Partnership with MOT

An important part of the MOT concept is partnership – with schools
and national managements who like working in the balance between
freedom and a clear concept frame.

Within the concept’s basic system and standards there is freedom, creativity and independent action. Independent action is about innovative accomplishment within the frame. Every MOT country develops its own national strategies for financing and growth.

Partnership is about mutual dependence. Entering into partnership
with a school, municipality and a country, is about mutual trust. Premise
for giving this trust is that the schools, municipalities and countries
understand the concept, are passionate about it and loyal to it.

The successful Norwegian leader, Odd Reitan, who has been my
‘concept mentor’ since 2005, repeats the following frequently:

‘Trust cannot be given to people who don’t understand the point. Our best
managers are those who learn the concept by heart and then manage on their own. They understand that the combination of concept-understanding and culture are factors of success. When the trust and partnership is in place, they all need to have concept and culture training. You have no chance unless you are a good coach upon training them.’

In the book ‘Good to Great’ there is a description of the difference between companies that are great and the ones that are only good:
• Clear frames, but freedom within.
• Leaders and employees who believe in the concept.

After posting my last monthly reflections Sigrun and I received a greeting from Elo Andersen, MOT Denmark’s initiator. I’d like to end this post with his words:

‘I think this paragraph below is the most essential with MOT:

‘From day one we were very determined that MOT should be an experience – a positive experience created by show, rock ‘n roll and craziness combined with silence, reflection and profundity. MOT should be something extraordinary in the classroom. We wanted to create a magical atmosphere,
making the youth become part of MOT.’

It is crucial that hold on to and develop the MOT magic every day. If not, we might end up like all the others good, but not great, organisations.’