Dear Friends,
 
An eventful year is nearing its end and just 9 months after effectively launching our cultureQs Community of Change Agents and Facilitators, we feel pleased with the depth and breadth of interest generated by our approach.
 
International corporations in the retail, financial services and consulting sectors have commissioned us to work with their management teams. One of Germany's largest corporate foundations used us for a project team mobilisation and integration process for an exchange involving German and Chinese young professionals. We regularly run workshops in higher education institutions in Europe.
 
As our clients have discovered ... cultureQs really does accelerate change and integration processes …
… and all corporations and organisations need accelerators that positively impact results.
 
Currently, we are in the early stages of conversations with: a civic social environment improvement initiative in North America; an Australian city council to raise awareness of unconscious bias in order to promote a greater degree of equal opportunity; a large European agency that promotes new approaches for spreading the concept of sustainability and environmental cost awareness; a new programme to teach true Entrepreneurship skills in a network of European universities.

cultureQs Community

We are growing ... 
We are broadening our perspectives as our Community becomes even more diverse!
We are adding layers of experience!
11 community members, directly associated with 12 'countries', who work in 5 languages.
Welcome! ... Christian Rieckmann, Jeronimo Palacios, Tobias Meijll, Ursel Biester who joined us in November: http://cultureqs.com/people/community/.  
On 13 – 15 March 2015 in Berlin, we are holding our next cultureQs community Lab for new members who wish to use cultureQs with their clients and simultaneously, benefit from learning and collaboration within a highly diverse group of experienced colleagues.
Confirmed registrations include colleagues whose work focuses on Society Change, Whole System Change, Global Sales and Marketing Strategy.
And now ... we are looking forward to hearing from you! The invitation: http://cultureqs.com/content/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/cultureQs-Community-Lab-E4-Invitation.pdf.
 
In addition, we are researching the feasibility of a Community Lab in Canada in Spring 2015. If any readers in North America are potentially interested, please contact me or another member of the community.
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cultureQs at professional Conferences and Events
 
We've had an enjoyably busy autumn with a series of invitations to run workshops and give keynote addresses at events.
 

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Steve Holyer using cultureQs for the Keynote address at the annual South African SCRUM Conference in Cape Town.

cultureQs was part of the opening evening of the Berlin Change Days 2014. 120 people in the room connecting at a deep level quickly, and taking the conversations into the rest of the event. With thanks to Karen Schmidt for co-facilitating the session as well as the Team of Event Assistants for setting up the space so efficiently.

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The European Organisation for Organisation Design (EODF) organised a very interesting event in an Art Museum/Gallery in Amsterdam.

Following our session on the first day, I was requested to offer a 2nd session on the final day of the conference. The message on this piece of art forms the perfect backdrop to our vision ... a borderless world ...

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Since 2010, I've been a regular contributor and moderator at the annual Entrepreneurship Summit in Berlin, on themes ranging from Personal Development, Coaching and Team Development. This year, a brief "Impulse Session" in a diverse group including Start-up Entrepreneurs, experienced businesspeople, students, University Professors used cultureQs to focus on the importance integrated teams in entrepreneurial initiatives.

We followed the cultureQs dialogic experience with ... reflection ... and of course ... Questions!

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Francoise De Waele introducing a workshop at the Businet Congress in Zagreb last month.

Introducing a workshop focussing on the importance of an integrated approach in Social Entrepreneurship Initiatives at the Berlin ImpactHUB, part of the worldwide ImpactHUB network.

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We are pleased to have recently been given the opportunity to present cultureQs during a lunchtime meeting at the European Commission, facilitated by our Community members Karen Schmidt and Tobias Meijll.	Karen introducing our "Seven Core Layers of Culture" Model.
	Discovered in the European Commission buildings in Brussels.

