Leave governments away from the Green negotiations and treaties

Copenhagen, Cancun, Rio, etc are all very nice places to visit and to have a conference about climate change, reducing emissions and going green, but doesn't it sound just like a huge waste of time (and greenhouse emissions by all these planes flying to these conferences) when they never get to a binding agreement to be followed?

Some might argue that it doesn’t, because there is some forward movement and by discussing it, governments start to think about it. This is completely right, but on the other hand, I still find that if we rely on governments (which are protectionists of their own economy by design) we will discuss until we are wearing bathing suits inside a boiling swimming pool until we reach a binding decision.

And for you not to call me an half-assed problem oriented guy, here is my solution: get the biggest companies in the world (that are in one way or another already committed to get green) together and sign binding agreements about reducing emission, not buying from suppliers that don’t follow a certain standard, sharing green technology, etc. This would be a huge PR for those companies who opt in (gaining the consumer good will, thus the money on their wallets) and it could have a domino effect: once the big ones are in, the 2^nd bigger ones have to adhere to compete, then the medium companies and finally the smaller enterprises.

Naive plan?

Gamefication 101 with Gabe Zichermann

It's not about games, but about using game-like mechanics to make things better (one old example of gamification is the "collect 10 coffee stamps, get one free" or similar). From Foursquare to Farmville and from Nike to the Navy, game mechanics like points, badges, levels, challenges, rewards and leaderboards are being used in ever greater numbers. But what does this mean for "traditional" marketing & UI/UX and how do you leverage this trend in your engagement strategy? Moreover, how do we measure success, and why will every company have a Chief Engagement Officer in the next few years? Find out more in this in-depth discussion with Gamification Expert, Gabe Zichermann - author of "Game-Based Marketing" and the Gamification.co blog, and Chair of the Gamification Summit.

Bata Management System

Last week I was in Prague to be a panelist in the Forum 2000. It was a very interesting panel with 4 people like me (young, naive and hungry) and other 4 seasoned business men and women on the topic of “what the next generation of leaders want from the market”. We discussed topics like if it is desirable that business tackle global issues (like poverty) and what the next generation value in an employer. The forum deserves a post in itself, but I want to speak about something I learned outside the panel room, more specific in the pub that we went after the panel: the Bata Management System.

Bata (pronounced more or less like “bat’ya”) Management System was basically the way Tomáš Baťa (and his successor, Jan Antonín Baťa) managed the business. Bata is a Czech shoe factory (and retailer) named after the surname of the founder, but the similarities with a Fordian assembly line kind of stop there.

Bata’s first slogan, at the factory gate, was “thinking to the people, labor to the machines”. Bata’s system included whole-system orientation and integration of work (instead of splitting it into small specialized tasks), team and workshop self-management, profit-sharing and autonomy, workers’ participation and co-determination, clearly-defined responsibilities and organizational flexibility. Every employee was a partner, co-worker or associate and all workers were to become owners and capitalists. Salaries were much higher than the industry average (both in Czech and anywhere in the world) and production was always improving. Production and profits were not the ends, but the means towards improving the individual lives of all Bata employees.

An story that shows the craziness of the innovation in Bata is that his office was built inside an elevator (which also had a working bathroom). This way he was everywhere in the factory and at the same time everyone could reach him quite easily. Here there is a picture of the Bata’s elevator/office.

Bata managed to thrive while the world was in a big recession. But I am not talking about the 2008 recession. These guys did all this in the 30’s. Yes, all this “progressive” management almost a 100 years ago (and when Henry Ford was going for the man is a machine approach in the assembly line).

It seems that Bata didn’t need any Forum 2000 to understand what employees (humans!) want from their work. Bata understood that people are superior than machines, all he did was to help foster an environment that didn’t get in the way of their linchpiness. Does generation X and Y changed so much that they want different things? In my opinion, not at all, we are just much more bold to say it aloud and demand to be treated as humans.

Any given sunday - or just another amazing moment in Excel 2009 in Bergen

AWESOMENESS POST

I keep postponing to talk about the amazing things I've experienced so far as President of AIESEC Norway because I want to write about them in details - bad, bad habit, because there are so many amazing things that they pile up and this leads to a situation where I never talk about them. So, I will try to put them all together in one post. The AWESOMENESS POST.

