Petra Bock, 51, is a management consultant, transformation researcher and author. This Monday, October 11th, she will be a guest at the Pullacher Bürgerhaus from 7:00 p.m. and want to give new food for thought – as in her book “Der Entstörte Mensch”, published in 2020.
SZ: You have a reading another reading or already coaching?
Petra Bock: Coaching, definitely! I will not read from the book. My aim is to bring new thought patterns to my audience to think about new solutions. I also call for people to apply my methods to their own topics from work, society or everyday life.
So a workshop with a flipchart and a felt-tip pen?
No, no, we don’t need a flipchart. With me you can lean back and relax. The work takes place in the head, it’s about thinking in itself.
In your book you affirm that it is possible to throw thought patterns that have burned themselves into human consciousness for over 12,000 years overboard in 20 to 30 years. Where do you get this optimism from?
Great upheavals in world history always took place in a few decades. The idea of democracy has been around for a long time, but actually introducing this revolutionary idea only lasted a few decades. Or take the environmental movement. When the first Greens took to the streets in the 80s, it was a scattered and ridiculed bunch. Today everyone wants to do green politics, at least almost everyone.
So you want your book to be a kind of first impetus for a new age of thought?
Yes I hope so! I also get my optimism that this can succeed from the workshops that I give in large companies. The readiness for a departure, a change is there. Often where we wouldn’t expect it.
In Kabul, New Delhi, Berlin and Warsaw, humanism and human rights are becoming perceived differently. Don’t we think too differently for your vision?
I think we often underestimate other cultures. Even in authoritarian regimes and in foreign and different cultures, the starting points for change are often much better than we think. People everywhere are thinking about a better world. For example, I was very pleased and almost a bit surprised that my books were published in China and that they had a very positive response. Of course, my ideas would hardly penetrate the Taliban and North Korea, but many societies are ready to touch their own noses. And by the way, western culture has every reason for it.
Are you an undisturbed person?
Not always. But quite often now. Especially in stressful situations, we all fall back again and again into the old thought patterns. The question then is how do we notice it and how we can deal with it. I would like to explain that too.