Messy Message Loud and Clear

One of our major morning papers in Sweden, SvD, recently picked up what one of our leading management journals, Chef, had noticed, namely that Frank J. Barrett finally has collected his thoughts on how jazz thinking can make you a better leader.

I remember vividly the first time I met Frank. It was in Copenhagen in 2005 ago at a course in Appreciative Inquiry, organised by the consulting company Resonans. It was a three-day course and, as I recall, the content was decided by us, the participants. Frank presented his repertoire from his vast experience and we selected what we thought we liked and needed most. As a good bandleader, he listened and was willing to experiment.

Ha had us do lots of exercises, both in groups and individually, where he made us do new things and step out of our comfort zones. He let us perform solos, making us all shine. He delivered on his words!

The book "Yes to the Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz" has received excellent reviews. Not surprising, the people buying the book from Amazon also bought books about Appreciative Inquiry, Storytelling and Jazz. Since I've read some of his stuff before, I'm sure that it's a real treat!

New England?

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a business trip to New England. I really miss the long beaches, the catboats and the wonderful houses in the Mystic Seaport and Cape Cod, not to mention the High Line in New York and Beacon Hill in Boston.

However, there's one thing I can't understand and that's why it's called New England. As I see it, when it comes to water taps (faucets), New England is not that much better than plain England. Even in fairly new buildings, the standard tap seems to be a mixer tap with one spout and one tap for warm and cold water on each side respectively. But it's not uncommon to come across the completely useless model where each tap has a separate spout. In Sweden, nobody in his or her right mind would install such a model, not even the most resolute Anglophile. Instead, the single handle style mixer tap is very common in Sweden, since it is easy to use and also more energy efficient.

While I was doing these reflections during my travel, I also watched the National Democratic convention and the comments to each speech. It then struck me that the politics in the US is very much like it's faucets. It's not easy to get a get a good mix and often you end up with either too hot or too cold. Actually, the best political statement I saw during my stay was from the new Aaron Sorkin series The Newsroom, where the main character does a wonderful monolog on why the US is not the greatest country in the world.

In Sweden, we are considered to have a left wing government no matter which party is dominant. There may actually be some truth in that. Our current government just released its budget bill called Investing in the Future. The media concluded that they had picked up quite a number of the suggestions proposed by the social democrat opposition. Not that any opposition would ever admit or focus on that in their comments, of course.

It might be the case that most politicians in Sweden has read John Rawls and likes his Theory of Justice and his emphasis on maximizing the minimum gain. Although that would be to assume too much, I suppose.

Babes in the Wood

When I went to Australia the first time, I stayed with my parents' good friend Trevor the first week. He introduced me to Australian cooking (for example vegemite sandwiches), how to navigate both Sydney and the Blue Mountains (by train), how to dress like an Aussie (I got the boots) but most of all to English proverbs.

This was the first time I really noticed sayings like "it's raining cats and dogs", "I'm not my brother's keeper", "more than you can poke a stick at" and "like babes in the wood". Although I had already begun working with metaphors in my research (interface metaphors) and in research projects focusing on intelligence tests (analogies), this was a new kind of usage. A real treat!

Urban Acupuncture

I found the metaphor "urban acupuncture" very intriguing when I read it the first time in a magazine I flipped through at my local library. A good place to start looking for more information is, of course, Wikipedia:

"Urban Acupuncture is an urban environmentalism theory which combines urban design with traditional Chinese medical theory of acupuncture. This strategy views cities as living, breathing organisms and pinpoints areas in need of repair. Sustainable projects, then, serve as needles that revitalize the whole by healing the parts."

I think the idea of focusing activities to a small number of efficient and effective project that will have an impact in several dimensions is a good one, although it could of course also be considered as a way for politicians to get away will less spending on development. Obviously the approach has been tried and found successful in a number of cases, some of the described at the Casagrande Laboratory, named after the inventor of the concept: the Finnish professor Marco Casagrande.

One of these places is Curitiba in Brazil, where Jamie Lerner, architect and urban planner, has been elected three times. In his Instituto Jaime Lerner he introduces another metaphor the city as a turtle:

"These concepts [sustainability, mobility and socio-diversity] come together in the metaphor of the Turtle embodying life, work and movement — if you break down the shell of the turtle, it will die. So, the "vital" city is one that, as the metaphor emphasizes, provides a protective shell for integrating compatible urban functions and effecting change without breaking down the life-sustaining shelter."

