You can see the determination in his eyes

That's the way a friend described someone she had just met. She was sure (just as I'm sure) that he's going places. Once the determination is in his eyes, the learning will take care of itself.

On the other hand, if I can see the fear in your eyes, then I'm not sure that learning alone will take care of the problem. No one can prove that the path you're on is risk free or guaranteed to work. Searching for more proof is futile. Searching for more determination makes more sense. (Seth Godin)

In loads of AIESECers you can see the determination in fact. And it's pretty. I would just enjoy that people would see it more often - the world sometimes seems a bit blind.

Or maybe just with fear in their own eyes.

TED Talk - Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

Awesome, funny and true:

(thanks for the link, George!)

Going to Estonia

I will be away until 16th of May. I am going to help AIESEC in Estonia to create their national year plan. See you around!

I love chairing conferences, can't wait to arrive in Tallin today!

And, completely unrelated, stay with an awesome and funny interview of Conan O'Brien @Google:

Companies declare: soft skills are more important than technical skills when hiring people

A recent Right Management study of close to nearly 900 senior leaders and Human Resource professionals revealed surprising insights into just what factors lead most frequently to on-the-job success. Respondents overwhelmingly pointed not to employees’ technical skills, expertise or experience, but to other, very different qualities: organizational culture and motivational fit, as well as savvy, appropriate interpersonal skills. For example, the number of respondents who felt that “organizational culture/motivational fit” contributes most to accelerated performance was more than 2 ½ times greater than those who pointed to “technical skills” or “relevant experience” as the most significant factor. (more on this on Great Leadership)

And these soft skills that are increasingly more important for employers are not taught in university . One more reason to join AIESEC if you are a student or to partner with AIESEC to access our pool of talented people.


Unfortunately for me, it looks like that Norwegian business are a bit late in this trend. But it will catch up for sure, so now it's the right time for students to catch up and learn how hard the soft skills are.

Global Youth Leadership is not an option

The coming melt-down in higher education (as seen by a marketer)

Spot on Seth Godin's semi-rant against the traditional higher education (especially the schools with tradition). Since I am both a fan of Godin and a criticizer of traditional educational system, that's my recommendation for you to read it.

And one thing that one of the best leaders I have the pleasure to work with always told (about his own delays with his education): "Steve Jobs never finished his degree."

Prosjektdesign

Related to the post bellow, I have been involved in a project for a couple of days that already paid off supreme: I went yesterday to a get to know of the people involved in the project and it was in a school called Prosjektdesign, around the always trendy Grünnerloka. The school is not what you would imagine of a crowded school, but a house where 26 people divided in different teams. The purpose as I understand is to develop different leadership and management characteristics in the best way possible to develop: learning by doing - or, how they say, learning by burning. For those who know about Kaos Pilot, it is a similar concept.

But also very, very similar to AIESEC style, that's why I felt right at home. Almost one of them. The spirit and the sensation when you enter the house that hosts the organization is exactly the same feeling when you enter a bursting AIESEC local committee (or our dear national office): activity, fun, passion, friendship, work hard - in sum, a shiny place to be.

Besides the people from Prosjektdesign, I also met the other ones that are involved in the project and I couldn't have more fun: brilliant people. Including someone passionate about education that is currently doing something about it. I got very cool ideas for my future projects. I somehow was ignoring technology development in my "life school project".

I had tons of fun. I am very privileged that even after I leave AIESEC I will keep considering my job the best fun I could ever had. I am lucky.