1 - Coaching visit to Local Committee University of Stavanger

In our national board job, we have a huge role which is to coach local committes. I am the coach of UiS and what this means in reality is that I have to do a consulting job with them to increase their performance. UiS is a very small local committee, they started just 2 years ago and almost no structure were in place. In fact they barely had members, only 4 or 5.

When I arrived there, I could see there were lots of things not in place, like for example the corporate relations - in 6 months they had only 3 business meetings, a total disaster. They were struggling and the few members they had were feeling they were failling big time, thus making the general mood being very down, because these guys have been working a lot. In fact 2 of the executive board had quitted also and a 3rd one was also thinking of quitting. Terrible state to be in, especially when you just recruited new members. This was looking like the recipe of disaster, if they kept the same pace, they would lose all the new members recruited and frustration would be in the air.

Instead of puting me down, their problems in fact energized me, I was excited to be back at the ground level to help them solve problems. I decided to step up and change the game. I gathered the executive board and had an intense day of work on feedback and suggestions to the LC and building up solutions. I felt energized because even though the problems were deep, I totally believed in their ability. The only thing they needed was passion and direction. And we built up this together.

Today (1-2 months after my visit), I can see the changes in UiS. Their members are passionate and motivated. They are having tons of fun while working very very very hard. And they have super talented people. If in 6 months they booked 3 meetings only, in one week they booked 8, talk about improving fast. I am 100% confident that these people that are in UiS now will change this local committee in an enduring way, shaping their culture for the next generation.

Extra random point about the visit: I never felt so welcome in any coaching visit: I had my own room, we went to 2 parties, 1 norwegian typical dinner and people really wanted to make the changes in UiS.


2 - Excel 2009 - AIESEC Norway National Conference

This one absolutely blew my mind. It was even more positive then I was dreaming it could be. What I saw was a different AIESEC Norway for ever before. Everything was just absolutely perfect:

- The content - the agenda was very well built and the content delivered with passion, creativity and focus. I believe at the end of the conference it was very clear the country direction and who was responsible to make it happen and how.

- The delegates - very lively, energetic, smart and willing to learn. What a crowd. I am so proud of our members. If they keep that kind of energy level and fun in their AIESEC every day work, I am sure they will do good.

- Facis - it was mainly the national board and some talented local committee vice-presidents. The content was delivered smoothly and in lots of cases in a very creative way.

- The conference organization committee and logistics - they were so amazing people. Always smilling, very focused on client satisfaction, these people put on a real show: amazing food, everything on time, great session rooms, party, everything. From the basics to details, the organization committee rocked the house - and, of course, the conference ended up in a profit.

- "Externals" - in AIESEC conferences all around the world we have this word "externals" to say about the people who are not in AIESEC, but they are there in the conference as representatives of other organizations or the government. In the case of Excel, we had 2 sets of externals that were just mind blowing: DnB Nor and CTI.

DnB Nor put a show that will be hard to match in the future. They delivered a full day of leadership development to our AIESEC members, which was part in fact of their own leadership development program. It was a great added value to our members and, not only that, it was also extremely fun and impressive. They had famous classical musicians, normal plenary sessions, skills workshops and also in the end a huge interactive session where every member had a different percussion instrument. The analogies with leadership were perfect: when playing, you have to combine listening to what is around you and playing your own music; the diversity of instruments (talents) made possible that in fact we had good music (if everyone had the same instrument, it would be very difficult for 80 amateurs to pull this off); leadership is about giving a base that people can use as a guideline, but also giving the possibility for people to solo with their own way, etc etc etc. I loved it. Some pictures of the DnB Nor leadership day with AIESEC Norway:








CTI had a short session on what is coaching. They offer an appetizer to our members, that thanks to our partnership can get professional coaching with very very competitive prices. They also give the whole national board a 3 days coaching course that is so amazing. I cannot describe how lucky I am for having this opportunity. Here are the coaching couple dancing in the moment:



- Sunny Bergen - believe it or not, it was sunny most of the time during the conference!


3 - National Board Team Days

Each quarter the national board gets together, stops for 2-3 days and evaluate where we are, where we are going, what we need to change, etc. It's the most powerful team management tool I use, because it's a mix of interpersonal relationship, direction, celebration of success and adjusting the things that didn't work so well, strategic creative discussions, etc.

