Another weekend is upon us and they come around quickly. It is very wet here in central sweden today but weather looking up for week ahead

New Year, New Opportunities

2012 already, how time flies. What an exciting year ahead I believe, with the business growing from strength to strength and some international trips planned privately. Hoping to be a little more active with this blog during 2012 than I was in 2011.

TGIF

After a tough week with great customers it is now Friday afternoon and I am looking forward to an amber one this evening

Pleasing news

I am really happy today as I got some very good news from Australia. One of the two Human Resource executives I am mentoring online has got a top executive role in the gas industry in the USA. He was kind enough to thank me for support and coaching, which is really satisfying. Good luck Kevin and I hope the move goes well.

Leeds City Council takes back Education accountability

On Thursday, Education Leeds, the company formed 11 years ago to deliver education services in Leeds hands over accountability back to Leeds City Council. ICG are here in Leeds at this time with a Swedish group sharing knowledge and creating partnerships to encourage development of education in Sweden and the UK. We have worked with Education Leeds over the last 8 years developing programmes for Swedish educationalists, politicians and managers and we are very proud of this exciting and strong link with a rapidly improving city in terms of educational outcomes.

In Leeds with Swedish Early Years Head teachers

ICG is delivering a very exciting programme in conjunction with Leeds City Council about Early Years Learning in Leeds to a very interesting group of senior professional from Sweden.
We have also just met a number of Head Teachers from Nyköping who have been working in a project with Leeds schools for the last three years. This was achieved as a result of ICG providing the linking opportunity to them in 2007

Planning Early Years Programme in Leeds

Looking forward to later this month when ICG once again visits Leeds City Council, this time with a unique group of Swedish professionals working with Early Years Education- we will have a number of seminars and school visits looking especially at ICT in the learning environment as well as special needs provision

In Växjö

Just waiting for the schools management group to arrive at Evedal conference centre in Växjö- tough day coming up with discussions on comparative education systems and subsequent lead to economic development

ICG Consultants nationwide

What a week for our ICG consultants,with a number of major projects in Sweden for us. Exciting head teacher training in Växjö preparing for their partner LEA visit from Solihull. Head teacher training in Stockholm as well as working with the City's executive management. We are currently training over 50 head teachers across the country in international communication and leaderhip skills.
Massive developments on the UK front with a number of groups and individulas now wanting to join the ICG international communications and networking programmes in Northern England.

New Year- new challenges

Fantastic business opportunities for ICG in 2011 as I can see now. The last year, 2010 saw one of the company's most successful yet and with the Swedish economy going very well we expect 2011 to be an expansion year

Palle Lundberg Art of Leadership video

This video is a 15 minute compressed version of Palle Lundberg speaking in England earlier this year.Click on heading to watch. Palle is a very passionate and committed speaker

Stockholm City Council Head Teachers

Working with a fantastic group of Stockholm Head teachers this week with a very intensive International Communications Programme in Norra Latin City Conference Centre, Stockholm. Challenge is coming up for them in developing a strong marketing presentation for their schools for next wekk

ABB Executive trainees

Just completed 3 days of intensive presentation training for ABB executive trainees. We had two groups of 8 very professional and well educated young people through this training in both Västerås and Ludvika

Stockholm City Council hosts Richard Stiff

Richard Stiff was well received by two wonderful audiences at Stockholm City Council today. A very interesting presentation in the southern district of Skärholmen to over 30 managers was followed by a vist to the City Hall and an in depth presentation to over 20 senior staff about English local government, including members, officers relationships. This was just another fine example of Swedish-UK relationships in local government. Of course ICG is very proud to be the sponsor of these occasions

Richard Stiff arrives in Sweden today

We are waiting with anticipation for a top visitor from the UK today and that is Richard Stiff from North Lincolnshire. Richard will deliver two seminars tomorrow about Local Government in England. The first will be at Skärholmen District Council in Stockholm and the second will be in Stockholm City Hall.

A top international programme with ABB

Tremendous 3 days working with one of Sweden's best Sales Teams - ABB Robotics and their extremely motivated and ambitious leader Mikael Svensson. A high paced International Presentation Programme which lifted the team's skill level to an impressively high standard. Very rewarding to see the effort put in by all the participants and their individual development, congratulations to you all.

ICG and Stockholm City Council visit UK

An exciting and superbly rewarding visit this week to Leeds and North Lincolnshire was arranged by ICG for senior public officials from Stockholm. This was part of the international linking and sharing of knowledge series of programmes by ICG, offered to our customers in Scandinavia. Superb seminars and visits were arranged by Leeds City Council and North Lincolnshire council

VKL/Stockholm

Spent Friday working with a number of chief executives on international dvelopement issues. Top day with a great group of people. Off to England early Monday with a group of Stockholm executives on a knowledge sharing and networking visit to Leeds

Kevin Pietersen dropped

How good to hear that Kevin Pietersen has been dropped from Englands T20 cricket team. The lazy poser has played lousy now for a long time. He should knuckle down and learn to bat properly again before he gets reselected

ICG release introduction & reference video

ICG has today released a first introduction video to give potential clients as well as current clients a glimpse of how we can support them as well as hear two top testimonials from key managerial figures in Sweden

Sweden's Manager of the Year gives glowing support to ICG

Palle Lundberg, Sweden's Manager of the year 2009-10 has given glowing support to ICG as can be seen and heard in the enclosed video. We at ICG are extremely proud to be working with one of the nation's top executives and gurus in management and leadership

