jan de man

Nine days

It has been nine days since my last post. I'd like to say it has to do with me being very busy (which I have), but it hasn't. I simply have nothing to write/say at the moment. This is not a result of sudden humbleness. Rather I think it has to do with three things:

1. being overwhelmed with all the good content that is out on the web. What can I possibly add? I could of course mirror some of the good stuff I find, but I believe I'm doing that bit on Twitter (my feed shows up here also - to the right).
2. increasing reluctance to be a "broadcaster" and just adding new content all the time. Does the world really need one more blog post?
3. missing the conversation. Since I get very few comments blogging becomes one way communication. Conversation is much more engaging. But most of us are "browsers" on blogs, few of us can generate the kind of buzz/conversation that can go on at the master bloggers' spaces.

Or maybe I'm just tired and need some time off. 

If I don't post anything more before Christmas, I'd like to wish you happy holidays.

//jan

The magic of Twitter - and some old fashioned action

A friend of mine is working on a car sharing scheme for Sweden. He's been in touch with some major players in car industry here in Sweden and things are progressing. One of the inspirations for the project is Zipcar in the US. As it turns out I'm following the co-founder of Zipcar, Robin Chase, on Twitter. 

As it turns out she on Tuesday afternoon tweeted she was in Stockholm for a conference talk. 

As it turns out, I happen to be online just then and see the tweet. 

As it turns out I email my friend who directly the next morning heads for Robin's hotel to see if he can get an appointment. 

As it turns out he happens to bump into her in the lobby. 

As it turns out my friend is able to schedule a meeting the same afternoon (yesterday). 

As it turns out he gets almost an hour with Robin and valuable inputs for his project.

Isn't this just magical? Isn't this the pure beauty and value of connecting? Is this all a result of chance? 

No way.

//jan

Youth unemployment - any ideas?

I've been invited to participate in an interesting project in a local government. The task at hand is to more or less eliminate their youth (18-24 years old) unemployment through commercial means. Anyone familiar with Swedish government culture will recognize that this in essence is a call for social innovation.

There are roughly 600 unemployed young people in this specific community. The local government has a strong group of wholly owned companies as a key resource. They have in many ways been Swedish pioneers in what could be called social business.

The trick now is to come up with a viable approach to the task. The unemployment agency, the local government and their group of companies are starting points for a dialogue about partnership for 3-5 years. I believe private business should be involved as well. And obviously the people who hopefully are to benefit from the initiative.

There are already a number of ideas being tossed around. One of them being to start a new company that allows businesses to hire young people as temps. This could be a first step to get employed and in the mean time one accumulates experience from being hired to different clients and can also participate in training when not being utilized. The company would have revenue from both government bodies and the market and hopefully be able to carve out a fairly sound (social) business model.

Do you have ideas in connection to this that you want to share? Please let me know.

//jan

No shit Sherlock

OK. This is the big news in Swedish educational system today - a government agency has arrived at the conclusion that quality in leadership in schools affect students' results. 

This is a breathtaking result. 

Not the result in itself, because most who run other organizations would say this in general is true. The most significant influence on long term results is from leadership.

What is breathtaking is that it has taken the Swedish school system until 2009 to realize this fact that they are not an exception from this general rule. That is utterly mind-blowing and says something of the introvert culture in the school system.

So, men and women in educational power positions: 

1. Figure out which teachers, leaders and local government officials that don't have the right leadership skills and attitudes.
2. Train the ones that can be trained (Bloody fast!)
3. Replace the rest (Bloody fast!)

Please do this quickly as my children are in the system now and deserve nothing less that top notch school leadership skills.

You heard me. Get moving.

//jan

PS. If you want to see/read some of the stories today [in Swedish] check here and here.

Worth a new look

This is one of TED's most popular videos. I watch it once in a while. You should to. Especially if you have kids in school. And then ask yourself if you think your kids' schools are giving them the right education.

If you're up for more you can also check this clip on Dan Pink's blog.

//jan

The New Way to Work

I stumbled over this interesting post that covers 5 trends on the new way to work.

//jan

What is a publisher these days?

The last couple of weeks I've reflected some on what defines a publisher in this day and age. Up until a few years ago most would probably argue that printing stuff on paper was the key thing. The digital world has obviously started to change this with the arrival of new types of products, like e-books and audio books. Increasingly, I've come to think about what the core of publishing is. It is hardly the different carriers or vessels, instead it has to be the stories. 

Publishing is about stories. Publishing is about detecting good stories, packaging them, and helping the story tellers tell their stories to as many as possible. 

Isn't this a small but neat paradox? New technology has helped us discover that it is not the technology that is the core of publishing. It is the story. We needed new technology to help us discover that we had been blinded by old technology. Once the blindness is gone one can see that publishing can use many different carriers. Even a live performance is publishing!

//jan

Skolan uppdateras

Skrev lite om skolan här - http://jandeman.posterous.com/skolan-uppdateras

/jan

Skillnaden på rubrik och innehåll

Min hemkommun Vaxholm söker två nya förvaltningschefer - en socialchef och en utbildningschef. Med okonventionella rubriker skall förhoppningsvis spännande kandidater söka. Utbildningschefensjobbet får rubriken pedagogisk inspiratör och socialchefsjobbet får rubriken social entreprenör. Jag vet inte hur du funkar, men jag gör mig ändå några associationer när jag läser sådana rubriker. Jag tänker, nu dj-lar skall det rockas kommunal verksamhet, häftigt.

Sen läser jag innehållet i rektyteringsunderlaget och kommer ned på jorden igen. Präktig kanslisvenska och en i mitt tycke konventionell byråkratprofil, om än inbäddad i stora mängder modern managementlingo. Personligen tycker jag att de är bland de pladdrigaste profiler jag sett på länge. Och det uppstår ingen koppling mellan ansatserna i rubrikerna och de faktiska kravprofilerna. 

Ta en titt här själv.

Jag har frågat kommunalrådet och han säger att de profilerna är skrivna så att det blir ett utvecklingsmandat. Jojo. Alltså, det är ju helt rätt och vad kommunen behöver. Men jag skulle bli mycket mycket förvånad om det tillräder något annat än en något yngre byråkrat än de vi haft hittills. Det gäller ju trots allt att inte utmana den kommunala verkligheten för mycket. Vad skulle inte det kunna leda till? Uj uj.

//jan

We need more child labor...

...at least in Sweden. My good friend Richard Gatarski chocked me a little with this statement yesterday when we met for lunch. Actually, it is a theme for a book, he said. Then I got really interested.

If you meet Richard ask him to explain what he means. What he suggested to me was nothing short of a real shift of perspective. Hint: it has to do with adjusting to a modern learning environment for our kids. 

And I have to agree, we need to liberalize the rules around child labor.  

(This not said with any disrespect for the huge amount of children that really need to be protected from exploitation and guaranteed their rights to education and play.)

//jan