Pro Action Café is coming to Berlin

At the end of 2006, I heard about the group coaching process Pro Action Café and attended the monthly Café in Brussels in December.

I have talked to one of the founders today and we are currently planning to start the Pro Action Café in Berlin in a few weeks. So stay tuned…

What is the Pro Action Café?
Based on the World Café method, roughly 20 people had conversations around the questions that mattered to them. 4 table hosts offered their questions to the group. I hosted a table putting forward my question: “How can you turn social change into a business model?”, a question that more and more people have asked me a lot in my work for the movement We Are What We Do (WAWWD) and I have to come to terms with in order to sustain myself as a social pioneer.

Round I
We started off with people stating why they have been attracted to the question. And more questions emerged:
• What is it that you have to offer?
• For society: what is the offer and what is the need?
• What is making us happy? Community and conversations?
• How do we define happiness? Where is the market? Where are the unhappy people?
• What is social change?
• Do we want to change the world?

My key learning in the first round:
Between the social change and the business model we need the intermediate step of COMMUNITY BUILDING. How can we use WAWWD to build communities?

Round II
New people were welcomed at the table and the discussion summarized.
Again more questions:
• What is the product?
• How can you persuade people to pay money for an intangible product (i.e. memories, ideas, emotions)? Coca-Cola is selling: friends, fun, being young, happiness, an experience, etc.
• Example of Landmark Forum is given: personal development workshops – sell WAWWD in workshops: “Do you want to change but don’t know how?”
• Look at all actions: where are the actions that can both be generating money + change the world

My key learning in the second round:
What do we sell at WAWWD? We need to know exactly how to put that into simple words for everyone. If I want to apply for a loan what do I tell the bank?

Round III
And the last group of participants arrived…and here are some conclusions and even more questions
• WAWWD is selling social responsibility. Is there a market for social responsibility?
• You cannot separate social responsibility from spirituality.
• Do not ask what is your product but rather what is your service.
• How can we find synergies between your world and my world?
• Do we need NGOs? Aren’t Shell or Nestlé, etc. better equipped and managed than NGOs?

My key learning in the third round:
WAWWD is a service organisation that is selling social responsibility.

Bringing The World Home: From Study Abroad to Social Action

A very suitable topic for AIESEC

Young people today are studying and volunteering abroad in record numbers and learning firsthand about the opportunities and challenges of an interconnected world. These young people return home from their experiences abroad with a keen understanding of other cultures and an awareness of how to find common ground across differences. But when they return to their home community, they often find themselves plagued by the questions: What am I going to do with this understanding? How can I turn my experience into positive change?

The need for young Americans and Europeans who have traveled abroad to “bring the world home” could not be more urgent. Global challenges from terrorism to climate change dominate the U.S. and European political discourse and these challenges require global solutions. Yet, most Americans have little chance to connect with the world out there.

Moreover, the local television news, which is where six in ten Americans get most of their news about international affairs, does not offer Americans a vision of a world in which the United States can play a productive role. Rather, it presents a vision of “global mayhem,” in which the world’s problems appear intractable despite the best efforts of the U.S. This leads Americans to sometimes be skeptical of supporting international institutions despite recognizing the importance of cooperative solutions to global problems.

But if Americans can step beyond the “global mayhem” mindset and see the world differently, as an interconnected globe, research documented by the U.S. in the World guide indicates that they become more supportive of a cooperative U.S. engagement with the world. Young people who have been abroad and have a vocabulary of interconnectedness would seem an ideal group to “bring the world home” and showcase the positive opportunities for the U.S. to contribute to the world.

The question is how to effectively channel the insights and energy of young people with international experiences into awareness-raising and social change events here at home.

This Thursday, World Learning’s School for International Training, Americans for Informed Democracy, and LaGuardia Community College will be hosting a special conference on transforming international experience into social change. We hope you’ll participate in this online discussion which is taking place in concert with the conference.

• How has walking across differences made you more open to addressing the world’s problems?

• Why is international experience such a motivating factor in working towards global change?

Contribute to the discussion at: http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/philanthropy/bringing-the-world-home

The Taliban Hostage Challenge: how one org is taking this on and what we can learn from that

Dear Imaginers

A new crisis is on the table with the women taken hostage by the Taliban

I wanted to communicate a great example of how some people and organisations are taking on this kind of challenge.

