Boss Level Podcast: Recent Episodes
Sami Honkonen
Boss Level is a podcast on people and organizations aiming for the boss level. Boss level is the status a person or an organization achieves by making a better quality of life for themselves and others by doing what they need to do regardless of all the haters and obstacles out there.
Thanks to Nordic Business Forum for making the interview happen.
And thanks to the sponsor of the season, Vincit.
My guest is Rutger Bregman from Holland. He’s a historian and an author. His books Humankind and Utopia for Realists were both New York Times Bestsellers. You might also know him from a viral video of a speech he did in Davos or from an unaired, but leaked interview with Fox News that completely pissed off the host Tucker Carlson.
We discuss how how we should move to a more benevolent view of human nature and how that would change the way we run our companies.
Sponsor link:
- MinnaLearn
Josh Seiden is a designer, strategy consultant, coach, author and speaker. He helps clients launch new products and services, and to create more agile, entrepreneurial organizations. He's the author of Outcomes Over Outputs and co-author of Sense & Respond and Lean UX. We discuss why it's important to focus on the outcomes of the work we do and not on the output.
You can learn more about Josh on his website.
Sponsor for the episode:
- MinnaLearn - Go here to join the exclusive Boss Level study group and get 25% off the price
My guest today is Kati Levoranta. Kati is currently a Partner and Executive Vice President at P2X Solutions. Previously she was the CEO of Rovio and she has a background in law. She’s also on the board of Finavia, an airport operator company, Juuri Partners, a private equity company and OP, a large banking group.
We talk about what Power-to-X means and how building plants differs from digital services. We talk about contracting, learning and how to keep yourself in good working order.
Sponsor link:
- MinnaLearn
Episode links:
- Article on Boss Level Podcast in HS Visio
- Olli Salo
Sponsor:
- Swanlake Strategy
Some of topics covered in the discussion are:
- What's it like negotiating an exit?
- How does the operating model of a company change as it grows?
- What are the fundamental balancing acts in product development?
- Benefits of asynchronous communication
- Limits of self-organization
Links:
- Swarmia
- Smartly
- Flowdock
Sponsor:
- Swanlake Strategy
An interview with retired US Army general Stanley McChrystal. We talk about how to prepare for risks.
This episode is sponsored by Swanlake Strategy.
Further listening:
- My previous interview with Stan McChrystal
- Eeva Vilkkumaa on decision making
An interview with John Seddon, the inventor of 'The Vanguard Method' and managing director of Vanguard consultancy company. The Vanguard Method is a way of helping organizations move from command and control towards systems design.
In this episode we talk about Johns new book: 'Beyond Command and Control'. We also continue on topics we discussed previous time John was guest on Boss Level.
Links for the episode:
- Vanguard Method
- What is the Vanguard Method? John Seddon explains (video)
- John on Wikipedia
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
An interview with Timo Lappi, CEO of Heltti and Co-Founder of Fondia.
Links for the episode:
- Heltti
- Fondia
- Timo on Twitter
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
An interview with Aaron Dignan, the author of Brave New Work.
Links for the episode:
- Brave New Work
- Aaron on Twitter
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My guest is Jeff Gothelf, the co-author of Sense and Respond, Lean UX and Lean vs Agile vs Design Thinking.
Links for the episode:
- Jeff's website
- Jeff on Twitter
- Mirette's blog post on Yle
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
Links for the episode:
- Cliff on Twitter
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
This is not a regular episode. This one is special. This is an update. And this update holds the future of the podcast.
Links for the episode:
- http://www.dias.fi
- http://www.tomorrow.fi
- Helsingin Sanomat
- Yle Uutiset
- Kauppalehti
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My guest for this episode is Jussi Markula, a teal mentor, a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of the Teal Finland community. In his daily work at Prominda, Jussi facilitates the exploration of new paradigms in organizations.
Idea of a Teal organization was introduced by Fredrick Laloux in 2014 in his book, called Reinventing organisations. The book walks through the evolution of human organizational paradigms and then discusses the most advanced one to date, dubbed Teal.
Jussi helps us delve a little deeper in to the breakthroughs that enabled teal organizations to come to life.
Links for the episode:
- Jussi’s Twitter
- Prominda Revolution
- Frederic Laloux - Reinventing Organizations
- Teal Suomi Facebook Group
- An interview with CEO of Buurtzorg on Boss Level Podcast. Buurtzorg is an elderly care company that is usually presented as an example of a teal organization.
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami’s website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami’s blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
Brief walkthrough of the evolutionary stages presented in Laloux book:
- The first stage is called Red. That’s the stage of top-down authority and strict division of labor. Think of a street gang or a wolfpack, where fear is the glue of the organization.
- Then we have Amber. Amber is characterized by hierarchy, formal roles and stable processes. It’s where we use the stick to keep people in control. An example of an amber organization is the army.
- Then we get to Orange. Orange is the organization that acts like a machine. Orange organizations value innovation and accountability and are based on a meritocracy. This is probably the most common organizational paradigm currently in use.
- After Orange comes Green. That’s the family-like organization. These green organizations are driven by their values and people are empowered to produce to the stakeholders. Green organizations have a strong focus on culture.
- The final stage introduced by Laloux is teal. Teal is an organization that behaves like a living organism. The organization has it’s own evolutionary purpose. It’s self-managed and leadership is distributed. People bring their whole selves to work and don’t create a strong distinction between their work and private personas.
My guest for this episode is Barry O’Reilly, who’s one of the authors of Lean Enterprise that discusses how high performance organisations innovate at scale.
What’s especially interesting to me about Barry’s experience is that he’s worked a lot with large organisations. He’s for example the founder of ExecCamp, where he takes executives to retreats lasting up to 8 weeks, and helps them disrupt their own businesses.
