Splendid Swiss Isolation – Day32

Splendid Swiss Isolation – Day32

0700 ?Cause you’re a sky…“  Orange, Coffee, dress, teeth, shower, not in this order.

0800 Another day out of the routine. We have decided to conduct our first digital management offsite in our team. Subject: HR portfolio, ie. future perspectives for our line managers and the identified talents. Our people are… ok, you have heard this before, but I am serious. Especially in a market with less than 3% unemployment, especially in an industry like ours. And most especially in such times where certainty and future perspective grow more and more important.

0900 Offsite starts, skype works, hello everybody. Excellent mood, partly fostered by a little surprise our HR team had sent to our homes ahead of the meeting. On easter Friday, we had received a little box containing orange juice, lemonade, chips and beer for the different breakfast/breaks/closing moments during the offsite. So, for a start, we have our coffee (homebrewn) and the orange juice to warm up. Target: 2+3. What? Well, discuss over 40 individuals, define minimum two future potential positions for them and fill every current key position with at least three candidates, validated by the management team. This is a top-down approach, yes, but the perfect basis to have a follow-up process with everybody, verifying each individuals interest, gaps to cover in terms of qualification, time-in-job etc. The overall result is a fully transparent, fully organized potential succession plan. You know the saying “How do you make God laugh? Well, tell him you have a plan…”. Might be true for Him, but we do believe in preparation. Along the road, some improvisation, change, modification etc. will be necessary, absolutely right. But at least you start with a concept, that is far better than having the discussion “X or y decided to leave” or “Z or W really want to change position” and start only then to think about it. Seems fundamental, is it probably as well. That’s why we do it.

1230 It is going great. We’re behing schedule, but that was predictable. When you talk about people and individual careers, time should not be the limiting factor. And sometimes we do not reach agreement, sometimes there’s more to say, sometimes we need discussion to find the right assessment. And sometimes, just when you closed a case, a new idea emerges and you have to go back to square one. A healthy and productive progress, very well prepared. Thank you HR team.

1245 And thanks as well for having planned a lunch break for everybody. The family is outside, already and again. For five weeks now we have this wonderful weather, I am grateful. Pasta, fresh tomato-basilic sauce, parmigiano. Simple but delicious. Good talks, the kids are happy with their school program, routine kicks in again. Afternoon program: gardening, cooking, relaxing

1330 We continue, on the same train as in the morning. We will not be able to finish today, but that doesn’t matter. The discussion is of high quality. Chips and beer will be kept for the second offsite, it is too early and we fear the alcohol might taint the results… Thank you HR team again, great job and looking forward to the second half, we’ll have a nice portfolio vision once the process finalized.

1600 First discussion about our “restart” program in retail. What measures, what budgets, what stock etc. The energy is there, we are really eager now to be able to sell again. The Bundesrat will have a press conference tomorrow, we all hope that automotive retail will be among the branches allowed to reopen soon. Of course under strict hygenic conditions, but our showrooms are large enough for social distancing, our processes clear. We want to be ready and we will be.

1730 Pan-european exchange with some of my colleagues. Same thoughts and hopes and programs everywhere, but a lot of bits and bites that are sufficiently different per country to alter our programs here and there, some great ideas we did not have or discuss. And all there underlying the vibrant energy we all feel. It might start again, soon. We so need momentum.

1830 I am very late on my bike. Going into the first ascent, I have another fellow just in front of me. I am able to catch him, I tell myself. I feel good. I don’t really close the gap. This guy is good. Mist. The gap rather increases, I don’t understand, visibly the other one carries minimum 20kg more than myself on his bike. I try. I try harder. The gap remains and this guy has not even yet seen me. Is it really necessary to play alpha here, to want to beat somebody? Let’s not get overly philosophical here, this is about my own performance, this is about my fitness. How is it possible that for five weeks now I train every day and a random guy out of nowhere, unfit as hell, beats me on my home track?? Fu.. the gap even increases, the psycho effect of frustration kicks in. The legs grow heavy. Respiration accelerates. Fuuuu…. Ok. I won’t catch him. On top of the hill, in 3m distance of course, we meet. “Well done, he says”. “Assh…” I am tempted to think but his smile gets the better. We start to talk a little, I tell him my desperation, he laughs. “I saw you and I so wanted you not to catch me. I have beaten my personal record, but I am totally exhausted. I do this for several years now and for months I was not as motivated. Thanks you for pushing me”. Well ok. I lost, but somehow I have the impression of having won more. Good feeling.

2015 Dinner and TV. Thai-bowl with shrimps, mango and avocado and grilled veggies. That is the good part. “Germany is looking for the next top model” with Heidi Klum is the not-so-good part. Why our teenagers, regularly raised and well-educated and intelligent young human beings have chosen this superficial reality-trash as their favorite, I can’t explain. But it’s their Thursday choice and we go along. I would so love to at least mute it, but well. My eldest daughter is on three different screens at least, multitasking between eating, watching, chatting with her friends about the show. My son is rather interested in the chicks on screen than the actual selection of how you best walk in shoes that need a weapon license and dresses I would never call one, but well. Our youngest takes it on a light level and comments here or there a particularly stupid scene. And my wife and I go along, learning about modern entertainment, but well.

2300 Juvenile Trash is over. My wife and I chose the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy, season 16. Now that is a real difference to Heidi… Really? Well, trash exists on different level, it depends on your perspective what you get from it. Good night.