What makes a leader?

So I’ve picked up on a few signs I’m really in Scandinavia (just in case there was any confusion, which thankfully there hasn’t been). Today I saw my first roller-ski commuter, ski poles, backpack and all. It was pretty cool! And yet another example of doing more with less, a standard construction company vehicle here seems to be a Volvo station wagon towing a trailer. Apearantly the idea of driving a massive work truck is just a bit foreign to them. Similarly, mail trucks are more like glorified yellow ice cream truck scooter things. We’ll see how that works out during the winter.

I feel like I had to put up just a little post as a reflection of the day. I’ve been increasingly impressed with our Friday leadership thread workshops here. The first ones had me a bit wary of what the rest of the thread would entail, but in the last two weeks in particular, it has thoroughly redeemed itself and captured my full attention. Last week was a Human Dynamics workshop, and it was incredible to see how different people process information. I felt as though it was a great way to learn how to connect better with people who think differently, and raised my self-awareness about the way I process information. As our workshop leader clearly explained, this is not hard science (hallelujia!) and people cannot be clearly grouped into 4 categories. But the learning really came from appreciating how different information processing styles really value different means and amounts of communication.

Today we had a session called the World Café or Leadership Café. Arriving to a morning session with coffee and snacks sure was a welcome surprise, and we took our spots at café style tables with 4 other people. The first two half hour sessions (switching tables and people in between) we discussed what leadership means to us. Our discussions were incredible, sighting examples in nature of group leadership, efficient use of materials and energy, and compassion. Among other themes in our discussion was the concept of humility. True leaders are humble enough to ask for the help of people who know more than them, are humble enough to understand when it is time to let someone else lead, are humble enough to see their own strengths and weaknesses. Also linked to humility is the ability to see the strengths of others. We discussed how even though we may see other’s strengths, we don’t often say what it is we admire. Perhaps its time for true leaders to start by complimenting more.

The last half hour session we discussed what aspects of our previous discussions did we want to incorporate into our leadership and why. It was a fascinating morning and the conversations were meaningful and flowed very easily. Cultural ideas about leadership and personal strengths were fascinating to bring into the conversation. I must say, after today, despite the intense and deep nature of the discussion, I felt energized and renewed in my focus of study here.

Well that’s all for now. I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Wyeth

Ready…set…WINTER

The big man upstairs must have flipped the weather switch. Wednesday started as another perfectly sunny day in Sweden, and by the end, our mini golf game was hampered with Baltic wind and rain affecting our otherwise strictly professional drives and putts.

It’s been a while since my last blog post, I know, so I have a lot to fill you in on; but there’s one theme that runs through all but the last few days: sun. It’s been surprising and incredible, not only for those of us from warmer climes, but also the Swedes.

Shortly after our sailing expedition we headed north for our MSLS retreat. Our first stop was the city of Vaxjo, the “greenest city in Europe” to see some of what they’re doing to help minimize their climate impact. There are some really innovative ideas there, some old ideas that have resurfaced in modern reincarnations, some encouraging political progress, and some downright surprising holes in their sustainability practices. The city has a biomass (we pressed, and found out its mostly waste wood) fed electrical power plant, and the waste heat is used to heat water for municipal heating and hot water. That heating is available to residents and businesses alike. The city is also working on changing fuel rules in town to ensure that only biofuels are used by any government vehicles. We toured a modern wood city, where they are constructing 7 story buildings with timber as the main material in an effort to explore which materials are viable and sustainable, as well as a few developments designed with people and their needs in mind.

The powerplant in Vaxjo

Modern Buildings made with timber as the main structural material

Next we travelled to Blidingsholm house where we spent the weekend in seminars. It was an absolutely beautiful location, with canoes on several connecting lakes and ponds. I went on a run through the retreat property in the morning, and enjoyed some beautiful mists rising from the lakes and ponds, and explored the old logging and farm roads. If Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, Sweden is the land of 1,000,000 ponds. They’re all over the place. Our day Saturday was spent in workshops for deep listening, cultural awareness, and communication styles. Saturday night we had a big barbeque, and yours truly was the grillmaster. Or at least I tried. An ingenious setup of a grill hung by a cable over a fire pit allowed us to raise and lower the grill, but it was still so blooming hot I lost pretty much all of my knuckle hair and was beginning to fear for the safety of my eyebrows. I must say, I thought I knew what serving large groups of people entailed after my time catering, but I’ve never had to cook for 70 hungry people before. That is an experience.

Sunday we toured a car graveyard (basically a junkyard that somehow got turned into a national historic place). It was interesting to see the way the forest is retaking the cars, and how different parts break down at different rates. Sadly my camera ran out of battery here, so I only have a few pictures to offer. I recharged for the Wanas foundation tour. The foundation is a sculpture garden on old castle grounds. Some were very interesting, and they had a sustainability exhibit going as well. We turned one art project into an interactive human art project. It was an awesome tree with about 10 swings in it, and we filled every one. So that’s what college students apply their energy to…

The next week (last week) in classes was primarily spent discussing the scientific basis for the need for sustainability. It has been interesting, and there has been some new information, despite my degree being in science. I have to always remind myself to take a look with a larger lens. I can get lost in the science and then forget to see how it connects to sustainability.

That Friday we had our first party at Club Zebra (our beloved abode). Costumes were required, of course, and it was a lot of fun to see how creative people were. True to form, the 5 of us living here dressed as zebras (black clothes with masking tape, and fancy hairdos to look like a mane) and decorated the house to the nines. It’s amazing what you can do with just a little creativity.

This week brought about a bit more discussion of scientific principles, and then a shift to focus on social sustainability, an area of interest for me, particularly since I have such a limited background in social sustainability and social science. The introduction was interesting, but the workshop on Friday was really incredible. Not knowing what Human Dynamics was going into it, I was a bit hesitant, but was really impressed with the facilitation of the day, as well as the conversations it created among the students. It offered incredible opportunity to learn about other people’s processing styles and how we can best work with them.

So that pretty much brings us up to speed, if you want to know more, shoot me an email! I’m looking at going to Poland in 2 weekends, which should be quite a trip (hopefully there’s space left when I check on Monday!)

So it’s about time for me to hit the sack tonight. Listen to the pounding rain and howling wind (yep, winter is here full force). It’s also incredible how fast the amount of daylight changes here. Just in the last 2 weeks we’ve lost an hour in the evenings.

Ciao for now. I’ll try to write again soon. And if you're interestested in more pictures, I added them to the Picasa album here: http://picasaweb.google.com/wglarson/AllTheShotsFromSweden#

Wyeth