One answer can be presented by philosopher Charles Taylor, who argues in his book “The Ethics of Authenticity” that all humans have a natural feeling to tell the difference between right and wrong.  Taylor discusses in his famous book about the big idea of getting in touch with your inner self to find your true self identity. In the life shape of human beings people try to keep touch with their inner true self identity. Inner virtues are crucial for the ethics of authenticity. Today modern psychology views authenticity as integral to well-being.

Charles Taylor states that trying to listen to the inner-self may be very difficult because of own social dependence on others. If we continue to depend on other people, the voice of our inner nature will be drowned out and we become oriented un-authentically. We can lose ourselves and lose bohemian attitude.  Also social pressures of middle-class culture or average behavioral norms can lead people to inauthentic ways of living. Heidegger in his later life associated authenticity with non-technological modes of existence, seeing technology as distorting a more “authentic” relationship with the natural world.

In conventional philosophical thinking, the conscious self is seen as coming to terms being in a material world and with encountering external forces, pressures and influences which are very different from, and other than, unique itself. Thus, authenticity is the degree to which one is true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character, despite these external social and cultural pressures. In the art an authentic signature is telling to us about undisputed origin or genuine authorship. An authentic account is telling to us about accuracy in representation of the facts, about trustworthy work and about reliability. In bohemian culture authentic signatures and authentic accounts are issues of pride.

Being in touch with our inner voice is very important because it tells us what the right thing to do is.  In bohemian culture this kind of attitude is very important, because in many biographies of bohemian persons the biggest struggles of them have often been internal struggles to be true to one´s own personality and character. Often a lack of authenticity is considered to be bad faith. Even an unpleasant truth is valued in bohemian culture.

One of the greatest problems facing such abstract approaches like authenticity is that the often culture bound. Objectivity of one´s inner voice cannot be evaluated easily. Maybe that is a reason why bohemian people are often seen as ultra-subjective and ambient persons seeking ultimate freedom. On the other hand bohemians are seen as real and original persons, not playing social role games. Inside bohemian culture, non-authenticity or un-authenticity are not appreciated.

Index

1                          Charles Taylor

Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taylor_(philosopher)

2                          Authenticity

Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authenticity_(philosophy)

3                    Authentic personality

Wood, A. M., Linley, P. A., Maltby, J., Baliousis, M. & Joseph, S. (2008) The authentic personality: A theoretical and empirical conceptualization, and the development of the Authenticity Scale. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 55, pp. 385-399.

4                    Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger (2010)  Being and Time. Trans. by Joan Stambaugh; revised by Dennis J. Schmidt. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidigger

A key element of creative work is storytelling. Today many media channels are interconnected. In the future media channels are even more linked and interconnected because of ubiquitous technologies, machines and robots. Trans-media storytelling is a technique of telling novel stories across multiple formats and platforms. Trans-media storytelling is also known in some communication contexts as multi-platform storytelling, cross-platform storytelling, or trans-media narrative. Ubiquitous technologies make this kind of trans-mediation possible.

Many platforms are today a part of social media. In the future they will be a part of ubiquitous media. Traditional media formats like TV, radio, video, game, film, magazine and newspaper are today facing new challenges of trans-media development. Already now many movies like “Year Zero” are trans-media projects. The new internet solutions and applications Web 2.0, Web 3.0 and Web 4.0 will lead us to new kind of internet era. Especially for creative class and for journalism emerging trans-media is a big challenge, which changes work life and work culture.

Ubiquitous technology is not a neutral trend for societies. It will change many things, leading in an extreme form to technological singularity. As we know technological singularity refers to the hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means, very probably resulting in explosive super intelligence. In this kind of techno society humans must develop new social positions, different from the positions of robots and super intelligent systems. We can expect that new kind of social and cultural structures will emerge.

Humans cannot compete with super intelligence, where already now new markets are in conditions of hyper-competition. Technology historically has fostered agility. Hyper-competition results from the dynamics of strategic maneuvering amongst competitors and from new technologies. Strategic maneuvering is more and more based on robotics and super intelligence. Many experts criticize these kinds of developments, especially in financial markets, where robotized gambling casinos without any rules (or not many rules) are possible to be run.

Many futurists say that it is very difficult or impossible for present-day humans to predict what a post-singularity world would be like. Raymond Kurzweil has discussed about this topic widely. However, we can expect that human beings must define their relationship to super intelligent systems and robots. Many complex ethical issues need answers.

The start of ubiquitous era means that we shall need new social innovations, which define new rules of societies. Also new business and technology innovations are needed to manage change in this kind of environment. We can also expect that the time of average is going to be over, because robots define the code of average from new technological pre-conditions. Accordingly, humans must re-define their positions from this novel perspective.
Ubiquitous technology development means also that the borders between real reality and virtual reality become vague. In real environments actual events, material substances and real places matter. In virtual environments virtual places, digital substances and autonomous events matter. The new trans-media emerges when these 6 key real and virtual elements will be linked by ubiquitous technologies and tech applications.

This is a future vision of global trans-media.

The trans-media includes both real and virtual elements. Authenticity will be a strategic key issue in the experience society, which is the next society after service economy. In the experience economy attention is scarce, time is limited and money is consumable. These are also the basic rules of trans-media.

There seems to be more questions than answers concerning our common future. Creative class members and especially bohemian persons are probably finding new answers more probably than the “average class”. One working hypothesis is that robots will destroy the “labor class” in the future. If this hypothesis holds, it means that population rich countries will face the era of mass employment. Also other smaller countries will have social and economic problems, because local and global markets do not work well. How much this process takes time, is another open question.

Humans have an obvious challenge: to be creative persons who find answers to open questions. People are forced to find the bohemian element of their minds.

