agriculture, collaboration, Sustainability
In Sustainability on 04/30/2010 at 12:00 PM
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In our ever-expanding global economy, we are witnessing the ramifications of what Henry Wendell calls a total economy, where “significant and sometimes critical choices that once belonged to individuals or communities become the property of corporations.”
As we wake up to the consequences of a global total economy on our health, environment, livelihoods and lifestyles, many of us are creating new, local economies that put choice back in the hands of the people who are directly affected by those choices.
The Local Revolution
Increased access to information is exposing the perils behind our societal addiction to cheap imports and hyper-convenience (see The Story of Stuff & The History of Bottled Water) and more and more consumers are re-thinking their spending choices. read more…
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storytelling, thought, video
In Storytelling & Communications on 03/02/2010 at 12:00 PM
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Story. It is a simple word, but conjures up different meaning and implications for different people.
Whether fact or fiction, stories are simply a narrative account of incidents, events, or circumstances.
In our previous post, If You Want People to Learn, Tell Them a Story we explored the brain’s dependence on story to process information, but now let’s explore how stories are told and which forms of storytelling are most effective in helping our brains learn and remember.
How we deliver a story determines how likely people are to remember it. read more…
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innovation, storytelling, thought
In Human Development, Storytelling & Communications on 02/16/2010 at 8:26 PM
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Human beings are natural meaning makers. Like it or not, we simply can’t help but create connections and make meaning of our experiences.
Story is a fundamental component of the human meaning making process. Having narrative brains, we are predisposed to use elements of story to organize and store information.
By employing even simple nouns and verbs, humans communicate meaning in a nutshell and create a sort of mini-story, which Dr. Renée Fuller identifies as a basic unit for organizing information. She calls this organizing unit a story-engram and points out that, “bits of information cannot function as thinking units unless we make story-engrams with them.” read more…
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collaboration, innovation, unsiloing
In Evolving Education, Human Development, Systems Development on 01/27/2010 at 1:20 AM
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Ten years into the new century, one could argue that while we are in the Information Age we have yet to break down many of the confines of the industrial era. A characteristic of industrialization being the linear organization of work and people to maximize efficiency—in short, the “siloing” of our work and our world.
Digitization of incomprehensible amounts of information, moving freely, in unpredictable directions, compels us to rethink and explore how to adapt and “unsilo” our antiquated thinking and systems. Technology not only allows for, but also pushes us to think and learn in new ways. It demands that we redefine the ecosystem we inhabit and move from linear pathways to infinite points of contact; from reliable certainty to mental agility. …read more
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collaboration, faculty, tuning, video
In Higher Education, Systems Development on 01/22/2010 at 1:18 PM
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When budgets are cut, reduced spending is a natural consequence. This is a widely accepted cause and effect relationship being proved out all over the world.
There is also a pervasive notion that if spending is reduced, then a decrease in quality or level of output must follow. For instance, there are countless examples of companies reducing their quality standards or giving you less for the same price in an effort to reduce their costs.
In higher education, this thinking can translate into the assumption that increasing the number of students an institution graduates in a given period of time, without an increase in spending, must lead to a reduction of quality in the education those students will receive. …read more | watch video
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innovation, thought
In Human Development, Systems Development on 01/15/2010 at 6:41 PM
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What enables transformational innovation in individuals and societies?
Clearly it is linked to the human imperative to understand and evolve; it also appears to require a certain freedom or flexibility of thought. The ability to step out of a given paradigm and question assumptions creates the opportunity for a new perspective to emerge.
Given the precarious state of our world and the pace at which it continues to change, this question looms large for individuals and the entire human race. The mental flexibility required for vital innovation will enable us to face and, hopefully, respond to our personal and global challenges in positive, life-affirming ways. …read more
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