At ImagineNation, www.imaginenation.co.il, we have co-created, in collaboration with the Playful Shark, in Israel, a unique business simulation, that integrates gamification with experiential learning principles to create the first ever business simulation that teaches you how to Be Innovative! Watch what Jane Mc Gonigal has to say about the power of games.
http://on.ted.com/McGonigal
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Sunday, May 13, 2012
US expert: ‘Israel is model f... JPost - Environment & Technology
See my new Israeli Start-Up, ImagineNation, that has deciphered, and modeled the global Israeli Innovation success story and is teaching it to corporations globally. www.imaginenation.co.il
US expert: ‘Israel is model f... JPost - Environment & Technology
US expert: ‘Israel is model f... JPost - Environment & Technology
Monday, May 7, 2012
See the latest Compass Learning Newsletter, the Birth of ImagineNation
http://email.webchameleon.com.au/em/mail/view.php?id=1729124352&a=20200&k=b63ba55
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
What does Made in Israel mean to you?
Take a look at these amazing cutting edge inventions from Israel, and watch out for the launch of ImagineNation in 4 weeks, and learn how to Be Innovative like an Israeli!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
For Great Teamwork, Start with a Social Contract - Christine M. Riordan and Kevin O'Brien - Harvard Business Review
One of the key processes we facilitate in our Top Team Alignment Journey is the development of a set of team ground rules, which define the agreed boundaries, rewards and consequences for effective team behaviors.
For Great Teamwork, Start with a Social Contract - Christine M. Riordan and Kevin O'Brien - Harvard Business Review
For Great Teamwork, Start with a Social Contract - Christine M. Riordan and Kevin O'Brien - Harvard Business Review
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Yossi Vardi: Israel the Start-up Nation and the Technion
Acknowledged as the guru of the Start-Up Nation, Yossi Vardi makes some important points about the unique qualities of Israel Innovation
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
How can global teams improve their effectiveness to deliver the results organisations need?
One of the greatest challenges in
moving to a new country, culture and workplace is the ability to identify,
understand and work with diversity and differences. After running my own learning
and development consultancy in Australia for the past 20 years, I recently relocated
to the Middle East, with the intention of continuing my work in the Leadership
and Team Effectiveness arena.
What
I hadn’t anticipated fully, were the differences in each global organisations
level of corporate maturity, as well the extreme diversity that exists in the high tech
workplace.
In Israel, where I live, there are over
70 different nationalities trying to live, work and co-exist together. If we
add the strong cultural tendency towards being a touch arrogant, very curious, seriously
argumentative and amazingly entrepreneurial, it’s a wonder that anything gets
done at all!
Being a very new and naive player to
the Israeli consulting market, I quickly noticed there are lots of English
speaking consultants working in ‘cross cultural’ training programs. As I was a
small and new fish, in a tiny chaotic new sea, I quickly decided that I did not
want to work in this space. I also knew intuitively
that teaching an American Manager how to speak and collaborate with an Israeli Manager
probably wasn’t possible to teach successfully anyway!
What I did realise was that there was a definite and available niche enabling leaders and teams to collaborate effectively across cultural and geographic boundaries.
I focussed on adapting our proven and
well established Top Team Alignment Learning Journey, integrating it with the
wisdom of my cultural mentor, Ed Schein, and developed a whole new learning journey
designed to develop high performing
multi cultural teams in global companies.
The intent is to enable leaders, from different cultures and geographic
locations to come together, as working groups, or teams, to interact
effectively to solve problems, deliver projects and achieve organisational
outcomes. To enable people to collaborate & cohesive, within loose
structures, in ways that can be temporary and fluid, when they come together.
My first
Top Team Consulting Project aimed at shifting a global HR team from an
essentially dependent, avoidant and approval seeking set of collective behaviours,
driven by a very powerful team leader, towards a more confident, encouraging, courageous
and achieving set of team behaviours.