Index

1 Social media
Safko, Lon & Brake, David (2010) The Social Media Bible , Tools & Strategies for Business Success. Tactics Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.
2 Trans-media
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmedia
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmedia_storytelling

3 Year Zero
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Zero_(game)
4 Internet evolution: Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0 & Web 4.0
Web: http://www.marcuscake.com/economic-development/internet-evolution
5 Singularity
Good, I. J. (1965) Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine. In Franz L. Alt and Morris Rubinoff (Ed.) Advances in Computers. Academic Press 6: pp. 31–88.
Kurzweil, Ray (2005) The Singularity is Near. New Jersey, USA: Penguin Group.
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity
Tainter, Joseph (1988) The Collapse of Complex Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6 Raymond Kurzweil
Web: http://www.kurzweilai.net/
7 Ubiquitous technology
Jurvansuu, Marko (2011) Roadmap to a Ubiquitous World: Where the Difference Between Real and Virtual Is Blurred. VTT Research Notes 2574. VTT: Helsinki.
Web: http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/tiedotteet/2011/T2574.pdf
Web: http://sandbox.xerox.com/ubicomp/
8 Creative class
Florida, R. (2002). The Rise of the Creative Class: And How it’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life. New York: Perseus Book Group.
Rindermann, Heiner & Thompson, James (2011) Cognitive capitalism: The effect of cognitive ability on wealth, as mediated through scientific achievement and economic freedom. Psychological Science 22 (6), pp. 754-763.
9 Hypercompetition
D’Aveni, Richard (1997) Waking up to the New Era of Hypercompetition. The Washington Quarterly, pp. 183–195.
Plant, R. (2006) Hypercompetition and differentiation. Web: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/archetype/archive/2006/07/24/677222.aspx
10 Robotized gambling
Web: http://www.innovationnewsdaily.com/565-human-traders-automated-extinction-markets.html

With a special bohemian attitude life can be more interesting and more enjoyable. We can understand our realities from the art perspective, not only from science or religious perspective.

People want to live their own lives so that they stand out from other people in some way. “Be unique or do not exist” is one behavioral rule of bohemian people. For bohemians the way of life is a key issue. It’s hard to imagine that bohemian persons would like to be part of a social establishment, or the bohemian expert settle for mediocrity. On the contrary, bohemian people shun mediocrity. They make themselves look like the operating environment, very personal and tailored for very special cultural rules. They are thinking: The more special – the better; the more strange – the better. In competitive urban environments many experts are talking about the Warhol economy, where bohemians drive creative industries like fashion, art and music. The cultural scene of New York is an arena of trendsetters and emerging trends.

Bohemian is a word developed in the 1800s in France. This generalized term describes many artists, creators and writers, who spend their unusual and irregular life. One Finnish poet and legendary rock musician Juice Leskinen described this kind of life style by writing a bohemian note: “I received a tattered life”. He really did it.

Originally the word meant the Bohemian Czech historical region of Bohemia population. Original Bohemian artists resembled the French view, wandering gypsies, who lived outside of the established social practices, and who were uninterested in conveying conventional circuit disapproval. Bohemian lifestyle is exceptional, avoiding traditional parties and the public acceptance. Often they have sharp contradictions with conventional political views, beliefs and opinions. Bohemian are having typically quite liberal sexual activity, non-material, very, very modest lifestyle and often living in voluntary poverty. In addition, a bohemian culture is a kind of “romanticism of misery.” Bohemians often make virtue out of necessity.

In history, typical bohemian lifestyle cultures have been avant-garde, the culture of the Beat-generation, Goth culture, hippie movement, liberalism and French Moulin Rouge. For example, avant-garde (referring to “advance guard “) refers to people or works that are experimental and a violation of the established trends of their time. The word is used especially in the fields of visual arts, film, literature and music in the context of new trends, but also for any new paradigm, for example when talking about culture or the novel political sphere.

The concept of avant-garde has become a topical debate on the fate of modernism. Bohemians are avant-garde persons in their lifestyle. For bohemians – the average has always been over.

Avant-garde artists and people are sometimes combined with street art, graffiti, or with anti-trends, wild cards and the ground-breaking new emerging issues. However, avant-garde is not a single art movement such as surrealism and cubism, since important concepts are constantly changing over time. Some of the avant-garde strategy of action is publication of manifest/s. It is usually a series of strong statements expressing the direction of movement of artistic ideas and intentions, and what the opposing advocates. The manifesto can be one key achievement of the artist or artist team achievement. Provocations are important part of the bohemian communications. Manifests are underlining new forms of cultural expression. Looking for new means of expression was almost willful in all artistic fields of avant-garde. Teenagers are often having bohemian sub-cultures because they like provocations.

Often the big idea is polarized and manifests to the publication of a major fuss as possible “fanfare”. Management of art and cultural creative industries is more demanding than conventional business branches. It is close to innovation management, but underlining art and aesthetics as key issues of management. Organizations wanting to attract bohemian personalities and creative thinkers need to emphasize a strong commitment to excellence and artistic integrity to be successful beyond the short term. Often great world class artists are working outside the establishment and the major system. For example, great film maker Woody Allen wants to work outside big film studios. He seeks actively distribution in the USA and Europe as a precursor to securing financing to see his art and film projects to fruition. Artistic ventures are sometimes very controversial and provocative. Sometimes artists are very focused on non-profit management organizations and do not want to be “Wall Street capitalists”.

