Reading books started when I was a child. First, my mother read books for me. She told me that relatively quickly, I read by myself and that I was a very curious person. Reading books has continued through more or less my entire life. Over the years I have become even more interested in reading books. Mostly, I have bought and read books via Amazon Kindle. I like to read about various subjects / topics / issues that I use professionally for work I do. From 2006, when I moved to Switzerland, I increased time I invested in reading books. I continue to experience that reading books is among the most effective ways of learning and building competencies. I find that reading books and sharing takeaways from reading books help me to handle several changes in my life and create positive differences for people. I share takeaways via amazon and  goodreads.

Having developed interesting in finance during my bachelor education and masters education I decided to do further finance studies. The education complemented well accountancy work I did for apartment owners - including preparing income statement and assisting in budget planning.

Over several years I have contributed to research via McKinsey global survey panel - giving feedback on the topics such as:

• Economic conditions across the world.

• COVID-19 and the economy.

• How companies communicate with government / regulators and other external stakeholders.

• How companies manage the combination of financial, environmental, and social issues (ESG)

• Organizations' sustainability efforts.

• How companies make good ideas happen - including developing, communicating, and implementing change initiatives.

• How decision making is done.

• Artificial intelligence.

• How companies use social media.

• How leaders design new ways of organizing.

• Agile organizations and transformations.

• Activities, role and effectiveness of boards of directors within the organizations they serve.

• Boards during the COVID-19 era.

• How leaders understand leadership, and how they understand and develop themselves. 

When did my interest in democracy education start?

Living in Switzerland from 2006 I found it interesting to learn about the direct democracy in Switzerland, which I experience as very relevant for how we live our lives. Democracy is of key importance to me - in any kind of groups. Why is that? Well, as democracy is the belief in freedom and equality between people. And as freedom and equality are two values which are important for me, I believe in democracy. That each citizen has the possibility - several times a year - to vote on a number of different topics is admirable and globally unique. In comparison with Denmark, I learned that in Switzerland, there are a lot more elections through which the people have the right to take part in the creation of laws and thereby contribute to making society even better.

How did I learn about democracy in Switzerland?

Being curious to learn about democracy in Switzerland, I took various initiatives.

• I did research about the political system in Switzerland.

• I learned about Switzerland using the app together-in-switzerland.ch

• I took part in the open course #DigitalDemocracyIPZ in 2017 moderated by Fabrizio Gilardi.

• I learned from work that people, who work for easyvote, Vimentis, and WeCollect, are doing.

• I did research about people, who wrote about changes that happened during the Enlightenment period. For example, I learned about Immanuel Kant as well as other people who contributed to developing the social contract.

• I took part in the 2020 online forum on modern direct democracy. 

• I learned a lot by contributed to several events via Democracy International.

What surprised me about elections in the Swiss political system?

Studying the Swiss political system, a few things surprised me. For example, it surprised me that

1. Swiss women waited until 1971 to get the right to vote. This shocked me because in Denmark, where I was born and have grown up, women have had the right to vote since 1915.  

2. a large percentage of people, who live in Switzerland, are not entitled to vote, as they do not have a Swiss passport. Thinking about the relatively large number of people, who are not eligible to vote, although they have lived in the country for many years, I recall that I increasingly came to think about the word dignity - meaning our inherent value and worth as human beings. 

3. at several elections, fewer than 50% of the people, who have the right to vote, actually vote. 

4. electronic voting is taking time to get established. This surprises me, as many people use digital tools every day to do all kinds of things.

How did I experience the process of becoming a Swiss citizen?

1. I moved to Switzerland in 2006. Living in Switzerland I learned that when a person would like to become eligible to vote at elections in Switzerland, he or she must become a citizen. For a person to be entitled to apply for citizenship in Switzerland, I read that he or she must fulfill several requirements. Two of these requirements are to have lived at least 10 years in Switzerland and have a so-called C residence permit. 

2. Over a period of about 10 years I was invited to buy several different residence permits. The first resident permit I was entitled to, when I moved to Switzerland in 2006, was an L permit. A few times, I was requested to renew the L permit. In 2008, I was invited to acquire a B permit. Four years later, in 2012, I was invited to renew the B permit. Later in 2012, I was invited to apply for and purchase a C-permit. And 5 years later, in 2017, I was requested to renew the C permit. 