Have a look below at the email that I got in my inbox today, (from avaaz.org) and how it carefuly and powerfully presents the challenge, draws you in to the story and shows you exactly how you can contribute AND the potential impact of that contribution.

Of course, I am also asking that you sign the petition (it took me 22 seconds) but have a look and I am pretty sure you will want to do so after reading this below…

But apart from the petition, I think that anyone close to avaaz.org will learn about what it takes to engage poeple. I have heard the founder Ricken Patel speak and he inspired me greatly as to how to go about campaining in general and also how the new technologies have great potential to be used in countries of the south. I think we are often in a state of campaigning about the things we believe about, whether we are an activist or simply someone within an organisation that wants to make something happen and would like to do this with other people.

——————– BEGINNING OF EMAIL I GOT IN MY INBOX TODAY

Dear friends,

23 South Korean aid workers, most of them young women, have just been taken hostage by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, who are threatening to execute them this week. Not only are these aid workers’ lives at stake, but their execution could trigger a mass evacuation of life-giving humanitarian aid from all of Afghanistan.

The situation is desperate, but there is hope. The Taliban are all from the ‘Pashtun’ ethnic group, and observe a strict code called Pashtunwali – the “way of the Pashtuns”. This code demands, above all else: “hospitality to all, especially guests and strangers”. There are rumours of infighting among the Taliban over these kidnappings, because they clearly violate the code.

A global outcry for the Taliban to follow their own code would certainly be covered by media in Afghanistan and Pakistan where the Taliban are based – creating more local pressure on them to free their prisoners. But these hostages are living under a 24 hour death sentence. We have seconds not minutes to act. Sign the petition below, forward this email, and let’s report a truly powerful outcry to local journalists:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/honour_the_afghan_code

Pashtunwali has real power among ordinary people in Afghanistan. In 2003 Bettina Goislard, 29, was shot by Taliban gunmen while she was working for the UN High Commission for Refugees in the town of Ghazni, near where the Korean aid workers were kidnapped. Incensed by her murder, local people chased down the gunmen and beat them before handing them over to the police — then they gathered up her body and marched several hundred miles to Kabul to show their sorrow to the world.

Recently, global pressure helped free BBC reporter Alan Johnston from his captivity in Gaza. It can be amazing what happens when we speak together around the world. So let’s try our best, for these 23 young people and their families, and the millions of Afghans who need their aid — With hope,

Ricken, Iain, Graziela, Tom, Paul and the rest of the Avaaz Team
——————– END OF EMAIL

Have a great day,

Sofia

The Shift…

… is happening…

The Power of letting go

During the last weeks I prepared myself to move houses and experienced how rewarding it can be to clean up one’s things. At first it might sound banal, but cleaning up your environment really helps to make up your mind.

Thus I would love to share some of the insights I got while tidying up my room.

The idea of moving made me to be more consequent concerning the things which surround me (as I was scared away by the thought of having to pack all these things). Questions like – Do I really like that? When did I last use that? Do I really need that? – popped into my mind. With every single item that I hold in my hand I became more conscious of my habits and needs. For instance I realised certain patterns in my (buying) behaviour, which do not serve might needs or I found out that certain things take of energy as they get on my nerves (mostly cloth do that). So I decided to get rid of these things.

A very helpful method to do that is the “3 boxes”.
When you find things that you haven’t used for a while (a year is a good measurement) you place them in box 1 – rubbish - if they are broken, unattractive or of no use for you. You have to throw away this box immediately otherwise you might change your mind.

Box 2 is for all the things that you do not need anymore but which are still fine and might be of use for other people. The things in this box might be a nice present for friends or you can sell them on the flea market or with the help of the internet (guess you guys know Ebay or give them to charity organizations.

Box 3 is for all the things which you haven’t used for a while but which are of special meaning for you. Either you put them back after moving or you put them in a treasure chest (a box for all these tiny little souvenirs – first love letter, a particular cuddly pet etc.) that underlines their special meaning.

I did all of that and especially the flea market was enriching. It is simply great how you can have a lot of fun selling and bargaining and make other people happy with your old stuff at the same time.

