Tiimiakatemia

Taster of the Learning Revolution in Tanzania

Nina Jussila

I am so honoured that I got invited to coach few training sessions in Team Academy Iringa in Tanzania. I just got back from that trip and I am still so excited of everything that happened in there.

First when I got that invitation I was a bit scared as I didn’t know what they would need and if my coaching would be any beneficial for them. But after contacting them,  finding out what is the situation at the moment and getting their feedback for my ideas I felt a bit more confident.

This had been their first year to run the Team Academy, so the teampreneurs had started just eight months ago, but even in that short time, they had been able to create a real Team Academy atmosphere in there and the place felt so homely right away. That is so weird feeling when you travel to the other side of the world, but when there is something like Team Academy which connects you so strongly it feels like you almost know the people already.

International Challenge

I have been always really passionate about the international network, -collaboration and about the opportunities those can bring, so I decided to run my sessions mostly around them, as I had understood the teampreneurs hadn’t had that much interaction with the other Team Academies in the past year. After I told my story and about my passions and goals I told them about the Global Team Academy network and a little bit about each unit in it, showed them some channels they could use to get in touch with them and then I gave them a challenge. They would have 24h to get in touch with the other teampreneurs from the network, and on the next day they would have to present what they had found out. First we started to think what they would like to ask from them and then it was time to put the plans in to action. You could really feel the excitement from them, but it was still so difficult to know if they would be able to reach the other teampreneurs as it was such a short time, but now we just had to hope the best.

Results from the challenge

I was so excited to hear the results on the next day, everyone was in a good mood which even raised my excitement. We decided to give them 20min to create the presentations about their findings by using 5E (most people know it as 4E: Entertainment, Education, Escapism and Esthetics, but we also have our own eSpirit of Team Academy in there). First they seemed a bit lost, looked like they didn’t know where to start with it, but by the end of planning the room was on “fire” and I couldn’t even hear my own thoughts. They were ready, so it was time for the presentations.

The presentations were all so different, one team was pretend to be a football team, one was travelling on space, one was a group of people who inspired them most and the last one was a group of pop starts, so the presentation were definitely very entertaining. But the most exciting thing was that all the teams had been able to get in touch with the teampreneurs, which was just amazing. They had been asking them about their projects, about what motivates them and what kind of goals they had, but also about potential future collaboration. They had learned that the others are facing exactly same challenges as them and what really warmed my heart was when they told that now they really feel like they are part of the big family, part of the Team Academy family. Also my favourite quote from the presentations was “If all TA’s could work together, we could do a real revolution”. That was so powerful and that is so true!

I was so pleased to hear all the results and to see the energy they got out of that exercise in such a short time and most importantly I hope this really helped to open the doors to keep the communication going on from both side of the network. As even we are physically far away from each other, that doesn’t mean anything anymore in this world as we can so easily keep in touch. This challenge also proved that correct.

Check-out

In the end we were checking out and one teampreneur suggested that in our check-out round we should tell a one thing what others can’t do, but what in TA you can. It was so empowering to hear all the things they confidently said aloud, I also checked out: “Others follow the paths which already exist, but teampreneurs know how to create their own paths.”

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Tiimiakatemia, United Kingdom

Can travelling help you to become a better entrepreneur?

Nina Jussila

I was 15 when I did my first proper trip abroad, we went to Ireland for one week, but even though I didn’t speak any english at that time I was already hooked. Since that I have travelled to 25 different countries, learned to speak english while living in States, worked in 5 different countries and that way learned a lot about communicating with people from different backgrounds and even with people who I don’t share a common language.

So what else can you learn from travelling?

When travelling everything doesn’t always go like planned, flights might be delayed, bags get lost and suddenly you have to adapt the new situation and find ways to continue your journey. It will really develop your ability to adapt, which is also a key skill when working as an entrepreneur. To try to prevent these situations you will learn a lot about time management, as you don’t wanna miss your flight or in short time you are able to plan how to see all the best sites from the city.

It will also raise your cultural awareness, nowadays world is so international anyways, so even small start-ups are expected to interact with foreign cultures. When travelling you will learn about other cultures and differences we have with each other and that is really powerful competence to have when you are an entrepreneur. You will also meet a lot new people and build relationships with people around the world, which can be handy when starting a business, but it also helps you to strengthen your networking skills as you probably have been in situations where you had to interact with people you otherwise wouldn’t.