We talk about how organisations can transform their culture to support experimentation and better decision making. Barry also highlights couple of insights from his newest book, Unlearn.
Links for the episode:
- Barry’s website
- Unlearn: Let go of past success to achieve extraordinary results
- Barry on Twitter
- About Barry on Singularity University’s website
- Barry’s talk on lean enterprises at GOTO Chicago 2016
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami’s website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami’s blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My guest for this episode is Gary Hamel, one of the biggest names in the field of strategy.
Gary started working with strategy in the beginning of the 1980’s and has since released a bunch of groundbreaking articles and books on the topic. For example, the terms strategic intent and core competency were popularized by him and his colleagues.
We talk about what makes strategies successful, how hierarchies affect organizations and what Gary thinks about bureaucracy.
There is also a new segment introduced in the second half of the podcast, hope you like it!
Sponsor links
- Panostaja - an investment company that owns and develops Finnish SMEs
- Exove - a digital growth company that helps companies look into the future and achieve growth by designing and creating visually attractive, user-friendly and seamlessly working digital solutions.
Links for the episode:
- Gary's website
- Gary on Twitter
- Gary on Wikipedia
- Gary’s new video series, Gary Tells You Why
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami’s website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami’s blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My first guest for the seventh season is Eeva Vilkkumaa, Assistant Professor at the Aalto University School of Business. She studies decision making and resource allocation at companies and public organizations.
We talk about how companies can develop mathematical models to support their decision making. Eeva emphasises the importance of co-creation when building decision making models. She thinks that if people are not involved on building the model or don't understand the principles behind the model, the results are not going to be great.
Hope you enjoy episode!
Sponsor link
- Panostaja - an investment company that owns and develops Finnish SMEs: http://www.panostaja.fi/en/
Links for the episode:
- Eeva's profile on Aalto University's site
- Aalto University's Systems Analysis Laboratory
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami’s website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami’s blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My guest for this episode is Kaisa Hietala, Executive Vice President of Renewable Products at Neste. Neste currently makes half of its profits from renewable products and the shift towards this state has happened in the the last 10 years.
We talk about changing the oil industry from the inside out. What have been the most important lessons Kaisa has learned during her years at Neste? What has the journey of developing a renewable product line been like? Has the transformation to using renewable products been hard?
Kaisa also reveals that 20 years ago she could have become a researcher in climate change. What made her to join an oil company instead?
This is the last episode of Boss Level Podcast before summer break. Season 7 starts on September.
If you want to enjoy the podcast during summer break, just tune again in to your favorite episodes. You’re most likely to find some new thoughts and ideas, that you’ve missed the first time. Or just start the whole show from beginning 😉
We wish a great summer to all the listeners of Boss Level Podcast!
Sponsor link
- Zervant - Free invoicing software for small businesses: https://zervant.com/
Links for the episode:
- Kaisa on Twitter
- Kaisa's profile on Bloomberg.com
- Neste's renewable products
- Neste's sustainability guidelines and reports
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami’s website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami’s blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My guest for this episode is Leyla Acaroglu, who calls herself sustainability provocateur and cultural protagonist. She has developed the Disruptive Design Method, an approach to design-led social change.
In Boss Level Podcast, we've often talked about systems thinking, but mostly in the context of organizations. With Leyla, we're going to take a look at systems on a much bigger scale: we talk about the systems that sustain life on earth and how we can use design to make our life on earth more sustainable.
Sponsor link
- Zervant - Free invoicing software for small businesses: https://zervant.com/
Links for the episode:
- Leyla's website
- Leyla on Twitter
- Unschool project
- Leyla's TED talk: "Paper beats plastic? How to rethink environmental folklore"
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami’s website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami’s blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My guest for this episode is Troy Hunt, well known security expert and creator of haveibeenpwned.com. It's a service which allows you to check, whether your email has been leaked as a part of a data breach.
We talk about online security, including securing your accounts and using a password manager. We also discuss about privacy and compare our thoughts on social media platforms, messaging applications and encryption. What kind of trade-offs people should make to be more private? What is a pragmatic standpoint on privacy? What is the balance between convenience and privacy?
Listen to the episode, tell us what you think! Also remember to check if you have an account that has been compromised in a data breach.
Sponsor link
- Academy of philosophy: https://filosofianakatemia.fi/en
Links for the episode:
- Have i Been Pwned
- Troy's intro on haveibeenpwned.com
- Troy's website
- Troy on Twitter
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami’s website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami’s blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
Today's topic is personal productivity and my guest is David Allen, author of Getting Things Done.
Getting Things Done - often referred to as GTD - is a time management method, described in a book of the same title. It helps you capture all the stuff floating around in your brain, process it into your next actions and projects and then just get them done. The method has significantly improved productivity of probably millions of people.
I read the book roughly 10 years ago and have since applied it pretty much every day. It has helped me to get stuff done and to feel less stressed about stuff.
In this episode, we walk through some of David's history and talk about how he came up with the ideas and models behind Getting Things Done method. We also cover the basics of the method itself and give some tips on how to get better at it.
If you're interested in learning more about the Getting Things Done method, I strongly urge you to find the book and read it.
Sponsor link
- Academy of philosophy: https://filosofianakatemia.fi/en
Links for the episode:
- Getting Things Done -method's website
- David's intro on gettingthingsdone.com
- David on Twitter
- Getting Things Done -book on Amazon
- GTD in 15 minutes -guide
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami’s website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami’s blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My guest for this episode is Björn Wahlroos, one of the most influential businessman in Finland. He's currently the chairman of the board at Sampo Group, Nordea and UPM-Kymmene.
We talk about Björn's background in academia, his defining moments, his current roles, sleepless nights, self confidence and leadership.
Björn is known to have pretty strong opinions, and he doesn't exactly hold back in expressing them. Listen to the episode and tell us what you think!
