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