Agents of Change @ Work

What Keeps Us Marching?

It was Margaret Mead who said, "never understimate the power of a few to change the world". Imagine if that few had already reached millions in number. Back in 2004,  when Paul Hawken began his research into the number of non-governmental, largely volunteer groups working to achieve environmental sustainability and social justice, he counted a couple hundred thousand. Now he confidently predicts they exceed 1 million. We "change agents" are becoming a new super power as decribed in Paul's latest book: Blessed Unrest. The book title was extracted from Martha Graham's wonderful remark to Agnes de Mille:

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.....You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open...There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the other.

Paul's speech at the Bioneers conference in 2004 gives me boose bumps and inspires me every time I watch it so it is appropriate to include here. Enjoy and circulate. The earth's immune system appears to be alive and well...

I'm involved in two such groups: 1. The Change the Dream symposium developed by the Pachamama Alliance is now being lead by over 350 fully trained facilitator volunteers - a remarkable feat given that a year ago there were just 30 such volunteers who had completed a five day program at their own expense. 2. The Icarus Foundation - a grass roots movement starting in Canada developed to help the tourism industry own up to its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

The Power of Passion and Service

Here is a man who has found his passion and now has the power to lead and inspire. This is the second of two talks at the wonderful TED conferences by Al Gore. He's my Hero because he has triumphed over injustice and major setbacks; he has enormous vision (he not only made us aware of climate change but embraced and communicated the power of the Internet very early on as a force that could help educate and democratize); and, finally, because of his commitment to serve his fellow man. There must have been many nights, after the election defeat and while roaming from one airport to another, when it felt really lonely. This is the curse of the visionary - to be able to see what others cannot.

When Europeans first arrived in the Americas, they hired scouts - local people who knew the lay of the land; who could read the signs and get over the mountains to see what was on the other side. Wise colonists listened carefully to their reports and advice - it was the only intelligence they had.

Click here to watch the video here so you can enjoy this man's new found sense of humour and get some practical suggestions as to how to play your part in race to slow the ticking time bomb that is global warming.

Road Warriors Re-Invented

Ever wondered why coffee houses were gobbling up all available high street retail space?
Ever wondered where you would find your next brilliant web designer or programmer?

There’s one answer common to these two very diverse questions – the emergence of the new “bedouins” who transform a laptop, cell phone and coffee house into their office. You can read all about it in today’s article in SFGate – hot off the press from San Francisco.

Further evidence of the fundamental changes that are occurring in the nature of work as profiled in Leon Benjamin’s book, Winning by Sharing, and blog of same name and also identified by Dan Pink when he wrote Free Agent Nation in 2001. According to the SFGate article, in February of 2005, the US Census identified 10.3 million independent contractors, 2.5 million workers, 1.2 million temporary help agency workers and 813, 000 workers with contract firms. Dan Pink calls it “Karl Marx’s revenge where individuals own the means of production They can take the means of production and shop from coffee shop to coffee shop”. If you buy Leon's highly readable and pleasantly short book, you also get a fold out poster that summarises the phenomenon of the emergent worker.

Some modern-day Bedouins travel further afield. Conde Nast has just commissioned a Canadian travel writer to re-discover the world the old-fashioned way, traveling no faster than 100 mph and taking the time to see, eat, drink, and blog about his experiences. You can follow his adventures here. This is presumably where the concepts of "slow tourism" and "user-generated content" merge. But what’s relevant to this blog is Mark’s video of description of the equipment used by such a peripatetic nomad as shown here.

It looks very much like history is repeating itself with major revolutionary cange emerging from coffee houses. Thomas Paine wrote muc of his revolutionary thoughts that fueled the US bid for independence in a coffee house in my home town of Lewes, Sussex; Edward Lloyd opened his coffee house in 1677 and that evolved into the largest insurance underwriting companies of the globe; and of course, there are no shortage of literary figures from Hemingway to J.K. Rowling whov'e used the warmth and companionship of such places to feed and support their creative urges. So next time, you ask your youthful companion to pass the sugar, you could be talking to another billioinaire.

Note: image courtesy of SFGate - read the whole article. ......

Leading By Letting Go

A small group of us are a creating a new grassroots organization to help the travel and tourism industry take their share of responsibility for climate change. As soon as we have a web site, I'll add a link.

