Brock { Abroad }

“Recreation isn’t simply playing video games- it’s literally re-creating yourself and shedding your baggage so you can live a remarkable life.”

Perhaps the best way to describe this city is like Amsterdam’s bitchier sister who is just as hot, but more in the ‘I can kick your ass’ kind of way. Rotterdam has chewed me up and spit me out, yet I still keep coming back for more. With gusts of salty wind, huge skyscrapers, and an impossible grind of cars, trams, and bicycles, she doesn’t give you the time to think. People aren’t strolling canals in circles, but crossing bridges with a direct destination in mind. Here, you work hard and you play hard. Any questions? If so, catch the nearest train back to Amsterdam; maybe someone up there will give you the time of day.

During the first morning of the Kennisland Social Innovation Safari, Kwela Sabine Hermanns, a personal role model of mine and also an ambassador for Knowmads, asked us all a very valuable question. She asked us:
What does social innovation mean for you?

It was an incredibly valid question. Every day in my very sheltered environment, although a school for the world, words like social innovation, sustainability, co-creation, presencing, and many others fly out of our mouths that would make most people outside the program, or at least outside social change circles, say… “what in the world…?”
Christina Jordan, another personal hero, is collaborating with many others to solve that very question. What (in the world) does social innovation mean? Co-organizer of the Cosi10, Christina is working to connect socially innovative initiatives around the world over a three month time span. In a “simple face-to-face unconference event,” they hope to create a networking and learning process that allows people to collaborate and share impact strategies, skill development resources, and even develop revenue models to build thrivable social innovations.

Still, the question remains. What constitutes a social innovation? From my extensive research on the subject, I like this answer best. Taken from the guys over at Social Velocity, they state that social innovation is…
“…a whole group of big, ambitious, new ideas and models for solving social problems. Social innovation is about changing institutions, organizations, approaches, systems in fundamental ways so that we can fix the many problems facing us. It includes things like:

• Creating new financial vehicles where nonprofit and for profit organizations that are working to solve social problems can have ready access to all kinds of funding (seed funding, growth capital, debt, etc.)
• Removing the hurdles placed in front of organizations working to solve social problems (accounting standards, IRS regulations, etc.)
• Restructuring philanthropy to be more effective at supporting real change
• Revamping government so that it can support, rather than thwart, change leaders
• Reforming nonprofit organizations to break out of the starvation cycle and become more effective at creating social impact

And that’s just the beginning.
Social innovation is big. It’s bold. It is a movement of people and organizations from all three sectors (public, private, nonprofit) who are taking a completely different approach, who are turning the status quo on its head, who are building new systems, who are asking hard questions, who are creating a new way forward.”

Finally, attempting to answer the question I first addressed, in one word, social innovation means for me connecting. It means a better connection to self and in turn a better connection to the world around you. It entails understanding that everything is connected to everything else and searching for the required passion to connect work to play.

The Knowmadic Learning Lab, in collaboration with the Hub Summer School initiative on the Knowmads platform, is my attempt to strengthen the power of connection, to be part of the social innovation movement, and to connect to you, wherever you are. We hope to see you on at the end of this month for a great day of playing with our passions at the Knowmadic Learning Lab!

The Social Innovation Safari in Amsterdam was an absolute hit. As a follow up to a week of imaginative innovations that came out of five local project-based assignments, I’m creating a blog post harvesting all the great things that came out of the Safari. Taken from the Kennisland website, here are the cases:

• Jeugdzorg Amsterdam (Office for Juvenile Care) is a looking for ways to innovate in their complex organisation. What is going wrong? Interview the people involved and design simple intervention for a complex problem.
• IJburg is one of the youngest neighbourhood in Amsterdam and already facing serious challenges: small enterpreneurs are having a hard time surviving, different social groups don’t mix. A group of active residents of IJburg want to make their neighbourhood more livable and need your help!
• Filmmuseum Amsterdam will be moving to a new location (Amsterdam Noord) and wants to involve the neighbourhood. What ways can be found to make this cultural institution part of the neighbourhood and how can the people living there profit from this and add their value?
• Mixacademy: An alternative art academy in the center of Amsterdam. What can they do to stimulate creative entrepreneurschip and offer chances to talented people without focusing on prior education?
• Weekend School: A one-day extra-curricular educational program that is looking for a way to better connect their alumni to each other and also to the school’s network.

I’m especially focusing on the project I took on with the Mix Academy.

The Mix Academy, in simple terms, is an incredibly open alternative school for the arts located in the heart of the city. Recognizing that artists need to be entrepreneurs in order to reach their public, it trains students from all walks of life to discover their true self through their creativity. Whether it is through free painting, graphic design, 3D work, illustration, or photography, Mix Academy allows the individual to build a network around them that can launch them into the world. Combining high and low art through a very mixed curriculum, the Mix academy is a concept I greatly believe in.

Which is why it was so easy to take on this assignment that combined my interest in innovative education with art. Ralph de Lange, the initiator of the Mix, is a lovable character who was an absolute joy to work with. Strongly believing in his message that he wants to spread to the world, my team of six spent three days (and nights) working in parks, cafes, and even my apartment one very long evening. Here is the presentation full of innovative ideas that we gave to a full room of guests, including the local media, on the final evening:

For the full list of presentations that came out of the week-long program, see here.

