Elina Hiltunen has succesfully defended her PhD thesis named: Weak signals in Organizational Futures Learning at Aalto University, school of Economics (faculty of organization and management), 22nd June,2010. The thesis consists of 5 articles. Three of the articles focus on the definition of weak signals and coneecting them to change process. The articles also differentiate the concepts wild cards and weak signals that are sometimes used as synonyms for weak signals. Hiltunen presents a new concept “the future sign” that tries to clarify the dilemma of weak signal definition. The future sign is based on the semiotic thinking of Charles Peirce.

Hiltunen also examines the concept “organizational futures learning”, first time presented in this thesis. This concept includes weak signals (and other futures’ information) and its use in the organizational learning process. Hiltunen   has studied global futurist commumnity and their ways and sources to find weak signals. She also introduces a new tool, the Futures Windows, in the thesis. This tool is one way in organizational futures learning process to efficiently disseminate weak signals in organizations.

The PhD thesis of Hiltunen can be bought from the Aalto University, school of economics book store.

Today I have learned that AtiNegaar is a word that Iranian people use for future, more precisely for painting the future. For this piece of information I did not travel all the way to Iran but I learned as participating the conference of World Future Studies Federation in Sweden, Trollhättan. What I like in seminars and conferences is that you get connected to people that have shared interest with you. In this conference I have met a lots of interesting people from various parts of the world. I happened to meet also Vahid V. Motlagh and Ali Shammaee from Iran from AtiNegaar Think Thank.  This Iranian think tank is considering also changes in the future from Iranian perspective. Mr Motlagh have also linked my blog to his blog.  Vahid has some interesting ideas and I reccommend to follow his blog.

Today I have visited British Telecom facilities in Ipswich, England and I had a wonderful opportunity to interview futurist Dave Brown about anticipation of futures in BT. Dave told me BT’s ways to look at to the future and their tasks inside the company. This information is very valuable for me, because currently I am working on a book about anticipating customers’ needs. So thank you Dave for the interview and your hospitality!

While being in England I have used my extra time for spotting weak signals. Here are some images about things that I found extraordinary to me. From these images you can see, that things that are new to me are probably every-day life for Englishman.

a couple of ways to increase your mass (Tesco)

A sign in a Taxi

The original SPAM

Liquieise for sale in the health section in Tesco

Well packed suitcase, Heathrow Express