Summer in Sweden is so very short

The Swedish summer is short, 8-10 weeks only. That is the main reason why the Swedes rush into the countryside as soon as it is possible, trying desperately to enjoy the few days of light and the possibilities to take a swim in the open sea. Most ordinary work stations cut down the working hours and lots of employees try to have some weeks of vacation (so also within the Police force and at the hospitals, so please don’t commit any crimes and please don’t become seriously ill during this time of the year!).
Anyway, here are a few pictures of our grandchildren. Midsummer Eve invited to dancing around the Midsummer pole (quite cold and rainy), but then, after Midsummer, came the sun and the warm winds.

Midsummer Eve

One of the Swedish top celebrations is Midsummer Eve. It is absolutely comparable with Christmas Eve. Midsummer Eve is nowadays always on a Friday, and Midsummer Day always on a Saturday. This is a politically directed construction – three days holiday.
Midsummer is the last big opening to the real summer in Sweden. From now on up to mid August is the time for vacation. It is a period of joy and frustration (as the expectations are always too high). It is family gatherings and it is family dramas. It is music and singing and it is too much alcohol. It is wedding parties and it is family separations.
But one thing is for sure: Our two grandchildren are providing us with such an amount of happiness so we will turn back to them providing them with our kind of inspiration, protection and stimulation. They are lovely.
The picture is taken by the professional photographer Jessica Lund.

Requirements of a good selector

A selector is the one that primarily selects people for employment during a recruitment program. There are, or ought to be, very high requirements to become a selector as he, or she, is the key person for the future of the candidates – and for the company or organization he works for.
Here are some suggestions from my side regarding the requirements of a selector (to make it simple I will use “he” only, even if there are a lot of females working in this area as well):
1. He has to have a very well founded education and training in behaviour sciences.
2. He has to understand and admit that psychological test instruments are very rough tools, meaning that they, if they are used, have to become interpreted and evaluated together with a lot of other data.
3. He has to understand some fundamental basics of both cognitive neurological and psychodynamic processes that are always going on behind and beyond the surface of people.
4. He has to understand the individual’s position within all groups and organizations the candidate is affiliated to.
5. He has to have a good and sharp overview of the interaction between the single individual and the powers of the society in which the candidate lives and works.
6. He has to be a very good analyst of the different layers of the Human Mind. A background and experiences from working with people in the clinical sector (for example work as a psychotherapist) is a very attractive strength.
7. He has to be very good in his communication with others, thus always be prepared to explain why and how he is analyzing the candidates in the way he does and why and how he has come to his conclusions.
8. As a professional selector he has to work within the area of recruitment and selection as his main working area, in this way always improving his own skills.

By my own experience I proclaim a warning for those, who introduce themselves as “experts in selection”, but who do not meet the requirements above. In such cases the recruitment and selection may go completely wrong.

Recruitment and selection of candidates

The selection process within a recruitment program is of course the most difficult and sophisticated one. The selection process starts by selecting the selectors. There are no psychological test instruments that could compensate for a not so skilled personal selector.
So, what are the requirements for a good and skilled selector?
There are a lot to think of and to decide in this context.
I will come back with my suggestions, but until then: feel free to state what you think are absolute requirements of a good selector. And if you come to think of anything of importance – feel free to send your comments to this blog input.

Are people in power our servants – or…?

It is quite common to state that power positions lead to corruption in one way or another. It is of course not that easy to say that all men or women in power could be tempted to accept money for even further privileges or that they could be bribed letting you have even more privileges; you know: such things, but all of us have a history, where power positions mean Top Positions in typichal hierarchical social patterns. And Top Positions mean really Power Positions. And Power Positions do not mean that the ones up there are just your servants in a modern, democratic sense. It is more likely that you are positioned to act as a servant to them, and as such a servant you are probably used to stand with your hat in your hands, slightly bowing your body, making yourself ready to follow and not to lead.
So it is and that is why I have always been suspicious against those people up there, trying to carefully find out if their decisions are there for the benefit of all those down here, or …
You´ll never know. So you´d better stay alert with a keen and observant critical mind. Just as an advice.

Frustration behind change and development

Are you content? Satisfied?
Good.
Or perhaps not that good.
Because if you are totally satisfied why bother to make any changes?
Think: if the small baby in his or her mother’s arms is totally cared for and is totally content – why then start anything risky that could change this kind of paradise?
And back to yourself: how content – on a scale from 1 to 10 – are you?
If you reply with something about 8 – 10 I would be somewhat worried for your further personal career. Perhaps you just to want to stay perfectly still.
If you say around 4 – 6 then – fine! There is hope.
If you say 1 – 3, well, then you really have to start to move right away. Come on!
Do something. You are able to make changes.
Yes, you can!