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami’s website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami’s blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My guest today is Joshua Kerievsky, the CEO of Industrial Logic, a Modern Agile consultancy. He has also started the Modern Agile community and has been a prominent figure in the agile community since the early days. His background is in software, but through his experience in agile methods, he has worked on a much broader range than just the software.
We walk through some of Joshua's history and talk a bit about how that came out in the form of Modern Agile community. We'll finish with a topic of curiosity, which - according to Joshua - is a superpower.
Sponsor link
- Reaktor Breakpoint -conference: https://www.reaktorbreakpoint.com/
Links for the episode:
- Industrial Logic's website
- Joshua's intro on Industrial Logic's website
- Joshua on Twitter
- Joshua on Medium
- Modern Agile Method
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami’s website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami’s blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My guest for this episode is Annu Nieminen, the CEO and founder of The Upright Project. We talk about Annu's work history at McKinsey and Kasvuryhmä and about Annu's newest project, The Upright Project.
Currently we measure companies using mainly financial indicators and, obviously, that’s just one piece of the pie. The Upright Project is trying to fix that and is working on building ways to measure the impact of companies more holistically. Basically they’re hoping to create a set of metrics for the companies impact on the environment, on knowledge, on society and on the health of its employees.
I met Annu some years ago and I really enjoy having discussions with her since she is sharp as a knife and very passionate about her work. Hope you enjoy this episode too!
Sponsor link
- Reaktor Breakpoint -conference: https://www.reaktorbreakpoint.com/
Links for the episode:
- The Upright Project's website
- Annu Nieminen's Twitter
- Kasvuryhmä's website
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami’s website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami’s blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
For this episode, my guest is Christopher Avery, the man behind The Responsibility Process. The Responsibility Process is a model to help you recognize unproductive mental states and help you take responsibility.
I learned about The Responsibility Process from Christopher roughly 7 years ago and it has stayed with me since. It’s one of my go-to tools personally and I often use it with teams.
We discussed about how one can learn to use The Responsibility Process and how it is useful model for both individuals and teams.
The model has been condensed into a fairly simple poster. You can find it from the link list below.
Sponsor links:
- Neuroleadership: https://neuroleadership.fi/
- Kevytjuridiikka.fi: https://kevytjuridiikka.fi/
Links for the episode:
- The Responsibility Process Poster
- Christopher Avery's website
- The Leadership Gift Program
- Christopher Avery's Twitter
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami’s website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami’s blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My first guest for the season is Teemu Arina. Teemu is a biohacker, a technologist, an entrepreneur and he was recently selected as Public Speaker of the Year in Finland.
We talk about biohacking and the science behind it. And we talk about how biohacking strives for balance instead of maximising performance in all areas of life.
Sponsor links:
- Neuroleadership: https://neuroleadership.fi/
- Kevytjuridiikka.fi: https://kevytjuridiikka.fi/
Links for the episode:
- Teemu on Twitter
- Biohacker’s handbook
- Biohakkerin käsikirja
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami’s website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami’s blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My guest is Markku Kulmala. Markku is one of the most prominent scientists in the world in the field of atmospheric and earth system sciences. At University of Helsinki, he leads a research group that has more than 35 published papers in journals Nature and Science. Markku is the person you want to learn from on the topic of climate change research.
We talk about how they do their research, what their initial results show and how they’re hoping the results help humankind fight climate change.
Sponsor link:
- Neste: http://www.neste.com
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
For this episode, my guest is Henrik Kniberg. Henrik is a prominent figure in the agile community. If you’ve seen the video on Spotify engineering culture, that video is created by him. He has also authored several books on agile.
Henrik is also one of the early guests of the the podcast and the previous episode we did was about two years ago. Back then we discussed Henrik’s agile coaching work at Lego and Spotify and how he helped his kids win a robot battle against experienced programmers.
But now, recently, he has shifted his professional focus towards something more important. He’s focusing on reducing the impact of climate change.
We talk about how to be climate neutral, how to invest in climate projects, the community Henrik is running called Climate Crisplet, and how companies should deal with climate change.
Sponsor link:
- Neste: http://www.neste.com
Links for the episode:
- Henrik on Twitter
- Friendly Guide to Climate Change
- Go Climate Neutral
- Trine
- Climate Crisplet
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
Today Boss Level Podcast is covering one of the biggest problems in the world, poverty. My guest is Leila Janah who runs two companies aimed at helping the extremely poor by giving them work.
One of her companies, Samasource, provides digital work in developing countries, and the other, LXMI, is an organic and fair trade skin care brand employing women.
In addition to talking about businesses, we discuss how companies can measure impact.
Sponsor link:
- Gofore: http://www.gofore.com
- Agile42: http://www.agile42.com
Links for the episode:
- Leila's website
- Leila on Twitter
- Leila on LinkedIn
- Samasource
- LXMI
- Leila's book Give Work
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
I’m interviewing Bjarte Bogsnes. Bjarte is one of the key people behind the adaptive management model called Beyond Budgeting. If there’s one person you want to learn about Beyond Budgeting from, it’s Bjarte.
Bjarte is one of the key people who have been leading Statoil’s journey from traditional corporate budgeting to a completely new management style. Along the way, he’s authored books on the things he has learned.
What’s good to know before we get started is that despite the name, Beyond Budgeting is not only about getting rid of budgeting. It is a new approach to management that emphasizes empowerment and adaptivity.
Beyond Budgeting’s 12 principles cover topics such as purpose, values, transparency, autonomy, targets and resource allocation. It is much larger than just budgets.
