November 2018: Berlin calling. Normally, we are less on the road there, as most of our customers call on us from other parts of Germany. So the call to Berlin is exciting in more ways than one. With great anticipation, we booked the train journeys in no time at all. But first things first.
The organizers of the intrisify team asked us a few months in advance if we would like to contribute ideas, faces and voices to the path.finder festival. Of course we would. Because not only are we there, we are also the official travel partner for the festival. Frank (@frankwibas) and Vincenzo (@VincenzOrga)kick things off. Frank explains for over an hour in the podcast Agility by intrinsify and moves elegantly through the jungle of words. A real travel partner. The video interview with Vincenzo also shows once againPathfinder is more than the title of the festival. We are on a journey ourselves, looking for paths, walking them and helping more people to find their own.
And so, on the morning of November 24, 2018, we stand in the foyer of the Willy Brandt House in Berlin and look intently at the monitor counting down the time until the start. Mark Poppenborg opens the event and explains the thoughts that led to the festival. These thoughts should now in turn make the paths possible and invite us to actively search for them. After all, the future paths are only created by walking.
The agenda is just as unusual as the location: spread over several floors of the Willy-Brandt Haus, events will take place in different formats, some of them in parallel. These vary from exciting lectures on the large stages with over 100 listeners to lively workshops with 20 people to confidential one-to-one discussions in a quiet atmosphere. We are right in the middle of it all, sometimes actively, sometimes passively.
In a packed room with over 150 people, Jochen and Frank present three theses on agility. Or post-agility? Or personal and organizational maturity? Let's call it advanced agility for now.
Agility has become an inflationary term. The clarity with which Jochen and Frank convey their theses and link them to impulses for action is a good thing. The first challenge is: "Focus on people in their entirety." The second: "Provide the space in which organizational experiments can succeed". And the third challenge: "Think in terms of change, not structure". Quite simple really 😉
Over the two days, we gather many more profound, humorous and simply astonishing insights. Be it Robert Ehler, who brings a fence with him to fence in mistrust. And then explains to us that we all decide whether we want to be inside or outside. And Henning Beck, who challenges our brain cells and laugh muscles when he talks about human and artificial intelligence and makes it clear why we can, should and can think not despite but because of AI.
Many impulses open up the space for the really big questions and show what motivated many people to take part in the path.finder festival. How do we develop individually? How do we develop together? And what does it mean for our society?
It's a good sign when there are more questions than answers. Our experience of the path.finder festival is that these questions have opened up space for many good conversations. Many a conversation on the stairs between the floors of the Willy Brandt House has led to connections that will stay with us. And ideas that are making their way.
It was great, see you next time!
Caro, Frank, Jochen, Sascha and Vincenzo (CaRe, FrEb, JoKr, SaGe, ViPa)
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