Big Boost Summer Academy 2007 was So Successful that 2008 has been confirmed ,
After a special week of learning and sharing as a group we have decided that staying in touch as a network would be important way for us t make a difference ,
another way s to develop a commission to enable the group to be able to produce a study & report
about what we think are the Key issues for young people and Social Enterprise ,
this is an open blog for the group to add our thoughts as this develops ,
please feel free to post you thoughts ,
Special thanks to everyone who took part in the group , feel free to link to your websites on the right hand side ,
& special thanks to the UNLTD Team & What ! if ?
Cmmison For Youth Social Enterprise
Hard at Work
5 comments:
Good work man... Ahmed
New Update 19/07/07
There is an Unltd Big Boost event ,
at the Roxy next wednesday 25th
this would be a good oppertunity for everone to meet
and discuss further. 10am -4pm there is moreinformation on our commsionprogress event list please can people let us know threre attendence as we can take emailed suggestions from those unable to attend ,
Hi guys,
Here are my notes of the week
in case they may be of any use to any one...
?WHAT IF! / Big Boost Summer Academy
Monday and Tuesday
Positive ways of thinking
Being Comfortably Lost – Stepping out of the comfort zone and into the stretch zone.
Be cool to yourself – you can get things wrong!
Looking into different words and their meaning
Creativity –
• Improving on reality
• Ability to have unique ideas
• Doing things differently
• Applying imagination
• ?WHAT IF! Definition “ The habit of continually doing things in new ways to make a true difference to our working lives”
Innovation –
• ?WHAT IF! Definition “Insight
+
Ideas
+
Impact
= Innovation
Nature Vs Nurture
Explored the debate of nature versus nurture - i.e is creativity something we are born with or we learn??
Different modes of thinking when being creative
Expansionist Mode
Reductionist Mode
Something that was said “ Behind every entrepreneur is a great support network”
Turning Barriers into Enablers
Looked at different things that encourage creative thinking –
• Attitude
• Environment
• Behaviours – how you want people to behave when you present an idea to others. Start to get the idea out there more.
• Skills – keep practising a new skill. Put more of my ideas onto paper.
• Structure – having key milestones that are realistic and rewarding yourself once you have reached them
GIFT Feedback
Good
Intentioned
Feedback
Technique
Stop – look at the data (i.e I saw how you tackled the ball on the field) add your interpretation (i.e and I feel you were not putting your all into it) and check it out with the person (i.e did you feel like you were lacking in effort – how did you feel you were performing?) Don’t give feedback in the heat of the moment. And always check it out with the person first.
?WHAT IF ! had a range of behaviours that they introduced throughout the week on the boards.
The 1st behaviour was Greenhousing
Protecting your idea and nurturing it.
Suspend judgement
Understand context of the idea
Nurture
The next behaviour was Signalling
Helping people to understand how you would like them to respond to you.
Don’t say “What do you think?”
Ask the person “How can I build on this?”
Tim and Amy from ?WHAT IF! did some role play showing the group how different approaches provoked different reactions.
Own the signal of what response you want. You have to signal when you want help to form something. You have to signal what you want them to say about it.
Idea Capture
• Small groups and facilitator
• Avoid tables
• Same eye level
• One idea at a time
• Park other ideas
• Signalling and Greenhousing
• Sit on the pen
• One idea per page
• Draw a picture and annotate – use a catchy title to refer back to the idea
• HAVE FUN!!
If people in groups do not talk them get them to write things down.
Listening Skills
In groups we practised listening skills.
When listening to others only ask questions – and questions that are relevant to what they are saying. Listening is a muscle
Set the context – tell them they will like the idea “Do you have a young child?”
Make things visual for people
If you are providing a service act it out to make it real
Make it real!!
Test the ideas – what do people want – ask them
There is a discipline to the creative process. Don’t judge your ideas till your further down the process and allow other ideas to manifest before sticking with one idea. And use stimulus to further help and enhance the process of creativity further don the line.
Defintion Tools
W.O.W – a planning tool
Windows of wisdom
• What is it I’m actually trying to do. Tell the problem as if I’m a five year old.
• Context – why now? What’s important about the project?
• Constraints - what resources do I have access too? – how much time do I have – politics what laws do I need to be aware of? Internal politics – who are people I need to convince.
• VISION OF SUCCESS – what do I want it too look like ? What do I want to change?
Playback to people what the proposal is to make sure its understood.
FUNNEL OF FOCUS – a planning tool
Ideas that are at the top of the funnel and are more general.
Ideas towards the bottom of the funnel more focused and specific to idea.
R.E.X (Re-Expression)
• Avoid Jargon
• Do the kid test (do they understand)
• Make it fun/sexy/exciting
• Use images pictures
PICTURES SPEAK A THOUSAND WORDS
We spent the evening exploring The Brain !!
Different states more productive when trying to be creative. How we best receive information. Auditory, Visual, Kinetic.
Wednesday – Day Out
Thursday & Friday
In groups we discussed the day out
The group talked about the different environments/different people and different leadership styles they observed.
In groups we talked about Inspiration/Lessons/Practical Tips/For the Minister and presented it back to the group in a creative way.
They had all taken risks – You make your own luck.
We worked on our projects in pairs using the definition tools W.O.W and R.E.X
Can’t remember what this one was called but we looked at;
Being them.
Being with them.
Knowing about them.
And the relationships to whatever it may be – being
Deep.
Normal.
Weird.
Then we looked at;
?WHAT IF ! had a range of behaviours that they introduced throughout the week on the boards.
Here are some more:
Revolution
Breaking the rules
Freshness
As a group we all pledged to do something fresh for the week we got back.
Related Worlds
Get information from people have done it before. Look to places that are already doing similar things, use this and adapt it.
Random Links
As a group we all collected something random from the grounds and then had to randomly link the object to the school project that we were talking about.
Words
Timelords !!
Sharing the Air
Being Brave
Honesty
Be True to myself
Even if you move one degree its one degree in another direction.
Leadership
Leaders you admire have characteristics you admire, what are they?
The group talked about the leaders who they admire and that they don’t necessarily have to be well known with the label of a leader. Talked about the qualities leaders possess.
Leaders you admire can subconsciously guide your behaviour – cultivate an awareness of this.
There is no “one way” or best way to lead – find your own leadership.
Leadership requires followship;
“If you are a leader, look behind and see who is following”.
Self
Context
Others
As a group we stood outside and had to step into the circle which we thought was our strength and then we had to step into the circle which we thought we needed to develop. We talked about why we had stepped into it. This was challenging.
We watched Big with Tom Hanks
Talked about leadership styles using the film clips as an example.
Looked at states of mind.
Physical
Mental
Spiritual
Looked at where our behaviour comes from;
Experience
Feelings
Attitude
Behaviour
Individually we noted a positive experience and negative experience.
Question your beliefs and get rid of those negative socks – is this serving me a purpose???
Pat yourself on the back for the good things you do.
Its good to be me because….
Re-framing experiences.
Looked at the impact of our behaviour on others.
Rivers of behaviour
A vision of who you are guides your behaviour.
We sang round the fire and shared our thoughts of what the week had meant to us. SPECIAL SPECIAL!!
SAT... is this the private group
hey guys
I have been thinking more about Last week and how we can really do something that could make an impact. It would be an incredible thing if we could get an audience with the big guys at the top and pitch to be a body of young people that the goverment would discuss legislations/ laws/ issues with.
just a thought
hope your all good
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