Block1. Materials

Here I will locate materials I may bring into the classroom and show you, so that you may refer to them afterwards.  I take the view that it is a lot better to do that than to have you forever frantically trying to copy what I say or do!  I hope you agree.  If not: hard luck – because that is the way I am going to work!

Blending the Business

Firstly, here is a representation of what I call: ‘Blending the Business’… it seeks to do the impossible on just one page and explain what all businesses and organisations are trying to achieve (even if they are not commercial).

Some themes for the teams

Please note: this is just food for thought – it does NOT mean I am pushing you in any particular direction at all – I just thought that if you were having difficulty in getting off the ground, these might get you thinking….. OK?

Socio-Cult.

• The middle classes seem to be feeling the pinch everywhere: salaries not going up in real terms, governmental financial support going down (as there are more poorer people – often downshifted ex middle-class) and the costs of things we find it difficult to do without going up.  There are lots of learned and more detailed reports on this, but the following CNN at’a-glance report puts it into perspective well…. http://money.cnn.com/infographic/economy/heres-why-the-middle-class-feels-squeezed/  So, if you were in this middle class situation, what would your life ‘feel’ and ‘look’ like?  How would you be responding to the challenge?  Would you stop consuming certain things altogether? Would you change how you consume?   You might also have a look at the UK government’s website using ‘social trends reports’ as a search term.  Every year they do a multiplicity of reports into how we are living our lives: (the UK is ‘BIG’ on measuring everything!). They are interested in change so that they can plan government intervention and investment and make and take policy decisions. https://data.gov.uk/dataset/social_trends   Education is part of society and culture, but is the model we have been using for generations ‘right’?  Ken Robinson is convinced it is not and that we are killing our children’s and youths’ creative abilities with it … just when we need that creativity more than ever.  He has a wealth of brilliant and funny presentations, but start with this one: http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity …. over 35,000,000 people have watched this talk, would you believe…..  make sure you add to the number: after all, you have been a consumer of primary, secondary and now tertiary education for getting on for 20 years!!!!   This might sound like ‘fodder for the Econ team, but as I said last week, many (if not all) of these environments overlap or sit upon one another – an example – the empowerment of women in India through micro-credit: http://www.grameen-info.org/womens-empowerment-microcredit-it-and-poverty/.    This one sort of relates to ‘money’ too … in the sense that it does without it: https://www.community-exchange.org/, instead, people go off-grid in a form of ‘community exchange’, where I swap my time and expertise for yours: I can teach your kid English for two hours, but can you sort out my PC problem in return?’

Tech.

• Have a look and listen to THIS: it is a short presentation (15 mins) by Justin Hall-Tippett on the TED website (If you don’t know TED, it is a spectacularly inspiring collection of short talks by the world’s best on every subject you can imagine, from a 16 year old who built a WORKING nuclear FUSION (not fission!) device in his garage to a lady professor who is using satellites to identify hidden/buried archaeological remains).  This presentation is about how one guy saw the need to put the world’s very best research and development labs together and share their ideas.  That is truly revolutionary – given the fact that these inventions will lead to commercially valuable patents and products, research teams ‘play their cards close to their chests’.  The result is a transparent, nano-web spray that can be applied to the walls and windows of your house which does all the work of a solar panel BUT it also stocks the electricity harmlessly on your house inside the nano-web layer so you can use it when you want and / or convert it back to light and beam it to any of your neighbours who might need if if you are in line of sight……   So, no need for EDF or GDF or of ‘fracking’, no need to risk nuclear or to be burning fossil fuel in our power stations.  This has now left the lab and is being trialed in real communities in the USA.  Do watch this: http://www.ted.com/talks/justin_hall_tipping_freeing_energy_from_the_grid   I am NOT saying you are to base your thoughts around this at all, just to give you an idea of the things you might find online if you search widely enough.   OK, now this site does more than look at Tech, but it tries to estimate major technological impacts to come: http://www.futuretimeline.net/index.htm#timeline.  This site, however, focuses on technology exclusively: http://www.techtimes.com/futuretech .

Env.