Sponsor links:
- Gofore: http://www.gofore.com
- Agile42: http://www.agile42.com
Links for the episode:
- Article about Tomorrow Labs in Helsingin Sanomat
- Tomorrow Labs, Careers
- Bjarte Bogsnes on Twitter
- Statoil
- Beyond Budgeting
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
This is my interview with Harri Valpola. Harri is the CEO of Curious AI, a Helsinki-based 20 person startup that’s aiming to build a general artificial intelligence. Now that’s a pretty bold goal when Facebook’s head of AI research just recently said that in terms of general intelligence, we’re not even close to a rat.
Harri is a respected researcher in the field of artificial intelligence. He knows his stuff. The previous company he founded, ZenRobotics, builds robots so that’s pretty cool too.
We talk about what general artificial intelligence would be like, whether we should try to simulate the human brain or not and how curiosity is a great guide in life.
Sponsor link:
- Valuemotive: http://valuemotive.com
- Wunderdog: http://wunder.dog
Links for the episode:
- Curious AI
- Harri on Wired magazine
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
Today’s guest is Bengt Holmström. Bengt is Finnish, but he’s spent the last 40 years living in the US. Currently he’s a professor of economics at MIT.
Bengt was recently awarded the Nobel prize in economic sciences together with his Harvard colleague Oliver Hart for their contribution to contract theory.
Essentially, Bengt has spent decades studying incentives and trying to figure out how to design better incentive structures. This has been a recurring theme on the podcast so I’m sure you can appreciate how excited I am to have Bengt on as a guest.
We talk about what it feels like to win the Nobel prize, incentives (obviously), and how transparency isn’t necessarily always a good thing.
Sponsor links:
- Finitec: http://www.finitec.fi
- Wunderdog: http://wunder.dog
Links for the episode:
- Bengt on Wikipedia
- Bengt's Nobel prize lecture on pay for performance
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
Today’s topic is machine learning and I’m talking to one of the brightest minds in the field, Hilary Mason. She’s the founder of Fast Forward Labs, a machine intelligence research company. She also advises startups through Accel, a prominent venture capital firm.
If you’re interested in artificial intelligence and machine learning, I’m pretty sure you’ll love this episode.
Sponsor link:
- Valuemotive: http://www.valuemotive.com
Links for the episode:
- Hilary Mason on Twitter
- Cloudera
- Fast Forward Labs
- Accel
- Speakersforum: New Speaker of the Year
- Steal My Job -podcast
- Sami Honkonen on Akonniemen Avara Luonto
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
While I was in Australia in June to keynote the Agile Australia conference I had the privilege to interview Troy Magennis. When I first heard Troy speak at a conference years ago I remember how impressed I was with his deep understanding of the mathematics involved in forecasting. After listening to this episode I think you’ll be equally impressed.
Troy is the founder of Focused Objective, a consultancy that helps companies with forecasting, portfolio planning, risk management and metric selection.
We talk about why 3 to 7 recent samples is often better than thousands of samples from last year, how we need several opposing metrics to prevent local optimization and how we’ve lost the art of post mortems.
Troy has a ton of resources that are freely available for you to download and try out. For example, you might like the team dashboard Troy has built. After listening to the episode you can use his tools to take your forecasting to the boss level.
Sponsor link:
- Finitec: http://www.finitec.fi
Links for the episode:
- Troy on Twitter
- Focused Objective
- Free tools and resources
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My guest today is Katri Saarikivi. Katri is a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Helsinki. She studies empathy in digital environments. Essentially she’s trying to figure out how we could better express ourselves in digital conversations.
Sponsor link:
- Finitec: http://www.finitec.fi
Links for the episode:
- Katri Saarikivi on Twitter
- Tomorrow Labs is hiring
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
Today, I’m chatting with Sara Öhrvall. Sara is the Co-founder and Senior Advisor at Mindmill Network. Mindmill helps companies understand how digital technologies impact their business. Before Mindmill Sara was the Senior Vice President of R&D at the Bonnier Group.
Sara sits on several boards. For example, she’s on the board of SEB, a Nordic corporate bank and Investor, the leading owner of Nordic-based international companies.
She also writes a column for Dagens Industri, which is the financial daily of Sweden.
In 2017 Sara was selected for Wired’s list of 50 most inspiring female influencers from across Europe. She’s one of the best and brightest women in technology.
We talk about the impact technology will have on people and businesses and how our companies should adapt to that change.
Sponsor links:
- Nitor: http://www.nitor.fi/myths
- Talented: http://www.talented.fi
Links for the episode:
- Sara Öhrvall on Twitter
- Mindmill Network
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
John Seddon is the inventor of The Vanguard Method. The Vanguard Method is a way of helping organizations move from command and control towards systems design. Seddon is the author of books such as Freedom from Command and Control and The Whitehall Effect. He’s currently working on a book titled Beyond Command and Control. Seddon’s work has provoked a lot of thought and has significantly deepened my understanding of how organizations function.
We talk about organizations as systems, value and failure demand, incentives, system conditions, budgeting and how the system drives behavior.
Sponsor link:
- Nitor: http://nitor.fi
- Talented: http://talented.fi
Links for the episode:
- John Seddon
- The Vanguard Method
- Freedom From Command and Control
- The Whitehall Effect
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
Today's guest is Peter Sunde, co-founder of The Pirate Bay, Flattr and Njalla.
The Pirate Bay is an online index of digital content often used for sharing copyrighted material such as movies, TV shows or music. The Pirate Bay is possibly one of the world’s most resilient websites, since the authorities have been trying to take it down for more than a decade and yet it’s still running.
Since The Pirate Bay Peter has worked on several things, such as Flattr, a way of making micropayments to content creators and Njalla, a privacy-oriented domain registrar.
We discuss how Peter got into The Pirate Bay, how The Pirate Bay operated, what the trial was like and what Peter is up to nowadays.
