More action! That is the core of Monkey Business. What is it that challenges us to do and act more? It can be more money for one, for other it is more challenges – some of us could motivate them through competing with others. On 21^st of December, on a very cold and wintery Monday  morning Monkey Business sat down started to think about goals and budget for the year 2012, which I have named as following;

“2012 – The Year of Intrapreneurship”

What is the attitude towards entrepreneurship nowadays? What about trying new things, acting before thinking and planning for ages? Experimenting and then maybe even failing? Finnish society hasn’t been so kind and positive towards these. This is something that I feel that has slowly started to change. (Correct me if you think I am wrong?)  I heard something recently, and it puzzled me;

- In Finland every 42nd person is considering about becoming an entrepreneur

- In rest of the Europe the average is that every 7^th person has at least considered becoming an entrepreneur.

I am not saying that the only route to happiness is to become an entrepreneur – but surely it is an option. I also want to generate discussions around the topic ‘intrepreneurship’. That is what Monkey Business wants to create within organizations. People, who are willing to speak from their hearts, take responsibility and act. Atmosphere, that doesn’t judge failing and mistakes – it’s a pity, that people are afraid to admit their mistakes in organizations. Sharing those would make others to learn from those too! There should be an award in every working space and place named “The Golden Screw Up” – not for encouraging people to fail but for not being afraid making mistakes, either.

I am slowly starting to relax and calm myself towards Christmas – I want to end this year 2011 with the Hit Mr. – theory*, which will be the guideline for us in Monkey Business in the year 2012; (The letters for this theory come from the Finnish words Haasta, Prosessi, Tee, Mallinna, Rohkaise)

• Challenge the process / Haasta prosessi
• Inspiring and shared vision / Inspiroiva (ja jaettu) visio
• Enable others to act / Tee toiminta mahdolliseksi
• Model the way / Mallinna tie
• Encourage the heart / Rohkaise sydäntä

For me the year 2012 will be guided by these five sentences – especially the 3^rd and the 5^th; Enable others to act and Encourage the heart.

I wish a Merry Christmas for you all who are reading the Monkey Business Blog – I hope to meet many of you during the year 2012 face to face. For the fellow Monkeys I just want to say this Let’s keep it yellow!

*Hit Mr. Philosophy’s  main headings have been adapted from Kouzes’ and Posner’s  bestseller book The Leadership Challenge

This Saturday, I was asked which books I would recommend if a person wanted to learn about brands. My response may not be the most obvious. But here they are, three books to start with:

1. Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard. In my opinion, this one is a great example how building the brand starts from passion and mission, and is based on strong business philosophy.
2. Project50 (Re-invenvting work) by Tom Peters. Visiting Kisko Labs last week reminded me of the genius of Tom Peters. I think in the core of the brand is attitude. And this book has thought me a lot about that.
3. It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be by Paul Arden. This book will give you an idea about the visual side of branding and sales. It has nice design, is easy to read, and was highly insightful at least for me.

What do you think? Where would you start when it comes building a strong brand?

“ The art of leadership is understanding what you can´t compromise on.”

Beginning of year 2010 for us has been a bit like hike in a desert. Just have to believe that the oasis will come.  Seth Godin, Tribes:

” The second thing you need to know is that the only thing holding you back from becoming the kind of person who changes things is this: lack of faith. Faith that you can do it. Faith that it´s worth doeing. Faith that failure won´f destroy you.”

Cosmos has challenged us by asking: are you serious about this? Time on desert has put our values in test also. Inner pressure is sometimes almost too hard to handle. But returning back from uncomfortable zone is rewarding. Things look clear for a while – illusion of infallible.

Prahalad & Krishnan, The new age of innovation:

” Start-ups do not need well-developed proseccies.”

Form follows funtion, said someone. So what we can do is keep on doeing. Culture is the Strategy. More experiments with customers who play with same rules. So we want:

*You, whom don´t want to work overtime daily to keep up the status quo

*You, whom don´t want be sheepwalking anymore

*You, whom wants to change, yourself, organization, world

*You, whom wants to learn, all the time, everywhere, from everybody

*You, whom wants to do all this together, smiling

Eye for an eye makes the hole world blind. – Gandhi-

Tantourist.

Has anybody read the book We Think by Charles Leadbeater? What do you think about it? Yellow mellow, Ville

Have you read Thomas Homer-Dixon’s “Upside of Down“? it’s a very good book. Not a novel. I’m sure you heard of Resilience or Panarchy and things like that. They are and are going to be very important new paradigms and everyone on earth should know it. anyhow this book explains and put theory in context well. well-written as well.

I first of heard of the word resilience in the SoL European Sustainability Groups event in Scotland at Meadowhead. There was a man called Nick Wielding who nowadays works for CarnegieUK Trust. They’ve published an interesting looking report called A Manifesto for Rural Communities – Inspiring Community Innovation. Be sure to check that our as well.

It’s a sory of young Lady who opens up her own restaurant…and meets the reality of life as a young business owner. Agnes with her partners is giving it all for the initiave, but they face a variety of challenges starting from the customers that write critics into the media and drunken chef as an employee… All could be real, but it’s just a novel…excellent weekend book!

Next week after this relaxing weekend is holding another big journey for Monkeys too. First TA invites 8 people coming from Brazil, England and Barcelona for a Learning Expedition to Team Academy,  and Monkeys are hosting the funnily serious evening program B-) Then after LE Henna Monkey and Sari and Liher from Mondragon Team Academy will go to Brazil to work for opening the Team Academy in there together with a University Senac Sao Paulo. Cool! We are turned on by that challenge and humbly dialoguing for gathering the best knowledge for leading that journey into a success!

Keep it yellow!

Henna Monkey

P.S. Writer of this blog entry is often seriously oriented hard worker, who needs novels to let the brains rest sometimes! If you recognise yourself from this description it’s propably time for you to read a novel too

It’s friday, and it’s time to start a new blog posting series. Every Friday we will bring you a book recommendation. Thanks to Sanna Tossavainen for the idea. And we are going to start with one real “monkeys’ kick-ass-certified” book called “One from Many – VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization”. It’s written by Dee Hock.

The book was introduced into Team Academy circles by Charles of CoMind couple ears back. Ever since then it’s been highly recommended by Johannes Partanen. Tatu Monkey was very excited after reading it, so was Liher, and I am reading it right now. I have read maybe 30% of the book and here some of my favorite quotes:

“The first and paramount responsibility of anyone who purports to manage is to manage self — One’s own integrity, character, ethics, knowledge, wisdom, temperament, words, and acts. It’s a never-ending, difficult, oft-shunned task.” (p. 48)

“True leadership presumes standard quite beyond human perfectibility and that is quite alright, for joy and satisfaction are in the pursuit of an objective, not in its realization.” (p. 50)

“Understanding events and influencing the future requires mastering four ways of looking at things; as they were, as they are, as they might become, and as they ought to be.” (p. 91)

Have a good weekend you all, and enjoy the book. I will write more reflection after I have finished the book.