Archive for the ‘Learning Evolution’ Category

Posted on January 19, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle

Not Your Basic Ethics – Values Development Training

Ethics? Values? Who cares!? “YOU” better care. Did you know that each person’s underlying values and beliefs systems are what drives their actions? Those actions are how things get done by your team members. By linking individual values with your company’s principles, practices, and policies, your world becomes a happier place, with more sustained commitments from staff to get the work done. So, take a journey with us from personal meaning, to group awareness, and into enterprise value creation.

Call us about Discovery Fuel’s ETHICS WORKSHOPS to see if they are right for organization.

Posted on January 16, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle

Who Says It Ain’t Easy Being Green ?! (Sustainable Business Planning Workshop)

How to Create a ‘Sustainable’ Business Plan

AN ONLINE WORKSHOP

.Join Vic Desotelle from DiscoveryFuel.com for an ONLINE collaborative sustainable business planning workshop series.

This session will allow you to preview and inquire about the series, which is for small business social entrepreneurs who have dreamed of owning a sustainable business. Learn how to make a viable business plan that moves your green idea from conception to successful execution. Create a sustainable future for yourself, customers, and community through this sustainable innovation learning series. Click here for more details

CLICK TO SHARE THIS PAGE WITH FRIENDS ON YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
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Posted on January 5, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle

Communication: Differentiating Debate, Discussion, & Dialogue

I have been asked to clarify the difference between ‘debates‘, ‘discussions‘, and ‘dialogues‘ (note wikipedia incorrectly clumps discussion into the same definition as ‘debate’). Below is a first attempt at trying to evolve our understanding of these three primary communication processes. I ask for your feedback, and also for your own insights on this matter.

The intent here is to help organizational change processes be more conscious and more effective by becoming aware that how we communicate with each other strongly effects meeting outcomes, as well as how well thsoe outcomes sustain the desired changes. In short, this is all about how we make conscious decisions that influence positive change.

Our world is in dire need of evolved decision-making techniques that can provide us with a better way for sharing and choosing solutions that are healthier for ourselves and the planet. Effective communication is the glue that allows for real, sustained change to happen. Note that communication colors all levels of organizational development, including its methods of leadership, its ability to learn, team work and collaboration, and the sustainability of innovation itself.

DEBATE = Language is manipulated with the intent to cripple other viewpoints (argumentative). Change is hard to come by with this approach. However, it is useful for keeping an existing systems in place. Energy comes from the lizard mechanisms in the brain, which attempt to protect and defend. The person with the most power over another is seen as the best leader. This process is not good for creating change except at conscious predetermined places in the process where challenge generates a different thought process that can bring clarity and assurance on choices that have been made.

DISCUSSION = Questioning each other comes from a predisposed positioning (having an agenda). Change is possible but usually can not be sustained due to the process being based on a questioning process that makes each feel someone has to win. Others often loose their identity to consensus. It’s based on a sudo-democracy process whereby everyone unconsciously assumes that there is a best answer, thus only one viewpoint is ultimately chosen. Occasionally discussion moves into dialog, but usually it moves into debate.

DIALOG = Collaborative inquiry with an openness to possibilities beyond each others own beliefs and views. Communication about communication happens allowing the creation of a safe environment; a place where the unexpected and insight can happen more freely. Everyone’s viewpoint is allowed whether or not others agree with it. All work to wear the shoes of the one speaking and seek to integrate diversity rather than extract the best answer. It stands for the power of the question is valued more than answers. The challenge for creating change is that too often dialog does not move toward decision-making and action.

TRILOG = Ideally, all three forms of conversation are useful if used in tandem with each other. Dialog is to be used during the early envisioning stages. Discussion during the goals and strategy-making stages, but only at the point when decisions have to be determined. Debate is useful to challenge a new system against an old one. It must be used very consciously however, because otherwise power over can destroy all previous efforts. Dialog should again be used to close a group’s process because it brings us back to our humanity and to what’s most important, which are the relationships. They are as important (or more) than the outcomes generated by the group, for it is what becomes the foundation for sustaining the determined change.

