Week 7: Learn before you earn

I remember a mentor had once told me that in the first phase of your career, focus should always be on the learning. Once you start learning and expanding your knowledge base, the earning will follow. I feel the same could apply to Nova, once we focus on the learning and the people aspect of the organisation, revenues will follow. Building the core and essence of the organisation is important. Once that is sustainable and resilient, we can create revenue streams.

My learning for the week is that we really need to learn what Nova is all about and think of ways to make it resilient and sustainable. This might mean moving away from the recruitment focus but it might also mean that we need to think of how to enhance the sense of community for Novas. Defining top talent is just important as understanding the desires, needs and pains of top talent. Insights from this research can help us identify values we want to incorporate in our culture and the products and services we want to provide them.

My learning for the week will also be that sometimes it's ok to leave with more questions than answers. I have a tendency to solve problems as soon as I see them but sometimes this would mean coming up with short-term fixes instead of long-term solutions. For example, I realised that there were many things still incomplete in our toolbox and that caused me stress earlier this week but after having a conversation with Karin and Per, I realised that having a list of to-dos and fixes for future development is better than coming up with a short-term fix for the toolbox. It's always good to keep in mind the bigger picture and the long term impact, even though we were only here for this internship for eight weeks.

I also learnt the importance of seeing things from another person's perspective this week. Throughout the organisation of Sunny Fridays we had doubts and questioned the effectiveness of our work. However, the feedback from guests and staff at SUP46 made us realise that we did have an impact on the community over the course over the summer and did a good job bringing people together. Staff at SUP46 mentioned how they would like to continue with this event and that made me feel like we are leaving behind a legacy rather than just an experiment over the summer.

Overall, I engaged in a lot more reflecting this week, informally and formally and that helped me develop a sense of closure and purpose for the rest of the time I'm here at Nova. 

Week 7: The big revelation

Week 7 was a week of collation, presentation and revelation of all the work we've done over the last 7 weeks. It showed us that we have some degree of clarity about what we have done but there are still some question marks about what lies ahead.

Some key takeaways regarding the process of this week:

- Harvesting is key! We realised the importance of harvesting a bit too far down our journey. Although it's better late than never, we should've started this process and tracked it earlier.

- Aligning expectations is important. We not only presented our findings to Lars Henrik and the Nova team but also got some feedback from them on their vision and their ideas. Although they seemed receptive of our ideas, we should've involved them more during the process so that it didn't become a us versus them approach but more of a collaborative effort.

- The way ahead needs to be clearer - Although we have clarity about what we have done. We need to ensure we are all on the same page with regards to our expectations for the future. In terms of process, it would be good to have a "what lies ahead" session once everyone has had their feedback meetings and meetings with Lars Henrik.

- The mystery of Nova experience - I feel like there's still a lot of questions and mystery around Nova Experience. I like that we have more time for collation and feedback but we feel like we lack ownership of the process and the event. It's hard to feel the sense of excitement and bring our passion into the event when we are so far removed from the content creation of the process.

Overall, a good week, a productive week but also a week that left us with more questions than answers. 

Week 7 (what I learned)

Some of my learnings this week:

• Our work is very strategic and practical on how to expand globally (unlike previous researches)
• Still a lot more work to be done. This is because we started on the wrong track and kinda wasted a lot of time on nothing. Ever since we started working on what we should have worked initially, it's been very productive and good work. But since our time was limited there is still quite a bit missing. The Nova team should continue working on these strategies after we leave and conclude them. 
• Nova needs a top-down strategy of how the current 3 hubs, Headquarters and new hubs will collaborate with each other. Nova needs to be centralized initially in order to keep the same values and Nova structure. Right now, it seems like Nova is decentralized. The hubs lack communication between one another. I am afraid this will continue to happen if a communication/reporting strategy is not enforced. 
• We still don't know the how-to's of expanding in new markets. Is Nova students or young professionals? Is the start-up manager a student or YP? Is Nova a start-up community or every professional community? What are the KPI's for the new chapters? I know we have been told we will figure them out as we go, but unless we have a Nova big picture, I don't think this will be feasible. I know someone raised this concern in the meeting and Karin said we will figure them out later, but later is now in my opinion. 
• As far as the market selection we are on the right page. We have identified which markets we should enter first and why. Please refer to my other blog post this week for a bit more details.
• I believe that Sunny Fridays would have been more insightful had we invited people from different professional fields rather than just start-up community. 

Crazy week ahead of us. Stay Fabulous!

Ella

Week 7 (what I thought about the process)

Hello fellow interns

This was a big week for us. Many presentations; Lars-Henrik, Nova team, Elin and Jonas.

Lars-Henrik's presentation was a very practical/operational Nova business approach. Inna and I worked on a similar approach as LH, but we chose not to present because it was very operational. And in my experience this project has been more of a consulting approach. I wish we had presented because as LH mentioned our presentation was more management consulting than practical business model.

Nova team meeting - Exactly what I've been talking about. We (Nova Global) still doesn't have a strategy how they will get everyone involved when expanding globally. It is hard for the current Nova employees to wrap their mind around to what will happen once we go into 1 or more markets in the fall. A top to bottom strategy is needed as soon as possible. How will the current three hubs collaborate with the HQ and the new hub(s)? How and who will approve certain new values/mission/principles, strategies and more? There a lot more questions raised after talking to the Nova team. It's common for them to resist changes, but not having a strategy in place how these changes will be applied makes it even worse.

Meeting with Elin confirmed me that we are on the right track with the expansion strategies. Her work was not strategic and she looked at markets without a clear 'why'. She talked to professors and students at top schools. Thing she found and we have included in our strategy:

• Don't go into markets such as US, India, Germany. They have very strong and structured recruiting and school career offices. There is no need for Nova there as of right now. Maybe later.

Last week I realized we are too late with our work, and we are no where to being done. There are so much more missing for the strategy and toolbox that we won't be able to finish by next week. We will work hard and see if we can at least put everything together so it makes sense in the end. 

Stay Fabulous!

Ella

Retreat Week (what I learned)

Oh Varmdo how I love you.

What I learned this week:

• You can swim in Sweden in the summer and not freeze 
• Retreats are the best thing ever. We should definitely start having these in US too
• Hot Seat is really hot. But you should never ask your fellow hot-seaters to keep it short. They'll get upset about it.
• Swedish people like reflecting. Even on retreats. 
• Mama Karin is the best cook ever
• I confirmed I love sailing. Thanks Karin and Stefan
• The boys can never act normal in a canoe
• Klaus has a lot of insights about current Nova and future Nova
• We are on the right page with the project
• Gustav is very passionate about Burning Man

Retreat Week (what do you think about the process this week)

This has to be the best week so far. My boyfriend came to visit me all the way from USA, and we had the retreat which was a blast for everyone.

Thank you everyone for being so nice and welcoming to Mike :)

I enjoyed spending time with everyone; swimming, sailing, laughing, cooking, and of course doing the 'hot seat' exercise.