That is why travelling is one of Tiimiakatemia // Team Academies core values. Sometimes you just have to go far to see near and by travelling we will also learn more and faster. (see the whole global network map from here)

I am also so proud of our Team Academy Newcastle as this is the first year when all our team companies has or will do learning journeys to Amsterdam, Hungary (Budapest & Debrecen), Barcelona and Finland (Tampere & Jyväskylä). So excited to see what kind of learnings we will get from these trips!

So what do you think, can travelling help you to become a better entrepreneur?

travel-is-the-only-thing

Tiimiakatemia, United Kingdom

Importance of having a clear vision!

Nina Jussila

In Team Academy Newcastle the November is now Movember, so the month of Personal Growth. We have encouraged everyone to update their learning contracts (read my earlier blog text about How to set effective goals) and really think what are their goals and visions for the future. To follow this theme I have also took some time to think about my goals and how they have affected my life.

moveempber

I really enjoy working as an entrepreneur, you never know what will happen in the future. But in other hand the vision and goals about your future might be a lot more clearer when you are an entrepreneur rather than if you would be working for someone else.

New challenges

I started working full time around three months ago and it did kind of “scare” me a little bit first, I would have strict working hours, a certain amount of holidays, I would live at least two years in Newcastle, UK. I know that most of the people would be super happy about those things and that’s what they are aiming for to have a balance in their life and certainty about the future. And to be honest I really love it too, learning about new country, organization, meeting new people and being able to work on something I am really passionate about. Even though I think in some point I might continue as a entrepreneur but who knows.

Powerful vision

I am quite clear about my vision and I want to become a master in team learning and team coaching. Also want to make it possible for everyone around the world to learn by doing, spiced up with team work and by running a real company. To be able to reach that goal I need a lot more experience and knowledge about Team Coaching and about how to establish Team Academies in new countries and Universities. That way I can also raise my credibility on eyes of higher education.

So where I am at the moment with my goal? I would say I am definitely on the right path as I am so happy with my role at Northumbria University at the moment as I am able to train my coaching skills and also learn what does it mean to put Team Academy methods into practise in new envoirement.

Next Steps

Few years ago I trained to become Team Coach in this Team Mastery training program, but to get the Tiimiakatemia® Team Coach certification I also need at least 1,5 years team coaching experience. So now I have got it I am able to apply for the certificate, so let’s cross the fingers I will get it as that would be great proof about my knowledge and experience as a  Team Coach.

Second big step for me is the Leadership and Management MSc course which I started few weeks ago, I am so excited to learn more about myself and develop my leadership skills. This journey will take around two and half years, but I could not be more excited about it. Our first module is about leader identity and leadership so really discovering who we are and how does that effect on me as a leader.

So at the moment there is a lot happening, but when you love what you do and you have a clear vision in your mind nothing can slow you down! But we also have remeber to enjoy the journey and not only reach into the destination!

 

United Kingdom

What you need to know when moving to UK?

Nina Jussila

Yay, so I did get the job from Northumbria University, so now you can call me Entrepreneurial Learning Support Officer, how cool is that! It took many long months to get to this point but it did payed off in the end so sometimes you just have to be patient and trust the process!

So I got the job now, but because I am not from UK and I haven’t earlier worked in UK officially I have to get myself into the registers like example I have to get National Insurance (NI) number to be able to work in here, also it’s important to open an British Bank Account so I am able to get paid and get myself signed into the local National Health Service (NHS).

So I applied for the National Insurance number and I got it already few months ago (wanted to be prepared if I would get the job), now it was time to sign the contract with the University. But I could not sign it before I would have my banking details which they needed to get me into the payroll system, so next I went to the Bank to open an account. Banks need and official proof about your address, apparently my house rental agreement wasn’t enough for that, but when I would get my Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Tax Coding letter I could open the Bank Account with that. Ok, so next I called to HM Revenue and Customs and asked about my PAYE Tax Coding letter. They told me that for some reason my National Insurance number has not registered for them yet, so they couldn’t do anything before that. After calling them again later they suggested that I would call to the people behind my National Insurance number. Well I did call them and they told that I just need to confirm my NI with this CA5403 form which I can print out from their website, to fill it in and send to them by post and after that they can give my NI number to others, and I just really wonder how come they had not mentioned that anywhere before.

