction times, and divert energy to “managing up” or what is called politics. These politics will optimize your organization to CYA (Cover Your Ass), loss of productivity, and an aversion of risk, resulting in a standstill culture. Fear Command-and-control systems lead to organizations filled with […]

Benefits of playing games at work.

Why play games at work? We get this question a lot of times when we guide entrepreneurs, small and large enterprise organizations. Or a plain remark: “Pfff, playing games?! That’s not work!”. So what is the answer? Why would we like to use games to do serious work? We encounter a lot of organizations that struggle […]

Lego ® Serious play ® for retrospectives

Somewhere beginning 2010 I got introduced into the subject of Lego ® Serious play ® by Olaf Lewitz who was trained in Germany as a certified facilitator. It stroke me as a very powerful toolset to improve team collaboration and problem solving process within a safe and friendly environment. This encouraged me to continue reading and experimenting with the technique […]