Hyvejohtajuus Published

Alexandre Havard's Virtuous Leadership (New York: Scepter Publishers 2007) was finally published in Finnish as Hyvejohtajuus (Providentia 2009).

The book publishing event took place at the legendary and elegant Cafe Aalto, downtown Helsinki. Approximately 100 people followed the panel discussion. Among the panelists were Alexandre Havard himself, who flew in from Moscow, the Finnish MEPs Timo Soini and Sari Essayah (from Brussels), and Providentia's economist Oskari Juurikkala. Jan Ahonen, as the interviewer and host, did an excellent job.

The topic of the discussion -- virtues, leadership, and their interplay in the modern society -- is very serious. Yet the panelists were able to discuss it in a very encouraging and positive way: not unfrequently were there roars of laughter. The host read exerts (is that the word I'm looking for?) from the book and asked a follow-up question, often a very pointed one, say, about the differences of men and women in leadership.

The panelists (from left to right): Oskari Juurikkala, Jan Ahonen, Timo Soini, Alexandre Havard, and Sari Essayah.

The contents pages and the introduction can be read online here. It can be ordered here. For those who pre-order the book, the price is 29,00 € (norm. 39,00 €), this includes delivery in Finland. I saw some people who ordered five copies. I wonder what they'll do with them?

Hyvejohtajuuskirja.fi

Sorry I'm boring, the Virtuous Leadership posts keep on coming. I promise to write something non-leadershipy after the book publication event is over.

Anyway, here's an excellent link with all the relevant information. You can also use the link to advertize the event that takes place at the legendary Cafe Aalto downtown Helsinki.


Exciting news: The book will also be published as a free ebook chapter by chapter during the following 12 months. So students etc. with a low budjet: keep track of the updates. Even an audio book has been planned (podcast).

Hyvejohtajuus: Alexandre Havard (Providentia/Otava 2009)

The book I translated is finally being published. The publishing event is on September 7th (Monday) at 2.00pm downtown Helsinki at Cafe Aalto, the cafeteria designed by Alvar Aalto.

For those of you who understand Finnish, below is the relevant information that I copy-pasted from the invite.

Among the panelists are Mr. Alexandre Havard himself (flying in from Moscow), the Finnish MEPs Mr. Timo Soini and Mrs. Sari Essayah (flying in from Brussels) and representing Providentia is the economist Mr. Oskari Juurikkala.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

KIRJANJULKISTAMISTILAISUUS

Alexandre Havardin Virtuous Leadership (New York: Scepter Publishers 2007) julkaistaan 9. käännöksenä suomeksi Hyvejohtajuus viikolla 37. Sitä ennen pidetään kirjan tiimoilta paneelikeskustelu.

Julkaisia: Providentia
Painotalo: Otava
Design ja taitto: Nordenswan & Siirilä
Suomentaja: Jason Lepojärvi
Myyntiin: viikolla 37

Tervetuloa aistillisen eleganttiin, Alvar Aallon sisustamaan Cafe Aaltoon kirjanjulkistamistilaisuuteen maanantaina 7. syyskuuta klo 14--15.30.

PANEELIKESKUSTELU

Mukana: johtajuuskirjoittaja Alexandre Havard, europarlamentaarikot Timo Soini (PS) ja Sari Essayah (KD) sekä taloustieteilijä Oskari Juurikkala (Providentia). Tilaisuuden juontaa toimittaja Jan Ahonen.

Teemana on johtajuus, hyveet ja niiden yhteispeli nykymaailmassa -- ts. "hyvejohtajuus". Aihe on äärimmäisen ajankohtainen myös Suomessa (vaalirahasotku, talouspetokset).

Yleisöllä ja lehdistöllä mahdollisuus esittää kysymyksiä. Tilaisuuden kieli on suomi.

ALEXANDRE HAVARD

Alexandre Havard (s. 1962, Pariisi) on johtajuuskouluttaja ja Havard Virtuous Leadership Instituten (HVLI) perustaja. Hänen kehittämänsä hyveisiin perustuva hyvejohtajuusmalli soveltaa klassista näkemystä ihmispersoonasta nykyajan organisaatioiden tarpeisiin.

Havard itse luennoi englanniksi, ranskaksi, espanjaksi, venäjäksi -- ja Suomessa asuneena jopa suomeksi.

KIRJASTA POIMITTUA

"Talousskandaaleja seuraa poikkeuksetta vaatimuksia valtiollisen sääntelyn vahvistamisesta, kaupan hallinnon reformista ja eettisten sääntöjen uudistamisesta. Näillä kaikilla on hyötynsä, mutta ne unohtavat jotain olennaista. Talouspetosten kyhäilijät ja muut lainrikkojat tietävät varsin hyvin, että se, mitä he tekevät, on väärin. Kyse on luonteenviasta." (JOHDANTO s. ix.)