Växjö and Solihull Education & Schools Partnership

Great to read the article linked here (in Swedish) about the progress between Växjö and Solihull in their education partnership.Click on the heading to read.
At ICG we are very proud to have made this happen for the two cities and of course wish both cities well in their endeavours to share ideas, benchmark and expand opportunities for heads, teachers and children. We would like to thank Richard Stiff from North Lincolnshire Council for being a very good and professional link agent in this process

Back in Sweden

Well, what a week last week was- we had a really exciting visit to the UK in Leeds and Scarborough looking at customer service in local government until we tried to get back home- we were stranded one whole week by the volcanic ash shutdown of airspace. I must say that I think we would still be in the UK if it was not for the BA chief executive Willie Walsh putting pressure on the UK government to see things more sensibly. The blanket flight ban was a big big over-reaction in my opinion

Leeds and Scarborough on the horizon

Preparing to travel to Leeds with a district management team from Sweden looking at customer service management and delivery issues in Leeds and Scarborough. We are looking forward to an exciting programme and good weather.

Palle Lundberg in the UK

Just returned from England after spending two interesting and exciting days in North Lincolnshire with Palle Lundberg, Sweden's Manager of the Year 2009. Palle delivered a very stimualting and thought provoking speech to the top 60 senior managers of North Lincolnshire Coucil at the request of Richard Stiff, seen above with Palle at the office foyer. North Lincolnshire is a relatively new Council established in 1996 and they had lots to tell us also about their experiences especially in Economic Development. They really did show us real life examples of just how the proactive approach by the Council has and is fostering new business development, inward investment and ultimately, new jobs.

In UK

We have had two very interesting days in Northern England with a group from Stockholm City, visiting Leeds and North Lincolnshire. The group have been exposed to excellent presentations and meetings with UK professionals in local government. We have been looking at successes and challenges in the delivery of services in England

A few days in Berlin

Just in Germany for a couple of days - visited the Australian embassy today for Birgitta's Australian citizenship interview. Just being in the spa at the Radisson hotel and looking forward to dinner this evening after a couple of pre dinner drinks I think. Back home to Sweden tomorrow

Rapid week

Well, this last week has gone so fast. At ICG we have been working with customers across Sweden from Helsingborg to Ludvika. Most of the time we have had 3 consultants in Stockholm and working with executive management in two major councils.It is great being back at work after a break in Australia but I am missing the sun and heat.
We have ordered some new cars for the company and of course we are sticking with Volvo and driving more environmentally friendly vehicles as part of our new policy of ensuring we as a company contribute as much as we can to reduce carbon emissions

The first post for 2010

After a fantastic two weeks back in Australia I am now back in Sweden again and not enjoying the cold weather. In Perth we had between 35C and 40C everyday and spent at least two hours per day at the beach. In Sweden we came back to minus 16C and lots of snow. You may suggest that I am crazy living here and maybe that's right.
Business is flying at the moment and we are working very much in Stockholm over the next few months with major clients. I will report more on these activities through this blog and the ICG facebook pages

Swedish free school concept a UK probability

There is an interesting article on the BBC news service that highlights the fact that if the conservatives win the next general election in the UK they are likely to cut the BSF spending. Countering this they are also likely to introduce a new 'financing' of schools whcih could see a new Swedish style 'free school' system. This is so very interesting and could provide wonderful opportunities for Swedes to influence the way education in the UK may be shaped in the future. Click on the heading for the link to the article on the BBC. Watch this space for more news on this

Solihull and Växjö partnership in education

Just returned from the UK and am very proud to say that the extensive and detailed work carried out by ICG has resulted in the city of Växjö and the Borough of Solihull entering into an education and schools partnership. After a number of school visits, discussions with head teachers, presentations, meetings with senior officers and politicians the process is now anchored. Good luck to both cities with the development of this partnership.

Exciting week in Leeds - last day

On our way back to Sweden this evening after a very intense and enjoyable programme in Leeds looking at regeneration issues and housing developments. Our Swedish group participants have had a very interesting and rewarding week, meeting a number of key persons in Leeds City Council. Leeds have a long way to go though in many areas and talk a good message about what they are doing but they could learn so much from Sweden if they would only take the time. We do really hope to help and support them with this.

Lots of travelling coming up

Exciting visits to England in the next four weeks- firstly to Ipswich talking about international partnerships, followed by a visit to Leeds with a number of Swedish executives looking at urban planning and regeneration. This visit is followed by a trip to Solihull with executives from Växjö as a partnership launch meeting. Furthermore we have Richard Stiff from North Lincolnshire visiting us here in Sweden where he will deliver seminars to executive teams at Södertälje and Botkyrka

First post for October

Have been extremely busy the last two weeks with all sorts of activities with customers and business. This coming week presents itself as challenging and exciting. I have action with the team at Botkyrka, leaders in Stockholm and with ABB.
I am happy to hear that the Stockholm stad education group visit to Leeds happened and lets hope that they really can make something of the tri-city project

Seco Tools meeting

This morning ICG had a very beneficial meeting with senior Seco Tools HR management regarding their global training and development strategy and ICG is of course proud to be a significant partner to them in this.
Further activities and our organisations involvement in supporting this development will take place towards the end of the year and throughout 2010.

Hotel in Scarborough off ICG partners list

The Palm Court Hotel in Scarborough from today ceases to be a partner of ICG. Due to the hotel attempting to increase its rate to us by 38% we have decided to seek a new partner conference hotel in Scarborough. The Palm Court never really did come up to the standard we and our business participants expected, however we tried to help them raise standards but to no avail. Best keep a wide berth from this place in my opinion, particularly if you want a successful and well supported conference which the hotel seems unable to provide effectively.

Surprise report?