On the team of 11 managers, there were
people from Polish, Russian, Israeli Sabra, Moroccan, Yemenite and Canadian
backgrounds!
They call this unique set of ingredients, the “Israeli Salad Bowl!”
With no common understanding of each other’s
needs, values, beliefs, similarities and differences, and no agreed team
processes, it was no wonder that they demonstrated such passive defensive
behaviours!
So, in my very eclectic, yet effective mix of
Hebrew and English, I managed, after hurdling through my own serious set of
cultural challenges, to design and deliver a comprehensive global team development
journey.
This involved a customised program that was based on the following
four key steps:
|
We explored, understood & worked
with the differences between the corporate and the
peoples own unique & internal cultures.
We worked towards
creating a common understanding & empathy to bridge & respect
differences, so that people could
interact effectively.
|
|
We
assumed that every member of each culture had the right and proper way of
doing things, that there was no one “right or wrong” way.
We
then designed a series of facilitative group processes that engaged the team
in a mutual search for common ground that was inclusive and empathic to all.
|
|
We
designed customised experiential learning activities (games, role plays,
simulations) and processes that enabled the teams to learn from their own
efforts.
This enabled them to become a
team that confronted & explored the issues of
authority, intimacy & identity at a personal & visceral level in a
safe and supportive way.
They also explored differing cultural perceptions &
expectations about their managers
& each other’s roles & goals.
|
|
We
facilitated low key informal conversations to suspend reactions,
disagreement, objections that may have been triggered by actual face to face
conversations.
We
facilitated a set of agreed ground rules & incorporated
“check in” processes. We facilitated free-flowing conversations that helped
to create a new “container” & sense of “group” that now enabled them to
interact effectively together.
|
These
four steps were followed by a series of team skills development workshops,
review sessions and one on one coaching program for the team leader.
So what did we achieve?
The outcome was that the managers learnt
to appreciate each other’s unique contribution and value to the team, to listen,
speak and hear each other.
This formed the basis for creating a
more constructive, collaborative and inclusive work environment, where more people
felt more confident, became more encouraging and more courageous.
They worked together cohesively and effectively to solve problems, make decisions and delivered projects that impacted significantly on the organisational outcomes!
Microsoft launches in Israel
Today, Microsoft is launching the first startup accelerator* in the company’s history in an effort to encourage more entrepreneurs to build their cloud-based applications using Windows Azure. The program will take place at the Microsoft Israel Research and Development Center, and is a part of the Israel R&D Center’s outreach program Think Next as well as the Microsoft BizSpark program for startups.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/13/to-boost-windows-azure-microsoft-launches-companys-first-ever-startup-accelerator/
http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/13/to-boost-windows-azure-microsoft-launches-companys-first-ever-startup-accelerator/
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
How to Educate More Creative Problem-Solvers - Mirian Graddick-Weir - Harvard Business Review
This article describes a new way of thinking that will enable us to solve new and existing problems in Innovative ways, watch this space, as this is what my new Israeli Start Up, ImagineNation will be teaching!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Israel ranks highest in the world for venture capital investment percentage of GDP
Israel has the second largest number of NASDAQ listed high tech companies of any foreign country (after China). Read this article to find out why!
http://kw.wharton.upenn.edu/israel/2012/01/27/global-social-impact-from-the-innovation-nation/
http://kw.wharton.upenn.edu/israel/2012/01/27/global-social-impact-from-the-innovation-nation/
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Does Your Passion Match Your Aspiration? - Rosabeth Moss Kanter - Harvard Business Review
How many of us are willing to take courageous risks to be audacious?
How to make a region innovative!
This article explores and sets the context for establishing innovative eco-systems
http://www.strategy-business.com/article/12103?pg=0
http://www.strategy-business.com/article/12103?pg=0
Friday, February 24, 2012
What could be the emerging global tsunami in education and corporate learning that is going to save the world!
