Make Bets not Plans

The book draws on the videotape of a lively discussion with Dagmar Woyde-Koehler, Gebhard Borck, together with entrepreneurs and managers during a think-talk evening organized by the Karlsruhe organizational consultancy new&able.

The ways in which companies usually develop strategy and planning were examined from a number of angles. The book basically situates all such aspects in the difference between "planning that anticipates the future" and "betting that leaves the future open". Rather than preaching the one true path, the discussion invites exploration of new and intelligent avenues of approach. This is coupled with an unusually clear grasp of the actual day-to-day reality in our company offices and boardrooms, enriched with a wealth of practical examples that bear the unmistakable stamp of real company life. The upshot is a book that's as entertaining as it's serious and close to actual business practice.

This smorgasbord of excerpts from the evening's taped discussions, sketchnotes, comics, thought-provoking margin notes and much more tempts readers to stray from the well trodden paths of the usual canon of management prescriptions and take on fresh new perspectives. The very reverse of dogmatic, this is an interactive, inspirational picture book for managers and strategists that deliberately undermines the authors' prerogative of interpretation. It's the equally invigorating continuation of that evening's think-talk and an entertaining invitation to outside-the-envelope thinking and discovery on a very high level.

Table of Content:

• #Betting or gambling
• Betting on yourself
• The psychology of betting
• Preempting the future with a plan
• Plans as structured thinking
• Planning obstructs intelligence
• When planning becomes philosophical
• Employees use the plan to optimize their personal situations
• The audience joins the conversation
• Plans give you orientation
• Dictatorships, plans and co-determination
• Deciding strategy together with 10,000 employees
• Plans need geniuses
• Integrating planning, management & employees
• Bets versus plans in communication with employees
• Plans and security
• Betting and risks
• Are crowd decisions better when crowds are asked the right questions?
• Planning and group processes
• Planning and the vagaries of chance
• Betting with feedback versus target-performance comparisons
• What does the strategy department learn from this?
• The probability of failure
• Levels of decision - strategies - bets
• Betting in practical roll-out (1): the billion euro project
• Betting in practical roll-out (2): a customer project with a dynamic upper limit on capacity
• Betting in practical roll-out (3): corporate democracy
• Are the dynamics of betting only good for medium-sized enterprises?
• The present-day meaning
• Isles of Bliss - not viewed kindly by the traditional economyä Dynamic target systems
• No more planned economies;-)
• About
• new&able thinktalk
• Dagmar Woyde-Koehler
• Gebhard Borck
• Franziska Köppe

Gebhard Borck
For the past 15 years, he has supported and guided development, change and organizational development projects. The practical experience garnered in this time shines through his thought-provoking and entertaining podium and TV appearances. Audiences recognize that here is someone who knows what he's talking about. He challenges received notions of what the economy, work and management is. Borck is an advocate for a culture based on greater self-determination and real engagement which makes room for meaning to grow.

direct@gebhardborck.com

Franziska Köppe
She supports her clients to be seen and understood. She accompanies firms, professionals and events. Two decades of experience in finding and successfully approaching new ways of communication characterizes her work. Core orientation to her services is a living and working environment worthy to preserve into the future.
www.madiko.com