Ideas, Words, and Action

Last night, I went to a rather formal event held by my former university. Among other, Germany's former President, Horst Köhler, spoke about the importance of our university, and more broadly about our current times and leadership requirements. The speeches were great, the musical accompaniment by a small group from the Berlin Philharmonics was lovely, and the bubbly afterwards in good company was enjoyable. In other words, I had a "serious" but very nice night out.

Afterwards, and also while I was listening to the speeches, I thought about leadership. Not necessary leading others, but leading with new ideas and new solutions. I thought about many discussions I have had with intelligent, energetic people - who are not able to implement their thoughts in practice. What a loss to society not to be able to have some of these potential programs or projects put into operation. And a step backwards: not even to know about these thoughts or ideas.

We are so often taught to think, be analytical, and come up with great ideas. But are we ever taught to implement these, or even make these public?

These thoughts were triggered by a quote that former President Köhler read out, by Alfred Herrhausen, who was head of the Deutsche Bank a long time back, and later became an important philanthropist (there is still a prestigious German foundation carrying his name):

„Wir müssen das, was wir denken, auch sagen. Wir müssen das, was wir sagen, auch tun. Und wir müssen das, was wir tun, dann auch sein.“
Alfred Herrhausen (1930-89), dt. Bankier, Vorstandsspr. Dt. Bank 


Freely translated: "We must say what we think. We do what we say. And we must be what we do."

I hope that one day, I will be able to say that I not only thought and analyzed, but also spoke out (publicly) - and, last but not least, put these thoughts and words into practice.