Sponsor links:
- Nitor: http://nitor.fi
- Nitor myths: http://nitor.fi/myths
- Talented: http://talented.fi
- Talented: https://talented.fi/paljonko-tienaisit-freelancerina/
Links for the episode:
- Peter Sunde on Twitter
- The Pirate Bay
- Flattr
- Njalla
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
For this episode I sat down for a chat with Tim Hwang. Tim has been labeled by Forbes magazine as the ’Busiest Man on the Internet’.
First, he started ROFLcon, which stands for Rolling On the Floor Laughing Conference. It was a conference that studied internet culture through memes.
After ROFLcon, he founded The Awesome Foundation For Arts And Sciences. The foundation’s sole aim is to promote awesomeness in the universe. It has donated over 2,5 million dollars to various projects through grants. The foundation operates through autonomous chapters that independently fund the grants and make decisions on recipients.
He then started a law firm called Robot, Robot and Hwang to study how lawyers could be automated. Currently he advises Google on the impacts of artificial intelligence on public policy.
Tim has done a lot considering he just turned 30.
At the end of the interview I asked him what his next project is going to be and his answer was not exactly the kind of answer you normally get.
Sponsor links:
- Talented: http://www.talented.fi
- Columbia Road: http://www.columbiaroad.com/bosslevel
Links for the episode:
- Tim on Twitter
- Tim's website
- xkcd
- Clippy
- Three wolf moon t-shirt
- Double rainbow
- Grumpy cat
- Ridiculously photogenic guy
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My guest today is Risto Siilasmaa. Risto is first and foremost an entrepreneur and a paranoid optimist. He’s the founder and former CEO of cybersecurity company F-Secure. His current role in the company is Chairman of the Board.
Risto is also Chairman of the Board at Nokia. He took on the role in 2012 when Nokia was in a very difficult situation and actually one topics we discuss is how he came to accept the offer.
We start off with Risto’s programming background, then move on to the early days of F-Secure and explore how the company was founded and how it grew. Regarding Nokia, we talk about the people side of the transformation Risto has led, the disadvantages of being a public company and whether structures drive behavior or the other way around.
Sponsor links:
- Talented: http://www.talented.fi
- Columbia Road: http://www.columbiaroad.com/bosslevel
Links for the episode:
- Risto Siilasmaa on Wikipedia
- Risto Siilasmaa on Twitter
- F-Secure
- Acquired Podcast
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
Start of the new, fourth season!
My first guest for this season is James Hewitt. James is the Head of Science and Innovation at Hintsa Performance. He’s a sports scientist and performance coach searching for fresh perspectives and new approaches to enhance the performance of people, products and projects.
We talk about the Circle of Better Life, which is a model that covers all the important aspects of well-being. We talk about the science behind the methods they use and new and interesting research in measuring cognitive load in knowledge work. Towards the end you’ll hear some pretty simple tips for improving your brain’s performance.
Sponsor links:
- Talented: http://talented.fi
- Columbia Road: https://www.columbiaroad.com/bosslevel
Links for the episode:
- James Hewitt on Twitter
- James's website
- Hintsa Performance
- The Circle of Better Life
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
As is suitable for the season finale, I have a very special guest. I’m interviewing retired four-star general Stan McChrystal. Former US Defense Secretary Robert Gates described McChrystal as "perhaps the finest warrior and leader of men in combat”.
McChrystal took command of an elite military organization, Joint Special Operations Task Force, and transformed it from a rigid hierarchy to a network of autonomous teams.
The teams were encouraged to act autonomously as long as their actions served the purpose and were not immoral or illegal. For such a high level of autonomy to function the organization had to start sharing data extensively in order to create a shared concisousness.
The story of the transformation is laid out in the book Team of Teams. What I especially love about the story is that it basically takes away all the excuses. If a military bureauacracy can transform itself to an agile network of teams, so can any business organization, no matter how large or traditional.
Sponsor link:
- Varma: http://www.varma.fi
Links for the episode:
- Stanley A. McChrystal on Wikipedia
- Joint Special Operations Task Force
- Team of Teams on Amazon
- McChrystal Group
- Dave Snowden on complexity theory and astrology
- Jos de Blok and the revolutionary homecare company Buurtzorg
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My guest is Sari Baldauf. Sari was selected as the most influential female executive in the year 1998 by Fortune magazine. In 2002 the Wall Street Journal named Baldauf as Europe's most successful female executive.
Sari joined Nokia in 1983 and held several executive positions there. From 1998 to 2005 she was the General Manager of Nokia’s Networks business. She sat on the Executive Board of Nokia from 1994 until January 2005. In the end of 2004 she resigned from Nokia for personal reasons. Since then she’s moved on to become a respected board professional, working as the chairwoman of the board at Fortum, the Finnish energy giant, and as a member of the board at Daimler, among other roles.
We talk about her defining moments, her happiest and saddest times during her career and her lessons learned on strategy and leadership.
Sponsor link:
- Evervest: http://www.evervest.com
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
In this episode I’m interviewing Joshua Spodek. He teaches leadership at New York University, has a PhD in astrophysics and does burpees everyday. I think that’s a pretty amazing one line description for anyone. His book Leadership Step by Step will be released in a couple of weeks.
We talk about his principles for getting things done, his routines, his views on leadership, and we do a five minute walk-through of his book. We end the interview with some empathy and book recommendations.
Sponsor link:
- Evervest: http://www.evervest.com
Links for the episode:
- Joshua Spodek website
- Joshua Spodek on Twitter
- Leadership Step by Step on Amazon
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My guest is Akiko Naka. She is the CEO of Wantedly, a Japanese social recruiting platform with 1,2 million monthly active users and a 100 employees. She’s passionate about helping people find work they love doing. We discuss her bold career moves, Wantedly’s business, decision making in organizations and strategies for finding a job you love.