We've galvanised a group of individuals with the expertise to speak authoritatively on the subject; we know what we want to achieve and now it's time to think about structure; the business model ; funding and process. We can't do this alone and our resources are limited. It's tempting to try to get it all sorted before we take our vision out into the world.

But I am a great believer in  the truth of William Gibson's statement: "the future's here; it's just not evenly distributed yet". The intelligence and the resources to make our dream a reality exist out there in this huge, complex and amorphous mass called tourism. Our job as visionaries and leaders is

1. to attract that resource and align it around a dream;  and
2. to create the conditions whereby energy and innovation can be harnessed to achieve results.

So instead of approaching this problem from the top down, we're going to seed it from the bottom up.

The following story that came across my e-mail today from the Leaders in London conference helps explain the efficacy of this approach.

When Zander took the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra to Cuba in 1999, they began their concert in
Havana playing two pieces with the National Youth Orchestra of Cuba. An American and a Cuban child shared the music at each music stand.

The first piece, written by Guido Lopez Gavillan, the conductor of the Cuban orchestra, was colourful and brilliant. Ben Zander had decided not to prepare his young musicians in advance; he wanted them to learn the piece from the composer himself.

Maestro Lopez Gavillan began rehearsing his work, but it was quickly evident that its complex Cuban rhythms were beyond the American kids; they'd never seen anything like it, and they simply couldn't play it. After giving it his best, the conductor resigned himself to failure. "I'm afraid this isn't going to work," he said from the podium. "We have to cancel the performance."

Ben Zander couldn't accept this outcome, wouldn't accept this outcome; one of the most important parts of the tour was the opportunity for the Cuban and the American kids to play together. He leapt to the stage and took over.

Through an interpreter, he said to the young Cuban musicians, "Your job is to teach these rhythms to your stand partner." And to the Americans, he said, "Just give yourselves over to the leaders sitting next to you. You will get the support you need."

Then he asked Guido Lopez Gavillan to try again. Imagine what ensued. The focus shifted from the conductor to the orchestra itself. The young Cubans "became fantastically energized, exuberantly conducting with their instruments, each leading along his American stand partner enthusiastically. The American kids, basking in the lavish attention, gave themselves ... to the process, and began to play the rhythms the way they were (meant) to be played." The maestro was well pleased.

Then it was Ben Zander's turn. He had chosen to conduct Bernstein's overture to Candide, a "fiendishly difficult little masterpiece." The music is so tricky to play that he had sent the score down to Havanathree months earlier, to give the Cuban kids a chance to prepare. But asked if they had enjoyed learning it, he got only a blank stare. As it turned out, the music had been languishing at the Havana central Post Office. The Cubans had never seen it.

Maestro Zander felt his panic rise; The American kids had taken months to learn it. Standing before the orchestra, frozen, he suddenly realized that the young musicians seated expectantly before him were smiling. Why not? Now it was the young Americans' turn to lead. Springing to life, they led their stand partners ... and it came off perfectly."

Perhaps an alternative title of this blog post might be "Leadership By Improvisation"?
 

 

 

Young Agents of Change @ Work!

It was a week of serendipity. Just last week, I discovered KIVA - the simple, elegant micro-credit solution started by an amazingly heroic duo - the Flattery's out of San Francisco who decided to do something wildly practical to narrow the gap between rich and poor. KIVA is fast becoming the poster child of "social entrepreneurship" - a disciplined business designed to do enormous good. KIVA links lenders in the developed world with aspiring small business owners in the developing world. KIVA is barely 18 months old but is expanding rapidly from 7 projects in Uganda to thousands of projects around the world. Check out the inspiring film made by PBS here and get started. The most attractive aspect is the way current peer to peer internet technologies link people with people. Lenders get their money repaid but also get a sense of real participation. It's also only a matter of time before lender connect with other lenders to dream up equally creative ideas to make the world a better place.

My business partner, Ginger Grant,  is a prof at Simon Fraser University. Unknown to me, she had been invited that same week to speak at a fund raising for some of her students who were raising funds for KIVA. They had formed a company  called, coincidentally,   Agentsofchange   and I have just come back from a wonderful evening with them.  Their goal is to raise $100,000 to be invested through KIVA in projects in Mexico and their first project is called “Riding to Break the Cycle”. With more than a dozen riders committed to cycling 3000 km over 5 weeks from Vancouver, BC, to Tijuana, Mexico. 

