Storytelling is an old oral tradition and it is the core of cultural heritage. The past is a precondition for the present – there is no present, without a past. I find it reasonable to say that companies can express themselves in the present by focusing on their traditions.
The other day I talked with a friend of mine about what storytelling really is – and what defines a story. Do stories have to have a beginning and an end? Do they need to have a certain length or moral? Ernest Hemingway once got the challenge to write a complete work of fiction in six words. And so he did. I want to end this blog post with his story – to let it stand alone – because it really got me thinking, which I believe makes a good story.

For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.
- Ernest Hemingway

Facebook during business hours - should companies try to fight or embrace it as part of today’s communication and working form?

The phenomenon of employees using the phone or the Internet during business hours for private matters is by any means not new. A study made by “IT-avisen ComON” back in march 2006 among apprx. 2.200 respondents, showed that even then 14,1 pct used the Internet between 0,5 and 1 hour on private matters during a business day and 18,3 pct use more than 1 hour….and my guess is the numbers are still increasing.
Apparently not many companies have a clear policy on the matter. Whether this is founded on fear of management unpopularity, the extent and challenges of IT security I can’t say – but since the social medias are gaining a footing and are here to stay, it clearly is a matter which should be addressed and communicated by management – and maybe even embraced?

Are medias as Fasebook, Messenger and LinkedIn just a replacement off simple e-mailing, which in fact offers companies new opportunities – where employees are receptive to advertising (as professionals and private consumers) and even more available for costumers, business partners and colleagues? Or is it yet another common time consuming occupation, which can be added to the coffee and smoking breaks? What do you think?

I just had a great music week.

Last Friday we had a nice company dinner where everybody shared music. Monday Nikolaj brought us a new amplifier (even though he was the only one who could hear the old one was broken :-) Yesterday Nikolaj and I browsed us through a lot of different old and new danish music, in order to find artists to perform at our housewarming this spring. It was quit funny, as we tried to find the most authentic artists we could think of. We listened to artists as Kasper Winding, Rocazino and CVJørgensen (old danish artists) whom I mostly heard as a child. Today I realized that it is actually this Monday 'The Whitest Boy Alive' will release their second album 'Rules'. It made me so happy I wanna share it with you guys. In 2006 'The Whitest Boy Alive' released their debut album 'Dreams' witch I listened to so much the past year. I hope the new album is as good as the old one. You can check some of the music out here or pre-order the album here.

And - if you really like it - they will visit Copenhagen and play at Vega the 25. of April. I cant wait.

Last week I was doing interviews for one of our customers, to gather information for further evaluation of different authentic strengths and values. The interviews were split into two parts; the first part was an open narrative conservation, and in the second part the informants were asked more specific questions. It was a really interesting work and a got a lot of remarkable opinions out in the daylight.

The method applied, narrative conversation or interview, is in my belief a very relevant and honest way to get information from your informants. Within these open conversations there is no hidden agenda, or at least there should not be, and therefore you get a relatively deep insight in your informant’s version of the truth. If you let people talk, and you take your time to listen, you will reveal what great things they really have on their minds. It doesn’t matter if interviewing is a part of your job or not, but do yourself and your friends a favour; ask an (open) question and listen to the answer…

I just received a very nice email yesterday that made me very happy. A participant at one of the talks I did in the fall described how important it is to keep focus in these times of crisis and that my authenticity model was inspiring him.

I spend most of the day with Marco Montemaggi, vicepresident of Museimpresa, the association of corporate museums of Italy. Companies like Ferrari, Ducati, Piaggio, Alessi and more than 40 others all have museums celebrating the culture and heritage of the company. Marco was one of the main forces behind the Ducati Museum founded in 1996. During the last years he has been consulting a number of companies and teaches at Alma Graduate School, a part of Bologna University.

Within the recent couple of weeks a discussion about CO₂ emissions from IT service providers has attained considerable media coverage. It is said that two searches on Google use the same amount of energy as boiling a kettle of water. This is worth giving an extra thought the next time you google at work, or at home. Working at a communications bureau, and everywhere else, you use the Internet to gather information to support your working process, or as a source for inspiration. Using Google, for example, to search the web uses much more energy than you probably are aware of. Surely, opposing arguments about the validity of the conducted research on Google’s energy efficiency have been presented, but this does not affect my point; we consume a lot of energy that we are not even aware of.

A couple of weeks ago I heard about Blackle. Blackle is a search engine build upon Google’s databases, but provides an eco-friendly interface to the information. The background color is black, which uses less energy, than the normal white background color you usual see on web pages.

That made me think – if it really does use less energy, should CSR-minded companies, and everyone else, add a black version of their website so the environmental-minded visitor have the opportunity to choose an eco-version, and there by reduce their personal CO₂ emission?

According to the creator of Blackle it was the blog ecoIron that inspired him to the development of Blackle. You can read more about this and how to reduce the energy used by your computer on Google’s blog.