19. October 2017 In Development, Education, Studio

Emergence Refill | a knowledge series

Emergence Refill was started up in the summer of 2017 to look at how Emergence as a knowledge Hub can share our knowledge, not only with the 28 students that are at the school, but with our growing network of alumni and other partners and collaborators. The day-to-day staff at Emergence School of Leadership and our amazing group of industry specialists that teaches at the school (see and read more about them here) holds interesting perspectives and knowledge that we think more than just our students can benefit from. There’s also been a need for a space where the Emergence network can meet, mingle and talk about the challenges, thoughts and experiences they are facing. For all these reasons we decided to create Emergence Refill!

The event series is divided between morning and night events, all hosted at our favourite hangout Skippergata 22.

On Wednesday we hosted our first ever Refill Night with principal at Emergence School of Leadership, Thomas Helgø. He talked on why the role as a project manager is more relevant and important than ever, giving our alumni network a closer look into how the methodology of the school is in constant change and the steps needed today to create interesting, sustainable and successful projects.

Over 50 x-Emergence students attended and all helped shape and contribute with ideas to how we should develop the Refill concept further.

Thank you all for coming — and see you soon for Refill Morning! Next event will be open for our extended network and friends, so feel free to bring along someone you think would be interested! Follow our Facebook page Emergence School of Leadership for info on the next event.

17. October 2017 In Development

Projects equal change

We live in a period of major changes everywhere. New technology transforms and disrupts how we go about our lives and how we interact. Today, the four biggest companies in the world — Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple — are all tech companies, and none of which existed only a few decades ago.

New players are constantly finding new ways to innovate and make our lives easier. These players are often small and fast. The startup scene has never been more striving. Airbnb, Uber, Spotify, Kahoot and Kolonial.no are all examples of start-ups that has changed our everyday life.

The competition has gone global. So businesses must be able to compete with the best of what’s out there. The local clothing shop now competes with Zalando, Alibaba and Amazon. Aftenposten, VG and Dagbladet compete with Facebook, Google and Twitter. Choice Hotels and Scandic Hotels now compete with Hotels.com, Trivago and Airbnb. Business models are becoming obsolete fast and old recipes for success do not work any more. New ways of creating growth is constantly being challenged.

In business there are always two main modes of operating — through operations or through projects.

The dominant mode is usually operations. This is the way an organisation goes about its day-to-day business. It means doing what they know how to do, and what they might be trying to do faster and better over time. If I make cake, operations is about making the cake.

The other mode is projects. This is the way an organisation handle what is new. It is doing something new and unknown — something they need to develop, to innovate, to stay relevant and to prosper also tomorrow. If I make cake, projects is about figuring out new ways of serving a customers sweet tooth with less hassle and maybe even in formerly unthinkable ways.

So it is though projects, not operations, that business innovation and change is driven. In fact, the only way organisations can change, implement a strategy, innovate or gain competitive advantage is through projects. Simply put: projects equal change.

In organisations today, we see a steep rise in number of project being done. This is a consequence of organisations trying to deal with all the change going on around them.

Most organisations can do operations really well. But they struggle to implement change through projects. Modern project leadership is the capability organisations should develop to be just as strong as their strength in operations – if not stronger.

“The forecast for most companies is continued chaos with a chance of disaster. The challenge is getting comfortable with it”
— Forbes editor-at-large, Geoffrey Colvin

You only get comfortable with change if you learn how to change. A good place to start would be learning how to do modern projects really well. Because projects equal change.

22. December 2016 In Development

A new toolbox for modern projects

Mastering modern projects often require other approaches and methods than just working spontaneously or sticking to old habits. Henriette and Jonas, two of our staff members, have therefore collected more than 100 of our most popular tools in a practical handbook that helps you with nearly anything you might need in today’s projects. Preview the handbook and explore the tools.