At the age of 8, I had my first mindblowing experience with technology - My dad bought me the coolest gaming console of 1985 - an Atari 2600. Ever since I have been passionate about gaming and technology.
At an early age, I learned how technology could help connect people.
I believe that this early experience has influenced my approach to work. I love technology and how it can help improve our lives. Yes, there is a dark side to it as well - but let's focus on the brighter side here.
When I entered the job market in 2004 it felt like traveling back to 1985. There were many old technology platforms that seemed to suck time out of people's life. But to my surprise, people seemed to accept that this was what work looked like. It felt as if you were driving to work in a Ferrari and would have to switch to Henry Fords Model T - which was a great car when it was invented. But no one would have thought that someone would still see this as the best car a hundred years later.
So I ended up focusing on how technologies at work can help improve the experience at work - and thereby improve the business performance.
One of the first things I did was to co-create one of the first gamified internal social media platforms. I implemented it twice at Danish Rail (DSB) - the first implementation was a pilot in the S-Train department and the second was the full-scale implementation in Danish Rail. It helped connect employees across the organization and inspired them to share stories about things they did that helped bring our values to life. It became a live version of the companies values. I was invited to events in Europe to speak about this. In many ways, this is also the reason why I am now a keynote speaker!
I guess this kickstarted my interest in digital platforms at work and this might be the reason why I am now helping organizations understand how technologies of the 21st century is transforming their business. I sincerely believe that social media has the capability to change the way businesses do business.
Social media is a great way to start building relations. We trust people we can relate to - more than brands. And this is also where a change in organizations goes wrong. Sending out the CEO with a message won't cut it. But facilitating a dialogue on social media, where people can have conversations about the change about to happen - with people they can relate to - is much more powerful.
So if you like what you've read and you're looking at transforming your approach to marketing, communication, sales or HR - I'd love to have a chat with you.