About Room Geometry = One final point to make here is this: Be aware of the geometry of the room in which people gather. If shared views are the choice, be sure to stage the room with multiple small circles in mind. If one person’s opinion is to be impressed upon the group, then line up the chairs in straight lines without breaking up the group. I for one almost always choose to use circular geometries because it seems to appease the need for all to feel like they are participants rather than merely receivers of information. A room’s geometry needs to be considered at all levels of a community’s decision-making hierarchy including company meetings, town hall meetings, city council meetings, board rooms, and living room gatherings.

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To bring in more of a trilog approach (with an emphasis on ‘dialogue), use this collaborative design tool during your next meeting: Create a ‘Learning Exchange Markeplace‘. For more information, contact Vic Desotelle at DiscoveryFuel.com

Posted on January 4, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle

Creating a Learning Exchange Marketplace

Learning Exchange Markets uncover hidden innovation which is often at the fringes of an organization. Within a Learning Exchange Market, a shift of emphasis occurs between the participants from debates and discussions to generative dialogue, which must be in place for true forms of sustainable innovation to emerge. During the learning exchange process, multiple conversations – both strategic and envisioning, are allowed to occur at the same time. This approach actually accelerates results toward action-oriented activities while also empowering the individuals who will become responsible for the deliverables. It works miracles for companies working on becoming a learning organization. And your idea can’t get bagged or pushed aside!

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One of the primary tools applied to Learning Exchange Markets is called ‘Open Space’ …..

The ‘Open Space Technology’ Concept

(as described from Co-Intelligence Inst.)

” In my experience open space is based on the belief that we humans are intelligent, creative, adaptive, meaning- and fun-seeking. It sets the context for such creatures to come together knowing they are going to treat each other well. When this happens there is no limit to what can unfold.” Alan Stewart

Open Space Technology was created in the mid-1980s by organizational consultant Harrison Owen when he discovered that people attending his conferences loved the coffee breaks better than the formal presentations and plenary sessions. Combining that insight with his experience of life in an African village, Owen created a totally new form of conferencing.

Open Space conferences have no keynote speakers, no pre-announced schedules of workshops, no panel discussions, no organizational booths. Instead, sitting in a large circle, participants learn in the first hour how they are going to create their own conference. Almost before they realize it, they become each other’s teachers and leaders.

Anyone who wants to initiate a discussion or activity, writes it down on a large sheet of paper in big letters and then stands up and announces it to the group. After selecting one of the many pre-established times and places, they post their proposed workshop on a wall. When everyone who wants to has announced and posted their initial offerings, it is time for what Owen calls “the village marketplace”: Participants mill around the wall, putting together their personal schedules for the remainder of the conference. The first meetings begin immediately.

Open Space is, as Owen likes to say, more highly organized than the best planning committee could possibly manage. It is also chaotic, productive and fun. No one is in control. A whirlwind of activity is guided from within by a handful of simple principles.

[For managers with concerns for loss of control, the principles below will seem ridiculous, and the Open Space approach may drive you crazy - but only for awhile ... Once you see how much work actually gets done, and how happy everyone is while doing this process, you'll never have a (so-called) normal meeting again!]

The ‘Open Space’ Principles:

1. Passion & Responsibility: The most basic principle is that everyone who comes to an Open Space conference must be passionate about the topic and willing to take some responsibility for creating things out of that passion.

2. Whoever comes are the right people.
3. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.
4. Whenever it starts is the right time.
5. When it is over it is over.
6. The Law of Two Feet (see below):

“If you find yourself in a situation where you aren’t learning or contributing, go somewhere else” (or move to another level of awareness and participation). This law causes some participants to flit from activity to activity. Owen rejoices in such people, calling them bumblebees because they cross-pollinate all the workshops. He also celebrates participants who use The Law of Two Feet to go off and sit by themselves. He dubs them butterflies, because they create quiet centers of non-action for stillness, beauty, novelty or random conversations to be born.

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Open space conferences can be done in one day or less, but the most powerful go on for two or three days, or longer. Participants gather together briefly in the morning and the evening to share experiences and announce any new workshops they have concocted. The rest of the day is spent in intense conversation. Even meals are come-when-you-can affairs that go on for hours, filled with bustling dialogue. After a few days of this, an intense spirit of community usually develops that is all the more remarkable considering that participants are all doing exactly what they want.

