martes, 31 de julio de 2012

Hollyhock




I stayed a week at Isla Cortes, one of the most beautiful island I ever seen in the north, off the coast of British Columbia, Canada.

I flought there from Seattle in a small seaplane: the trip lasted two and a half hours flying over rainforests, virgin beachs full of white dead trees, remote islands appearing in the middle of fog, with wild horses running after the noise of our plane, sailboats gently rolling on the North West pacific ocean.

The names on the map sound very familiar to me, like the Malaspina strait, named by an Italian explorer whose descendents are my neighbours in my native village in Tuscany.

Two stops for passing the Canadian border and leaving two passengers in exotic places like Nanaimo, sacred sound of local Indian tribes reminiscence and there we land, at Mansons Fields, where friends pick up and drive us through the local, endless rainforest, boarding lakes with snowy peaks in the horizon and eagles fishing.

Our destination was Hollyhock, a traning center opened 30 years ago as a sanctuary for studying innovations on nature conservation, renewable energies, social and environmental activism, mankind progress and future shaping.

Hollyhock is named by the Island flower in the picture and is located over the most sacred beach of the territory, where local indian tribes were organizing meetings, parties, holy ceremonies and peace traits. 



In this beach marriages were celebrated and the presence of love is constant there. 

On the night of July 26th we swimmed in the calm, shallow waters and I felt like an angel: it was the first day of the new Mayan year (where the earth, the sun, the moon and Sirius are aligned) and fluorescences created by special planctons illuminated the dark waters, as we moved around. 

My hands, arms and legs had an aura of light while swimming under a sky full of stars and peace in my hearth.

Wolves were chanting to the half moon not far from the beach and the only think I was missing was my family and all my friends and students to share together a moment of so intense beauty.

Every year in the last 26, Hollyhock is the scenario of the "Summer gathering", a private meeting where you can only be invited by someone of the inner circle. I was there to present my new passion, ThinkidsProject, a non profit for introducing entrepreneurship into elementary and secondary schools all over the world.

I found a lot of support there and we started working on two ideas: collaborating with PYEglobal.org and creating a Thinkids camp at the shore of Atitlan, a sacred Mayan lake close to San Pedro, Guatemala, ended with a Tedxkids: this will help a lot the local mayan community, fighting to improve their kids education and local entrepreneurship. Our kids will join the camp as well, learning a lot from their mayan peers. 



Every day the gathering started at 6am with an hour of meditation, followed by an hour and a half of yoga. 

Breakfast was served at 8:30 while the "academic" program started at 9:30 and consisted of 4 conferences, salted with artistic performances.

Afternoons had two sessions of workshops, freely organized by participants, using Hollyhock facilities, the beach, a private house or even the jacuzzy at night, giving an idea about the free spirit lingering in the air.

Food was fully organic and mainly vegetarian, with the exception of the tasty salmons, locally fished, and an oyster barbecue on thursday night, which preceded the final night party.

I prefer to respect the private nature of the event, a kind of meeting among friends who are considered change makers and "terra-ists" and I will not disclose publicly the content of messages I heared there.

What I can say is I shared the gathering with some 80 people, basically shamans (people who open up spaces, curing your spirit through words, chants and rituals), storytellers, rainmakers, a purple astrologyst "dancing with wolfs", a Mayan king, an artist who is dedicating his poetry to fight against one-use-only-plastic-tools and save albatross, the mushroom king, musicians, poets, scientists, social entrepreneurs, expert fund raisers, 2 kids, generous nature lovers, volunteers, missionaries, activists, diverse and unique human beings and Manuel Maqueda who is all the above things together. 


Gracias Maestro.

sábado, 21 de julio de 2012

Gracias, Gracias, Gracias, ...



Siempre recordaré con infinito cariño el 19 de Julio de 2012, “Commencement Day” en EOI: 475 sueños coronados con un título super merecido, fiesta y alegría en al aire, chicos y chicas muy elegantes, padres y novi@s como pavos y dos padrinos de excepción: el ex presidente de Colombia Betancur y el ministro Arias Cañete.

A mí me dieron una mención al profesor mejor valorado del año y 3 minutos para darle las gracias a una Institución que considero mi casa y a mis alumn@s: poco tiempo quedaba para improvisar algo que mereciese la pena, siendo además el último obstáculo para el cocktail y la gran fiesta.

Me ayudó mi querido Italo Calvino y sus apuntes (“Six memos for the next millennium”) para el ciclo de conferencias que iba a dar en Harvard en el año académico 1985-86.

Se murió antes, pero nos dejó seis sugerencias para la literatura del tercer milenio que a mi juicio son de brutal actualidad también para los líderes empresariales de hoy: ligereza, rapidez, exactitud, visibilidad, multiplicidad y consistencia. Me parecieron apropiadas para unos alumnos que ya vuelven de lleno a sus empresas, en constante cambio existencial.

Bueno, también les conté una anégdota real que me pasó en una cena en casa de conocidos, donde el anfitrión me recomendó seriamente visitar a un amigo suyo psiquiatra cuando les conté que firmo mis emails como “Chief Optimistic Officer” y que el día 12 de Julio iba a dictar una conferencia sobre “La felicidad como respuesta a la crisis”.

