Louise ÖstbergSmall ideas, big results

Speaker and researcher in quality engineering

Small ideas,big results.

Louise Östberg speaks and researches on how everyday improvements, the ones employees already carry with them, become an organisation’s strongest force for change.

Book a keynote Partner on research
80 % small ideas20 % big Roughly how the improvement potential of an organisation is distributed, according to the research behind the book.1 Point at a square for an example.
University
Mid Sweden University
Field
Quality engineering
Award
Author of the Year, SIS Förlag
Based in
Funäsdalen, Sweden

01 Keynotes

Research you can use on Monday

Louise combines research with examples from real workplaces, and likes to end with something concrete to do. Every talk is tailored to your group and the time you have.

Louise Östberg in a blue beanie, smiling, outdoors in a winter landscape
Photo: Estella Elofsdotter

Just as at home with 500 people as with twelve

Louise is regarded as one of Sweden’s leading experts on idea systems. She has spoken to audiences of around 500 and is just as happy running a workshop where the group leaves with ideas of its own.

Format
Keynote, workshop or a combination
Length
Adapted to your programme
Language
English or Swedish
Travels from
Funäsdalen, Sweden

Keynotes

Three talks to choose from · click to read more

How do you get employees to come up with ideas that move the organisation forward, and how do you make sure those ideas actually happen?

The starting point is simple: everyone should take part in continuous improvement. Louise shows how to build a climate where improvement, creativity and innovation become a natural part of everyday work, and what leaders need to do to make it last.

  • Why small ideas deliver the most, taken together
  • What separates idea systems that work from suggestion boxes
  • The manager’s role once the ideas start coming
  • Exercises and tools to generate more ideas
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In 2014, Louise had three small children and a career in Stockholm. There was no time for big expeditions. So she had one small adventure every day for a year: kayaking, trail running, dog sledding, a night in a tent, a mountain safety course.

Could many small adventures add up to as much as one big one? The answer was a move to the mountains. A personal story about starting small, and about what happens when you do.

  • Suits conferences, kick-offs and staff days
  • On motivation, courage and lasting change
  • Warm, personal and illustrated with images from the year
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This is where the two tracks meet. The research on idea systems and the experience of a year of everyday adventures point the same way: change is carried by many small, repeated steps.

The talk supports those who lead improvement and change, and inspires the people who will make it happen.

  • For organisations in the middle of change
  • Brings both energy and structure
  • Can be extended with a workshop
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Clients include

  • Toyota
  • Vattenfall
  • Swedish Tax Agency
  • Coca-Cola
  • Coor
  • Clarion Hotels

Film Volvo Car Sweden

Live Fully Now

Volvo Car Sweden tells the story of Louise and the life she built from small adventures. A good sense of who will be stepping onto your stage.

02 Research

From one idea to a living system

Louise is a researcher in quality engineering at Mid Sweden University. Her work moves across scales: from an individual employee’s suggestion to how whole communities and ecosystems can develop together.

Scale 1 · The individual

Employee-driven innovation

How ideas from the people closest to the work are generated, taken care of and turned into improvements.

Scale 2 · The team

Collaborative improvement

Improvement work done together, and what makes it lead to real change.

Scale 3 · The community

Co-creation in rural areas

How residents, municipalities and businesses can plan local development together.

Scale 4 · The ecosystem

Regenerative quality management

Organisations as living systems, and the capabilities needed for a regenerative transition.

Method

Interactive methods

Louise likes to work with methods in which participants are co-creators rather than objects of study. Through workshops, dialogue and joint analysis, researchers and participants build knowledge together, and the results are put to use while the project is still running.

Looking for a research partner?

Louise is happy to take part in projects on improvement work, idea systems and local development, as a researcher, evaluator or process facilitator.

University
Mid Sweden University, Östersund
Role
PhD student and lecturer
Field
Quality engineering

03 Publications

Book and academic papers

From the book that gave its name to her most requested keynote to recent conference papers on collaborative improvement and regenerative systems.

Cover of the book Små idéer – stora resultat by Louise Östberg, Dean M. Schroeder and Alan G. Robinson

Book · SIS Förlag · in Swedish

Små idéer – stora resultat

Small Ideas, Big Results is a book on creativity, motivation and competitiveness, written by Louise together with Dean M. Schroeder and Alan G. Robinson. They are the University of Massachusetts researchers behind some of the most cited studies on idea systems, and Louise did research with them on creativity and continuous improvement.

With examples from successful companies, the book shows how organisations can capture and implement their employees’ ideas, and why small improvements together often matter most.

2010Author of the Year, SIS Förlag
  1. 2025

    Regenerative ecosystem facilitation and building regenerative skills and capabilities

    Lilja, Hansen, Östberg, Snyder & Eidolf

    EurOMA SOSCM Forum
  2. 2024

    Ecosystemic enablers for regenerative transformation

    Lilja, Snyder, Östberg, Eidolf, Jørgensen & Hedlund

    EurOMA Barcelona
  3. 2024

    Co-creation and collaborative improvement in rural local development planning in Sweden

    Östberg, Snyder & Lilja

    IAQUIS Viterbo
  4. 2023

    Collaborative improvement as a driver for excellence, based on a systematic literature review

    Östberg & Eriksson

    Excellence in Services Paisley
  5. 2023

    An ecosystemic and regenerative approach to quality management

    Lilja, Snyder, Jørgensen, Hedlund & Östberg

    EurOMA Leuven
  6. 2023

    Research on organisations as living systems through participatory and arts-based practices

    Snyder, Lilja & Östberg

    NEON

The full list is available on Louise’s page at Mid Sweden University.

04 About Louise

Practitioner, researcher and mountain dweller

Louise has spent her working life on one simple question: how do you get more people to want to, and be able to, make things a little better every day?

She has worked as a consultant, quality and environmental manager and business developer, in both the private and public sectors, specialising in simple and effective management systems. Today she researches and teaches quality engineering at Mid Sweden University.

She lives with her family in Funäsdalen in the Swedish mountains, where she is also a mountain guide and head of Adventure Academy. It is the same idea in a different setting: small steps, taken for real.

  1. Massachusetts

    Research on idea systems

    Studies in creativity and continuous improvement at the University of Massachusetts.

  2. 2010

    Author of the Year

    SIS Förlag honours the book Små idéer – stora resultat.

  3. Business and public sector

    Consultant and quality manager

    Assignments in service and manufacturing organisations.

  4. 2014

    365 Everyday Adventures

    One adventure a day for a year. The family then moves to the mountains.

  5. Today

    Mid Sweden University

    Researcher and lecturer in quality engineering.

05 Contact

Book Louise

Tell us briefly what you are planning, and Louise will get back to you with a suggested format and fee. No enquiry is too small. That is rather the point.

Emaillouise@smaideer.se Phone+46 70 633 20 11
Based inFunäsdalen, Sweden
What is it about?
Reply within a few working days