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Open Space conferences are particularly effective when a large, complex operation needs to be thoroughly re-conceptualized and reorganized — when the task is just too big and complicated to be sorted out “from the top.” On the assumption that such a system contains within it the seeds of everything that needs to happen with it, Open Space provides it with an opportunity to self-organize into its new configuration. For this to work, however, the system’s leaders must let go of control so that true self-organization can take place.

Open Space Technology is also a delightful, useful tool for any group of people who are really interested in exploring something that they all care deeply about, and is one of the simplest, most brilliant combinations of order and chaos that I have yet found. It has been applied in thousands of meetings around the world with between five and one thousand participants. It can be effectively used by virtually anybody. Owen has provided excellent instructions in his books, below.

• Resources: H. H. Owen and Co., Open Space Institute, The Co-Intelligence Institute

• Books: Open Space Technology: A User’s Guide, Expanding Our Now: The Story of Open Space Technology, Harrison Owen, The Millennium Organization

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HOW TO CREATE A LEARNING EXCHANGE MARKETPLACE

(by Discovery Fuel)

Download Discovery Fuel’s Design Packet For Creating Your Own Learning Exchange Marketplace

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Learning Exchange – SCHEDULE

(3 1/2 hour evening sample)

6:15 Check Bulletin Board for Announcements
6:30 Mission Statement
6:40 Brief Introductions
6:50 How It Works
7:00 The Exchange Market
7:30 1st Period Sessions
8:00 2nd Period Sessions
8:30 Share Learning
9:00 End

Learning Exchange – PROCESS

1. Write Down Session Proposals

2. Questions are as Appropriate as Answers

3. Verbally Announce Your Session
4. Post Session on Schedule Wall

5. Combine Proposals, Negotiate Times

6. Period A Sessions Begin, Take Notes

7. Integrate Notes into One Report

8. Period B Sessions Begin, Keep a Log

9. Integrate Notes into One Report

10. Note Sessions A and B may be Merged

11. Group Reporting of Sessions Begins

12. Bulletin Board To Post Ideas, Notices

13. Info Exchange meetings are bi-weekly.

14. Results Incorporated at Bi-weekly Strategy Meetings and Continued at Next Info Exchange Meeting

Learning Exchange – PRINCIPLES
· Whoever comes is right. Whatever happens … happens.

· Leave personal status outside. Bring ideas and knowledge inside.

· Be passionate about the topics. Take responsibility for creating things out of that passion.

· Law of Two Feet: If you aren’t learning or contributing, increase participation, or move to another session.

· Stay focused on topic

· One person talking at a time

· Shift ‘Yeah-But’ responses to ‘YES-AND’

· Listen with empathy, suspend judgment

· Encourage & build on the wild ideas of others.

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Download Discovery Fuel’s Design Packet (pdf file) for creating a Learning Exchange Marketplace. For more information contact us for a chat.

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Posted on November 21, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle

Sustainability as Whole-System Catalyst to New Forms of Innovation

Sustainability as Whole-System Catalyst to New Forms of Innovation

Since the concept of ’sustainability’ is feathered into most future forms of innovation, I’d like to suggest a few pages below that list concepts of “Sustainable Innovation”.

What is Sustainable Innovation
http://discoveryfuel.com/what-is-sustainable-innovation/
Deep Innovation for our future goes beyond ‘technologies’ as mere device structures, but also design integration processes and pattern recognition too.

A List of Sustainability Principles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sustainability_principles
Important to the future are the principles that guide its design.

Concepts of Sustainable Design
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_design
Considerations for designing physical objects, the built environment, and services that comply with the principles of economic, social, and ecological sustainability; otherwise known as the ‘triple bottom line’.

Sustainability System Categories
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Sustainability
A limited but growing list of categories that link sustainability into an interconnected world community design system.

Appropriate Technologies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriate_technology
Usually used to describe simple technologies suitable for use in developing nations or less developed rural areas of industrialized nations. This form of appropriate technology usually prefers labor-intensive solutions over capital-intensive ones, although labor-saving devices are also used where this does not mean high capital or maintenance cost. In practice, appropriate technology is often something described as using the simplest level of technology that can effectively achieve the intended purpose in a particular location.

