Sir Ken Robinson gave a TED Talk, way back when… and it’s one of the most viewed TED Talks ever. This TED Telk might well have been the start of my journey to become passionate about school development, as a way to shape the society we live in.
The question he ponders is ”Do schools kill creativity?”.
Do you think they do?
That’s what my US mentor Max told me the other day, over SKYPE. I had to laugh, as this was when I was preparing for my speech at Rotary, and I had witten down a quote by Mahatma Gandhi a few days earlier, thinking that I wanted to use it in my presentation of #skolvåren (aka school spring).
Be the change you want to see in the world. – Gandhi
What Max said was this:
How will you provoke a response from the most powerful leaders in the land? – Gandhi
And in connection with #skolvåren, that sure is a good question to ponder! We have already made good headway, but it’s a long way to go.
So when my husband later that week asked me whether I would like to watch the movie about Gandhi with him, even though we have both seen it many years past, I just had to face that fact that someone’s trying to give me a message, indeed. Third time’s the charm!
So yes, I am listening. I am recalling the insights that came to me while reading a good biography a year or so ago, and also there’s the book ”Mahatma!” by Zac O’Yeah on my bedside table, that is just waiting for me to pick it up and start reading.
I am picking up several messages. One has to do with going at it a person at a time. Gandhi managed to awaken 350 million Indians, and while it took some time, the goal of India, free from the English, was succeeded in the end. Patience, that’s what Gandhi is telling me. And I feel patient. The rolling stone is moving already, and there’s no stopping it.
I was given a message, and it came to me in many forms.
Have you experienced this? If yes – did you listen to it?
I am an advocate for Coachwalks as you might have understood – at least if you’ve read some of my blog posts in Swedish. For me, walking while coaching has a whole bunch of benefits, the biggest one being that the physical movement ensure you cannot remain stuck mentally.
Here’s Nilofer Merchant talking about the same concept:
I challenge you to try a walk and talk-meeting, rather than a traditional sit-down-meeting. Up for it?
Saw this quote on Facebook and loved it. So, I want to share it with you as well. Here it comes, an excerpt from Teddy Roosevelts Sorbonne speech from April 1910:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. – Teddy Roosevelt
The entire speech can be downloaded as a pdf here as well.
When was your last bout of daring greatly?
Seth Godin on On Being with Krista Tippit, part 4. I have gotten a whole lot more from this podcast, but these four blog posts are what made it into visible form.
They end their talk with talking about how we encourage or discourage children to contribute to society. Seth ponders:
Kids’ role as a contributor to society starts now when they are ten, not when they are twenty four, and that the trail they leave behind starts the minute someone snaps their picture.
If we can teach children that there isn’t this bright line between off duty and on duty, but that life is life, and you ought to live it like people are looking at you, cuz they are. Then we trust them, and we trust them to be bigger than they could be, because they chose to be bigger.
And it’s that teaching, I think, that’s so difficult to do as a parent, cuz what you really want to do is protect them and lock ‘em up until it’s time, but the bravest thing to do is have these free range kids, exploring the edges of their universe, but doing it in ways they are proud of, not hiding from.
Wow, I must say that to me defines the shift we need to take in society, to start to build a sustainable and constantly learning society. Let us encourage free range kids, kids who explore the edges of their universe!
What might happen if you expored the edges of your universe?
Continuing my ponderings from listening to Seth Godin being interviewed by Krista Tippitt on On Being, I am reminded of the world that I believe we can create, a world that works better than today.
Seth talks about building your tribe, and he talks about tribes in a new form, where the internet helps to create tribes not limited by geography.
The challenge of our future is… are we going to connect and amplify positive tribes, that want to make things better for all of us, or are we going to degrade to warring tribes, who are willing to bring other groups down, just so they can get ahead.
I believe in a world of positive tribes, a world where we help each other out, rather than compete against each other. Water, for instance, will likely be a scarce resource in the future. Should we fight fr it or collaborate? I’m not saying it will be easy to get to a world of positive tribes, but it can be done. Do you agree?
While listening to Krista Tippitt interviewing Seth Godin I stopped many times to take notes. Here’s one.
Seth is big on creativity, and wisely stated:
Everybody has the possibility of
being an artist
rather than a cog
I have written about cogs myself in a guest blog post (in Swedish). I think we all are cogs in the sense that we are all closely connected, and all that I do influence the world and people in it more than I can imagine.
But what Seth is speaking about is the fact that these cogs are not identical. We are not interchangeable parts, churned out in billions. Rather, we are unique, we each have our onlyness, but we can make more or less of it.
What’s your artistry?
Please take a look at On Being with Krista Tippitt, if you have yet to do so. It’s one of my favorite podcasts, and since it’s been published for many years, it’s like a goldmine!
During a winter walk 2013 I was listening to Krista interviewing Seth Godin. I have gotten a lot of insight from reading Seth’s work, and if you haven’t discovered him yet, here’s your chance.
He is a marketing guy, but he defines marketing differently, from what normally think about when I think marketing. He’s into making an impact and I am reminded of Jocke Jardenberg who says ”Be honest and do good shit.” when I write this.
Seth says this can be a way to success:
Doing things for the right reason,
for the first time,
in a way that have an impact.
That is, you need to do what you do based on more than your own satisfaction and well-being. If you are the first one to think of doing this, and you do it to better the world in one way or the other – chances are you will build your tribe and be successful at what you do (success for me meaning getting by, not hoarding outrageous amounts of money).
What’s your impact?
Just discovered this little gem from Simon Sinek, on starting with Why. Check it out, it’s only 7 minutes long:
As initiator of #skolvåren (#schoolspring) I have asked why thousands of times in the past four months, and I see no end in sight. Why is a good question, for many reasons, as Simon talks about.
During a lunch I was engaging passionately with my lunch companions, talking about #skolvåren, and we all agreed that a sense of purpose, is missing, from all too many institutions, organizations and companies.
So ask yourself Why to figure out what your reason for getting out of bed in the morning. It’s a great question to ponder. I know my why. I want to create a sustainable learning society, and #skolvåren is one way of doing just that.
Why do you get out of bed in the morning?
Do you hate?
If yes – what do you hate? Individuals? Groups of people? Food? Music? Societal structures and organizations? Behaviors? Weather? Disease? War? A sports team?
If no – how come? Why not hate?
I have stopped hating. I used to use the word a lot and also felt hatred but…
*shakes my head* it just doesn’t do me any good.
Have become more and more aware of the power the word contains, as well as the feelings and thoughts behind it, so that I very seldom, if ever, feel that hate is the word/emotion I am after.
I have a hard time to see that it serves me to hate. Rather, it creates problems all around.
“Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world,
but has not solved one yet.” – Maya Angelou
So I go for Maya Angelou’s take on hatred, as it sure doesn’t help to make the world a better place. And I strive towards creating a world that works!
The weird thing is, when someone says they hate one thing or the other – if questioned, they almost always back down, saying they don’t really mean hate. So why use the word hate at all?
Do you hate?
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