Brock { Abroad }

“The Glimpse Correspondents Program is for talented writers and photographers with a passion for storytelling and a knack for finding truly unique stories. The program is open to anyone between the ages of 18 and 36 who will be working, volunteering, or studying outside of their home country for at least 10 weeks.”

Here is a artistic statement written from the prompt:
“Why you are interested in being a Glimpse Correspondent? We also want to know what issues you hope to explore and/or what kinds of cultural adventures you hope to embark on.”

On Pilgrimage:

The ability to craft stories that create a meaningful connection between author, reader, and the snapshot moments spent with people on the path makes up my life. When it comes to using my talents in a passionate way and making a positive impact on the world, storytelling is more than my medium. Storytelling is my passion. There is a Zen belief affirming that upon leaping, a net will appear. This seems a fitting statement for the story. My extremely brief life has been a journey of leaps that led me to Amsterdam. After a long and bitter cold winter squatting with circus performers in Montreal, I became a Knowmad. As a nomadic knowledge worker at The New Business School for the World, my other passion for travel is used on a daily basis.

Joining an international team of young social entrepreneurs working and learning from each other has challenged me to “combine, passion, business, and playful learning,” as our motto states. Studying process design, social innovation and sustainability, new business design, personal leadership, and international project design, Knowmads aims to “educate change-makers.”

I continue exploring my learning journey that has brought me on pilgrimage with purpose. From Santiago to Varanasi, Palestine to Paris, I view life as pilgrimage. I’ve realized now on this journey that the destination never seems to arrive. Taking this approach to heart, I find myself constantly exploring this theme in my writing while listening to the life philosophies and stories of people from all over the world.

When it comes to travel, it’s often the people that make the place. As we continue flowing into an increasingly chaotic world, there’s a certain silence in the stories of people, all over the world. I believe this creates a story in the telling that no other medium can quite replicate. In story, a voice is given to the voiceless. In telling, a much louder sound emerges. This is a sound that holds more power than any army could possibly provide. As a storyteller, I am seeking autonomy from a society that has mastered the art of fear in the unknown through mass-management and hysteria in media and politics.

As I explore myself further through my craft, I also want to explore the broader implications travel has on socio-cultural interactions and innovations. Through bringing people together, there lies a necessity for an authentic cultural understanding. Through story, I attempt to break down the barriers and stigma modern culture and society has been spoon-fed by mainstream media. Through their telling, I hope to close the border between places and their people. I believe this responsibility is the natural step that can break down not just borders within myself, but also the borders within this world.

There is a website I really like called Marc and Angel Hack Life: Practical Tips for Productive Living. In an article entitled How to Achieve Your Goals, one tip they recommend is having a support group of like-minded people who share similar goals as you that you meet with once a week to help each other self-reflect, gauge progress, and create an overall positive energy. This is what I see Knowmads as. Although I’m not incredibly clear on a definitive list of shared goals, it’s great to be in a group that shares similar values, principles, and a drive to live the life we love by “combining passion, business, and playful learning.”

As I’ve been preparing for a workshop in conjunction with the Hub Amsterdam for their Summer Learning Festival, I’ve spent my past few weeks developing some tools that may be utilized in our workshop. Together with my mastermind partners in crime Naomi, Oscar, Fran, and Manu, we’ve used each other to create more self-awareness in each other. Whether we were making lists of what we want to have, be, or do, interviewing each other, creating questions without worrying so much about the answers, or writing a love letter to ourselves, I have cherished this recent Sunday ritual. So, I’d like to dedicate this post to these people, who pick me up after long weeks. I love you all.

As we enter a break from Knowmads and I tackle the Social Innovation Safari, travel to Sweden for a Vipassana Medition Retreat, and visit a special someone in Oslo, I sit writing this on a Sunday. It’s my first Sunday in a month without my “mastermind group.” As I was thinking about them and surfing one of my favorite life-hacking sites, I found a new Sunday ritual to keep me going: 20 Questions You Should Ask Yourself Every Sunday.

Finally, if you are in the Amsterdam area between the 25-28 of August and would like to more about our Knowmadic Learning Lab, check out the previous link, and stay tuned for a new blog dedicated to living, learning, and loving. As for now, check out my fellow Knowmadic friend Naomi’s blog called just that. I love the learnings she shares.

Keep Calm and Carry On, everybody.

“Kennisland (Knowledgeland) contributes to a smarter Dutch society. We believe that the best guarantee for future prosperity and welfare, now and in the future, is to strengthen our knowledge society. We help to realise this national goal by developing and delivering key interventions.