I thought it may be interesting for some of the readers of my blog to have a look at the BBC report on the role of the teaching assistant in the English school classroom. I for one strongly felt that this role was essential to allowing the teacher to concentrate on teaching- I wonder if the article makes this doubtful

Back to the grindstone

Back to top pace again tomorrow after a few wonderful days in the sun in Malta. First port of call when I am back is the office dealing with some 250 emails over the last 4 days and then Friday in Botkyrka with a number of the management team at the council

Stimulating week

All of us at ICG have been very busy this week with actively working with clients, copy writing & translating brochures and presentations and assisting international communication processes. While working at Hässelbygårdskolan today I had the pleasure of meeting the 4 specialists from Education Leeds who were over here planning the September conference in Leeds between Stockholm, Helsinki and Leeds schools. they had had a successful two days in Stockholm meeting with education leaders and planners and this is just what this project needs- more face to face discussions and I believe it is on the right track now.

Great Morning

I have just spent the morning with Västerås City Council's Environment and Community Planning Manager, Björn Dahlberg. I have known Björn for a number of years and it is always a pleasure to work with him. Björn is a true internationalist and has a very good focus on seeing the city of Västerås as a global city not just a city based in Mälardalen. We spent the morning discussing twin cities, international developments in local government services and how we may learn from and share with each other across borders.

Planning

Monday and its an ICG planning day for 2010. Interestingly it seems like 2010 is a long way away but its just 5 months and we really need to focus stronly on next year. Great news from Stockholm City Council today and that is that the Stockholm, Leeds, Helsinki project meeting in Leeds in September is going ahead as planned and also that some EU project finance has been approved for work within the project. Lets hope these three cities can really move things along now rapidly and extensively in the education field. At ICG we feel very proud to have initiated this project and to have assisted the processes along the way.

Week off to a flier

This week has been pretty hectic as the Swedish summer holidays draw to a close. A session at ABB with a marketing director was followed by a day with a politician in Stockholm as well as looking over some copy writing for a close client to ICG. Amazingly I am looking forward to the weekend

Mentor, mentor, mentor

I would strongly recommend to anyone who has the skills and experience to mentor these to any person who needs support and guidance. The reasons are obvious but I recently had a very positive and rewarding experience. One of the two Human Resource professionals I am mentoring in Australia had a dilemma for which he sought my advice. It was not a simple issue as it was an industrial dispute with a union based on a very shaky premise in a collective agreement. Interestingly I had a similar issue as an HR manager some 20 years ago and manged to solve it so I advised Tony to follow the same path. At first he thought it would not work- I said to go ahead and choose what he saw fit. After a while he took my advice and did as I first suggested. He succeeded! The reward for me is so obvious- he weighed up my advice against his own thoughts and realised that I had succeeded in the past and followed that. It gives great satisfaction to know some knowledge from my experience can still work.

Last week

My daughter Kristen who has been visiting us from Melbourne has now departed to the Greek islands for two weeks before returning home to Australia. We had a great time while she was here and not only did we go to England for a few days ,we spent some time being tourists in Stockholm which was fantastic. The photograph shows me, Kristen, my wife Birgitta and her daughter Ida at an evening out at Sturehof in Stureplan. The restaurant is really one of the best and is always worth a visit.

ICG sponsors golf competition in UK

I have just returned to Sweden from a visit to Scarborough where I met with the Council leadership as well as joined a very exciting and fantastic afternoon of golf at one of the best coastal golf course in the UK, North Cliff Golf Club, Scarborough. The competition was actually a benefit day for the Yorkshire cricketer Anthony McGrath. Our fourball was honoured to be host to the Australian cricket legend Darren Lehmann. Darren who is a 17 handicapper played a really good round of golf along with myself, Steve Pybus and Dave Ellard. The golf club were excellent hosts and I recommend this course to anyone travelling to North Yorkshire. In the wind it can be very challenging. As you can see from the photograph all four of the team are keen to promote ICG.

End of another week

Good week just ending except for the weather of course. Planning business strategies and programmes for 2010. Looking forward to my daughter Kristen visiting next week from Melbourne. Furthermore looking forward to playing in the Anthony McGrath testimonial year golf tournament at North Cliff golf club Scarborough the week after next. Got a tip that we may be playing with an Aussie cricketer in our foursome- should be a laugh. Got tickets also for the Twenty20 match between Yorkshire and a representative Australian X1. Hope the weather in England is better than here!!

Floods and rain in our village

What a night! After very heavy rain yesterday from around 17.00 to 22.00 the village river and stream system overflowed causing a number of us to be up all night working at trying to control waterways. We have fields flooded, streams completely overflowing, roads washed away and much of our land is under water. Given this problem it started to rain 6 hours ago again and this is forecast to continue for 24 hours more. This could be North Queensland on a tropical cyclone day!!! yet it is central Sweden

Worth a look- Customer service

A friend and business associate in England sent me a link to a website called Simple truths to show a very interesting short video on customer service. Considering the poor and often abysmal customer service I come across in my business and personal travels there is nothing so true as the video suggests. Click on the bold 'Simple truths' above and wait for the movie to upload a few seconds

Heatwave draws to an end

Great great weather here in central Sweden for the last two weeks is now coming to an end- we have had sweltering temperatures of between 27c and 31c here in Norberg almost every day over this period- great for sunning and doing a bit of garden work as well as golf of course. Business this week saw ICG working with ABB leaders as well as Stockholm City managers. Planning for UK activities in autumn are now well under way and we look forward to be visiting key authorities with Swedish counterparts.

