During my childhood, I had a really good friend, Morten. We met at 1st grade in school. We were both a part of class 1A. Morten and I did all kinds of things together. For example, we played football and badminton. We also played table tennis together in the basement of the house where Morten lived with his family. In addition, we had lots of fun cycling around on our bicycles. And using our remote controlled cars, we cruised around in rooms of the house in Elleparken in Lystrup, where Morten lived with his family, and at the apartment in Elstedhøj in Lystrup, where I lived with my mother.

One Summer, Morten and I had the idea of creating a pop-up food stand at a playground in the social housing community, where I lived, and sell æbleskiver. Normally, æbleskiver is a snack people enjoy at Christmas time when it is relatively cold outside. However, during this Summer, we tried selling them when it was warm outside. Morten and I talked with my mother about our idea. My mother liked the idea and said that she would help make the dough and cook the æbleskiver. One of us could then collect the æbleskiver now and then in the apartment located on the second floor, while the other person would sell the æbleskiver in the pop-up food stand at the playground.  Among the emotions, which I felt during this initiative, was joy. Morten, my mother and I had lots of fun doing it. Also, we were totally surprised of the need people had to eat æbleskiver during that Summer. Within a short period of time, lots of people came to the pop up food stand to buy the products we were selling. In fact, my mother, who cooked most of the æbleskiver during the event, could hardly keep up with the speed at which we were selling them on the street.

What I learned from the initiative is that if you find out what people want and create that, people will come. A learning for me was also that, apparently, time was less important. It was in the middle of Summer that we offered something that people normally enjoy during the Winter. However, it turned out to be a hit anyway.

Reflecting on the many great moments I had being a member at Skovbakken in Denmark in the 1980s, I recall, for example, a minitennis event I organized with kids. How did that come about? Well, 3 mini-tennis courts had been constructed just next to the Skovbakken Tennis club house. That inspired me to help out organize a mini-tennis tournament for young players.  The event itself was a lot of fun, and we laughed a lot as we played games against each other. Thinking about this experience, I learned that children like to do something that is fun. They also like to do do things together, be together and play together. And they like having friendly competitions.

Inspired by the many innovative things that were going on in Osnabrück, when I was there in 1994-1995 as a part of my Bachelor of Science studies, I took the initiative of creating a yearbook. It was a great experience during which I learned a lot about, for example, communication and organization. In that regard, this voluntary project helped me get experience about some of the areas I was studying. During the process, I recall that fellow students and teachers helped write texts, take photos, find sponsors among local businesses as well as distribute the yearbook. At the time, the Internet / social media was not yet being used by people, so we had the book printed by a local printing house - thereby enabling everyone to get their own copy.  When I look back upon the year I lived in Germany, I often think about the great moments related to working on this yearbook project. In particular, I am grateful for all that I learned from students, teachers, and people working for the companies that were involved in the project.

After graduating as Master of Science in 1999, I saw on the Internet that Coca-Cola was looking for people to participate in a Christmas campaign as merchandisers. I took the chance and signed up for the 1½ months merchandiser challenge. I found it interesting to help out in this project job, which was quite practical. For example, I was happy to get the possibility - as I drove from store to store in a Coca-Cola car - to learn about what people, who work for small, medium, and large shops / supermarkets with different strategies and cultures, do to serve customers well.

Working on this campaign / project for Coca-Cola, I remember I appreciated that it was, from early on in the process, quite independent work. Coca-Cola leaders gave us quite a lot freedom right from the start to do things on our own. I loved that, as it strengthened responsibility, learning and motivation tremendously. Through the intensive working process, I found out that the way I learn to do things is by, for example, observing, asking, and trying things out. For example, there were times when it was a little difficult to find shops and/or find products in the warehouse of the shops / supermarkets. At the time, I did not use Google Maps, so I had to think creatively about how to find places. What I did was, for example, using my eyes when moving around. Also, I asked people who worked in the shops where things were and how different tasks are done there. And sometimes, when everyone was busy, I tried out things by myself. It often worked quite well. That gave me confidence and more energy.