Recently the metaphor has been used in relation to another area: food. Arch Daily writer Vanessa Quirk has used it as an idea for closing the gap between people and food in the concept of Urban Agripuncture. An idea soon picked up by the Huffington Post.

This, of course, made me think. If I were to put needles into my home city Göteborg, where would I start? Some current hot spots are both sides of the river "Göta älv" where the old port and shipyard areas are being turned into something new and the stakeholder dialogue seems to become more sour every day. Of course we have areas with lower average income where jobs are scares, but maybe we should put the pins in the more bourgeois areas just to shake them up a bit. Like the one I'm living in.

But why stop at acupuncture needles? My chiropractor is also a trained in acupuncture in order to have a variety of methods to choose from. Maybe there are places that need some massage followed by physical adjustments? Or perhaps some current flowing into them? Or maybe some new nutritional recommendations? Back to Urban Agripuncture I guess...

The Power of Praying

One of my relatives is involved in Christian charity work. Recently when his group visited a hospital in Ukraine, they were shocked by the low standard of the equipment. They had almost nothing, but a house and running water. The hospital management team was devastated by the poor quality and asked the group to join them in a prayer for help and so they did.

On the way to Sweden the group talked a lot about what they could do to help, but no one could come up with any good ideas. When they had been back home for just two days, they got a call from a businessman. He said he had shipment of thousands of new clothes he would like to donate. My relative asked what kinds of clothes, and he got the reply: the kind that doctors and nurses use. Of course, they accepted the gift and had not stopped celebrating when the next call came, this time from the local hospital. A whole ward was in the middle of refurbishing and wanted to get rid of lots of lockers, drawers, mobile shelves and other things. Again, they accepted and within days a truck with all the stuff was on its way to Ukraine. I can imagine the story that’s now being told about the power of praying and the miracle makers from Sweden.

Although a stout atheist (or perhaps because), I can’t help but agreeing with Alain de Botton in his quest for Religion 2.0. There are many things we can learn from religion, even though we don’t buy the message. Maybe praying, as in “stating a wish loudly in solitude or in groups”, is such a ritual that we should include in other processes.

May 30 2012, the first annual Stockholm Philanthropy Symposium will be held. Maybe I should go there and pray. My wish is simple: I would like to ask the blessed donors who right now put lots of money into research to also invest in helping research results become utilized. Right now there is a enormous gap between research and actual new products, much because it takes both time and money to verify that something that works in a lab also is possible to produce. This kind of verification is often needed long before venture capital investors are even the slightest interested. Sometimes, the product is a new process and may not have to be commercialised, but still needs to be verified in order to check if it works on a large scale.

Ice Screams

Although a bit risky, I walked on the ice today. The temperature had been under zero for more than two weeks and the combination of snow, ice and sun just became too tempting. Beneath my feet, the ice monsters screamed at each other. Or was it perhaps a monster mother calling for her offspring or a bachelor monster in search of romance?

Every time I heard a scream, a tiny tremor went through my body but I kept my steady pace and had one eye on my fellow ice travellers. I was on my way back from Gunnebo Castle and on my way there I had listened to something completely different: The Naked Scientist. This particular podcast included a piece on vitamin D deficiency, something very common among people living in the north. I took it as a sign that I should be in the sun as much as possible, blissfully ignoring the fact that the sun rays are too week to have any impact right now.

Today was a nice contrast to the summer and all the days spent in sculpture parks. The 2011 photo competition is now closed. The most appreciated photo was the one from Marsvinsholm. Even my Mother liked that one best, although it was such a rainy experience. Winner of the lottery this year is my friend and colleague Anna. Thank you all for voting! I hope to take some good photos this year as well, why I expect to continue the competition!

Photo Competition 2011 – Sculpture Parks

The previous photo competitions such as the one in 2010, did not have special themes. This year is different. Looking back at my summer days, I realised that I spent a good deal of them in parks and gardens with wild and weird sculptures. All very different, and highly enjoyable.

Your job this year is to select the nicest sculpture park collage. Of course, it’s more fun if you comment on your choice here or on Facebook, but if you’re a bit shy you may send me an email instead. This competition is open to my friends and family. You can win flowers! Some money goes to charity! I want your vote no later than January 31, 2012.

Happy New Year!

Want more information about the locations? Check out Gunillaberg, Kivik, Louisiana, Marsvinsholm, Pilane, Tagel and Wanås!