This has been a week of quite amazing project experiences at STAGIS. From from flying to Jutland with Anne to do identity studies among pupils and teachers at Femmøller Efterskole, to facilitating an exiting workshop on worst/best-case scenarios and visions for leaders across a sector for public transportation in DK with my colleagues Nikolaj and Louise. This exiting Employer Branding project that I've loved helping to start off, and where the pics are from, is just getting going on the road now after many months of prep-meetings; stay posted for more on this in 2008...

Codifying communicative challenges of recruitment and Employer Branding Even though these two projects are very, very different, they somehow share a code, that is also part of the code of what we do at STAGIS: Helping organizations communicate their authentic strengths from within, and develope their culture and visual identity in a way, that will strengthen the organization, express its culture in the authentic way, hereby aiming at recruiting the right employees for the organization - or pupils for the school, that will thrive in the institution - because they get an authentic image of what the organization or institution can offer.

In this sense, 'wrong' recruitment of pupils, which may lead to broken-off studies, because the institution is communicating a cultural image, values, goals or making promises it can't deliver, or because the communication isn't clear for its target groups, can be just as problematic for both the pupil and the institution, as if workplace organizations present themselves in an unclear or inauthentic way in a recruitment process, which may lead to an unfruitful process for as well employees as employers, challenging the work-life of both and making trouble for the organization keeping their employees or recruiting at all.

Authentic organizational identity as projecting images of practice
Through projecting an authentic image of the organization, the institution or business will make promises it can deliver, and with consultation it might also be able to reflect upon its own potentials for learning, developing and improving its recruitment to grow more futile grounds for attracting people that can support the values and future of the organization. So this is a two-way, relational and co-dependent thing, that our work aims at supporting. Really important when communicating on the job market - crucial when communicating or marketing to children and youngsters.

One of the identities Anne and Nikolaj will work on now, based on the identity research Anne and I did in Jutland this week, is the new identity and institutional image of Femmøller Efterskole.

Among other things I've been working on our interview material today; and I must say it was such a great experience talking to the appr. 15-18-year old pupils at Femmøller. After having specialized in communicating and marketing to kids and young people, and having worked with consumer identities among childen and young people, it was a great pleasure for me to do this research.

I'm impressed with the mind-sets, maturity and reflexivity of the pupils we talked to. If I were the principal there, I'd be thrilled hearing how happy and exited the pupils are with their scool and the culture lived at the institution. So, I look very much forward to see how Anne and Nikolaj will work with our culture and identity studies, turning them in to the authentic organizational image and identity of the institution.

The world is full of beautiful memories; just after handing over my dissertation around this New Year, one memory of mine was spent revisiting the creative city of Berlin, where I recently returned from. Strolling Berlin I also revisited The Bauhaus Archive, where I was reminded in sight of how the former Bauhaus Academy of Art prepared the grounds for a great deal of future design and works of architecture.

This optical colour-mixer designed by Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack in 1923 is very typical of the didactic intentions of the Bauhaus, and also unites three dimensions I favour; Design, learning and play!

Hirschfeld-Mack's main activities at The Bauhaus Academy of Art laid in the problems of colours and colour projections. With this didactic toy he demonstrated how the rotation of the top produces the optical mixing of the colours, that are printed upon the laid-on plates; on the back telling about chromatology. Here, some aspects of the colour theories from Goethe to Schopenhauer up to Hölzel are being demonstrated in a fun but simple way - Less is More...

Have a colourful, fun and inspiring 2008!

One of the funny Christmas greetings received this year at STAGIS to make a use of was definitely this memory stick: A real LEGO brick in the shape of an USB key to travel with bytes; thank's Thomas, I think it's fun!

As you probably noticed, someone turned off the big switch to the light outside this afternoon. Still, when I went to our photo shoot for Lindorff today with photographer Mikkel (who also did fabulous OKI Identity lovecolour pics for us time ago), Mikkel easily and creatively managed to do a series of great on-the-spot photos, illustrating the Lindorff environment, people and products for use in new versions of the Danish Lindorff profile material, we are helping them do.

The day spent at Lindorff was really pleasant. I was impressed to see how natural all the employees acted in front of the camera, behaving unaffected and showing a personal magnetism, that was communicative and gives the photos an obliging human glow: So when Lindorff''s clients will be presented the product sheets etc., they'll really see what they'll get, when partnering with Lindorff.

Mikkel and I cruised to and from the photo-shoot in this funky old Mercedes, so that was a bonus...

Recruitment and Employer Branding are project related communication and leadership concepts that I'm working on now, as part of projects in STAGIS' pipeline. That includes taking part in seminars and networks on Employer Branding. Here figures confirm that employees seem to thrive in job-change: Apr. 61% have been offered positions in other companies. 68% consider changing their job. 49 % don't think they'll be working for thir present company in just three years. Our Ministry of Employment tell, that more than 700.000 a year change their job in DK.