After doing this first sorting I really felt the difference. It makes me feel so good to have emptier shelves just with things I like.

To be continued…

What is our focus?

My last months were full of changes. I finished my studies, got a job and for that moved from Chemnitz to the other end of Germany: Heidelberg. Sooner than I expected I have adopted to my new environment and now feel very well. Nevertheless it took some time for me to get used to everything, esp. at work. But now after three months I have noticed that I have to take care that I do not lose my focus. - What do I mean by that?

It would be so easy just to go to work every day, spend your time there, meet some people in the evening or at the weekend and enjoy and relax. But isn’t there more in life? Is this everything?

I do not want to end up as somebody who had great visions and goals about positive changes in our society during his studies and later forgets about these ideas because of career, salary and daily work (this is what I mean by “losing the focus”). I am convinced that going to work everyday also contributes in an important way to our society - but not enough!!!

I talked about this with some of my colleagues and it was very interesting how different the reactions were. Very few smiled about this “unrealistic romantic ideas” - some on the other hand totally agreed. But most said that this is a good attitude and they also would like to do more but they “do not have enough time”. Don’t we have enough time or do we use them wrong?

At IMAGINE 2007 I came up with a vage idea about a project with German and Polish youths to get to know each other better. To be honest due to the finalization of my diploma thesis and very busy first three months of working life I have not really worked on this topic. But especially the last weeks showed everybody that there is still a strong need for improvement of each other’s understanding in this area. I do not want to watch misunderstanding and antipathies - and just complain about this. That’s why I now started again more seriously to work on this topic - and I am highly motivated to push this forward - without any more excuses.

Basic Income: What Would You Do?

I have been discussing the basic income (Grundeinkommen) with a Canadian friend living in Berlin last week and she asked me the question: “Do you think people would work, if they don’t have to? And especially in the “dirty” jobs?”

Some reflective questions on that: Why don’t we trust ourselves to more volunteerism and social responsibility? Why do we reduce our personal motivation just to working for money instead of trusting in working because we see a purpose?

For sure there will still be people not working but people will also have more freedom to do what they feel is important and that might be for some academics at some point that they feel a high need to clean the street in front of their house I also see this as an opportunity to reduce bureaucracy and regulations in this country…

What would you do having a basic income?

From the Clash to Confluence of Civilizations

Spiral Dynamics at the UN Security Council:

“Getting rid of what we don’t want is not the same as getting what we do want.”

How on Earth can we live together?

The Tällberg Forum event takes place June 28 – July 1, 2007 in thevillage of Tällberg, Sweden. An open conversation begun in 1981, the Forum will address the challenge of the great transition, by searching for solutions to the dilemma of increasing welfare without destroying the natural systems that support us. The Tällberg Forum 2007 has chosen as its theme “How on earth can we live together? Learn to live to learn.”

Explore the 9 questions:

• Can we do as we do?
• Do we care?
• Can we stay save?
• Can we agree?
• Can we stay healthy?
• Can we share?
• Does only money count?
• Is one Earth enough?
• What is sustainability?

New Ideas for Africa

Sofia participated in this event…

Hello folks,

I know you haven’t heard from us in a while and I have gotten numerous individual messages wondering what’s happening with the group.

Well, we are still ALIVE AND KICKING!!!!!

May New Ideas for Africa Output

Since that event and following the positive feedback we got from attendees, we have been trying to put modalities in place so we can continue to run the events sustainably but also so we can create a proper framework for us to be more than a talk-shop, but an active practical player in Africa’s development.

To this end, we now have an extended team of 7 people all working on the project now. The extended team met to work out our strategy for moving forward on Tuesday 3rd of July and will keep you updated as we progress.

We have also gotten a number of invites to partner with existing organisations working on development of the continent.

All in all, things are looking good and we will be sending details for the next New Ideas for Africa session in London as well as plans for a picnic in August.

We have also gotten requests from different people who want to run similar sessions in their own cities outside London. We are trying to put together a format on how this will operate and will send through once we have it. If you would also like to host the conversations in your city, let us know.

Take care and keen to see more activity on the group.

Cheers,

Femi & Lesley
For Africa++ Core Team