Background
When I talk to top executives in large companies today, it often feels as if they were modern manifestations of Kafka's bucketrider ("Kübelreiter"): They know that their traditional means of sourcing, producing, and selling are running out; they make plans to reinvent their business, tap into potential sources of replenishing their empty buckets, and think of creative approaches to explain their intentions.
However, despite doing everything right and with strong conviction, they still find themselves misunderstood and rejected by those they interact with – be that society, politics, colleagues, customers, business partners, suppliers, or any other of the myriad entities making up the universe of today’s energy industry.
Kafka’s bucketrider gets out of his misery by realizing that the empty bucket he was zealously trying to refill with coal can actually serve him much better as something very different: As a mount to not only get on the way to fulfill his mission (“… once down below my bucket ascends, superbly, superbly..."), but also, in the end, to escape the narrow world that was holding him back ("And with that I ascend into the regions of the ice mountains and lose myself to never return.").
The Italian writer Italo Calvino cites Kafka's story in his "Six Memos for the Next Millenium" as an illustration to the virtue of "Lightness": "... the idea of this empty bucket that carries you way above where you were looking for help, and above the egoisms of others [...]. And in addition, if the bucket was full, it would no longer allow us to fly".
The lightness of changing perspectives on what seem to be unsurmountable obstacles and turning them into a means for progress – this is the basic belief that informs my work with top executives in today’s challenging business environment.
I offer personal executive consulting and coaching for top-level leaders in industrial, process, and otherwise “heavy” industries (and beyond), working with them and their teams to develop, strengthen, and expand mental strategies for
- setting directions,
- making decisions,
- leading organizations and people
in an increasingly unpredictable, uncertain, volatile, ambiguous, and complex business environment.