With the growing challenge for companies to attract employees, the unemployment rate in DK now also being as low as 86.000, demanding questions for businesses and organizations to ask themselves are:

"How can we recruit the people we need, to enhance our services, product development and business - what makes us attractive, in a way so that we can not only hire, but also keep our work force engaged? And how can we do better in competing for man and brain power, compared to other businesses and companies?"

Learn from your favorite volunteer organization
One way to develop your organization's attraction factor on the job market is to let your Employer Brand be inspired by the high degree of engagement that characterizes successful voluntary organizations.

Even though we tend to spend many hours on our jobs, the interest in voluntary work in our society is still advancing impressively. Especially among young people. And in many different kinds of sectors and fields. One explanation could be the present prosperity in DK. Another, that people actually lack meaning and the sense of making a difference through their (paid) jobs; so they seek to give and be additionally fulfilled on this parameter other where.   


Create loyalty on another level
Sense of pride and meaning, humanity, thankfulness, sharing and being part of a larger and mutual beneficial 'project' are key words here - values, that most businesses would do good nurturing within their organization.

Why is that? Because with our present job-market, employees simply expect salary and workplace organization to be in order: The loyalty from co-workers and employees is to be build on another level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, where softer values are present. Especially young people - Generation Y - seek value-based leadership, and to be part of organizations that clearly signal what they stand for and how they make a difference! They don't want too easy solutions...

Give employees a reason to stay
That's why private companies may learn from the engagement to be found in volunteer corps or organizations. I'm not just talking CSR, even though this is a part of it - but also values, ethics, general meaning, 'project-pride' and community spirit!

So, with the weekend coming up and all, think about it: What characterizes your favorite volunteer organization, learn from it - and give your present and future employees obvious reasons to choose your project, spent half of their wake hours on contributing and sharing - and staying engaged.

This afternoon, November 1st from 5-6.30 pm, Nikolaj Stagis is speaking on 'Den autentiske virksomhed' (The Authentic Business or Organization, my free translation).

The lecture is on how a business or organization is or becomes authentic. What will a high degree of authenticity do for your business, and how can it help your organization attract and keep the right clients, customers and co-workers?

These are some of the topics and questions Nikolaj will talk about and answer on during today's lecture, taking off from our daily work at STAGIS, where we help our clients express their authentic strengths through developing their corporate culture, design and communication .

The arrangement will be free and is hosted by Dansk Marketing Forum (DMF) at Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Solbjerg Plads 3, Auditorium SP113, 2000 Frederiksberg.

Participation is still open.

I have a faible for Iceland – its atmosphere, nature, vibe and spirit of the Icelanders. This weekend Iceland Airwaves, the most intimate Indie Rock Festival, is on in Reykjavik. A festival I loved visiting and covering as a journalist a couple of years ago for Danish Cover Magazine. I was inspired and fascinated by the drive and openness among the people I talked to and interviewed. And I could only recommend visiting the up-beat hard-working and creative population of 290.000 on the island of lava in the cool Atlantic. Its different from anything else...

Concepts on distribution, organization, product development and innovation in the music industry are topics I’m interested in and have done some previous writing on related to phd research on Innovation and Organization of Creativity in The Music Industry (or the need for it) within the framework of CBS and LLD. With an interest in music as well as marketing, Iceland Airwaves is a platform for very young and more off-mainstream vibes worthy to keep yourself updated on. The festival is a unique launch pad for Indie music from Europe and The States, with its position in between these two continents. One of the program headliners this year is Bloc Party, but Danes like Tremolo Beer Gut, Trentemøller and Kasper Bjørke are also on the program.

Not being in Reykjavik this weekend, just like me, you can keep up online, on band names, venues, podcasts, links to sounds and music profiles and to the online music shop.

Debate on blogging is going around these days – for what do we need blogs, how should or shouldn’t we use them, is blogging a democratization tool, or is the high number of (uncensored and sometimes unverified information published on) blogs just polluting www and our minds?

How does it make sense to use blogs as a tool for political, commercial or purely personal communication? What are the success parametres of organizational vs. privately driven blogs, and how personal or commercial – if at all – may a blog be?

A perspective on this debate is to be found in this Danish-language article by journalist Troels Johannesen: “Nok Blog Amok” (Freely  translated as "Enough Blog Craziness"), that I appreciated to read, followed by interesting comments on the subject. If you take a look around www.stagisblog.com, part of the debate on e.g. distribution of feeds vs. ‘original source of publication’ has also taken place here.

The blog is still a relatively new communication tool and way of relating in the public sphere, so different perceptions and opinions on blogging is a quite natural and interesting part of the process: The medium, genre and definition of its potentials and limitations is still being created, we are in the midst of it all!

