Why you will only understand AEB if you have read the Common Ground.

At some point deep in the discussion about whether we should say “ivory tower” or “back room” (in the end we decided to use both terms), Torsten says: “After all, this whole thing is not a cheap endeavor.”

I look around. That's true. Apart from me, there must be 15 people sitting here discussing the texts of the new Common Ground, which we developed together in workshops. People from company management. People who were already here when AEB still had 50 employees and new software releases were installed on site at the customer's premises by floppy disk or CD. People who have significantly shaped our company, readjusted its direction, developed our most successful products, and implemented our biggest projects.

But also people who are just starting to work at AEB and who have decided that their sphere of activity also includes the Common Ground. Who have gained experience in different industries, different areas of expertise, and with other employers. Software developers, sales managers, business developers, marketing experts.

We discuss our texts together, on an equal footing, and according to the consensus principle. And sometimes, that can be as exhausting (and expensive) as it sounds. It means: We work our way through the wording and only stop doing so when everyone can at least accept the result. Sentences are broken down and reassembled, terms are negotiated, deleted, and combined. And in the end, we have to make sure that after all the dismantling and reassembling of sentences, the result can still be easily read and understood.