The first factor is that there are plenty of very good managers and leaders in Steria.

In fact, the prospect of working with Remi Hansen, department manager of the then newly formed Project Management Department, was what made me consider joining Steria in the first place. Remi certainly didn’t let me down. Throughout these years, Remi has consistently displayed integrity and courage mixed with a thorough understanding of the field of Project Management. He’s always treating people with respect, even at moments when someone is basically a pain in the butt – which I know I’ve been sometimes. Remi is now heading Knowledge Management for the Scandinavian group in Steria, and I’m certain he’ll rock there, too.

Inga K. Nordberg is taking leadership in the Project Management Department after Remi. She certainly has a different personal style from Remi, but her leadership is rock solid, instilling confidence and trust, and she’s doing a great job.

Remi and Inga have been my closest managers in Steria. When these are the ones I mention, it doesn’t mean I think less of the other leaders and managers in Steria. In fact, every single one of them that I have interacted with at one time or another, come across as very nice people and really good managers and leaders.

The second factor that has contributed to my enjoying the Steria time, is the Steria culture. In the Steria culture, you’re actually allowed to voice unpopular opinions, and to make mistakes. The basic premise, so ingrained in the walls here, is that we are competent people with good intent and integrity doing our best to satisfy the customer and do what’s right! In Steria, your opinions are evaluated based on the soundness of what you’re saying, not where you are in the “hierarchy” or who you know.

Steria is also contributing to the society. Though I’ve not been involved in it, I think Steria should be especially proud of the computer courses for immigrant women held in Steria’s offices by Steria employees in their spare time. These courses help the women getting familiar with computers and the internet, breaking down many barriers to meaningful participation in the Norwegian society.

Last, but not least – the great colleagues I’ve had here. It would be unfair to mention anyone above others, so I won’t. I’ve learnt so much from my colleagues, and many of them continue to impress me to this day. In general, my colleagues have a good time doing their job, and are always willing to help each other out and learn from each other.

So, no grudges, no frustrations? Grudges, no – frustrations, yes. But considering I’ve been here for more than three years, the frustrations are surprisingly few and small.

So, thank you, Steria! It’s been a great time!

Tomorrow I’m joining Statkraft, Europe’s largest renewable energy company – as an IT project manager. There are several reasons I’m starting there. One is that I’m going to be working with Christian Hauknes, a person I really respect. We get along quite well on all professional matters, and I’m excited to discover what we can accomplish together! Another is that Statkraft is in an extremely important business. I mean, kind of linked-into-the-whole-future-of-this-planet-important. Energy, and especially renewable energy, isn’t going to go out of fashion anytime soon. A third is that I have lots of ideas on what the customer side of projects should be doing, and as a consultant, I’ve only had very limited influence on this most important part of projects. Hopefully, now I’ll be able to put more of those ideas into practice.

All in all, though, I know very little of what the future in Statkraft will bring. It must be really good to top Steria, but evidently, I’m optimistic in that regard!

So, leaving Steria, joining Statkraft. Life’s exciting.

So the thing that clicked is this:

The most important things for a good presentation is that the presenter is seen as honest and passionate about his subject. The best way to accomplish this, is to actually be honest and talk about something that I’m passionate about (imagine that!). This is nothing new, I think.

Previously, though, in my attempts at creating good presentations, I’ve focused on building a logical, un-attackable line of argumentation that naturally and un-attackably leads to my conclusion.

But there’s nothing personal in logic! No personal honesty, no passion or any other emotion in it! I’m not even sure I can tack honesty and engagement on top of a logical presentation. Even though I’ve mostly been passionate about the subject I’m presenting, my presentations have been so rational that the passion simply wasn’t let out to play.

Furthermore, Thinking about this, I realized this follows from the process I use to create my presentations. Figure out the main point. Brainstorm elements I want. Create logical groups out of those elements. Find a good structure for the presentation. Work explicitly on the opening and closing sentences. All logical and good.

Using a logical process is a good way to create a logical presentation. It does not work well – for me, at least – when I want  to create a passionate presentation.

So today I took a totally different approach. I simply started writing my thoughts, trying not to censor as I wrote. Getting my words on paper, never mind incoherency or poor choice of words, and then I can start verbalizing, adjusting, making something coherent from it. Starting from a badly written, but honest and passionate text, rather than using the logical process I’ve used previously.

Incidentally, this can be seen as parallells to different ways to approach projects. The logical process I’ve used is in many ways similar to a waterfall approach, whereas the creative, iterative approach is much more similar to an agile approach.

But wait, there’s more! I started by focusing on the qualities – honesty, passion – instead of focusing on the “requirements”; the points I wanted to make. Then I chose a process that supports those qualities. This corresponds just nicely with the theme of the presentation I’m creating.

I’m excited as to what this will result in. XP 2010 is my first presentation for an international audience. It must be good.

Now and then I might share other thoughts as well. I’ll blog mostly in English, maybe sometimes in Norwegian.

My agile story: I worked in Funcom as a producer (combined project manager and game designer) when I got interested in project management as a profession and started reading books. I had just finished a book about the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) in 1999, and my occasionally inflexible brain thought “Well, this kind of makes sense, in a way. But do we get to do any actual work?”

Then I read the white book – Extreme Programming Explained (1st edition) – and my brain loosened up and I thought “Yes, this will work! It makes sense and we get to do actual work!”

It still took me a couple of years and a change of employers before I finally got to try agile on a project. In the meantime I got to be quite a theoretical expert – I knew everything. That first project, though, made me realize that while agile is simple as a concept, it’s hard to make it actually work.

Now, several agile projects later, I hope to engage and help others succeed with agile. In the meantime, I’ve encountered several challenges with agile that aren’t addressed that much in the literature, and that I’ll also try to address. More about that in later blogs, though.

Today I work as a senior project manager at Steria in Oslo, Norway. Steria is very supportive of my agile interests, and several other of Norway’s agile enthusiasts work here, too – amongst them Johannes Brodwall, who has a very good and thought-provoking blog.

Again, welcome – hope you’ll pop by from time to time!