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It is not often that an official report creates a rush in your head, makes you see into the future and treates you with elegant and accessible language and with great quotes. The OECD report “Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a Learning Science” does that – and more. The project leader Bruno della Chiesa, a senior analyst at OECD’s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, and some of the brainiest people in brain research gathered in Helsinki yesterday for a seminar to mark the publication of the report and to discuss how it may change the way we approach teaching and learning.

It is no coincidence that this happened in Helsinki, Finland being the honor student of OECD’s PISA studies, and a major supporter of the project. Finns are also the first to discuss how the report’s findings will change life in the classrooms. To stay ahead you must think ahead.

The report, which, with a slight edit, could be a popular science bestseller, paves the way for an emerging field of study that combines educational studies, cognitive science and neuroscience. There is lot there that makes intuitive sense and is welcome like scientific support for lifelong learning and for the interdependence of body and mind and the emotional and the cognitive. There is also an interesting chapter on neuromyths. For example there is no scientific support for the claim that a person uses only 10% of his or her brain, or that there would be “left-brain” or “right-brain” persons.

There is also stuff that is quite wild and potentially frightening like brain meets machine research and performance enhancing drugs. One of the most thought-provoking exchanges at the seminar concerned the ethics of neuroscience. Mr della Chiesa told the audience that in their original version of the report they had taken a much stronger stand on ethical issues but had been kindly asked to dampen their views. One of the interesting question he raised was: “What happens when someone invents a pill that will make you smarter? Is it going to be available to millions for a few euros or to only a few for a million euros?” Who exactly asked the team not to discuss ethics, especially of drugs, too much, he would not say.

Later in the day, a new ethical and philosophical twist was introduced by Dr Hideaki Koizumi – who drives around Japan in a pink research truck that has the text “Exciting Brain Science” printed on it in screaming letters – when he turned the thinking around and talked about the neuroscience of ethics. In his closing remarks Mr della Chiesa admitted that occasionally he wakes up in the middle of the night asking himself: “What happens when we find out whether we are born equal when it comes to ethics. If we are, then there is a huge responsibility on the school system. If not, our philosophical fundamentals are going to change.”

Paulo Coelho was dressed in all black, the bookstore was dressed in all black, the 400-person line extending way out of the store was all dressed in black – and it was raining outside. Yet it was a moment of light and hope last Thursday in Stockholm’s Söder district in the new Skrapan mall when the mega popular writer was signing his new book The Witch of Portobello at the new concept store of Akademiebokhandeln. At his stage of popularity Coelho can pick where he goes and he decided to go to Stockholm because he felt it was hugely important that someone was opening a new bookstore at a time when everybody is closing them.

Black is the color of dress for those who know in Stockholm this fall and it is also the color of the new store (could it be that the choice of the iconic color of Monocle magazine has something to do with this?). All shelves, counters, screens, even the staff were matt black. But it was actually a nice backdrop to the tastefully made selection of books, magazines, audio books and films glowing in halogen light. The store made you want to browse and made you find gorgeous things.

Coelho sat behind the desk for the first hour, looking his fans in the eyes, thanking everyone for coming and for reading his books. Everybody had a story to tell and the goateed Brazilian with burning eyes listened as long as it took him to sign the book. And then to the next book and next story. After a short break, for the next hour, he worked the line on foot, reaching the last in the line by the entrance just before it was time to close the store. “You learn these tricks, you know”, he explained. “You can do this faster by standing up, and people like it when you go to them.”

Coelho is about stories, quotes and wisdom. During the dinner afterwards he said that one of his own favorite quotes is by the Swiss architect Le Corbusier: “Men only learned to fly when they stopped replicating the birds.”

Don’t copy, do your own thing. Even if you are dressed like everyone else.

“The most important thing is the wording of what we do, the creation of vocabulary”, described Kjetil Thorsen, one of the founders of the Norwegian architecture firm Snohetta their way of working to me when I interviewed him. The whole interview can be found in Helsinki Design Week Magazine that is just out. What stuck with me from the interview was the role of a common vocabulary in the work of these architects. They are best known for the library in Alexandria, Egypt and for winning the commission to design a museum at the WTC site in New York – and for working collaboratively. Their way of making collaborative designs is to start by talking until they share a vocabulary, and first after that start drawing. If the process is done right, what they come up with belongs to all of them and no one at the same time. Common words lead to common deeds.

There is an important lesson here, not only to designers but everyone involved with projects. So many go wrong because those involved don’t spend enough time developing a common language. People think they do but find out too late they did not.

Norwegians seem to be a nation of great communicators. Today I had the honor of interviewing Princes Märtha Louise of Norway at the shopping mall Sello in Leppävaara. She was absolutely wonderful and engaging before and audience of a few hundred children, adults and elderly that had gathered to see her. It is interesting that as good as she is, she seems to have great trouble explaining to the Norwegians what she actually does at her school. In Finland she could have told the crowd anything and they would have loved her.

Minusta tuli aikoinaan toimittaja, koska ajattelin että saisin sanottavani paremmin perille toimituksellisella puolella kuin yleisönosastossa. Marssin Ylioppilaslehden toimitukseen tuohtuneena eräästä artikkelista ja ehdotin, että saisin kirjoittaa oman mielipiteeni asiasta, mutta artikkeliksi muiden artikkelien joukkoon. Silloinen päätoimittaja Eero Hyvönen kuunteli minua aikansa ja ehdotti lopulta, että en kirjoittaisi vastinetta, vaan jostakin aivan muusta aiheesta, aivan oikean lehtijutun. Ajatus oikeasta lehtijutusta sai mieleni valtaansa ja johti minut muutaman mutkan kautta lehtimiehen uralle.

Tuo kirjoittajan- ja myöhemin kustantajanmatkani alku on käynyt monta kertaa mielessä, kun minua on kehotettu bloggaamaan. Olen aina nauttinut toimituksellisen ympäristön ryhdistä ja selkänojasta. Vapaamuotoinen mielipiteiden pärskähtely on tuntunut vieraalta. Siksi en ole aloittanut blogia - ennen kuin nyt. Great Point tekee töitä viestinnän parissa, ja koska kaikki viestintä on tavalla tai toisella hakeutumassa verkkoon, yrityksellä on tietenkin oltava nettisivut. Mutta viestintäyrityksen, pienenkään, sivusto ei voi olla vain sitä varten, että sieltä tarkistetaan firman virallinen nimi ja postiosoite. Jotta sivuissa olisi tolkkua, niillä on oltava muutakin annettavaa. Great Pointin sivuilta löytyy myös varsinaista journalismia, oman otsikon alta. Blogin tarkoitus on jakaa työn tuiskeessa syntyviä kokemuksia ja havaintoja, hillitysti pärskähtelevällä otteella. Katsotaan mihin se johtaa.