3. At the start of 2018, I became entitled to apply for citizenship in Switzerland. This was the start of a process that took about 2 years. During this period, I was requested to write various documents and send them to different organizations. The process included also a test, during which I was asked several questions about topics related to Switzerland, the canton of Zürich and the city of Zürich. Questions I was asked were questions about, for example, history, the political system, rights and duties of citizens, social insurance, national holidays, food, geography and the education system.

How did I feel about becoming entitled to vote at elections in Switzerland?

In 2020, after having lived in Switzerland for about 14 years, I became a citizen of Switzerland. Thereby, I also became eligible to vote at elections in Switzerland. During this period, I learned more about myself - including about my values and emotions I felt in different situations. When I first got the opportunity to vote at elections, as the voting material was sent to me by mail, I remember very clearly what I felt in my body and heart, and what I thought in my mind: 

• I felt much joy. 

• I had a feeling of being equal to other people among whom I live. 

• I had a feeling of being part of the community in which I live.

• I had the feeling of becoming more a participant / a contributor than being a guest.

• I felt valued as a human being. 

• I felt that people, whom I live among, had an interest of also listening to my voice. 

• The right to vote helped me become more self confident. It helped give me more energy. 

• The right to vote helped me become more motivated about laws and potential new laws.

Some time after finishing my masters education, I found it interesting to do work related to education and teaching. I became interested interesting in learning more about pedagogy / education / learning. Alongside teacher assignments, I decided to do further education about teaching through Feusi Bildungszentrum, the Zürich University of teacher education and the Swisss Society for early childhood research. Over some years, I learned more about, for example, planning of education events, teaching methods, coaching, giving feedback to students, learning strategies, the influence of play in education as well as various other topics related to child development. I appreciate the many valuable conversations at events in physical locations as well as via Internet with people, who also wanted to learn more.

Among the many benefits of digital technologies is open education, which enable anyone to  learn about any topics.  As I believe in the importance of education for all, I found it highly valuable to be able to learn via open education initiatives. Through Stanford University, I have found it really interesting to participate in  / contribute to 4 education initiatives: 1. Business models for social impact. 2. Design thinking. 3. Mobile health without borders. 4. The active citizen in a digital age.

Through open education initiatives via Yale University I found it really interesting to take part in / contribute to the courses Moralities of everyday life and Narrative economics.

Over several years I have learned a lot contributions to research online via the Harvard Business Review advisory.  Topics have included contributing to research about technology including artificial intelligence (AI), education, strategy / innovation and leadership.

Working with other researchers on finding solutions to various challenges has been periods of strong learning and growth. These are two research and innovation challenges I look back on with much gratitude: 1. Modulating chemical concentration at polymer surfaces. 2. Seeking candidate chemicals for effective, selective rodent control.

How did I learn and contribute during these innovation challenges? Some examples: 

• By asking questions to solution seekers and team members using digital tools such as ideaconnection.com, Zoom, Google Meet and e-mail.

• By contributing to research, for example using the GenAI tool https://chat.openai.com/

• By giving feedback to team members.

• By talking to people when conflict arises.

• By improving readability of the report, for example by making chapter titles understandable, applying appropriate header styles, correcting spelling, inserting relevant photo, spelling out some abbreviations, making tables in relevant places, using color in title of tables, using bold typeface to emphasize things, inserting bullet points for listing content and aligning report with requirements related to font type and font size.

Over several years, I have found it inspiring to contribute to conversations in the Café Scientifique community. Why? I think it is because that I find several topics, which are put focus on, relevant for advancing our lives. Also, I like that conversations are held in relaxed, informal environments over a cup of coffee or tea. What I, in particular, find valuable is the strong focus on questions and sharing of experiences and ideas during conversations in very small groups. 

In a citizen science research project entitled Know the air your breathe I learned a lot by, for example

• measuring the air quality in different rooms of the apartment where I live,

• documenting findings via social media. An example. 

• communicating with other researchers at workshops in various locations at ETH Zurich. An example.

I really like to participate at Thinkers50 LinkedIn live sessions. I find that conversations, which moderators Des Dearlove and Stuart Crainer have with people are often very inspiring. Also, I love that there is the possibility to contribute with questions, experiences and ideas via the live chat.

With researchers affiliated with the University of Zürich and ETH Zürich, I have found it greatly inspiring to take part in the workshop series Methoden am Montag and contribute to exchange about research methods.