Pilots of Chaos

Kaospilot describes itself as a “hybrid business and design university, providing a multi-faceted education in leadership and entrepreneurship.” It is first and foremost a higher education institution. Unique teaching methods are applied within to create better leaders and entrepreneurs for an increasingly complex world. Initially founded by Uffe Elbæk, the current leader of The Alternative party in Denmark, Kaospilot stems from a social project & youth organization called the Frontrunners, a platform against youth unemployment, which recognized the necessity of providing a dynamic education for young people in the dawn of a new and changing era. Christer Windeløv-Lidzélius bore witness to the transformation, having started his Kaospilot journey as a student when he enrolled in 1995. In their discussion, Fionn & Christer discuss creativity, leadership, trust and the future of entrepreneurship.

Q: What was it like for the organization to shift from an organized movement against youth unemployment to becoming a full-fledged educational powerhouse working with high-ranked corporations and building future leaders? It is almost as if these two things were worlds apart.

A: Absolutely. Kaospilot expanded from working with just a select number of students every year to hosting courses, workshops, and programmes for professionals, as we realized that diversification is essential to achieve our targets, to not only prepare people for the future but to also create it.

Q: Is there a key to building better leaders? How do we aim to achieve that?

A: We are reasonably agnostic when it comes to defining what makes a remarkable leader. The most important part is not pushing a universal agenda—we ask for opinions, find out what our students think are essential leadership qualities and help them achieve that. In that sense, we do not have sacred views on what is undoubtedly better. Instead, we look at effectiveness, for instance, helping students understand their goals and use less effort to achieve their goals. When it comes to working with companies, we do not only work for them; we work with them. When we create leadership programmes, we ask them for the traits, skills, and attitudes that they consider desirable and help them integrate that into their daily operations.

Q: After understanding the pains and gains of the clients and students, what sort of steps do you take to unleash their full leadership potential?

A: On the one hand, we have an open space where we help people improve their creative thinking and enhance their abilities in a free environment. On the other hand, as a school, our mission is to make the students a better version of themselves, so we have a set of ideas we like to nudge towards our students.

When they are completing their exams, we use a principle called “win-win-win,” which helps students grasp the impact of their work. We help them gather connections and introduce them to contacts; companies then receive feedback from the students and afterward, the project can be molded into something that can benefit society. We strongly believe that great leaders should see broadly, to not only think about business in regards to monetary success but to understand the positive impact their views can have on the general population.

IN THE END, IT IS NOT ABOUT THE ABILITY TO STAND ALONE; INSTEAD, IT IS IMPORTANT TO BE RESILIENT WHILE STANDING SIDE BY SIDE WITH OTHERS. IT IS THIS KIND OF RESILIENCE I WISH STUDENTS WERE TAUGHT.

– CHRISTER WINDELØV-LIDZÉLIUS

Q: I believe that also helps them build trust in their leadership abilities and develop creative confidence, which are traits of a great leader. However, there’s often a conception in society that organizations and their leaders are built through selfishness, trying to dominate and forcing their way to the top. How do we get rid of codified practices and start accepting new customs and paradigms?

A: When I work with my staff, I work on a trust-based principle. Trust is something that is given before it is proven. When I hire someone, I give them the power to work; I put my faith in them before I know what their value is to the company. It is their responsibility to live up to the expectations they set for themselves. This freedom, in my opinion, builds better employees. This philosophy also carries over when working with clients. Rarely do we tell a company that they are doing something incorrectly. We are not experts; we are process facilitators. We assume that the client has the things that they need, we help them realize this and take the necessary steps to achieve their goals from within their organization. So, you do not need to demolish the foundations to extinguish these old paradigms, it is easier to instill change which the client never knew they were capable of. The unwillingness to break the mold can be hard to conquer, but it is an important step.

Q: It just occurred to me where this unwillingness to change stems from. For example, I am critical of the school system, as I have seen students who lose their confidence due to their educational experiences. They lose trust in themselves and end up confused about their path in life. So what kind of school system do you think would help students to build their creative confidence, find their passion and guide them onto their path to becoming great creative leaders?

A: Believing in yourself and knowing your strengths can make a huge difference. At Kaospilot, we use an ideological system which can be grouped into three columns. Mental toughness,

resilience, and self-efficacy. These are fundamental leadership traits, as they can help anyone to persevere and continuously perform at a high level. What’s surprising is that none of these qualities are taught in higher education.

The ideas young people are exposed to shape their view of the world, and the students of today’s generation are very different to those of previous generations. They have a lot of exposure to what goes on around the world, and that can be very stressful for someone who doesn’t have their foothold in life just yet. Therefore, it is vital to train and develop your mental toughness to prepare young students and creatives who believe in themselves. That does not mean we go around and pat everybody on their back for each successful thing they have done, but it is something that can be curated, similarly to how athletes train. There is something that can be taken away from each loss, each hardship. We must not punish students for their mistakes; instead, we must tell them to learn from them in order to grow.

Secondly, self-efficacy is a trait that we traditionally associate with growing up, something that is taught by our parents. However, we have research backing up the fact that the quality is still lacking in teenagers and there are definitely ways that we can improve on that. We can compare life to a long adventure—at some point, we as the adventurers must learn how to thrive on our own.

Finally, resilience—students must learn how to fail, to get back up, to change. In schools, we do not have that. We glorify the idea of the individual, the mastermind, but I like the idea of entrepreneurship and creative leadership with a team-based approach. In the end, it is not about the ability to stand alone; instead, it is important to be resilient while standing side by side with others. It is this kind of resilience I wish students were taught.

Q: Mental toughness is perhaps not a trait traditionally associated with creative leadership. When we think about these old structures, we see a fierce businessman at the top of the chain, only concerned about financial growth. In my experience, it is empathy and understanding that have become crucial in today’s world. Toughness is still essential, but toughness doesn’t allow you to gauge the feelings of others or help you understand yourself better. Where do you see the role of empathy between those three columns?

A: Those three columns are the ones that we associate the most strongly as being the pillars of creative leadership. Empathy is one of the qualities that runs the risk of becoming a cliché since it applies to so many fields, but at Kaospilot, we believe it is essential to understand that it is not only about helping your coworkers and treating your employees with respect, but that it also works in a broader context. Smart entrepreneurs have a sense of understanding with their customers. Empathy is not only about reducing pain, after all, great products do something to alleviate a need.

Q: What has been your own most significant challenge in the field of education?

A: For me, Kaospilot is an idea that helps people learn how to create and how to become leaders, and that is an ongoing quest. I always try to stay curious. Tomorrow I have an application workshop, where I will meet the new applicants who want to study at our school. It is crucial to establish that sense of curiosity in our staff, to continually look at things with an open mind. We must understand that the new generation is continuously evolving and bringing new ideas to the table. With age, you become more experienced, but at the same time, it is easy to get accustomed to specific concepts.

In a sense, the most prominent challenge is having a large-scale impact while keeping the advantages of staying small, nimble and intimate. In the age of MOOCs and free online university courses, I can offer my classes in the form of a .pdf or a video, but after they download it, I have no impact, I never find out what they learned. That is my challenge, how do we lift our value proposition without losing the closeness, the intimacy, the nerve? We want to grow, but it would be a tragedy to lose what makes Kaospilot so unique.