Special: The WorldBlu Freedom at Work Experience 2018

worldblu 2018

By Puk Falkenberg, 24. October 2018

Two intense days in San Diego with the WorldBlu tribe have come to an end. And what an experience! Here are our take-homes, in a fast, short format: Focus on freedom at work, reconnecting with the WorldBlu network, and readjusting our mental compass. Great inspiration for all leaders.

What is Freedom at Work Experience?

The WorldBlu® Academy bring to life proven practices, skills, behaviors for building a freedom-centered workplace culture. The Freedom at Work Experience is committed to inspire and help building high-energy, high-growth, and high-performing workplace cultures. These are built by using freedom and organizational democracy rather than fear and control.

Reconnect, refresh, and learn

Two days, focusing the three core areas of freedom at work: Your mindset, your leadership, and your organizational design.

The first day we worked with our mindset, our fears, what freedom is, and how to center our leadership around love, power, and ubuntu.

The second day we worked with the 10 principles of organizational democracy.

Both days were supported by a workbook, and lots of reflection exercises, which was a great way to let it sink in.

We reconnected with the old friends of WorldBlu (see our take-home from 2016 here and here), and made some new ones, and clearly learned two things: We’re on the right path and have made great progress, but we still have things to improve on. Constantly learning.

Worldblu summit 2018

Summary

About the philosophy

  • Eudaimonia is a fantastic description of what we’re trying to achieve: “human flourishing or prosperity

About mindset and leadership

  • Self-worth is the key to personal freedom.
  • Your mindset determines the direction of the organization, not strategy.
  • Be the change; embrace chaos.
  • You cannot give what you do not have.
  • The personal attributes of leadership are love, power, and ubuntu.
  • “Feedback is the breakfast for champions”, said by Ken Blanchard, a fantastic surprise visit along with the charismatic Garry Ridge
  • Stated by a CEO: “You ask the questions – I might have the answers”. A good way of underlining humbleness and showing authenticity
  • Focus on your people and the culture, rather than your product

About design of your organization

  • Organizational democracy is a great team – and has 10 principles (see above). Of those, these four are essential: Transparency, Accountability, Choice, and Decentralization.
  • Perks can lead to an entitlement culture.
  • Systems and processes sustain your culture
  • Systems and processes help you scale to maximum growth

About change management

  • The 10 democratic principles are amazing for evaluation and reflection.
  • Change the frame and your words. Replace “boss” with “coach”. Replace “failure” with “learning moments”. Words are powerful change makers.
  • Fear is often used in “old” change management as a motivator, but it does not work. We need freedom as a motivator instead.
  • Focus on root causes, not symptom treatment
  • Stop not continuously train people.
  • Stop not listening to people.
  • Group learning is massively effective. Work with your leadership TEAM, not alone.

It is a holistic approach

  • Personal change leads to organizational transformation.
  • We are not alone in this. Many people, organizations, and movements are thinking and practicing something similar. We have work to do!

Tracy Fenton, Garry Ridge, and Ken Blanchard.

worldblu 2018

Tracy Fenton and Matthew Gonnering from Widen.

worldblu 2018

Erik Korsvik Østergaard, Garry Ridge, and Puk Falkenberg – and Al, the soul-sucking CEO. We interviewed Garry for our podcast – woohoo!

Worldblu 2018

The boy band pose at the beach :-)

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