TalentMiles Talks TalentMiles

“For me personally, the growth as a leader has been from the content towards the people, because leadership in the end is always about the people and nothing else but people.”
– Aleksi Malmberg, General Manager, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
In this podcast, General Manager Aleksi Malmberg shares his experiences about leadership of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra in the challenging and ambiguous context of the pandemic and thereafter. What originated in a leadership of crisis at the outbreak of Covid, gradually, and partly by down-to-earth and seemingly small supporting actions, has turned into a growth of connectedness and interactivity in the orchestra. 
In the podcast, Professor Wim Gijselaers of Maastricht University joins the discussion from the point of view of change and leadership in current research. One interesting insight suggested by this discussion is, rather counterintuitively, how the highly structured work-flow of the orchestra creates room for creativity and innovation.
The discussion is moderated by Bo-Magnus Salenius, Chairman and co-founder of TalentMiles.

“The interesting thing is that, if we do and lead this right, much of the many different activities we do now to plays part in our cultural transformation of behavior towards increased trust and more self-leadership. Somehow we take great steps forward without labeling it a “giant change” 
— Anna Thuresson, Head of HR and HSE, EON Energy Networks Sweden
 
There are observations suggesting that preconditions for leadership and engagement are changing in the wake of the pandemic. Engaging communities of work for shared purpose, it is suggested, may grow even more challenging in the age of widespread hybrid work. 
In this podcast, Anna Thuresson shares her reflections from the current cultural transformation in her company. While strongly underlining the importance of meaningful and shared purpose, she tells us a story of how the company is reinventing itself and its culture using a wide selection of improvements and measures while avoiding framing it as large, “programmatic” change to be cascaded. The exciting insights from practise are connected to the context of current research on leadership and learning by prof. Wim Gijselaers, Maastricht University, and the discussion is moderated by Bo-Magnus Salenius, Chairman and co-founder of TalentMiles.

A high level of trust has been the crucial element of the culture and leadership of companies that better than others have taken their business and workforce through Covid 19 this far. And trust will be a key factor for leaders in companies going further. 
But what is ”trust”, what can it look and sound like? And how does a leader act to get it to grow? In this podcast, General Manager Inna Wahlberg is interviewed for the fascinating story of how Ascender Asian Services, a leader in the field of payroll outsourcing, has pulled through the pandemic so far building on trust and exceptional commitment by the staff. She describes the journey of creating a culture which suits the special nature of the work in the industry and herself as a “curious problem-solver trying to get out of the way of people who know what they are doing”. 
”In my organisation, long before the pandemic, we had worked a lot on creating engagement and shared direction and helping people ”walk a little bit taller” and be a little more proud of what we do. This helped us. People believed in the organisation and the commitment to clients has been spectacular. I think it is really difficult for an organisation if it starts building engagement now, as the pandemic is easing, to suddenly start to say to employees that “we care about you, and you 
Inna Wahlberg is interviewed by Wim Gijselaers, professor of learning and development in Maastricht University, and Bo-Magnus Salenius, leadership coach and founder of TalentMiles.

How do you create onboarding remotely with better impact on connecting new employees to company culture, expertise and community?
Evac, the world’s leading provider of integrated water and waste management systems, has re-invented the company’s approach to onboarding. In this podcast Salla Jämsä, Global Senior HRD Manager at Evac, and Erika Hyppönen, Development Manager at TalentMiles, are interviewed about learnings and experiences of the promising new approach by Bo-Magnus Salenius.
Evac emphasises the importance of an excellent candidate experience in recruitment and the new approach in onboarding helps in creating an excellent employee experience from the very start of the employment.
The new digital approach has included helping new recruits to

connect with other new employees
become impressed by the talents and knowledge in the company
build networks between new and old employees
build the understanding of the company’s purpose, culture and strategy
a way for top management to get to know the new employees.

Leaders and organisations today are faced with more complex problems than ever before. How can leaders enable people in the organisation to solve those problems when they themselves don’t have the right answers? In what ways can leaders create trust that allows people to solve problems collectively? What can leaders do to bring people together to generate change? How is learning essential for leaders?In this podcast, Olli-Pekka Heinonen, Director General at Finnish National Agency for Education and, among other things, former Minister of Education, shares his view on how tomorrow's leadership differs from the past. Olli-Pekka is leading the educational system ranked as the best in the world. Join to hear how he thinks leaders should be passionate about learning.The conversation is hosted by Patrick Furu, Chief Strategist of TalentMiles and Adjunct Professor.

With the rise of digital and online learning, how can businesses use gamification to make learning more fun, and to develop comptence and change behviours? Is gamified online learning only something for the ”younger generation” entering the workplace, or how can we make this educational approach work for everyone? What does research show about this way of learning and what are some important things to consider before integrating elements of gamification into your development programmes? What is hindering the movement of gamification to continue going forward?
These are some of the questions that will be discussed in this episode of TalentMiles Talks, about the future of gamification in digital learning, with Anna Ockborn, Ouss Labib, Patrick Furu and Thomas Spjuth Eriksson.