So at the moment I am just waiting again to hear when they have received my filled CA5403 form and if PAYE will get confirmation about my information and if they will send me that Tax Coding letter so I can open the Bank Account and finally sign my contract with the University. How great it is to move into a new country? 😀

I also registered myself into National Health Service (NHS) which was almost too easy, as I just filled few papers, confirmed my address with the house rental agreement (same one which wasn’t enough for the bank) and that’s it. So they promised to contact me in one week after they have got me into the system and after that I can book appointments when ever I want, great, 10 points for NHS!

But in other hand even though it’s not always that simple or if everything does not make sense this is still quite fascinating too, I am learning so much about the British systems as it’s definitely a bit different than Finnish one, so if you are Finnish and moving to UK I am more than happy to help with any questions! 😀

Finland to UK

 

 

United Kingdom

What happens when the chapter ends?

Nina Jussila

I have to admit that I enjoy making plans, dream about the world and it’s possibilities and also to think what I wanna do next, but in other hand I normally don’t even know what will happen in a next few months. So when people ask me where will I be in 5 years time they don’t get that great or clear answers.

I have spend my last 9 months in Newcastle Upon Tyne in UK and my current contract will finish in 9 days. And at the moment I just know that I will go to Finland for two weeks and then I have my flight back to Newcastle. The exciting part is that I don’t have any idea what will happen after that. Somehow I do enjoy the uncertainty, but sometimes you would like to know just a little bit more. But I also believe that what ever happens is meant to happen, so I just have to keep going forward what ever will happen next.

So why I am in this situation then?

I have really enjoyed working with Newcastle Business School and that has been definitely something where I have been able to use my passion and knowledge about Team Entrepreneurship and Team Coaching. I have also been able to learn so much at the same time and I know it could be very rewarding in many levels to work here a bit longer. The great thing is that they have also really liked my work in here and they would like me to stay longer, they have been even trying to create this new role to the University just for me as that would be the best way to continue this work relationship. And I can’t event say how amazing and grateful that makes me to feel, I am just speechless.

But you might have noticed that we are talking about University now, which is not the most flexible creature on this planet and things are not moving as smoothly as we were planning and they have not been able to approve this role yet. So that why I am in this situation now as I really would like to stay a bit longer but all I can do now is to wait and wish the best. But also where I have to start the creative thinking about what will I do next if I don’t have any position in here for the next year? Suggestions? 😀

kirja

United Kingdom

Reaching my goals and doing good at the same time

Nina Jussila

Many of my friends has been running half marathons, but I have never been that brave to give it a try. However few months ago I made a promise to my friend “if I get to stay in Newcastle a bit longer I will run the Great North Run“, which is firmly established as the world’s greatest half marathon and it will be runned here in Newcastle, UK. Now it’s starting look like I am very lucky girl and I might be able to stay for a bit longer. Which made me really excited but also a bit nervous, I should start seriously training for this, I do love challenging myself and trying new things, so to be honest this gives nice extra flavor to my everyday life. First challenge was to get the tickets to this event to be able to run as I knew there was no more normal tickets left, I was left with option to run it for charity, which actually just made it a lot more exciting and gives a real purpose for me to run this half marathon!

I started to look for different charity’s and I have to admit that there were many good options, but only this one really got my attention. Make-A-Wish charity helps ill children wishes come true and as I am an entrepreneur and my goals are to help young people to find their dreams and help them to make them come true I saw I could proudly stand behind their ideology and values! And everything what Make-A-Wish does inspires me so much and I can definitely see how big impact their work has for ill children.

So I am in a great position, I get to work hard to reach my goals and to do something good at the same time. If you are interested to support me on this challenge and to bring little magic to these kids lifes feel free to check out my JustGiving page and make a donation! Nina’s Great North Run 2014 Page

JustGiving - Sponsor me now!

