Aalto EE Profile 1 2011

M ag a z in e from E x e cut iv e E d A a lt o U n iv uc at io n 2 e r s it y .2 011

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Three take on change

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Changes in the brain

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2.2011 Change triggers powerful emotions that lead to seismic shifts in organizational structures.

For better or worse, we are always evolving. Embrace the future.

You can also find us here:

Departments Features

Social Media Manifesto We must learn to embrace the new.

Aalto University Executive Education Ltd (Aalto EE) offers high-quality executive development services, supported by the competence of the new Aalto University.

The company has a subsidiary in Singapore since 2000. Aalto EE’s mission is to build a better world through better leadership and to educate a new generation of leaders.

The organization’s strengths lie in its global operating model and versatile offering. The new Aalto University has brought Aalto EE a multidisciplinary approach to executive development, along with innovative learning methods. In 2010, the turnover of Aalto University Executive Education Ltd was €9 million and the headcount was some 50.

The entire magazine is also here:

What have you learned about...

F ear

Explained

Even people who like risk sometimes get it wrong.

Before making a big decision, sleep on it.

Change as a source of innovation.

Change-driven businesses.

Managing change relating to mergers.

Three takes on change

Jonathan Marks has learned that the future is about sharing – not shouting.

Changes in the brain

Change is constant but revolutions are rare.

Grumbles in the corridor?

Did the change not go through as expected?

Editor in Chief: Pekka Mattila, pekka.mattila@aaltoee.fi Publisher: Aalto University Executive Education Ltd, Mechelininkatu 3 C, 00100 Helsinki, Finland tel. +358 10 837 3700 www.aaltoee.fi

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We fill the toolbox with concrete ways you can anticipate what will happen tomorrow. While seeing the future is hard, it is definitely a skill you can learn.

22 23 24 25

You can also find this material from web sources.

Aalto Executive Education Academy Pte Ltd, Singapore 25 North Bridge Road, EFG Bank Building, Unit 08-03, 179104 Singapore, Singapore tel. +65 6339 7338 www.aaltoee.sg Editorial office: Maggie Oy / Zeeland, www.maggie.fi Producer: Lotta Vaija, lotta.vaija@maggie.fi Creative Director: Miikka Leinonen Art Director: Sissu Muhujärvi Printing: SP-Paino Oy, Nurmijärvi, ISSN 1458-2058 Address register: profile@aaltoee.fi

4

12

Make the future your friend

History repeated.

Ending

Change is the main theme of this issue. Today’s leaders are living in a world of constant change.

When change is ubiquitous, is it a change or a new normal? “Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are,” said Bertold Brecht, and he had it very right. In most industries, market rivalry becomes more – not less – intense. The Red Queen’s race is everyday life for many of us: it takes all the running we can do to keep in the same old place.

Black swans arise. Gradual but disruptive social and ecological changes Aalto EE’s Facebook page blindside us all too often. Technological and scientific breakthroughs may leave and our blog keep you us to procrastinate which direction to take. up to date on the latest happenings. Check out As a professor of the “leading change” courses, I constantly meet one aaltoee.blogspot.com and, deceiving paradigm: we will focus on the long run, as soon as this change is tackled and the situation is over. But the fact is it won’t be over. Ubiquitous change of course, www.aaltoee.fi and www.aaltoee.sg. is the new normal, and general management often equals change management.

We should not conceive change management as a technique and a close relative of crisis management, but, rather, a set of managerial skills and organizational competences that help us navigate both in turbulence and in a matrix of fine-grained parallel changes.

All this poses new challenges – changes – to business schools and executive education institutions. How to incorporate the concepts of uncertainty, emergence, agility and fluidity into a discipline, so committed to the ideals of long-term planning, permanent structures and budgeting?

The solution should not be about new modules or electives, but about a fundamental change in the way both teachers, students and practitioners perceive their premises: as ever-changing instead of temporarily shaking.

Nevertheless, the need for management and leadership development is not in decline but in increase. Chance favors the prepared mind, as Louis Pasteur put it, and there is no better way for preparation than ongoing exploration, absorption and enriching interaction.

Pekka Mattila, Aalto EE’s mission is to create a better world through better leadership.

D.Soc.Sc. is the new We offer executive education that helps individuals and organizations take managing director of the best out of change. In our offering, you can find topics like Future Aalto EE starting from Leadership or Leading Change, which provide the latest ideas in this area.

May 15. He also works Totally new concepts are the Aalto Leadership Lab or Aalto Leaders’ Insight as an adjunct professor – a discussion forum on leadership. With new frameworks, mission impossible at the Aalto University School of Economics. becomes closer to mission possible.

Better World Through Better Leadership

Toolbox

Sampo korhonen

Change.

Take part in creating the next issue in Blogger

Discovering something new does not mean you have uncovered the “truth.” Change is an on-going process.

26 27

2.2011 Change triggers powerful emotions that lead to seismic shifts in organizational structures.

For better or worse, we are always evolving. Embrace the future.

You can also find us here:

Departments Features

Social Media Manifesto We must learn to embrace the new.

Aalto University Executive Education Ltd (Aalto EE) offers high-quality executive development services, supported by the competence of the new Aalto University.

The company has a subsidiary in Singapore since 2000. Aalto EE’s mission is to build a better world through better leadership and to educate a new generation of leaders.

The organization’s strengths lie in its global operating model and versatile offering. The new Aalto University has brought Aalto EE a multidisciplinary approach to executive development, along with innovative learning methods. In 2010, the turnover of Aalto University Executive Education Ltd was €9 million and the headcount was some 50.

The entire magazine is also here:

What have you learned about...

F ear

Explained

Even people who like risk sometimes get it wrong.

Before making a big decision, sleep on it.

Change as a source of innovation.

Change-driven businesses.

Managing change relating to mergers.

Three takes on change

Jonathan Marks has learned that the future is about sharing – not shouting.

Changes in the brain

Change is constant but revolutions are rare.

Grumbles in the corridor?

Did the change not go through as expected?

Editor in Chief: Pekka Mattila, pekka.mattila@aaltoee.fi Publisher: Aalto University Executive Education Ltd, Mechelininkatu 3 C, 00100 Helsinki, Finland tel. +358 10 837 3700 www.aaltoee.fi

5 6 7

17

8

13

18

9

14

19

10

15

20

11

16

21

We fill the toolbox with concrete ways you can anticipate what will happen tomorrow. While seeing the future is hard, it is definitely a skill you can learn.

22 23 24 25

You can also find this material from web sources.

Aalto Executive Education Academy Pte Ltd, Singapore 25 North Bridge Road, EFG Bank Building, Unit 08-03, 179104 Singapore, Singapore tel. +65 6339 7338 www.aaltoee.sg Editorial office: Maggie Oy / Zeeland, www.maggie.fi Producer: Lotta Vaija, lotta.vaija@maggie.fi Creative Director: Miikka Leinonen Art Director: Sissu Muhujärvi Printing: SP-Paino Oy, Nurmijärvi, ISSN 1458-2058 Address register: profile@aaltoee.fi

4

12

Make the future your friend

History repeated.

Ending

Change is the main theme of this issue. Today’s leaders are living in a world of constant change.

When change is ubiquitous, is it a change or a new normal? “Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are,” said Bertold Brecht, and he had it very right. In most industries, market rivalry becomes more – not less – intense. The Red Queen’s race is everyday life for many of us: it takes all the running we can do to keep in the same old place.

Black swans arise. Gradual but disruptive social and ecological changes Aalto EE’s Facebook page blindside us all too often. Technological and scientific breakthroughs may leave and our blog keep you us to procrastinate which direction to take. up to date on the latest happenings. Check out As a professor of the “leading change” courses, I constantly meet one aaltoee.blogspot.com and, deceiving paradigm: we will focus on the long run, as soon as this change is tackled and the situation is over. But the fact is it won’t be over. Ubiquitous change of course, www.aaltoee.fi and www.aaltoee.sg. is the new normal, and general management often equals change management.

We should not conceive change management as a technique and a close relative of crisis management, but, rather, a set of managerial skills and organizational competences that help us navigate both in turbulence and in a matrix of fine-grained parallel changes.

All this poses new challenges – changes – to business schools and executive education institutions. How to incorporate the concepts of uncertainty, emergence, agility and fluidity into a discipline, so committed to the ideals of long-term planning, permanent structures and budgeting?

The solution should not be about new modules or electives, but about a fundamental change in the way both teachers, students and practitioners perceive their premises: as ever-changing instead of temporarily shaking.

Nevertheless, the need for management and leadership development is not in decline but in increase. Chance favors the prepared mind, as Louis Pasteur put it, and there is no better way for preparation than ongoing exploration, absorption and enriching interaction.

Pekka Mattila, Aalto EE’s mission is to create a better world through better leadership.

D.Soc.Sc. is the new We offer executive education that helps individuals and organizations take managing director of the best out of change. In our offering, you can find topics like Future Aalto EE starting from Leadership or Leading Change, which provide the latest ideas in this area.

May 15. He also works Totally new concepts are the Aalto Leadership Lab or Aalto Leaders’ Insight as an adjunct professor – a discussion forum on leadership. With new frameworks, mission impossible at the Aalto University School of Economics. becomes closer to mission possible.

Better World Through Better Leadership

Toolbox

Sampo korhonen

Change.

Take part in creating the next issue in Blogger

Discovering something new does not mean you have uncovered the “truth.” Change is an on-going process.

26 27

Text: Marikka Nevamäki, Photos: Tang Zhongyun, Sini Pennanen

F ear

Explained Before making a big decision, sleep on it.

Take a chance on me? a.k.a.

Fear is a survival mechanism. Fear keeps us alert, on our toes. And it’s primal.

According to neuroscientific research, the neural circuitry underlying fear is highly conserved in mammalian species, from rats to humans.

In other words, fear mechanisms and systems are so fundamental that they’ve been carried over through the biggest of changes, the many, many slow changes that have made us, us: evolution.

At

Text: Risto pakarinen

the same time, change is life itself. Evolument, the researchers looked at how two parts of the brain tion is what takes us forward, and in a way, got activated. The kicker: both are linked to emotion. it’s what makes life worth living. Because The nucleus accumbens area gets activated when someone change means welcoming the unknown, expects a reward of a primary nature. A hungry person getting a potential danger, it is natural that we are afraid. food. It is an area rich in the dopamine – associated Yet, it seems possible for us to be unafraid, with “wanting.”

“Taking or stay unaware of change if it is very big.

The other part is the anterior insula, which is a risk is by linked to anxiety and lights up when a person sees disNobody is worried about evolution. Not enough people worry about climate change. We worry definition gusting, repulsive stimuli or anticipates physical pain. about changes we can see, and we get The nucleus accumbens kicked into action two dangerous. seconds before subjects made a risk-seeking choice, scared when we stand at the door, just before we take the plunge. investing in a stock even if it had a bad history.

Really.”

The anterior insula was activated just before they made a risk-averse decision.

Maybe we have to change “change” a little.

It may not be a feeling in the gut, and it may take place in Maybe it is a fear of taking a chance that makes us stop.

Taking a risk is by definition dangerous. Really. The dictionary the brain, but handling risk comes down to emotion.

When the nucleus accumbens is already activated, people defines “risk” as “a situation involving exposure to danger.” tend to be more risk seeking. So, if a person sees a piece All decisions include a level of uncertainty of the true of chocolate cake that stimulates it, she may be more likely to probabilities of the alternatives, and we react to that in engage in risk-seeking behavior making that decision on different ways. the phone. In other words, to make truly educated and intelligent People who have a high risk aversion, as it is called in decisions, you may want to sleep on it. financial theory, are shy to take any chances, preferring the status quo. Given a choice between getting 40 euros and getting a chance to win a hundred euros in a coin toss, And not only if you are unsure. According to a study they’ll take the guaranteed money. published in the Decision Sciences Journal, “subjects who are led to believe they are very competent at decision-making see more opportunities in a risky choice and take more risks.”

Of course, some people thrive on risk. Risk takers Life is a game of risk, from picking stocks, to crossing are admired, as we look up to their clinical take on decisiona busy street, to eating exotic food, to sky diving, even to making. They will place bets, they will climb mountains, choosing your life partner. In the words of an ABBA song: and they will get up and talk to the best-looking woman Ba ba ba ba baa, ba ba ba ba baa or man in the bar. But while we might like to think that risk Honey I’m still free, take a chance on me taking is simple math, it is not.

Gonna do my very best, baby can’t you see In a Stanford University study, 19 doctoral students Gotta put me to the test, take a chance on me were asked to choose stocks ten times in 20 separate ABBA also had another song about the motivation games, and identify the good and the bad stocks www.youtube.com simply by watching the market. During the experiAbba: Take a chance on me that pushes us forward. “The winner takes it all.”

4

What have you learned about

Change as a source of innovation, Yongqi Lou? Why should we embrace change – or should we?

Chinese philosophy recognizes that change is a part of the law of nature and, as such, a permanent feature in our lives. Therefore, to adapt to change is to adapt to life, which is based on movement. We can certainly play an active role in this change and even lead it. One should never doubt the capacity of a passionate group of people, no matter how small, to change the course of history if they put their mind and soul to it.

How does change drive innovation?

Interdisciplinarity in academia is all about breaking accustomed categories and boundaries, as well as crossing cultural borders with international exchanges. The idea is to promote new kinds of viewpoints as well as bold and entrepreneurial approach to business. Not all change is good, of course. Promoting sustainability through design for social innovations is certainly what I am working for. What the actual outcome of these activities is, only time will tell.

Yongqi Lou is a vice dean at the College of Design & Innovation and the executive vice director at the SinoFinnish Centre at Tongji University.

How has China changed during your career?

China is in a state of continuous change and transformation.

The focus is increasingly shifting from manufacturing towards design, creativity and innovation. Companies are also voicing the need for this shift in focus, and it is being reflected in the education we offer.

Tongji University and Aalto University have a strategic partnership, offering a double degree within the International Design Business Management (IDBM) program. It creates a truly interdisciplinary and international environment for talented individuals, bringing together future experts in design, economics and technology, while still students. We have been brought together by both universities’ and governments’ desire for change and innovation.

5

Text: Marikka Nevamäki, Photos: Tang Zhongyun, Sini Pennanen

F ear

Explained Before making a big decision, sleep on it.

Take a chance on me? a.k.a.

Fear is a survival mechanism. Fear keeps us alert, on our toes. And it’s primal.

According to neuroscientific research, the neural circuitry underlying fear is highly conserved in mammalian species, from rats to humans.

In other words, fear mechanisms and systems are so fundamental that they’ve been carried over through the biggest of changes, the many, many slow changes that have made us, us: evolution.

At

Text: Risto pakarinen

the same time, change is life itself. Evolument, the researchers looked at how two parts of the brain tion is what takes us forward, and in a way, got activated. The kicker: both are linked to emotion. it’s what makes life worth living. Because The nucleus accumbens area gets activated when someone change means welcoming the unknown, expects a reward of a primary nature. A hungry person getting a potential danger, it is natural that we are afraid. food. It is an area rich in the dopamine – associated Yet, it seems possible for us to be unafraid, with “wanting.”

“Taking or stay unaware of change if it is very big.

The other part is the anterior insula, which is a risk is by linked to anxiety and lights up when a person sees disNobody is worried about evolution. Not enough people worry about climate change. We worry definition gusting, repulsive stimuli or anticipates physical pain. about changes we can see, and we get The nucleus accumbens kicked into action two dangerous. seconds before subjects made a risk-seeking choice, scared when we stand at the door, just before we take the plunge. investing in a stock even if it had a bad history.

