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/