Nordic Innovation and Table Talks

  Join us on Friday morning when we hear from Swedish researcher Anders Wikström about innovation and design, and then have a table talk planned by Hal Louchheim. The first part of our program will introduce us to Anders and his work regarding conditions for innovation and what he has found in his research, and how it has led him to Silicon Valley with the Nordic Innovation House. He has a PhD in Innovation and Design, and is a Senior Researcher at the Research Institutes of Sweden
RISE ICT/SICS Västerås. He is also a member of the Rotary club in Eskilstuna, Sweden. In his research he has developed a tool to identify, analyze and take action on important success factors for productivity and innovation. This tool is now part of a start-up that he runs together with a colleague. In this journey, building a start-up, they have been accepted into an accelerator program here in Palo Alto, arranged by the Nordic countries, Sweden and Norway.

  In the other half, Hal will take the members on a quick conscious raising tour of “Gifts & Gratitude”.  He will provide a brief context about recognizing all the gifts we receive and the benefits arising as a result of actually thanking people. Then, we can address profound questions like: When was the last time you thanked your boss, your parent or your spouse?  At each table, members will be asked to share their experiences or suggestions in response to specific questions.  We will likely have a high level of engaging conversation and run out of time before we can share the most amazing “findings”.  

 The motivating ideas come from two sources:

·      Maxim #9 of Improv Wisdom, a little book by Patricia Ryan Madsen, a retired drama professor at Stanford. The thought is simple: Wake up to the Gifts.

·      OpenIdeo is running one of its Challenges on the topic: “How might we inspire expressions of gratitude in the workplace?”