Really.”

The anterior insula was activated just before they made a risk-averse decision.

Maybe we have to change “change” a little.

It may not be a feeling in the gut, and it may take place in Maybe it is a fear of taking a chance that makes us stop.

Taking a risk is by definition dangerous. Really. The dictionary the brain, but handling risk comes down to emotion.

When the nucleus accumbens is already activated, people defines “risk” as “a situation involving exposure to danger.” tend to be more risk seeking. So, if a person sees a piece All decisions include a level of uncertainty of the true of chocolate cake that stimulates it, she may be more likely to probabilities of the alternatives, and we react to that in engage in risk-seeking behavior making that decision on different ways. the phone. In other words, to make truly educated and intelligent People who have a high risk aversion, as it is called in decisions, you may want to sleep on it. financial theory, are shy to take any chances, preferring the status quo. Given a choice between getting 40 euros and getting a chance to win a hundred euros in a coin toss, And not only if you are unsure. According to a study they’ll take the guaranteed money. published in the Decision Sciences Journal, “subjects who are led to believe they are very competent at decision-making see more opportunities in a risky choice and take more risks.”

Of course, some people thrive on risk. Risk takers Life is a game of risk, from picking stocks, to crossing are admired, as we look up to their clinical take on decisiona busy street, to eating exotic food, to sky diving, even to making. They will place bets, they will climb mountains, choosing your life partner. In the words of an ABBA song: and they will get up and talk to the best-looking woman Ba ba ba ba baa, ba ba ba ba baa or man in the bar. But while we might like to think that risk Honey I’m still free, take a chance on me taking is simple math, it is not.

Gonna do my very best, baby can’t you see In a Stanford University study, 19 doctoral students Gotta put me to the test, take a chance on me were asked to choose stocks ten times in 20 separate ABBA also had another song about the motivation games, and identify the good and the bad stocks www.youtube.com simply by watching the market. During the experiAbba: Take a chance on me that pushes us forward. “The winner takes it all.”

4

What have you learned about

Change as a source of innovation, Yongqi Lou? Why should we embrace change – or should we?

Chinese philosophy recognizes that change is a part of the law of nature and, as such, a permanent feature in our lives. Therefore, to adapt to change is to adapt to life, which is based on movement. We can certainly play an active role in this change and even lead it. One should never doubt the capacity of a passionate group of people, no matter how small, to change the course of history if they put their mind and soul to it.

How does change drive innovation?

Interdisciplinarity in academia is all about breaking accustomed categories and boundaries, as well as crossing cultural borders with international exchanges. The idea is to promote new kinds of viewpoints as well as bold and entrepreneurial approach to business. Not all change is good, of course. Promoting sustainability through design for social innovations is certainly what I am working for. What the actual outcome of these activities is, only time will tell.

Yongqi Lou is a vice dean at the College of Design & Innovation and the executive vice director at the SinoFinnish Centre at Tongji University.

How has China changed during your career?

China is in a state of continuous change and transformation.

The focus is increasingly shifting from manufacturing towards design, creativity and innovation. Companies are also voicing the need for this shift in focus, and it is being reflected in the education we offer.

Tongji University and Aalto University have a strategic partnership, offering a double degree within the International Design Business Management (IDBM) program. It creates a truly interdisciplinary and international environment for talented individuals, bringing together future experts in design, economics and technology, while still students. We have been brought together by both universities’ and governments’ desire for change and innovation.

5

On top of my agenda Jonathan Marks helps develop practical social media strategies for Fortune 500 companies as well as start-ups. A former international broadcaster, he has learned that the future is sharing – not shouting.

If your company depends on collaboration with users to outsmart the competition, then you need to make a plan of what you will and will not try to achieve with social media in the next few years. Unless you integrate this plan into your general strategy, and it is fully backed by senior management, new media will remain a department rather than a culture within your organization. Just hiring some students to solve the social media challenges is like a broken pencil – no point! If you do not have something to share, social media is not for you.

What have you learned about

Change-driven businesses, Niklas Hed?

Niklas Hed is the founder and chief operating officer of Rovio, the creators of the hit wireless game Angry Birds.

Who thrives in changedriven environments?

People who cope best with change are often unprejudiced, ambitious and proactive. They are active and enjoy new challenges. You could say that change is their state of mind.

On a personal level, it is important to learn how to re-negotiate your own position in the organization, over and over again.

You also need to be able to let go of responsibilities and tasks that are no longer part of your new role. That might be hard, as we all develop habits and grow attached to familiar ways.

What is your advice to people in the midst of organizational change?

Change can teach you a lot. Even the most desperate-looking situations can turn into successes with the right skill and attitude.

If you wish to play a part in change, rather than just sit back and watch it happen, you need to be active and push your views forward.

Change is also always a great opportunity, for organizations as well as individuals. Those who recognize this window of opportunity and embrace it, succeed.

How is change executed successfully?

Change needs to be well structured. Vision and strategy should provide clear guidance for direction; otherwise, there is a risk that people will start focusing on all the wrong things. Management should also be able to sense the mood and atmosphere of the employees, in order to take effective action. Successful recruitment is key: if you recruit wrong people for your organization, it might paralyze your entire operations.

Identifying the right person for the right job is not an easy task.

And once you have found the right people, make sure everyone has a clear understanding of their roles. And finally – if the change is not for better, you must be able to let go of it and change course again.

6

If you are interrupting someone else’s conversation to sell them something totally unrelated, you are really creating antisocial media.

Providing useful information or a relevant service at the right time on the right platform is the way forward.

Adapt the conversation to fit the local culture. Just translating a campaign from the U.S. West Coast is a recipe for disaster in Western Europe or East Asia. Celebrate local heroes and reward regional brilliance.

Companies often broadcast on social networks without listening first. Too many companies are using social media as yet another marketing tool to shout about new products and services. The audience can spot authenticity in seconds. There have been cases where major companies have ruined their online reputation because they have not bothered to find out what motivates their fans.

It turns out that people are not really conversing with the brand personality they thought they were.

What have you learned about

Managing change related to mergers, Janne Tienari?

Why is change so difficult – or is it?

The change brought in by the new interdisciplinary Aalto University is certainly a huge development in the Finnish academic world.

It is also a wonderful opportunity to create something new and innovative. Transformations such as mergers in business or academia are always challenging, because there are multiple viewpoints and different interests involved. Mergers are inherently socio-cultural and political processes. Some win, some lose.

Various groups promote their own interests and jockey for position.

What are your coping strategies in change?

I have tried to learn to cope with uncertainty regarding my own future. That is probably the first thing on everyone’s mind in change situations. The tide can turn very quickly, and it is difficult to predict what happens to you personally. The best thing to do is to keep an open mind and reach out to people. When it comes to Aalto University, I find the notion of interdisciplinarity very appealing and wish to embrace this change.

How do individuals affect change?

Janne Tienari is a professor at Aalto University School of Economics, Organization and Management Unit.

What has the Aalto experience taught you about change?

I’ve learned how incredibly important the broader societal and global context is in these kinds of maneuvers.

Mergers do not take place in a vacuum. The changing economic environment, on one hand, and the shifting and sometimes contrasting expectations of different stakeholders, on the other, very much affect the unfolding of the merger.

Change is also always emergent, rather than fully orchestrated, in the sense that what people choose to do affects the direction and pace of change. Top management provides the overall frame, but the making of Aalto is co-creation in action. It is exciting to be part of this development process.

7

On top of my agenda Jonathan Marks helps develop practical social media strategies for Fortune 500 companies as well as start-ups. A former international broadcaster, he has learned that the future is sharing – not shouting.

If your company depends on collaboration with users to outsmart the competition, then you need to make a plan of what you will and will not try to achieve with social media in the next few years. Unless you integrate this plan into your general strategy, and it is fully backed by senior management, new media will remain a department rather than a culture within your organization. Just hiring some students to solve the social media challenges is like a broken pencil – no point! If you do not have something to share, social media is not for you.

What have you learned about

Change-driven businesses, Niklas Hed?

Niklas Hed is the founder and chief operating officer of Rovio, the creators of the hit wireless game Angry Birds.

Who thrives in changedriven environments?

People who cope best with change are often unprejudiced, ambitious and proactive. They are active and enjoy new challenges. You could say that change is their state of mind.

On a personal level, it is important to learn how to re-negotiate your own position in the organization, over and over again.

You also need to be able to let go of responsibilities and tasks that are no longer part of your new role. That might be hard, as we all develop habits and grow attached to familiar ways.

What is your advice to people in the midst of organizational change?

Change can teach you a lot. Even the most desperate-looking situations can turn into successes with the right skill and attitude.

If you wish to play a part in change, rather than just sit back and watch it happen, you need to be active and push your views forward.

Change is also always a great opportunity, for organizations as well as individuals. Those who recognize this window of opportunity and embrace it, succeed.

How is change executed successfully?

Change needs to be well structured. Vision and strategy should provide clear guidance for direction; otherwise, there is a risk that people will start focusing on all the wrong things. Management should also be able to sense the mood and atmosphere of the employees, in order to take effective action. Successful recruitment is key: if you recruit wrong people for your organization, it might paralyze your entire operations.

Identifying the right person for the right job is not an easy task.

And once you have found the right people, make sure everyone has a clear understanding of their roles. And finally – if the change is not for better, you must be able to let go of it and change course again.

6

If you are interrupting someone else’s conversation to sell them something totally unrelated, you are really creating antisocial media.

Providing useful information or a relevant service at the right time on the right platform is the way forward.

Adapt the conversation to fit the local culture. Just translating a campaign from the U.S. West Coast is a recipe for disaster in Western Europe or East Asia. Celebrate local heroes and reward regional brilliance.

Companies often broadcast on social networks without listening first. Too many companies are using social media as yet another marketing tool to shout about new products and services. The audience can spot authenticity in seconds. There have been cases where major companies have ruined their online reputation because they have not bothered to find out what motivates their fans.

It turns out that people are not really conversing with the brand personality they thought they were.

What have you learned about

Managing change related to mergers, Janne Tienari?

Why is change so difficult – or is it?

The change brought in by the new interdisciplinary Aalto University is certainly a huge development in the Finnish academic world.

It is also a wonderful opportunity to create something new and innovative. Transformations such as mergers in business or academia are always challenging, because there are multiple viewpoints and different interests involved. Mergers are inherently socio-cultural and political processes. Some win, some lose.

Various groups promote their own interests and jockey for position.

What are your coping strategies in change?

I have tried to learn to cope with uncertainty regarding my own future. That is probably the first thing on everyone’s mind in change situations. The tide can turn very quickly, and it is difficult to predict what happens to you personally. The best thing to do is to keep an open mind and reach out to people. When it comes to Aalto University, I find the notion of interdisciplinarity very appealing and wish to embrace this change.

How do individuals affect change?

Janne Tienari is a professor at Aalto University School of Economics, Organization and Management Unit.

What has the Aalto experience taught you about change?

I’ve learned how incredibly important the broader societal and global context is in these kinds of maneuvers.

Mergers do not take place in a vacuum. The changing economic environment, on one hand, and the shifting and sometimes contrasting expectations of different stakeholders, on the other, very much affect the unfolding of the merger.

Change is also always emergent, rather than fully orchestrated, in the sense that what people choose to do affects the direction and pace of change. Top management provides the overall frame, but the making of Aalto is co-creation in action. It is exciting to be part of this development process.

7

Feature 1

Change in communication

Working with

Knowledge Give people the space to go after their dreams.

Changes ahead

How do companies envision and build their future?

What presumptions do they rely on in doing so?

What changes do they prepare for? And what if they are mistaken?

Four

years ago I started a book project by the name Robustness – Anticipatory and Adaptive Human Systems. It is an international research project that has taken me from lunch with the French strategy minister to the Bundeskanzler’s office and yet further to the Singapore National Security Centre.

My purpose was to meet with discerning experts and decisionmakers to discuss how various companies and organizations answer the uncertainties they face. I did not aim to rank countries and organizations in any order but rather get an idea of the philosophy, processes, projects and institutions that different players use in building their future.

Presumptions about the future. In the past few centuries, the history of Western culture has been charaterized by the triumph of Newtonian thinking. Newton favored order, and we have gradually come to believe that it is a fundamental feature of our entire social life. The problem, however, is that when we deal with uncertainty and a changing operating environment even a well-functioning mechanism can get it all wrong.

Companies have adopted Newton’s theories pretty much as such. The five-step program devised by Henry Mintzberg offers advice on how to manage companies and organizations. Firstly, manage the bottom line –­ as if money was made out of money also in fields other than the finance sector. Secondly, draw up a plan of

“when we deal with uncertainty and a changing operating environment, even a well-functioning mechanism can get it all wrong.”

8

everything and have it approved by your boss or your bosses boss. Thirdly, rotate managers until the only topic they finally know about is management. Fourthly, treat people like other resources (human resource management), hire and dismiss them in the same way you buy and sell machines. And fifthly, as the icing on the cake: always follow these five steps.

I believe that any company – or entire sector, for that matter – can be destroyed in ten years by adhering to these principles. The U.S automobile industry and the Finnish mobile phone industry are good examples of this.

Are there alternatives? Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president, has suggested other ways to lead an organization preparing for the future and living with change.

1. Smart people want to work with smart people.

2. Let people go after their dreams.

Motivated people work better.

3. Look for improvement, not for perfection.

4. Focus on customers, not on money.

5. Do not kill projects. Nurture and develop them – patiently wait for a new opportunity.

Which type of a company would you like to work in?

In your opinion, which of these schools’ theories will make managers more successful?

Social Media Executive Manifesto

BY maurice forget

Mika Aaltonen is research director at the Aalto University and senior associate researcher at the London School of Economics.

In January 2011, the International Biographical Centre (Cambridge, England) included Mika in its 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century publication. Aaltonen will speak at Aalto Leaders’ Insight, an Aalto EE leadership forum, focused on boldness and courage, in May. 9

Feature 1

Change in communication

Working with

Knowledge Give people the space to go after their dreams.

Changes ahead

How do companies envision and build their future?

What presumptions do they rely on in doing so?

What changes do they prepare for? And what if they are mistaken?

Four

years ago I started a book project by the name Robustness – Anticipatory and Adaptive Human Systems. It is an international research project that has taken me from lunch with the French strategy minister to the Bundeskanzler’s office and yet further to the Singapore National Security Centre.

My purpose was to meet with discerning experts and decisionmakers to discuss how various companies and organizations answer the uncertainties they face. I did not aim to rank countries and organizations in any order but rather get an idea of the philosophy, processes, projects and institutions that different players use in building their future.

Presumptions about the future. In the past few centuries, the history of Western culture has been charaterized by the triumph of Newtonian thinking. Newton favored order, and we have gradually come to believe that it is a fundamental feature of our entire social life. The problem, however, is that when we deal with uncertainty and a changing operating environment even a well-functioning mechanism can get it all wrong.

Companies have adopted Newton’s theories pretty much as such. The five-step program devised by Henry Mintzberg offers advice on how to manage companies and organizations. Firstly, manage the bottom line –­ as if money was made out of money also in fields other than the finance sector. Secondly, draw up a plan of

“when we deal with uncertainty and a changing operating environment, even a well-functioning mechanism can get it all wrong.”