Posted on October 25, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle

Growth Myth: How Sustainability is Linked to Poor Economic Design

The future of HUMAN sustainability is directly linked to the models that we have created to manage our social systems. And our inability to connect with exponential growth concepts is about to take the whole thing down in flames.

I highly encourage you to watch Chris Martenson’s ‘Crash Course‘, which covers a slightly different set of 3E’s: economy, energy, and environment. Chris builds a clear and concise description of money and its relationship to the decline of the world’s economies, based on our lack of understanding of how ‘exponential’ growth works. He also ties failing money systems to the earth’s limited resources and energy production. And he talks about how the Federal Reserve’s ‘right’ to freely make money keeps our poorly designed financial system going – until now.

I ask you: How do we best bring this knowledge to our communities so that we can redesign the system before the inevidable collapse? Learn for yourself by watching and learning at the link below. Thank you Chris for a well done program. See http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse

Vic Desotelle of Discovery Fuel

Posted on August 14, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle

Principles of Regenerative Commerce

Regenerative Commerce is a system based on a broader understanding of what it means to develop technology and business. DiscoveryFuel.com proposes that, using these principles, a region’s economic system can revitalize itself and perform beyond today’s assumptions and expectations. The following represent shifts in awareness of the models we use to create and innovate within enterprise. Note that a ’shift’ means we are including new information that expands existing models and does not mean that we are replacing them.

A Shift …

1:  A Shift From Single -> To Triple Bottom Line Management

Developing Evolved Organizing STRUCTURES

2:  A Shift From Building Mechanistic Systems -> To Growing Living Wholes

Advancing Technological PATTERNS

3:  A Shift From Linear Sequencing -> To Nonlinear Cyclic Closed Loops

An Integration of Value-Web PROCESSES

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DiscoveryFuel.com’s long term objective is to create a global network of innovation learning centers. Each interdependent center will incubate innovative technologies and companies that can work for a our emerging globally conscious community.

The concept, known as ‘Regenerative Commerce‘, will act as an integrating framework for incorporating principles of sustainable innovation for the realization of business products and services that work for a post-industrial society.

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RELATED CONCEPTS

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1- Sustainable Design Techniques
Closed Loop Systems * 7e’s of Strategic Innovation * 7 Elements of New Enterprise * Sustainable Innovation Defined

2- Development Principles for Metabolic Growth
Biomimicry * Ecological Systems * Knowledge Capacity * The Natural Step * Permaculture * BauBiologie

3- Knowledge Distribution Methodologies
Triple Bottom LIne Matrix * EcoManagement * Innovation Mapping

4- Regional Design & Dialogue Frameworks
Tri-Cellular Communities Model * Conversation Word Map * World Dialogue Experiment on Change & Myth

5- Sustainable Enterprise
Ethics & Ethics to Innovation * Values Considerations * Innovation vs Invention * Technology Council * Sustainable Business Planning Guide

6- Networked Communications Modeling
Concentrix Management For Group Design * Collaborative Learning Exchange Markets * Community Domains For Culturally Creative Design

Creating Sustainable Society Based on Conscious Design

In the near future, the PRINCIPLE-PRACTICE-POLICY model ( 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5) will be integrated into the Regenerative Commerce (RegenCom) concept.

Here, the policy body acts as a ‘governor’ that monitors the effectiveness of pre-determined guiding principles via the principle body, and provides feedback to the overall system so that adjustments can be made as the chosenb principles play out in a practical way within the practicing body.

What is missing in today’s model for community design and development, based on this 3P’s model?

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What are you’re thoughts? Blog me below, or contact me directly at RegenCom@DiscoveryFuel.com, or join me and others in collaboratively designing and applying this concept by going to the Regenerative Commerce collaboration wiki (This is a new effort and I need and want your help!).

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Posted on August 13, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle

Innovation and the future of socialism and capitalism

“You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it”, says an economics professor at a local college.

He made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an ENTIRE class.

That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

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YOU KNOW WHAT ???

This doesn’t feel right to me, but I”m not completely sure why. This report seems to be based on one of those quick conclusions and not enough interaction or detailed data. When analyzed I’m convinced that it would not provide enough evidence to support the writers own (seemingly biased?) conclusion.

But what also comes up for me is a sense of despair: Is this the future of humanity? Does the rich guy really deserve a better life, and the poor guy deserve a struggling life? Or is this written by someone that sees his/her whole life through a money-lens?