A note on the EU Parliament election

Last days have been election days for the EU Parliament. One of the most important results is that around 40 % of all EU citizens cared to vote (much less in the East European countries). How to interpret that a majority of people in the EU countries did not bother to take the walk to the election offices?
My guess is that this is an identity question, or rather a non-identity question. The majority does not – yet – want to be identified as We-are-Europeans, at least not in a political sense. Nationalism is ahead of Internationalism. The smaller the group the stronger the feeling of identity. This is a sort of curse for mankind, because this need of an identity with a small group makes it much, much harder to arrange good enough co-operations over the borders. The others are the others – and we are not like the others. It is much easier to go to war against those aliens than to build bridges of mutual understanding and to create constructive agreements, joining each other.
I am against nationalism. I look upon myself as an internationalist. That is why I am pro EU.

Swedish National Day

Today, June 06, is the proclaimed Swedish National Day. This day was set to be called the National Day in 1983. Prior to that year the day was just called the Day of the Swedish Flag. And as late as in 2005 this day was decided to become a holiday (Holy Day), marked red in the ordinary calender. Most Swedes are not so very sure why this day is a National Day. What to celebrate?
Well, some people point out that one of our former kings, Gustav Vasa, was elected as a king on June 6 in 1523, the same year when the union with Denmark broke down. Others say that the present government directives and rules were formed on June 6 in 1809 and that the present parliament order was set on the same day in 1974. But is this really worth to celebrate year after year?
In fact – there is no special event in the Swedish history that could be called a national peak; no special victory that has been won, no other remarkable thing.
So – the Swedish National Day is a sheer political construction, a sort of a gift to the people living in this land. But why so? It is not so very easy to understand, but my guess is that the politicians wanted all people in Sweden to come together, to feel more united, to underline a national identity.
But why so? Well, the remake of the Swedish Flag Day to a Swedish National Day might very well be looked upon as a counter measure against an increasing societal disorder and disintegration. And if that is the main cause I support the idea – even though I am very uncertain that this is a real good solution.
But anyhow – may we hit Denmark hard in the soccer match tonight!

Aviation psychology

Together with my close colleague, who also happens to be my wife, we visited recently a Swedish Flying Club for Ultra Light Aircraft (UL-B class), where more than 20 pilots listened to our lesson about aviation psychology. A lot of interesting questions were asked and several issues for discussion were raised.
We have today more than forty years of experiences in the field of aviation psychology and as we have worked for some of the top international air carrier companies, among them Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) and Thai Airways International (THAI), we had quite a lot of experiences to share, also with the ultra-light pilots. A very nice evening together with very gentle and obviously very curious members of the Flying Club.
A well known saying among sailors is this: If you could sail a dinghy you could sail anything. I would not say that an experienced UL-B pilot could fly anything without proper training, but he or she for sure has learned the right and the important basics of general flying.

Have you got a good ear for music?

There are talents for this and talents for that – and there are some, who have very little talents at all. Thinking of talents I am sometimes thinking of musicality. We have the wonder children, the ones that could sing or play the piano already at an age of four. Most children can not, but a few they have just got it. The same goes for learning mathematics – just to mention another example. A majority of children seems to have certain difficulties in mathematical comprehension, while others find math both amusing and quite easy. And so on.
And looking at the grown-ups there is the same story. I have met hundreds of airline pilot applicants in my professional work. Some of them have shown marvellous operational and mental skills already prior to the advanced flying training and most of those guys have later on made a very successful airline career. But some others have shown initial complications; it is as if they never really came to understand the dynamics of physics and all those natural powers that affect the aircraft.
And then we have all my colleagues – the psychologists. There are psychologists – and there are psychologists, if you understand what I mean. There are those who have their senses for what is going on in another human very, very well trimmed, while other psychologists have to use a lot of technical equipments and very structured investigation methods to get what is going on.
And there are very, very well talented parents, who know what is happening with the crying child long before it could express him- or herself in a a more clear way, and there are parents that are not able to “read” anyone that they are responsible for (or not responsible for).
Yes, there are talents for this – and talents for that. How about you? Have you got a good ear for music?