Sponsor link:
- Evervest: http://www.evervest.com/bosslevel
Links for the episode:
- Akiko Naka on Twitter
- Wantedly
- Photo of recording setup at Slush
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
If I’m concerned about privacy, my guest today is probably ten times more so. Aral is an activist, a designer and a software developer. He’s one of the founders of Indie, a tiny social enterprise working for social justice in the digital age. He’s also the man behind the Ethical Design Manifesto.
We talk about Aral’s view on the evolution of computing, current business models of cloud services and venture capital. We cover the Ethical Design Manifesto and its implications on the software we build.
Sponsor link:
- Kisko Labs: http://www.kiskolabs.com
Links for the episode:
- Aral Balkan on Twitter
- Indie
- Sami's blog post: My strategy for increased privacy
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
An interview with Jim Benson, the creator of Personal Kanban and Lean Coffee. We delve into Personal Kanban, which is an approach to dealing with the overload of stuff you need to deal with. We dig into into its two simple rules, visualizing work and limiting work in progress. We then walk through Lean Coffee, which is a simple and effective way to run your meetings. In the end we discuss Jim’s lessons on collaboration from his years in working to improve it in organizations.
Sponsor link:
- Kisko Labs: https://www.kiskolabs.com
Links for the episode:
- Jim Benson on Twitter
- Personal Kanban website
- Personal Kanban on Amazon
- Pomodoro Technique
- Lean Coffee website
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
On this episode I’m interviewing Simon Wardley and we’re talking about Wardley maps, which are Simon’s method for co-creating strategy with visual and context-specific maps.
Sponsor link:
- Siqni: http://www.siqni.fi
Links for the episode:
- Example of a Wardley map
- Simon Wardley on Medium
- Simon Wardley on Twitter
- The Toaster Project
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
My guest for this episode is Will Evans. He’s the Chief Design Officer at PraxisFlow. We talk about New York, entrepreneurship, company culture and major transformation programs.
Sponsor link:
- Siqni: http://www.siqni.fi
Links for the episode:
- Will Evans on Twitter
- PraxisFlow
- Interview with Dave Snowden
- Interview with Jabe Bloom
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
Today my guest is Stephen Bungay. Stephen is the author of The Art of Action, a book on strategy execution under uncertainty. The book draws from lessons learned in military organizations where they’ve had to deal with complex situations 200 years before businesses needed to.
I personally always cringe a little when I hear people talking about military leadership in the context of knowledge work, but Stephen knows where to draw the line of applicability, and that’s actually one of the topics we discuss.
We also talk about why our plans don’t always lead to the outcomes we want or why our plans don’t always lead to the actions we want. And what to do about it.
Sponsor link:
- Siqni: http://www.siqni.fi
Links for the episode:
- Sami's blog post: Starting a new company
- Tomorrow Labs website
- Stephen Bungay's website
- "The Art of Action" on Amazon
- "The Most Dangerous Enemy: A History of the Battle of Britain" on Amazon
- "Alaimein" on Amazon
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
The interview you’re about to hear was recorded in Paris, France. I interviewed Dominique Turcq. Dominique is a French consultant and researcher who wants to help companies get ready for the future. We talk about upcoming technologies, endless beta culture, individual evaluation systems, his lessons from McKinsey, and many other topics. We also cover his book, Augmented Management, which looks at the trends companies should be aware of and the skills that individuals should develop to be better equipped to deal with the future.
Sponsor link:
- Enersoft: http://www.enersoft.fi
Links for the episode:
- Dominique Turcq on Twitter
- Augmented Management
- Book: Augmented Management
- Everything You Need to Know About CRISPR, the New Tool that Edits DNA
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
For this episode my guest is Alf Rehn, a professor of management from the Åbo Academi University. When appointed, Alf was the youngest chair in Finland. Now after more than ten years on the job he has gained a wealth of knowledge especially on the topic of innovation. In addition to his academic endeavours Alf sits on boards of several companies, for example Veikkaus, the Finnish gambling monopoly.
Alf thinks we’re spending our innovation resources on the wrong things. We’re inventing gadgets when we should be solving poverty. In his opinion, we need better discourse on innovation. During the interview Alf also shares some of the things that he has seen that can make a company more innovative.
In addition to innovation we discuss management. I was trying to get him to dis the bureaucracy at the university, but I failed to do so. Alf is definitely not a fan of bureauaracy, but he sees plenty of benefits arising from the traditional uninnovate parts of organizations.
Sponsor link:
- Enersoft: http://www.enersoft.fi
Links for the episode:
- Alf Rehn on Twitter
- Alf's website
- Alf on How Innovation Is a Lot Like Manscaping (or, Why You Should Pay As Much Attention to an Innovation Project As You Would to Shaving Your Balls)
- Sami on why money needs to be decentralized
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
In 2009 Satoshi Nakamoto released bitcoin, a peer-to-peer digital currency. Bitcoin is based on the concept of a blockchain. The blockchain makes bitcoin decentralized. So that means money moves from one account to another without banks in between. Now that’s huge.
Regardless of whether you see bitcoin as a viable currency the technology underneath it is impressive to say the least.
My guest today is Martti Malmi who was the first after Satoshi to start working on bitcoin. He’s also the co-founder of MONI, a fintech startup and he runs his own global address service called identi.fi.
In this episode you you’ll learn about decentralization, blockchain, smart contracts and you’ll know if there’s any merit to the hype.
Sponsor link:
- Enersoft: http://www.enersoft.fi
Links for the episode:
- Martti Malmi on Twitter
- MONI
- Identi.fi
- Ethereum
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
- Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com
Today’s guest is Esko Kilpi. During previous interviews at least three of the guests have asked me if I know Esko since we’re both from Finland. Esko has created quite a following for himself through his blog posts and his talks on the future of work.
We discuss how value is nowadays created in networks through interaction. How the experience and the context are key elements in value creation. And how selling should not be seen as a single transaction, but as a continuous mutual learning process. We then explore how these concepts should be reflected in our organizations.