In the 20th century it became very clear that the avant-garde did not fit in the totalitarian societies. Bohemians are not “fitting in” to totalitarian cultures. The German Nazis did the Bauhaus art school and thought it impossible to operate all of the modernist trends of “decadence of art.” Also Soviet Bolshevik repression of the century was an impassioned avant-garde. Spanish philosopher and essayist Jose Ortega y´Gasset says that the immediate effect of every avant-garde is that it creates its own top-level elite. He said that avant-garde creates obscure phenomena to divide audiences who understand and those who do not understand the new genres of avant-garde. This cultural gap does not follow any political or economic lines. There is also trans-avant-garde, which means the ultimate avant-garde border, the other side of the art. This “other side” is very interesting zone for bohemian artists and scientists. This kind of trans-avant-garde culture is having many impacts on economy and politics, when political and economic agents cannot trust in existing cultural structures and organizations. Trans-avant-garde is a vital source of wild cards of our times.

Avant-garde is key concept of bohemian culture. There have been artist forms of avant-garde. Such artist avant-garde movements have been avant-garde-jazz, cubism, Dadaism, futurism, impressionism, expressionism, abstract expressionism, modernism, surrealism and so called Zaum movement.

Another key concept of bohemian culture is activism. Activism is a policy of direct action. The concept of citizenship or civic activism means a national public functioning of society, such as the actions of different associations. Activism can be profiled as a case for or against an issue. A citizen, who actively works either independently or in a group pushing something, is often referred to as an activist.

Activism is receiving public attention in forms of demonstrations and civil disobedience. Change activism includes campaigning, lobbying, publications, seminars, and non-formal co-operation with policy makers. Civil action is framed by non-governmental organizations and movements, which bring in the same way-minded people together, organize, and organize their activities and act in some forms.

Today, Internet activism has moved to the virtual networks, and, is has taken new forms of web logs and wikis. Internet activism is today having a dynamic nature of trans-media and it has challenged both the traditional policy making and the old established media, and it has created a new and alternative publicities as well as exposing the politically sensitive information that traditional media has not been able to “find out”. The attention economy or experience economy are the key strategic arenas of bohemian tribes and individuals.

Sources
1 Lifestyle
Web: http://lifestyle.msn.com/
2 Mediocrity
Web: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mediocrity
Web: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/opinion/friedman-average-is-over.html?_r=2
3 The Warhol economy
Currid, E. (2007) The Warhol Economy. How Fashion, Art and Music Drive New York City? Princeton & Oxford. Princeton University Press.
4 Juice Leskinen
Web: http://www.last.fm/music/Juice+Leskinen
5 Bohemianism
Niman, Michael I. (1997) People of the Rainbow: a Nomadic Utopia. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press.
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemianism
6 Woody Allen
Bjorkman, Stig (2005) Woody Allen on Woody Allen. Faber.
Web: http://www.woodyallen.com/
Web: http://woodyallen.net/books.html
7 Non-profit management
Lowell, S. et al (2001) Not-for-profit management. McKinsey Quarterly 1, 147-155.
Web: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Bohemian
8 Beat-generation
Holmes, John Clellon (1952) This is the beat generation. Web: http://www.litkicks.com/Texts/ThisIsBeatGen.html
9 Goth culture
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goth_subculture
Hodkinson, Paul (002) Goth: Identity, Style and Subculture. Dress, Body, Culture Series. Berg.
Venters, Jillian (2009) Gothic Charm School: An Essential Guide for Goths and Those Who Love Them. Harper Paperbacks.
10 Hippie movement
Web: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/History+of+the+hippie+movement
11 Liberalism
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism
12 French Moulin Rouge
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Moulin_Rouge!&target=blank
13 Avant-garde
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avant-guard
Philip Nel. (2009) The Avant-Garde and American Postmodernity: Small Incisive Shocks. University Press of Mississippi.
Wood, Paul (1999) The Challenge of the Avant-Garde. New Haven: Yale University Press.
14 Bauhaus
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus_manifesto
Frampton, Kenneth (1992) The Bauhaus: Evolution of an Idea 1919–32. Modern Architecture: A Critical History (3rd ed. rev. ed.). New York, NY: Thames and Hudson, Inc.
15 José Ortega y Gasset
Web: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/grasset.htm
16 Cubism
Cauman, John (2001) Inheriting Cubism: The Impact of Cubism on American Art, 1909-1936. New York: Hollis Taggart Galleries.
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubism
17 Dadaism
Jones, Dafydd (2006) Dada Culture. NY and Amsterdam, Rodopi.
Richter, Hans (1965) Dada: Art and Anti-Art. London: Thames and Hudson.
Web: http://dadaism.wikispaces.com/
18 Futurism
John Rodker (1927). The Future of Futurism. New York: E.P. Dutton & company.
Gentile, Emilo ( 2003) The Struggle for Modernity: Nationalism, Futurism, and Fascism. Praeger Publishers.
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism
19 Impressionism
Moskowitz, Ira & Sérullaz, Maurice (1962) French Impressionists: A Selection of Drawings of the French 19th Century. Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown and Company.
Rewald, John (1973) The History of Impressionism (4th, Revised Ed.). New York: The Museum of Modern Art.
Web: www.artandpopularculture.com/Impressionism
20 Expressionism
Gordon, Donald E. (1987) Expressionism: Art and Ideas. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Dijkstra, Bram (2003) American Expressionism: Art and Social Change, 1920-1950. New York : H.N. Abrams. In association with the Columbus Museum of Art.
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism
21 Abstract expressionism
Anfam, David (2008) Abstract Expressionism— A World Elsewhere. New York: Haunch of Venison.
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_expressionism
22 Modernism
Crouch, Christopher (2000) Modernism in Art Design and Architecture. New York: St. Martins Press.
Eysteinsson, Astradur (1992) The Concept of Modernism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism
Web: http://www.mastersofmodernism.com/?page=Modernism
23 Surrealism
Durozoi, Gerard (2004) History of the Surrealist Movement. University of Chicago Press.
Breton, André (1973) Surrealism and Painting. Icon.
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism
Web: http://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T340/SurManifesto/ManifestoOfSurrealism.htm
Web: http://www.cnac-gp.fr/education/ressources/ENS-Surrealistart-EN/ENS-Surrealistart-EN.htm
24 Zaum movement
Knowlson J. (1996) The Continuing Influence of Zaum. London: Bloomsbury.
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaum
Web: http://thebirchonline.org/fall05/semiotics.html
25 Attention economy
Simon, H. A. (1971) Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich World. In Martin Greenberger, Computers, Communication, and the Public Interest, Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins Press.
Simon, H. A. (1996) The Sciences of the Artificial (3rd ed.), Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, Davenport, T. H. & Beck, J. C. (2001). The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Schmid, H. (2009) Economy of Fascination: Dubai and Las Vegas as Themed Urban Landscapes. Stuttgart, Berlin: E. Schweizerbart science publishers.
Haque, U. (November 8, 2005). “The Attention Economy”. Bubble generation – Strategies for a discontinuous future. Retrieved November 27, 2005. Web: http://majestic.typepad.com/seth/2005/11/media_futures_t.html
26 Experience economy
Pine, J. & Gilmore, J. (1999) The Experience Economy, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
Schmitt, B. & Simonson, A. (1997) In Marketing Aesthetics: The Strategic Management of Brands, Identity, and Image. New York: The Free Press.

