perseverance

The gift beside the rubbish bin

Joerg Kuehn · Feb 27, 2024 · Leave a Comment

I met Angelina (name & background changed for confidentiality) as part of a team coaching exercise with a health care provider in Singapore several years ago. She was the lead nurse in a high pressure, highly stressful ICU department. As the long and stressful shifts had started to take a toll, the coaching was targeted to find ways for the team to work more sustainably, whilst maintaining the kind of agility and good results the unit was known for.

As the coaching project progressed, I got to know more about the personal side of some team members. One stood out for me … the lead nurse, Angelina. She clearly was the centrepiece of the unit, supporting everyone, especially the younger nurses and doctors, in a caring way. At times, she could also be tough. For me, she was the “tiger-mum” of the organisation, making sure things got done and nobody was lost along the way

After one of the workshops, Angelina opened her heart and told me her story. I was stunned and, honestly speaking, quite taken aback. [Read more…] about The gift beside the rubbish bin

Go Your Own Way – but not alone!

Joerg Kuehn · Sep 27, 2023 · 2 Comments

Twelve years ago, my life looked successful and positive from the outside. I had a good job as a senior supply chain director at Procter & Gamble, was paid a handsome salary, and lived in a high-end property overlooking the Singapore skyline. But something was missing. I felt unfulfilled somehow … lost and trapped. After a string of spectacularly failed relationships, with my health not the best, and ‘handcuffed’ to the golden cage of my well-paid job, I found myself in the middle of a classic midlife crisis.

The Power Of Creative Problem-Solving

Joerg Kuehn · Jul 26, 2023 · Leave a Comment

It’s 1.30pm on March 30th, 1983 when Holger Bethke and his friend Michael Becker arrive at a particular corner in Schmollerstraße in East Berlin. The house they are looking for is right beside the “death strip” … the area surrounding the Berlin wall (s.above).

Disguised as craftsmen in blue work suits, they carefully open the locked doors with a picklock, making as little noise as possible. Once they are in, they hide in the attic for nearly twelve hours, eating sandwiches, drinking schnapps, and smoking cigarettes. Their plan to escape across the Berlin-Wall is highly risky, daring and dangerous. But, if it works, it is also a compelling tale of innovation … pure genius really.

[Read more…] about The Power Of Creative Problem-Solving

Getting A Difficult Message Across

Joerg Kuehn · May 31, 2023 · Leave a Comment

You may remember the newsletter about a client of mine who worked through a highly emotional situation with “the dictator.” Only a short while later, I encountered another client with an even trickier situation.

Chris is a calm and friendly 35-year-old manager, who struck me from the beginning as someone who was very kind. In a “fast-track” career, he had risen rapidly through the ranks of a medium-sized Swedish consumer electronics company. Based in the UK, he was now leading its global supply chain operations.

Chris absolutely loved his job. He viewed it “like a hobby” where he enthusiastically “created top-notch service solutions” for his clients. His passion for the job had him working 60-hour weeks for the last eight years. By his own admission, he’d been close to burn out two times and was currently doing double duty… handling two important job assignments within the company.

It presented a massive challenge.

Chris was not getting along well with his interim boss, the Managing Director of UK operations. “He attacked me personally” Chris said. The strained relationship created an unprecedented level of emotional turmoil, anger, and frustration in Chris.

[Read more…] about Getting A Difficult Message Across

What does life expect from you?

Joerg Kuehn · Mar 29, 2023 · Leave a Comment

Nine months after he had married his wife in 1942, the Austrian psychiatrist Victor Frankl and his family were captured by the Nazis and transported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto – a waystation en route to the extermination camps. They were forced to abort their unborn child, and Frankl’s father died only months later of starvation and pneumonia.

In 1944, together with his wife and 1,500 other inmates, Frankl was placed on a train. They assumed they’d be transported to one of the Nazi armament factories to be used as forced labour. After days cooped up in the windowless wagon, one of the inmates glanced at a signpost outside. What he read out made the desperate passengers shiver with fear. “Auschwitz!,” he screamed in disbelief.

Separated from his wife upon arrival, Frankl was a man without any connection to his former life.

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