I hate waste. Always have. Working with several companies, I saw how we were repeating the same mistakes again and again. Failing to share knowledge, insights and learnings between companies. Even though co-creation eliminates waste.
I know co-creation creates value.
How? It’s what I did when writing The Heart Revolution.
And with the next book in the series, I want to take this idea further: I want to invite you into the process – to co-create with me and contribute with your own experiences and insights.
When I joined at my last job with Nordea, I agreed with my boss and the CEO, Casper von Koskull, that we would share our learnings from our transformation journey. We agreed to co-create with others, to share the ups and downs with more leaders, colleagues and even with organizations outside our own. Casper encouraged me to document all the transformational insights from our journey in Nordea along with what I’d collected through my over 20 years in multinationals in different industries.
Writing The Heart Revolution was one of the most anxious and vulnerable experiences of my life. Whereas I was used to being bold and brave in designing and delivering organization-wide transformations, putting fingers on keyboard to share my years of observations, thoughts and learnings, was far beyond my comfort zone.
My insecurities came to the forefront in this time. My terrible experiences, where my sometimes-clumsy methods of expressing myself had come to hurt others. I thought of my dad – an ever-inspirational figure in my world – and how he could write and express himself so beautifully, whereas I, his daughter, had spent the past few decades often relying on others to write for me.
I was used to feeling successful and competent. But sitting alone with my laptop for those many days and weeks looking out over the lake as I tried to write a whole book – I felt anything but.
But a funny thing happens when you engage your heart as well as your mind in your work. I started to write. And then I kept writing. More and more and more.
In a strange way, all the weeks typing away by myself, I didn’t feel alone writing this book. I revisited all the people I had met and worked with over the past 20 plus years, remembered all the stories of their personal transformations that I was lucky enough to witness. I was connected again with all those people – young and old, juniors and bosses, ambitious and struggling – that had inspired me.
I wrote about people. I wrote about their stories and journeys of transformation. I wrote about the way we transformed some of the most complex organizations together. And I started writing for others like them, like you. I dreamt of all the people that want to expand their own capacity – those looking to unlock their full potential, those struggling to remain relevant and resilient in the face of change, or those looking for greater meaning in life and business.
And after just three-and-a-half months, I hadn’t just put all my post-it notes to paper and written a book – I had almost written enough pages for three books! I had documented enough stories and guidance for not just the Mighty Many, meaning all of us, of an organization, but also specifically for the leaders of organizations and for the professional designers and implementers of transformations.
In writing The Heart Revolution – what I wanted to be a profound and practical guide to engage in our personal transformation journey – I had many co-creators, beta readers and especially two inspiring and devoted speaking partners in Emilie Bruun and Mai Lynn Voldum. I learned to ask for help. It’s how I know that it’s a book that honors my promise with Casper: to co-create and share these insights across the organizations and people.
But there is now an unfinished trilogy.
And I’m now asking for your help and co-creation in finishing it.
The next book will focus on how you can lead the way, with Heart, in a fast-paced world. How mobilizing your heart will become not only a differentiator, but also a necessary component if you want to make a sustainable impact for yourself, your team, organization and society.
My hope is that we, as The Heart Revolution community, write this next book together. That we start sharing thoughts, stories, ideas, theories, and more. And together, we define what it means to Lead with Heart in this century.
Do you want to be a part of the creation of the book Leading with Heart?
Then let me know in the comments and I would love to hear more.