Links for the episode:
- Esko Kilpi on Twitter
- Esko Kilpi on Medium
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's blog: http://www.samihonkonen.com
Today’s guest is Jabe Bloom. A few years ago, he walked in to the Carnegie Mellon University library, approached the Design section and picked up a book starting with the letter A. His plan is to keep reading until he gets to Z. His definition of design is “the intentional formation of a purposeful system”. He says science has no intention towards the future, but design does.
Links for the episode:
- Jabe on Twitter
- PraxisFlow
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's blog: http://www.samihonkonen.com
Today’s guest is Lori Schwanbeck. Among other things she’s one of the teachers of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, which started out as Google’s internal program to teach mindfulness.
So the topic for this episode is mindfulness. Why has Google embraced it? How are they embracing it? What’s the research behind mindfulness? What is mindfulness and how can I get started?
Links for the episode:
- Lori on Twitter
- Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute
- Pomodoro technique
- Headspace
- Calm
Sami's band Embreach:
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7C78Ej3IXZox3POA1urXJ1
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-world-that-we-have-lost/id1107414863
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/embreach/sets/the-world-that-we-have-lost/
- Bandcamp: https://embreach.bandcamp.com/album/the-world-that-we-have-lost
- Album release gig: https://www.facebook.com/events/786814521423531/
- Music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-dmqGmkNaA
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's blog: http://www.samihonkonen.com
Today’s topic is product management and lean startup. My guest is Melissa Perri.
When I asked around for tips on who to interview while in New York her name came up frequently. I’ve met her at several conferences and knew her to be an expert on product management. I was sure we’d have a fun chat so I reached out and she agreed to sit down for an interview!
We talk about how to get from business requirements, which often aren’t really requirements at all, to validated learning.
We discuss validation, experiments, user research, a weekly cadence and how top management and product management should work together.
Links for the episode:
- melissaperri.com
- @lissijean
- Håkan Forss and the Toyota Kata metaprocess
Sponsor links:
- Vijay Govindarajan's Three Box Strategy Model
- Nordic Business Forum
- Nordic Business Forum SWEDEN
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's blog: http://www.samihonkonen.com
For this episode of Boss Level I took the ferry over to Tallinn to visit the office of TransferWise. TransferWise is creating a fast and cost-effective way of sending money from a country to another. It’s valuation in its previous round of funding was close to a billion.
The way they operate is inspiring. Teams have a Key Performance Indicator or KPI that they try to improve. The KPI’s are as customer-facing as possible. How the teams improve that KPI is totally up to them. And just to make it even more complex, but effective teams can also change the KPI they use.
I’m talking to Nilan Peiris, their VP of Growth.
Links for the episode:
- TransferWise
- Nilan Peiris on Twitter
Sponsor links:
- Vijay Govindarajan's Three Box Strategy Model
- Nordic Business Forum
- Nordic Business Forum SWEDEN
Links for the podcast:
- Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's blog: http://www.samihonkonen.com
I'm visiting New York and interviewing Aaron Dignan, the founder of a company called The Ready. We discuss the future of work and complex, adaptive systems. We try to figure out why cities thrive when they grow and why companies don't. In the end, we reveal the formula for the next unicorn startup.
Links for the episode:
- Aaron Dignan on Twitter
- The Ready
Links for the podcast:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's blog: http://www.samihonkonen.com
Links to Nordic Business Forum:
- Nordic Business Forum Sweden
Today we have a very special guest. Jari Sarasvuo. Jari first became known for his work in radio and TV. Then in 1990 he founded a company called Trainers’ House that delivers management consulting and training for executives. Jari is still one of the biggest owners of Trainers House, but he now has a new endeavour, called Stronghold. Stronghold caters to a broader audience with a combination of digital and face-to-face trainings.
Our talk covers Jari’s Twitter mania, his troubled relationship with technology, his digital training business and we close off by discussing self-organizing companies and performance targets.
Links for the episode:
- Vijay Govindarajan's Three Box Strategy Model
- Nordic Business Forum
- Nordic Business Forum SWEDEN
- Trainers' House
- Stronghold
Links for the podcast:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's blog: http://www.samihonkonen.com
The first guest for the second season of Boss Level is Linda Liukas. She’s changing the world by helping kids learn technology. Her TEDx talk is just about to reach a million views. We discuss learning, education, writing and technology. A word of warning though, her enthusiasm is pretty infectious. Enjoy.
Links for the episode:
- Linda on Twitter
- Linda's TEDx talk: A delightful way to teach kids about computers
- Hello Ruby
- Rails Girls
- Montessori education
Links for the podcast:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
- Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
- Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
- Sami's blog: http://www.samihonkonen.com
This episode is about the simple, but powerful concept of Toyota Kata and how it’s applied at the gaming company King. I’m interviewing Håkan Forss, an agile coach, working for King in Stockholm.
This episode is the end of Season 1 of Boss Level. The next episode will be out on the 14th of March 2016.
Links for Sami's band Embreach:
- Embreach on Facebook
- Embreach on Twitter
- Embreach on Spotify
- Periscope: @embreachband
Links mentioned in podcast:
- Sami's blog
- King
- Håkan Forss
- Mike Rother: Toyota Kata on Amazon
- Blue Arrow Awards
Links related to the podcast:
- Boss Level on Facebook
- Boss Level on Twitter
- Boss Level RSS feed
- Boss Level website
10 000 employees. No managers. Great results. Founded in 2006 Buurtzorg has taken the home care industry in Holland by storm. It has a lion’s share of the market. Clients rate Buurtzorg as 9.1 out of 10. Buurtzorg has been selected as the best place to work in Holland 5 times in a row. This is an interview with the CEO and founder, Jos de Blok.
- Jos de Blok on Twitter
- Recent blog post on Buurtzorg
- My colleague Panu Liira on Twitter
Most people fear snakes. A lot of people fear public speaking. Some companies are lead with fear.