What was really productive for me this week was the meeting with Klaus (Universum executive). Before the meeting I was in charge to talking to Universum employees and find out more about what they do and how we can work together in the future. I learned that Universum and Nova can collaborate very well in the future. Nova will benefit quite a lot from Universum's already on the ground business, and Universum can benefit from Nova's highly selected network. Klaus is a very practical and rational person, and I highly value his ideas and opinions. I wish we could work more with him.

As per Gustav's meeting (Burning Man), I feel like it was unnecessary given that he does something completely different from what Nova will do or does. As a matter of fact, I think we've talked to way too many people in the start-up community. Nova's focus will not be a start-up one; therefore, talking to all these entrepreneurs is kind of confusing with our ideas. It would have been more valuable had we talked to some real professionals and got their opinion on what we are doing or will do.

My 2 cents for the week.

Stay Fabulous!
Ella

Last week: thoughts

Hi y'all

Yesterday the nickel really fell (Dutch saying directly translated), I discovered what the key to most of our individual creativity is. I feel that it is not on the discussion table that we find our best strategic intents. I find that it is hardly ever the product of our arguments that finds it way into the record books as an unsurmountable fact. No, the contrary is what I believe to be the truth: The best insights and ideas come to you when you let everything sink in and start losing yourself in your own mind. 

The product of your conviction should be a beautiful thing that you should start exploring and building onto. Whenever I feel that I am on track to discover something I pick someone random (outside work/office space) to discuss it with and sharpen it up. I feel that way too many times we try to explore our ideas in an environment where those ideas might not necessarily align with the ideas of others and can therefore be received with some resistance. I truly believe that if we sharpen up and reinforce our ideas substantially before we bring it to the contextual discussion table we have less of a tendency to give up and in that line can be more innovative.

In conclusion, whenever you find yourself in the shower with what appears to be an idea you should write it down and try it out with someone that has no particular interest into it to see if it can float.

xoxoxox

Stefan

Last week: moving people

Hi lads,

This week for me has been all about moving people and synchronising thoughts and behaviour in order to reach a beneficial outcome. As much as I have been talking with each and every one of you, I also spent a significant amount of time talking to all the Nova team members. Weirdly enough I just realised that both of these inherently different conversations had exactly the same purpose: Extracting insights.

I was mildly afraid that the Nova team would be too resisting and cross with respect to our strategic intents for Nova Global and thus decided to open up to a dialogue that would force them to think a bit more about the scaleability of Nova and their position in this world. The reason I wished to do so was to enable them to commit to a fair discussion after our meeting. Meaning enable them to have an open dialogue that doesn't cause too much friction between our opinions and theirs and that makes them feel that we are in a way much more levelled (on equal grounds) as to what is going on. This so that every minute we had their collective intelligence could be mined for purposeful insights.

On the other hand, I have been talking to each and every one of you to put your most valuable insights - in whichever format - in our working paper. (Please do not forget to do so!). I feel that it is the key to harvesting whatever our collective intelligence has brought up, both on the table and outside of the table. In doing this harvesting I feel that there is a need to translate your personal notes into something much more universal, a format that anyone and everyone could immediately understand. I think that the balance between the personal way of putting things down and breaking it down into hyper-digestible material should illuminate the utility of our working paper.

I look forward to reading your insights

Best,

Stefan

Why "depends"?

On Thursday morning Karin asked a question: Do you think Nova Global can successfully launch this fall? The answer should have been «yes» or «no». General answer was «yes», but I answered «depends». So, in this blog post I wanted to touch upon that answer and explain it a bit deeper.

            I see that successful expansion generally depends on the values transfer. So, here are my 2 cents on what should be done in order to convert «depends» into «yes».

            Be awesome. Build the credible impression when contacting to companies and potential Novas/Advisory Board members. It is especially valid when we are dealing with the intangible product as meanigful connections and network. This is a far going step that should not be underestimated.  

            Keep up. Do not give up! Move forward and keep in mind all the good things we have practised throughout this amazing and unique summer internship. Building a strong community requires time and right people. We need to be patient but at the same time super active and driven.

            Unity in diversity. Unity as a group. We should not forget that we are a part of group. Especially on the early uncertain stages it is highly essential to support and help each other. Here I am not only talking about HQ – Sup manager interaction, but also about the virtual support from the Team. This support can be maintained through advices and best practises of what actions were helpful and successful in bringing right people/clients on board.

Be global, act local. This is time to ACT. Time to start executing the strategy we implemented, to recruit the local team and to start approaching the right candidates and potential clients.

Last days and Approaches

Well,

The last few weeks we experienced the convergence of our work throughout the summer.  Our interactions with Nova/Universum executives brought out another facet of our work.

As we talked before we weren't brought here to develop a business plan itself, since Universum has many experienced professionals to do that, as they did. Our goal was to bring our different expertises and create a new meaning to Nova.

Our faces and, these experiences, can be seen on our toolbox that, aligned, with the business side creates a new phase to the company.

With this being my last week here at the HQ I can't help but think on the execution itself. Our assumption had a lot of help and thinking, not only from our peers at Nova, but from people all over the world as well but they are, still, assumptions. The execution will show us what is feasible, in fact, and what is not.

I was thinking about the lading page and I glad that I didn't do it when I was trying to. I couldn't, at that point, offer anything more tangible or mobilize people and give them something back, on the process of creating and boosting the organization back in Brazil. That would have a great potential to undermine my credibility within my network about doing or not doing it, in fact, with them.

I believe that some of the thoughts I had so far about the approach would be:

- The advisory board, cited on the Growth Hacking chapter and also by Lars, will be critical on the arrival and creating the first connections.
- Gathering interesting people around it and setting up meet-ups with them
- Understanding what matters to them and what they want to see/listen (Potential speakers, themes, activities)
- Put the referral strategy to work for us.
- Getting the best ones to apply to Nova and sharing with them our goal.
- Follow the strategic plan to, after having a meeting and members, communicate with companies.
- Invite companies to be part of the process, so they can see our potential, our strengths.
- Get down to business.
- Put business and those members together, working collectively.
- Report the track and its results, tweak when necessary.

Many learnings will come from the process itself. With Nova team working with us, sharing their experiences and mentoring us on the ones we are creating, and the Nova Global team I believe, greatly, in our success and how we can - through a learning system - expand Nova globally.

I do know, however, that our approaches will be different in different places. So our communication during the process is critical and necessary to reduce risks.

Week 6: Man on Fire

As I was late on Thursday morning to Gustaf Josefsson's talk (sorry), for a moment there I thought I was transported to a hippie commune back in the 1960's free love era when I entered the room. It was in the way he dressed, the way he talks about his philosophical beliefs, the way he talks about drugs. It's even in his Facebook profile picture!

But more than halfway through his talk, it all began to make sense to me. Everything Gustaf talked about did not seem related to what we're doing at first, but by the end of his talk, it was the one that I feel was most relevant. Of all the speakers that I've heard talk about Purpose and Meaning, Gustaf's is probably right up there with Per from Sandbox and the one that I enjoyed the most. He was also one of the very few speakers that, I feel, really lives the values that he espouses.