In societies, there are some evolutionary principles which matter. Especially two evolutionary principles matter. First, there is to be a producer of variety. Secondly, there is a filter of variety. Variability is a key factor of evolution and development. Life is at the transition between order and disorder. This is a critical issue for organizations too. Too structured organization may be problematic, but also too unstructured organization may also be problematic. To manage any kind of organizations, one must pay attention to variability factor.

To be effective, any organization should be composed of different types of people. If your organization is consisting from very similar type of people, it undermines the organization’s efficiency and development capacity. Also productivity of an organization can be much lower than if the organization would have different types of people working in the organization. Rigid group thinking can prevent the organization from implementing changes in the needed operating speed. In this non-optimal case an organization remains inside a comfort zone. No one in this kind of organization is necessarily interested in new development issues and challenges. The members of intellectual elite do not want to work in these kinds of non-dynamic organizations.

Surely it is easy to agree with that all the new challenges and opportunities will live their own lives. These kinds of organizations keep their historical traditions and their good “rituals” and old habits. In this case an organization may become too structured. There are not only “technological lock-ins” but also “social lock-ins”. However, over time, this “rigid structure” management style may become dangerous for an organization, if new ideas and challenges are not seriously discussed inside the organization. Little by little an organization becomes blind to essential changes in their social environments and competitive markets.

How rigid group thinking can be avoided? Perhaps the previously mentioned bohemian people should be taken more seriously? How one should lead them? We know very well that bohemian persons do not like steep hierarchies, nor the rigid line or “silo” organizations. Hierarchical culture, bureaucracy, and rigid organizational boundaries should be avoided, if the intention is to get a Bohemian X Factor serving the organization. Bohemian X Factor helps organizations to take all the real future challenges of change into consideration. Effective change management requires participation of bohemian persons. Dynamics of organizations require that management professionals understand Bohemian X Factor.

Tight authorial orders to bohemian persons do not work in the bohemian organizational culture. In the worst case scenarios of organizations, bohemian people become “mind terrorists” and critical opponents for hierarchical and bureaucratic organization cultures. Wrongly treated bohemians can even attack companies and corporations – in the real life, but also in the social media and in various other Internet environments.

A better mobilization of Bohemian people’s intellectual capital is a very important strategic thing for the organizations of creative class. Often, bohemian people are very goal-oriented. Bohemian people appreciate the creative thinking and real-life problem solving. The active generation of new ideas is important challenge for them. That is why it is important to listen to them carefully. In this case the management emphasizes access to different types of organizations, work cultures and also alternative cultures. The best option would be to have very open mind and also open communication, which is applied for open dialogue and open debate in different social contexts. The variation of opinions matters. Only after these open communicative processes the Bohemian X Factor can get involved in the development of organizations.

“The war for talent.” will not be won without Bohemian X Factor. Thus, a talent management system must be worked into the business strategy and implemented in daily processes throughout the organization as a whole. If bohemian persons are not recognized in business strategies, we can expect problems in the implementation of business strategies. Companies and agencies that engage in talent management are strategic and deliberate in how they attract, select, source, train, develop, retain, promote, and move people through the organization.

It may also be wise to simply delegate new R&D projects to bohemian experts and allow them to perform tasks independently and self-directed. In this case, change management means that leaders find talented people to prepare and implement challenging projects. It might be wise to develop flexible rather than rigid organizational structures, and fast organizations to move on. This approach does not allow firm turfs inside an organization. Leadership role should be a gathering of hot teams and manage these teams.

Already Socrates in ancient Greece taught that the inspiration of poets is an essential form of enthusiasm. Key challenge of bohemian talent management is to produce and keep enthusiasm level as high as possible. If the enthusiasm capital is lost, a lot of intellectual capital is lost inside an organization, but also in a society.

Index

1 Variety
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety
2. Bohemian
Web: http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Bohemian
3. Talent management
Web: http://www.taleo.com/researcharticle/what-talent-management
4. Socrates
Vlastos, Gregory (1991). Socrates, Ironist and Moral Philosopher. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
5. Enthusiasm
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enthusiasm

The future winners are those who take the initiave. Those who create winning opportunities and change the game to favor their own strengths and capacities. These are people and companies we call The Bohos. The Bohos are builders for a better world, better functioning communities and more effective systems.

