THE T

ALE

PROACADEM I A NS

OF THE

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ProAcademy

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Where are you from?

Proacademy is a special unit of Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) in Tampere, Finland. The Proacademians study for a BBA degree in entrepreneurship via a unique combination of team learning, dialogue, coaching, learning-by-doing and self-leadership.

PREFACE

The story of the Proacademians began over ten years ago. Some restless nomads in Tampere had a nose for business but there didn't seem to be any place where they could test their ideas in practice. They sent scouts around Finland to look for new radical solutions. Many scouts returned with nothing. However, one scout returned from a little town called Jyväskylä telling stories about a tribe that learned via action and dialogue. These Teamacademians had an

elder with a vision of taking the tribearound the world and learning in the process.The scout's storiesinspired two elders in Tampere to change their ways of teaching the young and the Proacademian tribe was born.

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We roll up our sleeves and startworking towards

our dreams.

We dare to dream and face

the unknown.

We allowmistakes...

...because that’s how we

learn best.

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ValuesThe elders realized already in the early days that they needed values to guide the tribe. But values are a tricky thing and it is not always easy to root values in the followers. For some years the tribe struggled because members didn't always share common goals or follow the community rules. Some elders left. At some point a great insight was made: the tribe understood that the values had to come from within, so a board of older proacademians was formed. The board formed a path of values for the younger tribe members to follow. The board saw great wisdom in visualizing the path so everyone would remember it in their every day activities.

Every spring the proacademians and the elders

look for new members to join the tribe. There are

plenty of initiates who have been preparing to take

the leap of faith into entrepreneurship by studying

one year business or computer science.

The courageous ones apply and are interviewed by

the older proacademians and the elders. The most

motivated and humble ones are chosen to join the

tribe next fall. The new tribe members are split

into two teams and one elder takes the

responsibility to guide and coach them for the

coming years.

Once the teams have been formed, the first

objective for the new tribe members is to build

unconditional trust and honesty between each

other. Older tribe members help them by

organizing teambuilding days and the teams also

organize retreats to distant cottages to share their

learning agreements and personal stories.

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As the days shorten and winter approaches the teams are soon in dire need of action. They must find the first projects for money to pay for their shelter and food during the harsh winter months. They have set up a cooperative company that allows them to interact with and work for the surrounding tribes. The elders courage the teams to try out new things, leave the shelter and meet the surrounding tribes. The elders also ask good questions that help the new ones to think about their approach and responsibilities. Older proacademians help them by sharing their knowledge and stories from previous encounters with the surrounding tribes. Some stories are of great successes, some about things gone awry, some are funny and some embarrasing. What is important is that the new tribe members know they are trusted and they have the support of the whole tribe. They can be honest and straightforward even if things don't always go as planned.

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Should we also celebrate failures?

What does trust mean for you?

How do you build trust in your team?

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Courage

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Some time ago, the elders met a talented artist who lives in a near-by cave with the demolan people. During a long session of music, incenses and mind-altering sub-stances the artist drew the vision of the elders on the wall.

The proacademian tribe has a great vision high up in the skies. We want to be nationally and in-ternationally recognized school for entrepreneurs in 2014 staying true to our beliefs and customs.

Our mission is to create possibili-ties. The proacademians become team entrepreneurs, develop an international mindset and create unique networks of people.

Watch out: You get what you wish for!

Learn to accept the good things that

happen to you.

The atmosphere amongst the Proacademians feels like summertime; enthusiastic, sunny, warm and always full of energy. This creates the right platform for the ideas to fly around freely, just waiting for someone to catch and make use of them. The Proacademians give their support and encourage each other to develop their ideas further and make them become a reality.

The Proacademians understand the power of dreaming. They have the possibility to dream and the whole tribe is encouraged to do that. They understand that one can have and achieve everything they want, as long as they believe in it in their hearts. Nothing is impossible.

The Proacademians also realize that simply dreaming is not enough. You need to visualize whatever it is you desire. You need to work for what you want in life with motivation and determination. This is why creating, updating and measuring one’s own targets are important and natural elements of the Proacademians´ lives.

Dreaming

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The Proacademians use specific tools, such as dialogue circles, to help the flow of information inside the tribe and especial-ly in the teams. When it’s time to innovate something completely new for a project or for the business, more intensive tools are used. The elders and other wise people have come up different brainstorming tools for the innovation process. These tools set the minds of the Proacademians into the right stage to come up with ideas freely and then develop them further to produce something real that can be used right away. Outcomes of the ideas are brave, different and out-of-the-box.

Innovation techniques and

sharing knowledge

The secret of the Proacademians is

sharing information, experiences and

ideas openly. Instead of hiding what

they know, they want to share the know-

how with everyone. The Proacademians

believe that by thinking together much

more can be achieved in business, as

well as in life in general. Inspiring other

people and getting inspired is always

worth striving for. Developing the tribe,

the projects, oneself and other tribe

members is vital for keeping the com-

munity alive and moving forward.

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Sometimes storms hit the Proacademians and frustration and

anger flare in the atmosphere. Things go wrong in the projects

or the teams fail in cultivating the community spirit.

But these moments are the most important ones for learning.

The Proacademians are allowed to make mistakes. An elder

has said: the bigger the mistake you make, the more you learn.

The tribe is a safe environment to try new and untested things,

sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing, but at least you

have tried. There’s no judgement or embarrassment, instead the

tribe celebrates the courage displayed and good stories.