It's just too awesome to describe, you have to be there and live it - and to live it, you have to be a member of the national board. I consider myself very lucky, because my team is simply the most awesome I ever saw. Such talents you don't find easily everywhere. They are challenging to lead, as any room full of only talented people, and I learn everyday with them.

I am so grateful for being the President of AIESEC Norway. This kind of opportunity, with this level of job I won't see very soon in my career. Probably it will take at least 10 years in a "normal company" to do the same things I am doing today at the top of my 27 years old.

I wish every human being have the same opportunity as I have, that's why I want AIESEC to keep growing, especially here in Norway.

Engage 2009 - swedish AIESEC conference

AIESEC is always opening doors for cool opportunities and one of the amazing opportunities I was offered some weeks ago was to chair the AIESEC Sweden's national conference, called Engage.

Being the chair of a national conference is a great honor, because it's the only AIESEC opportunity you don't get o apply to, but you are invited only. The chair holds a lot of influence (sometimes even more than the president), because he is responsible for creating the atmosphere of the conference, connecting messages and make sense of the agenda, lead the logistics and the facilitators team, etc.

I must say that I absolutely had a blast as chair. It was a very challenging experience, but I believe I managed to get the organization committee in my side and also get the respect of facilitators and delegates. I believe I could inspire (and have fun) with all these 3 target audiences. I believe it was a great success.

I cannot describe how happy and honored I felt for having this opportunity. Again, only AIESEC could have given me this.

Some pictures from the conference:

Global Youth to Business Forum (2)

Amazing experience! I participated in the Entrepreneurship track (the Alcatel Lucent part was already mentioned) and afterwards we had great keynote speakers, an open space and a forum. I have to say what impressed me the most today was this young guy called Vishen, an AIESEC alumni, which own a company called Mind Valley.

Absolutely mind blowing.

Besides being a great speaker, he had such amazing hints on how to build a great work place to work. He was so inspiring, so vision driven, I felt extremely touched by his way of thinking and working. Certainly I will implement some of these things in my current team and in AIESEC Norway. The guy is so generous, he is a true alumni example, he gave to us one of his company products to support us to achieve our goals. And, as his wife was in the norwegian AIESEC national board, I invited him to chair a conference in Norway and now we just need to set the date, because we has extremely up to it!

I am impressed with my own experience in International Congress. I didn't skip one single session and I am alive and kicking. My energy level is very high, I am not tired at all. And now I have a discussion with all the Presidents for 2.5 hours, which leads the end of it at 23:59.

My own AIESEC 2010

There was this session on International Congress to understand to ourselves what the global AIESEC 2010 vision means to each one of us. It was a very inspiring session with the virtual presence of the previous 5 AIESEC International Presidents: Brodie, Dey, Gabiza, Juan and, of course, Aman.

It was especially cool to see what Brodie had to say, since he is such a legendary icon for us AIESECers. In the last years, there was no one (and no team) in AIESEC so celebrated as he as President of AIESEC International and his team, the ones who were responsible for the process of the vision 2010 creation in the International Congress 2005, in India.

I am totally part of the 2010 generation. When I joined AIESEC, back in April 2005, my first regional conference (organized by my Committee, AIESEC Porto Alegre, Brazil) had a huge focus on the AIESEC 2010 vision. I feel really connected to it since them: when I was vice-president in my local committee, our team used the 2010 to create our own vision, when I was in the national board of Norway the same thing and, obviously, now that I am leading AIESEC Norway, the national vision is 100% based on the Global AIESEC 2010 vision.

To connect even more, on the session we were asked to create our own version of AIESEC 2010, a personal state, something that you will believe it's 2010 for you. And here is mine (rough words maybe, but the feeling is there):

I want to lead AIESEC Norway to accomplish 3 things:
- Achieve 99 exchanges realized
- Have star members living a 5 stars experience
- Be a financially sustainable organization

Personally, I want to be the CEO that AIESEC Norway needs to achieve the above and be admired for leading by example and supporting my team (my vice-presidents and my local committee presidents) to achieve together our goals and vision.