8

everything and have it approved by your boss or your bosses boss. Thirdly, rotate managers until the only topic they finally know about is management. Fourthly, treat people like other resources (human resource management), hire and dismiss them in the same way you buy and sell machines. And fifthly, as the icing on the cake: always follow these five steps.

I believe that any company – or entire sector, for that matter – can be destroyed in ten years by adhering to these principles. The U.S automobile industry and the Finnish mobile phone industry are good examples of this.

Are there alternatives? Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president, has suggested other ways to lead an organization preparing for the future and living with change.

1. Smart people want to work with smart people.

2. Let people go after their dreams.

Motivated people work better.

3. Look for improvement, not for perfection.

4. Focus on customers, not on money.

5. Do not kill projects. Nurture and develop them – patiently wait for a new opportunity.

Which type of a company would you like to work in?

In your opinion, which of these schools’ theories will make managers more successful?

Social Media Executive Manifesto

BY maurice forget

Mika Aaltonen is research director at the Aalto University and senior associate researcher at the London School of Economics.

In January 2011, the International Biographical Centre (Cambridge, England) included Mika in its 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century publication. Aaltonen will speak at Aalto Leaders’ Insight, an Aalto EE leadership forum, focused on boldness and courage, in May. 9

Speak your mind. And learn to listen.

Social media is

any internet or mobile phone media platform that allows for social interaction between two or more people. These are often divided into six types: blogging and microblogging, collaborative projects, content communities, social networking, virtual games, and virtual communities.

Social media has torn down the wall of public relations and marketing speak separating you from your customers. It is no longer a question of choosing to engage your customers. The conversation is already happening – the choice is whether or not you will have a say in the proceedings.

There is no profit without risk.

To compete in this brave new world, we must unabashedly embrace the uncertainty of human contact.

If recent events in North Africa have taught us anything, it is that social media and autocratic control do not mix. Social media has made centralized, top-down control obsolete. People no longer get their news, opinions, or information from a single outlet.

As social media blogger Chris Brogan puts it: “Controlling the conversation is like trying to force a date to go well. The best that companies can do is be humble, be of service, be interested in their buyers, and then be compelling.” It is a human relationship, complete with all the fervor and foibles – unpolished, highly emotive, error-prone, and instant.

You need to say something meaningful for people to be willing to listen.

Since the conversation is between people, it needs to be authentic.

“Social media is not a tool for companies to try and stuff only their corporate message down a new channel,” feels Brogan. “The social business channel is a chance at a 360 degree relationship.”

In the end, it is the content that sticks. Compelling content attracts visitors. Writing for the Harvard Business Review, David Armano suggests that developing a worthwhile social media initiative is an investment that requires seeding (investment), feeding (user-generated content), and weeding (editing). Ideally, this content will be compelling enough to be “earned” media – that is, freely passed around to others and commented upon.

An important note when developing this strategy – many executives make the mistake of thinking that social media will somehow replace the traditional marketing mix. It will not. Social media provides the interactivity, but you will still need traditional marketing to direct your customers to your shops.

We will try to listen.

When you converse with a single person, the message is usually clear. But how do you do it with a hundred people, a thousand, or even a million?

10

“Sentiment and feedback can be tracked a number of ways,” relates Brogan. “If the volume of conversation is relatively small (dozens to hundreds of interactions a day), there is likely the opportunity to track things exhaustively using a variety of listening tools. If the volume is greater than that, sampling approaches can be taken to measure sentiment.” Some organizations, like Pepsi and Dell, continue to track themselves. However, many others farm out their buzz and media monitoring to listening-platform companies like Nielsen, Radian6, and Converseon.

Listening does require a strategy. Social media strategist Christopher Carfi suggests a five-point plan. “1. Build a strong listening platform, 2. Build a damage control plan, in case something goes wrong (happens all the time), 3. Experiment with the tools and build a voice without much sense of a goal, except to learn the territory, 4. Set some solid goals, 5. Put metrics in place to hit those goals.”

Of course, choosing to listen is not a blanket waiver for venting or insults. Companies should expect a degree of respect and decorum from Interviewees Chris Brogan – Social Media conversation partners as well. For instance, consultant. One of the AdAge when the U.S. National Public Radio’s Power 150 Marketing bloggers. discussion boards became plagued with New York Times best selling author. internet trolls – people who add comments More at www.chrisbrogan.com with the sole intention of provoking angry Christopher Carfi – Senior Strategist at Ant’s Eye View. responses or disrupting the conversation One of the AdAge Power 150 – NPR teamed up with ICUC Moderation Marketing bloggers. More at to allow comments only from repeat, www.socialcustomer-manifesto.com registered users.

Heidi Barker – Senior Director, Global Media, McDonald’s References Armano, D. The Conversation: Debunking Social Media Myths.

Boston: Harvard Business Review, June 29, 2009. Cerado. Executive Briefing: Social networking for businesses & associations.

Edelman. Engaging the New Influencers. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University, June 9-11, 2009. Freeman, R. E. Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Boston: Pitman Publishing, 1984. Nielsen.

Advertising Effectiveness: Understanding the Value of a Social Media Presence. April 2010.

Pew Internet. The future of social relations. July 2010.

Pew Internet. 8% of online Americans use Twitter. Dec 2010.

Red Cube Marketing. Developing a social media strategy.

We will gauge our performance according to stakeholder values, not just shareholder value.

If a concept can challenge you to question the meaning of your existence, it is a force to be reckoned with. This is the power of social media.

When American economist Milton Friedman argued through the 1970s and 1980s that the sole responsibility of business was to maximize profits for its shareholders, it was a profoundly compelling argument that seemed to logically follow the internal mechanisms of business.

In many quarters, including US business and politics, it became the raison d’être for commerce and industry.

This is no lie.

The yin to Friedman’s yang was eventually proffered Change by business professor R. Edward Freeman’s advocacy of or perrish! stakeholder theory. Essentially, every business is an integral part of society. In turn, society is composed of different actors, or stakeholders, who have an interest in, Do not or are impacted by, the actions of the business. A well-run business believe the hype! will attend not only to the concerns of shareholders, but take into As the concept of lifetime contracts fell out of consideration all of its stakeholders, including governments, fashion, it was not surprising that so many political groups, communities, trade unions, and even employees became more focused on the public at large. building the ‘me-brand’. Careers Stakeholder theory, in a socio-political are no longer carefully groomed sense, suggests good corporate practice from recruitment to retirewill be rewarded, while bad corporate ment within a company – practice will be punished. Certainly, they are patchwork affairs governments have the power to regulate. where employees pick and Executives of the world, Trade unions have the power to strike. choose placements in heed my call!

Political groups have the ability to protest. different organizations It is time to throw off However, none of these has ever seemed to round out their the yoke of false hope. to curtail a corporation’s activities in professional experience the same way that social media has. and skills.

Just ask any company that has had to So how do you build fend off deserved criticism on Twitter, loyalty with a fluid workWelcome to the age of Facebook, or a well-respected blog whether force? Well, many large social media! they would prefer to be tried in a court of companies are turning to law or the court of public opinion. corporate social media platforms to engage their employees. If you create a sense of community, you build loyalty. You need to remind your people that the company is not a giant, faceless abstract “it” rather it is a group of people – “we.”

For IBM and General Electric, knowledge is key to growth and agility. To ensure they maximize their knowledge base, both have created knowledge-sharing sites – GE Connect features thousands of blogs As a part of any strategic risk assessment, companies must establish and wikis, while IBM’s Pass It Along boasts a collaborative platform social media guidelines that reflect legal liability, safety, and security with social networking, visual mapping, and expertise profiling. concerns along with the company values and code of conduct.

Similarly, in order to reach the 85% of its crew who work for indeClearly, information technology will take a more conservative view of pendent owner/operators, McDonald’s launched Station M, a social social media compared to marketing, sales, and public relations teams networking site replete with games, updates about Ronald McDonald as different social media can introduce malware or viruses into the House Charities, discussion forums, and user-generated content. company’s network.

According to McDonald’s Senior Director Heidi Barker, of the 57,000 Beyond the security threats, employees need to abide by the registered users, “60% have opted in for further communication” while company’s privacy, confidentiality, and legal guidelines for external “42% have told us through surveys that they think of McDonald’s as communications. Obviously, any comments or shared information a career opportunity.” A fact, Barker notes, that suggests social media is should be honest and accurate. Written words have permanence – be having a positive impact on loyalty and staff turnover. sure what you write will not come back to haunt you. Most companies prefer that their employees identify themselves as employees when offering professional opinions in public forums. However, it must be made absolutely clear that the employee’s opinion does not necessarily reflect the company’s. Unless given permission otherwise, Company executives need to be willing to communicate with all their employees should not speak on behalf of the company. stakeholders. “The organizations that truly are embracing social The issue of criticism of superiors and the company as a whole is a media and social business have an understanding from the C-suite challenging one. There have been several recent cases of firings where that things have changed,” says Carfi. employees have posted disparaging comments on Facebook about their Social media can be unpredictable and intimidating – and that is boss and were subsequently fired. Most of these workers have since because it is real. You are creating a strong social bond that will have successfully sued or reached out-of-court settlements. The takeaway a wider impact than you could ever achieve with a scripted marketing lesson is to be aware of your country’s limits on employee free speech campaign alone. Social media makes your message real and gives and liability. If in doubt, seek legal counsel early. your company authenticity.

We have powerful tools to personalize and enhance the brand experience for our employees.

Yesteryear has passed.

We must accept that our employees are intelligent individuals capable of making independent, informed decisions and will act in the best interests of the company.

Empower your future with social media.

11

Speak your mind. And learn to listen.

Social media is

any internet or mobile phone media platform that allows for social interaction between two or more people. These are often divided into six types: blogging and microblogging, collaborative projects, content communities, social networking, virtual games, and virtual communities.

Social media has torn down the wall of public relations and marketing speak separating you from your customers. It is no longer a question of choosing to engage your customers. The conversation is already happening – the choice is whether or not you will have a say in the proceedings.

There is no profit without risk.

To compete in this brave new world, we must unabashedly embrace the uncertainty of human contact.

If recent events in North Africa have taught us anything, it is that social media and autocratic control do not mix. Social media has made centralized, top-down control obsolete. People no longer get their news, opinions, or information from a single outlet.

As social media blogger Chris Brogan puts it: “Controlling the conversation is like trying to force a date to go well. The best that companies can do is be humble, be of service, be interested in their buyers, and then be compelling.” It is a human relationship, complete with all the fervor and foibles – unpolished, highly emotive, error-prone, and instant.

You need to say something meaningful for people to be willing to listen.

Since the conversation is between people, it needs to be authentic.

“Social media is not a tool for companies to try and stuff only their corporate message down a new channel,” feels Brogan. “The social business channel is a chance at a 360 degree relationship.”

In the end, it is the content that sticks. Compelling content attracts visitors. Writing for the Harvard Business Review, David Armano suggests that developing a worthwhile social media initiative is an investment that requires seeding (investment), feeding (user-generated content), and weeding (editing). Ideally, this content will be compelling enough to be “earned” media – that is, freely passed around to others and commented upon.

An important note when developing this strategy – many executives make the mistake of thinking that social media will somehow replace the traditional marketing mix. It will not. Social media provides the interactivity, but you will still need traditional marketing to direct your customers to your shops.

We will try to listen.

When you converse with a single person, the message is usually clear. But how do you do it with a hundred people, a thousand, or even a million?

10

“Sentiment and feedback can be tracked a number of ways,” relates Brogan. “If the volume of conversation is relatively small (dozens to hundreds of interactions a day), there is likely the opportunity to track things exhaustively using a variety of listening tools. If the volume is greater than that, sampling approaches can be taken to measure sentiment.” Some organizations, like Pepsi and Dell, continue to track themselves. However, many others farm out their buzz and media monitoring to listening-platform companies like Nielsen, Radian6, and Converseon.

Listening does require a strategy. Social media strategist Christopher Carfi suggests a five-point plan. “1. Build a strong listening platform, 2. Build a damage control plan, in case something goes wrong (happens all the time), 3. Experiment with the tools and build a voice without much sense of a goal, except to learn the territory, 4. Set some solid goals, 5. Put metrics in place to hit those goals.”

Of course, choosing to listen is not a blanket waiver for venting or insults. Companies should expect a degree of respect and decorum from Interviewees Chris Brogan – Social Media conversation partners as well. For instance, consultant. One of the AdAge when the U.S. National Public Radio’s Power 150 Marketing bloggers. discussion boards became plagued with New York Times best selling author. internet trolls – people who add comments More at www.chrisbrogan.com with the sole intention of provoking angry Christopher Carfi – Senior Strategist at Ant’s Eye View. responses or disrupting the conversation One of the AdAge Power 150 – NPR teamed up with ICUC Moderation Marketing bloggers. More at to allow comments only from repeat, www.socialcustomer-manifesto.com registered users.

Heidi Barker – Senior Director, Global Media, McDonald’s References Armano, D. The Conversation: Debunking Social Media Myths.

Boston: Harvard Business Review, June 29, 2009. Cerado. Executive Briefing: Social networking for businesses & associations.

Edelman. Engaging the New Influencers. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University, June 9-11, 2009. Freeman, R. E. Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Boston: Pitman Publishing, 1984. Nielsen.

Advertising Effectiveness: Understanding the Value of a Social Media Presence. April 2010.

Pew Internet. The future of social relations. July 2010.

Pew Internet. 8% of online Americans use Twitter. Dec 2010.

Red Cube Marketing. Developing a social media strategy.

We will gauge our performance according to stakeholder values, not just shareholder value.

If a concept can challenge you to question the meaning of your existence, it is a force to be reckoned with. This is the power of social media.

When American economist Milton Friedman argued through the 1970s and 1980s that the sole responsibility of business was to maximize profits for its shareholders, it was a profoundly compelling argument that seemed to logically follow the internal mechanisms of business.

In many quarters, including US business and politics, it became the raison d’être for commerce and industry.

This is no lie.

The yin to Friedman’s yang was eventually proffered Change by business professor R. Edward Freeman’s advocacy of or perrish! stakeholder theory. Essentially, every business is an integral part of society. In turn, society is composed of different actors, or stakeholders, who have an interest in, Do not or are impacted by, the actions of the business. A well-run business believe the hype! will attend not only to the concerns of shareholders, but take into As the concept of lifetime contracts fell out of consideration all of its stakeholders, including governments, fashion, it was not surprising that so many political groups, communities, trade unions, and even employees became more focused on the public at large. building the ‘me-brand’. Careers Stakeholder theory, in a socio-political are no longer carefully groomed sense, suggests good corporate practice from recruitment to retirewill be rewarded, while bad corporate ment within a company – practice will be punished. Certainly, they are patchwork affairs governments have the power to regulate. where employees pick and Executives of the world, Trade unions have the power to strike. choose placements in heed my call!

Political groups have the ability to protest. different organizations It is time to throw off However, none of these has ever seemed to round out their the yoke of false hope. to curtail a corporation’s activities in professional experience the same way that social media has. and skills.

Just ask any company that has had to So how do you build fend off deserved criticism on Twitter, loyalty with a fluid workWelcome to the age of Facebook, or a well-respected blog whether force? Well, many large social media! they would prefer to be tried in a court of companies are turning to law or the court of public opinion. corporate social media platforms to engage their employees. If you create a sense of community, you build loyalty. You need to remind your people that the company is not a giant, faceless abstract “it” rather it is a group of people – “we.”