TAKAKANNESTA

"Johtajuus on ensisijaisesti luonteen asia -- ei sen, mitä ihminen tietää tai osaa, vaan mitä hän on. Ihmisen luonnetta voidaan vahvistaa, sillä se on vapaan tahdon aluetta, toisin kuin temperamentti, joka on pitkälti jotakin synnynnäistä. Luonteen ytimessä ovat hyveet, toisin sanoen hyvät luonteenpiirteet, jotka näkyvät teoissa.

Hyvejohtajuus tarjoaa hyveissä kasvamisen metodologian jokaiselle. Johtajuus ei ole varattu vain jollekin eliitille, vaan se on monien kutsumus. Kirja sisältää esimerkkejä hyveiden ja johtajuuden yhteispelistä yhteiskunnan joka alalta: liike-elämästä, politiikasta, journalismista, koulutusalalta, uskonnosta, lääketieteestä ja myös vanhemmuudesta. Suomessakin asunut Havard mainitsee mm. saunan, Mannerheimin ja Helsingin Sinebrychoffin puiston."


KIRJASTA SANOTTUA

"Pidin kirjaa äärimmäisen kiehtovana, sillä se meni suoraan asian ytimeen: meidän tulee perustaa päätöksemme todellisuudelle, ja se taas vaatii todellisen käsityksen ihmispersoonasta."
--Francois Michelin, CEO emeritus, Group Michelin

LINKIT

Johtamisblogi hyvejohtajuus.fi.
Hyvejohtajuus Facebookissa.

Office Space

Great news. I got some office space from the Department of Theology that is in the heart of downtown Helsinki, on Aleksanterinkatu 7. The Faculty of Systematic Theology, my faculty, is on the 6th floor. I'm very happy about this, for it gives me an opportunity to study in a very productive and supportive atmosphere. In addition to fulltime research I will be teaching philosophy and ethics for a small group of first-year students. This will keep me pedagogically active, so I don't totally neglect my teaching vocation.

Virtuous Leadership Blog

Our Virtuous Leadership Blog www.hyvejohtajuus.fi (in Finnish) got a new layout. Go check it out! We publish virtue and leadership related articles weekly; links to thought-provoking leadership articles weekly; a Guestbook Article monthly; and news from time to time.

The next big thing will be the Finnish translation of Virtuous Leadership called Hyvejohtajuus (Providentia Leadership and Otava kirjapaino 2009), which will come out later this summer. Will keep you posted.

Virtuous Leadership -- Hyvejohtajuus

Inspired by Alexandre Havard's magisterial book Virtuous Leadership (Scepter 2007) and our leadership center, European Center for Leadership Development, a few friends and I created a blog in 2008, www.hyvejohtajuus.fi ("virtuous leadership" in Finnish).

We publish Weekly Articles on virtue, leadership, and everything in between. In addition to these weekly articles by our regular writers, a Guestbook Article is published monthly by a visiting guest. Thus far we've had doctors, businessmen, writers, teachers etc. submit though-provoking articles. Ever since we launched this project a little over a year ago our readership has grown exponentially. Those of you who read Finnish, I can heartly recommend the site.

Our regular contributors are:

Oskari Juurikkala: An economist and a lawyer, Oskari is doing his PhD at the moment. His interests include theology and philosophy. He's also a talented musician.

Santiago Martinez: An MBA and political scientist, Santi is a Spaniard who has lived in Finland for nearly 20 years. He runs a developmental organization with close ties to Kenya.

Jussi Ruokomäki: A web consultant and specialist, he works for Smilehouse, one of the biggest (or the biggest) e-commerce companies in Finland. Jussi is married to Hanna and they have a 3-year-old son, Oskar, who is my godson.

Jason Lepojärvi: That would be me. I'm a teacher of philosophy and theology, but for the next few years I'll be concentrating on my dissertation on love.

In addition to us four, a fifth regular contributor has just joined us, Markku Lepojärvi: He is the principle of Albertinkoulu, the school for the hearing-impaired in Helsinki, a foster-father of three, a biological father of another three (myself included), and a young grandfather of four.

Here are the relevant links:

Hyvejohtajuus.fi
European Center for Leadership Development
Virtuous Leadership (the book, soon to be published in Finnish)
List of articles (2008-2009)

Closed Because It's Not Open

A few days ago I posted a note "Overheard in Africa". Of course it should've been titled "Overread in Africa", because it included two incredible notes I have seen here in Tanzania.

Anyway, in the aftermath of that post I dared my (ex-)collegue Pia from Länsi-Auto Areena -- since 2009 renamed as Barona Areena -- to tape a note with

"The Arena is closed at the moment because it is not open"

on the entrance door.


Lo and behold, I just received an email supported by empirical evidence that proves I should be more careful about what I wish for -- or dare people to do.

ECLD goes Wikipedia

An update on our "Virtuous Leadership" project:

The Wikipedia articles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Havard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuous_Leadership

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Center_for_Leadership_Development

have been created.

