Lecture Prof. Ulrich Weinberg, Hasso Plattner Institute: Digitization is Team Sport

“The machines are networked, but people’s minds are in a highly competitive mode that significantly hampers networking.”

In an increasingly digitalized world, the pressure for change on companies and organizations is growing almost exponentially. With traditional thought models oriented towards the individual, this pressure can be met less and less. We need a new, networked, team-oriented practice.

Prof. Ulrich Weinberg has been head of the School of Design Thinking at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam. Appointed Professor of Design Thinking at the University of Potsdam in March 2018. He is co-author of several books and author of “Network Thinking – What comes after Brockhaus thinking?”.

Key Takeaways “Digitization is Team Sports”

  • The old structure was a strongly hierarchical silodenken, a “Brockhaus structure”. But the model of the 21st century is a network system.
  • This causes a fundamental transformation of culture towards agility and an increasingly fluid status.
  • Our deeply internalized lone warrior thinking prevents the transformation to a network system and the thinking in team goals.
  • Where IQ used to count, a form of “WeQ” will be necessary in the future, the intelligence of the team.
  • It is not the swarm, but the team that appears to be the suitable organizational form for the interaction of several people.
  • With the approach of Design Thinking it is possible to solve problems or develop new ideas in a fluid state from the user’s point of view.

You can read more detailed thoughts in the interview on ii and experience in Video excerpts from solutions.hamburg 2018