Back on board

I have just had a fantastic week on Santorini with my wife staying at our 'regular' hotel on the cliffs overlooking the Caldera. Fabulous place with great people and a superb climate. Now it is back to the grindstone assisting our clients achieve the best out of their international relations

Pre Midsummer

This time of year is very very busy in Sweden. Everyone is trying to get the urgent things done before taking long holidays- in fact the country almost shuts down. At ICG of course we work and we continue to be available to support our clients and to prepare for upcoming activities. We have had a very hectic week coming up to this one working with customers in Stockholm, both public and private sector, Västerås with the city council and Helsingborg with the city council.
Planning is underway for a very exciting Local government programme in Leeds in October looking at a range of services and initiatives offered and delivered by the City.
My blog will be silent for a week while I take a short break

A very hectic week for ICG

Our team have a very busy schedule all week this week assisting government, local government and private industry achieve their international communication goals. We are really moving forward on the city to city partnerships projects with Swedish and English cities/towns and this is very exciting.

ICG 2009 Golf Champion crowned

C-A Antman has succeeded at last in becoming the ICG perpetual trophy golf champion 2009. At Orresta Golf Club in Västmanland today Clas Åke had a fine round of 35 points fighting off strong opposition from a solid display by a number of competitors. In his crowning speech Clas Åke thanked ICG and his partners for the day and did a wonderful jig whilst clutching the trophy

ICG Sponsors Orresta Golf Club

As part of ICG's responsible marketing programme for 2009 the company has decided to sponsor Orresta Golf Club near Västerås. This is an outstanding golf course with a superb and friendly staff. As our company has hosted its perpetual golf trophy at this club for the last four years we have now taken the decision to involve ourselves with the club.

A tremendously busy week

Last Friday I spent some time working with Sweden's manager of the Year 2009, Palle Lundberg, the chief executive of Botkyrka Council. Along with Palle I had some sessions with a number of his top team working with international issues. A really exciting and interesting development for ICG is the number of requests we are receiving from Swedish local authorities for assistance in establishing partnerships with English local authorities. Apart from previous work with Jönköping and North Lincolnshire, we are working with Stockholm and Leeds, Växjö and Solihull and Helsingborg and a potential partner. We have had a number of requests from Swedish counties to form partner links with UK counties also. These projects offer tremendous potential for sharing of ideas, systems and experiences to help improve services and ICG is very proud to be working with this.
We have spent some time also this week with ABB in Ludvika as well as Stockholm City Council, Helsingborg City Council, VKL and a number of other important customers.

Europe's Most Enterprising town- Scarborough

Just saw on the BBC that Scarborough has just won the award for Europe's most enterprising town, beating such cities as Helsinki Valencia, Liege and others. What a fantastic achievement and great recognition of the work of the Renaissance Partnership team in Scarborough. Lord Mandelson has congratulated the town today.
Follow the link here to read the BBC article and watch a news clip.

Birmingham and back to Sweden

We spent late Thursday and Friday in Birmingham meeting with representatives of Solihull Council to discuss partnership potential with a Swedish LEA in education. The visit was successful from an matching perspective and our task now is to recommend to our Swedish client partner how to move forward. This a real opportunity for two education authorities to work across the culture gap and create share best practice. After arriving back home this morning at 02.30 I can genuinely say we have had a hectic two weeks.

ICG in Scarborough, England

We are in England once again this week, with representatives from Sweden sharing professional ideas and service provision in bereavement services. Today we have had an exciting programme of seminars delivered by Tim Morris, chief executive of England's Institute of Crematoria and Cemeteries Management and Jack Startin and Barry Hutchinson from North Lincolnshire Council. Our team from Sweden were very impressed and stimulated by the seminars and excited by the information exchange processes of the day. tomorrow we will visit Woodlands Cemetery in Scarborough to look at the services offered and delivered herein this town.

Back in Sweden after excellent visit to Leeds schools

We are all back home in Sweden after a great few days in Leeds with Education Leeds and four Leeds schools. We visited New Bewerley and Robin Hood primary schools on Tuesday after having a morning of fantastic discussion sessions with Leeds professionals. The group form Växjö had a great time in Leeds as were very impressed by the professionalism, atmosphere, positiveness and great leadership in both Education Leeds and the schools. We at ICG have visited Leeds schools now for 5 years and every time we come back we see more and more improvements, a great and dedicated approach from leaders and teaching staff alike and this gives us an enormous kick to keep exposing Swedish education professionals to this exciting Leeds story

Leeds schools- outstanding learning places

We are in Leeds in the UK with Education Leeds working with the sharing of ideas and systems related to education with a Swedish city. What we have heard and seen so far has been extremely impressive and stimulating. we started yesterday by listening to Chris Edwards, the chief executive of Education Leeds. Chris gave a very impressive and stimulating talk on the journey of Education Leeds during the last 8 years. This was followed by the group from Sweden joining a range of discussion groups of some of the initiatives and programmes in education in Leeds. During the afternoon the group visited The Derek Fatchett City Learning centre which was an outstanding example of ICT and media support for schools and communities. After this the group split into two to visit two of the real success stories in Leeds schools, Carr Manor High and Pudsey Grangefield. The respective principals, Simon and Ken showed us their outstanding schools and talked about some of the initiatives and programmes the schools were involved with in improving performance. Carr Manor has a great system of student mentorship and performance management. Pudsey Grangefield has great leadership and is a fine example of a brand new school. Ken Cornforth the principal explained to us just how he had incorporated a number of new design features into the construction of the school based on a visit to Stockholm in 2005 hosted by ICG. In the late afternoon we were hosted by the Lord Mayor of Leeds to a very enjoyable Civic reception. Jenny Hill the international schools coordinator is doing a wonderful job in coordinating this visit and we look forward to todays programme.