 

Make-A-Wish Foundation UK

“Make-A-Wish Foundation® UK has been granting magical wishes to children and young people fighting life-threatening conditions since 1986. Our wishes are truly magical and can bring so much to a child’s life, providing memories that last a lifetime for both the child and their family”

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My cool new training shirt from Make-A-Wish!

 

Uncategorized

How do we really learn?

Nina Jussila

For ages people have been going to schools where teachers teach and “people learn”. World has changed a lot but the schools have not, how is that possible? Teachers use to have all the knowledge which they kindly shared to students who didn’t know that much, but nowadays we can just google and learn the same things from internet, so they are not really needed anymore or at least not for the same purpose. And even more interesting is that there is a lot of recearch about how do we actually learn and really little comes from listening the lectures.

learningpyramid

Learning Pyramid

I really love this video from Charles Jennings & Fuse about model called 70:20:10. It tells how 70% of the learning comes from experience and practise, 20% of the learning comes from networks and conversations we have with other people and only 10% of learning comes from learning formally. And from that 10% we forget 50% in one hour unless we put it into practice. Quite fascinating model I think.

But in real life there is the pressure from the education system “we have to make sure people learn”, so how can we manage that? And the answer is you can’t. It is important to realize that we can’t manage this process, we can facilitate it, support and help to make it happen, but everyone individually has to manage their own learning.

If we want to create learning organisations we have to stop pushing content at people and let the people have right recources to be able to pull the information when they really need it. That way the learning will be more effective, faster and efficient.

What if we would have schools where people could take responsibility of their own learning, coaches supporting them on their path and guiding them to set goals and make plans how to achieve them. Networks around them to help realize they don’t have to know everything, but they will learn how to find the right people and teams to work with. I really believe we can give everyone opportunity to learn this way, it might take some time, but that’s my goal and I will work hard to make that happen.

 

 

 

United Kingdom

How to set effective goals

Nina Jussila

And even more important, how to achieve them?

I have been working recently with the Entrepreneurial Business Management degree and we are experimenting a lot new methods around team learning and learning by doing on that course. We are all the time looking for the best ways to adapt the Tiimiakatemia culture over here and testing different ways of doing things to make it feel right to us, so also a lot of reflecting what works and what doesn´t.

It´s like big puzzle, you have to find all the right pieces and put them on the right places. And sometimes you realize that there are some pieces missing! Like on that course we have concentrated a lot to get the teams working effectively, but we haven´t give enough attention to the individuals on a team, which after all are the drivers of that vehicle. So we have to find out what does the individuals want to learn and achieve and that way we can find out what really drives the team forward. We have been talking about tool called “Learning Contract” which is based on Ian Cunningham’s theory and it helps people to create goals and to make plans how they will achieve them, but we haven´t still really used it at all.

For me the Learning Contract is really familiar from the time I studied in Tiimiakatemia, but after talking with other Team Coaches from the program we noticed they didn´t really understood how does it work and what´s the magic of that tool. And if you don´t understand how does it work how can you make anyone else to use it effectively either. Here you can see the five simple questions of the Learning Contract which you have to answer to:

  1. Where have I been?
  2. Where am I now?
  3. Where am I going?
  4. How do I get where I want to go?
  5. How do I know I have reached my goals?

If you do it first time it might take some time and many people say that the last two questions are the hardest ones, but it´s worth it believe me, so don´t give up even if it feels hard. So there is many ways to do it, you can just think about next six months or you can make longer time plans with next three years and you can use it for your business or maybe on your hobbies, it´s totally up to you. And when you have done it you are already half way there because you know exactly what to do next. You will be surprised how things are just starting to move forward and how fast you are starting to reach your goals!

I have also now two weeks time to update mine and all the other Team Coaches will also do theirs first Learning Contracts so looking forward to see how they face the challenge and what kind of results we will get out of this. Are you enough brave to give it a try?

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United Kingdom

One way to take your business international

Nina Jussila

Around seven months ago I was still dreaming about working in United Kingdom, but I knew what I wanted and with help of Akatemia CIC and Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs program that dream came true. Now that my five months in the program is over, I would like to go through what really happened on that process and why I would recommend this journey to everyone who is interested to get the first step to go international, but just don´t know how.