Learning from mistakes

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How do you create a culture

that also celebrates failures?

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Action

This time is a difficult balancing act for the tribe members: find-ing the right mix time-wise for projects, dialogue, community activities and reading puts every tribe members’ time manage-ment into test.

After the first year of building

trust and courage in the team,

it’s time for real action. It

means taking the step forward

from the comfort zone and

jumping into new challenges;

taking bigger risks, searching

new challenging projects and

aiming for success.

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All the important decisions in the tribe are made by the board of Proacademians. The board is chosen

from the elders, elders’ assistants and team leaders, and their responsibility is to make decisions

regarding the everyday life of Proacademians. Every team also chooses a business leader from within.

The business leader’s responsibility is to lead the team’s business activities, set goals and encourage

team members.

Roles in the tribeThe tribe needs different kinds of leading roles for it to work smoothly. The elders look after their teams. The challenging and interesting part of this is that the elder is responsible for both coaching the team members personally as well as the whole teams’ development.

The assistant elders are chosen amongst the motivated Proacademians to help the elders

in organizing tribe activities, receiving guests, keeping the tribe updated about the

happenings and dates and also other things like finding new exiting ways for learning and

keeping up the spirit.

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What kind of leader are you?

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Daily life of the Proacademians is essentially all about learning; creating and sharing the knowledge within the tribe. Things are not learned for storage; Proacademians learn because they need to understand something and test it out in practise.

Sometimes the openness of the Proacademians confuses people outside of the tribe. The tribe’s atmosphere encourages straightforward talk and genuine spontaneous feedback. The tribe members learn how to give positive and constructive feedback early on and also to be able to receive and learn from it. Feedback should be immediate to help the tribe develop the most. When something is wrong, it is discussed at once. When someone has done a great job, everyone recognizes the achievement. Thanking and recognizing everyone’s efforts creates new motivation and a better atmosphere in the tribe.

The Proacademians have a unique way to use dialogue circles in discussions where everyone can see each other and feel belonging to the moment. Every member taking part in the dialogue is important. Everyone should speak openly, be able to really listen and understand where the others are coming from. It is important to talk straight-forwardly but with respect. The aim of the dialogue is to enable free flow of thinking together, which gives birth to great ideas and solutions for the business as well as creates trust and understanding for the team. Understanding and achieving real dialogue takes time and the progress reflects the team development.

Learning and dialogue

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What slows down learning? What accelerates learning?

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Real success comes when people recognize

their strengths and weaknesses and know how

to be a great self-leaders in the future. When

they have found their own potential, values

and what they want to accomplish in life.

SuccessProacademians have different definitions

for success. It is born out of the process

for each tribe member individually. Some-

times success is defined by how profitable

the business has been or how challenging

projects have been carried out, but that’s

not always the most significant

measurement. Everyone has joined the

tribe to learn about business, entrepreneur-

ship, teamwork and themselves.

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What are your values?

Your tribe?

Personally?

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How can you help others?

What is your dream?

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What will you take into practice?

What did you learn?

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Check-out

Blue Ocean Strategy. Kim W. Chan & Renee Mauborgne. 2005.Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don’t. Jim Collins. 2001.Outliers. Malcolm Gladwell. 2008.Tribes. Seth Godin. 2008Future of Management. Gary Hamel. 2008.Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together. William Isaacs. 1999.The Medici Effect. Frans Johansson. 2004.Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions. John Kotter & Holger Rathgeber. 2006.The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage. B. Joseph Pine II & James H. Gilmore. 1999.The Leadership Challenge: How to Keep Getting Extraordinary Things Done in Organizations. James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner & Tom Peters. 1995.The Knowledge-Creating Company. Ikujiro Nonaka & Hirotaka Takeuchi. 1995.Business as Unusual. Anita Roddick. 2005.The Fifth Discipline. Peter Senge. 1990.Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. 1991.

Important books for the Proacademians

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The team behind this bookContent:

Maria, Janita, Jutta, Laura, Katri, Satu and Jukka

Graphic design: Vesa TamminenFinal check: Marianna Leikomaa

Thanks to TAMK R&D for supporting this project.

© TAMK Proacademy, February 2010

Sometimes the right spirit and a great team is enough to make dreams come true.

The door is open so you step in. You hear talk and laughter. You smell fresh coffee and feel the inspiring atmosphere. The Proacademians are busy helping each other out. You see the colorful

offices, dialogue rooms and lounges. People come and talk to you.

First you wonder if you have actually stepped in to an office, but then you see it. Teams have decorated their offices to represent their team company’s brand. The walls are covered with

values, references and project outlines. There are people developing a marketing strategy, planning an international week, editing videos, having a weekly meeting, innovating new busi-ness ideas and writing offers for the clients. Suddenly, you hear a loud bell ringing. One Pro-

academian has acquired a big project and it is time to celebrate!

The atmosphere is warm, encouraging, excited and ready for action. Everywhere you look people are making their dreams come true together. And it is clear they are loving every moment of it.

This book tells the tale of eager Proacademians who want to be entrepreneurs. They belong to a small tribe residing in Finlayson, the historical heart of Tampere, Finland. They believe that

learning can be a unique, empowering and meaningful experience where self-leadership and team discipline mix with coaching and learning-by-doing to revolutionize learning outcomes.