LISTEN & RESPOND TO KEEP RELATIONSHIPS POSITIVE

Listening and responding positively to each other, is something we can all be better at...and these strange times have pushed us together to practice it, when perhaps we wouldn't otherwise do it.

Active Constructive Responding is when you stay present to each other, setting aside your own agenda and stories; and holding the space to hear what is being said and meant.

Listen. Pause. Respond.

Remember, often people are filtering through their story about your reaction, whether adults or kids...it takes practice...but what happens is a deepening of trust, love, respect and a more honest conversation between each other.
​
#flowinaction #wellbeing #resilience #flourishing #imagination #creativity #weareallconnected #designforflourishing #activeconstructiveresponding #acr

Another proven wellbeing practice is to do the 3 Good Things & Why exercise.

You can do it as a journalling exercise before going to sleep, as well as a regular rapid exercise through the day.

You can do it by yourself, or with friends and it's a lovely thing to do as a family.
It actively changes your focus, celebrating the smallest of good things and why they are meaningful to you.

Anything from seeing bees on daisies, a smile, getting the lid off a jar, contacting a friend...it's all in the detail and why you care about it.

Start by doing it everyday for the next 7 days...you'll find you continue it :)

Make it a journalling bricolage activity for yourself; and especially with kids.

As well as celebrating the loveliness, you'll also start to hear and see your incredible capacity to problem-solve and bring new perspectives to challenges, finding your way forward.

Also known as a gratitude practice, gratitude is the number 1 independent indicator of our emotional wellbeing...even when we're saying it through gritted teeth (for those of you who've watched Brene's A Call to Courage on Netflix...and if you haven't then watch it...)
​
#flowinaction #resilience #wellbeing #imagination #creativity #flourishing #designforflourishing #changeperspective #gratitude #gratitudepractice #3goodthings

Strange times call for new perspectives in problem-solving creatively.

Start by grounding yourself and those you love in your strengths; and make this the lens to look through going forward.

It is a simple wellbeing exercise, which you can do for yourself, as a group of friends, or as a family.

I recommend www.viacharacter.org as it comes from the Positive Psychology stable.

You can create a free account and answer the questions. There is a children's version also.

Take everyone's top 3 strengths.
How do you practically live these strengths every day? List 3 examples.
Play with problem-solving by using one or more of the strengths.

As a family or group, make a grid, stick it on the fridge, consciously look through this strengths-based lens to tackle the small and large challenges in each day.
Celebrate each other!

​(Also...see your top 3 strengths as the doorways into which you access and use the other strengths in your list. Just because strengths are lower on the list, doesn't mean you don't have them!)
#flowinaction #wellbeing #flourishing #strengths #imagination #creativity #ideas #designthinking #designforflourishing #love #iamunprecedented #weareallconnected #resilience

Turning the SDGs into reality will take innovative, courageous and dynamic investing.
​For participants taking part in the Certificate of Advanced Studies in SDG Investing at The Graduate Institute in Geneva, immersion into the UN SDGs starts on Day 1. And I was there to run an introductory Flow In Action Innovation & Impact Challenge with the group.

Opening up to the level of innovation needed to bring new, radical solutions which make real impact, means challenging business-as-usual. That requires everyone to show up with their unique blend of problem-solving creativity. Designing solutions means thinking across systems.  

Which was the purpose of 90-minute scene-setting workshop!

Setting the 20-participants an ambiguous challenge around making a product sustainable, looking back from 2031 to how we achieved it, disrupted old patterns of thinking. We played with ideas, tinkering with some reverse-engineering and understanding impact across systems and supply chains; building an understanding of how interconnected the UN SDGs are; and the need to be focused on designing for flourishing.

All of which opens up new perspectives from different stakeholders with different expertise, creating an opportunity to come together and generate more impactful solutions designed around people and planet.

Connecting with creativity is the vital starting point for radical risk-taking and Flow In Action’s Innovation Challenge Workshops invite participants of all ages to step into this problem-solving space to be risk-takers and changemakers. 

Solution: Innovation & Impact Challenge Workshop
Topic: Systems Thinking for the UN SDGs
Location: Geneva, Villa Barton, The Graduate Institute
Commissioned by: SDGI, The Graduate Institute, Executive Education

#flowinaction #imagination #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #sdgs #designthinking #designforflourishing #systemsthinking #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #flourishing 

Looking through a positive lens, the Coronavirus is acting as a trigger for doing things differently, especially for those of us with conferences, events, workshops, learning programmes, toolkits…

How are you responding?
We know that the need to keep making a difference for people and planet doesn’t stop, so what can you do differently to keep making your positive impact?

Scarcity breeds innovation. We live in a digital age. Opportunities exist.  

I’m an early adopter of top Swiss cloud platform Hazu.io as an edtech, knowledge management and business management platform for my own enterprise; enabling me to interact live with audiences, visualise and scale up the impact of my activities at a local, regional and global level.  

I love running my innovation challenge events, toolkits and workshops through it, capturing real-time responses from my participants - kids and adults - via smart phones, tablets and laptops, so that we immediately see ideas come to life, like a constellation of creativity and positive impact switching on. 

And, I use Hazu.io to help you to keep delivering and scale-up your powerful solutions.
As a license reseller and implementation consultant for Hazu.io, I help you to structure your content, materials, business processes and activities to reach, as well as set-up your Hazu.io system, to engage and work with your communities.  