For IBM and General Electric, knowledge is key to growth and agility. To ensure they maximize their knowledge base, both have created knowledge-sharing sites – GE Connect features thousands of blogs As a part of any strategic risk assessment, companies must establish and wikis, while IBM’s Pass It Along boasts a collaborative platform social media guidelines that reflect legal liability, safety, and security with social networking, visual mapping, and expertise profiling. concerns along with the company values and code of conduct.

Similarly, in order to reach the 85% of its crew who work for indeClearly, information technology will take a more conservative view of pendent owner/operators, McDonald’s launched Station M, a social social media compared to marketing, sales, and public relations teams networking site replete with games, updates about Ronald McDonald as different social media can introduce malware or viruses into the House Charities, discussion forums, and user-generated content. company’s network.

According to McDonald’s Senior Director Heidi Barker, of the 57,000 Beyond the security threats, employees need to abide by the registered users, “60% have opted in for further communication” while company’s privacy, confidentiality, and legal guidelines for external “42% have told us through surveys that they think of McDonald’s as communications. Obviously, any comments or shared information a career opportunity.” A fact, Barker notes, that suggests social media is should be honest and accurate. Written words have permanence – be having a positive impact on loyalty and staff turnover. sure what you write will not come back to haunt you. Most companies prefer that their employees identify themselves as employees when offering professional opinions in public forums. However, it must be made absolutely clear that the employee’s opinion does not necessarily reflect the company’s. Unless given permission otherwise, Company executives need to be willing to communicate with all their employees should not speak on behalf of the company. stakeholders. “The organizations that truly are embracing social The issue of criticism of superiors and the company as a whole is a media and social business have an understanding from the C-suite challenging one. There have been several recent cases of firings where that things have changed,” says Carfi. employees have posted disparaging comments on Facebook about their Social media can be unpredictable and intimidating – and that is boss and were subsequently fired. Most of these workers have since because it is real. You are creating a strong social bond that will have successfully sued or reached out-of-court settlements. The takeaway a wider impact than you could ever achieve with a scripted marketing lesson is to be aware of your country’s limits on employee free speech campaign alone. Social media makes your message real and gives and liability. If in doubt, seek legal counsel early. your company authenticity.

We have powerful tools to personalize and enhance the brand experience for our employees.

Yesteryear has passed.

We must accept that our employees are intelligent individuals capable of making independent, informed decisions and will act in the best interests of the company.

Empower your future with social media.

11

Is this an era of new eras?

Feature 2 Three take on change

Aalto EE’s Profile spoke to Stefan Einhorn, Mika Pantzar and Sari Stenfors to take a look into our future.

The three forerunner interviews shared the same goal: to find out where we are in history right now in terms of change.

While listening to the three experts weave their tales, you cannot help but think that we might well be at a bridge, a turning point in history. The changes taking place are far from subtle. Likewise, the choices we make during the next decade may well mark the path that we, the human race, end up taking. Are we at the brinks of a revolution – or is it change as usual?

Text: joanna sinclair, illustration: hans eiskonen

12

13

Is this an era of new eras?

Feature 2 Three take on change

Aalto EE’s Profile spoke to Stefan Einhorn, Mika Pantzar and Sari Stenfors to take a look into our future.

The three forerunner interviews shared the same goal: to find out where we are in history right now in terms of change.

While listening to the three experts weave their tales, you cannot help but think that we might well be at a bridge, a turning point in history. The changes taking place are far from subtle. Likewise, the choices we make during the next decade may well mark the path that we, the human race, end up taking. Are we at the brinks of a revolution – or is it change as usual?

Text: joanna sinclair, illustration: hans eiskonen

12

13

Digital natives and developing countries Sari Stenfors

is a hard woman to contact. Based in San Francisco, California, she spends much of her times at remote locations around the globe teaching innovation.

“I live a virtual life and wear three hats, hence, the slightly hectic schedule,” begins Stenfors, in a video interview via Skype.

Stenfors received her PhD from Helsinki School of Economics, now part of Aalto University, after which she built a career as a researcher at Stanford. She is CEO of InnovationDemocracy, a non-profit organization that has brought innovation and entrepreneurship to many developing nations – and also is a partner in the consulting firm Radical Inclusion, which specializes in virtual work and the virtual world.

This accomplished multi-tasker in no stranger to corporate life. She joined academia after years of strategic work in the business world. Making sure Finnish design giant Marimekko smoothly found its way public on the I List of Helsinki Exchange back in 1999 was Stenfors’ doing, for example.

As she sees it, the world is going through a transformational change.

“We are facing new laws of virtual physics and virtual technology. You can contact people virtually around the globe; speak to one person at a time or address a thousand. Your businesses’ main product might not bring you any money, although you are drawing in a handsome profit. Google’s primary service is free,” she reminds us.

“The fastest change going on right now is cloud business. Almost everyone is already in a cloud. Now cloud companies are forming cloud networks. If your company is not in a cloud, either get in there or someone will take your place. There are countless eager new start-ups hungry to move you aside,” Stenfors knows.

Stenfors urges us to appreciate that the changes taking place are affecting our entire way of life, not just business models. As the internet has made the world smaller, social media has given the power to the people.

Egypt and its Facebook and Twitter led revolution are signs of this phenomenon.

14

“The power structure of the world is changing.

Traditional Western business models are becoming a thing of the past. India, Russia and Asia are pushing through.”

The good news is that most of the changes taking place have great potential in making the world better.

The bad news is that the lessons we need to learn are still on their way.

“Think of digital natives, the people born into the internet era. Now think of developing nations.

The combination is revolutionizing our world. Digital natives in developing countries are full of innovation, eager to see progress and willing to change the world.

With a little help they will.”

Stenfors points out that the aid European countries have been giving developing nations has not led to what we have hoped for so far. Now tables are turning through initiatives like InnovationDemocracy.

“Most development aid has been structured top-down. We believe that grass root aid, teaching and motivation are a necessity as well. We strive to empower individuals to make a difference,” she feels.

“Teaching entrepreneurship in countries such as Afghanistan has taught me more than I can explain.

Working with entrepreneurs and organizations that strive for their day-to-day existence in circumstances we find hard to even imagine. It gives you an entirely new sense of how innovative and capable people are when pushed to it.”

Stenfors has an idea for leaders aspiring to succeed through the changes that lay ahead. They should design themselves a two-part course to introduce themselves to the key drivers of change: the digital natives and the developing nations.

“I suggest they first set up a cooperation with a company practicing a similar line of business in a developing country, somewhere where business is excruciatingly hard to conduct. Not a subcontractor relationship but a real partnership. Then they should learn. See how their new-found partner solves problems and manages to overcome obstacles. This experience will pay itself back in a hurry if a company makes the effort to reflect and learn,” she adds.

Side-by-side with this, Stenfors suggest that leaders design their own digital native course. “Ask around to find someone young enough to teach you; and then immerse in playing internet video games together with a group of digital natives. See in practice how they operate, work together, create strategy and synergy. I promise this kind of hands-on experimental learning with a digital native will be eye-opening in terms of what the virtual world offers business-wise,” Stenfors affirms.

The rise of the home market – and the employee who won’t obey Stenfors’ vision of our new world is followed by one that mixes-and-matches ideas from many fields. Profile spoke to to find out how the world lies through the eyes of an Academy of Finland senior research fellow.

Known for his at times radical ideas, Pantzar has, for example, written about intuition in management: using your gut feeling to find the way. At the moment, he is putting together the result of five-years of research leave from his day job as head of research in Finland’s National Consumer Research Centre.

Pantzar is quickly lured into looking at the world of change. The first change that Pantzar wants to emphasize is that the Western world order is no longer the dominant way.

“Russian, Indian and Asian social orders, their ways of conducting business, they are taking over the world. This has come as a surprise to many, at least in the West,” he postulates. “Then again, many things have surprised the West.”

Scenario’s that were widely believed, says Pantzar, turned out to be wildly inaccurate. “For example, mass moving from Eastern Europe. Many were convinced this would happen once the EU expanded. The result? No major movements. It turned out that most people were keen on staying in their home countries. They had homes, families, loved ones, why leave?”

Pantzar paints a future that in some aspects takes us a few steps back to the past.

We might well see a new rise in protectionism.>

Mika Pantzar

15

Digital natives and developing countries Sari Stenfors

is a hard woman to contact. Based in San Francisco, California, she spends much of her times at remote locations around the globe teaching innovation.

“I live a virtual life and wear three hats, hence, the slightly hectic schedule,” begins Stenfors, in a video interview via Skype.

Stenfors received her PhD from Helsinki School of Economics, now part of Aalto University, after which she built a career as a researcher at Stanford. She is CEO of InnovationDemocracy, a non-profit organization that has brought innovation and entrepreneurship to many developing nations – and also is a partner in the consulting firm Radical Inclusion, which specializes in virtual work and the virtual world.

This accomplished multi-tasker in no stranger to corporate life. She joined academia after years of strategic work in the business world. Making sure Finnish design giant Marimekko smoothly found its way public on the I List of Helsinki Exchange back in 1999 was Stenfors’ doing, for example.

As she sees it, the world is going through a transformational change.

“We are facing new laws of virtual physics and virtual technology. You can contact people virtually around the globe; speak to one person at a time or address a thousand. Your businesses’ main product might not bring you any money, although you are drawing in a handsome profit. Google’s primary service is free,” she reminds us.

“The fastest change going on right now is cloud business. Almost everyone is already in a cloud. Now cloud companies are forming cloud networks. If your company is not in a cloud, either get in there or someone will take your place. There are countless eager new start-ups hungry to move you aside,” Stenfors knows.

Stenfors urges us to appreciate that the changes taking place are affecting our entire way of life, not just business models. As the internet has made the world smaller, social media has given the power to the people.

Egypt and its Facebook and Twitter led revolution are signs of this phenomenon.

14

“The power structure of the world is changing.

Traditional Western business models are becoming a thing of the past. India, Russia and Asia are pushing through.”

The good news is that most of the changes taking place have great potential in making the world better.

The bad news is that the lessons we need to learn are still on their way.

“Think of digital natives, the people born into the internet era. Now think of developing nations.

The combination is revolutionizing our world. Digital natives in developing countries are full of innovation, eager to see progress and willing to change the world.

With a little help they will.”

Stenfors points out that the aid European countries have been giving developing nations has not led to what we have hoped for so far. Now tables are turning through initiatives like InnovationDemocracy.

“Most development aid has been structured top-down. We believe that grass root aid, teaching and motivation are a necessity as well. We strive to empower individuals to make a difference,” she feels.

“Teaching entrepreneurship in countries such as Afghanistan has taught me more than I can explain.

Working with entrepreneurs and organizations that strive for their day-to-day existence in circumstances we find hard to even imagine. It gives you an entirely new sense of how innovative and capable people are when pushed to it.”

Stenfors has an idea for leaders aspiring to succeed through the changes that lay ahead. They should design themselves a two-part course to introduce themselves to the key drivers of change: the digital natives and the developing nations.

“I suggest they first set up a cooperation with a company practicing a similar line of business in a developing country, somewhere where business is excruciatingly hard to conduct. Not a subcontractor relationship but a real partnership. Then they should learn. See how their new-found partner solves problems and manages to overcome obstacles. This experience will pay itself back in a hurry if a company makes the effort to reflect and learn,” she adds.

Side-by-side with this, Stenfors suggest that leaders design their own digital native course. “Ask around to find someone young enough to teach you; and then immerse in playing internet video games together with a group of digital natives. See in practice how they operate, work together, create strategy and synergy. I promise this kind of hands-on experimental learning with a digital native will be eye-opening in terms of what the virtual world offers business-wise,” Stenfors affirms.

The rise of the home market – and the employee who won’t obey Stenfors’ vision of our new world is followed by one that mixes-and-matches ideas from many fields. Profile spoke to to find out how the world lies through the eyes of an Academy of Finland senior research fellow.

Known for his at times radical ideas, Pantzar has, for example, written about intuition in management: using your gut feeling to find the way. At the moment, he is putting together the result of five-years of research leave from his day job as head of research in Finland’s National Consumer Research Centre.

Pantzar is quickly lured into looking at the world of change. The first change that Pantzar wants to emphasize is that the Western world order is no longer the dominant way.

“Russian, Indian and Asian social orders, their ways of conducting business, they are taking over the world. This has come as a surprise to many, at least in the West,” he postulates. “Then again, many things have surprised the West.”

Scenario’s that were widely believed, says Pantzar, turned out to be wildly inaccurate. “For example, mass moving from Eastern Europe. Many were convinced this would happen once the EU expanded. The result? No major movements. It turned out that most people were keen on staying in their home countries. They had homes, families, loved ones, why leave?”

Pantzar paints a future that in some aspects takes us a few steps back to the past.

We might well see a new rise in protectionism.>

Mika Pantzar

15

“I believe that the next global crises will be over raw materials.

The global credit crunch showed us the speed at which things can escalate and reach every corner of the earth. We all know the numbers, now all we have to do is do the math.”

Pantzar goes through the figures: Today, there are still areas in China that carry out as self-sustaining units, producing everything they consume. When you look at the rising middle classes in India and Asia alone, clearly there will be a vast shortage of raw materials.

Add on the other developing countries, continual growth in the West and the table is set for trouble.

“The home market is becoming increasingly important in our globalized world. Protectionism provides one way of assuring that your own country stays ahead of the game. Instead of selling raw material on its own, we will sell it with a clause that it must be processed in our own country, creating jobs and security,” Pantzar predicts.

On a macro level, examples of this trend are already gaining popularity.

“Preferring food that is produced nearby, people setting up their own or shared gardens to grow their own vegetables … grass-root self-sustainability is a growing trend,” Pantzar points out.

Globalization is one of the major causes of change. The way people view work is also taking a rather radical leap.

“Although leadership has evolved considerably, much of what we still call management is based on a belief that employees will obey orders. This is history. The traditional rule-following worker citizen has an opposite, the consumer citizen. She does not obey commands,” Pantzar explains.

The consumer citizen is aware of her own value, suspicious toward line-organizations and speaks highly of self-leadership. She is an individual and by no means as loyal to a company as her mother or grandfather before her. To retain her talent, a leader needs to treat her as an equal and make sure she is enjoying herself.

“People may have preferred pleasant work environments in the past, but as of now, they are demanding them. Many traditional processes and organizational models are worthless in a work environment that needs to be both productive and enjoyable, even fun.”

Leadership has already gone through radical changes, feels Pantzar.

“We will be seeing many more changes in years to come, as bosses learn how to entertain and show true empathy. I call these new leaders organizational Zorro’s, They will be true hero’s of the employees, do-gooders, really on their side – and yet somehow manage to portray an image of teaming with the stakeholders. It will be a balancing act,” Pantzar suspects.

Organizational Zorro’s set the stage for the last leg of our journey – a look into kindness.

16

“The global credit crunch showed us the speed of which things can escalate and reach every corner of the earth.”

The freedom to choose our future Stefan Einhorn is known

The Innovation Democracy Group This nonprofit organization supports local innovation and entrepreneurship in countries important to world stability.

InnovationDemocracy was founded by Aalto University’s professor Liisa Välikangas and Sari Stenfors. It operates on the premise that grassroots, profit-motivated initiatives will produce selfperpetuating returns to the society and economy: the most effective development takes place by empowering individuals: a trickle up rather than trickle down theory of development.

for many things, but most of all for being nice. Einhorn has a kind mind.