How everything started

First time I heard about this program was few years ago and I already got excited of it, but on that time I was still studying at University. So right after I graduated I started to search more about this opportunity. I had thought about starting my own company in future and working abroad would be just amazing.

I started my research by going to their website: http://www.erasmus-entrepreneurs.eu/

I looked for my local contact point from Finland and gave them a call. I was positively surprised about the call, they were super helpful and I got the feeling that they really wanted to make it happen with me. So I had option to just look for random host entrepreneurs in Europe from their system or if I had some company in my mind to do it with.

I knew I would like to improve my skills as a Team Coach and to help education to change their methods to be more entrepreneurial and I knew this company from UK who are working exactly on these areas in there. Soon after that I had chat with Alison Fletcher from Akatemia CIC, she liked the idea and we started our process to apply for the program. So for me it worked well to ask straight from the company, even I am sure it would have been interesting to see what kind of other options there would have been for me.

So who can participate to this program then? “New entrepreneurs, firmly planning to set up their own business or have already started one within the last three years; Or as a Host Entrepreneur: Experienced entrepreneurs who own or manage a Small or Medium-Sized Enterprise in one of the Participating Countries.”

How was the time in UK

I can just say I am super happy I did it! I have been able to train my Team Coaching skills with Northumbria University students from their Entrepreneurial Business Management course, I have made so many new connections in UK which I would have never been able to make without being in here. I have been also able to improve my English as a business language which was one of my big goals, I was also leading international event on Global Entrepreneurship week with four other countries from Tiimiakatemia network. I have learned so much about the University system in here and also little bit about what does it mean to start something totally new and creative in the University world, it’s not that easy believe me. And I think the most important thing has been that I have clarified what I really want to do in future and the next steps for it, but also it has made me a lot hungrier to reach the next levels sooner in future!

I would just recommend this to all the people who are thinking of starting own company or has already started one and want to go international with it, of course this is just one way, but it worked for me so it might also work for you! Or maybe you can have some start-up entrepreneur from Europe working in your company?

erasmus_entrepreneurs-297x300

United Kingdom

New Year New Goals!

Nina Jussila

It´s always exciting to start the New Year, you go through what has happened last year, start to think your goals for coming year and how you are going to get the most out of it.

For me the year 2013 was maybe the best year in my life, I had just graduated from the Bachelor of Business Administration degree, I travelled three months around the world and continued travelling a bit more randomly for few more months. I got into Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs program and got the opportunity to work in UK with Akatemia CIC, which has been amazing in many ways, I have made a lot new connections and learn so much about Team Coaching, University systems and about my selve. And before Christmas I heard that Northumbria University wants to make a contract with me for the semester 2, so I could stay in Newcastle until end of June. I just feel really lucky and happy that I have had so great year behind.

But now it´s time to look forward and to think how will I make this year even better then the one before. I know that the spring will be amazing at Northumbria Uni, when I can really put my knowledge from the team learning and team coaching into action and to develop my skills on those everyday and also to learn about how to create new cultures and how to get the most of the others into it, because I believe those are something you can only learn by practicing them a lot.

This spring will also crystallize a lot my learning’s from the time I studied at Tiimiakatemia, because I really have to reflect what happened in our journey there and what are the things which helps us to plan how will the Tiimiakatemia degrees second and third year will look like in here and plan what should we change for the new generation who will start in September 2014.

Also health is one big thing people always think when the year changes, everyone things “now I will start to do sports”. And I am not exception, I bought a bike today so I will use only that for moving to work and back and on Monday my membership to Sport Centre will start, even that doesn´t mean anything yet. But I will show I can practice at least four times a week, because I believe this will also give me a lot energy to achieve my other goals and as an extra to get me to the beach condition for summer. 😉 So wish me luck to my goal for healthier lifestyle!

Now some of you might think, so what will happen after June then? But the truth is that even I don´t know yet and actually that makes it exciting and also motivating to do my job as well as possible! So hopefully I will have many options to choose from when the time is right.

Have you thought about your goals for the year? I can promise that the chance to reach them is a lot bigger when you really think them through and create steps “how will I reach these goals” and the most important thing, remember to enjoy of doing that!