Kane Mar

Stockholm is a truly beautify city with graceful old buildings looking out over the water and an picturesque old city center. The Swedish are open, friendly and incredibly polite! While I was training there they gave me an overview of their culture and language. Here are a few things I never knew about Sweden:

• Santa Claus comes from Sweden!
• “Det beror på” means “It Depends” in Swedish!
• The Swedish have a concept of moderation and they have a special word for it … “Lagom”. It comes from old Viking when a team of Vikings would share a jar of beer. Each Viking would take a drink from the jar but had to show moderation … not too much and not too little. I can only image what would happen if there wasn’t enough for the last Viking!!

Read the rest of this entry »

The CSM training course in Helsinki went exceptionally well. Everyone made me very welcome and there were some great conversations about what happens when you don’t focus on delivering high quality software.

We also had some good conversations over lunch about Finland and Finnish culture. Here are a few things that I never knew:

• Finnish workers are the most productive in the world
• Santa Claus comes from Finland
• There is an order to eating at a smörgåsbord, and
• It is polite Finnish etiquette to SMS someone before calling them … even if it’s just to say “Can I call you?”

Read the rest of this entry »