The English schools debate

I have just read on the BBC about the Conservative party views on introducing so called 'primary academies' if they come to power at the next election. this is driven I believe by policy on 'freeing up' schools from LEA control. Click on the link in the title to access the article. Lots of positives in this and many negatives but it is obvious more must be done to address the poor standards and opportunities in education in deprived areas. The UK has some horrendously bad deprivation is inner large cities which in realty has not changed for the better by a real noticeable degree for generations

Outstanding week with customers

What a great week for ICG and our customers. Much time has been spent with ABB in the Components company as well as working with the international corporate HR recruitment team. As well as Stockholm City Council we have been with the top executives in Helsingborg City Council and Botkyrka Council. It is a short weekend for us as we are on our way to Leeds to visit schools and executives discussing education issues. Meetings are planned also with Education Leeds Chief Executive Chris Edwards and the international schools coordinator Jenny Hill

Speed

Well well it seems like me and ICG 1 (the car) have done it again. In trying to make sure I am always on time or early for customer meetings I misjudged the idiotic road signs to Ludvika where the road is completely wide enough and similar to the 90km zone and in patches is reduced to 70km speed limit. Guess what! I was doing 90km per hour in the 70km zone and the camera flashed- guess it will be a fine of 4.000kr. Sometimes I wonder about the logic of the speed zones but I should really admit they are there for a reason and if it saves life as is said then that is okay by me. Thank god its Friday tomorrow.

At ABB this week

ICG consultants including yours truly are working with International Presentation training with a number of Executive trainees at ABB in Ludvika this week and it is very inspiring to work with groups of dynamic young masters graduates. The communication skills of these young professionals is outstanding especially considering they are communicating in English which is of course their second language. More info to come at weekend

Thursday and the end of another week

Thankfully Easter is nearly here which gives us time to recover some energy and have some good 'family time'. This week has been extra busy for ICG working across the public and private sectors. I have spent two days with top ABB marketing management as well as senior politicians and officers, with other consultants involved with political figures as well as senior officers in local and regional government. Next week promises to be exciting as we are working with a top group from Stockholm preparing for an international seminar and visits programme in May.
I have spent a couple of evenings working with mentoring two young Human Resource Managers in Australia and this idea of remote mentoring is challenging but very interesting and I know that what we are doing is really helping these two. I wish I could do more of this but lack of time is a real issue.

New week

Had contact with a number of key persons today in planning some of ICG's upcoming programmes. Later this month we will be in Leeds with Växjö Council's senior education team on a school visit and seminar programme which is now all planned and finalised. It is great to hear that Jenny Hill has been seconded to Education Leeds from the International office of the council. This is sure to assist in the developing partnership arrangements with Stockholm and Helsinki. The opportunities that can result from this partnership are huge if the parties to it can really come together as planned in September and take the step of setting the ball rolling at operational level- that is with the schools

Day of political leader training

I was in Västerås all day Friday working with political leaders from the county of Västmanland - a challenhing day with some really good outputs. ICG consultants this week have been active across both the private and public sectors with work in Stockholm, Helsingborg, Västerås working with ABB Robotics, Stockholm City Council, Västmanlands Kommunförbundet, Helsingborg City Council,Västerås City Council, Byggnads Mimer. Next week promises to be another exciting and interesting period as we are preparing for visits to England later in the month as well as working again with top management of private and public sector organisations.
Since Richard Stiff from North Lincolnshire was here last month we have had more requests to listen to him. The word has spread about his talk in Rinkeby to others in Stockholm City so I am hoping Richard will come back later in the year to share his views and knowledge on Children's Services in England

Stockholm- The Capital

I have spent the last two days in Stockholm, yesterday meeting the Director of compulsory schools for Stockholm City Council and today spending the whole day with a number of head teachers working with their internationalisation processes. I must say it was a little hectic yesterday around City Hall. As I was trying to park my car there was a range of security and police and secret service personnel. I found out quickly why as Mr Tony Blair, Mr Bill Clinton and the Prime Minister of Sweden Mr Fredrik Reinfeldt arrived for the climate conference. From media reports today it appears that Tony Blair's speech was very well received. He is a popular man in this country

Back on track

Well I have just had one of the best week's break I have ever had. I spent one week in Malta with my wife Birgitta and can really recommend the place as a fantastic island with great hotels and restaurants and absolutely fantastic people. Malta has strong connections to the UK and has a deep and long history stretching back centuries. Now I am back at work and on track and looking forward to a top week with customers. My week starts with Ulf Lindblom, a Mimer manager followed by three days in Stockholm and Västerås with politicians and senior executives. It could be a tough week for them all as I am hitting the road running with renewed energy after my break.

T.G.I.F.

Today I am working with a group of senior politicians and they are working towards professional international presentations in English. This is a very dedicated group determined to be successful so it is a pleasure to be supporting them. The headline TGIF Thank God Its Friday is so relevant for me today as it is my last day before an international visit and short break, of course this means my blog will be 'quiet' for a week.