2 of the most useful nuggets of wisdom that I've gleaned from him are:-
1. To share personal stories and end it with failures. Someone has to start by being vulnerable and revealing/sharing their vulnerabilities. And the more important or connected the person is, the more impact it has (this is consistent with the hypothesis I made in my presentation in the 2nd week during the Storytelling Module, that no one talks about their failures).
2. Find Startup Managers that live the values.

If we're able to do the above 2, then I'm sure we'll be able to make Nova work!

Week 6: In the Hot Seat

We really needed that retreat. It couldn't have come at a better time just for everyone to kick back and relax before the final stretch. And of course there was the Hot Chair.

Even before the Hot Chair exercise, I knew there was something that I was struggling with but I couldn't really put my finger on what it was. And yet, it was always there, gnawing at the back of my mind regardless of how often I try to put it behind me. The Hot Chair forced me to confront it.

When Karin interviewed me for this program, one of the questions she asked me was along the lines of, "how are you going to work in a team with 9 other strong personalities?" And my answer to her was, "to take a back seat." The first couple of weeks after I got here, I noticed people were talking, but not many were really listening. They were hearing, but not listening. And so I made an effort to listen and hear people out, because I know what it feels like to talk and not have people listen to you. It's not a good feeling, I find it a little bit rude and disrespectful, and I don't want people to have to feel that. If you want people to listen to you, I think it's only fair that you listen to them first. But maybe that's just me again. :) Sad to say even till now, sometimes I still notice people not paying attention when someone else is speaking whether it's some speaker, Per or Karin, or even just any one of us. But hey, you can't force people to listen as well can you? :)

Because I've always tried my best (as humanly possible anyway, I'm sorry if I wasn't listening or paying attention) to listen, I might have grown too accustomed to listening, whether consciously or unconsciously, that sometimes I don't really contribute or participate in discussions. In a way, I might have put myself in a box, restricted myself, and let a role define me. But that was never my intention, and the Hot Chair exercise made me realize that.

Sometimes, I also struggle to see my voice in the things that we're working on. But now, I'm at a point where I can see the evolution of my ideas in the final idea of Nova that we're presenting. From the Seed, Grow, and Sustain model, to having Nova maybe partnering with Universities, and also having an orientation or a kick-off event, those were ideas that were developed and iterated over time. And it makes me happy to know that I've contributed to the team, even if it's just in the little things. :)

Week 5: Growth Hacking

This week's Module was Growth Hacking and I don't think we could have gotten off on a better foot than with the exercise that Per had us do about growth hacking some random YouTube videos with less than 100 views. Just finding a video with less than 100 views was a challenge in itself! But I thought this was the perfect introduction to the module. Instead of just explaining what growth hacking is, we got to test and try it for ourselves and see how hard it is to actually growth hack something.

However, since we decided to split the 4 Modules up among the Toolbox Team, I did not really get to delve deeper into the Growth Hacking Module. That's the problem with splitting up tasks, you lose the chance to learn something new by specializing in something, but it was a necessary sacrifice, I feel, for the sake of efficiency with the time constraint that we were operating under.

Instead, I was to go back and help Aisha with the Community Building and Event Organizing Modules. This time, I felt that I was able to contribute more than the previous week, but still there was something lacking that I couldn't really put my finger on back then.

Week 5: From the Ashes a Fire Shall be Woken

Which brings us to the fika that we had with Per. Man, was that what all of us needed! I feel the fika with Per allowed everyone to express their frustrations and what is it that they're personally struggling with in confidence.

It's so simple, and yet such a powerful tool. Just getting everything off your chest knowing that you could do so without worrying about being judged or anything. It is something I wished we had done maybe a little sooner, but on the other hand, without first experiencing the conflict we had, maybe some of us would not have seen the value in doing such an exercise. So it was all good in the end. :)

As a suggestion, maybe we can include this in any future process as part of a check-in to make sure we have everyone onboard the process. I know this is definitely a tool that I'll take with me for the rest of my life.

Ohh, and one more thing girls. Thank you so much for the growth hacking each other's Facebook session that we had on that Monday evening!!! It really made my day that we laughed till we cry :) For that, I'm thankful and grateful. Love you guys!!! :)

Week 4: After the Storm Comes a Calm

But what happened this week was actually a blessing in disguise. I feel this was the beginning of when each and everyone of us finally realized how diverse we actually are as a group. Looking back, it was when I feel all of us started showing more sensitivity, understanding, and tried to tread more carefully (but not necessarily tiptoeing around each other) during discussions and meetings.

As for the Event Organizing Module, the talks we had only served to reaffirm my initial assumptions about how we should go about organizing these Nova events. Working as a Marketing Executive and serving as President of my college's Student Council, I've organized more than 30 of my company's participations and college events in the span of 2 years from small events attracting upwards of 30 people to the largest roadshow in Malaysia attracting more than 1 million people. (Here are the links to some of the events I've organized that were covered by the biggest Malaysian newspaper / media outlet: Link 1 Link 2 Link 3 ). Together with the Community Building Module, these were the 2 Modules that I probably felt most comfortable and competent in from my experience.

However, I felt that I didn't or couldn't really contribute towards the Event Organizing Module this week. It was a combination of being bogged down and affected by the tension and also trying to avoid even more unnecessary conflicts during the discussions and meetings that we had as it was emotionally and mentally draining for me (thank you Ilya for noticing that :) ).

Small pieces of the same puzzle

Hello Folks,
I've been missing the Blog Posts lately...and I am really sorry for that (Karin and Per sorry).

So here I am back again 20 days later. Seems a century and there so many things going on inside me.

In order to stick with the Blog structure:

How do I feel about the process ?
These last 20 days have been a mix of feelings. The process it has been shaped quickly in those last 20 days and we all perceived the power of the convergence. We started connecting the dots and the DOCS, getting over the disagreements, we understood how each element will fit in the big picture etc. and this released a lot of positive energy.

The retreat was key, in my opinion, to settle all this up. Giving calm and trust in the process and more important in the people. Everyone seemed to have really reflected about the feedback and the feelings we shared.

These 20 days have been the funnel of our chaos. I started valuing all the discordance and the disagreements we had because I believe they have generated reach insights when it came to the consolidation. If the process had been smooth and linear, without disagreements and all smiles this would have been a clear sign of an empty work and meaningless contribution. Just nice words on paper and nothing else. I think that this process wanted much more. It wanted to make us discovery ourselves, discovering Nova. Embrace the values and be ready to the real world. In addition to that we ended up deliver, eventually, something valuable. The toolbox and the strategies we came out with are not rocket science books, but they are the seed of the Nova journey. I am happy, as all of us, to have contributed... somehow.

I also started confirming my hypothesis that we are all part of a bigger plan. I believe I was right when I framed our internship as a test for a bigger validation.

What did I learn ?-I learnt that Business is Business, especially for business men. You can name it a living community, you can name it resilient system but at the end is a way of making money. However. if in life you are able to build something valuable for the people while making money this is even better ;)

- I learnt that people are really awesome. The speakers, the casual people I've met at the sunnyfridays have been seeding in me new questions every time. That is why I believe in the Nova concept even more.