The son of holocaust survivors, a medical doctor specialized in oncology, Einhorn holds a professorship in his field at the Swedish Karolinska Institutet, where he has also previously acted as chairperson of the Institute’s ethics council.

A much sought-after public speaker, the ‘Kindness Professor,’ as Einhorn is often called, has written several books on what it takes to be a good human being. The Art of Being Kind is probably the best known of his work, but titles such as Wisdom – the Art of Solving Problems, have gained widespread audiences and critical recognition as well. Currently, kindness and wisdom take up most of his time, as Einhorn devotes about 80% of his working hours to writing and public speaking on the topic of ethical behavior.

“I believe that traits such as knowledge, wisdom, love and ethics or kindness, as I like to call it, are most meaningful to our existence. I am, of course, not the source of these ideas. Most all great religions portray them as hallmarks of what we as people should strive towards. But they are a message worth repeating, I think,” says Einhorn.

When we look at our world today, it seems changes are taking place in terms of kindness, Einhorn believes.

“When I say kind I do not mean being a wimp. Being kind means that you have a wish to do-good to others and the courage to turn this wish into actions. It means the integrity to do the right thing, although it sometimes calls for tough decisions,” he emphasizes. >

17

“I believe that the next global crises will be over raw materials.

The global credit crunch showed us the speed at which things can escalate and reach every corner of the earth. We all know the numbers, now all we have to do is do the math.”

Pantzar goes through the figures: Today, there are still areas in China that carry out as self-sustaining units, producing everything they consume. When you look at the rising middle classes in India and Asia alone, clearly there will be a vast shortage of raw materials.

Add on the other developing countries, continual growth in the West and the table is set for trouble.

“The home market is becoming increasingly important in our globalized world. Protectionism provides one way of assuring that your own country stays ahead of the game. Instead of selling raw material on its own, we will sell it with a clause that it must be processed in our own country, creating jobs and security,” Pantzar predicts.

On a macro level, examples of this trend are already gaining popularity.

“Preferring food that is produced nearby, people setting up their own or shared gardens to grow their own vegetables … grass-root self-sustainability is a growing trend,” Pantzar points out.

Globalization is one of the major causes of change. The way people view work is also taking a rather radical leap.

“Although leadership has evolved considerably, much of what we still call management is based on a belief that employees will obey orders. This is history. The traditional rule-following worker citizen has an opposite, the consumer citizen. She does not obey commands,” Pantzar explains.

The consumer citizen is aware of her own value, suspicious toward line-organizations and speaks highly of self-leadership. She is an individual and by no means as loyal to a company as her mother or grandfather before her. To retain her talent, a leader needs to treat her as an equal and make sure she is enjoying herself.

“People may have preferred pleasant work environments in the past, but as of now, they are demanding them. Many traditional processes and organizational models are worthless in a work environment that needs to be both productive and enjoyable, even fun.”

Leadership has already gone through radical changes, feels Pantzar.

“We will be seeing many more changes in years to come, as bosses learn how to entertain and show true empathy. I call these new leaders organizational Zorro’s, They will be true hero’s of the employees, do-gooders, really on their side – and yet somehow manage to portray an image of teaming with the stakeholders. It will be a balancing act,” Pantzar suspects.

Organizational Zorro’s set the stage for the last leg of our journey – a look into kindness.

16

“The global credit crunch showed us the speed of which things can escalate and reach every corner of the earth.”

The freedom to choose our future Stefan Einhorn is known

The Innovation Democracy Group This nonprofit organization supports local innovation and entrepreneurship in countries important to world stability.

InnovationDemocracy was founded by Aalto University’s professor Liisa Välikangas and Sari Stenfors. It operates on the premise that grassroots, profit-motivated initiatives will produce selfperpetuating returns to the society and economy: the most effective development takes place by empowering individuals: a trickle up rather than trickle down theory of development.

for many things, but most of all for being nice. Einhorn has a kind mind.

The son of holocaust survivors, a medical doctor specialized in oncology, Einhorn holds a professorship in his field at the Swedish Karolinska Institutet, where he has also previously acted as chairperson of the Institute’s ethics council.

A much sought-after public speaker, the ‘Kindness Professor,’ as Einhorn is often called, has written several books on what it takes to be a good human being. The Art of Being Kind is probably the best known of his work, but titles such as Wisdom – the Art of Solving Problems, have gained widespread audiences and critical recognition as well. Currently, kindness and wisdom take up most of his time, as Einhorn devotes about 80% of his working hours to writing and public speaking on the topic of ethical behavior.

“I believe that traits such as knowledge, wisdom, love and ethics or kindness, as I like to call it, are most meaningful to our existence. I am, of course, not the source of these ideas. Most all great religions portray them as hallmarks of what we as people should strive towards. But they are a message worth repeating, I think,” says Einhorn.

When we look at our world today, it seems changes are taking place in terms of kindness, Einhorn believes.

“When I say kind I do not mean being a wimp. Being kind means that you have a wish to do-good to others and the courage to turn this wish into actions. It means the integrity to do the right thing, although it sometimes calls for tough decisions,” he emphasizes. >

17

Aalto EE open portfolio changes with you Aalto university executive education offers students a unique opportunity to create their own study path.

From January 2011, all of the open portfolio programs have a certain amount of study points that can be directly transferred to become part of a student’s MBA or EMBA degree, should he or she decide to go ahead and study for the full degree in the future.

This new opportunity offers individuals a novel way to brush up on their expertise in any of the several areas that Aalto EE offers open portfolio courses in – and, at the same time, collect study points that they can make part of a degree in years to come.

Current programs to keep your eye on include Future Leadership, Leading Service Business and Leading Sales.

Future Leadership is a course you could easily take over and over again – although you can naturally count its credits into a degree only once.

Aalto EE Dean Minna Hiillos expects that a five-year duration between Future Leadership programs is often long enough, if one wants to keep up-to-date on forerunner leadership trends.

“It is entirely dependent on the times and progress made. Sometimes being at the cutting edge of leadership might mean taking the course even every three years,” Hiillos reminds.

18

According to Einhorn, what is really changing in our time is the social acceptance toward being evil. Evil is no longer tolerated – not from individuals or for money-making businesses.

“I am hopeful we are currently experiencing an interlude to a turn toward ethical behavior in business; that we are making a major change toward good. I would like to believe that ethical matters weigh more and more in investment decisions on the stock markets, for example.”

Corporate social responsibility is still in its cradle, feels Einhorn, “but it has already changed the way businesses operate.”

Companies are not just using corporate social responsibility as a way to ease their conscience; they are doing-good for a good reason.

Consumers are increasingly aware and demanding towards companies in this respect.

“The companies that act right draw more consumers to their products. It pays to be good,” Einhorn affirms.

“The change is not necessarily altruistic, it is practical. Leaders have been shown in practice, time and again, that they get better results by doing-good for their employees. Companies make more money and individuals feel better about themselves and their lives.”

As Einhorn sees it, we are currently treading on a thin line between good and evil. He is reluctant to call our time the dawn of a revolution, but speaks of a crossroads. Businesses are realizing the power of good, but we have quite a few lessons to learn as a globe. The question at hand is: which path will we take – where are we heading, as individuals, as businesses, as nations?

“Economic development is the reason why our lives have so greatly improved. It has allowed us to become better people as we don’t have to fight for our survival.”

The responsibility resting on our shoulders now is to walk the line between good and evil, with wisdom and make the deliberate decision to behave ethically.

“There are 30% less people starving in the world today compared to the 1980s. Childhood mortality rates have decreased by 60% worldwide since the 1950s. There are less and less extremely poor people – and for the first time in the history of humankind, we have the means, the technology and the knowledge necessary to make our world a humane place to live for everybody,” Einhorn lists.

“At the same time, we have weapons that could wipe out our entire planet. Pollution is a huge problem. The vast improvements in transportation unfortunately also enable diseases to spread around the world at an alarming pace.”

We have the power to do almost anything we wish, feels Einhorn.

“I hope that what we do is choose to be kind. I do not dare to think of what will happen to our world if this choice is not made.

We just might destroy it.”

How to teach your elephant?

Grumbles in the corridor?

Did the change not go through as expected? Neuroscience helps us understand why it is a near must to resist change – and how resistance gradually wears down.

Picture a clothes store with sales far below

its realistically calculated target figures. The store manager believes that there is great room for improvement in customer satisfaction, for example.

The manager invites consultants to come and observe routine activities at the store. After a period of observation and analysis, the store staff is assembled and the consultants describe what went wrong.

How many opportunities for further sales were lost during the week? Why weren’t all customers approached with the right attitude? Are customer needs taken into consideration in the first place?

Following the consultants’ visit and the discussions about shortcomings, sales are expected to surge.

So wherein lay the problem if this does not take place?

Organization researchers familiar with neuroscience, focusing on the brain and mind, would respond mercilessly: sales obviously won’t increase, since the treatment of those expected to make it happen – the salespeople – could not have gone more wrong at the meeting. The consultants presented them with a list of accusations, and the staff felt threatened. >

Text: Kirsi Riipinen, Photos: sHutterstock

Feature 3 Change in the brain

19

Aalto EE open portfolio changes with you Aalto university executive education offers students a unique opportunity to create their own study path.

From January 2011, all of the open portfolio programs have a certain amount of study points that can be directly transferred to become part of a student’s MBA or EMBA degree, should he or she decide to go ahead and study for the full degree in the future.

This new opportunity offers individuals a novel way to brush up on their expertise in any of the several areas that Aalto EE offers open portfolio courses in – and, at the same time, collect study points that they can make part of a degree in years to come.

Current programs to keep your eye on include Future Leadership, Leading Service Business and Leading Sales.

Future Leadership is a course you could easily take over and over again – although you can naturally count its credits into a degree only once.

Aalto EE Dean Minna Hiillos expects that a five-year duration between Future Leadership programs is often long enough, if one wants to keep up-to-date on forerunner leadership trends.

“It is entirely dependent on the times and progress made. Sometimes being at the cutting edge of leadership might mean taking the course even every three years,” Hiillos reminds.

18

According to Einhorn, what is really changing in our time is the social acceptance toward being evil. Evil is no longer tolerated – not from individuals or for money-making businesses.

“I am hopeful we are currently experiencing an interlude to a turn toward ethical behavior in business; that we are making a major change toward good. I would like to believe that ethical matters weigh more and more in investment decisions on the stock markets, for example.”

Corporate social responsibility is still in its cradle, feels Einhorn, “but it has already changed the way businesses operate.”

Companies are not just using corporate social responsibility as a way to ease their conscience; they are doing-good for a good reason.

Consumers are increasingly aware and demanding towards companies in this respect.

“The companies that act right draw more consumers to their products. It pays to be good,” Einhorn affirms.

“The change is not necessarily altruistic, it is practical. Leaders have been shown in practice, time and again, that they get better results by doing-good for their employees. Companies make more money and individuals feel better about themselves and their lives.”

As Einhorn sees it, we are currently treading on a thin line between good and evil. He is reluctant to call our time the dawn of a revolution, but speaks of a crossroads. Businesses are realizing the power of good, but we have quite a few lessons to learn as a globe. The question at hand is: which path will we take – where are we heading, as individuals, as businesses, as nations?

“Economic development is the reason why our lives have so greatly improved. It has allowed us to become better people as we don’t have to fight for our survival.”

The responsibility resting on our shoulders now is to walk the line between good and evil, with wisdom and make the deliberate decision to behave ethically.

“There are 30% less people starving in the world today compared to the 1980s. Childhood mortality rates have decreased by 60% worldwide since the 1950s. There are less and less extremely poor people – and for the first time in the history of humankind, we have the means, the technology and the knowledge necessary to make our world a humane place to live for everybody,” Einhorn lists.

“At the same time, we have weapons that could wipe out our entire planet. Pollution is a huge problem. The vast improvements in transportation unfortunately also enable diseases to spread around the world at an alarming pace.”

We have the power to do almost anything we wish, feels Einhorn.

“I hope that what we do is choose to be kind. I do not dare to think of what will happen to our world if this choice is not made.

We just might destroy it.”

How to teach your elephant?

Grumbles in the corridor?

Did the change not go through as expected? Neuroscience helps us understand why it is a near must to resist change – and how resistance gradually wears down.

Picture a clothes store with sales far below

its realistically calculated target figures. The store manager believes that there is great room for improvement in customer satisfaction, for example.

The manager invites consultants to come and observe routine activities at the store. After a period of observation and analysis, the store staff is assembled and the consultants describe what went wrong.

How many opportunities for further sales were lost during the week? Why weren’t all customers approached with the right attitude? Are customer needs taken into consideration in the first place?

Following the consultants’ visit and the discussions about shortcomings, sales are expected to surge.

So wherein lay the problem if this does not take place?

Organization researchers familiar with neuroscience, focusing on the brain and mind, would respond mercilessly: sales obviously won’t increase, since the treatment of those expected to make it happen – the salespeople – could not have gone more wrong at the meeting. The consultants presented them with a list of accusations, and the staff felt threatened. >

Text: Kirsi Riipinen, Photos: sHutterstock

Feature 3 Change in the brain

19

David Rock

Wouldn’t everything be easy if the different parts of our brain always worked in good cooperation, we experienced good feelings and came up with excellent ideas?

That, however, is not how things work, since the limbic system also accompanies us at work – which is fine, since decisionmaking, for example, would be impossible without it. The limbic system is constantly prepared to seize control, should any need for such arise.

If, say, we are told about forthcoming organization changes, the limbic system stands ready with its ‘threat detected’ directives. If the news is disturbing, we do not listen to sensible explanations about why the new organization is better than the old one.

Breaking routines. According to Miekkavaara and Kytönen, independently gained insight is the core element in change – and in learning overall. Insight cannot be achieved by force; it calls for the right frame of mind.

David Rock emphasizes the importance of undivided concentration. All of us have been to meetings where someone reads emails on the laptop, another one answers text messages and a third one browses through material from a previous meeting.

The truth is that people can properly concentrate on only one thing at a time.

Rock encourages managers to think about ways to break employees’ daily rituals and their overlapping activities.

Could a meeting, for example, be held somewhere else than the all too familiar meeting room, with laptops and phones left on the desk?

Daniel Siegel points out that performing

several tasks simultaneously leads to our autopilot switching on. In this state, the brain parts that form strong neurological links are silenced.

“Continuously having multiple tasking impedes the ability of the brain to remember things or develop skills. In contrast, if you focus on a single matter at a time, it is possible to learn new things and remember them long,” explains Daniel Siegel in his interview with Profile.

“We suspect that an area of the brain called the nucleus basalis secretes acetyl choline. This enables the neurons that are activated when we pay close attention to something to create new connections with each other. In the mechanisms involved, neural firing activates gene expression so that structural connections among activated neurons can be created or strengthened,” says Siegel.

“A close focus of attention changes the structure of the brain itself. Partial attention does not lead to the same effect.”

Help from meditation. Researchers, Daniel Siegel among them, talk about mindfulness – a conscious and nonjudgmental presence. A person who is aware and present lives in the moment does not evaluate things and is willing to learn.

Gaining new understanding calls for undivided attention, as well as a frame of mind susceptible to new information or action.

The impact of meditation on the sought-after state of mind has been discussed for long. Organization researchers do not suggest that teams begin to meditate on Eastern rugs amid wafts of incense, but

rather want to show how people in leading positions can benefit from learning to read and interpret their shifts of mind.