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Partnering

None of us have all the answers that we need to constructively confront the challenges we face in our world.
However, when we partner with others doing high-quality work, we can be in a much stronger position to offer quality solutions to clients.
We are please to have recently added Aguia Labs, Gurteen Knowledge, Coemerge and BLU International Consulting to our Associates: http://cultureqs.com/associates/.
You'd like to join us? Wonderful! Looking forward to hearing from you.
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The German Federal Agency for Civic Education

The Agency (bpb - Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung) has added cultureQs to its Database of Games and Simulations to support Civic Education inititaives: http://www.bpb.de/lernen/unterrichten/planspiele/65586/planspiele-detailseite?planspiel_id=389 [This link and most of the website is in German only.]

You are searching for initiatives that enable true dialogue as a prerequisite for transformation in society?
Let's talk!
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Stories

I love stories - they are such a powerful way of relating our thoughts and experiences.
And one aspect that grounds cultureQs is that when people tell their stories, we learn to understand and accept them ... we cannot deny a person's expriences.
So, here are 3 recent stories from our sphere ...
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First Story
Last month, I turned down a huge contract opportunity. The reason: I refuse to work with armaments manufacturers: http://cultureqs.com/i-said-no-to-a-new-global-client-today-and-it-felt-good/
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Second Story

For a wall-collage of a co-working space, members are asked to complete the following questions: - From:  - My work:  - My expertise: - Contact: A response to the first question: "I consider the question "Where are you from?" as a trap." The network administrator responded that she only wanted a "short answer". Reflection for the administrator: A cultureQs trapQs Question ...

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Third Story
A perennial Question for all businesses is how to reach new potential clients.
The prize for innovate marketing goes to this cultureQs Community Member …
... Here's the text of a mail I received two weeks ago …
"A lady who is involved in your team travelled in the Thalys from Brussels to Paris yesterday.
She forgot her suitcase with all CultureQs material inside. I would be pleased to give it back if she calls me at number below (her shoes are not my size :) )."
We are all happy to say that the suitcase was successfully returned! There are lots of nice people in the world!
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Looking forward ...

As the current year draws to a close, I personally am looking forward to a month of relaxation, writing, and reflection in Thailand, where I spent many happy years before returning to Europe in 2012.
If any friends happen to be there at the same time (mid-december to mid-January), do contact me.

In addition to assigments with clients, I'm going to be facilitating my first event of 2015 in January at St Pölten near Vienna, where I've been invited to give an interactive presentation at the International Symposium for Cultural Education ... "Re-Framing and Re-Sensing: Towards A Borderless World": http://www.kulturvermittlung.net/de/symposium2015/programm. Of course, we are going to be using cultureQs to create meaningful dialogue with the anticipated 150 participants.
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Where we can add value to your organisation?
Please do feel free to contact us. We enjoy opening conversations on concrete worthwhile initiatives.

TEAMS
… Aligning your Management Teams
… Mobilising and Focusing your Project Teams
… Encouraging Innovation by cross-pollinating your experts
… Improving the effectiveness of your Functional Teams
… Ensuring alignment of your international business
 
DIVERSITY
… Benefitting from the inherent Diversity in your Organisation
… Promoting Gender Equality
 
CHANGE
… Engaging Stakeholders to ensure success of your Change Initiatives
… Post-Acquisition Alignment
… Mobilising your new teams following a Reorganisation
 
START-UPS
… Ensuring alignment of your business with your intentions
… Ensuring alignment of your team
 
EVENTS
Conferences
… Enabling real learning exchange by mobilising participants to interact with each other
… We'll start your event  … you'll notice the generative conversations that emerge
Corporate International Centre of Competence Meetings (e.g. HR, R&D, Sales, …) …
… Enabling real engagement among colleagues to ensure cross-fertilisation and achievement of group goals.
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cultureQs in multiple Languages

We currently have cultureQs available in English and German.
Work on the French version is progressing and we anticipate having this available by March 2015.
In addition, we have just started working on the Dutch version.
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As the year comes to an end, we'd like to express our gratitude to everyone who has worked to help establish cultureQs as a change/integration/learning/development/ approach during 2014.

Whatever you do or do not celebrate at this time of year, we wish you a peaceful transission into 2015 and look forward to further fruitful collaboration in the coming year.

Eric