011–4 weeks, fixed price
Mapping
Interviews, observation and, if needed, a survey. Systemic analysis shows both the structures and the thinking, and how they affect each other. You get a report and a development plan.
Expert on thinking
I see how thinking works. Then change happens fast.
I'm Ilkka Rajala from Finland. I listen to how people talk and watch what they do. From that I see what is really going on, and I choose the approach that works. I speak, train, consult and coach. I also do systemic analysis and build systems for it.
50 000
people trained
1 500+
one-to-one clients
10 000+
coaching hours
20+
years of experience
How I work
I see the structure. Then I choose the method.
Most people only see the end result of their thinking: a decision, a feeling, a conflict. I look at how it was produced. I notice what is left unsaid and how a person reacts. Thinking has a structure, and once I see it, I know where to start.
The method depends on the situation. Sometimes I show the client the structure, and they see for themselves what to change. Sometimes they only need the change, for example hypnosis built for their exact situation. If someone already thinks too much, we work through the body instead. The result decides, and the method adapts.
On courses I teach the same skill to others. In psychology it is called metacognition: the ability to watch your own thinking from the side and adjust it.
For organisations.
Strategy turns into action only when it turns into thinking. I work where plans are ready but daily work does not follow them yet.
Talks and training
Leading thinking
My flagship for leaders and managers: how you think under pressure, how to read the thinking of others, and how to get people to see the same direction. Keynote, training day or a 2–6 month programme.
Cool head
Mental crisis resilience. When you notice your thoughts as thoughts, they stop running the show. For kick-offs, staff days and organisations living with uncertainty.
Thinking in the age of AI
When machines think more and more on our behalf, your edge is knowing how you think yourself. Asking well, deciding well and keeping your own judgment.
Change that lasts
How change is communicated and led so that people come along and the new way stays.
Consulting
022–6 months
Development project
Goals and metrics are agreed at the start. I coach the managers, build the communication and fix the practices that keep the old way alive.
03ongoing
Leadership sparring
An outside thinking partner while change is under way and decisions need to be made fast.
Clients include Accenture, Ilmarinen, Metsä Group, Nokia, the Finnish Defence Forces, S-Bank and DNA. If you are not happy with a talk or a training, I don’t invoice it.
One-to-one coaching.
For executives, elite athletes and professionals whose work is visible and whose pressure is high. Many of my clients have no problem with their mind. They want to be the best in their field.
Intensive
One big question and a whole day for it. For a decisive choice, a competition or a performance.
Programme
Regular sessions, messaging between them and a short call before an important situation. Most executives and athletes end up here.
Sparring
A thinking partner who knows your situation and is there before big decisions.
Everything starts with a free 30-minute conversation where we see whether I am the right person for you. I work in English and Finnish, with clients in Finland and abroad. Nothing leaves the room: I don’t name clients without permission.
About
Three worlds, one question.
I work in three worlds that rarely meet. In business I develop organisations, leadership, sales and change. In high performance I coach executives, athletes and special forces soldiers from several countries. And I have studied the inner world of the mind since I was 13, including more than fifteen years of meditation and journeys to learn from shamans and other teachers around the world.
The question is the same everywhere: how does thinking really work, and how can it be changed? I have completed well over a hundred trainings on the human mind, from psychotherapy methods and hypnosis to NLP, solution-focused work, somatic methods and systems thinking. I am loyal to results, not to methods.
1993
Started studying the human mind at 13, with Anthony Robbins’ Personal Power tapes.
Before
A commercial career in sales, product and marketing management, and running Finland’s largest Apple store.
2005
Training director at an international consulting firm. Over 200 trainings in sales, interaction and change management.
2008
Founded NLP Akatemia. Studied for years with Richard Bandler, co-creator of NLP. Licensed Master Trainer of NLP™ since 2012, over 100 NLP Practitioner courses.
2015
Co-founded an AI company that taught a machine to read from speech and text how a person thinks.
Now
Developing organisations, coaching people with a lot at stake, and building new things.
I highly recommend Ilkka Rajala. He is continually updating his training with the most up-to-date skills I have developed and one of those licensed internationally through the Society of Neuro-Linguistic Programming™
Book
Voittamaton
11 key abilities for success and peace of mind
Success is not a gift you are born with. It is a set of skills you can learn. A Finnish book I wrote with Davide Floreno and Petri Matero.
Alma Talent 2020Tell me briefly about your situation. I reply myself.
Your message comes straight to me, not to an assistant or a sales team. Tell me what it is about and what you hope for, and I will suggest how to go on: a short call, a meeting or a proposal.