What if a more beautiful world is not only possible, but more practical?
Hi there, I’m Georg.
I’m a Serial Social Entrepreneur, New Work Consultant and I try to be an Ambassador for a more beautiful world
All my working life has revolved around one question: What does it take to really, fundamentally, positively change the world?
It started with changing myself, becoming a mediator and trainer for Compassionate Communication when I was 19. Then, at 22, a friend and I started a social business called soulbottles which now employs over 80 people and has raised more than € 1 million in donations for clean water projects.
A few years later, when the organization was working well without me, I handed over all my roles (and shares) to the team and started the next thing: Creating methods and frameworks that support other organizations on their journey towards purpose-driven, self-organized workplaces. Places where humans connect on a heart-to-heart level – and really, fundamentally, positively change the world together.
My Work
soulbottles
On a beautiful autumn day 9 years ago, my good friend Paul and I started the social business soulbottles. In the following years soulbottles has prevented the use millions of plastic water bottles (121 million to be exact) and raised more than € 1M for clean water projects in Nepal.
Seeing an idea move from the inside of my head out into the world and then have it become successful was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. Never before had I felt such intense creative passion, frustration, disappointment, excitement and joy. Often all within a day.
Our path of working together based on the Rosenberg-Approach and Holacracy was especially fruitful. I learned how fulfilling it can be to create an actual community at work, and that you can be a leader without having to become a boss. I also learned about all the pitfalls that the books about New Work don’t tell you about, and some ways of overcoming them.
I’m not involved in the operations of soulbottles any more but from time to time I am consulted when it comes to developing its organizational culture.
dwarfs and Giants
How do you help organizations change? Well, you build an organization. 😇
dwarfs and Giants (dG) is a New Work consulting firm and organizational lab, based in Vienna. I joined as a core partner in 2018 in order to get better at supporting larger organizations in their transformation towards new ways of working, especially organizations that have a very different culture from the one that I was used to at soulbottles.
dG runs on Holacracy and Clear the air. My roles relate mostly around codifying our insights and bringing them into the world in the form of writing, speaking and online courses.
Clear the Air
At soulbottles we experimented a lot with what it takes to create – and maintain – real heart-to-heart connection in a stressful startup environment. We built a lot on our experience with the Rosenberg-Approach but quickly realized that it needs more than trainings for individuals. These experimentations and the concrete formats they birthed, built the basis for the Clear the Air Approach. This approach has been tested and refined in countless other organizations, from einhorn condoms to large multinational corporations, and is now ready to be scaled into many more contexts.
soulOS
Holacracy is great – and it misses a few things. It’s too arcane and complicated and it misses the human aspects of work. For the human aspects we now have the Clear the Air Approach. soulOS takes care of the rest.
soulOS stands for “soulful Organizations System” and aims to be a plug and play version for self-organization, based on a simpler ruleset and better didactic methods.
Pro Bono Work
I have been engaged in social movement organizations from newly founded political parties to Extinction rebellion and have experienced the beauties and dysfunctions of those kinds of organizations first hand. If you are part of an organization that aims to prevent the climate catastrophe (and think my perspective could be helpful), please reach out and let’s figure out if and how I can support you.
Get Realistic Inspiration
After a few hectic years of supporting clients hands-on in their transformation journeys I’m now mainly focusing on sharing our insights more broadly – via writing, speaking and creating online courses.
Some Topics I’ve Spoken About
Entrepreneurship
How to build a purpose-driven organization from scratch – successes, failures and lessons learned
Purpose
How to avoid purpose-washing and create deep transformational energy in your organization
Clear the Air
The Human Side of Work – how to create a constructive conflict culture in any organization
Self-Organization
The do’s and don’ts of implementing self-organization approaches like Holacracy
Creating Revolutions that don’t eat their children
The adaptive society: How to change yourself, your organization and society for the better
Leadership in the 21st century
next:leadership – How to cultivate leadership in an organization without bosses
