My Cordes colleague Paul Kloosterboer is ready to defend his PhD thesis. His book is published and July 7 we will have a big party first at the Free University in Amsterdam where he will defend his thesis and later near the Bosbaan.
The book is called ‘Expedition to added value’ with the subtitle ‘Discovering your strategy with professionals.’ Paul did an extensive literature study and proved and developed his ideas in several cases. One of those cases was a project that I did for Triodos Bank Netherlands in 2008. He followed us as a ‘fly on the wall’ (as he said himself), interviewed the key people several times, videotaped meetings, scored meetings and we all had to hand in our diaries to him. He made an effort and that resulted in chapter 8: a case description of 41 pages. I am pretty sure that this is the most extensive and detailed case description in the world about a Theory U strategy project. You get a good idea what we have done in those days. Paul is not an adept of Theory U but it has influenced him quite a lot. As a professor in the making you must have your own model of course! He emphasizes more the need of a sense of urgency at the start of a project. I was convinced that the longing to the highest potential was good enough. At the moment I am not sure about that. Otto calls it that there needs to be a ‘crack’ at the start of a new initiative. It was great to have these discussions with him about the project and the client has benefitted immensely from it.
You will receive the book if you visit his promotion at the Free University (July 7) or you can order it (approximately 35 euro) from Marga Wout at Cordes