Youth to Business Forum

Besides interacting with AIESEC members and alumni, there is another key interaction that brings a hell lot of value to my AIESEC Experience constantly: interacting with "externals" - people not from AIESEC, but from other organizations, companies, government, etc. Here in International Congress 2009 in Malaysia we have one full day called Youth to Business Forum, where we can interact with these "externals".

I just left one workshop with Alcatel Lucent about entrepreneurship and it was amazinly good. Basically we discussed very briefly our ideas around what is entrepreneurship and went straight to practice, working in groups to come up with business ideas, pitching these ideas to the other groups and receiving investments.

Our idea was very successful and it was brilliant to discuss it with everyone, because it's something that I do intend to do in the future: an experiential learning program that attaches itself to normal education, giving to high school students the chance to develop competencies and skills such as project management, communication, leadership, etc. Of course, it was also great to receive the feedback that there was some holes in our idea, for example how we are going to fund it which needs to be a little further developed.

I truly believe that not only we AIESECers gain with it, but also the companies by hearing the youth voice in this matter. I may sound a little full of myself saying that AIESEC is the youth voice, but, hey, we have some thing going on there, see this example:

Recently there was an youth program that took 50 young people to Antartica to study the problem with the gobal warming. From thiese 50 people, 6 were AIESECers. Consider we have only 35,000 students and university students are millions, I guess this is a pretty advanced representation when talking about youth that actually DO SOMETHING to change the planet into a better place.

Now I am going back to the forum.

Innovation

((Self-reflection time at AIESEC International Congress 2009 in Malaysia))

I consider myself quite creative, but been in AIESEC Norway for some reason has been retracting a little my creativity, I am not being so crazy anymore. I believe this is because I started to believe I know everything already and I have all the keys and nothing else can be different. Clearly I was not in the organization when the minds of brillient people came with a whole new concept called "the AIESEC experience". I cannot accept the "peak" as my peak, because this means death. I need to reinvent myself, go to the next level. Stretch, again, my bondaries.

I think I need to connect myself again with the realm of possibilities, be less grounded on the reality.

Being a fully responsible executive with a quite restricted experience at young age sometimes restrict you. Or, maybe, only me?

How can someone be responsible for a 1.5 million budget and the whole strategic development of AIESEC Norway be less grounded on reality and more connected to the unseen possibilities? How to balance responsibility and creative strategical thinking?

Any hints?

Cultural sensitivity?

((some of the dates will be messed up, because I wrote lots of posts offline and programed them all at once, because internet is quite restricted here))

I can't imagine a place where people are more culturaly senstive then in AIESEC, but even here, I sometimes have my doubts of the extent of this sensitivity.

We are here in International Congress 2009 with more than 600 people from 100++ countries. Naturaly, there are some of them that are muslims and are fasting during Ramada (and of course they don't drink), which is happening at the same time as the Congress.

We from the western part of world, on the other hand, love to have a party with loads of alcohol. Now I pose my question: are we, AIESECers from the west, culturaly sensitive by drinking in Malaysia (a Muslim country)?

Don't get me wrong, I am not telling we are not, quite the opposite, my question is really sincere: is culturaly sensitive to not drink in the Muslim country or by accepting the drinking and the Muslim delegates completly leting it go as "things from the western culture"?

I am going to grab a beer tonight and thing more about it.

I am lucky to be in AIESEC International Congress 2009 in Malaysia

((Self-reflection time))

I consider myself lucky.

27 years old, Brazilian and I am the leader of the national office of AIESEC in Norway. AIESEC is just the biggest youth-run organization in the world, with more than 40.000 members spread around more than 100 countries.

I consider myself very lucky.

I am now in Malaysia (a place where I, sincerely, never dreamed of going) in IC (International Congress) that AIESEC runs every year, with around 600 delegates from all around the world (literaly).

The Congress is just starting. I feel energized as hell being around all those close friends from who knows how many nationalities. IC is an experience that I consider myself extremely lucky to be living for the 2nd time. Who, with 27 years old, can say that spend around 14 days with 600 people from 100 different countries, exchanging ideas, having fun, working together and giving his/her best to make the organization grow - not because of the money, but because we believe in it's ideal and relevance to society.