From AdHoc to WinHoc

Amidst changes, new ways and means of work people and companies often find themselves acting adhoc. In other words they invest on forming teams to solve problems. Mending systems. Filling gaps. Dousing fires. They examine the past and make decisions based on history, not the future. Not the scenario and vision they said they so much believe in.

It is always as staggering to realize the chasm between the powerpoints and real life decisions. The fancy terms on a white board doesn’t seem to have much to do when the reason of the now resurrect the deeds of the past, the terms of yesterday and the good old strategies that used to help when the pecking order was more important than knowledge.

The ice cold truth thus is: best practice wont help you. Next practice can be out of date when you learn it. You need to create your own, authentic, inimitable winning practice.

“The ice cold truth is: best practice cannot help you. Next practice can be out of date when you learn it. You need to create your own, authentic, inimitable winning practice.”

There is no way you can trust the traditional strategic competence. Your strategy train may not visit the station where the opportunities are showing up and things are happening. The old idea about tactics might be out of date – unethical. You cannot justify your actions with company policy nor argue that the good purpose will hallow the means.

Forget about agility. Agility means lean and lean means production and production means industries which will be taken over by automats and robots. They are agile – if you program them to be. Core competencies? No way! The effectiveness of the industrial age is not for the humans of today. And definitely not for the Bohos creating the future. Learning, enthusiasm and the ability to find right people to the right places beat the core competents with flying colours.

The Bohos take winning initiatives, they build winning oppotunities and situations. They plant seeds for new victories. They act WinHoc and their guiding principal is win*win(+win). They take care that winning results are achieved for both parties and also for a third party – for those who need to be considered be it the environment, the poor, the weak, the less fortunate.

From Initiative To Victory

The WinHoc is a dynamic version of AdHoc. When the AdHoc emerges as a reaction to a perceived need, the WinHoc starts up voluntarily and on one’s own initiative. In a WinHoc you take a powerful initiative. An initiative where you see a great potential to win. A person or a company acting WinHoc builds situations that are beneficial for their strengths and capacities and the strive to thrive in those situations.

WinHoc is inventorship with courage to bring up something totally new into discussions, markets and to the development – without having an order to do so *). The valuebase  win*win(+win) guarantees that WinHoc is ethical. Win*win aims to multiple wins and profits between partners and (+) challenges to create winning effects there where those effects are needed. Win*win(+win) can turn every action, plan and communication into a world bettering project, if you just conceive the philosophy in a right way and turn it into an every day practice.

“Win*win(+win) can turn every action, plan and communication into a world bettering project.”

To wrap this post up: The Bohos act WinHoc. WinHoc is a strategic/tactical way of action based on:

1. Powerful initiative
2. Dynamic creation of opportunities and situations where the potential to win is ample
3. Winning the situations with the values and principles of win*win(+win)

WinHoc is more than being proactive. WinHoc is about dynamic creation and co-creation. Bohos acting WinHoc constantly ask: “what do we want to create?” and “what is next?”.

Competition Is A Happy Place

Many think competition is a bad and an exhausting place. This should not be true. Competition is not bad nor good. It is what you make it. Competition should be a place to come together and measure skills in order to find ideas for learning and improvement. Competition is  a way to find the right people to the right places and to create winning results. Authentic winning results emanate good. Competition comprehended in a right way does not exhaust but invests on greatness, character and challenge. Exhaustion is born from the constant constraint of peak performance. In a winning BohoCompany it is accepted that  a peak performance is not always needed but for the most of the times a winning performance where you align the energy with task at hand is sufficient.

What could prevent WinHoc from succeeding? A wrong attitude. It is impossible to act WinHoc if you do not accept that creative capacities, skills, sharp opinions, powerful insights go before status and strongholds. You need a lot of courage if you want to be a Boho and co-create with other Bohos who refuse to lie doggo in the comfybox of the status quo but are true to their highest values and authentic selves.

It takes a lot of  courage to act WinHoc but if you want to create a beautiful future, it is necessary.

To act WinHoc is to plant a rose where the other’s cannot see the opportunity for beauty and growth.

_________

(*)”Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.”  Albert Einstein

As we know from history there was a Holy Alliance between Russia, Austria and Prussia, created in 1815. In European international relations, the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, was signed in 1373 between the Kingdom of England and Portugal. This is the oldest international alliance in the world which is still in force. These holy alliances have made a difference in history, but even the most holy alliances tend to break down.

There are also other kinds of alliances: unholy alliances. These alliances are not so popular always. Often history writers forgot them. Unholy alliances are not so obvious organizations. Very often unholy alliances and “the usual suspects” or shadow organizations. Parties of these organizations are mixed and non-homogenous. These organizations and teams are occupied with rough personalities and typically with boho people with very special characters.

Many classical movies are based on the idea of an unholy alliance, where group of “aliens” and “monsters” make something “out of box”. As we movie fans know big jail breakouts are done by this kind of “dream teams”. Someone can call them “radical rebel alliances”. There is some wise and smart thinking behind these alien stories.

We know very well that each organization is different. Each organization must find its own way through the authentic process. Each will have a very specific goal. Each will have a different sense of social commitment. Each will have a different sub-culture. Each will have different barriers and different advantages. Shadow organizations are not bureaucratic organizations. The “shadow organization” is an informal organization, superimposed upon existing official organizations, consisting of active teams with names like steering committee, task force and action teams.