- I learnt that a well designed process can be judged at the very end. Along the way it can be tweaked but if you started with a purpose keep going. Is better to have one proved failure that half failure and half success. In the last option you will fail anyway and you will not be able to understand why!!

- I learnt that it is important to read behind the lines. The people in this dynamic environment test you without even telling you. They also try to guide you with hints and suggestions, well masked and hidden.

- I learnt that you don't have to give up on the frustrations because the best inspirations may come in a cloudy Saturday morning.

-I learnt that the brain is a library and that it provides you the right quote at the right moment, just when you need it. It stores everything and if you are able to wait it will connect all the dots.


I will keep update the blog in this last week, sorry again for having miss that.
Baci e abbracci
Andrea :)

Week 4: A Storm is Coming

Week 4 was the week where everything that we've worked so hard to build as a team broke down. There was tension in the group, people were frustrated by the confusion in the process, some of us lost our energy and drive from the earlier weeks, and I could see even Per was not his usual motivated self.

What started out as earnest discussions between some of the boys and Per turned into a point of contention. Looking back now, maybe some of these discussions that we've had were more counter-productive than anything as it got some of us on the same page but maybe left out the girls in getting everyone up to speed.

Personally, it was really hard for me to reflect on that week. I tried not to take sides and remain impartial, but that can come across sometimes as me not having an opinion or not having a stand. I try to avoid conflicts as I feel it is even more critical that we listen to each other's frustrations and try to find common ground and what is it that we agree on during conflicts. Or we face the risk of losing people along this journey that we're all embarking on together.

But maybe that's just me. :)

Week 6: I so needed that retreat!

A deep breath,

And a clear mind. That is exactly what you need to start a big project. Toward the middle of our internship, I personally felt the need to take a breath and clear my mind for a while. And reflect.

Oh my God, it felt like I was born again! 2 days with nothing but warm conversations and nature's embrace - I can't imagine it being any better.

It was a critical. We improved our relationships with one another, and got to know another better. We heard how we inspire one another and gave helpful feedback to one another, and it was great to take in for us to grow and build better relationships.

(to be continued)

week 6: in a perfect world

This week I took away some insights about the Nova project:

There is a bit of a horrifying truth in everything I have learnt so far: throughout everything that's bad, inhumane and not working about networking and career events the demand has been consistently growing. That means that, even though networking is broken, people see a strong need to conform to it. Therefore, we need to be a bit weary of innovating or revolutionising networking as it is because if we don't we might slaughter our cash cow prematurely.

Having lid that light, I also spoke to some of the Nova ambassadeurs and some other companies. The sounds I hear from these are as strong as ever: We would like to relate to people in a meaningful way and as it is today I feel that we build no relationship whatsoever with either company or job position before we are completely submerged in the recruitment engine. Can we not fight those ridiculous amounts of employee turnover (20-50% annually) and can we not fight the ridiculous formalities of the recruitment business?

We need our career fora, we need our breakfast clubs and we need our shortlists in order to stay afloat. But maybe, just maybe, we - Nova - could create events that might change the mind of many talents about certain companies. Kajsa, a Nova ambassadeur, talked about some football tournaments her company is always organising and KPMG is endlessly swinging their golfclubs at golfballs wherever they go. Can we not use those sports to engage both company and Nova to have a real event and to create a real relationship that has the backing of some blood, sweat and tears? Can we not stop for a second, take a breathe and zoom out, and learn to combine that what is fun with that what is practical?

Stefan

Week 6: There is something in the air

Hej,

First of all thank you for a great retreat, each and every one of you made it a very special trip :).

Just now I was browsing my notes a little bit and noticed that, written in the hieroglyphics that I call my handwriting, I have a good 40+ pages of information, feelings and questions. While doing so I started asking myself: how can we put these notes into something workable for the next generation of startup managers, nova employees, project managers or even better for us.

I took a bit of a closer and more in-depth look and noticed that many of the questions I had been asking myself during earlier sections of my notebook resonated quite strongly in the insights I had put down in later sections. In a way I felt that the questions that I have been asking myself initially have brought me to most of the insights that will eventually matter the most. I would actually argue that asking the right questions will - in a way - be an incubator of insights and thus an invaluable asset to anyone else reproducing our process.

So how can we, together, produce a workable question bank that will lead anyone to a more streamlined and workable process of inclusion? I would love you all to stop and think for a bit about what your most mind-boggling moments have been and which follow-up questions leading from those moments of insecurity had put you back on track. So: which were the questions (or research topics if you prefer) that made you discover the things that you are most proud of?

Conclusively, you might have had your ideas or hypotheses about the probable outcomes of your research. If you could add your version of an answer to your own question than we could really lead any new startup manager, nova or project leader in the same direction as we are heading.

Love,

Stefan

Week 6: A little retreat never killed nobody

In terms of process, this week was the best by far. Those swimming and sailing sessions, delicious large family meals, bonfires and conversations till the late hours of the morning and waking up to a nice breakfast every morning! Can't complain! I would consider iterating this process again for the next couple of weeks ;).

On a more serious note, I really did enjoy the retreat. It was organised at a perfect time - after all those rocky weeks, especially the last 2 weeks of intense work, it was really nice to unwind, relax and reconnect with each other. It gave me that same rush of positive energy that I felt when I first met the group in the first week of the internship.

I also really liked the reflection activities conducted at the retreat. The hot chair was very powerful. How often do we get 12 mirrors to show us our reflection - our strengths and flaws? I liked the honesty and the delicateness of the process. I liked the love, the respect, the adulation we had for each other.

One of my favourite things from AIESEC conferences were these messages called "sugarcubes" that we gave each other at the end of each conference where we would write a message to people who we had a "meaningful interaction" with. These messages were great souvenirs from each conference, something I'd always go back to read and reflect on. The Hot Chair reflection had a similar empowering vibe. I wish I had recorded that discussion!

I also liked that we spent the next day planning and marking our milestones. Gave the structured and timeline loving part of my brain great solace!

In general, this week was one of the best and most powerful highlights of the internship. A big thank you to Papa Per and Mama Karin for organising this and uniting as one big family unit. Also, a big thank you to all my fellow interns for making this so fun - from stargazing while lying on the pier to those memorable sailing trips to cleaning the toilets together. You are awesome!

Lots of love
Rucha

Week 5: The week of growth hacking

Sorry for the lack of blogging last week but here's a short and summary of what I learnt from Week 5 on growth hacking and what I thought about the process that week.

Growth hacking was a topic I was really looking forward to learning more about and working on because it's something I hadn't come across earlier. I learnt some awesome tips and tricks on how to market/grow in a very cost-efficient and smart manner.

The first experiment with the bit.ly link itself was very exciting, especially for a social media enthusiast like me. I'm always curious to see how things go viral and understand the mechanics and the psychology behind people sharing things. Seeing people use all types of strategies from personal messages to group spamming to tweeting the pope with the video was not just super fun but also a great learning experience. I also liked how we used our newly acquired growth hacking skills to discover some precious photos of each of the team members - from red speedos to mexican sombreros, we had plenty of fun using growth hacking tricks till late hours of the evening.