I consider myself extremely lucky, because I am one of the two delegates of AIESEC Norway in this Congress. And looking to the other national boards that brought their whole teams to IC, I feel a little envy. I really would like my team to be here. We couldn't bring all the 6 people in our team because we didn't consider as a wise investment to AIESEC Norway (both in human and financial resources) to bring all. But it would be damn cool if my team, the MC Big Bang, would be here. I am sure we would have a blast together. And we would brand AIESEC Norway very well, because we are a hell of a talented team. I would also enjoy to see our local committee presidents here, so they could experience the huge scope of this amazing organization.

IC is great, not because of the sessions, not because of the more than 60 "externals" (how we call people that are not from AIESEC, usually from companies, governement or other NGOs), not because of the cool 6 stars hotel or because it's in amazing Malaysia. No, IC is great because of these 100+ nationalities working together for one common goal, peace.

I miss my team. I would like they would be as lucky as me to represent AIESEC Norway in this Congress.

I am sure they understand, though, that they couldn't come because it was not a good investment for the organization. Those are true AIESECers: even knowing they would love to come, they use maturity to agree not to come, because it's not the best for the organization.

What a team I have!

I am so lucky to have them.

AIESEC Norway 2009-2010 vision (as presented in ScaLDS)

This is AIESEC Norway: (if you can't see the video, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnNod7EWGRA)



I know I've been an extremely bad blogger. I am not prioritizing the blog at all - but I can say why: because I LOVE my job and I dedicate a lot of time to it.

Problems with hiring great people? I have a hint where to find them

If you own a business, you are probably facing this: it's harder to hire good people. And if you are a student, you probably are having some difficulties getting a good job.

In hard times, people lay off first the dead meat or the ones closer to that and they stick as hell to the A players, those stars that can make anything happen.

So if you want to hire dead meat / cheap labor, suit yourself, the market has tons of it sending CVs to you. But if you want to hire great people (especially because you don't have so much fat to spend in so-so people as in good times), what do you do? As you can see in "Why hiring is paradoxically harder in a downturn" says, if you post a job offer, most likely you will get tons of C players CVs, which are virtually indistinguishable from the few A players around.

Then you spend lots of money with tons of tests and interviews to find some good people. But shouldn't you be saving some money in a downturn? What about making the process more efficient?

The most simple solution is go to great talent sources and convince people there to meet with you (which is not always easy if you don't have a great reputation as an employer also - which is in fact the only long term solution, be an employer of choice to A players).

Where? Companies that traditionally only hire great people, competitive universities and, of course, AIESEC.

AIESEC?

Yes, AIESEC.

What AIESEC does is basically recruit the top students in the universities we are present in (and also some we are not present in, because some students seek for it) and offer them opportunities to develop leadership and tons of soft skills, such as presentation skills, team management, time management, planning, strategic thinking and so on. AIESECers are not normal students, they don't ask questions normal students do, they don't act as normal students and they don't seek normal jobs as normal students. But you don't need to trust me, you can hear some of AIESEC partners talking about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt0DxJqidwQ


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Biz6wTwRTxY


As a business, you can interact with AIESEC in a variety of ways. Two of the most common ways are:

1) the AIESEC internship program - where you get some talented AIESEC member from another country to work as an intern in your organization. With this you get 2 things in one, first an AIESECers with all the qualities an AIESECer usually have, second an international to bring diversity and cultural awareness to your business.

2) Being an institutional partner of AIESEC - by being present in conferences, branding your name, delivering workshops, having special student events, etc, you can brand yourself as an employer of choice for both national and international students.

Most business that partner with AIESEC do both, of course, they know what they get and they are really interested in it.

What about you? Is your business in need of some young great people? Why not to try AIESEC?

If you are a student, maybe you want a great job and is not getting it? What about standing out from the crowd and get some invaluable skills while on university? Join AIESEC.

More information on www.aiesec.org or, if you are in Norway as I am, www.aiesec.no

New team: our first assignment together

I am quite excited – and tense – because this week our whole new team is gathering together for the first time in Oslo. The reason: Unite 2009, the AIESEC Norway national conference where current local and national committee executive boards and newly elected executive boards get together to plan for the term 2009-2010 and prepare all this people to perform, so when the current boards leave, AIESEC Norway won’t be so affected. It’s quite challenging to balance continuity with paradign break to grow as an organization when changing almost all leadership each year. But that’s the AIESEC way and that’s the beauty in it: you have to learn and learn fast, because time flies and 1 year is nothing to do all we want.