Following the work on the innovation assignment, I wrote a report with improvement proposals based on conversations with customers, fellow workers as well as observations I made. Nobody had asked me to do this. However, I felt a need to do it - not least because I wanted to help the company create even more value for customers. I greatly appreciated the positive and encouraging feedback I received from a manager upon sharing these voluntary reporting initiatives. The feedback from management inspire me to continue working proactively on innovating and helping companies improve.

Perhaps because of my experiences helping out my parents doing gardening work, I found it natural to not least help out at the garden centre, as I joined a start up project that BAUHAUS launched in Holbæk, Denmark in the year 2000. Together with a relatively large number of people of different ages and with different skills, I helped out during the operational build up of a BAUHAUS store in Holbæk, Denmark. The work we did included doing much practical / hands-on / operational work - not least in the garden centre. During the pioneering effort, I found it very interesting and sometimes also quite challenging to help and learn from customers, who had many different  needs as well as help and learn from co-workers who had very diverse backgrounds and different levels of experience in building / creating things as well as serving customers. Helping to build up / start up a BAUHAUS store in Holbæk in Denmark, I learned, not least, about the importance of serving people. An example: On one occasion, I observed a person with a very full shopping cart. Also, I could see that some of the things in the cart were somewhat big. So after helping the person find some additional products in the store, I helped the person out into the parking lot and to get the products into the customer's car. Then I took back the empty cart. After this experience, I was not in doubt: This customer will come back.

Following the work on this interesting and challenging innovation assignment, I wrote a report with improvement proposals based on conversations with customers, fellow workers as well as observations I made. Nobody had asked me to do this. However, I felt a need to do it - not least because I wanted to help the company create even more value for customers. I greatly appreciated the positive and encouraging feedback I received from a manager upon sharing this voluntary report. The feedback from management inspire me to continue working proactively on innovating and helping companies improve.

Some time into a  construction project at LEGO, a project manager stopped working on the project, and I was asked to jump in to help finish the job. Although the start was a little strange because I came into the project in the middle of the process, it became one of the most interesting projects I have ever worked on. It was inspiring, I recall, to work with co-workers as well as an external architect, engineers, and craftsmen in transforming work spaces. Throughout the project period, there were wonderful interactions during the innovation work that contributed to creating a culture with focus on values such as learning, creativity, and quality. One of the many great initiatives that were put into life was wide halls equipped with 3-wheelers using which people could easily get from A to B.  What a Bob the builder project it was 🙂

During an awesome 3 month assignment working at LEGOLAND Billund, I recall that we sometimes used a yellow robot, which could sprinkle water out of its mouth and thereby surprise kids, their friends and families in positive, amusing ways. As we steered the robot, which was built by yellow LEGO bricks, around in LEGOLAND, I remember that the water sprinkling as well as the funny sounds, which we could make the robot do and say using a mobile steering device, resulted in so many wonderful laughs and happy family moments that I had not experienced for a long time. In particular, I recall that a member of one family said this to me while laughing quite a lot, "This is when work turns into fun."

A great experience, I learned a lot from, was contributing to a project management symposium - not least around the topic on how to make competence development a part of a project. During the preparation period for the symposium, which was held at the school of architecture in Copenhagen, I recall having some very interesting conversations with other members of the project management community. Preparing for this project management symposium and contributing, over some months, to co-creating a book with many other people, triggered my interest in education / learning / competence development further.

Contributing to the book Innovation Management was a great period of learning and growth. For example, I learned a lot from writing a chapter about how social media technologies are changing the way we work.

In 2011, I participated in a really interesting Unboss jam session with 45 other people - sharing experiences, ideas, and questions about challenges such as

• How do you see tomorrow's organisation?

• An outdated mindset.

• How to unlearn.

• The Unboss.

• Unboss the organisation.

• The purpose.

• The structure.

• The firm.

• Management.

• Transform employees into associates.

• A new definition of work.

• The office.

• Communications.

• Marketing.

• Sales.

• Purchasing.

• Research and development (R&D).

• Manufacturing.

• Service.

• HR and salaries.

• Risk.

• Knowledge management.

