Your management team has plenty of IQ. It just doesn't add up yet.
Thomas Bothe1 gives the CEO and management team of a mid-sized European company one shared set of thinking tools. Then the intelligence of each person starts to add up in the work of the whole team.
Notes
Thomas Bothe, Transformation Space Janitor, THINKWARE DESIGN · Former CEO
1A CEO himself until 2000. Since then a facilitator and sparring partner for CEOs and management teams of mid-sized companies across Europe.
Thomas Bothe has no idea how to run your company. That’s rather the point.
Thinkware means designed tools for thinking.2 A wrench doesn’t decide what you build; it helps you build it.
Thomas won’t pretend to be a better engineer, accountant or strategist than the people in your room. He would lose that contest. What he is good at is getting the best out of a team’s thinking. The solutions stay yours, because they come from your own thinking.
Notes
2Two examples of thinkware: the Pareto principle, and John Boyd’s OODA loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act), which runs through every intervention. More on the method
Different problems, different tools. Shocking, we know.
Four interventions for the CEO and management team. Six four-hour Kickoff workshops for the managers below them.3
TKSix four-hour workshops
Thinkware Kickoffs
Give the whole organization the same tools for thinking, one workshop at a time.
Open Thinkware Kickoffs
CEiLCommunication Essentials in Leadership
CEiL
Your team leaders know exactly what to say. The room keeps hearing something else.
Open CEiL
CEOConfidential 1:1 Thinking Partner
CEO Sparring
A thinking partner who doesn’t work for you.
Open CEO Sparring
THChoosing a New Direction
Thinkware Horizon
For the moment you look up and ask where the company is actually going.
Open Thinkware Horizon
TTContinuous Organizational Adaptation
Thinkware Tuning
You know what needs to happen. Tuning clears what keeps it from happening.
Open Thinkware Tuning
UFA Thinkware Kickoff
Useful Feedback
Giving and receiving feedback that helps people understand what needs attention.
Open Useful Feedback
TLA Thinkware Kickoff
Trust in Leadership
Understanding how trust works across leadership and stakeholder relationships.
Open Trust in Leadership
IDA Thinkware Kickoff
Insightful Discourse
Making conversations more clarifying, productive and useful.
Open Insightful Discourse
WMA Thinkware Kickoff
What Really Matters
The connection between meaningful work, motivation and people’s experience at work, including the social value the company creates.
Open What Really Matters
PBA Thinkware Kickoff
Productive Brainstorming
Helping teams move between exploring possibilities and practical execution.
Open Productive Brainstorming
MLA Thinkware Kickoff
Managing Lifelong Learners
Recognising different learning stages and responding appropriately as a leader.
Open Managing Lifelong Learners- Thinkware Kickoffs Give the whole organization the same tools for thinking, one workshop at a time.
- CEiL Your team leaders know exactly what to say. The room keeps hearing something else.
- Thinkware Horizon For the moment you look up and ask where the company is actually going.
- Thinkware Tuning You know what needs to happen. Tuning clears what keeps it from happening.
- CEO Sparring A thinking partner who doesn’t work for you.
Notes
- Thinkware Kickoffs
- Four hours each, online or on-site. Managers and leaders below the management team.
- CEiL
- 2 days for 4 people, 3 days for 6. 4 or 6 team leaders.
- Thinkware Horizon
- 4–6 weeks. CEO and core management team.
- Thinkware Tuning
- Monthly, about 4 hours a week. The management team with the CEO (4–12).
- CEO Sparring
- Monthly retainer, about 10 hours. 1:1, the CEO only.
4Fees are agreed in the first conversation. Travel and accommodation are agreed separately for in-person engagements.
A former CEO. Fully recovered.
Thomas Bothe was a CEO himself before he went independent in 2000.
Since then he has worked as a facilitator and sparring partner for CEOs and management teams of mid-sized companies across Europe, on strategy and on how leaders communicate.5
Hard to run away from. A client said that. As a compliment.
“What I appreciate in particular with Thomas is his ability to work with both small and large issues…”7
Full recommendation
Thomas has helped me and my Nordic management team with training, but also specific challenges in our company's development. What I appreciate in particular with Thomas is his ability to work with both small and large issues and quickly understand how he can contribute with relevant knowledge and inspiration to the group. Another strength of Thomas is the ability to translate theories into useful skills by actively train participants in various situations. Thomas is working with a great sense of humor and illustrative examples which contributes to a very good climate for development. I can highly recommend Thomas broad repertoire and in particular his ability to convey it.
“By "nailing" the relevant point in each individual feedback and by applying understandable practical training tools, every trainee is able to make tangible progress in a very short time.”8
Full recommendation
Thomas is a true professional. In his trainings he is able to identify and combine a) urgent needs for productivity with b) management team performance improvement and c) effective individual leadership development. By "nailing" the relevant point in each individual feedback and by applying understandable practical training tools, every trainee is able to make tangible progress in a very short time.
“Intense, almost stubborn, hard to run away from, challenging and demanding”9
Full recommendation
Thomas has meant a lot for our business then it comes to improve internal and external communication but also for more specific management skills. All our office staff have been on his AKL training and all have been affected in a positive way. Many people in our business have grown both as individuals and as employees and do today reach goals through other people which before was very hard for them. Generally everyone has increased their understanding of communication and are today both a better listener and better in making other people act productively. My picture of Thomas as a person; Strong person with a lot of influence Intense, almost stubborn, hard to run away from, challenging and demanding Competent and experienced within his professional field. He always find a way to adress any problem Always a smile, joking and laughing I like his way of thinking and I enjoy his company.
Notes
7Marcus Kanewoff, CEO & Founder, 2010.
8Dace Dovidena, Chief Executive Officer, Reitan Convenience Latvia, 2015.
9Tomas Petterson, CEO, FoodTankers, 2010.
Thomas, in writing.
- Bad communication kills good intention May 2020
- Selling the value of values September 2016
- real teams consist of … June 2015
You know your business. Thomas knows the questions.
A call to find out whether working together would be useful to both of you. The outcome is open from the start.