As I said, I am excited, because I am meeting my new team, the people I will lead for the next year, but I am quite fearful for the same reason. Until now, it was me who was judging them on selection process (which all of them did amazinly well), but now the table turns and all eyes are staring at me. What will they think of me as a president? What will be their impressions? Will I be able to live up to their high expectations? How they will compare me with their previous leaders? Will I be able to inspire them so they enjoy the conference and also perform at their best? These are all questions on my mind and I don’t have the answer – and probably I will have only partial answers by when the conference ends.

I am also excited to meet the new local executive boards, since these are the people who will be mostly responsible for the results next year. But also for this reason I am quite afraid. Afraid if me, my team and the current MC will be able to deliver the right messages and content so they can be prepared for their terms. Will we be able to inspire them to the right direction? How will I impact them as their president? Will we lead by example? Will they learn? Will they be motivated to perform? Are we changing AIESEC Norway for the best? These are questions that, once again, I have no answer and I will take some time to figure out it.

But, besides the fear, I will face it and be at my best to overcome it. As the quote says: “courage is being afraid but going on anyhow”.

I will let you know how it was on my perspective and maybe my team and other AIESEC members can comment on theirs.

International Presidents Meeting 2009 – IPM

IPM 2009 or Global Leaders Summit 2009 (a more comercial name used to promote the conference) is the annual meeting where all AIESEC national presidents (from current term and elected to next term, as me) get together to:

- Elect the new President of AIESEC International and give confidence vote for his Directors and Vice-Presidents
- Start the global planning process, giving input to the global focus areas that AIESEC International for next year will have
- Prepare the elect presidents to lead the organization by leading high performing teams and managing well strategies and operations
- Help current presidents to wrap up their experience and prepare for next steps

But the above points really don’t describe the greatness of it. IPM is basically great because of 3 things: AIESEC International elections, presidents and content.

Elections for AIESEC International

When I joined AIESEC (back in 2005), I imagined AIESEC International people as the big super hardcore dudes. Respect, you know? It’s really funny when you see your friends, people that you have worked with, with all their qualities and improvement points, with all their successes and failures to apply to those positions.

It somewhat break the magic, but at the same time remembers us about the AIESEC magic: you will develop, it will be fast and if you are up to it, you can go sky rocket to the top.

And the AIESEC International President election, with 5 candidates, all of them current members of AIESEC International was a very special moment. It was very inspiring to hear those guys. It demands tons of balls to apply to this position, because it’s so much pressure, expectations and it’s there, in front of every AIESEC country, if you fail or win, it’s very public. I respect the people who applied.

AIESEC International President results announcement:


Aman Jain, candidate speech:


Directors announcement:


Vice-presidents announcement:



Presidents

First thing about IPM and the other AIESEC conferences is that IPM doesn’t look like a conference, it’s basically a meeting. You meet people and exchange tons of ideas. It’s a 10 days conference, but it passes so fast as 45 minutes Lost episode. You want always more, but it’s already over.

Around 200 AIESEC presidents, from 107 AIESEC Countries, this is something especial in itself. All of these people with the same role, sharing similar realities, problems, solutions, ideas. People usually say the AIESEC President is a lonely role, since you cannot talk about everything with your team. This conference is where all these people get together and identify “hey, I can talk to you! You understand me!” I myself already got some very good friends that are also elected presidents that I know I will talk a lot during my term.

Discussing the balanced scorecard


People from Western Europe and North America Growth Network


Content

I was agenda manager for the conferences here in Norway (and back in my local committee in Brazil) and one thing is very obvious: it’s extremely hard to make a conference to a too diverse audience. The magic of IPM is that everyone there is a president or will be. Thus, the content is tailor made and very relevant, doesn’t matter if you are in a weak or strong AIESEC country, hardcore management in financial crisis is all the same.

It’s been a long time since I didn’t have such an empowering AIESEC conference in terms of content also. I am more than satisfied and lots of sessions just blew my mind in ways that made my though “wow, I really don’t know anything”, “how I didn’t think of that before” and “jesus, these guys are doing a great job, I want to do that too”.