Even though you don't work with blogs on a daily basis, a way for you to make your statement on this subject is to vote for the blog you would like to see winning Blogprisen 2007 (The Blog Prize 2007)!

For the fist time, Blogmagasinet is giving out Blogprisen 2007. Until 1st of December you can nominate your favorite blog for Blogprisen 2007 by sending a link with a brief argumentation to Blogmagasinet. Next after, the voting among five nominees will take place. I don’t know how small or big this is going to grow – but I do like the experimental initiative, and will be curious to click by and check out the argumentations and the winner…

For now - enjoy your weekend and the beautiful Autumn!

Today the 15th of October is world wide Blog Action Day. Interesting concept! The idea is uniting blogs and minds on environmental issues, bringing them top of mind. At least that’s a first step to bring about changes and actions as well.

Excellent timing, this Blog Action Day: this Friday the 12^th, Al Gore was honoured, accompanied by the UN climate panel, with the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring environmental issues at the top of the global agenda.

Gore's guts
I’m fascinated by Gore's communicative strategy, when working on environmental issues. He’s a man to set a new agenda and best practise by breaking the code on how to frame a political agenda in a popular culture, using genres, media and a ‘language’ that appeal to the global masses – necessary, when dealing with global issues and challenges.

And inspiring, the way Gore’s got guts to step out with one big foot from a political sector, and take a loooong walk through popular culture, to get his agenda and the message out, without loosing integrity. That’s a fine line to cross and walk! But it’s also a part of our future, to dare cross-culturing and work cross-sectorial, if you want to address a global audience of consumers as citizens, and get their attention.

On environmental friendly consumerizm and recruitment
Blog Action Day made me think of my own choices as a young female consumer and citizen. Do positive formulation of environmental issues by companies and producers guide my choices? Definitely! Without being totally neo-eco-eco. But it’s not easy to make conscious choices on all levels, when living a modern urban life. Sometimes my busy life makes me choose the easy or most fun solution – which is not always the most conscious or environmental friendly.

So; easy as well as fun/stimulating AND environmental friendly is definitely a clue for future successful business concepts J maybe that’s something for your company to consider as well?

One company doing well here is in my opinion Novozymes, who we just helped with design work and communication, as part of Novozymes’ recruitment project. You may take a look at pics of the Novozymes project here.
My participation in this project made me aware, that Novozymes’ efforts within the field of enzymes make each employee contribute with a yearly decrease of 4.200 tons of CO2. Respect! That’s an ESP to acknowledge – and also an example to bring forward, for others to improve their business. Employees of today wish for more than their salary. And it’s a solid and authentic way to offer a solution on how people may contribute positively on environmental issues, when doing it on a daily basis through your job.

You can read about Blog Action Day here, and still make it, if you want to participate…

What happened to unique differentiation of organizational identity - online? Too many corporate or organizational websites are too similar, in my opinion.

An example of 'too similiar' are the sites of two important Danish cultural institutions, that I have used a lot: The Royal Danish Library - and the other being DR, The Danish  Broadcasting System, where I used to work in the Culture and online department, giving me a reason to know their communication and online platform really well.

Yeah - they might both be quite user friendly (they are!) in front- as well as back end, which is good - and sure, they do communicate to kindred users or segments. But I hope these screen dumps still illustrates my point - and also hope that The Royal Danish Library didn't pay too much for their online design! Since the existing website of The Black Diamond and The Royal Danish Library was launched not too long ago, and after the launch of DR's current website. And, well, as far as DR goes, a new online profile is probably not what they are going shopping for just now:

Too many copy-paste solutions?
One explanation for the high degree of same-same-but-different similiarity among many corporate sites might be, that too many design- and communication agencies perform too many copy-paste jobs, in stead of innovating after providing themselves with a profound understanding of the organizations they work for, when designing and programming on behalf of their clients. Or that some agencies choose to promote a specific style with variation to be wished for.

Yes - organizations buying the same established CM-Systems and -platforms may also be part of the explanation! But that doesn't change the fact, that very similar expressions and final products of corporate websites are to be found a little too often on www. A way to go beyond this, is to have your own platform - and especially unique front end - designed and programmed, when working with a design or online agency. And of course, to have your unique identity designed to communicate the authentic strenghts, values and visions of your organization.

Don't settle for less than unique and authentic differentiation
That's one of our traits in STAGIS: To fully understand the organization we design and communicate for, work to see the world with their perspectives, through the mindset of their stakeholders, and through our own professional eyes, combining the different perspectives with a high degree of empathy in our work - so that our designs and communication work really are unique on behalf of our clients. That often includes a programming of their unique platform og CMS as well, done by our design- and IT team.

Don't settle for half solutions or less than real and authentic differentiation, when having design done for your organization - external launch of a new online profile and introducing a re-newed online platform in your organization is not something you do every day. It costs in ressources. You might as well invest, do it right and express your own authentic qualities the first time around.