• Corporate social responsibility (CSR).

• Meetings.

When I was a child, I suffered quite a lot from hay fever. I was allergic, I recall, to grass and different kinds of weeds. I remember that not least during Spring and Summer, I had a runny nose and sneezed quite a bit. Also, I often had excess tears in my eyes, and my eyes were itching. Perhaps it was at that time that my interest for health care started. During high school years, I remember that studying to work as a doctor was among my top priorities.

Later in my life, my interest in health care was strengthened in additional ways. For example, I recall a time in the 1990s when my mother was at the hospital for a period of time during which I was curious to know more about how doctors and nurses worked at helping her. Conversations with my girlfriend, who works as a nurse, also strengthened my interest in health care significantly. And the relatively strong development of health care apps and AI in recent years has also made me more curious about health care innovation.

As I was working with students studying at different educational levels in the 2000s and 2010s, I remember that focus was on health care a few times, for example because more students worked for companies related to health care. During strategic management workshops, for example, I invited students to work on health care innovation. For example, we went down to a supermarket to do a start and stop doing exercise right in the store. I asked the students this question: What do you think the supermarket should stop doing, do less, do more, and and/or start doing in order to help people stay healthy / live healthier?

Over some years, I worked on better understanding health care, for example through Internet research, observations, as well as conversations with nurses, doctors, pharmacists, and patients.

Over the years, I have found it very interesting to participate in innovation challenges through a variety of different platforms and participate in interactive, co-creating events - both in various physical spaces and on the Internet. Examples:

• Contributing with ideas and inputs / questions to ideas of others on innovation challenges of several organizations via idea development / brainstorming / open innovation platforms such as brainfloor and Atizo.

• Contributing to hacking management via Management Innovation eXchange.

• Contributing to helping people and companies become more agile, for example during a Mckinsey Agility Hackathon.

• Contributing - for example with questions and mini-workshops about using blogs / social media in education - to eduhub days in Baden, St. Gallen and Fribourg in Switzerland.

• Asking questions at several HBR Webinars.

• Asking questions during several Learning and Skills Group webinars.

• Participating at "Tag der offenen Tür" / open door days at more occasions, for example during Informatiktage.

• Contributing digitally to the Global Peter Drucker Forum.

As digital platforms started to develop strongly in and across several other industries, I found it natural and meaningful to try out and support different services delivered through these channels. Once, my girlfriend and I got in contact with an elderly man who had experience installing solar panels on roofs of houses. With his help, we managed to get the solar panel, which we had invested in earlier, installed on the roof of our urban garden house. The elderly man even helped create a switch in the house which we could use to turn on an LED light.

At another occasion, during which we needed to get a lamp installed above the dining room table in the apartment we live in, we got in contact with a highly competent electrician via the platform Rent a Rentner. I recall this experience as a great collaborative experience as I was happy to assist the elderly man in, for example, holding things when he was using both of his hands to install the lamp.

Having a wish to help young people get access to cheap accommodation as they discover different cities / places around the world, my girlfriend and I put the city garden up on the platform Campinmygarden.com which is now Campspace. It has been wonderful to experience the joy that young people have expressed in being able to spend time there as they move from a to b in the world.

Airbnb has been another really useful platform to improve living experiences, belong anywhere and connect with people in different places.

99designs is among the many useful digital platforms I came across over the years. Through this platform, I initiated a project with designers to create a logo. I found it really interesting to give feedback to the work of the 36 designers, who participated in the competition.  Experiencing how the quality of the logo improved throughout the competition was a great learning process that strengthened my knowledge about creative work that people do. When I think back about the many contributions of the well working designers, it surprised me that the selection of the winning logo was not difficult for me. As the logo improved during the iterative process, it increasingly became clear to me what the best logo for me was. I feel thankful for the work of all designers, who contributed. 

When I started living in Switzerland from 2006, I found out that there was a relatively large need to help out improving bicycle infrastructure in cities in Switzerland. Via the great digital platform bikeable, people share photos of challenges, questions, as well as ideas with the goal of helping cities become more bicycle friendly and thereby become more attractive places to work. An example.