World-Class schools

I have spent the afternoon with the director of compulsory schools in Stockholm talking about education in the global perspective and it is very exciting to hear about and see the fantastic outcomes for children. Sweden continues to be a country with high global impact and multi global brands recognised for quality and reliability. Not bad for a country of 9 million. I will say it again and offer no excuses for repetition, Sweden has an outstanding school system producing, in the main, well developed and educated children with a creative, friendly and personalised approach to teaching and learning

Keeping up with terminology

In our efforts to assist and guide our customers in the ever increasing maze of local government terminology in English we face a real uphill battle- not to actually develop our customers but to explain in reasonable terms just what words mean. I have seen on the BBC TV and their website with a link here that there may be some efforts to 'ban' the jargon. I must agree fully with this. If professionals cannot keep up with it what about the poor layperson who has to deal with it in his7her business with local government

Richard Stiff in Stockholm

We spent Monday with Richard Stiff from North Lincolnshire Council here in Stockholm. Richard delivered a very interesting and stimulating seminar to the management team at Rinkeby-Kista District Council. Olle Johnselius and his team enjyoed the morning we believe and there were a number of questions to Richard on childrens services provision in England. The afternoon was spent with Einar Fransson and Renata Desselberger in Kunskapsskolan in Botkyrka where we were professionally guided by two very positive and confident young students Emma and Oskar. This visit was followed by a quick tour of Kunskapsskolan in Spånga. We would like to thank Einar an Renata for a very rewarding afternoon

Manager of the year 2009

On Friday I had an very exciting day because I was in Botkyrka at Botkyrka Council working with some members of the management team. I got a very pleasant surprise at 09.00 when I was invited to a celebration speech for and by the Chief Executive, Palle Lundberg who on Wednesday was awarded the exclusive and prestigious prize of Sweden's Manager of the Year 2009. On talking to Palle he told me he was so surprised and stunned by the announcement that he had won the award and humble as he is he said that this was recognition of the work done by all his staff in Botkyrka Council. I have said often that leadership is the key to development as we endeavour to get the best our of human resources. It is obvious that Palles clear and highly strategic approach to management and effective and high focus on results have been the main contributors to this recognition. I see many examples of lack of good leadership in my travels around this country but I can truly say there is no lack in Botkyrka at executive level. I have known and worked with Palle for seven years and on every meeting we have had I am impressed by his ability to focus on outcomes. What a fantastic example of good management Palle is. What a wonderful boost this is also for the public sector to be a recipient of this award.
At ICG we are so very proud to be working with Palle and his team.

A very interesting week

This week, although only Thursday, has seen us working with top executives and politicians in Heby, Sollentuna, Stockholm, Västerås and Botkyrka as well as with senior persons in ABB. As the week draws to a close we can just think about the efforts we will have to put in moving the office on the weekend- just as bad as moving house although we are only moving about 40 metres it still is a pain in the neck. Richard Stiff from North Lincolnshire arrives Sunday and on Monday he will deliver a seminar in Stockholm which I know all involved are looking forward to.
Just put the photo in to show how much snow we have in the bush of central Sweden

Future challenges in education

I have just listened to a very inspiring speech by Jim Knight the Secretary of State for Schools and Learners in the UK. Click on the speech link to access menu for this. Interestingly, this speech delivered last year at the 5th national conference of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust in the UK, touches on something we really all should keep high in our consciousness and that is this. We have seen unprecedented change in the labour market in the world in the last 10 years in that many of the jobs in the 'new' commerce did not exist when the people who now fill these jobs went to school and as Jim Knight rightly says, many of the jobs that will exist in the next 10 years we do not know about yet. The challenge is how do we educate our young people for these 'new' jobs. Are we robustly addressing this issue? For one I do not see a great deal of evidence for this. This is I believe primarily because we do not know what these jobs will be and secondly our systems of school education are maybe not as flexible and adaptable as they may need to be. We are obligated if not legally then morally to give every child the knowledge skills to survive and thrive in the new global world. I question whether our educators are clever and flexible enough to adapt to this issue. The more we are able to work across borders in education by forming global partnerships to expand and adapt our processes of educating young people the more successful we are likely to be. That is why at ICG we are working relentlessly and with enormous vigour to promote cross border partnerships in education.

A week of working across the public and private sectors for ICG

All week our consultants are working with politicians, industry leaders and chief executives across the land. Stockholm is the key focus this week although we have a number of assignments in Västerås and Ludvika. I took the opportunity to show this interesting photo of Stockholm taken a few weeks ago as it shows how beautiful the cityscape is

ICT in schools

As consultants from my company visit schools in Sweden we are astounded by the lack of top class ICT equipment in classrooms. It is rather interesting to note that Sweden is a world leader in many areas of data technology and has one of the highest rates of computer coverage in homes, yet schools in general lag far behind. Maybe this could be a factor in the lack of interest and boredom with school in many students. In the UK they have been lucky in that central money has been available for ICT investment and in many cities almost every classroom has interactive whiteboards as well has high density PC/laptop coverage. This is not the case in Sweden. Many head teachers say 'we don't have the money to invest in this' or they say 'our teachers wouldn't like these interactive whiteboards and maybe would not use them'. My view is that we must have them and teachers must use them. I remember visiting a school in one Swedish city that had 6 interactive whiteboards in classrooms and as we walkde around the school we saw that not one of these boards was being used. Of course this is a management issue and should be fixed. I have enclosed a link to BECTA, the UK agency responsible for ICT development in schools which may shed light on and provide information to expand our understanding and knowledge of the critical aspects of this subject

Education tansformation

I decided to write this post to let readers know about the Partnership for Schools agency in the UK as the group responsiblle for delivery of the Building Schools for the Future programme in England. This programme introduced by the government of Tony Blair, and committed to by the Brown regime, is aimed at rebuilding every secondary school in England over a period of 15 years with total investment of £45bn. 'This isn't just about bricks and mortar, BSF is a catalyst for transformation' is a quote from Gordon Brown about the programme. We in Sweden have noted a real growing interest from educationalists in England to look at the way things are done here especially in school design and pedagogy. Sweden really does have something to offer in these areas and we would encourage any LEA in the UK involved in BSF early waves to visit us and see what is on offer. Our contact details are available at the website ICG