How do you handle it when you live in the land of ‘disruptive
high tech innovation’, and, due to a long running industrial dispute, you find
yourself jam packed, on a very slow, early morning train to Tel Aviv? On the
one hand, you are in a tightly enclosed space, like a proverbial ‘sardine in a
can’, with at least, an hour’s wobbling journey to endure. On the other hand,
you are scheduled to attend a one day cutting edge workshop, in the ‘city that
never sleeps’, with one of the global leaders in this amazing developing
technological space called ‘enterprise gamification’.
You adapt to the situation, of course!
Doing the best you can with what you have!
Out comes the Ipod, tuning into recording of the Dalai Lama,
as part of a discussion panel, at the Happiness Conference held in 2011, in
Sydney, Australia. Sadly, my home country, despite its natural wealth, fabulous
lifestyle and affluence has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the
world. The panel of experts, along with His Holiness were discussing, why might
this be so and what could they do about it?
Everything happens for a reason, my role was to find and fulfil it!
Whilst many factors were discussed, one of the key points
raised in the conversation, was the impact of our materialistic and evidence
based Newtonian World, on children’s education. How science, rationality and reason have
become the educational core, and how children are being taught to aspire mostly
towards academic and material success.
His Holiness raised the point that the real sources of Happiness are
more heart centred, intuitive, and abstract and are also about being part of a community
and a well functioning family.
He suggested that for children to lead happy
lives, they need to have a sense of meaning and connection in their lives. That
they require more than sensible explanations for things, more than a single parent
home, more than a secular and material focus in their young lives!
“Education and knowledge by themselves do
not bring inner peace to individuals, families or the society in which they
live. But education combined with warm-heartedness, a sense of concern for the
well-being of others, has much more positive results. If you have a great deal
of knowledge, but you're governed by negative emotions, then you tend to use
your knowledge in negative ways. Therefore, while you are learning, don't
forget the importance of warm-heartedness”. Dalai Lama
What really amazed me was that he talked a lot about
Facebook, and the role of social media in enabling young people to form their
own, new kinds of warm hearted ‘communities’. Where they are free to fully express
and be themselves, and make a stand, without any of the major family, school or
social imperatives and injunctions!
As I finally made my way
to the Checkpoint Building, in downtown Tel Aviv, where my workshop was being
hosted, I wondered about how this might apply, or not, to the workshop I was
about to attend?
Having spent the best part of my 20 year career in the
corporate learning space, I was curious as to how enterprise gamification might
fit into the whole field of experiential learning? Perhaps not only as an
adaption of ‘learning by doing’ principles, but possibly the next evolution might
see the integration of experiential learning
and social media practices in ways that we may have never expected?
How might it serve as an alternate way of learning that was more in
tune with His Holiness’s criteria for Happiness?
So what did I learn?
Some Gamification Facts that I didn’t know previously:
- We
spend 3 billion hours a week playing online games.
- Average
player age is 37 years old: it costs a lot to buy video games (now)
- The
‘Warcraft Game’, (pictured) has the second largest Wiki, (80,000 articles) after
Wikipedia, globally.
- 97%
of youth are playing computer or video games!
- The
ratio of social to competitive players is greater than 3:1.
What really attracts
people to games is that they like to ‘try out stuff’, have fun and enjoyment
whilst totally engaged in pursuit of mastery!
They like to operate
autonomously and not be at the effect of any ‘real life’ consequences when they
make a mistake, or fail to achieve one of their virtual missions!
This sounded very familiar to me, and I searched my mind to
find where exactly I had heard these very same points, yet in another context? Of course, from Dan Pink, who states that
people are motivated by purpose (doing something meaningful, like saving the
planet), mastery (be the best gamer on the global score board) and autonomy (I
am playing my own game, even if I am part of a gaming community).
"Reality is broken” says Gaming Master Jane
McGonigal,
(see http://janemcgonigal.com)
“and we need to make it work more like a game. The best hope we have for surviving the next
century on this planet? Games”!
Her goal for the next decade is to try to make it as easy to save the world in real life as it is to save the world in online games.