One extra point to the content was related to the AIESEC partners that were delivering sessions. At least the ones I attended - Tata Consultancy, Future Considerations and Time Management International - were extremelly useful. Thanks a lot!

IPM was the AIESEC conferenceexperience. (not to mention Rome, which is probably a point on next posts)

Achieve 2009 feelings and elections

Achieve was such a different conference to me. I don’t know if it was because I was running for president of AIESEC Norway; or because I had to select the team that will work with me next year; or because I worked with very experienced people that gave me great insights; or because of the small number of people (nether less very important people) that were there; or because the organizing committee was so smiling and helpful; or because of the new people I met; or because of the old people I knew and met again; or because of Deniss, the Estonian chair; or maybe everything at once? I don’t know, but the thing is that Achieve 2009 in Trondheim was one of the most exciting conferences I had. Not tiring at all. Full of joy and fun - even when the problems came with the venue and everything needed to shift place one day before the conference actually started.

This is one of the moments that I am wordless. I just enjoyed the moment and lived it fully. And I could feel members were exactly with that feeling. I could see, maybe for the first time in large scale in Norway, their drive for the organization, their shining eyes and how much fun they had, even though it was hard work. It impressed me in several ways. I think MC, facilitators, OC, chair, LCPs, EBs and other delegates made the best they could out of it, took everything and contributed with everything. It was one AIESEC Norway, which I hope to keep for the next months to deliver in our huge goals. Because now we need to “achieve” as the conference name stated.

And, well, yes, I was elected the next president of AIESEC Norway, which throws me right to the infamous worst-paid-CEOs hall of fame. Not that I do it for the money, which obviously I don’t. I do it for basically 3 reasons:

1) what I will learn and take from leading and managing a country unit of a global organization with more than 33.000 members, present in more than 100 countries;

2) the belief I have in the organization, a true passion, a passion only possible because I experienced the product (the AIESEC experienced) and it trully changed my life by making me discover and develop my potential and what I want to do later in life;

3) the impact I can bring to AIESEC Norway, generating more results, which will turn up into more life-changing experiences like mine. Only this is a great deed on itself, I hope I am up to the task.

It’s hard to describe the feelings (including the happiness and the weight of the responsibilities), but for sure they are generally very good and, of course, lots of times very scaring. But I wouldn’t do it if it wan’t challenging and scaring, so I guess this is the right feeling.

Well, take some pictures of the conference and mine elections (in the next post, I will talk about the selection of my team):

The Talent Management team's rap...



...against the fabulous sales team song:



Members enjoying one session:



Bizarre themed parties, always present in every conference:





The organizing committee:



Captain Plenary (the dream from ScaLDS post-meeting coming true):




Random dancing:



Dressed for the election speech:



Dressed to take a bunch of water if elected:







Hugs afterwards:



and, of course, MCP elected roll call:

AIESEC Norway elections coming up

On monday (5th/Jan) I will go to Trondheim, a city up north in Norway where AIESEC Norway national conference (called Achieve) will happen. These conferences are always very brigth times, because it gets together AIESECers from all around the country to discuss, work together, learn and teach.

But this one is even more especial to me because AIESEC Norway votes for its new president (the term from July 2009 to July 2010), and I am a candidate! If I get elected, this means I will stay in Norway one more year and be responsible for the organization to grow and achieve the 2010 vision.

But it's not only especial to me, but also to other 9 individuals who are applying to be vice-presidents - the executive team of the president. It's really amazing to read their applications, think of their ideas, check their past results, read their endorsement letters... Wow, I can't believe the election will be in less than one week.

Well, let's go!

Where are our self-driven learners?

One of the aspects of AIESEC is that you are responsible for your own learning (and the learning of others). Sometimes I just feel frustrated how AIESEC Norway fails to understand this concept (or take action upon it), both from local to national level.

One example happened today: only 10 members subscribed to the conference that will happen in January (deadline for subscription is within the next 2 days). Considering we have 180 members, that's very low number. Then us from the MC have to call local committee presidents to tell then to rally their troops to subscribe to the conference. If we were in Brazil, at this point the conference would be fully subscribed (with arounf 500 delegates) and there would be a waiting list of some more.