A racing week

This week is flying by. ICG consultants are far and wide across Sweden; in Stockholm, Helsinborg, Västerås, Ludvika and Gothenburg. Exciting news is that we are planning a fantastic programme for a Swedish company about urban planning, regeneration and housing in the UK later this year. This programme will take in one of the most significant regeneration areas of Manchester. Discussions are taking place with two more Local Education Authorities in England regarding partnership and knowledge sharing with Swedish LEA's- this is really exciting and rewarding work because the benefits are absolutly tangible if managed correctly.
We have introduced to the market two new education programmes, A three day English Presentation skills programme and an eight day Head teachers International Communications programme. Material and information will be released this week.

Mondays actions

After a dicey drive from home to Stockholm on ice strewn roads I met Lennart Kågestam, principal of Södra Latin Upper Secondary school for lunch at Medborgarplatsen. Lennart told me about the exciting project ten schools in Stockholm are developing with India. Coupled with the China project they have, I believe Stockholm offers students wonderful development opportunities in education with real global thinking and perspectives. This must enhance the prospects for students leaving school, considering further studies and entering the professional work places of the globe.
This lunch was followed by a session with Palle Lundberg, the Chief Executive at Botkyrka Council. It is inspiring working with Palle as he really manages for improvement and development. After this I drove to Västerås to the office and then home, once again on icy roads

Week wrap up

I spent Friday in Stockholm. In the morning I was working with the Director of Compulsory schools in Stockholm City Council. This was an inspioring session working with a number of International Communication issues. This was followed by lunch with Einar Fransson, the manager of two of Kunskapsskolor. It is always a pleasure to meet Einar and discuss some of the topical issues in education in the independent school sector in Sweden.
After this I spent some hours in the office in Västerås looking into some of our planning issues for late 2009 and 2010.
Now it is Saturday and I am looking forward to watching some premier league football on tv later this afternoon

Smart businesses and leaders invest in training

I am stating the obvious I know but many leaders just do not value training time versus production time. In these challenging times in world markets we often forget that to stay ahead of our competitors we need the best and most well trained staff. We read and hear daily of massive lay offs across the world especially here in Europe and in the USA. I will make a general statement here and say that just maybe it would be smarter to spend money training and developing staff for the upturn which will surely come in a year or so. Scania here in Sweden are one such company investing in training and development at this time.

Scarborough- Britains most enterprising place 2008

We have just returned from the UK and have had exciting and interesting meetings with senior officers in Scarborough as well as checking out conference facilities. Meeting Jim Dillon, Chief Executive of Scarborough Council was the highlight of the visit not only in the fact that he is a real professional, also we learnt that Scarborough has been nominated by the European Commission for The European Enterprise Award 2009 along with two other European competitors. This is an outstanding nomination and follows on from their award as Britain's most enterprising place 2008. The area certainly is going through extensive development and regeneration and is one of only a few places in Europe offering 100MB speed, broadband. Read more about the nomination and Scarborough by following the Scarborough link here

In the UK

Having a few days in England talking about planning for visits by groups of Professsionals from Sweden during 2009. Monday afternoon we meet Jim Dillon a Chief Executive of a Local Council to work out strategy for a visit in May.

Partnership

I spent the day on Thursday working with Stockholm leaders regarding the partnership between Stockholm, Leeds and Helsinki on education/schools. While the day was exciting and stimualting it was affected by the news that Leeds will not be participating in the March conference because of workload/organisational issues. The good news is though that they will participate in May if the conference is rescheduled. This was confirmed by Chris Edwards in a telecon this afternoon- wonderful because this project promises fantastic outcomes for children in all three cities if nurtured propoerly.
Right now I am at Arlanda airport in Stockholm waiting to board a plane for Manchester- I will tell you why on Tuesday next week.

News and journalism

One of the worlds better newsmen and journalists is Jon Snow of Channel 4 in the UK. I do not say this because I went to the same college as Jon or that I had some great times with him in Scarborough as a teenager. I say it because this man has been through 'frontline' journalism in war zones and interviewed the most prominent world leaders as well as having a dynamic passion for reporting along with the 'cushy' tv roles and he is provocative, influential and has a superb and unique style. Watch him on channel 4 in the UK and/or read his blog

An exciting day - Wednesday

I started the day at the office preparing for meetings later in the morning and afternoon with a key director in Västerås City Council talking about international projects and local planned regeneration issues. This was followed by a telephone discussion with Einar Fransson, a schools manager from Kunskapsskolan about key visitors from the UK who will come over in March. A visit to his schools is arranged and this type of independent school is really challenging the thinking in education leaders in the UK. Einar is an outstanding leader and a true professional representative of Kunskapsskolan.
I am now in Stockholm overnight as I am meeting a group of headteachers tomorrow to help prepare them for the forthcoming visit of counterparts from Leeds and Helsinki

Successful & Global Sweden

Almost every day I read or hear that someone is seriously questioning the quality of education delivery in Sweden, be it media, government, politicians, or whoever. We tend to read comparative statistics such as the Pisa reports that flag Sweden as not achieveing results as well as it would like in core subjects etc. I am convinced that we have a great education system in this country with the true results shown in our economic impact on the global economy over time. It is the children, who as outputs of the system, go to work in professional life in our organisations both private and public who have influenced the impact and success of said organisations- Just take a look at our Swedish 'global' brands-over 50 of them - examples are SKF, ABB, Volvo, Ericsson, Ikea, Metro and of course many others. This is the true measure of an education system!
Good reading which I can recommend is the invest in Sweden Agency annual report. It actually 'sells' Sweden as it truly is-a World Class Performer.
Take a look at their material at ISA