She explains that there are four key reasons why people love
to game:
- Creates urgent optimism.
- Weaves a social fabric.
- Results in blissful productivity.
- Creates epic meaning.
She also says that gamers become super empowered and hopeful
individuals.
Our facilitator then questioned the group:
“What if we harness the energy and
the passion people expend on games to solve some of our major corporate,
community and global problems?
“What if people could be enabled
to engage and feel like that in organisations, about their day to day
work?”
“How would that impact on
productivity, innovation and overall organisational performance?”
Great questions to chew on!
Reflecting back as to how I started the day, I then asked
myself:
“How will our clever children evolve
and adapt their successful virtual world discoveries into real world solutions,
create warm-heartedness and really save the world?”
One in which their urgent optimism
permits mistakes that are not perceived as failures, finds a deep sense of well
being and profound connection points where they excel and be blissfully
productive. Where they can embrace meaning, feel a sense of belonging, experience warm-heartedness and contribute to something greater than themselves!
I don’t know about you, I am
joining the emerging global tsunami that is changing the face and nature of education
and corporate learning on an unprecedented scale.
I am looking to see how I can
contribute, as a corporate trainer, facilitator and curriculum designer,
towards Jane McGonigal’s unique and surprisingly deviant vision for saving the
world!
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
The Paradox of Indispensability | The Paradox of Indispensability - London Business School BSR
Great article that reinforces the need need to take time to think about the important things and to make sure we do them, and not get caught up in 'hurry-sickness'.
What is the core ingredient for executive team effectiveness?
I have found that trust is the lever that creates great teamwork, hard to build, easy to lose! We don't seem to talk enough about it, so here are some simple tips that will help build it!
http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2011/07/19/lead-change-post/
http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2011/07/19/lead-change-post/
Monday, February 20, 2012
Thriving in Chaos, introducing the flux mindset
This is an absolutely exciting must read, it reinforces and validates the need to flow with chaos and to embrace a disruptive and deviant mindset!
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/162/generation-flux-future-of-business
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Startup Nation Factory by Innovation Israel
A Fun animation that illustrates the Start Up Nation Factory
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
What is more critical for a successful business transformation, being a change or an adaptive leader?
The balance point between certainty and uncertainty,
stability and instability, complexity and simplicity is moving faster and more
often that it has ever done previously.
Coupled with the increasing incidence
of ‘Black Swans Events’, those improbable
and unexpected events that provide extreme impact and result in unprecedented
consequences, have created the conditions for us to re-examine the way we, as organizational
development consultants approach
business transformation and change.
Change Programs Don’t Work!
My thirty
years of corporate consulting experiences has led me to believe that organizations
and cultures don’t really change, not because they don’t want to, it’s because they
usually can’t! Too often I have seen CEO’s and OD consultants suggest that
there is something ‘wrong’ about their organizational culture, and then embark
on a costly, complex, culture change program, that attempts to ‘fix’ it! The result
is often a mixture of frustration, denial and blame, usually around the timing,
the change programs’ focus, structure or implementation, or ‘wrong’ consulting advice
or even the ‘wrong’ consultant!
Working with 'what is' and 'what could be'!
The first step is to work towards deciphering the current organisational
culture, through simple, accessible and focussed dialogue processes, rather
than complex, prescriptive, tools based processes that are consultant dependent.
This approach engages and involves the people, who work in the organisation, and
understand it in all of its manifestations and possibilities. By doing this we
have made a positive first step towards understanding, at a very deep level, ‘what is’ as well as ‘what could be’.
What you resist
persists!
We
can then assess what key factors drive the culture, and then, again through
simple and focussed dialogue processes, that involve the people, determine how
to stimulate and unleash more of the possibilities and positive energy and
reduce more of the negatives. Rather than focus on solving business issues and
problems, the real work gets done when determining what the real adaptive challenges
are and developing Innovative new ways of solving these problems.
Adapting and evolving
is not changing!