What are we doing wrong with these people? Are conferences so crappy that people doesn't want to go? Are people to lay down and just don't care? Maybe the conference concept is something that doesn't work in Norway? Or maybe members from Norway don't see the value in conferences (or maybe in AIESEC)? Or it's just that people are too busy with exams and they will complain they haven't subscribed after the deadline is over? Maybe we haven't been promoting enough?

Lot's of questions and frustrations, mainly for me, talent manager, agenda manager and candidate to president.

Update 11/Dec: our calling to the local committees had some echos, now we are 50 people subscribed and counting. If you think in percentual, that's similar than Brazil, because Norway has 186 members, while Brazil has around 2000. I am feeling better.

One more year in Norway?

I decided to apply to MCP (President) of AIESEC in Norway. Basically this means if people elect me, I will stay one more year in the country, leading AIESEC. I've been thinking a lot of things about it, for example, why I want to do that. There are lots of arguments, but the most important is that I believe a lot in the organization, its role in society and how I can take advantage of it while also support other people. Why I believe that? Well, there are lots of reasons also, most of then pretty related to my experience and development so far, but here's an example of why my eyes shine when I am working in AIESEC (from the AIESEC International blog):

Story from the Gulf
from Annika

Today was an incredible day here in Qatar.

As I sat in the closing plenary of the 2nd ever Gulf Conference, I looked around me and saw 75 AIESEC members from Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, the UAE, and Iran. Within the membership of these countries, about 20 countries of origin were represented -- from Somali and Sudan, to Iraq and Syria, from India and Bangladesh, to Saudi and Jordan.

A little less than a year ago the Gulf Conference was born, by two visionary MCPs in the Bahrain and Qatar who wanted to have a conference in Qatar but couldn't because of cultural and legal restrictions. Thus the first Gulf conference was held in Bahrain in February, with representatives of Bahrain, Qatar and Oman and members had the chance to discuss what kind of AIESEC they would like to see in the Gulf.

Here in the Gulf, student run organizations are completely unheard of here as young people are not expected to be able to take care of themselves and are given no real responsibility. It is unusual that nationals and expatriate people are working together on the same level, discussing the future of a region that impacts both of their futures.

Everyday, LCs face challenging ethical questions: will we be able to attract companies or other Gulf nationals if part of the leadership is Indian, or Sri Lankan? Will everyone feel comfortable being part of a training where both males and females are present? How will a shy new female member work in a team with males as she has never spoken to a male in her life expect her father and her brothers?

This is special conference. There are no AIESEC dances at this conference, definitely no alcohol, there aren't many guys and girls hugging but there is a spirit and desire for development and change that is incredible. You can hear loud and clear the voices of young people who want to develop, to contribute to a sustainable future of AIESEC in the Gulf.

Not only did these members stand up saying they believe in AIESEC, companies, organizations finally stepped forward to say Yes we support AIESEC. Companies like Qatar Petroleum, the Qatar Businessman's Association, Unilever, PwC, Salam International, BNP Paribas participated and talked about how amazed they were by the scale of the conference and the professionalism. Sheikh Faisal, the second most important man in the country of Qatar gave the opening speech talking about the importance of youth and his support for AIESEC, afterwards inviting all the AIESEC members to his musuem, where we spent a wonderful evening seeing ancient pieces of art, fossils, clothing, cars, carpets and much more before being invited to a wonderful dinner. At the end of the night the Sheikh stood up and addressed the students, talking about his experience growing up and how he had to try and fail many times before getting it right. I wish you could all be there to see the looks on the members faces as he talked about what an important experience AIESEC would provide them.

And that's not to mention the media who will help spread the amazing work of AIESEC here.

Now it's time to run with the momentum created by the event to really bring to life Qatar and the rest of the Gulf countries.

A huge huge recognition goes out to Petra Chovancova, the MCP of Qatar who has pushed hard to make this conference happen and not to accept the belief that it's just not possible in Qatar. Also to Monaem, the MENA ER manager who worked intensively with the OC and the VP ERs in the Gulf to raise partners for the event, and Driss who has been working on bringing back members to AIESEC here and training them to understand and love exchange. Also congratulate David from Oman for doing a great job managing the agenda.

From a happy MENA Director