When you’re fresh out of school, I think it’s important to find a workplace where you can not only learn, but also truly feel that you are welcomed. That was the first thing that struck me when I met people from MPYA — everybody was so kind, welcoming and genuinely curious about me.

When I first got in touch with MPYA, everyone I spoke with talked about the culture and how important it is to create a welcoming and friendly atmosphere, with very little hierarchy. I thought to myself that “this is too good to be true”. …

When I was about nineteen, I spent a year in London where I worked and did some thinking about my next step in life. You know, thinking about what to study and what to become. (All while visiting some nice places in London, of course.) One thing I came across was a company that worked with headhunting; matching people with roles and companies, and I remembered I was quite fascinated being in that process. I thought, in the back of my mind, that this could be something for me. I like to listen to people, hear what they say and try to understand their driving force and their personality. …

Do you spend any time thinking about the words you use? How they may change the perceived meaning of what you’re trying to say? Do you take ownership or redirect blame?

Let’s explore an example

You are a backend developer. You have just completed a new endpoint, your colleague is going to implement the frontend work for this now. He points out that the requirements are not quite met yet. So you commit to fix the issues the next day. During the standup the following day you are describing you tasks for the day and you say: “My colleague wanted some changes in the new endpoint, which I’m getting to later”. A seemingly innocent way of describing your workload for the day. But could it have been said in another way? …

While honesty and integrity are qualities we all hold dear, pragmatism must also come into play when you are running a business.

In the article I wrote last week, I tried to describe what authenticity means to me. I think one sentence from that piece sums it up nicely:

Authenticity is about being in control of your actions and listening to your emotions.

For me, there has to be an element of responsibility when it comes to authenticity. It is not just about having lisence to be the ‘real you’ wherever you go. …

Jag ska vara rakt på sak: många chefer jag mött är superdåliga på att vara ledare. Varför är det så? Min enkla tes är att många chefer helt enkelt att inte har förmågan att agera ledare. Det är ett svårt uppdrag som bitvis kräver en hel del tid.

På mina första arbetsplatser gick det åt mycket energi till att hitta ledarskapet. När jag behövde stöd var de upptagna, när jag behövde vägledning var de inte insatta i min uppgift och när jag behövde hjälp hade de inte riktigt tid. …

Here I have summarised my experience of changing employer in a difficult time. How in many ways I was lucky to end up in an organisation with competent and caring colleagues who made me feel part of the company from day one — even though I did not have an assignment yet.

Earlier this year, I was looking for a new challenge. I had been working as an IT consultant for a while, but I figured I had learned all I could at my most recent long-term assignment and felt like it was time for something new.

I made contact with a few companies, but none of them felt quite right. I was not on LinkedIn at the time so it was difficult to know where to look next. Then, by chance, I bumped into an old friend on a Friday night out. I knew he worked for this company Mpya Digital, which I had heard only good things about from other friends. On a whim, I asked him to make an introduction. On the following Monday morning he texted me at 8.30 having already set up a meeting. The next day I had my first interview, and within the week we had agreed a contract. …

Everyone who knows me — and especially those who work with me — will tell you that self-management is an obsession of mine. As Mpya Digital continues to grow, we have been looking at how to create a sustainable model of scaling self management based on teamwork and trust.

A lot of companies talk about self-management. It’s one of the trendy things for young businesses to say, especially here in Stockholm.

Without wanting to disparage these organisations, often it’s about making themselves look good by paying lip service to the latest buzz. …

Do you experience that the same people talk during meetings and workshops? Do you observe many colleagues just sitting there in the room, not presenting their thoughts?

The same problem is present in school; the same students tend to answer the questions asked in the classroom. During my first year as an IT consultant at MPYA Digital, I have been experiencing the phenomenon both at our client’s and at our own meetings.

During my studies in didactics, we talked about something called Think-Pair-Share. The strategy has its roots in cooperative learning and was created by Frank Lyman (1981). The methodology has support from research conducted by Rowe (1986) regarding the effects of giving students time to think about a question before answering it, instead of hurrying to the next question. By giving every student more time to think, the probability that they do so will increase. …