I also really enjoyed our conversation with Rhys Fisher - a growth hacking expert. He gave us some really cool tips on how to grow our networks, both online and offline. Content, timing and knowing the right people is key!

In terms of process, this week was a lot more doing and a lot less talking. I really liked that change. It was good to see us actually getting things done. Setting tight deadlines really helped. Also, I must publicly declare, I love working with the Toolbox team. I appreciate the diversity we share and how complementary our skills are. With Kiko's help, starting this week, it's nice to see our toolbox looking all pretty and more real!

Good week overall! Here's to more growth hacking

What I learned (week 4)

What I learned during this week were:

• I do not like writing the toolbox. I enjoy working on the strategies of expanding globally by looking at the big picture.
• Dividing the team into 2 was the best thing we did. We are more productive and the teams are now working parallel with each other
• It is important not to shift the methodology of work half way into the process; otherwise, people will get confused. Especially when they're already on the right track.
• There is no need to stay up till 3 am for a meeting if more than half of the team is not present. We will have to go through that same meeting again with the entire team the day after. Sleeping a full 8 hours is actually more helpful.
• Dirty laundry will be aired :) :) thanks to Rucha who made a list of how active we had been or not on the blog (lol, jk)
• Aaron likes post-it more than I do :)
• Lastly, I learned that God made Andrea perfect :) 

Thank you, and continue to stay Fabulous!

Ella

Reflections about week 4

I have to say; week 4 has been the most important week for me. I am really enjoying working on the meta perspective team. I have experience working on the big picture and strategies before; therefore, I am sure I am more of an asset to Nova if I continue working with MP.

Even with a bit of confusion on Wednesday, the week was an overall success. Everyone is assigned to a task that they personally picked, and each one of us knows what his, her responsibilities are.

I personally am working on the market selection and market entry strategies. I am getting feedback from my own personal network. In addition, I will get some logistics from the Nova team and work with those.

On a more different note, I am happy we have decided to do the 9:15 am check in meeting. This way everyone will show up on time. It was kinda affecting the group energy when people were showing up whenever they felt like it.

Lastly, I believe we are on the right track. Now I am trusting the process :)

Thank you and stay FABULOUS!
Ella

week 4: Nova is also halfway

Some discoveries about Nova:

-Some people don't think Nova is exclusive enough, others couldn't care less about it but just want to get rid of the incompetent. This means that the safest way to serve both these groups would be to maintain our aim on exclusivity.

-There are two revolutions about to happen, and I would love to see Nova at the center of both of these.
(1) Networking is limited, we have the opportunity to radically innovate the networking events so that superficiality no longer leads the conversations and business cards are no longer endlessly flailed around.
(2) Everybody hates the recruitment process, that tries to sort out only the most motivated by asking them to write a cover letter and some other things. You don't have to be a genius to understand that this is a very limited approach to filtering out unwanted potentials.

In the end it all boils down to relevance, meaningful interactions and streamlining every single process like that as it is. Wouldn't it be nice if only those that mattered applied to your company and wouldn't it be great if you could have a conversation that gives you information that you can't usually also find on linkedin?

So I suggest to think a little bit about ways into making opportunities real, networking meaningful and relationships useful.

xx

Stefan

Week 4: halfway

To whomever might read this post,

Dear you, plural you, beautiful you, analytical you, visionary you, emotional you, whoever you are you are awesome. I think you should hear that more often, and I think you deserve a bit of appreciation every now and then. Even though it seemed that you decided you had all the answers, you realised there is much more to answers than your own opinion. I like the way you think about things, reflect on your opinion, make sure that your opinion doesn't become an absolute truth because that is where you will find a lot of people hurting each other over which truth is the most absolute (mostly none of them are).

An old Chinese friend of mine - called Kong Qiu - once said something along the line of: "The better person is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognise the ability that he has". I guess what my friend was trying to say was: we all have limitations, make sure you get the best out of it and you do not intoxicate others with them. Ideally we want to be enlightened and enriched by new ways of thinking. new information and new questions. Because that is in my opinion the true meaning of life, and the true way to grow to become an even better individual.

Load of love,

Stefan

Post #5 - This week was MY turning point

I am always open to learning and growing, and this is why I have a lot of appreciation for this volatile process, as is the nature of ALL startups.

Our guests sharing their stories and experiences are a strong affirmation, that things are going ok, taking quite a normal and expected course that all startups take. You just have to recognize the need for change, and act upon it rather that ignore it, and I'm happy that this week was all about that. We also learned that from the Steve Blank videos: [link to udacity.com]

I was thankful for this week's exercise, where we examined real-case senario's in which we reviewed what we would do if we were to start Nova back home straight away. It was a way to take a step back and see things from an outer perspective, and also reaffirm that we, as individuals were selected to take on this program for a reason: because we can actually do this. We have a contributing role here and it didn't come from scratch.

At some point earlier on, goals were getting a little blurry, and motivation was at a low. This exercise was a huge turning point for me, as were several other activities this week for all of us. Over this week, we reestablished our ownership to the startup program and our roles here. We also identified our key strengths and decided were we would see ourselves most for when it comes to backgrounds and contribution to the process.

I would like to thank my Toolbox team for tolerating my lack of attentiveness this week, especially on Wednesday onwards as I had some work of my own that was draining my energy even when I was present. Thank you Rucha, Aaron, Artur, Ilya!

Thanks Aaron for covering for me on Sunny Fridays. Per, when you asked me if I had asked someone to cover for me, I had already discussed it with Aaron, but totally forgot at the time you asked me because 3-hours of sleep and no coffee (I was fasting!) doesn't coordinate well with my memory capabilities, or analytical capabilities much, come to think of it!

Next week, Inna and I are coordinating to have Google Hangouts with Startup Grinders, 3 at a time over 4 meetups. I'm excited to hear from them!

Speaking of our team, I am happy not just with the group dynamic, but after 3 weeks, I'm starting to appreciate my individual relationships with each member. That helps a lot. I am a person that connects emotionally with my work and it helps me grow and supports me to know that I can count on my friends for advice, support, a second opinion, or a hug!

Here's to an even more productive week!

Xx,
Aisha

Week 4: Activating positivity

I usually have no problem with articulating how I feel on paper/keyboard but this week it's a bit hard to reflect on the process. It was a tough week with many ups, downs and breakdowns. It was a week which left us with more questions than answers and made us realise that we all are on different pages with regards to the final outcome. Some of the main questions raised were whether the toolbox is a means or an end to our internship? Whether we should focus on product development or consumer validation or both? We also had concerns regarding the work we had done so far and whether we really are on our way to achieve our objective for the summer or not. All of this required long intense discussions which only led to more frustration.

There were many learnings this week. I'm compiling a "start, stop continue" list that I'll share with Per during the mid-term review but in general I feel like we need to decide as a group what we want to focus on for the next month. We only have 4 weeks ahead of us so in order to be more effective and efficient, we should try and establish a common understanding of what we want to achieve by the end of our internship and go all out to get it.