Finalmente, les recordé de no dejarse nunca en casa su herramienta estratégica mas preciada, su sonrisa y no olvidar que estamos aquí para ser felices.

Di las gracias a la dirección de EOI, a sus chicos (Miguel, Julio, Ramón, …) y a las chicas que dirigen áreas vitales (Ana, Eva, Juana, Mariló, ..) en representación de todas las personas de EOI que hacen fácil nuestro trabajo en el Aula, pero no me dio tiempo nombrarlas a todas.

Ahora sí puedo hacerlo y este post va dedicado única y exclusivamente a todas las coordinadoras de programa de EOI, a las que soportan técnicamente nuestras sesiones online, a las chicas y chicos que gestionan la parte económica y logística, en recepción, en los eventos, en la red de Ex alumni, seguridad, etc.

Hay 140 empleados en EOI y es imposible citarlos a todos así me limitaré en nombrar a las chicas con quien trabajo más a menudo pero el GRACIAS va a todas y todos, de mi parte, de parte del claustro de profesores y sobre todo, de parte de los alumnos.

GRACIAS a:
Luz, Paloma, Marina, Natalia, Marisol, Marisol, Elena, Ana, Ana María, Rosa, Rosa, Concha, Vanesa, Marta, Raquel, Bárbara, Beatriz, Carolina, Mónica, María, María, Nadia, Nancy, Silvia, Patricia, Nuria, Virginia, Esperanza, Esperanza, Noelia, Gema, … GRACIAS, GRACIAS, GRACIAS, …..

lunes, 16 de julio de 2012

La felicidad como respuesta a la crisis

Antonio Fontanini


El día 12 dí una conferencia en EOI sobre "La Felicidad como respuesta a la crisis", para presentar el nuevo programa que dirijo: Advanced Management Innovation Program (y su versión en Español PDID).

Si os interesa escucharme hablar más de una hora sobre Felicidad, aquí os dejo el link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoHmmsaJiGw&feature=context-gfa

En la última media hora, Ramón Gurriarán y yo presentamos esta nueva aventura.

El programa está pensado para senior managers que han leído "Funky Business" y quieren aprender las nuevas maneras de gestionar las empresas del siglo XXI: "Cada día me sorprende más ver a personas en altos puestos ejecutivos por lo que sabían hacer ayer".

Lo cuento en mi conferencia: "Todo lo que no he aprendido en los últimos 4 años no sólo no me sirve sino intento DESaprenderlo".

Si en tu entorno hay altos ejecutivos que no han leído a Einstein "Para mí, una buena definición de la locura es hacer cada día lo mismo y esperar un resultado diferente", que no saben lo que es crowdsourcing, open innovation, design thinking y todavía no les suena Jeff Jarvis (DELL HELL) o David Carroll (United breaks guitars), o se creen que "La estrategia se come la cultura de la empresa en el desayuno", por favor, ponles en contacto conmigo.

jueves, 5 de julio de 2012

I do not understand


I liked a lot this article by Josh Bernoff, about " The power of not understanding": here it goes.

"When I started at Forrester, a huge intellectual presence towered over the research organization. This was Bill Bluestein, who rose to be come president of the company and inspired us all, until he died (far too young) in 2001.

Bill edited me. He would read my reports and say "I don't understand." It was infuriating, because he was close to the smartest person I knew and how could he not get it? I would get emotional and explain, passionately, that the present was LIKE THIS and the future would be different, LIKE THAT, and decision-makers at companies needed to understand and act on that knowledge. NOW do you get it, Bill?

Then we'd both look at each other and realize that I'd gotten to the heart of the matter in a much more understandable way. I'd go back and write what I'd said to him, and the report would be a whole lot better.

When Bill died, I resolved to take on what I could of his editorial persona. By then, I had helped create Technographics and had developed somewhat of a reputation based on my analysis of the television world. This meant that many people inside and outside Forrester assumed I knew what I was talking about -- I was secure in that reputation.

This meant I could assume -- perhaps egotistically -- that if I didn't get something, the problem was with the content, not with me. And I determined to do what Bill did.

When I read a report, I often say "I don't understand, what's your main point?" At this point the writer often reacts as I did with Bill, and we get closer to a better explanation. Or she reveals that in fact, she doesn't know what she's talking about -- the problem is in idea, not in the writing -- and we send her back to clarify and strengthen her ideas.

It works in meetings, too. It clarifies people's thinking.

I do this with clients, too. When I look at someone and say "I don't understand," the result is a deeper explanation . . . or sometimes, revealing that they need to work harder on clarifying what their issue is.

As of this moment, I encourage you to do this. It takes confidence to say "I don't understand" since the easiest reaction on the part of the person you're talking with is to assume that you're stupid. And you will get ridiculed. But you might learn something, too. You might get a better explanation. You might help the person you're speaking with clarify his ideas. And you might just both end up in a better place.

As Isaac Asimov said, "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the only one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!,' but rather, 'Hmm ... that’s funny....'"