Why do we fear? What is fear? When is fear harmful and when is it beneficial?
Henkka Hyppönen, today’s guest, is an expert on fear. He recently wrote a book about it called “Why we fear”.
At the end of the episode, I’ll tell you how you can win a free copy of the book.
Links for the episode:
- Henkka Hyppönen website
- Henkka Hyppönen on Twitter
- Why We Fear on Amazon
- Why We Fear on iBooks
- Jon Franklin: Writing for story on Amazon (This is the book Henkka mentioned in the beginning, but couldn't remember the name of)
- Robert Rodriguez: Rebel without a Crew on Amazon
Links to the podcast:
- Website
- RSS
- Sami Honkonen (host) on Twitter
- Sami's website
Today’s guest is Kathrine Kirk, an independent consultant who often finds herself working with conflict-ridden teams that are deemed hopeless. She gave an interesting keynote at the Lean Agile Scotland conference on why team happiness might not be a good thing to aim for.
Today’s guest is Dave Snowden. Dave is the man behind Cynefin, a decision support framework that’s based on complexity theory and cognitive science. In addition to Cynefin we discuss strategy, budgeting, performance targets and other important management concepts. Dave also shares research that shows which is more accurate in predicting human behavior: Myers-Briggs personality types or astrology.
- Cynefin illustrated
- Cynefin on Wikipedia
- Cognitive Edge
- SenseMaker
- Honorary Professorship for David J Snowden
- HBR article: A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making
- Assemblage theory
- Constructor theory
- Aquina’s Summa Theologica
Today my guest is Henrik Kniberg. Henrik is well known for his books and for his work with Spotify, Lego and many others.
Henrik works through Crisp, a Swedish consultancy that has published their company DNA online. The DNA consists of all the essential principles, processes and agreements with which the company operates.
We discuss the unorthodox organizational model at Crisp, Henrik’s work with his clients, and how his kids, aged 10 and 11, won a robot battle against teams of professional programmers.
- Henrik Kniberg on Twitter
- Lean from the Trenches on Amazon
- Scrum and XP from the Trenches on Amazon
- Crisp
- Crisp DNA
- GOTO Conference
- Lego Mindstorms
- Larman & Vodde: Scaling Lean & Agile Development on Amazon
- Reinertsen: Principles of Product Development Flow on Amazon
- Weinberg on Amazon
This a special bonus episode on online privacy. I’m talking to Mikko Hyppönen, the Chief Research Officer at F-Secure. Mikko is geek who has over the years become a security celebrity. We discuss privacy, tracking, Reddit, TED and viruses.
- Mikko on Twitter
- F-Secure
- F-Secure Labs Blog
- Freedome
- Mikko's AMA on Reddit
- Mikko's TED Talk: Fighting viruses, defending the net
- Hacker News
- Hackers & Painters on Amazon
- Morris Worm on Wikipedia
- Password manager on Wikipedia
- Social engineering on Wikipedia
An interview with Niklas Modig, author of This is Lean.
This episode is a neat package of insights on lean. Here’s a few questions you should be able to answer after this episode if you listen close:
What is lean?
What is resource efficiency?
What is flow efficiency?
Why is flow important?
How can we increase flow?
And even if you already know the answer to those questions there’s plenty of great examples and bits of wisdom to learn from.
- Niklas Modig on Twitter
- Photo of Niklas Modig and Justin Timberlake
- This is Lean on Amazon
- John Seddon
- Sami's recommendation of a book by John Seddon: Freedom From Command and Control
This episode is an interview with Nilofer Merchant. She was in Helsinki speaking at the Nordic Business Forum 2015 a few weeks back. She’s an author of two books, she has received the Future Thinker award from Thinkers 50. Nilofer also has a popular TED talk and she’s a writer for publications such as Harvard Business Review.
Links for this episode:
- Nilofer's 1st book: 11 Rules for Creating Value In #SocialEra (2012)
- Nilofer's 2nd book: The New How (2014)
- Nilofer's TED talk: Got a meeting? Take a walk.
- Teaching Smart People How to Learn (Article on double-loop learning by Chris Argyris)
- From Sami's blog: Bonuses hinder double-loop learning
Links to the podcast:
- Website
- iTunes
- Host: Sami Honkonen
An interview with Spotify's VP of Operations, Simon Marcus. We discuss the concept of a minimum viable company, how Scrum and Kanban are a gateway drug and who should do the thinking in organizations. Regarding Spotify we cover the hierarchy in the company and how the chapters, tribes and squads model is essentially just a matrix with fancy names.
Links to the podcast:
- Website
- iTunes
- Host: Sami Honkonen
Links to stuff mentioned in the episode:
- Person: Simon Marcus
- Company: Spotify
- Person: Marc Maron
- Framework: Scrum
- Framework: Kanban
- Videos that cover chapters, tribes and squads: Spotify Engineering Culture - part 1, part 2
- Person: Daniel Ek (Spotify CEO)
- Person: Henrik Kniberg
- Person: Will Evans
- Person: Jabe Bloom
- Book: Henrik Kniberg: Lean from the Trenches
- Person: Arne Roock
- Company: Jimdo
- Person: Håkan Forss
- Person: Chris Argyris
- Company: Crisp
- Crisp DNA
- Book: Peter Thiel: Zero To One
- Book: Jack Welch: Winning
- Book: Stephen Bungay: The Art of Action
- Book: Pascal Dennis: Getting the Right Things Done
Related blog post from Sami's blog:
- How to fix 90% of problems at work
Thanks to:
- Timo Londen
- Jari Aarniala
- Ville Valtonen
- Tyyppimuunnos
- Mervi Honkonen
An introduction to the podcast
- Learn more about the host: http://www.samihonkonen.com/
- Learn more about Reaktor: http://www.reaktor.com