When we had our circle practice last Monday, we talked about the values we wanted to work on that week. I chose "drive" but I felt like I lost that drive over the course of the week. Not knowing where we stand and where we are going led to a feeling of being lost. However, I also remember that I had said that a positive outlook is what I often bring to the table and teams and that's something I want to be mindful of this week. Lack of time is what scares me but it's also what motivates me to do our best to add as much value as we can to this global expansion before we leave.

Last week was a new low in terms of the internship but I do believe in our team and know that the pieces of puzzle that we are working on will all fit in place. We just need to decide on the final outcome to make sure we have that big picture in mind when working on our small bits. We should slowly work our way through this chaos to reach that stage of convergence.

Check-ins like last Wednesday are great to give us a reality check and ensure we are on the same page but they can be used more constructively to actually harvest and synthesise the information from such meetings. This is what will help us going forward.

Here's to activating positivity for the week ahead!

Cheers
Rucha

what about us?

Holla,

This post is about the relations between people, the roles of individuals and how I see them evolving and changing over time.

Throughout the process I recognized several important things with regard to the topic outlined above. First, it is virtually very hard to find the equilibrium. The golden middle that would suit everyone and that every member of the team would be happy to work together and produce tangible results. Basically, I personally believe that right now there are 3 parts of the group. People who see the potential of the project and who start executing this potential straight away. People who start taking the project seriously but not yet enough to influence and inspire people around (local community). And, finally, people who are in the emptiness stage, who are not sure what is their role and how they can bring max value. And the point here is: it is hard for our coordinators to simultaneously bring the part of the group from the third phase into the second, people from second phase to the first and sustain the part of the group in the first phase or ideal condition.

The correlation between moods in the group is also very interesting. When one part of the group feels frustrated and goes into the emptiness phase, the other part feels motivation and eagerness to work. And this pattern repeats vice versa, so far I did not recognize a moment of equilibrium, but I wish we can find it out throughout the coming weeks. The sooner we do it --> the better for our deliverables and team spirit.

IG

EVENTually

Good Sunday morning,

This 4th week it has been the fastest and the most meaningful from my point of view.

We have experienced a lot of different phases, the chaos, the discordance and then again the agreement, the willingness of bundling something together to ace this last mile.

I had a period of emptiness during this week, an emotional downturn which sometimes made me without energies and motivation.
However once we reached the internal equilibrium of the team, once each one of us realized its own path that will contribute not only to fill up printed pages but also our minds and the minds of the people that will follow, I re-flourished and now more than ever I see Nova happening.

In term of the process: this week I realized that we can plan whatever we want but at the very end there is no plan that can handle the reality, especially in uncertain contexts such us the start-up one. I think that designing a process is a way for minimizing the risk and especially to find other possible strategy in case of urgency. We learnt that also from Impact Hub: whenever you have people involved in a process the more you plan the less effective will be. All this reasoning brought me to the conclusion that testing is the only way of knowing if something can work out. Per and Karin are testing how to plan, we are testing the plan it self. Everyone in this process is learning by doing, and this is a unique chance we all have.

After the Sunny Friday, which was very useful in term of information, I was looking for something interesting to test the next one, and while finding people to follow on twitter I ended up in Fuck Up Night. Basically they organize event where people talk about their failure (check online). What about doing something about this for the next Friday ? Test how the conversations will evolve would be interesting and useful.

In conclusion, this week brought a new breath and new ideas, it is important to keep sailing it and do not loose this momentum.

Enjoy the sunny Sunday
Andrea

Week 4: Changing the way we network

This week was all about events. The toolbox team worked to put together a module on how to run Nova events for start-up managers. We also got some interesting perspectives from Derek from Startup Grind, the focus group and our first-hand experience at Sunny Fridays.

As someone who usually despises networking events, I've actually grown to like it as each Sunny Friday comes along and I've also learnt a thing or two about organising good networking events.

The thing that I really didn't like about networking events was the superficiality that goes with it. There's a saying that "great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events and small minds discuss people". I would add that in networking events bored minds discuss weather. This used to be the case where a bunch of strangers would meet and try to find common ground by talking about weather and would get stuck in that conversation if one of the parties wouldn't steer the conversation in another direction.

Nova is all about connecting great minds and I think we should leverage our network to organise events that can breakthrough that level of superficiality where people move beyond discussions about the weather, events and people to discuss ideas. I do understand the importance of informal chats and creating a relaxed environment where people aren't forced to talk about certain topics but some guidance can add more value to networking events. My suggestions would be:

- Having some sort of introduction right at the start and a couple of ice breaking questions that get people talking and then they can branch out to other conversation topics
- Having a theme for networking events, especially if we do it on a monthly basis in the Nova network e.g. entrepreneurship, language skills exchange etc
- Having more than just networking - some fun activities e.g. trivia quizzes, photo booths etc to bring engage the attendees a little more
- Crowd sourcing - asking attendees if there are certain topics they want to discuss and allow them to lead discussion groups within the event

I also like the suggestions by Artur in his post and think we should try and experiment with some of those for the next Sunny Fridays and also the Nova experience!

Rucha

My frustration, my process.

Well throughout these last weeks I was able to experience some great struggles. I need to share that I, as a international student on a very international school (we have 112 nationalities within 900 students, let's talk about diversity) have been facing some challenges on dealing with such diverse perspective about business management and development. I have a, personal, struggle with the affirmation or creation of an absolute truth.

Dealing with diversity involves bring together all that with comprehension and respect even when we don't understand the reasons behind it.  Don't understanding it does not make it less valuable.

I could see Per going from a very excited leader to a not as excited as before in the course of one week and that, actually, affects me quite well.

I've learned something. While I was coordinating a organization in Brazil I have the chance of leading 400 professionals in 24 states and 50+ locations. I had a team of 18 people, that I reduced to 8, to help on that process. I went through a process of trying to empower my direct staff to be leaders of the process as well (I strongly believe that a leader is a leader by other's choices not because you say so) and it was quite a struggle. Some people misunderstood that "freedom" with lack of coordination, some people didn't enjoy having it and they needed "orders" to develop their work better and some people tried to assume the process as they were considered, only by themselves, leaders. 

My learning from that was that different people need different approaches. So a multi-dimensional approach was necessary there. Was not only about being the traditional manager (the old methodology that works for making money under the resources, any kind of resources, exploitation) or being the "cool" manager. Was about leading individually. The ones who need to understand their places and need strict orders we gave that. The ones who knew how to deal with freedom and develop their works through empowerment, and empowering, had that as well. Changing that approach, and saying good bye for destructive people who think they have all the knowledge in the world, was not only necessary but very efficient. We had a very efficient staff, reducing from 18 to 8 people on the National Coordination. Our response time, on services, was 76% faster than before and our expenses went down in more than 40%.

We coordinate an International Symposium, in Rio, with the most important people in the country (including the president) and people for huge organizations such as WHO, UNICEF, UN, with a 5 people coordination team. Notes from the UN and WHO representative complimenting, specifically, the event organization.