Daniel Siegel has also shown that the power of meditation is much stronger than previously suspected. It can even increase the prefrontal cortex. Medicine uses meditation to soothe pain.

But how does one convince busy business people of the power of meditation?

“Mind training, such as meditation, is an important way of keeping the brain strong and healthy. It should be a part of daily routines, much like brushing the teeth. It would help leaders with hectic schedules to remain stronger and healthier, in addition to getting subordinates to work more efficiently and effectively,” says Siegel.

David Rock uses other expressions to talk about meditation.

“I do not talk about meditation, but about increasing internal data processing. It requires you to know something about mental functioning, which I teach by explaining the brain. When leaders understand the brain, their ability to control their attention increases.”

Eeva-Maria Kytönen

How to teach an elephant?

Arto Miekkavaara and Eeva-Maria Kytönen, coaches at Results Coaching Systems, compare the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex to an elephant and its rider. When the elephant assumes control, the rider falls off and the elephant pushes ahead.

Miekkavaara and Kytönen will discuss the importance that understanding brain functions have for management at Aalto Leaders’ Insight.

“If the rider is thrown off the saddle, there is no point in giving rational explanations or talking about advantages.

The question is how the elephant and rider can be made to cooperate seamlessly so the vehicle, too, can learn new tricks,” says Kytönen.

Arto Miekkavaara

If the store really wants to bring about change, it should pay attention to the main instrument: the brain. For the brain to be involved in change, people must be given the chance of independently gaining insight.

A good change leader understands how the brain functions. This topic has been discussed by neuroscientists in the past few years, some of the most prominent and knowledgeable including Daniel Siegel, from the United States, and David Rock, from Australia.

Daniel Siegel works as a professor of psychiatry at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). His research publications include Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation (Bantam, 2010).

David Rock’s ideas became famous after he published Quiet Leadership: Six Steps to Transforming Performance and Your Brain at Work (HarperBusiness, 2006).

Recent brain research has examined why we act reluctantly in change situations and how change can be successfully managed.

The brain of modern people still works the same way as that of our Stone Age forefathers. It continuously tells us whether a situation threatens or advances our well-being. If we come under threat, what is known as the limbic system takes over.

When this rather primitive system is in control, it is utterly useless to talk sense or

Daniel Siegel

Which do you want: to threaten or offer a cut of the results?

Limbic system The limbic system propose new activities to us. We will not consists of listen because we focus on survival: fleeing mutually linked or fighting. parts of the What about situations that are not prefrontal cortex threatening and that only promise posithat form tive things, such as a relaxing time in good a boundary around the company? This is when control transfers brainstem. to the prefrontal cortex, and our attitude to The limbic system is the surroundings is completely different. extremely Our whole brain functions harmoniously important and integrally. We are cooperative, listen to for motivated and what others have to say, look for solutions emotional behavior – and possibly learn brand new things. (eating, Unfortunately, researchers have found drinking, that threats cause much stronger reactions sexual activity, than pleasant events and that they leave fear and violence). longer traces in our memories.

Prefrontal cortex The prefrontal cortex is located in the frontal lobe with the primary brainstem.

It affects the working memory and is essential to guiding our activities.

The prefrontal cortex also relates to methodicalness and attentiveness.

Reduce noise, be fair. Independently gained insight also calls for a quiet mind.

“If your head is filled by constant noise, you cannot hear the quiet beeps of insight.

No wonder that revelations often do not come about at the desk or in meeting rooms. When the noise dies down at lunch or during a coffee break, the bulb lights up – if there’s any chance of it doing so,” says Miekkavaara.

A quiet mind begins to clamor if the brain is stimulated incessantly. Fear and

worries cause noise and raise the stress level. Stress, in turn, means that the limbic system begins to lead us and the ability to solve matters becomes more difficult.

Rock also emphasizes the importance of fairness. When people feel they are treated fairly, the noise in the brain dies down and the brain can work as a harmonious whole, orchestrated by the prefrontal cortex.

Brain-friendly influence.

Miekkavaara and Kytönen would also adopt brain-friendly interaction in change.

What do they mean by this?

Let’s start with an example. The team has a problem. The superior wants to know why things are not working as they should.

“We know from everyday experience that such a question is bound to fail. People get defensive because they feel threatened,” explains Miekkavaara.

Brain research tells us that when provoked we are unable to think rationally.

What should a superior do to keep the prefrontal cortex in the game and to avoid the elephant throwing off the rider?

In a solution-oriented approach, a smart superior would leave mistakes behind and together with the team discuss what to do next and how to act to ensure that things work in the future.

A smart clothes store manager would not look for mistakes made by the sales personnel or for lost opportunities for additional sales, but get the staff together to discuss how business was conducted when clothes sold well and customers bought two instead of just one blouse.

Eeva-Maija Kytönen and Arto Miekkavaara spoke at Aalto Leaders' Insight in February 2011.

Avoid creating threats

1. Status The superior helps people understand their tasks and acknowledge their expertise. The superior encourages, inspires, listens and rewards good work.

People feel they 20

are appreciated.

Modern understanding gives so much importance to the esteem and approval of others that brain researchers now challenge Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of primary needs.

2. Certainty Uncertainty is poison to thought. We want to know what will happen next. Variety is refreshing, yes, but only to a point. A suitable number of new and challenging situations increase adrenalin and

dopamine levels to the extent that our curiosity is aroused and we want to solve problems.

When uncertainty increases, memory and commitment, for example, become more difficult.

3. Autonomy Can I affect my own matters or do I flow with the current?

A wise superior involves employees in decisions concerning matters that affect them and gives them choices.

A classic U.S. study conducted in a nursing home back in the 1970s showed that if inhabitants were involved in decisionmaking, they were healthier and lived longer than those who were not given a

22

choice. Choices as such were not crucial; what was important was the feeling of autonomy.

A successful organization change leaves people with the feeling of grasping matters and being able to learn new things.

4. Relatedness Every time we meet a new person, the brain quickly categorizes him or her as a friend or enemy. If we find the person we meet to be very different, this leads to feelings of discomfort. This

is something that superiors should take into account when setting up teams: people cannot be simply thrown into groups.

They must also be given time to get acquainted with each other’s

thinking and customs.

On the other hand, the superior should keep in mind that the feeling of belonging to a work group is extremely important. If people feel abandoned, the area warning

of physical pain is activated in the brain.

5. Fairness When we feel we are being treated unfairly, the limbic system seizes control and the area of physical revulsion is activated in the brain. We

feel threatened.

If, on the other hand, we are convinced that we have been treated fairly, the brain hums along just as satisfied as, say, when we eat chocolate.

23 24 25

Next:

David Rock’s SCARF model describes five social dimensions that control our actions by creating a negative (feelings of threat) or positive (feelings of reward) reaction in the brain. This is essential in terms of our ability and will to promote change. NASA, among others, has defined its management competence according to the SCARF model.

David Rock

Wouldn’t everything be easy if the different parts of our brain always worked in good cooperation, we experienced good feelings and came up with excellent ideas?

That, however, is not how things work, since the limbic system also accompanies us at work – which is fine, since decisionmaking, for example, would be impossible without it. The limbic system is constantly prepared to seize control, should any need for such arise.

If, say, we are told about forthcoming organization changes, the limbic system stands ready with its ‘threat detected’ directives. If the news is disturbing, we do not listen to sensible explanations about why the new organization is better than the old one.

Breaking routines. According to Miekkavaara and Kytönen, independently gained insight is the core element in change – and in learning overall. Insight cannot be achieved by force; it calls for the right frame of mind.

David Rock emphasizes the importance of undivided concentration. All of us have been to meetings where someone reads emails on the laptop, another one answers text messages and a third one browses through material from a previous meeting.

The truth is that people can properly concentrate on only one thing at a time.

Rock encourages managers to think about ways to break employees’ daily rituals and their overlapping activities.

Could a meeting, for example, be held somewhere else than the all too familiar meeting room, with laptops and phones left on the desk?

Daniel Siegel points out that performing

several tasks simultaneously leads to our autopilot switching on. In this state, the brain parts that form strong neurological links are silenced.

“Continuously having multiple tasking impedes the ability of the brain to remember things or develop skills. In contrast, if you focus on a single matter at a time, it is possible to learn new things and remember them long,” explains Daniel Siegel in his interview with Profile.

“We suspect that an area of the brain called the nucleus basalis secretes acetyl choline. This enables the neurons that are activated when we pay close attention to something to create new connections with each other. In the mechanisms involved, neural firing activates gene expression so that structural connections among activated neurons can be created or strengthened,” says Siegel.

“A close focus of attention changes the structure of the brain itself. Partial attention does not lead to the same effect.”

Help from meditation. Researchers, Daniel Siegel among them, talk about mindfulness – a conscious and nonjudgmental presence. A person who is aware and present lives in the moment does not evaluate things and is willing to learn.

Gaining new understanding calls for undivided attention, as well as a frame of mind susceptible to new information or action.

The impact of meditation on the sought-after state of mind has been discussed for long. Organization researchers do not suggest that teams begin to meditate on Eastern rugs amid wafts of incense, but

rather want to show how people in leading positions can benefit from learning to read and interpret their shifts of mind.

Daniel Siegel has also shown that the power of meditation is much stronger than previously suspected. It can even increase the prefrontal cortex. Medicine uses meditation to soothe pain.

But how does one convince busy business people of the power of meditation?

“Mind training, such as meditation, is an important way of keeping the brain strong and healthy. It should be a part of daily routines, much like brushing the teeth. It would help leaders with hectic schedules to remain stronger and healthier, in addition to getting subordinates to work more efficiently and effectively,” says Siegel.

David Rock uses other expressions to talk about meditation.

“I do not talk about meditation, but about increasing internal data processing. It requires you to know something about mental functioning, which I teach by explaining the brain. When leaders understand the brain, their ability to control their attention increases.”

Eeva-Maria Kytönen

How to teach an elephant?

Arto Miekkavaara and Eeva-Maria Kytönen, coaches at Results Coaching Systems, compare the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex to an elephant and its rider. When the elephant assumes control, the rider falls off and the elephant pushes ahead.

Miekkavaara and Kytönen will discuss the importance that understanding brain functions have for management at Aalto Leaders’ Insight.

“If the rider is thrown off the saddle, there is no point in giving rational explanations or talking about advantages.

The question is how the elephant and rider can be made to cooperate seamlessly so the vehicle, too, can learn new tricks,” says Kytönen.

Arto Miekkavaara

If the store really wants to bring about change, it should pay attention to the main instrument: the brain. For the brain to be involved in change, people must be given the chance of independently gaining insight.

A good change leader understands how the brain functions. This topic has been discussed by neuroscientists in the past few years, some of the most prominent and knowledgeable including Daniel Siegel, from the United States, and David Rock, from Australia.

Daniel Siegel works as a professor of psychiatry at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). His research publications include Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation (Bantam, 2010).

David Rock’s ideas became famous after he published Quiet Leadership: Six Steps to Transforming Performance and Your Brain at Work (HarperBusiness, 2006).

Recent brain research has examined why we act reluctantly in change situations and how change can be successfully managed.

The brain of modern people still works the same way as that of our Stone Age forefathers. It continuously tells us whether a situation threatens or advances our well-being. If we come under threat, what is known as the limbic system takes over.

When this rather primitive system is in control, it is utterly useless to talk sense or

Daniel Siegel

Which do you want: to threaten or offer a cut of the results?

Limbic system The limbic system propose new activities to us. We will not consists of listen because we focus on survival: fleeing mutually linked or fighting. parts of the What about situations that are not prefrontal cortex threatening and that only promise posithat form tive things, such as a relaxing time in good a boundary around the company? This is when control transfers brainstem. to the prefrontal cortex, and our attitude to The limbic system is the surroundings is completely different. extremely Our whole brain functions harmoniously important and integrally. We are cooperative, listen to for motivated and what others have to say, look for solutions emotional behavior – and possibly learn brand new things. (eating, Unfortunately, researchers have found drinking, that threats cause much stronger reactions sexual activity, than pleasant events and that they leave fear and violence). longer traces in our memories.

Prefrontal cortex The prefrontal cortex is located in the frontal lobe with the primary brainstem.

It affects the working memory and is essential to guiding our activities.

The prefrontal cortex also relates to methodicalness and attentiveness.

Reduce noise, be fair. Independently gained insight also calls for a quiet mind.

“If your head is filled by constant noise, you cannot hear the quiet beeps of insight.

No wonder that revelations often do not come about at the desk or in meeting rooms. When the noise dies down at lunch or during a coffee break, the bulb lights up – if there’s any chance of it doing so,” says Miekkavaara.

A quiet mind begins to clamor if the brain is stimulated incessantly. Fear and

worries cause noise and raise the stress level. Stress, in turn, means that the limbic system begins to lead us and the ability to solve matters becomes more difficult.

Rock also emphasizes the importance of fairness. When people feel they are treated fairly, the noise in the brain dies down and the brain can work as a harmonious whole, orchestrated by the prefrontal cortex.

Brain-friendly influence.

Miekkavaara and Kytönen would also adopt brain-friendly interaction in change.

What do they mean by this?

Let’s start with an example. The team has a problem. The superior wants to know why things are not working as they should.

“We know from everyday experience that such a question is bound to fail. People get defensive because they feel threatened,” explains Miekkavaara.

Brain research tells us that when provoked we are unable to think rationally.

What should a superior do to keep the prefrontal cortex in the game and to avoid the elephant throwing off the rider?

In a solution-oriented approach, a smart superior would leave mistakes behind and together with the team discuss what to do next and how to act to ensure that things work in the future.

A smart clothes store manager would not look for mistakes made by the sales personnel or for lost opportunities for additional sales, but get the staff together to discuss how business was conducted when clothes sold well and customers bought two instead of just one blouse.

Eeva-Maija Kytönen and Arto Miekkavaara spoke at Aalto Leaders' Insight in February 2011.

Avoid creating threats

1. Status The superior helps people understand their tasks and acknowledge their expertise. The superior encourages, inspires, listens and rewards good work.

People feel they 20

are appreciated.

Modern understanding gives so much importance to the esteem and approval of others that brain researchers now challenge Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of primary needs.

2. Certainty Uncertainty is poison to thought. We want to know what will happen next. Variety is refreshing, yes, but only to a point. A suitable number of new and challenging situations increase adrenalin and

dopamine levels to the extent that our curiosity is aroused and we want to solve problems.

When uncertainty increases, memory and commitment, for example, become more difficult.

3. Autonomy Can I affect my own matters or do I flow with the current?

A wise superior involves employees in decisions concerning matters that affect them and gives them choices.

A classic U.S. study conducted in a nursing home back in the 1970s showed that if inhabitants were involved in decisionmaking, they were healthier and lived longer than those who were not given a

22

choice. Choices as such were not crucial; what was important was the feeling of autonomy.

A successful organization change leaves people with the feeling of grasping matters and being able to learn new things.

4. Relatedness Every time we meet a new person, the brain quickly categorizes him or her as a friend or enemy. If we find the person we meet to be very different, this leads to feelings of discomfort. This

is something that superiors should take into account when setting up teams: people cannot be simply thrown into groups.

They must also be given time to get acquainted with each other’s

thinking and customs.

On the other hand, the superior should keep in mind that the feeling of belonging to a work group is extremely important. If people feel abandoned, the area warning

of physical pain is activated in the brain.

