Auf dem Weg: Erfahrungen mit Digital Leadership

Brigitta Wurnig arrived at the Book Sprint venue near Hamburg full of high expectations and excited for what was about to start. She had organized the Book Sprint with a group of fellow business coaches and managers of large German corporations to think about Digital Leadership. The first day full of discussions about the book’s topic, scope, and possible structure went really well. Then things started getting tough. The resulting book received the title Auf dem Weg: Erfahrungen mit Digital Leadership.

We started totally enthusiastic, and then we went through our little crisis on the second day.

The first evening and all of the second day, the eight participants wrote most of the chapters, and started revising other chapters. The group sat together to discuss what restructuring, re-writing and re-formulating needed to be done, which redundancies eliminated and what gaps to be filled. By the end of day two, it seemed almost impossible to the group to pull through and get the book they wanted at the end. This is how Brigitta tells the story:

Time was of the essence in what was just a 3-day Book Sprint, or essentially a 2,5-day Book Sprint cut short by many participants leaving in the afternoon of the last day. And there was still so much to do! Some of them were almost ready to give up, but everyone managed to maintain their good humor and high spirits. As the facilitator, I tried to pass on my confidence stemming from all former Book Sprints, knowing that there is always this point somewhere in the middle when the task suddenly seems impossible. And yet every time we work through the anxiety and come out at the other end with – surprise, surprise, is a great book!

The whole team and I are fascinated with the method.

In a 2,5-day Book Sprint, the middle of the process is terribly close to the end of it. Luckily this time as all the other times before, the method worked its magic. The participants didn’t give up but decided to trust me one more time, put in their best effort and finished a beautiful book they are proud of. Trust the process!

On Saturday night we finished the Book Sprint near Hamburg, Germany. This week Auf dem Weg: Erfahrungen mit Digital Leadership will be released as paperback and ebook.