As is often the case, I was inspired by the vision and energy of these charming young people and equally impressed with their enormous professionalism and capability. Sadly, several spoke of their frustration at work - where their talents and capabilities are overlooked and not harnessed to good effect simply because of their age. It was a delight to be in their company and I encourage any readers of this blog to support them. These are our present and future Heroes!. On your bike!  PS: I loved their logo so I copied their logo onto this blog for you to see  - but it leads back to its rightful home. Click here and donate!

It's also serendipitous to note that I spent new years in Santa Fe and actually went into a KIVA. While down in the semi darkness, I whispered a passing prayer - ' show me what I am to do".  I guess I got my answer!

These Changing Times - Welcome 2007!

One of the influencers in my life is Lance Secretan - a fellow Canadian who has been writing and teaching about the need for conscious leadership for over 15 years and long before it was politically acceptable to be introducing notions of spirit and soul into the business lexicon. In a recent blog, he posted the worlds to Bob Dylan's famous song that illustrate just how prescient and astute Dylan was a lyricist as well as compelling as a song-writer. Lance shares the words of the song The Times They Are a Changing here.

Other personal heroes who have shaped and guided my thinking include:

Willis Harman who founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences and World Business Academy and argued forcefully for the role that business could play in building a better world and shifting consciousness;

Peter Russell who wrote the The Global Brain as long ago as 1982. Way ahead of the internet's boom and termporary bust, Russell observed " if Earth is a collective, self-regulating living organism, what then is the potential of humanity as seen through the eyes of the planet?" His most recent work, From Science to God, is one of the most eloquent and easy to read explanations of the convergence of scientific and spiritual thought regarding the nature and evolution of consciousness. Like  my other heroes, Russell is convinced that mankind is about to make a major evolutionary leap  and that, unless we do, our prospects  are limited. 

It's taken five talented and and extremely articulate women: Candace Pert, Danah Zohar, Meg Wheatley, Elizabet Sahtouris and Lynne McTaggart to really helped advance my limited understanding of the way that modern science - notably quantum phsyics, neuroscience and evolutionary biology (to name but a few of the discipline involved) - is re-shaping our view of the world and our place in it.

But the greatest debt of gratitude goes to Eckhart Tolle  whose two books The Power of Now and, more recently, A New Earth, have been the greatest source of inspiration and peace.  It is Tolle who wrote:

When any species is threatened by insurmountable problems, it either becomes extinct or rises above the limitations of its condition through an evolutionary leap. Such a leap is required of each of us as we face the remainder of this century. Survival depends on the correct understanding of the nature, extent and direction of the leap that needs to be made.

If you have eyes to see and ears to hear, there is overwhelming evidence that literally thousands of people are embarking consciously on that evolutionary journey and re-defining what it means to be human. The speed with which the social entrpreneurship movement is gaining ground is thrilling to watch - just look at www.kiva.org, to name but one of  a growing number of sites using peer to peer internet technology to link "them that hath with them that hath not" but could use a helping hand. Better still, don't just look, lend some money!! Better use than a gym membership and you'll get it back!

So 2007 has got to be one of the most exciting, if challenging, times to be alive.
I have a feeling that 2 double O 7 will live up to its name!
Apparently the new James Bond has more human qualities - perhaps it won't be too long before the character might be proud to say, 007, Licensed to Serve! The times they are a changing and changing fast!

BEATING THE ODDS - SIX WAYS OF ENABLING CHANGE

It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m snowbound in Santa Fe near the Ortiz mountains where over 28” of the white fluffy stuff has fallen in 48 hours. Yes, Denver has all the attention but New Mexico is least able to cope – four snow ploughs in Santa Fe for a city of 675,00. Yet another sign that Mother Nature is intent on reminding us who’s boss. Very fortunately for us, the pantry and cellar are well stocked and nature’s display of power has not yet impaired our enjoyment of this peaceful season between Christmas and new years.

So this as good a place as any to reflect on whether 2007 will be the year in which major changes in direction and focus will occur or whether we as a species continue to rush like lemmings towards our own particular cliff.

For the first time in human history, both the weapons of mass destruction as well as tools of mass construction are equally available to individuals like you and me. As highlighted by my dear friend and business partner, Leon Benjamin in the UK, “business as usual” in 2007 is simply not an option – if it ever was. In his Dec 02 blogpost, Leon quotes: Sir Crispin Tickell, director of the Policy Foresight Programme, James Martin Institute at Oxford University and Chancellor of the University of Kent at Canterbury, England when speaking to the American Association for the Advancement of Science earlier in 2006.

