Although I haven’t worked as a journalist for a while, there will be always a strong journalist heart pumping in my body. I love to learn, understand topics, grasp the essence and to find out what makes people tick.

In the early days as a journalist I prepared many questions for my interviews. I believed in the power of smart questions. But I wasn’t experienced — or agile — enough to change my interviewing plan. While listening to my interviewing partner with half an ear, I was already rehearsing the next question. I am sure I missed many nuances and interesting things to dive into. When I got older, I decided to only have a list with some key topics to discuss. I still took detailed notes and was in total control of the interview. After all, it feels good having some power in such a situation, doesn’ it? I was busy listening and processing the answers at the same time.

There are times for fast thinking and rapid decisions. And there are also times for slow thinking, for letting things develop over time, like good wine, vinegar or cheese. People who are fast talkers and fast thinkers do not see any value in digging deeper. Slow is the new black (or orange?) Let’s explore the “Slow Thinking Manifesto“, which I recently signed.

Sometimes slow thinking needs another space, maybe a chat with a friend about something else or a long walk at the beach (my favourite way to come up with some creative ideas). I like to walk and talk, to dictate text into my smartphone. My walking speed is in direct correlation to my thoughts: The slower I walk, the deeper my thoughts.

A few years ago, I helped an executive in pitching his product to his clients at a conference. Together, we examined his clients’ situation, problems and needs, and weaved a compelling story line leading to a strong call-to-action. There was only one tiny problem: The software wasn’t released yet. But the executive really wanted to show a demo of the solution to get feedback and maybe a buy-in. So, we had a meeting with the product manager…

One reason for becoming a Scrum Master was the absence of a project manager in the Scrum framework. See, I grew up in a cold waterfall world, and I worked with a lot of project managers (and occasionally, I was also in the role as a pm). Many project managers acted as scribes, protocol writers, gant-chart sketchers, and fierce budget watchers. Their entire focus was on following the BIG plan. We all know that planning is essential, but plans are often useless — so what about the project manager?

Almost 30 years ago, I worked as an editor for a German computer magazine called “PC Praxis“. With a monthly circulation of about 200,000 copies, it was the top-selling magazine. In these days, you could be a know-it-all, we were exploring and writing technological history in real-time: I disassembled huge desktop computers and tested graphic cards, hard disk drives and modems; installed, tested and reviewed software (on DOS 3.1) and games, wrote how-to-articles and experimented with the Usenet.

Wait a second: How can a Scrum Master not like sprinting? Well, I like the concept, but not the word: In Scrum, a sprint is an event and container for all other scrum events such as the sprint planning, daily scrums, the sprint review and the sprint retrospective. Depending on the stage of the project and risks involved, a sprint could last up to one month. So, what is wrong with that?

Take the future of a city full of autonomous cars (a technologist’s dream come true): The natural “enemies” of these smart vehicles will be cyclists and pedestrians as they are unpredictable human risks who will suddenly rule the streets (neatly programmed, autonomous cars will stop and obey when pedestrians stand in the middle of the road).

In consequence, and to keep traffic flowing, a “smart system” needs to take care of all subjects disturbing that flow. So, basically, cyclists and pedestrians not behaving well get identified by ubiquitous smart cameras with face recognition and be fined. So, while the system might be “smart” and state of the art, somehow cool, the consequence for society could be less appealing. Do we want this?

It is easy to “start with why”: You sit down, walk, brainstorm or meditate, and eventually you will come up with a lofty “why statement”, which will be your favourite mantra for the next few days. But what will you do with it?

Many people then skip or only lightly touch the “what” because it is much more fun to explore the “how”: it is all about learning and acquiring knowledge, skills needed for future success; networking, talking, fiddling with technologies and figuring out perfect workflows for quite unlikely scenarios.