Who Wants to be a Chocolate Ambassador?

Marabou Premium chocolate is working with the Rainforest Alliance in order to make their products more sustainable. Right now they are using around 30% Rainforest Alliance chocolate in their products, but the ambition is 100%.

Right now they are promoting the opportunity to become one of their ambassadors, using social media such as a special Facebook campaign site.

Interested???

Managing the Family

During our latest family get-together, I introduced Njutningsfrämjandet’s game Gusto. In this game, you compete by answering chocolate-related questions while tasting various qualities of chocolate. It was quite tricky to sense the various flavours and taste the differences in quality. But also very fun!

I sent an email to the company, asking if it was possible for them to develop a version with only Fairtrade and eco-chocolate. They were positive to the idea and would consider it during the next product development phase.

I can recommend playing the game not only with friends and family, but also as a way to bond among team members at work!

Chocolate to inspire great thoughts

Lena gave me a challange - Which chocolate shall we use at our workshop with Trampolinstory? A workshop combining Appreciative Inquiry with Alexander Osterwalder´s Business Model Generation.
I quickly realized that this workshop requires more than one type op chocolate. Since we will start the workshop at 3 pm, it requires some energy to get us on top from the beginning - let´s start with Ecuales choclate dipped coffebeans from Sackeus. That will make us fit to explore the positive core and strenghts at Trampolinstory.
Before continue to formulate vision and develope the business model we need something sweet (that reminds us of our success stories) and something challenging (for the future). The perfect choice must be Anthon Berg Fairtrade Chili and Honey.
In the end we will probably be a bit exhausted but enthusiastic and we want to preserve our enthusiasm and our brilliant ideas for the future. What could possibly be better than using a well known perservation technique - salt. Therefore let´s finish with Anthon Berg Fairtrade Sea Salt!

Chocolate as Voice Control

How do you make a two hour presentation of a three year long project that has engaged more than a dozen co-workers without people dying from information assault? Well, that was the challenge I was facing a couple of weeks ago when our management team asked for an update. I thought hard about how to make everyone’s project efforts justice but also on how to achieve learning and change among the management team.

I decided that the best way to go was to minimize the presentation part and instead go for a strength-based development workshop using my background in Appreciative Inquiry. As part of the Discover phase I made the managers express their present knowledge of the project and their desires to learn more by selecting cards with pictures (Thank you Anne Radford for introducing me to this lovely technique!). I also talked about my own background to provide them with insights into my perspective of the world, using models developed and applied in the project. Of course, I also made a rapid expose of the project where I tried to mix various levels: fundamental ideas, cases and tools. During this part of the presentation, I made it clear that questions and discussions had to wait. I urged them to help themselves to the chocolate I had brought (Anthon Berg Fairtrade Sea Salt and Rasperry&Blackberry) whenever they felt like talking.

Next step was doing interviews where they had to ask and answer questions about what they wanted to do in the future related to the project (Dream), what “components” needed to be in place for that to happen (Design) and what kinds of measures they could take immediately (Destiny). After intense dialogues energized by the chocolate intake, they reported back to the group and also analyzed the results. As a finale, I asked them to select a book from the project library. Alexander Osterwalder’s “Business Model Innovation” was the most popular one.

Have you similar experiences to share? Please tell!!!

Business remodelling

Is life a circular or linear process? Some say attitude to life differs between cultures and that western culture always has been linear. Maybe that is why this winter has hit us so hard, both in Europe and in the states. We have been expecting a linear change from cold to warm winters believing the cold ones never will come back.

I don´t think life is a circular process. I think it is more like spiral drifting in certain direction but with situation reoccurring. This development is both good and bad. Good as it gives you the possibility to use your experiences from last time but bad as you have to be very carefully to identify the gradual change. It is like with fashion, even if you keep a coat from the eighties in wardrobe you realize when the eighties is back in fashion in 2010 the coat is not really up to date anyway.

This is something I have learned about technology for energy efficiency as well. Much has been invented earlier, especially in the seventies, but it does not really fit today. It needs a lot of remodelling to fit in the new business environment. I am glad to have had the opportunity to participate in the HINT project. I think that we in this project really have taken sustainable business remodelling one step further.

Only nine (9) days left of the year and it is with surprising indifference I slide into 2011. According to reliable sources, in 2011 India will surpass China as the fastest growing economy, we will hit seven (7) billion ihabitants on earth and Putin will likely re-elect himself as Prime Minister of Russia.

With that said, what have we learnt from 2010? Well, a good bar of Fairtrade chocolate can go a long way in creating results in diverse and challenging projects like HINT. It can also bring people closer together. Thanks to several creative chocolate breaks, and empathic management, venturing into a new profession after the end of HINT will not be without at least one bar of 70% + Sea Salt Premium.....

People as Chocolate

Today we wrapped up a very long and successful project called HINT, focusing on sustainability, innovation and growth. It was during this project that the concept of Management By Chocolate was conceived. At the end of the closing ceremony, I held a speech directed to all the participants. I talked about each and everyone's qualities and invited them to continue the good work by contributing their experiences from applying the Management By Chocolate in new contexts.

As a symbol for each person's characteristics I gave him or her a chocolate bar. Anders received an Ecuale chocolate from Sackeus which is both Fairtrade and Krav, since he is so true to all sustainability aspects. Jenny got a Chili&Honey bar from Anthon Berg, since her sharp comments can sting sometimes although she is such a sweet person. Mats has a lot of energy and knows a lot about it too, why he was given a Green&Black Milk Chocolate with almonds (and not because he's nutty!). And so on.

I had much fun matching individuals and chocolates and it was also a great tool for reflection. Using chocolate as a symbol can be applied in many ways. Why not ask people in a group that meet regularly to bring a chocolate that matches their present mood, or that symbolise the state of the current project or... What do you suggest?