Today science is showing us that so called normal persons are not necessary the best people to question old truths. Today provocative thinking has become one of the most valuable assets. Radical thinkers are often presenting dangerous ideas and the holy alliances cannot do it easily because of group thinking problem and other socio-economic commitments. Shadow organization concept may help individual bohos to shock them into change by stepping out of their comfort zone.

If you are a part of a system, it is difficult to join the radical rebel alliance. For bohos joining the radical rebel “army” is more obvious solution than for senators of the parliaments or Fortune 500 leaders. Consensus builders have other targets than innovation leaders. Typically the real bohos are freedom fighters – but not pets of the consensus democracy. They are participants in a rebellion.

Even holy alliances need unholy alliances. Often a holy alliance is actually based on an unholy alliance. This is a paradox of our times. We can claim that when many development processes are accelerating, the need for unholy alliances is growing exponentially, and it is growing also fast.

First, there is a growing need for questioning many processes, which are too fast. Secondly, there is also growing need to apply new technological, social and business possibilities too. There is an endless frontier for development ahead, where unholy alliances can play a big role.

Sources
Alliance
1. Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance
Holy Alliance
2. Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Alliance
The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance
3. Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Portuguese_Alliance
Shadow organization
4. Denhard, Robert B. (1989) In the Shadow of Organization.
Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.
Web: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DTI/is_1_28/ai_58447664/
Rebel
5. Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel
Consensus
6. Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus_decision-making
Consensus democracy
7. We: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus_democracy
Dangerous ideas
8. Rehn, Alf (2011) Dangerous Ideas. Asia: Marshall Cavendish
International Pte Ltd.

Co-creation is one key concept of today´s management sciences. Interactive value-creation is one element of co-creation. How to make co-creation process work? This strategic question is in many smart minds of management gurus.

The power of co-creation will be a big challenge for 21st century organizations. Famous scholars Venkat Ramaswamy and Francis Gouillart (Free Press, 2010) are talking in their book, “The Power of Co-Creation” about the co-creation (CC) principle. This principle means: “engaging people to create valuable experiences together while enhancing network economics”. According to the authors, co-creation principle has four components: (1) Experience mindset, (2) context of interactions, (3) engagement platforms and (4) network relationships. All these components are critical for the winning teams.

For example, Apple embraced co-creation principle to enhance the speed and scope of its innovation, generating over 1 $ billion for its Apple-Store partner developers in two years. Also Starbucks has launched its MyStarbucksIdea.com to create and tap into new ideas from customers. Many other successful corporations (like Nike and Unilever) have adopted the co-creation principle. We can say that the co-creation principle is already working and bringing good results. We can expect that many other organizations can get nice results with the adoption of the CC principle.

Ongoing ubiquitous technology revolution includes different kind of innovations, not only technical innovations. We will need new technical innovations, new business innovations and social innovations to “survive” ubiquitous revolution. Also the relative importance of systemic innovations is growing because of the ubiquitous revolution. Autonomous innovations are not easily developed in the ubiquitous technology environments. New innovations are built in multidisciplinary teams.

But can the CC principle work even better with the bohos? Yes it can. Co-creation means the adoption of Quartet Helix Principles, which is more challenging than Triple Helix Principle. The traditional Triple model with industries, the government and the academia is not enough for a successful innovation system. We must add consumers and users to the innovation game. Well educated and informed consumers are ready to take advantage of choice.

Mass consumption society is over, at least in post-industrialized societies. We must pay more attention to both supply and demand side of the business networks, we must take also very critical and smart lead consumers into attention. Can we do it without boho energy and knowledge? The answer is “no”.

Modern organizations need discovery-driven planning and pilot experiments. The rigid supply chain management is not enough. We must understand complex interactions of stakeholders. With the little help of ambitious boho teams we can understand d many things in a better way. How this will happen?

Moves towards the Quartet Helix Model are like baby´s walk to innovation success.

The steps are small but strategically important ones. There must be incremental goals, but also visionary goals. We must be able to set incremental goals which embower hot boho teams to make a difference. Starting small and manageably is a key issue in the co-creation processes. We must be able to specify clearly what the user and service professionals expect to do. One motivational challenge is to keep joint records achievement and performance success.

A big mistake is to give just one option for the boho teams. It is better to present many options through which they can achieve the goals and visions. The one road model does not work in the boho team management. It is also important to frame the strategy in an aspirational way to excite ambition inside a boho teams. Wise managers also understand that also bohos need role models and peer-to-peer support to build personal confidence. Information, incentives and resources are needed to make remarkable changes. Anybody understands this basic fact. We cannot expect top level results in the Mental Olympic Games without these resources. The next Prada collection is not created without information, incentives and resources. Aspirational brands are based on these kinds of special resources.

Building inner special resources inside the boho team is key issue for the management of boho teams. Boho teams needs “safe places” for co-creation processes. As we noted above, experience mindset, context of interactions, engagement platforms and network relationships are the four critical elements. All the elements are connected to the “safe places” thinking. Any place for co-creation does not work, because mental images are a critical element of co-creation process. Confidence with personal mental images plays a very important role in creative interaction and co-creation. Craze, mania, rage are words that are often used in the context of new idea creation. We cannot expect these words to be realized in dull and non inspirational environments.

We must be very critical concerning “safe places” where we will work. For very successful boho teams this issue is a critical pre-condition for innovation success.