Earth's most pressing problems are of our own making. Population increase, degradation of land and resources and the destruction of biodiversity are transforming the Earth's environment in unsustainable ways, leading global researchers to conclude, "the business-as-usual way of dealing with the Earth's system is not an option. The idea may be hard to accept, but in its long history the Earth has not been in this situation before.

However, humans already know how to prevent and repair these environmental threats, "if we have the will to do it." He said that basic conservation, pollution reduction and social changes such as improving women's education would take care of most environmental worries without complicated technological fixes. (For the whole speech, see here).

Tickell is an authoritative commentator – a voice of warning sounded way ahead of his time. His 1977 book Climate Change and World Affairs was one of the first to bring the problem of human-induced climate change to wider public attention.

So if it’s not a question of capacity then it must be a question of whether we have  the vision, the will, the courage and the determination to create our own future – a better, safer , more harmonious, less vulnerable future?

That question in turn begs another question - what conditions are most conducive to behavioral change in humans? This is key if we’re going to slow down let alone turn the collective human Titanic. And at first glance, the prospects are not encouraging. Alan Deutschman’s excellent post Change or Die starts with a salutary tale:

“What if a well-informed, trusted authority figure said you had to make difficult and enduring changes in the way you think or act? If you didn’t, your time would end soon – a lot sooner than it had to. Could you change when change really mattered. When it mattered most. Yes, you say? Try again. Yes? You are probably deluding yourself. You wouldn’t change. Don’t believe it? You want the odds? Here are the odds, the scientifically studied odds: nine to one. That’s nine to one against you. How do you like those odds?”

In the remainder of his excellent blog on this subject (shortly to be available and expanded in a new book of the same title); Deutschman cites evidence for human resistance and reluctance to behavioral change. For example, he draws heavily on evidence from the medical profession that suggests that 80% of our escalating health care budget is consumed by just five behavioral issues people are  reluctant or unable to change: too much smoking, drinking, eating, and stress combined with too little exercise.

Based on Deutschman’s ideas and those of others like Kotter, I think would-be change agents have to create at least six conditions if they want to succeed:

1. Create a sense of urgency
2. Encourage and enable people to both see and feel a better yet often different future.
3. Focus on positive imagery.
4. Provide pointers to practical and incremental action steps - things that peeople can do - to bring about the desired result.
5. Deliver positive feedback
6. Provide sustained support through the period of transition.

Catch the next six blog posts when we’ll explore each of these more closely.

In the meantime, may all of you out there in the blogosphere and anyone reading this, enjoy all Health, Wealth and Happiness in 2007. Just don't assume that past experience will  be of much use in this strange new future we face. Keep your wits about you!

A Green Hero

This story is inspiring on a number of fronts. Robin Chase started ZipCar 6 years ago to help green our cities. She combined wireless and internet technologies with smartcars to enable city dwellers and visitors to have freedom of car use without ownership. More than 75,000 Zipcar members now share 2,000 vehicles in seven key markets including London, parts of the USA and Toronto. Each Zip car takes 20 vhicles off the road and reduces the amount of land required for parking; the number of miles driven per year and oil consumed - in 2004 alone Zipcar saved 6.5 million gallons of crude oil.

When you look at this video clip, you'll learn that Robin was inspired by a former employer - another lady and one who had started a successful business when she was 75 - some twenty years ago! So age is no impediment to any of us, let alone change agents.....

Airline Travel Revealed

I guess because I spend much of my time reading dry words, I love it when I come across a visual image that conveys a strong message. Back in a September post, The Emergence of a Global Brain, I highlighted the work of Sala whose software maps web links. Even more interesting, in my opinion, is the video presented below by  Aaron Koblin - an animated rendering of US air traffic data from the FAA, with the hubs and spokes of flight paths lit up like highways and cities seen from overhead at night. It gives a whole new perspective to global warming --- note transport accounts for 15% of all carbon emissions.

The Joy of Being Curious

If the precursor to discovery is curiosity; and the precursor to creativity is imagination, feast your senses on this amazing piece of animation called Biovisions illustrating the The Inner Life of the Cell produced by Xvivo.net for Havard here. If this produces a WOW! response and surely it must, then remember that our bodies contain over 100 trillion cells like these!!

As Shakespeare once said: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Should we watch out for the sequel: The Secret Lives of a Particle - Catch Me If You Can??