Several translations (e.g. French, Finnish) are already complete, but we intend to wait before publishing them. We need to work further on the English files first.

Virtuous Leadership

Updates on two Virtuous Leadership related projects:

(1) Virtuous Leadership blog

The blog Hyvejohtajuus (Virtuous Leadership in Finnish) a couple of good friends and I launched a little over a half a year ago is doing great. We can see from the visit statistics that readership is steadily growing. At start it was mostly our friends and acquaintances. Now, more and more people are finding it, and, what is important and encouraging, they are returning to it every week (the articles are published weekly).

We have four regular contributors - an economist/lawyer, an engineer, a political scientist/business major, and a theologian - and a monthly Guestbook-article is written by specialists of various fields. The articles, both the regular articles and the Guestbook-articles, deal with leadership and ethics in various fields like economics, family, education, politics, religion, and - perhaps most importantly - the ordinary life.

The articles are in Finnish because we want to promote discussion in Finland and in Finnish (virtue ethics, though ancient wisdom, is not familiar to the Finnish society at least as far as terminology goes).

Here's a few published topics: "Marketing - Virtue or Vice?", "On Forgiveness", "Disturbing Fatherhood", "The Secret and Gift of Joy", "The Profile of the Healed", "How To Strengthen Virtues?" etc.

We have some extremely interesting Guestbook-articles coming up. I personally can't wait.

(2) Virtuous Leadership translation project

Alexandre Havard's Virtuous Leadership is being translated into a dozen or so languages, Finnish included. I've been lucky to be a part of the Finnish translation team.

The translation has been ready for some time, but we want to make it perfect so we've been proof-reading it over and over again.

Let's see how things take off. I'm very optimistic. Virtuous Leadership is a jewel, but we want to pass the blessing around so that everyone can benefit from it.

Virtuous Leadership

I'm involded with two projects this summer that deal with the new kind of leadership culture called "virtuous leadership". Firstly, I'm translating Alexandre Havard's brilliant Virtuous Leadership into Finnish.

It is currently being translated into four or five different languages (following successful sales in the US), and we hope to find a major published next fall or winter. Alexandre Havard is the multilingual director of the European Center of Leadership Development (ECLD). He was born in France, lived in Helsinki for eighteen years, and now works out of Moscow. The man holds seminars in English, Finnish, French, Spanish, and Russian.

Secondly, to help stir virtue-related discussion in the Finnish society, a few friends and I have begun a new blog (in Finnish): www.hyvejohtajuus.fi. It's part of a bigger project of which more will be said in due time. Meanwhile, I encourage all the Finnish speakers to partake in the discussion. Questions, comments and all forms of critique are highly welcome! We are all novices here. There is a lot to learn for everyone.

Professors' feedback

As promised (or warned), here is the feedback I got from my professor(s). It is a strange combination of critical and positive comments. I'm very happy with the grade though, but honestly don't think it merited it. It had the potential but in truth did not fulfill it. (Thankfully, the professors disagreed.) Again, I will happily translate it into English upon request.

Now it is possible for me, if I so decide one day, to continue as a PhD student. But I won't take that route just to satisfy my personal interest in philosophy and theology or to bask in another 4-5 years of pampered semi-irresponsible student (or in this case doctorate) life. Motives must be pure, and the practical benefits of the process and the degree indisputable.

Summer Season Starts

Summer of 2005. My first tan, ever. It only took 42 days of 24/7 tanning (= living on a desert island), but eventually that red pigment gave way to brown skin. After 2005, it's been very easy for me to get some colour during summers and not remain all whitey. Today was the warmest spring day thus far (this year) in Helsinki. It was a good day in other ways too: Saila was confirmed into the Catholic Church and I spent half the day showing downtown Helsinki to my new friend, Joseph. I guess the summer season started.

I'm particularly looking forward to this summer, as it'll be my last in my current apartment - near the beach. One major project that I intend to complete this summer is the translation of Alexandre Havard's brilliant Virtous Leadership into Finnish. I really think I'll pull it off without leaving the beach (and beach café) all summer. I'm planning to enjoy this summer - without neglecting my obligations.

Lorimark Consulting

Some time ago, my dad founded a consulting firm, Lorimark Consulting. Its forum is special education. Some time ago I was trying to design a logo for it (no homepage yet). The brilliant idea was to have two hands, a man's hand and a young child's hand, on top of each other to form the outline of a dove. Ideally, the adult's hand would looked like it was slightly supporting the child's hand. I took many photos of my dad's and little-Teemu's joined hands, but none of them worked out just right.

In this photo (not of my dad and Teemu), however, even the curve of the breast and the tail feathers of the dove seem to be visible. Wouldn't you agree? Try closing your eyes just a bit. Anyways, actually drawing it proved to be too difficult. Perhaps I'll give it another go one day.