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Yesterday, a woman CEO—one of my course participants—sent me an excited message after applying a few methods she had just learned in Teal Unicorn’s Open Management program:
“For the past three days the whole team has been on fire! We absolutely love it. The energy is totally different. When I discovered what you’re doing, it felt like a fish taking to water—this is exactly what I’ve been looking for. I’m going to spread it far and wide. I want to earn an Open Management certificate and then teach other companies.”
I replied:
“To teach others, you need deep understanding and fluent practice. If you haven’t first succeeded with your own team and company, you won’t just fail to help—you might actually cause harm.”
That may sound harsh, but it’s true. Transforming an organization is a demanding journey. It requires hands-on experience, systemic sensitivity, and a strong sense of responsibility for people. One misguided recommendation can throw a company into chaos, leave a team directionless, and force many individuals to pay the price.
If you genuinely want to help other businesses, start with your own. Study hard and execute well. Improve every small task, every meeting format, every process, every hand-off and feedback loop. Make the entire working system transparent. When your enterprise truly operates in the Open spirit—transparency, empowerment, synergy, humanity, agility—you won’t need to persuade anyone. People will seek you out.
That’s exactly what we at Teal Unicorn have done for years. We never chase clients or run big marketing campaigns. We simply focus on creating real value through genuine transformation in the organizations we partner with. Those successes draw customers to us, and satisfied clients gladly refer others.
Learning to become an Open Management trainer is like training to be a mountain-climbing guide. You can’t just read manuals and lecture about dangling off a cliff or untangling a jammed safety line. You have to climb yourself. You must know the fear, hesitation, and fatigue, and also how to steady your nerves, find a foothold, and push through. Only after you’ve reached the summit—gaining hard-won experience step by step—can you lead others along that path.
So, to become an Open Management trainer, you must live, work, and transform yourself using Open mind-sets and practices. It isn’t a certificate that makes you credible; it’s real living, real doing, and real value created.
Now, let’s dive into learning and doing—flat-out! 🙂
P.S. The feeling of reaching the peak, gazing at the awe-inspiring view, and sensing true fulfillment is beyond words, my friends.