5. Fairness When we feel we are being treated unfairly, the limbic system seizes control and the area of physical revulsion is activated in the brain. We

feel threatened.

If, on the other hand, we are convinced that we have been treated fairly, the brain hums along just as satisfied as, say, when we eat chocolate.

23 24 25

Next:

David Rock’s SCARF model describes five social dimensions that control our actions by creating a negative (feelings of threat) or positive (feelings of reward) reaction in the brain. This is essential in terms of our ability and will to promote change. NASA, among others, has defined its management competence according to the SCARF model.

Text: Satu Rämö

The future is your friend There is nothing permanent except change. trendwatching.com, independent and opinionated, is one trends firm, relyin of the worldʼs leadi g on a global netw ng consumer ork of hundreds of insights are deliv spotters. Our trend ered to 160,000 busin s, examples and ess professionals in more than 180 More information countries. at www.trendwat ching.com

The best way to keep up with all the changes is to make friends with the future!

March 2011 | Whi le it’s important to be aware of Trend Briefing), mega-trends like in business, exec CITYSUMERS (see ution beats ever such as RANDOM last month's ything. This is why ACTS OF KINDNE an easy-to-apply SS (R.A.K.) shou consumer trend ld be firmly on your radar in the com ing months.

Look around and ask ‘why?’

With R.A.K. feat uring prominently in our recent 11 depth briefing expl Crucial Consum aining why practicin er Trends for 201 g R.A.K. will be a 1, here’s a full, inwinning strategy in 2011. First, our RANDOM ACTS definition: OF KINDNESS | For consumers self-serving corp long used to (and orations, any acts anno yed by) distant, of kindness by bran ingly open commun inflexible and ds will be gratefully rece ications both with ived. For brands, and between con been easier to surp increassumers (especia rise and delight lly online), means audiences with R.A. expressed moods that it's never K.: whether send or just showing that ing gifts, respond they care*. ing to publicly * Just to be abso lutely clear: R.A. K. are not about and not about givin rewarding custome g away lots of free rs for tweeting / samples (that wou acts of kindness liking your product, ld be FREE LOV (hence the name E), but about sele ;-) cted, random

Mason encourages every executive and “When we see something interesting, we always ask entrepreneur to spot trends. It is essentially about ‘where does this fit in?’” says Henry Mason, Head of making questions and looking at things from new Research & Analysis at trendwatching.com. perspectives, to think about Trendwatching.com is a London-based independent One of the world’s how new developments can trend firm that scans the world for the most promising leading trend firms, trendwatching.com, be applied and adapted. All in consumer trends, insights and relevant hands-on sends its free business ideas. They rely on a global network of You are reading a PDFmonthly Trend Briefings all, trend watching is all about version of “RA S” (www.trendwat to more thanNDOM ACTS OF KINDNES asking why? hundreds of spotters in more than 120 countries. ching.com/trends/ra k/) 160,000 subscribers “The one piece of advice Trendwatching.com has a long list of all the trends they worldwide. we would give is to look crosshave spotted over the years. They are divided in main and industry. The most successful innovations often sub-trends. emerge when businesses take existing practices “Because we have been doing this for a while, the and apply them to new products, markets or majority of our observations easily fit with one of our industries. Show us a visionary who has not taken existing trends, which means that if a handful of them do at least one element of their ground-breaking ideas not, we know we may be onto something genuinely new,” from somewhere else.”

Mason says.

Anticipate the future by exploring the everyday It is impossible to predict the future.

“But instead, everybody can conjecture it,” says futurist, PhD Elina Hiltunen, who runs her own See more at consultancy Elina Hiltunen’s blog: http://www.future.vuodatus.net/ What’s Next Consulting and works as a senior foresight specialist at Finpro, a supporter of Finnish companies’ internationalization.

World changes fast, markets fragment.

It is stressful, often impossible, to try to follow others. Instead of chasing the wave, why not anticipate it.

Being aware of major trends such as globalization, urbanization and population growth is essential.

“If you want to be a step ahead, it is a good idea to know about weak signals and be able to anticipate future trends,” says Hiltunen, a specialist in weak signals.

Weak signals are strange, surprising things that are indicative of big future trends.

“Let me clarify the matter a little.

Weak signals are perceptions of something that you see or hear today. They are signals of something new, like a trend or a new emerging issue that might take place in the future.”

3

By following weak signals it is possible to try to anticipate future changes.

This, in turn, makes it possible to affect the changes or create response strategies for them.

Maybe you some years ago heard a surprising story about an advertising guru who suddenly resigned from his work to establish a yoga school. That story could have been considered a weak signal of downshifting, which nowadays is a recognized trend.

“A weak signal can be a blog article, a subordinate clause in a magazine article, or a sticker on a lamp post,” Hiltunen says.

Anyone can collect weak signals. It is fun and helps predicting changes that may occur. The key in using weak signals is to rely on the power of quantity; the more weak signals there are pointing to the same direction, the greater the possibility of the development.

In companies it is worth collecting weak signals continuously and preferably with the participation of the whole organization. All staff members could contribute to innovation work by sharing their collected weak signals in the company’s intranet. This is done for example at Finpro.

“I read a lot of blogs. But collecting weak signals is not only about social media.

I do plenty of traveling, go looking around in cities. It is also a good idea to follow underground publications, alternative movements, and the youth.

Talk with friends who work in different sectors,” Hiltunen says.

You can use Toolbox materials at work, to link with your blog, when giving a presentation – or forward it to colleagues. The background ideas are available in a variety of web sources.

Do Hiltunen’s test on weak signals Spot and talk about weak signals with your colleagues. If one of the following reactions occurs among your colleagues, it can be considered a weak signal.

Makes your colleagues laugh.

Your colleagues oppose it: “No way, it will never happen.”

Makes people wonder.

No one has heard of it before.

It is commonly understood that no one talks of it (a taboo).

Hiltunen, Elina. 2010. PhD thesis.

Weak Signals in Organisational Futures Learning.

Aalto University, School of Economics.

In slides: www.slideshare.net In pdf-format: www.scribd.com

The entire magazine: www.issuu.com 23

Text: Satu Rämö

The future is your friend There is nothing permanent except change. trendwatching.com, independent and opinionated, is one trends firm, relyin of the worldʼs leadi g on a global netw ng consumer ork of hundreds of insights are deliv spotters. Our trend ered to 160,000 busin s, examples and ess professionals in more than 180 More information countries. at www.trendwat ching.com

The best way to keep up with all the changes is to make friends with the future!

March 2011 | Whi le it’s important to be aware of Trend Briefing), mega-trends like in business, exec CITYSUMERS (see ution beats ever such as RANDOM last month's ything. This is why ACTS OF KINDNE an easy-to-apply SS (R.A.K.) shou consumer trend ld be firmly on your radar in the com ing months.

Look around and ask ‘why?’

With R.A.K. feat uring prominently in our recent 11 depth briefing expl Crucial Consum aining why practicin er Trends for 201 g R.A.K. will be a 1, here’s a full, inwinning strategy in 2011. First, our RANDOM ACTS definition: OF KINDNESS | For consumers self-serving corp long used to (and orations, any acts anno yed by) distant, of kindness by bran ingly open commun inflexible and ds will be gratefully rece ications both with ived. For brands, and between con been easier to surp increassumers (especia rise and delight lly online), means audiences with R.A. expressed moods that it's never K.: whether send or just showing that ing gifts, respond they care*. ing to publicly * Just to be abso lutely clear: R.A. K. are not about and not about givin rewarding custome g away lots of free rs for tweeting / samples (that wou acts of kindness liking your product, ld be FREE LOV (hence the name E), but about sele ;-) cted, random

Mason encourages every executive and “When we see something interesting, we always ask entrepreneur to spot trends. It is essentially about ‘where does this fit in?’” says Henry Mason, Head of making questions and looking at things from new Research & Analysis at trendwatching.com. perspectives, to think about Trendwatching.com is a London-based independent One of the world’s how new developments can trend firm that scans the world for the most promising leading trend firms, trendwatching.com, be applied and adapted. All in consumer trends, insights and relevant hands-on sends its free business ideas. They rely on a global network of You are reading a PDFmonthly Trend Briefings all, trend watching is all about version of “RA S” (www.trendwat to more thanNDOM ACTS OF KINDNES asking why? hundreds of spotters in more than 120 countries. ching.com/trends/ra k/) 160,000 subscribers “The one piece of advice Trendwatching.com has a long list of all the trends they worldwide. we would give is to look crosshave spotted over the years. They are divided in main and industry. The most successful innovations often sub-trends. emerge when businesses take existing practices “Because we have been doing this for a while, the and apply them to new products, markets or majority of our observations easily fit with one of our industries. Show us a visionary who has not taken existing trends, which means that if a handful of them do at least one element of their ground-breaking ideas not, we know we may be onto something genuinely new,” from somewhere else.”

Mason says.

Anticipate the future by exploring the everyday It is impossible to predict the future.

“But instead, everybody can conjecture it,” says futurist, PhD Elina Hiltunen, who runs her own See more at consultancy Elina Hiltunen’s blog: http://www.future.vuodatus.net/ What’s Next Consulting and works as a senior foresight specialist at Finpro, a supporter of Finnish companies’ internationalization.

World changes fast, markets fragment.

It is stressful, often impossible, to try to follow others. Instead of chasing the wave, why not anticipate it.

Being aware of major trends such as globalization, urbanization and population growth is essential.

“If you want to be a step ahead, it is a good idea to know about weak signals and be able to anticipate future trends,” says Hiltunen, a specialist in weak signals.

Weak signals are strange, surprising things that are indicative of big future trends.

“Let me clarify the matter a little.

Weak signals are perceptions of something that you see or hear today. They are signals of something new, like a trend or a new emerging issue that might take place in the future.”

3

By following weak signals it is possible to try to anticipate future changes.

This, in turn, makes it possible to affect the changes or create response strategies for them.

Maybe you some years ago heard a surprising story about an advertising guru who suddenly resigned from his work to establish a yoga school. That story could have been considered a weak signal of downshifting, which nowadays is a recognized trend.

“A weak signal can be a blog article, a subordinate clause in a magazine article, or a sticker on a lamp post,” Hiltunen says.

Anyone can collect weak signals. It is fun and helps predicting changes that may occur. The key in using weak signals is to rely on the power of quantity; the more weak signals there are pointing to the same direction, the greater the possibility of the development.

In companies it is worth collecting weak signals continuously and preferably with the participation of the whole organization. All staff members could contribute to innovation work by sharing their collected weak signals in the company’s intranet. This is done for example at Finpro.

“I read a lot of blogs. But collecting weak signals is not only about social media.

I do plenty of traveling, go looking around in cities. It is also a good idea to follow underground publications, alternative movements, and the youth.

Talk with friends who work in different sectors,” Hiltunen says.

You can use Toolbox materials at work, to link with your blog, when giving a presentation – or forward it to colleagues. The background ideas are available in a variety of web sources.

Do Hiltunen’s test on weak signals Spot and talk about weak signals with your colleagues. If one of the following reactions occurs among your colleagues, it can be considered a weak signal.

Makes your colleagues laugh.

Your colleagues oppose it: “No way, it will never happen.”

Makes people wonder.

No one has heard of it before.

It is commonly understood that no one talks of it (a taboo).

Hiltunen, Elina. 2010. PhD thesis.

Weak Signals in Organisational Futures Learning.

Aalto University, School of Economics.

In slides: www.slideshare.net In pdf-format: www.scribd.com

The entire magazine: www.issuu.com 23

Tips from the experts – How to keep up to date Sleep more with the newest trends?

– and 7

Daniel Siegel. Focus on one

If you knew everything about tomorrow... what would you do differently today?

4

Faith Popcorn’s BrainReserve is a well-known strategic trend-based marketing consultancy in New York. Click on to www.faithpopcorn.com and have a look at their trend bank. Futurist Faith Popcorn summarizes today’s trends in short video clips.

Harness the chaos, change the world Disney, CNN, MTV, Hyatt, Microsoft, Apple, Fortune, GE, and HewlettPackard were all created during periods of chaos.

6 Exploiting Chaos (Gotham Books, 2009) is

a business survival guidebook for all those looking to change the world. It gives 150 ways to spark innovation during times of change.

The book’s author Jeremy Gutsche is an innovation consultant and founder of TrendHunter.com, a site that tracks emerging trends.

In 2010 Exploiting Chaos received the Axiom Business Book Award, one of the most respectful business book awards in the world.

eBook available at: exploitingchaos.com

Order trend news to your inbox A free monthly trend briefing: http://trendwatching.com/

A free weekly trend report: http://www.trendhunter.com/

Personal

thing at a time. Create five minutes, at least, to reflect on the internal experience of your own mind. This could involve focusing on the breath, or using a simple “wheel of awareness” –exercise (see DrDanSiegel. com for a free streaming of this audio practice) that enables you to review how your mind is structured. This “time-in” of reflection is a way of keeping your brain healthy and strong.

Much like brushing your teeth on a daily basis, this is a way of “brushing your brain” and using “mental floss,” so that your brain and mind are optimally functioning.

David Rock. I think the best, most time efficient and valuable resources for busy executives are spending time with peers.

Sharing learning, whether in a coaching, mentoring or informal setting, is such an important and useful resource.

Chris Brogan. In software trends, Mashable is the best site going. In usage and business trends, read people like Jeremiah Owyang, Mitch Joel, Valeria Maltoni, and maybe that Chris Brogan guy (sure, I said it).

But beyond that, DO. TRY. LAB. Make things, use them, and see what happens. Do not chase EVERY new social net, but try a few things every few weeks.

Christopher Carfi. Spend a few minutes setting up a blog reader such as Google Reader and follow blogs from industry sources or mainstream outlets, get a Facebook account, or even check out a few of the conversations taking place on Quora.

From an individual’s perspective, following a few conversations that are taking place and engaging in discussions via commenting or interacting on the existing social media outposts of others is a great first step. There are undoubtedly thought leaders in your industry

who are already engaging in social business; seek them out and learn from your peers.

Arto Miekkavaara.

Get to know your brain and the way it functions. It is advantageous to have fundamental knowledge of your way of perceiving the world, solving problems and working under pressure. As we know what happens in our brain, we can control it to a greater degree than has been known to date.

Eeva-Maria Kytönen.

Brain research brings new viewpoints on the leadership of change that brings fresh insights. Self-initiated realization and the subsequent zeal to act are imperative to successful change. Neuro-leadership is a new branch of science that gives new ingredients for the growth and blossoming of individuals and organizations.

you will see the big picture “A way to a more productive, more inspiring and more joyful life is to get enough sleep,” states Arianna Huffington, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post.

Instead of bragging about sleep deficits, Huffington urges us to close our eyes and see the big picture. We should sleep our way to increased productivity and happiness – and smarter decision-making.

“Discover the great ideas that lie within us. Shut down the engine, and discover the power or sleep.”

See more at www.ted.com/talks/ arianna_huffington_how_ to_succeed_get_more_ sleep.html

Top 5 blogs – What to follow

Check out these blogs to pick up on changes in society and business: Tips provided by Henry Mason, Head of Research & Analysis at trendwatching.com.

