The more cooks, the better the soup
In recent years, we at Ekan Management have had the privilege of welcoming a whole host of new colleagues. Of course, this rapid growth poses some challenges. Not least of the practical kind in the form of new e-mail accounts, business cards, photography, keys, office space, etc. Beyond these, which may seem hygiene factors, the challenges can be summed up in the important word communication. It is about what, how, where and nor we should communicate?
Of course, the volume of people who will participate in communication becomes a practical issue to solve when you can't (like when I started at Ekan) can all gather around a table. But in the name of honesty, it can be enough to be two people to make the challenge of understanding each other's view of the world feel almost insurmountable.
Just before the summer holidays, I completed a very exciting assignment in a large international company. The project group consisted of participants from many parts of the world. As you understand, the practical challenge was to find opportunities to communicate across time zones. We simply had to travel to the same geographical location when we would all gather. Once in place, we had many interesting discussions that led the mission forward. In many cases, issues where the group's participants were far apart from the start. That these days became so good was largely about attitudes. The project manager at the customer greatly contributed to this positive development environment by constantly raising the question: What assumptions do you base your opinion on?
"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are" I remind myself through a painting on the wall at home. And perhaps it is even easier to be many so that we are attracted (and sometimes forced) to broaden our horizon.
Despite the challenges, I am convinced that the conversations become more interesting and that the solutions become much better the more chefs we are. With that said, I naturally presume that there is some kind of common framework, methodology or goal to base on in the development work. After all, if you do not believe that the soup will be better, you will at least experience that it becomes more difficult to sell to the many people if you are limited to their own taste buds.
For Ekan's part, I very much look forward to working with new and "old" colleagues to find our forms what, how, where and nor. And besides the fact that it is much more fun to develop things together, more people also mean more that can contribute to innovative and sustainable solutions to our customers' challenges. And that is the point after all!