Here are some other resources I’ve harvested on the final outcomes from the Safari:

An article written by Pieter Hilhorst of De Volkskrant, an Amsterdam newspaper. (Dutch, but can be translated)

The beginning of a great blog series on the Safari by Tage Skotvold, a participant and new friend.

An article by Hannah Aukes

Photos: KL Safari First Days

KL Safari Mix Academy

KL Safari BBQ

KL Safari Closing Event

A blog on the Safari by Patrick Veenhoff

Have I missed any other good sources? If so, let me know!

As I leave for Oslo today, I’ve decided to post some quotes on my blog. I absolutely love the inspirational and motivational power of quotes. The theme for this set is:

Enjoy!

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
- Jim Rohn
“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”
- Alice Walker
“People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt
“In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”
- Eric Hoffer

“The most successful people are those who are good at plan B.”
- James Yorke

“Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.”
- Pearl S. Buck

“The most important thing to remember is this: To be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become.”
- W.E.B. Du Bois

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain one once he grows up.”

“Picasso said this and Knowmads attempts to solve the struggles an individual has in creating a life of purpose by giving them the necessary experience, creativity, and individual responsibility needed to succeed in a world that is changing at an extremely rapid rate. Because of this, the traditional four year degree is outdated within a year of graduation. As a student with a background in experimental, experiential, and artistic education, conforming to the typical university system just wasn’t an option for me. For a true individual seeking to transcend conformity and give more meaning to life, Knowmads is for you. Because It’s not about creating parts to your life; it’s about creating your part in life. Welcome Home!”

So, your first question may be:
Who is the artist? In my eyes, the artist is a human being who combines passion, work, and playful learning. The artist has a spiritual core, a fearless exterior, and uses their creativity, or imagination, to make a difference in the world they’ve created.

The next question I’m attempting to gain more insight on is: “what is the role of art and the artist in the 21st Century?” I believe that the artist can be used as the perfect analogy of what is required of educating leaders in this era of socio-economic complexity. Here are 3 reasons why: Read the rest of this entry »

Building on a previous post, 21st Century Leadership, leadership styles in the past, present, and future are explained by Pieter Spinder at Knowmads.

When it comes down to traditional leadership, bureaucratic and autocratic leadership styles come to mind. Involving hierarchy, power retention within “manager-style” positions, all decision-making is given on a vertical style of bureaucratic leadership where only the highest positions are involved. Staff, within organizations and corporations, do not consult staff and are typically not given the opportunity to provide input. Without explanation, they are expected to obey orders. Usually, they do so without ever given a second thought. This is typically due to a structured set of rewards and punishments that are involved if they fail or succeed. In other words, if they obey or disobey.

Autocratic leaders are especially reliant on these threats and punishments to influence their staff, which they don’t trust or listen to for input, anyway. Bureaucratic style is a bit more managed “by the book,” so to speak. Everything is done according to procedure or policy. If not covered by the book, it’s passed on to the hands of a higher level without further regard. It’s this behavior that places a police officer as simply a rule-enforcer instead of a leader, for example.

What are some qualities of other present leadership styles that are valuable and what are the leadership styles of the future? Some valuable qualities that can help make a group of people collaborate more creatively involve just that type of attitude. These qualities get everyone more involved, they create a community dialogue and discussion. They are an easy entrance to expanding your network in order to open up to a wider audience, within a differently structured format, involving like-minded educators of a similar skill level. Here are the styles of the today and tomorrow we explored:

Transformational Leadership

Make change happen in self, others, groups, and organizations. Charisma is a special leadership style commonly associated with transformational leadership; extremely powerful, extremely hard to teach.

Transactional Leadership

Emphasizes on getting things done within the umbrella of the status quo, which is directly in opposition of transformational leadership. Using a “by the book” approach, this leader works within the rules and is commonly seen in large, bureaucratic organizations.

Creative Leadership

Ability to uniquely inspire people, generating shared innovative responses and solutions to complex and readily-changing situations.

street art, Tel-Aviv

Corrective Leadership

Empowers staff to facilitate collaborative behavior and creates a synergism by working with and through other people instead of bowing to authoritarianism.

Change Leadership

Endorses alteration, is beyond thinking about individuals and individual organizations, and single problems with single solutions. Rethinks systems to introduce change on parts of the whole and their relationship to one another.

Intelligence Leadership

Is able to navigate the future by embracing ambiguity and reframing problems as opportunities. Takes a proactive stance in taking their organizations into uncharted territory.

Multicultural Leadership

Fosters team and individual effectiveness, drives for innovation by leveraging multicultural differences. Teams are able to work more effectively in the atmosphere of understanding and mutual respect.

Pedagogical Leadership

A video from 21st Century Pedagogy attempts to answer the question: How do we involve new technologies to meet the changing needs of students in the 21st Century classroom?

The literature from the presentation reads:

Technology will never replace teachers. However, teachers who know how to use technology effectively to help their students connect and collaborate together online will replace those who do not.

There is a paradigm shift from leader/teacher centered “orientation” to an interactive, connective organizational system using more democratic learning with a more dynamic communicative approach. This is seen as an alternative to instructional leadership by enabling the learning and intellectual growth of those led. Read the rest of this entry »