A zen perspective on how we think about the future
The emerging census figures suggests that US Congress does not represent the diversity of its constituents, starting with the fact that the average net worth of citizens is around $96,000 and the average Senate member’s is $13.4 million. A slight difference that is not superficial in shaping perspectives and agendas. Given the age old fact that we care about those we relate to, the representation gap makes caring for the whole less likely. What if we national elected a certain percentage of at-large congress people...
Laura Weiss is the vice president of service innovation at the Taproot Foundation, an organization leading the pro bono movement and making business talent available to nonprofits working to improve society. In her recent piece, Why We're All Designers, she suggests: Today design tools and methodologies have begun to find their way to the social sector, and this is no surprise. Nonprofits are inherently innovative enterprises because most were formed by a social entrepreneur with a vision to change the world...
What should this generation of teenagers around the world be learning? We would do well to have more conversations about the kind of adults we want showing up in the next several years as the next generation of parents, employees, entrepreneurs, artists, writers, thinkers and citizens. What should they be learning about war, and peace, incredible social disparities, the environment, the care and feeding of their spirit, how to connect across the steps of their networks, how to express the beauty of their truth...
So what should other world leaders learn from the Dalai Lama’s recent announcement that he will be leaving his role as political leader of Tibet? What does this say about the future of how we all think about leaders and leadership, followers and followership and citizenship?
If Web 1.0 was the static web, and 2.0 is the collaborative web, maybe Web 3.0 could be the seamless intersection of live personal and web interactions. In this world, there is an expectation that we will engage each other in face and phone conversations while we interact online.
I am often asked by newbie iPad owners about my most favored apps, which continues to grow. Here are the top 10 must have’s. Evernote, for organizing your life and becoming paperless Neu.notes, for handwritten notes and notebooks Google calendar, for events and tasks DropBox, for cloud doc storage and laptop sync Pages, for doc creation OmniGraffle, for great graphics Markdown, for posting to Posterous Twittilator, for Twitter Friendly, for Facebook Zite, for beautiful user-adaptive magazine reading And yours?
Book 10, The Joy of Thriving, is coming along. It has evolved into a rich curry about four practices of happiness, happy communities, freedom, and rethinking how we design our relationships. What these have in common is the question of what it means to thrive. Survival is the old conversation that has little power to create a new future. Thrivancy is the new conversation that has the power to create a future different from the past. Is is about perspective, passion, and the engagement of our gifts. What is your...
What if we had more publicly funded college programs dedicated to creating entrepreneurs who could launch services that privatize government run programs? Imagine the possibilities.
With the proliferation of micro-breweries, will we also see the emergence of other hand crafted beverages and foods? Think pickle and olive shops, artisan cheese and wine shops, vegetarian sausage and burger shops, tea and aperitif shops. What kind of education and training programs in communities could bring about this emergence, and what role could indie bookstores and coffee shops and libraries play in these efforts?
10-time author and designer with a focus on change in organizations and communities. HappinessChoice.com. Contact Jack at jack(at)happinesschoice(dot)com
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