Sep 26
Sep 15
I’m fascinated with the field of social innovation. I am full of questions regarding what can often be a fuzzy, in-the-clouds concept. What is social innovation? What is happening in our world that has created such a movement behind this term? When and why do you call something “social” or something “innovative?” Who can we look to as exemplary social innovators? How does this term get put into action and what are some examples of social innovation happening in the field? How can you come to your own conclusions regarding these questions and find your place within it all? I suggest you take a look at this travel guide from the Kaos Pilot team 13:
Aug 23
I love reading online manifestos! They are a great way to quickly get inspired, motivated, and educated. This week, I’d like to share a manifesto that very well could be one of my favorites that I’ve ever read. Taken from changethis.com, a site brimming with manifestos, The Young Professional Rockstar is a guide to rocking your world. Young or young at heart, everyone can take something from this manifesto in my opinion.
Admittedly, however, this manifesto is more geared towards the emerging professional just entering the workforce. It focuses a lot on personal branding, identity, and things that can really help a young professional make an easy transition to “working” life.
Taking the learning journey one step at a time, it takes a ten-step approach. Part one, Access, focuses on accessing your inner qualities and recognizing the core competencies you are built upon. Giving tips on controlling your brand image and setting a direction for where you want your goals to take you close down the first section.
What I like about this manifesto is the inclusion of action steps that follow each introduction to the certain points of reference. The second part begins with just that-Action. It does a great job at advising you how to make valuable connections, market yourself, stand out from the crowd, as well as push yourself out of your comfort zone. I find these tools incredibly useful at creating needed change to diversify your personal skills and income. The final part, Advance, encourages you to “rock it from anywhere and everywhere” and to keep growing!
My favorite action steps, or personal coaching tools, listed in this manifesto include:
- Creating a “rockstar vision book”
- Develop your “rockstar statement”
- and finally, creating time for growth
Have a manifesto you recommend? Drop us a comment below!
Aug 19
Dave Navarro’s website is pretty kick-ass. Dave seems like a pretty kick-ass guy, in general. Although we’ve never met, his articles such as Goal Addiction and the Cult of Productivity, or Why You’re Not Doing the Things You Said You Wanted to, are also pretty kick-ass. Although his website is an overall good resource full of kick-ass tips, I recommend his manifesto even more. It’s called More Time Now. If you’re not up for all 40 pages now, this post gives the jist of it.
He says it’s all about your mindset. Go figure. Whatever the case, he reminds us that most people lived successful, happy lives well before GTD, Franklin Planners, Palm Pilots, or The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People were ever written. It’s not about getting things done, Dave says. Time will pass, as it always has, so he advises to stop chasing productivity. Time management will never work. It’s not about how organized our lives are, but whether we can finally stop settling for less. My favorite quote is this:
“Recreation isn’t simply playing video games- it’s literally re-creating yourself and shedding your baggage so you can live a remarkable life.”
The difference is that goals are things we dream about, while priorities are things we actually act on. Goals and priorities are where dreaming becomes doing. Navarro talks about three skills to save focus and protect priorities, regarding commitments.
- Deferring new commitments
Resist reaction and train yourself to no longer be conditioned by things that aren’t really that urgent just because they pop up. Whether it’s a phone call, an email, or whatever. Making a conscious decision to leave what you had originally made a priority, when it feels like the right thing to do, otherwise stay on track.
- Delegating new commitments
Meaning asking other people to do something you may not need to do yourself. Feelings from ego (“only I can do this the right way”) or guilt (I can’t let this person down.” ) are often the culprits for not delegating.
- Mitigating new commitments
This can be a combination of some type involving deferral, delegation, or some sort of negotiation to take on part of a task or a smaller one that you can commit to.
Other tools his manifesto’s foundation is built upon include:
Timeboxing– Giving yourself a little bit of pressure to say: “This needs to be done in an hour.” Giving your priority the focus, attention, and drive it deserves.
Micro-actions– a powerful, mind-altering prescription for habit change because they don’t require willpower. Making changing habits a game that will ultimately leave you feeling that internal nagging to play an even bigger game.
Aug 02
a story of pilgrimage
*travels{abroad}, Israel, Netherlands, Spain, camino de santiago, palestine, {abroad}journey No Comments »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.
It’s not surprising, then, that I’ve reached the first obstacle of my trip here. Head spinning, my body lies like a rag on the sofa. My brain is fuzzy. The television plays movie after movie, as if on repeat. Maybe it is on repeat. I’m not sure. The flu medicine must be kicking in. Read the rest of this entry »
Jul 30
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!
Jul 25
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.
Photos: KL Safari First Days
A blog on the Safari by Patrick Veenhoff
Have I missed any other good sources? If so, let me know!
Jul 19
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
May 26
So, I’ve decided it’s about time to put up another blog post. The first draft of this has been sitting in my drafts folder on my blog for weeks, since I last blogged. For many reasons, I just haven’t made updating a priority in the past few weeks. It’s ok to take a break, of course, but what I’ve come to realize is that not everything can be perfect. I admit this isn’t the perfect harvesting example, but I’ve decided to just let it go and stick to my blogging rule #1: It’s ok to be shitty.
Not everything I do can be perfect and I think that’s what makes an entrepreneur an entrepreneur. The ability to try, or prototype, something and know that it will be better next time. Maybe it won’t, but either way, if I did everything perfectly I’d never get a blog post done. Not to say that this harvest is horrible, but….
I am currently reporting from Paris, where I was sent for 24 hours to experience the KLM flying experience for our current project with them on the extended office. It’s been a period of extreme acceptance, growth, and challenge. I’m beginning to regain my strength. I will elaborate more on this as well as the KLM assignment in the next days. For now, however, I continue with a blog post that I started weeks ago. Like many things that have happened to me over the past few weeks, I feel a great weight lifted after pressing the publish button.
In a not so recent World Cafe , a social technology similar to Open Space and the Art of Hosting, Knowmads was honored to have as a special guest/host/learning sojourner Pieter Ploeg a.k.a. pietradelmundo.
As a collective intelligence tool, World Cafe was created to to create and harvest conversations that matter.
The first blog post introduced the creation of the space, this blog post focuses on what’s left of the beautiful conversation that was created. Here is a visual of what we harvested:
Based on the question: Given the state of the world, what and how do you want to learn for a better future? Read the rest of this entry »
May 13
When asked to write a piece of text for the Knowmads blog in the upcoming “what our students say” section, this is what I wrote:
“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 »