But maybe I am missing something? What about you? What comes up for you when you read this? How does the system that is in place now work? How does it not work? What assumptions do we have about ’socialism’, and about ‘capitalism’? For me, it seems that socialism tends toward making everyone ‘equal’ through government process – i.e. financial wealth is distributed so that money is not a reason for someone to have a bad life.

And capitalism, on the other hand, tends toward giving everyone the “opportunity” to create a life filled with financial wealth. And, it’s up to each person to take advantage of this – to make the necessary money to be well-off. Yet does it consider how ones own wealth affects others well-being and the strange chasm between the rich and poor?

For me, neither capitalism nor socialism is a workable solution.

However, there is something in the combining the two concepts that I believe will bring a new economic system that uses money completely differently. One that combines our individual sense of identity and personal power, with a collective ability to allow all to be free from lives that are based in tyranny – which is directly related to one’s ability to access to money systems.

One thing that will be hard to convince me otherwise (but I will stay open!), is that ‘innovation’ as we know it must evolve beyond the conditions and thinking that created the society that has resulted from it so far. Sound familiar? Yah, Einstein said something similar. From my mind, he is soooo right. And that’s why I am a supporter of this new concept called ’sustainable’ innovation, which this website discoveryfuel.com is all about.

RESPOND below, and stay tuned to learn more.

In my mind, the term ‘collaboration’ integrates both individual (capitalistic) and collective (socialistic) needs and desires. Thus, it IS the future. I encourage all readers to study it closely. Do not place collaboration in the category of socialism, for that is incorrect.

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That said: I want to open this up to a real dialogue here (not a discussion or debate) …

What QUESTIONS (not opinions or answers) really need to be asked here? What might be missing? What is totally right on? What underlying emotions make you feel uncomfortable or comfortable about this article? How does it relate to the world’s past, present, and future situations? And how do we learn to evolve toward a way of life that feels more right, or more peaceful? … Or is that even the right question?

What are YOUR questions?

NOTE: When you respond, don’t let your expectations or belief systems play into your comments if at all possible (This is virtually impossible.)  But even more important is: What QUESTIONS (rather than opinions or answers) really need to be asked here? Make no assumptions, be judgmental of nothing, and inquire with a completely open mind. Try googling on the phrase: “you cannot multiply wealth by dividing it”, or click here and you will here many different opinions.

Please remember and experiment with the following point: The ‘question’ is far more powerful than any answer that you think you can come up with in this time of great change. So, what are your questions? Can you do it without bias? It’s really tough to do, but shall we try it?

Let the dialog begin.

Posted on August 11, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle

Tell Me Why (Why change?) – A Children’s Tribute

Why must we have to remind ourselves of the horror we do to others of our own kind?

Why must we have to remember over and over again ‘why’ we must create change?

Watch Declan – Tell Me Why – a children’s tribute;  images of children at war.

Posted on August 1, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle

“Be The Change!” – 7 Steps To Manifestation

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Join “Be The Change!” Twibes Twitter Group /// Participate in the “Be The Change!” Dialogue Project

Join One Of Our Discovery Communities At The Bottom Of This Page

Mohandas Gandhi’s quote above is powerful, isn’t it?

Being the change requires that we embody change itself. To do this, each of us must surround ourselves with a community of others that can provide us with encouragement and supportive feedback.

Seven Steps To Becoming The Change:

• Know WHY you want change and be able to articulate it.
• Understand WHAT it means for that change to happen.
• Time WHEN the change can best occur.
• Find WHO you want to ally with.
• Consider WHERE the change can best serve.
• Practice HOW the change needs to emerge.
• And always always always be aware of the influence of your change on others – Our greatest risk is that we become blinded by your own righteousness about our own need for change. This is why a community is necessary to keep each of us highly motivated and always in check.

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Become a ‘Fuel-Molecule’ within the Solution of Change

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Because ‘WE’ being change is far more powerful than just ‘ME’ being change.

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JOIN US!

Click on the community image below that works for you.

TO SEE CHANGE, ONE MUST BECOME CHANGE !

Join the ‘Be The Change!‘ Twibes Twitter Conversation Group

Wear a “Be The Change!” T-shirt and Talk your Walk.