Tobias Burkhardt

Chief Transformation Officer

I am an entrepreneur by conviction, a teacher by accident and a creative by heart. I live and breathe the life of a polymath: Jack of all trades, Master of Learning. Always experimenting with a better version of myself. My curiosity prevented me from having a straight career, forcing me the Long Way Home. A journey that has taken me from anthropology, through beer and chocolate and politics, up to a world of digital technology and innovation. Only to end up founding a school for people who want to change things for the better. As the wind of transformation strikes continuously, I am now also the president of the first transformative leadership club – aiming to make Learning a Lifestyle. In the end I am simply a Serendipitist, finding value and happiness in things not sought for.

What is your favourite SHIFT Attitude?

As the inventor of the SHIFT Framework, I am not allowed to comment on this to avoid any dispute 😉 The five attitudes reflect my personal learning from the last 10 years of transformation work. Every attitude is important at one stage or another. But the order makes it! If we are not SPIRITED and committed at the beginning, we don’t even need to start. After that, we need to turn to a HOLISTIC future instead of fiddling around with problems. The third step is to IDEATIVELY address the best possible solution. But if we don’t adapt our mindset to the new, and develop FLEXIBLE states-of-mind, we will fail again. TRUE embodiment will help to implement the change and make others follow this leadership by example.

What does “Learning as a Lifestyle” mean to you?

Just as Software as a Service has made the traditional software licensing model obsolete, Learning as a Lifestyle will change the education as we know it today. We urgently need a new paradigm to make us fit for the 21st century. For me, Learning as a Lifestyle is the answer to how we can keep moving and adapting in this rapidly changing world. It is more than just an empty life-long-learning buzzword or a disheartening alibi. For me, LaaL is the holistic promise to keep our minds as fit as our bodies and souls. It is the personal trainer for the head, so to speak. In a way that is exhausting, but also deeply satisfying and fun if you achieve the desired results.