• Global warming and life in a world running at 4°+ above current temperatures is frightening: http://www.greenfacts.org/en/impacts-global-warming/l-2/1.htm#0 .  If you have time to read it, have a look at Mark Lynas’ book on 6 degrees…. he takes us through the impacts and implications of each of these 6 degrees.  Trust me, you start feeling bad at 3°C, really ill at 4°C and 5 and 6°C are the stuff of nightmares (yet some see 4°C+ by 2060!  I won’t be worrying about that….. but you will be living it and concerned for your kids and grandchildren…..    There are videos on this on You Tube, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_pb1G2wIoA which is a National Geographic video based on Mark Lynas’ research.
• http://www.unep.org/geo/geo4/report/01_Environment_for_Development.pdf    A UNEP report highlighting the environmental and developmental challenges ahead.  Does this act as food for thought.  If those are the priorities, what sort of commercial or even non-commercial activities (development of new/improved products &/or services) should we engage in?   Also have a look at TED talks for one by Eben Bayer about mushrooms…. trust me on this – you’ll be stunned.  The mycellium that makes mushrooms grow and cheese ripen (and where would La France be without either!!!???) can totally eradicate the need to produce polystyrene or plastics for packaging…. and it is FREE – it grows itself without need of light or even warmth!!! Watch this: http://www.ted.com/talks/eben_bayer_are_mushrooms_the_new_plastic.  So, no more need to produce and dump into landfill millions of tons of things like that that which takes 10,000 years to decay and leaves a 100% cancer-inducing liquid for our populations of the future to deal with.  Then there are new initiatives such as fairtrade towns, see: http://www.fairtradetowns.org/about/what-is-a-fairtrade-town/  , where all businesses are encouraged to engage in sustainable sourcing and production of their products. The world’s first was in Garstang, UK.

Econ.

• Banks and funding aren’t interesting, of course….. or are they?  How about these for solutions:
  • The UK-government -funded Green Investment Bank: http://www.greeninvestmentbank.com/
  • The Grameen Bank (Micro-credit). http://www.grameen-info.org/grameen-founder-muhammad-yunus/   A man takes his students out for a walk in a poor  Indian  village and realises that he can change the lives of everyone struggling desperately before him with the couple of small notes he has in his pocket.  He invents a bank which gives very small amounts of money (with no security needed) to women in communities who help each other.  Virtually 100% of his investments are 100% successful. The bank’s failure rate is reputed to be way below that of commercial banks who have involved security procedures.  He has changed the lives of many millions of Indians.  I believe the bank has also opened in New York on the basis that the sums may be different, but poverty is the same….   This might sound like ‘fodder for the Socio team, but as I said last week, many (if not all) of these environments overlap or sit upon one another – an example – the empowerment of women in India through micro-credit: http://www.grameen-info.org/womens-empowerment-microcredit-it-and-poverty/    And what if we decided to create our own local currency so that money stays in the local area – is it legal? Could one do it and have one’s salary paid in it?  No, not a pipe-dream a reality: see the Bristol Pound at http://bristolpound.org/. It co-exists with the UK pound and appx 10% of all transactions are done in this currency in Bristol….
  • Crowd-funding.  So you have a great idea but you can’t afford or are not able to take out a significant bankloan without further investment.  The system used to operate in the Theatre: we called them ‘Angels’ – people who would give small or large amounts to get the production off the ground and who would receive nothing if the production flopped and get to share profit only if it made money.   This has now opened out to all sorts of possibilities: museums use it and new ventures too: See SEEDRS crowd-funding website: https://www.seedrs.com/
  • Then there are management revolutions that combine economic and socio-cultural environmental factors…. a company that gives you unlimited holidays, doesn’t require you to book them in advance or seek approval…? Crazy?  Impossible?  No, actually profitable!!!  See Richard Branson’s take on this with his Virgin group of companies / brand: http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/why-were-letting-virgin-staff-take-as-much-holiday-as-they-want

An observation, in a book I am reading about ideas and innovation, the author speaks of really new and totally unexpected ideas coming out of one brain as being very rare indeed…. the majority of things that have propelled us forward in what Jacob Bronowski calls: ‘The Ascent of Man’, tend to be  connections that we have made between things: ‘Ah if they have done that and I add this the we get something new/better’.