Index

Co-creation
1 Ramaswamy, Venkat and Gouillart, Francis J. (2010) The Power of Co-Creation: Build It with Them to Boost Growth, Productivity, and Profits. Simon and Schuster.
2 Ramaswamy, V. (2009) Leading the transformation to co-creation of value. Strategy and Leadership. Vol. 37 No. 2, 32-37.
Apple Store
3 Web: http://store.apple.com/us
Strarbucks
4 Web: http://www.starbucks.com/
5 Web: http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/
Nike
6 Web: Webhttp://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nike/en_US/
Unilever
7 Web: http://www.unilever.com/
Triple Helix Model
8 Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triple_Helix
9 Etzkowitz, H., Leydesdorff, L. (eds.) (1997). Universities in the Global Economy: A Triple Helix of University-Industry-Government Relations. Cassell Academic, London.
Quartet Helix Model
10 Kaivo-oja, Jari (2011) Futures of Innovation Systems and Systematic Innovation Systems: Towards Better Innovation Quality with New Innovation Management Tools. E-book 9/2011. Turku: Finland Futures Research Centre.
Ubiquitous technology
11 Weiser, Mark (1991) . The computer for the 21st century. Scientific American, 265(3): 94—104
Web: http://sandbox.xerox.com/ubicomp/
12 Greenfield, Adam (2006) Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.
13 Jurvansuu, Marko (2010) Roadmap to Ubiquitous World. Where the Difference between Real and Virtual is Blurred. VTT Research Notes 2574. VTT: Helsinki.
14 Web: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=fi&rlz=1T4SKPB_fiFI292FI293&q=cache:ZhdFaR2KOXAJ:http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/tiedotteet/2011/T2574.pdf+Jurvansuu+ubi&ct=clnk
Prada
Web: http://www.prada.com/
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prada
Aspirational brands
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirational_brand

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

Boho people are able to live with paradoxes and ambiguities. The rational one variable model is not a key issue for the bohos. Without bohos, it is not possible to lead an organization towards excellence because excellence requires the ability to live with paradoxes and ambiguities. Bohos can live easily with ad hoc groups, playfulness, temporary structures, hubs, unusual weak signals, technology of foolishness, shadow organizations, skunk works, cabals, wild cards and unjustified variations.
We know that trend creators and trend setters are not the most conventional people. Often they are bohemians (bohos), or geeks or even freaks. They are extremely innovative and inventive. They are not prisoners of the past. They are children of the future. They invent the future. That is why Richard Florida and other city researchers have invented “tolerance index” because they have found that bohos are needed for innovations, development and economic growth. The bohos create the bohemian city.

These groups of people are not big groups, but they are small special groups in our society. Trend creators are not homogenous group, they are very special personalities. The anatomy of emerging trends is based on trend creators and trend setters. There are both micro and macro trends. Some people create new ideas and inventions and trendsetters want to adopt these ideas and inventions.

These two special groups are at the very top of the trend model. Very often these groups are having many bohemian people – people who do things in a different way – going “out of box”. “Out of the box” is an expression that describes nonconformal, creative thinking. These people are responsible for creating or doing something special that can offset the trend.

Trend creators and trendsetters must have the potential skill that is the basis for both emotional and social intelligence. The mind involves a flow of energy and information. Some people talk about the innovation flow. Innovation flow is a psychological issue, the foundation of all innovations. It is a very interesting psychological issue, because it is a fundamental source of new ideas and inventions. Energy is the capacity to carry out an action. Energy is moving out limbs or it is an embowering though. Ability “to do stuff” is a key issue for changes in our society. Energy, information and innovation are inter-related issues in an innovation flow process.

There are many forms of human energy. We can feel radiant energy when we sit in the sun. We can use kinetic energy when we walk on the sunny beach or go for a swim. We can utilize neural energy when we think or when we talk or listen, or when we read. By definition information is anything that symbolizes something other than itself. Energy and information are complementary things in a dynamic innovation process. Without energy and information it is not possible to develop new ideas and introduce new inventions. Energy and information go hand in hand in the movement of our mind and mindsets. Our minds regulate innovation flow as well as energy and information flows. We can feel the reality of these two forms of mental experience.

We can feel energy levels and rich information flow. These two critical elements, energy and information are always present in an innovation process. We can even claim that energy and information flows create innovation flow. Because they change across time, we can sense their movement from one movement to the next movement in a dynamic, fluid and moving process. The mind´s regulation creates new pattern of energy and information flow.

Thus, we are not just observing these moving processes. We are both monitoring and modifying. The mind is real. Also our mindsights are real. The mind is a regulatory process. The mindset is creating many regulatory processes. Without strong mindsight, life becomes deadened.

It is possible to create a culture where mindsight is absent. In this kind of society we can become stuck in the physical domain, blind to the internal reality at the heart of our lives. In this kind of society no new ideas and inventions are created. Blind minds cannot lead the change. A blind mind cannot lead other blind minds. We must have bright minds and mindsets. Bright minds with energy and information flows are the foundation of innovations and innovation dynamics.

Thus, big challenge of innovation management will be deeper understanding of innovation dynamics of contemporary network organizations, fast companies and mega corporations. Understanding innovation flow, bohos, boho team dynamics and the origins of trends will be long and fascinating intellectual journey for us.

Sources
Innovation Flow
1 Web: http://innovationflow.blogspot.com/
Swing
2 Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_music
F. Scott Fitzgerald
3 Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Scott_Fitzgerald
Paradox
4 Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox
Ambiquity
5 Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambiguity
Ad hoc
6 Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hoc
Weak signal
7 Mendonça, S., Cunha, M.P., Kaivo-oja, J. & Ruff, F. (2004) Wild Cards, Weak Signals and Organisational Improvisation. Futures. The Journal of Forecasting, Planning and Policy, Vol. 36, Issue 2, pp. 201-218.
Hub
8 Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hub
Out of box
9 Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking_outside_the_box
Mindsight
10 Siegel, D.J. (2010) Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation. New York: Random House.
Dan Siegel
11 Web: http://drdansiegel.com/
Trend
12 Vejlgaard, H. (2008) Anatomy of a Trend. New York: McGraw-Hill.