Where I want to get with this is that we have a huge potential together. But we need to improve our dynamics. Not having meeting, for instance, it complicates communication. We need to have a balance. Shutting down meeting reduces the questions, therefore, reduces our development as well. 

We have a 8 weeks program to create information, collect that from people on our network. That's, on my opinion, why we were selected and what we are being paid for. They don't need me to build a document. Universum is what it is based on the information they collect and how they manage that. They don't need a group of students to tell them what to do as if they didn't know. They need us to bring a perspective that they don't have for not being, culturally, from our countries and because they don't have the network we have (they a have a powerful different network though) within bright students/young professionals. 

I might have, with no structure, drop my thoughts on the lines above. But I was writing down as I felt. 

Your comments are welcome, just remember that is MY OPINION, and closely related with what I perceive and how I see things. Be nice and constructive ;) 

Reflection on Sunny Fridays' Responses

I've been reading the SunnyFridays registering responses this morning and trying to bring out the most important points made in there.

Overall data:

• 56 valid responses
• 29 years old average. Oldest being 47 and youngest 21.
• 24 people didn't answer our question.
• From the 32 who answered our questions, we had 21 constructive answers (by constructive I mean not saying more beer or more girls) 

We had a very common thread being the fact that we should group people by interests. It seems it gets some time until you get to know people that you can actually contribute/learn with. The lack of guidance and activities was also mentioned. Like hosting a topic (someone sharing presenting something) to be discussed during that event. People also said there is not enough food and/or drinks to keep the event going. 

So extracting some ideas from the 1st research about how to make a great networking event we have:

1. Have an agenda, including activities.
2. Presentations during the event
3. Tags for areas of expertise
4. After the free beer/liquor having more to sell
5. Coupons and information for relevant companies/organizations
6. Sweet stuff to eat
7. Having a theme as Why networking sucks and get the discussion going around it
8. Instead of group people (1 suggestion) having them talking with different professionals (i.e. a techie talking with a musician).
9. Offer challenges/problem solving so they can discuss solutions/strategies
10. Social games and activities to promote interactions
11. Color-tag for different profiles (techie; investor; intern)
12. Creating projects where people can group under that interest. Matchmaking between people and interest.

So what I learned this week? That even not having a 100% of participation on our questionnaire we were still able to get insights of thing we haven't think about. Or event if we did we haven't make that happen. 

What I mean is that we had 3 sunny fridays and they were all the same, but there is an opportunity of trying out new things every friday and having their returns. We can be selling beers and liquors and donating the profit for a cause, having games or themes, having a speaker. And figuring out what works and what not works and that's the difference between a startup environment, trying, failing, trying something new, refining, in a continuous development cycle.

I'm thrilled and doing my best to get more external insights, not only in a conversation (because we tend to merge their opinion with our own perception) but having data about it that can influence the process. We did that yesterday and we have material to work with for the next friday. 

I think that says a lot and I'm really looking forward to the webinars and forms getting out of the building and bringing some fresh insights for us.

Artur Sousa

Week 3: Values maketh a community

Last week was all about building a community. We listened to some interesting stories from people who were part of some strong networks and communities. One of my biggest takeaways from last week in terms of building communities would be the importance of having values. By values, I don't mean having a few fancy/fluffy words that are often written on company websites and just communicated to new employees during their orientation week. Values to me are guiding principles and something that can be shared universally. It's not really about the semantics but about the essence of values that's really important when building a community.

To build a community, it's important to come up with a small and simple set of values that can easily translate to actions/behaviour. I liked the values we came up with in the first week but felt like we needed to make them a little more concrete to turn them into actual guiding principles. Although we spent another working on the values on Friday, it was a good refresher and also a good way to start thinking about the Nova network and how to make the values come alive through our activities and events.

Now it's time to be mindful of these values and lead by example by not just integrating the values in the way we work but also the toolbox we design.

Per&Karl talks: key insights+reflections

First of all, let me start with Per's story/presentation. Key extracts:

• Know who you are: your strengths, role. Activate them every day. If we are looking at the divergent-emergent-convergent diagram, then someone is better at the 1st phase, while others are most valuable at the 2nd or 3rd. So, know your role and strengths.
• Respect people's choice. As a leader you should accept people's decisions, even if they do not go in line with your vision and thoughts. 
• When Per and co started his first organization "Young entrepreneurs in Sweden", they thought they are making community for top, elite, ambitions and driven entrepreneurs, but what they actually do was a creation of social support group for people who are not belonging or feel misplaced. :)
• It is crucial to ask questions, especially "why" or doubt questions when you are working in a group, organization, start-up --> avoiding crisis cycles (every 6-7 years).
• Power is people and shared values among them, not the communities/companies/networks that align them. (Sandbox case)
• Digital future of Per was dictated by his childhood interest in computers. Majority of our interests goes back to our childhood.
• ... (find a recording@Dropbox folder)

Although after the meeting I had a perception of information "wave" and misconnected dots, I still believe it was an invaluable speech/presentation in terms of the strong personal story and meaningful life tricks. Regarding the process, this presentation brought the understanding of significance of shared values within the social community, importance of asking the right questions (why) in order to decrease the number of mistakes.

The feel of belonging is actually the basic human need that we hypothesize to fulfill by building local Nova chapters back to our home countries. How to test or experiment this hypothesis? I suggest we go out of the building and start talking. :) Right now we have at least four available channels to verify or reject the hypothesis. 1) Thursday Focus Group 2) Sunny Fridays 3) Our local network 4) People we met during company visits and start-up grind directors

Secondly, visit to 3D Print Shop where we had an opportunity to listen to Carl's story and the projects he currently works on.

Key insights:

• New environment, new people around you - combination of this two gives you the opportunity to think freely and be yourself. This is the time when you start realizing who are you.
• It all dates back to your childhood. As in Per's story with computer geek past, I found out the common pattern in terms of the Carl's passion towards scientific magazines. Essentially, this past habit has brought him to the idea of organizing KidsHackDay.
• The name of the event/start-up/organization/network should not only be simple and appealing, but also explain the why, the what and the how.

My feedback and reflection can be summarized in one sentence. Amazing storyteller and great speaker, Carl captured my attention with his idea of spreading the technological education and gadgets throughout the world with a concept of KidsHackDay. In terms of the process, Carl brought a very important concept of "keeping things simple and appealing", which is very applicable to the toolbox prototype search process.

with love,

Ilya

Post #4 - Being a Handyman is the Shit

Because I'm making my own tools, using awesome tools, and co-creating tools based on stories and my global community's needs.

More on being an awesome handyman soon.

Xx,
Aisha

Post #3 - The best stories are the ones you can relate to most.

The best stories are the ones you can relate to most, because they are the ones you can learn from.

There's a direct relation between relating to a story, and being able to learn from it.

I have heard many, many inspirational stories from our guest speakers, Lars-Henrick, my fellow Nova SUM's, and people I've met here and there in Stockholm. It's the strongest means of communication, and delivering a message.

During Week #3, Carl Barstad was my favorite scheduled story.
Yes, we do have common friends, but listening to his story, I couldn't help but find myself at a similar cross-road he had been through and overcome with great success.

