Through dialogue and studies we translate the analyses of emerging global patterns into inspiration for change.
At the heart of the Foundation’s activities lies the yearly Tällberg Forum in Sweden. Every year the Tällberg Foundation invites leaders to an arena for reflection, conversations and the search for creative solutions, integrating both nature and the arts, where people feel free to step outside of their professional identity, to share doubts and new ideas, and search for ways forward outside of established frameworks. It acts to stimulate the conversation on, and design solutions to the problems of our times in order to foster new thinking and solutions. People from business and finance meet people from politics, science, international organizations and civil society on equal terms, and not as stakeholders. They come to talk, listen, reflect, question their assumptions, and gain the new insights that give them new responsibilities. For many, the Tällberg Forum is viewed as a natural extension of a highly respected Swedish tradition of internationalism, progress, intellectual curiosity, mediation and sustainability.
Areas of activityThe Tällberg Foundation has four main areas of activity:
1) The Tällberg Process Meetings including the Tällberg Forum and Tällberg workshops, seminars and conversations
When the Tällberg Foundation was initially created in 1981, it was shaped to become a platform for a free and open exchange of ideas and experiences that could help tell a story about the future. We believed that the narratives that decision makers from all walks of life could share about their own risk-taking and investments could become a valuable contribution to our understanding of the future.
The Tällberg meetings, be they smaller workshops and conversations or the larger Forum-venues, offer a unique sense of intellectual freedom. The Tällberg meetings are not organized in anyone’s interest. This is not a meeting of specific stakeholders like business, politics, academics or civil society. Since 2005, the Tällberg Forum regularly assembles every year some 450 leaders from up to 70 countries and with a wide variety of professional experiences. The Tällberg process meetings offer its participants a diversity of practices and ideas to improve understanding of the wider complexity.
2) Tällberg Foundation Global Studies
The process of analyzing the world and the trends shaping the future is an absolutely necessary part of the Tällberg Foundation’s work. This is an activity that supports our creative process and our ability to communicate and to develop a presence in various constituencies. In 2009-2010, partners were invited to join a learning process entitled “Whence & Whither – Into Uncharted Waters”, which resulted in a report. This is an emerging vision for studies of interest to the Tällberg process. In 2010, Tällberg conducted a feasibility study for the Swedish government in a new economic, technological and ecological environment. In 2011, the Tällberg Foundation delivered an analysis to the Swedish Energy Agency, "Mot en ny affärslogik
för storskalig energieffektivisering - Behovet av nya organisatoriska, finansiella och legala
modeller för att integrera fysisk och social infrastruktur".
3) Tällberg Foundation Education Programs
The Tällberg Foundation Education Programs intend to give leaders new insights and prepare them to better base their actions on a systems approach. Some programs are short, one-off events, such as learning journeys.
Learning journeys serve as on-site introductions to complex problems. These mobile workshops include meetings with experts, study visits, internal work sessions, facilitated conversations and analysis.The Tällberg Foundation has taken groups of leaders to Greenland (in 2007, 2008 and 2009) to understand climate change and discuss its implications, to the Amazon (in 2010) to understand the economy and ecology of the future through the prism of the Amazon, and to the United States to understand the changing and challenging landscape of communications management.
Other programs are processes gathering larger groups, such as Tällberg Foundation Pathfinder Program, an intensive reflective and pedagogical process that examines challenges facing a new generation of leaders.The Tällberg Pathfinder Program aims to help leaders, entrepreneurs and other decisionmakers reconsider their wider role in a globally integrated society.
4) Tällberg Foundation Change Programs/Advisory Programs
This category includes assignments that the Tällberg Foundation receives from both public and private sector organizations to help them to change their conceptual understanding of the business environments in which they operate. We bring a systems approach to government, environment, technology, etc. Tällberg also accepts speaking engagements, mentorship assignments and conference design assignments.