Brock { Abroad }

I can’t believe I’m still awake right now. Knowing I have the second day of a workshop I’ve developed through Knowmads in collaboration with the Hub Amsterdam, I am still buzzing. It’s amazing the amount of things I am able to do with an education as amazing as Knowmads. Going out into the city doing collaborations like The Knowmadic Learning Lab make me realize that there a lot of other “pop-up, start-up learning spaces” happening all across the world.

When I mention this phrase, my mind immediately goes to Frauke Godet of the Hub Berlin. An absolutely gracious presence to have attend our workshop this past Wednesday, she has a rather interesting education topic that suggests the world’s next best “dream school” may not even need a roof. Here are some details on the concept, Future at School:

Facing the global transformation process from moving from the Industrial Age to the Knowledge age. Schools need to educate different skills and competencies:

INDUSTRIAL AGE…………………………….KNOWLEDGE AGE
Interpreted data……………………………. Interpreted information
Hierarchical………………………………….. Personally-constructed meanings
Soloed jobs and roles…………………….. Network org. and Knowmads
Chaos and ambiguity are avoided…….. Chaos and ambiguity are embraced

Inspired by John Moravec, a Knowmads ambassador and initiator of Education Futures:

Accelerating complexity caused by human activity is challenging society and individuals. We need to develop people who are capable to create alternatives in the unknown, to make sense of ambiguity, and to take leadership in chaotic environments.

Vision
To develop young people world-wide who take responsibility to design and create their future!

Mission:
To create a space for cross-generational learning and collaboration to support ideas for a radically better world.

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

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!

How you can have both your apples and chocolate: on balancing discipline and flexibility… Read the rest of this entry »

a.5 ‘the process of getting from point A to point B.’
The a.5 is the part where your morning becomes your afternoon, which then becomes your night. The a.5 is really where everything happens and those who try to jump from a to b, without thinking about the a.5 don’t always fail, but they sure have one hell of a harder time getting there when they could have been doing something better while celebrating their success and moving forward. The a.5 is simply the action that gives your process more momentum. And it’s a very important thing to take into consideration when also thinking in terms of your life. You want most of your energy devoted to the a.5, where instead of planning how to get something, you know one thing you know needs to get done today in order to bring you one step closer.
I’ve talked a lot about pursuing a life of passion. Well, the a.5 is where that passion lies and this is where you want to have most of your life sitting. I’m talking the disconnect between leading your life or letting your life lead you. Is there a huge disconnect between these two? Are you far away from the a.5 and don’t know how to make the plunge? Keep reading…

work to home, life to death, breakfast to dinner, monday to friday, night to day, inside to outside, little to big, dreaming to doing, ordinary to extraordinary, these are the moments that make up life. Read the rest of this entry »

I have set three rules for this approximate year-long project.
1) I do only what I want to do.
2) I do it the best that I can.
3) I do not allow any obstacle to stand in my way.

Before undergoing this, I did a few preparations that better outline the goals I want to achieve as I fumble through finding the best way, but that’s what it all comes down to. Getting ready to get a little dirty, work hard, go the wrong way, then walking back seven kilometers because you didn’t ask for directions… The process was hard, but it was also fun, and through being completely honest to myself, I found the answers I was looking for.  While undergoing this process, I began to start living my life instead of letting my life lead me.

The thing is, I just stopped dreaming about the possibilities and finally sat down and threw up everything about myself that I could on paper. My hopes, dreams, strengths, my passions. Well, especially my passion. Because once you begin to see all the parts that make you up from the day that you were born until this very moment, it’s just a matter of creativity from there. The key to creativity lies in the ability to draw completely unique connections between everything that is already here. Really, it’s all been done before. As Jean-Paul Sartre puts it:

“The only thing that hasn’t been figured out, is how to live life.”

Isn’t that the truth?

It’s all really just a bunch of small pieces to a bigger process, and the process is waiting for you. What are you waiting for? Isn’t it time to begin your personal quest to see the big picture?
Maybe you’re ready to take this next step. If it’s not your thing, I totally understand, but let me know what‘s on your mind. I’m all ears.

To today, everyone!

If you’re just tuning in to this site, check out the post below this titled a.pilgrim{process}
What Do You Want to Do?

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