Nature has taught us that Disruption can be both destructive
and creative, and that, without it, nature’s eco-systems do not adapt, and
reach new thresholds. Once we understand
that an organisation is also an inherent eco-system, that also requires adaptation, then
we can create the ‘safe space’ to create Intentional Disruptions.
This stimulates the adaptive process and, if well led, can enable the organisation and its people to become passionate about solving its problems in
surprising, imaginative and innovative ways.
What can you do to be a more adaptive leader and ensure that business transformation initiatives that you are involved with, deliver what they promise?
Monday, January 23, 2012
Shai Agassi Launches the Electric Car Today, in Israel, read his Inspirational Note to his Team
Better Team,
Steve Jobs said that "while most people live within the boundaries of the world we know around us, very few people actually get to set those
boundaries, by not accepting them". When he mentioned those few people, he was talking about YOU.
Four years ago, we promised the president of Israel, mr. Shimon Peres, that by today we will have serially produced electric cars that would drive in the streets of Israel. It seemed like an impossible dream. Today we delivered those cars to people who will be driving electric cars daily as their only vehicle. We had to move mountains to get to this day, and we did. Yet we have many more mountains to move.
I'd like to take this chance to remind you why we embarked on this journey. We did so not because we search for riches, even though those riches will find us. Not because we want to end something, even though we most likely will. Not for political motivation or environmental bias, even though we will help the environment and most likely change geo-politics. No, we did so, because ever so rarely a simple idea resonates with so many people, with so much power, simply because we all know it is the right thing to do.
Since no single person can solve a problem as big and deeply rooted in our society, we have to offer every person a proposition that will better their own life, an option for them to switch. We will do so by relying on people's free will. And in the words of Carlos Ghosn: "the car will be a great experience - a fun car to drive". And Indeed the Fluence ZE is a fun car, just as he promised. We salute our friends and partners at Renault for their great achievement.
We have teams spread around the whole world, in Israel and Denmark, Paris and Palo Alto, Melbourne and Tokyo, teams of people who worked relentlessly over the last 1,500 days to deliver a complete system that no one has ever seen before. I thank every one of you from the bottom of my heart! We started from a white paper, full of ideas and many unknowns. While we have delivered most of that white paper, we still have more to do to prove our system works. We will only get better with time.
I also want to thank those who invested the company and stayed true to their commitment and trust. To Idan, our chairman, the entire board and every investor, big and small, we promised not only to make the world a better place, but to build a great company we can be proud of, one that will be profitable and growing.
And I want to thank your families, I know the days we passed and the days ahead will take us away from our loved ones in the name of our mission. Remember we are all working for our kids, because we promised them we will be saving their world. And we do as we promised.
Finally, as I was driving into today's ceremony, I asked my son how he summarizes our achievement over the last four years. His words ring so true. "Dad, today is just the beginning". we have not accomplished our mission, we are just starting now. I am so proud of you! And I am sure you feel just as I do today.
Isn't this a great beginning?
Shai
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Train Your Brain to Focus - Paul Hammerness, MD, and Margaret Moore - Harvard Business Review
When I am in overwhelm, it is really hard to focus!
These are great tips!
Train Your Brain to Focus - Paul Hammerness, MD, and Margaret Moore - Harvard Business Review
These are great tips!
Train Your Brain to Focus - Paul Hammerness, MD, and Margaret Moore - Harvard Business Review
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Non-invasive tool identifies Alzheimer's, depression and ADHD
Those amazing Israeli's have done it again with their revolutionary new system!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Zichron Ya’akov: Home of wine, and spies…
This is an article about the beautiful town we live in, in Israel. It shows the landscape, explains the unique history and the wonderful wines that get produced locally!
Zichron Ya’akov: Home of wine, and spies…
Zichron Ya’akov: Home of wine, and spies…
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
The top 10 science stories of 2011
Have a look at the amazing Innovations in Science from the incredible Start Up Nation!
The top 10 science stories of 2011
The top 10 science stories of 2011
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