Tuesday

Today I spent the day in Stockholm working with international communications training in the city.
Furthermore I had telephone discussions with Richard Stiff the Deputy Chief Executive and Executive responsible for childrens services in North Lincolnshire. Richard, who is an outstanding speaker will visit Stockholm in March to give a seminar on the development of childrens services in England and this we look forward to very much. There is likely to be a wealth of information and actions that we will hear about and could learn from. Take a look at the North Lincolnshire website
www.northlincs.gov.uk

Sollentuna

Had a great day on Monday working with a very committed and dedicated politician in Sollentuna. Sollentuna is a fine example of an outstanding council that is well managed and has great services for its residents.
www.sollentuna.se

Back Home

Now back home after a great week in the south of Sweden in Växjö. I am glad to have got home safely because the six hour drive was slow due to snow along most of the route.
Had a superbly stimulating week preparing a management team for an international visit. Right now we are planning a number of UK-Sweden links with a growing list of requests from both Swedish and UK agenicies. Next week promises to be interesting with meetings in Stockholm planned for most of the week

Development for the future internationalisation process

I have had a great day with colleagues from Växjö council education department working with presentation skills training in English. For a number of colleagues it was their first time presenting in English so it was a significant challenge. As true professionals they stood up to the challenge and 'gave it a real go' which was successful in varying degrees. What was fantastic was that improvement was made in communication skills as well as confidence by all involved- well done to all colleagues involved at Växjö. A true and important step has been taken in the internationalisation process.

Colleague and associate passes away

While driving the long trip from home to Växjö today I got the sad sad news that Rolf Mirlas had passed away on Monday. Rolf was the Director responsible for the Competence Fund in Stockholm City Council between 2003 and 2006. He was a real people man who geniunly cared for his staff as well as his work. He took great pride in stimulating improvemnet in services. I know many people who will miss him and I am one of them.
During my drive to Växjö I spent 4 hours on the phone talking to a spectrum of customers and colleagues about devlopments in our international communication efforts. It was confirmed that we will assist in the preparation of Head Teachers for the 3 city conference(Stockholm, Leeds, Helsinki)in March. Furthermore we are proceding with two city to city linking processes with Sweden and the UK which we hope to confirm by May.

Strategic Partnerships

ICG has been asked to assist in developing a number of strategic partnerships as mentioned in an earlier script however the significance of the latest request is that at last we see that the UK approach to Local Strategic Partnerships is of interest to Sweden. Major local government reform in the UK saw communities working together through LSP's which involve not only local councils but the business community and sections of the community at large. There are many successful LSP's in the UK and the link below is to the Leeds Intiative which shows how they operate
http://www.leedsinitiative.org/

A week of Creative Developments

I am unable to detail all of the activities on here for this week however I can say that it has been a rewarding and stimulating week for not only me but ICG as a whole. Working with private sectors customers in ABB with two of their companies as well as politicians and senior officers in local government in Västmanland and Stockholm. There is a strong push through our customers for improving their global perspectives and penetration. It is really rewarding working with all of our clients striving for this.
I met the marketing executive of an ABB company along with his team discussing inter cultural communication issues. Furthermore discussed international partnerships with politicians ans officers and look forward to next week when we are once again in Växjö and Stockholm with senior executives

UK looking at Swedish schools

Just had a very interesting discussion with a senior UK director involved in the education sector and he informed me about the strategy of a significant sized local education authority in England which is planning to build new schools under the BSF programme which cater for the 5-16 year olds rather than building a primary and secondary school separately. Sweden has a 'whole school' approach combining primary and secondary and this is very successful in this country. Much less trauma for the 11 year old facing a separate secondary school as it is in the UK and less learning fall off for the 11 and 12 year olds. We hope to be hosting a group from this LEA to Sweden in 2009 to show them some of the exciting examples of compulsory education.

Great day today

Heard from Stockholm that the 5 schools entering the Leeds Helsinki Stockholm partnership will professionalise their presentation skills with ICG. This is part of the preparation for the meetings of the three cities in early March in Stockholm. Another piece of good news is the one of the Stockholm City District management teams will commence a one year programme with ICG in International communications.
ABB in Ludvika is also discussing with us the likelihood of continued development of international communication skills for sales, after sales and logistics staff.
We have now heard that a number of local authorities in England are interested in partnering local education authorities in Sweden. This is very positive for linking and networking.

Coming week

After a snow sodden weekend I am looking forward to this coming week. An interersting meeting with ABB in Ludvika tomorrow(Monday) talking about training their international sales teams as well as after sales personnel in Sweden. Followed on Tuesday by another full day with politicians and senior officers within VKL and then off to Stockholm for work with Stockholm City Council as well as Sollentuna Council later in the week.

ICG's Friday

Today has been a wonderful day we believe not only for us at ICG but for our customers we have spent the day with in both Botkyrka Council and Helsinborg Council. We have worked with both councils management team representatives as well as the chief executives of both councils. The processes we are working with relate to internationalisation and communication. I continue to be amazed at some of the outstanding people we come in contact with and today was no exception. I met with Palle Lundberg at Botkyrka and can add once again that he is an outstanding leader in terms of processes and direction. It is so obvious that Botkyrka is reaping the benefits of his leadership and he has the honour of being nominated for the Swedish Manager of the Year award along with two others. Good luck Palle for the final in March