On 20 of June, it was our pleasure to interview Mr. Heikki Hallantie about the idea of modeling, social media ,culture and the concept of happiness.
Mr. Heikki Hallantie had served Aalto University for ten years and now retired. He is good at building the bridges in the social media. Honorably, he is called as “ The Father of Sometu” and “The Conductor of Orchestra.” Mr. Heikki agreed with the importance of social media. The issue we should pay attention to is that there is no single one to satisfy all of needs. The social media is widespread and too many so that it turns out no single person can make decisions- it takes groups to do so.
When it comes to modeling, Mr. Heikki had so much to share. He mentioned about a “three-dimension hat” to analyze the connection between human beings’ mind and activities. Since humans’ mind is complex and difficult ( like someone focuses more on feelings but some others do not ), when we solve problems, we need modeling to make things smaller and take action to deal with it step by step. In this way, we are allowed to concentrate on one thing at one time. There is a model of 5T.
Tavoite = Destination, target
Tunne = Desire, feeling
Tieto = Data, knowledge
Tahto = Determination, dedication
Toiminta = Do-it, execution, action
Via this model, we can definite tasks one by one and get to solve problems. I also found a video about this 5T video (http://vimeo.com/20203585)
Mr. Heikki Hallantie could not emphasize the importance of modeling enough. He explained that modeling has something to do with working memory, which means the memory skill to work on human mind and let us take action spontaneously. That is exactly why we need modeling to guide us how to do. Modeling is to reach people and reduce problems.
When being asked about how Finns compete, Mr. Heikki replied that let’s focus on people instead of nations. Nations are too complicated and political. If we focus on individual human resources, we can just focus on skills. Then, we three discussed about the education in Finland. The Finnish free education is highly admired in Taiwan, I shared, and there are more and more Chinese and Taiwanese students coming to experience , so it must be one advantage for Finns to compete. Mr. Heikki pointed out that education cannot change cultures easily. We have to understand what is receiving. I immediately agreed with him due to my own experience- two-year of American education did not change my culture but reinforce the meaning of my own Taiwanese culture background.
Next, we talked about technology. Mr. Heikki suggested the meaning of technology is to make people understand each other better. In order to build a long-term relationship, we should work on people-to-people contact instead of institutions. I could see that Mr. Heikki is the one who tries to keep the harmony and balance between technology and people.
Last, I got to know that Mr. Heikki studied about the happiness. He shared with us that happiness is not just a state of mind, so people should practice it. Since how to practice it was too big to discuss this time, it was quite a pity to let the question stay in our mind. Hope we will have another opportunity to talk more about the idea of happiness. Thank Mr. Heikki Hallantie! Kiitos!
*Note:
1. the audio file about our interview:
http://visualradio.posterous.com/heikki-chloe-and-helge
2.there are some social media about Mr. Heikki Hallantie
http://tinyurl.com/7twqbvm (the profile from LinkedIn)
http://www.facebook.com/hhallantie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hek1n0P36tc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuZxOTAw7HQ
Comments
The statement of "focus on the individuals and their skills" instead of distancing ourself to nations and the average strength of countries. Finland can only survive if we're able to mobilize talented individuals, skilled craftsmen and women. We're just a fraction of the global population and number crunching will leave us at a disadvantage. Rightly, we need modeling to be able to grasp the essentials in whatever business or human activity we're involved with. 6T is a great tool that can be used for both analysis and learning by using 6T roles and socio-drama as a method.