Kennisland is an independent think tank. We continuously search for ways to spark the social innovations needed to improve the knowledge society. We start by defining challenges for the Dutch knowledge society and creatively finding possible answers to them. We put these issues on policymakers’ agendas. We need that leverage: broad challenges require a broad approach. But that is not all: we also develop and deliver projects, programmes and platforms to help others fix the issues at hand. We also assist in scaling and transferring success results and knowledge about the ins-and-outs of social innovation, to help others forward.”

This above excerpt was taken from the website of Kennisland, which is hosting a Social Innovation Safari beginning just hours before the World Cup championship tomorrow. Working in small teams prototyping and developing interventions and innovations for four different organizations, 28 very diverse pioneers are coming together from all over the world. See the link above to check out all the participants and the cases we will be working on. Below is the promotional video, in case you’re a more visual type. That’s all for now, I’m off to prepare my five minute Tedx talk, safari-style!

“Deep Democracy is supposed to involve openness to other individuals, groups and diversity. It includes feelings, dreams, body symptoms, altered states of consciousness, synchronicities, and an awareness of signals, roles, and the structural dynamics of the interactions between the parties involved.”                                                                     -Wikipedia

After working with this tool at Knowmads, I don’t think our group will ever be the same. It completely changed my perspective on group dynamics and processes. Especially, in regards to Role Theory.

The photo on the left shows just how much wisdom the minority of any group, or society as a whole, has to offer.

Tracing history back to empires, where about .0001% of potential knowledge is taken into consideration and feudal systems where about .0005% of knowledge is used, and even democracy, where the majority (51%) wins, these methods are just the tip of the iceberg.

Developed by physicist Arny Mindell and his process work, Deep Democracy is based off the Jungian psychology that states democracy just may not be enough to achieve a real majority that is required to ‘keep people on the bus.’ In other words, when the minority loses, they will tread the ‘terrorist line.’ A person becomes a “terrorist” when they become uncomfortable with a decision that is made. Here is a diagram that explains how a covert terror attempt becomes a full-blown war within a group:

Here are the steps to take in order to dig deeper into what is called ‘fishing.’ These steps are taken in an attempt to find those deep emotions, or “fishes” that are in the subconscious of every group.

Step 1

Don’t practice Majority democracy!

In other words, go beyond the regular majority vote. The next steps allow this to happen.

Step 2

Make it safe to say ‘NO’

When other people feel uncomfortable with their true feelings because of group pressure, they are never truly heard. Thus begins the resentment and jokes that enter the terrorist line. Once you, as a facilitator are able to make it safe to say ‘NO,’ true emotions can emerge.

Step 3

Spread the ‘NO’

Have you ever been in a meeting and been brave enough to really say what you thought and felt like a complete asshole afterwards? This next step helps prevent that brave person to not feel so alone. Role theory, which I will touch upon later, proves that these people are usually never alone. Most of the time, if you can relate to this experience,

Giving us a menu of theory, practice, tools, and exercises we could use, Moraan Gilad did a great job hosting the workshop. By using this menu full of options that allowed us to choose the structure of the workshop, we were able to practice facilitating the technique ourselves. On the final afternoon, she showed us her expert skills as we went fishing as a group using the ‘soft shoe shuffle,’ an on-your-feet exercise that magnifies the feeling people had toward the group regarding some pretty sensitive subjects. She did a great job fishing, but left me with a burning question:

Now that we’ve caught the fish, what do we do with it?

To be continued….

Doing is what I came to Knowmads to learn.

Energy is what I’m constantly exploring in myself and the world around me.

After a not so recent walk along the beach in Tel Aviv with a friend and spiritual mentor, Tsi-la, I learned a very beautiful metaphor for approaching each day. It is about energy renewal and the recent feeling of leaving a certain honeymoon period with my new company and school that I’ve spent the last two months getting started up.

to today, everyone!

Who is the artist?

What is the role of art and the artist in the 21st Century?

“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 »

Today was a great self-working Wednesday where the tribe got together, cooked together, danced, and started shipping! (literally!) Eight of us found our way to work en route a ferry where we went to sunny bar and cafe Noorderlicht near the MTV headquarters on the industrial north island of the city. Constructed from a greenhouse and secured at the base with cement bags, eclectic furniture, and an organically delicious menu and equally enjoyable staff, it has a panoramic vista of Amsterdam harbor. With painted leather sofas littered amongst old ship hull tables and cranes dotting the waterfront, this creative cafe was a buzzing hub of people working, talking, eating, and laughing. I think the tribe managed to do all of the above and then some! We split up to work on two very exciting projects that are keeping us incredibly good busy at the moment. One, from Royal Haskoning SMC and the other from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

{A special thanks from the tribe to Roel and Ellen over at Access to Retailing for the great tip on one of Amsterdam’s hottest hangouts.}