• People are retiring but continuing to work.
• Teens are turning to knitting.
• Geeks are becoming the most sociable people around.
• Women are driving technology.
• Dads are order than ever and spending more time with their kids than in the past.

These micro trends are interesting and there are many other micro trends too. They indicate that society is changing and new behavioral models are going to be more popular. We can identify many new micro trends in the field of love, sex and relationships. Work life is also an interesting field of new micro trends as well as race and religion.
Some people also create new micro trends in the very special fields of health and wellness, family life, politics, teen culture, food and diet, lifestyle, money and class, looks and fashion, technology, leisure and entertainment, education, international relations and so on.
Micro trend research and trend spotting analyses are revealing a new frontier of societal development: The colorful boho culture with creative lifestyle solutions. Mark J. Penn, the man who first identified “Soccer Moms” as a crucial constituency in President Clinton´s 1996 reelection campaign, identified in his book “Microtrends – The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow´s Big Changes” about 70 new micro trends. There are relatively small patterns of behavior in our culture – which can wield influence on a global scale.
Thus, there are many new micro trends emerging indicating one big thing. People tend to have more bohemian lifestyles in many arenas of the society. Many people are thinking “in a different way” creating micro trends. Bohemian lifestyle is not any more for artists and scientists. Bohemian ways of thinking is now “normal” also in many other segments of life. There is not anymore the “big society” with strong macro trends although some tend still to believe so, for example in the United Kingdom, where Conservative Party had a Big Society Plan as the flagship policy idea. There is a colorful society of small micro trends. This is actually a new fresh issue in social and cultural research fields.
What can we say about the impact of new emerging micro trends? We can say say that we are more and more living with very personal boho kings and queens. They create often new ideas of life and then many others will follow them. They are also trend creators.
First trend is micro-level trend and soon it can be macro level trend. Because of Internet and digital revolution these micro trends have a huge potential to be also macro trends.

1 Mark J. Penn
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Penn
2 Microtrends
Web: http://www.microtrending.com/
Penn, Mark J. & Zalesne, E. Kinney (2010) Microtrends – The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow´s Big Changes.
3. World macro trends
Web: http://emergent-culture.com/world-macro-trends-report-for-early-august-2011-and-the-5th-alarm-approaches/
4. U.K. Conservative Party Big Society Plan 2010
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Society

Attitudes, values and actions are together creating a certain kind of lifestyle. An attitude is a hypothetical construct that represents an individual’s degree of like or dislike for something. As we know an attitude matters. Lifestyle is a way of life or style of living that reflects the attitudes and values of a person or group. Bohemians have their own bohemian lifestyle. Bohemian lifestyle is a term to describe the way a bohemian lives.

While many things change, most things remain constant. Everything is not changing. For example, there have been bohemians in societies a very long time in history. Only their attitudes, values and actions have been changing.
We can say that a person is Bohemian or lives a Bohemian life, if s/he lives her/her own way, without following the conventional rules of behavior accepted as normal by the society. Typically writers, artists, poets, musicians and philosophers could commonly be found leading bohemian lifestyles in 19th century Paris, France. In Paris, drugs, alcohol and a freer attitude towards sexual expression were considered special part of the subculture and lifestyle.

Conventional way to understand bohemian lifestyle and culture is expects that bohemians are mostly artists including painters, poets, musicians, etc. who live that kind of unconventional life. There are bohemians in many occupations.
Classical examples of bohemians are Lord George Gordon Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, the famous British poets, who were Bohemians, because they did not live the way most other people of their time did. For example, Lord Byron was said to be “mad, bad and dangerous to know” as Lady Caroline Lamb described him. Poet Shelley was famous about his “uncompromising idealism”.

Idealism as a philosophical school offers an explanation of reality or human experience in which ideas or spiritual, non-materialistic elements are central and important. From this perspective we can outline that historical contexts define who are living like a bohemian lives. Bohemians in history had different attitudes and values than today´s bohemians. We can note that idealism is always based on ideas. New ideas are the foundation of bohemian thinking. In the field of arts, similarly, idealism affirms imagination and seeks to portray a mental conception of beauty, a standard of perfection, in distinction from naturalism and realism. Many bohemian artists share this kind of thinking.

Typically we can expect that who is a Bohemian just do not care what others think of their way of life. They like to be free individuals, ultra type individuals. Extreme attitudes and extreme actions are typical for bohemians. One definition of a bohemian is that a bohemian person is one who lives an artistic lifestyle, placing freedom of self-expression above all other desires, including wealth, social conformity and status.

All the bohemians are not going to be successful in their actions, although they may have a very bohemian attitude. Thus, talent level does not necessarily correlate with the level of bohemian lifestyle and associated habits. Some people end up just leading Bohemian lives without becoming great “some ones” (like great innovators or admired artists).

…all the bohemians are not winners, reaching grand victories.
Winner is one that is successful especially through praiseworthy ability and hard work.

A win is a victory. It is good to know that all the bohemians are not winners, reaching grand victories. Winner is one that is successful especially through praiseworthy ability and hard work. Bohemians are often having many abilities but they are not always hard workers. Usually society and power elite does not tolerate Bohemian attitudes, but when the person who is Bohemian is really top talented, it gives them the regard due to them.

Sources

1 Attitude
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_(psychology)
2 Value
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_(personal_and_cultural)
3 Social action
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_actions
4 Lifestyle
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle_(sociology)
5 Bohemian
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian
6 Bohemianism
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemianism
7 Bohemian lifestyle
Web: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-bohemian.htm
8 Lord George Gordon Byron
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron
9 Percy Bysshe Shelley
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley
10 Idealism.
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idealism