American entrepreneur, author and public speaker, Seth Godin: sethgoding.typepad.com Director of the Havas Media Lab, Umair Haque: blogs.hbr.org/haque Founding executive editor of Wired magazine, author Kevin Kelly: kk.org/thetechnium/index.php

Journalist, author, associate professor at City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism, Jeff Jarvis: buzzmachine.com Author, Editor-in-chief of Wired, Chris Anderson: diydrones.com/profiles/ blog/list?user=zlitezlite

25

Tips from the experts – How to keep up to date Sleep more with the newest trends?

– and 7

Daniel Siegel. Focus on one

If you knew everything about tomorrow... what would you do differently today?

4

Faith Popcorn’s BrainReserve is a well-known strategic trend-based marketing consultancy in New York. Click on to www.faithpopcorn.com and have a look at their trend bank. Futurist Faith Popcorn summarizes today’s trends in short video clips.

Harness the chaos, change the world Disney, CNN, MTV, Hyatt, Microsoft, Apple, Fortune, GE, and HewlettPackard were all created during periods of chaos.

6 Exploiting Chaos (Gotham Books, 2009) is

a business survival guidebook for all those looking to change the world. It gives 150 ways to spark innovation during times of change.

The book’s author Jeremy Gutsche is an innovation consultant and founder of TrendHunter.com, a site that tracks emerging trends.

In 2010 Exploiting Chaos received the Axiom Business Book Award, one of the most respectful business book awards in the world.

eBook available at: exploitingchaos.com

Order trend news to your inbox A free monthly trend briefing: http://trendwatching.com/

A free weekly trend report: http://www.trendhunter.com/

Personal

thing at a time. Create five minutes, at least, to reflect on the internal experience of your own mind. This could involve focusing on the breath, or using a simple “wheel of awareness” –exercise (see DrDanSiegel. com for a free streaming of this audio practice) that enables you to review how your mind is structured. This “time-in” of reflection is a way of keeping your brain healthy and strong.

Much like brushing your teeth on a daily basis, this is a way of “brushing your brain” and using “mental floss,” so that your brain and mind are optimally functioning.

David Rock. I think the best, most time efficient and valuable resources for busy executives are spending time with peers.

Sharing learning, whether in a coaching, mentoring or informal setting, is such an important and useful resource.

Chris Brogan. In software trends, Mashable is the best site going. In usage and business trends, read people like Jeremiah Owyang, Mitch Joel, Valeria Maltoni, and maybe that Chris Brogan guy (sure, I said it).

But beyond that, DO. TRY. LAB. Make things, use them, and see what happens. Do not chase EVERY new social net, but try a few things every few weeks.

Christopher Carfi. Spend a few minutes setting up a blog reader such as Google Reader and follow blogs from industry sources or mainstream outlets, get a Facebook account, or even check out a few of the conversations taking place on Quora.

From an individual’s perspective, following a few conversations that are taking place and engaging in discussions via commenting or interacting on the existing social media outposts of others is a great first step. There are undoubtedly thought leaders in your industry

who are already engaging in social business; seek them out and learn from your peers.

Arto Miekkavaara.

Get to know your brain and the way it functions. It is advantageous to have fundamental knowledge of your way of perceiving the world, solving problems and working under pressure. As we know what happens in our brain, we can control it to a greater degree than has been known to date.

Eeva-Maria Kytönen.

Brain research brings new viewpoints on the leadership of change that brings fresh insights. Self-initiated realization and the subsequent zeal to act are imperative to successful change. Neuro-leadership is a new branch of science that gives new ingredients for the growth and blossoming of individuals and organizations.

you will see the big picture “A way to a more productive, more inspiring and more joyful life is to get enough sleep,” states Arianna Huffington, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post.

Instead of bragging about sleep deficits, Huffington urges us to close our eyes and see the big picture. We should sleep our way to increased productivity and happiness – and smarter decision-making.

“Discover the great ideas that lie within us. Shut down the engine, and discover the power or sleep.”

See more at www.ted.com/talks/ arianna_huffington_how_ to_succeed_get_more_ sleep.html

Top 5 blogs – What to follow

Check out these blogs to pick up on changes in society and business: Tips provided by Henry Mason, Head of Research & Analysis at trendwatching.com.

American entrepreneur, author and public speaker, Seth Godin: sethgoding.typepad.com Director of the Havas Media Lab, Umair Haque: blogs.hbr.org/haque Founding executive editor of Wired magazine, author Kevin Kelly: kk.org/thetechnium/index.php

Journalist, author, associate professor at City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism, Jeff Jarvis: buzzmachine.com Author, Editor-in-chief of Wired, Chris Anderson: diydrones.com/profiles/ blog/list?user=zlitezlite

25

When teams eXit from company boundaries

Follow Aalto EE

update

Text: Riitta Lumme-Tuomala and Ben Nothnagel

Team-building exercises done, clear goals set and team spirits high. We have a well-functioning team ready to achieve, right? No, says Professor Deborah Ancona, from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

According to 25 years of research on teams in different industries, the aforementioned attributes predict satisfaction and how well teams think they are doing, but have zero predictive value of the revenue the teams bring in.

Ancona calls the alternative model X-Teams. These units have team spirit, but they also project upwards and outwards.

They establish cooperative relationships, seek out information from other teams and outsiders, evangelize the team’s mission to key stakeholders and actively pursue support from management. The members have clear roles and tasks, but no permanent membership; different competencies are needed at different phases.

The phases are explore, exploit and export, the core activities related to the phases are scouting, ambassadorship and task coordination. Within X-teams, leadership (=ambassadorship) is not necessarily shared although with larger teams it’s usually better. The key issue is to promote an external focus and strong communication.

The benefit: organizations can react more effectively to fast-changing information and reach across boundaries to achieve common goals.

Aalto EE is starting a project researching the X-teams model in action. Follow us on Facebook, Blogger and in future issues of Profile.

NEW BLOG EVERY MONTH! aaltoeeblogs.blogspot.com

Visit our

You Tube channels

Finland: www.youtube. com/aaltoee Singapore: www.youtube. com/aaltoeesg 26

www.facebook.com/aaltoee, www.twitter.com/aaltoee

Interest in Executive MBA has taken-off: In Helsinki, 37 enthusiastic Executive MBA students have started their journey towards an EMBA diploma. They are joined by 35 Executive EMBA students in Taiwan.

Also, Korea, Poland and Singapore have started new EMBA programs.

follow up

more updated information www.aaltoee.fi, www.aaltoee.sg

Aalto EE is proud to present … ... three outstanding new open programs to be launched in fall 2011:

Future Leadership Leading Sales Leading Service Business Read more from our website www.aaltoee.fi Future Leadership For more information, please contact Development Manager Karita Leino karita.leino@aaltoee.fi tel +358 10 837 3714 Leading Sales For more information, please contact Account Manager Mika Tenhunen mika.tenhunen@aaltoee.fi tel +358 10 837 3729 Leading Service Business For more information, please contact Competence Leader Kirsi Gylden kirsi.gylden@aaltoee.fi tel +358 10 837 3742

Follow Profile also in between printed issues.

Take part in the conversation.

Awaken ideas with us. aaltoee.blogspot.com

HiSTORY LESSON

A new world order is forming around us.

Text: Joe White

All Change – So No Change They say the only thing that does not change is change itself. Our very senses keep us alive by monitoring changes in our environment, and history itself is nothing more – often a lot less – than the story of change.

Our ancestors, having observed the effects of turning seasons on crops and hunting, introduced gods and religions, perhaps to try to exert some sort of control on the chaos around them. Heaps like Stonehenge are the physical evidence of huge social attempts to forecast and possibly mitigate those shifting life and death-dealing forces of nature.

Ancient Chinese thinkers compiled a hugely influential work we know as the I-Ching, the book of changes. This divinatory tome 2,400 years ago postulated a fundamental, unified universe versus that same, ever changing universe.

Against this was a persistent principle, which never varies with space and time.

Logical, if you think about it – it is hard even to observe change without some fixed point of reference.

The book deployed randomly selected pictograms to illuminate fixed pearls of wisdom, to help predict and manipulate changes in the world and ourselves so that we could better cope with the vagaries of change. And from the ancient Greeks onwards, we have been obsessively scrutinizing everything around us, from the deepest seas to the farthest stars – in an effort to govern change, even eliminate it.

Because for homo sapiens change is scary. We deeply distrust it, possibly because it means something worse or less convenient than we already have.

Our passion for detailing the world’s secrets has had a paradoxical effect. We learn something new – which means we think we have discovered a new “truth,” only to find perhaps that that particular truth was false or only partially true – or even true and false.

Yet one thing we cannot allow to change is “truth.” We’ve built most of our social structures on the notion of truth, from

science to religion to education to justice and economics and the other platforms that uphold our societies.

And then some clot comes along and says the emperor wears no clothes; the Great Dictator is a myth; a god did not make us one by one, we evolved; it is bacteria that make us ill, not devils ... and whole civilizations come tumbling down. And being human, off we go again in search of new truths to replace the old ones – back to a round of revolutionary change in order to establish a new, more permanent and more viable reality.

To read about the I-Ching, book of changes, we recommend visiting Wikipedia.

To read the whole book, click www. sacred-texts.com.

The young are said to love change.

It witnesses their recent role in the Arab world – while their elders tend to be wary.

Certainly, there are those who love the breath of fresh air, especially if they have been cooped up in a hermetically sealed room by rules and customs that seem devised solely for the purpose of blocking new thought. Some fear change that might remove their privileges, undermining the status quo that has worked for so long – change that will wreck the world and bring barbarians to the gates.

But change is a fact. That indelible coffee stain on your desk is being eaten as you work, the eternal pyramids will eventually crumble because they are doing so now.

The climate we have all grown up with will probably not be what our children inherit, whether it is our fault or not.

None of us is immune to change.

Our task is to learn how to live with it.

27

When teams eXit from company boundaries

Follow Aalto EE

update

Text: Riitta Lumme-Tuomala and Ben Nothnagel

Team-building exercises done, clear goals set and team spirits high. We have a well-functioning team ready to achieve, right? No, says Professor Deborah Ancona, from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

According to 25 years of research on teams in different industries, the aforementioned attributes predict satisfaction and how well teams think they are doing, but have zero predictive value of the revenue the teams bring in.

Ancona calls the alternative model X-Teams. These units have team spirit, but they also project upwards and outwards.

They establish cooperative relationships, seek out information from other teams and outsiders, evangelize the team’s mission to key stakeholders and actively pursue support from management. The members have clear roles and tasks, but no permanent membership; different competencies are needed at different phases.

The phases are explore, exploit and export, the core activities related to the phases are scouting, ambassadorship and task coordination. Within X-teams, leadership (=ambassadorship) is not necessarily shared although with larger teams it’s usually better. The key issue is to promote an external focus and strong communication.

The benefit: organizations can react more effectively to fast-changing information and reach across boundaries to achieve common goals.

Aalto EE is starting a project researching the X-teams model in action. Follow us on Facebook, Blogger and in future issues of Profile.

NEW BLOG EVERY MONTH! aaltoeeblogs.blogspot.com

Visit our

You Tube channels

Finland: www.youtube. com/aaltoee Singapore: www.youtube. com/aaltoeesg 26

www.facebook.com/aaltoee, www.twitter.com/aaltoee

Interest in Executive MBA has taken-off: In Helsinki, 37 enthusiastic Executive MBA students have started their journey towards an EMBA diploma. They are joined by 35 Executive EMBA students in Taiwan.

Also, Korea, Poland and Singapore have started new EMBA programs.

follow up

more updated information www.aaltoee.fi, www.aaltoee.sg

Aalto EE is proud to present … ... three outstanding new open programs to be launched in fall 2011:

Future Leadership Leading Sales Leading Service Business Read more from our website www.aaltoee.fi Future Leadership For more information, please contact Development Manager Karita Leino karita.leino@aaltoee.fi tel +358 10 837 3714 Leading Sales For more information, please contact Account Manager Mika Tenhunen mika.tenhunen@aaltoee.fi tel +358 10 837 3729 Leading Service Business For more information, please contact Competence Leader Kirsi Gylden kirsi.gylden@aaltoee.fi tel +358 10 837 3742

Follow Profile also in between printed issues.

Take part in the conversation.

Awaken ideas with us. aaltoee.blogspot.com

HiSTORY LESSON

A new world order is forming around us.

Text: Joe White

All Change – So No Change They say the only thing that does not change is change itself. Our very senses keep us alive by monitoring changes in our environment, and history itself is nothing more – often a lot less – than the story of change.

Our ancestors, having observed the effects of turning seasons on crops and hunting, introduced gods and religions, perhaps to try to exert some sort of control on the chaos around them. Heaps like Stonehenge are the physical evidence of huge social attempts to forecast and possibly mitigate those shifting life and death-dealing forces of nature.

Ancient Chinese thinkers compiled a hugely influential work we know as the I-Ching, the book of changes. This divinatory tome 2,400 years ago postulated a fundamental, unified universe versus that same, ever changing universe.

Against this was a persistent principle, which never varies with space and time.

Logical, if you think about it – it is hard even to observe change without some fixed point of reference.

The book deployed randomly selected pictograms to illuminate fixed pearls of wisdom, to help predict and manipulate changes in the world and ourselves so that we could better cope with the vagaries of change. And from the ancient Greeks onwards, we have been obsessively scrutinizing everything around us, from the deepest seas to the farthest stars – in an effort to govern change, even eliminate it.

Because for homo sapiens change is scary. We deeply distrust it, possibly because it means something worse or less convenient than we already have.

Our passion for detailing the world’s secrets has had a paradoxical effect. We learn something new – which means we think we have discovered a new “truth,” only to find perhaps that that particular truth was false or only partially true – or even true and false.

Yet one thing we cannot allow to change is “truth.” We’ve built most of our social structures on the notion of truth, from

science to religion to education to justice and economics and the other platforms that uphold our societies.

And then some clot comes along and says the emperor wears no clothes; the Great Dictator is a myth; a god did not make us one by one, we evolved; it is bacteria that make us ill, not devils ... and whole civilizations come tumbling down. And being human, off we go again in search of new truths to replace the old ones – back to a round of revolutionary change in order to establish a new, more permanent and more viable reality.

To read about the I-Ching, book of changes, we recommend visiting Wikipedia.

To read the whole book, click www. sacred-texts.com.

The young are said to love change.

It witnesses their recent role in the Arab world – while their elders tend to be wary.

Certainly, there are those who love the breath of fresh air, especially if they have been cooped up in a hermetically sealed room by rules and customs that seem devised solely for the purpose of blocking new thought. Some fear change that might remove their privileges, undermining the status quo that has worked for so long – change that will wreck the world and bring barbarians to the gates.

But change is a fact. That indelible coffee stain on your desk is being eaten as you work, the eternal pyramids will eventually crumble because they are doing so now.

The climate we have all grown up with will probably not be what our children inherit, whether it is our fault or not.

None of us is immune to change.

Our task is to learn how to live with it.

27

Aalto University Executive Education

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Grow into a new wave leader. Build success by freeing the full potential of individuals and organizations. See the familiar through fresh eyes, discover opportunities in the unknown, navigate changes fearlessly.

We help you find new capabilities and solutions – answers to the big questions. You contribute your experience and personality. We contribute Aalto University’s uniquely multidisciplinary knowledge, our ability to apply theory to practice, our global expertise and network, and our inspirational learning methods. Together we create breakthroughs for you and your company.

We offer customized solutions to support companies’ strategic goals, open programs – such as the MBA, Executive MBA and JOKO programs – and leadership forums. They all provide the fresh competencies you need to lead.

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Now’s the time to act.

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