This was really powerful for me. Like Carl, I have an engineering background, but feel like most of my application of it was theoretical and non-technical. This is very disappointing for me, as it really wasn't what I had in mind when I enrolled as an engineer. I thought I would build things, I thought I could make tools and machines that would make healthcare better, and the world better.

Also like Carl, I have been infatuated with the TEDx frenzy, and the dynamic of the community, which as Carl said, "have the utter belief that they can change the world." Not just that, he was right about making that connection that the TEDx community was somehow entwined with this hackerspace movement, and the idea that it doesn't matter who you are and where you are, but you can build something, anything from scratch! How empowering is that to an individual? To a community?

My plans before I applied for the Nova Summer Internship were literally along those lines:

I am currently working with my hometown's municipality on community development and decided that the best told to engage youth within my community, was to open a local TEDxSidon. 

Also, I am currently approaching my graduation for my MS degree in engineering and have barely any clue on how to make electric magic that saves the world. I've been hanging around hackerspace communities since 2012, when I first came across this concept at SHAREBeirut through this dynamic individual called Bilal Ghalib, a common friend of Carl and mine. 

Basically, this community told me that I didn't have to come from anywhere particular, to go wherever it is that I wanted to go, in this case, be a hands-on hardware and software developer. 
Our chat with Carl helped me understand that it's ok to do a ton of things at once, as long as you're passionate about all of them, and you have good support. It also showed me that I should stop overthinking and start doing. Doing it big. And not looking back. 
Failure is a big part of success, I don't understand why I worry about it so much. Maybe it's my community, and the fact that everyone expects you to be great at what you do, especially if you took that radical risk of taking the road less traveled.

Xx,
Aisha

Reflections...

Starting one more week in Stockholm. New module, new short-term goals, renewing energies.
It's, actually, going really fast. Basically we are about to reach halfway on this process.
It's being very interesting to see how some concepts, some intuitions, have being valued throughout our work here.
Per shared an article, a few days ago,  about creating change and the importance of storytelling as a structure to allow and promote change, telling the story is not enough, engage and connecting people with no call to action is a waste of energy and opportunity. The author of that article is, himself, a prove of the importance of taking action. He co-founded Avaaz.org which is known worldwide and also purpose.org which is also very expressive on their mission, among others. Within purpose.org I found that a very good Brazilian woman participate on its foundation as well, it's a professional that I had the pleasure of collaborating with their business plan (on a different and awesome project called MeuRio) during the last competition I was acting as I evaluator.  Alessandra, her name, is a bright mind person, very like the ones we will be connecting through Nova around the world.

Think about it gives me a strong feeling about the change that we can create through those connections. The ability to bring Ideas to life and make projects tuning out in companies, desires in social movements.


Well... hope we can make that happen.

Cultural Observations from a Malaysian Abroad, Part 3

It's my 3rd week week here and I actually stumbled upon these observations because I was hungry in the middle of the night on Saturday and I really needed to pee (like really badly!!) before kayaking on Sunday (which led me on a restroom searching journey through Gallerian and many parts of Stockholm). :)

1. Some of the 7-Eleven are not opened 24 hours.
2. You have to pay 5kr to use the restroom/toilet (I did not use the restroom in the end :P).

Here's to more observation in the coming weeks! Until then,

Aaron

Week 3: Yo no soy marinero, soy capitan

Hi Aaron, Inna, Ella, Andrea, Kiko, Ilya, Aisha, Artur, Rucha, Karin and Per.

How was your week?

If you ask me, this week was quite hectic. I found a deep underlying disaffection with dumbing things down while at the same time learnt to understand the meaning of why we intend to do so. This means that I approximated an understanding of why we are writing the so called "how2guide" to Nova or "toolbox", if I still may.

Nova is a brand:
As any great brand nova has an image which brings tons of associations. We need to confine this image to be a coherent and consistent one over time and place, to make sure that our expansion strategy does not dilute the Nova brand. Therefore we are channeling potential startup managers in making the same realisations we are making and we want to lock that process down so much that even with half a brain they could understand it.

Coming from a background where finding the right people around you is all that makes sense and all that leads to productivity, I feel that I do not relate that much to this strategy. But if we mirror our group and see the vast diversity in it I feel that it might be best to create simplified guidelines that can include all different cultures and backgrounds to join our process.

Basically I have learnt that our toolbox is that handbook that shows you how not to fuck up on basic stuff, and there I do truly see the importance of.

Nova strategy:
On a brighter note, day by day I see more potential in the Nova idea, and day by day I feel that there are more opportunities and possibilities out there that we have yet to discover. An example that comes to mind is the realisation of an output from the combined skills of Nova members or the barter deals that can be used to build some credibility. I feel that in the next weeks we will face quite some strategic challenges around the definition of "value added membership" for Novas.

Ow and me and Andrea bought ourselves a cocktail called "the volcano" that only costed 390 SEK :)

From Stockholm, with love,

Stefan

Week 3

I will keep this straight to the point:

1. During the reflections today, some of you mentioned that some of us ask great questions and give great ideas but with an "aggressive" attitude. Thanks for pointing that out. Yesterday during the meeting I might have asked some questions or stated my opinion somewhat aggressively. If you were offended and took it personally, next time please reach out to me in person first. Then "REFLECT". 

So lesson learned this week - Don't take it personal!

I had my reasons why I was frustrated. I am confused of what we are doing and what we are expected to do. What we have and what we don't in terms of Nova's expansion strategies. I was confused. SO ARE YOU! Otherwise, we wouldn't have to work on the same projects over and over and over again. 

So, one time ever, I was frustrated and maybe used a not-my-usual tone. OK. I admit it. But, I came to Nova to get things done, advise Nova on strategic ways how to expand to other regions outside of Scandinavia. And that is what I am trying to do. 

Now, going back to our behaviors, as some of you don't like aggressive tones, some of us don't like the "fluffy" way some of you work (this goes to the 10 of us only). Yes, you have great & awesome ideas, but please let's keep it realistic. I would rather keep my eyes open.

2. I mentioned today and I will re-mention it again. Instead of working on the write-up first, then on the expansion strategies and how those will be accomplished by either us or other start-up managers. Let's do it the either way around; strategies first, then write-up. We start will the write-up, and figure out that what we have done is not directly applicable to Nova. Then we go work on it again. And then some more. And this leads to time wasted. 

3. What I learned this week, is that I love working with start ups but I need to know what the start up has, what they are thinking, how much I am allowed to accomplish & how creative I can get.

4. Another thing I learned is that I should stop asking questions. Day 1 :)

Inna - thanks for being the only one who made a point to me about my tone in person. Respect!

Oh well, I need to go for a run now. I guess I fulfilled my duty of confining in you for the week. I would appreciate you not comment on this post. 

I hope you all had fun at Sunny Friday tonight. I wanna hear all about it. And remember, no matter what I said above, I love you all and you are an awesome team to work with. We just have different personalities and that's what will make this project successful in the end. Even though right now it looks messy. 

xoxo and remember STAY FABULOUS!

Ella

p.s ... my blog posts are getting longer