ICT-Business-People Forum, Turku 2005 -

At the time these No Agenda -experiments started, I was working at ICL Data (called Fujitsu Services now) as management consultant. The idea was to experiment, but also create indirect business value to my employer by establishing networks of trust among existing and possibly future clients.

After 1-2 years, the first clubs started to wander off Fujitsu's focus - ICT services, outsourcing, ICT governance etc - so we felt that perhaps we let that be as it is, but start another forum with a "loose agenda" that serves the interests of Fujitsu Services without killing the spacious and respectful spirit of No Agenda Clubs.

What was the "loose agenda" - can there be one, it sounds a bit funny? This is the picture we drew in 2006:

We invited business managers, ICT-managers and HR-managers to the forum, to develop together a common language, or at least a common ground for open dialogue between these sub-cultures. We acknowledged that there was a problem in the way these professions talked and saw each other. We wanted to offer a safe place to meet and start a learning journey towards each other - hence the wandering paths from each corner towards the center of the triangle.



We have been traveling towards each other since 2005. As in No Agenda Clubs, some members have been actively in the forum since the beginning, some have left, some have just arrived. Fujitsu Services is the owner of this forum and is to be thanked for patiently continuing to offer this service to its local customers and community in Turku area. I'm still facilitating it - now offering the service as an outsider, since I moved to Humap Oy in 2009.

I think this is a good example of applying the No Agenda -spirit to "real life": (1) Find people who don't meet enough in normal daily life - but should for your business to develop and prosper. This could mean people inside your organization - sales vs. production, purchasing vs. HR, sales vs. purchasing, IT vs R&D - or people along your value chain or community. (2) Create an interest, a vision of common benefit, something that makes these people curious. (3) Just arrange a safe place (physically and mentally) to meet, facilitate but don't control it. (4) Keep doing it, patiently. Just let things develop, observe and reflect.

You will get huge benefits with minimum effort and costs. You will also learn things you will never learn in any school.