Book your free 30-min video discovery session with me today.
Email elaine@flowinaction.org or select a slot over the next few days

Together, we’ll look at where you are now, where you need to be in terms of delivering your event, learning programmes and social impact activities; and how to get there in the days ahead by exploring what a rapid, efficient, innovative Hazu.io solution for moving forward looks like for you. 

Taking action for people and planet can’t wait.
Responding as social innovators and entrepreneurs can’t wait.
Finding ways to make positive impact can’t wait.

Get started now. Book your discovery session here. We go together!

#flowinaction #designforflourishing #flourishing #creativity #ideas #innovation #entrepreneurship #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #humancentreddesign

Fantastic to be featured in the inaugural version of the World Leading Schools Association (WLSA) REACH Magazine, writing about gender equality in education settings. 

Check out my article on page 20 of the PDF

“…love is a skill, not a feeling, and will require trust, vulnerability, generosity…” writes Alain de Botton, which means loving the planet is also a skill not a feeling, requiring the same trust, vulnerability and generosity.

As love sits at the heart of empathy, which triggers the cycle of invention and innovation, then I believe that there is hope for solutions which are unashamedly people and planet-centred.

In cultivating the conditions for radical and immediate change, there is a profound step in understanding to be taken by each of us.
 
If you agree that you are made of energy, more space than matter actually, then you understand that Nature is living its purpose through you, making you inextricably and beautifully interdependent with this ‘self-organising Universe' as Joanna Macy calls it.

Its rhythms are your rhythms.

You are a million moving parts, surrounded by an incalculable number of other moving parts. The very essence of its energy is refracted through the unique blend of you, unprecedented you.

I think that is the stuff of wonder.

I also think that means you can stop worrying about your life purpose being something outside of you that you must seek; instead it is simply opening up from the inside to your imagination, problem-solving creativity and ideas. 

Your skills are the prism through which Nature’s exquisite problem-solving can take place across the whole system which you are part of.

I think it’s hard to do systems thinking though, when you are dreaming up your ideas for taking action, if you still don’t understand that you are part of the ecological system. And we have viewed ourselves as separate, so we haven’t done it.

It seems to me that we are the only species on the planet, despite our intellect, which at some point stopped joining up the dots about what happens to what we create, where is goes, how it reintegrates itself. If you see yourself as outside of the natural system, you don’t create things with a view to completing the circle to trigger it to self-organise.

Time to start! With great urgency! I don’t believe innovation is innovation these days unless it’s being designed with protection of people and planet in mind.

To come back to love then, because it opens up your greatest capacity to dream, create, innovate. I’ve called it on other occasions the Tao of Innovation, but I’ve think it is more accurate to call it the Tao of Impact instead, this 'how things happen.'

When I do this with you, exploring this ‘how’ means starting from the positive impact you want to create and reverse engineering from there. We are immediately in a space of reciprocity with the planet, bound by trust, vulnerability, generosity, for best solutions; meaning that you will go a long way to aligning your ideas to be regenerative.

And what of hope?  

Well, I believe, if love is a skill and therefore love for the planet is too, then there is cause for great hope; because skills can be remembered, learned, re-learned and expand as prisms for planetary problem-solving.

With a bit of Springsteen in mind, “All you gotta do is say yes…"
 
[1] https://www.joannamacy.net/
[2] Bruce Springsteen, Tougher Than The Rest

#flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #wonder #love #sustainability #sdgs #designforflourishing #designthinking #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #climateaction #wellbeing #weareallconnected

Full of gratitude for this testimonial from the GEW2019 workshop in partnership with Dr Vlad Glaveneau that we ran at Webster University Geneva - Center for Creativity & Innovation. Webster Center for Creativity & Innovation
"Dear Elaine, Thanks a lot for your workshop. It was as informative as fun.
Your original and creative approach enabled us to look for new solutions and fostered a "think out of the box" mindset.
I also appreciated the mix between using our child side with colors, pens and imagination combined with the technology side and mapping.
I can only highly recommend your workshop for any team or organisation who wish to create new product or service.
Or just want a one-of-a-kind team building.
Finally, merci for your kindness and openness.
You managed to motivate everyone and gently pushed us out of our limits."

#flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #designthinking #designforflourishing #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #sustainability #sdgs #wellbeing #weareallconnected #climateaction 

I'm delighted to have been invited to become an Associate Board Member of Webster University Geneva's - Center for Creativity & Innovation  , a multi-disciplinary centre dedicated to the study and exploration of creativity and innovation and their applications across sectors and disciplines to promote a better world.

#flowinaction 

From January 2020 - dates tbc - I am delighted to be a trainer for Impaakt's Impact Analyst Certification and running free workshops, empowering you with the skills to understand impact, write impact notes on the Impaakt platform and ensure that businesses are doing business for good.

I'll be running workshops face-to-face and online. More details to come very soon.

Read more about Impaakt

My talk starts at 33.21 where I'm talking about 'A different starting point for creating solutions for a flourishing planet...'

...I 'erm' a lot...something I'm working on :)...
​

​Your unique blend of imagination and creativity, is the starting point for creating solutions for a flourishing planet. As a speaker at the International Symposium on the Real-World Impact of Creativity, hosted by Webster University Geneva’s Center for Creativity & Innovation, on 6th December 2019, I shared the why, how and what of how I use wellbeing tools with innovation challenges to inspire radical solutions for a flourishing planet.

Alongside academics specialising in researching creativity and innovation, I shared the insights and experience from my work, particularly with youth and start-up entrepreneurs, talking about 'A Different Starting Point to Create Solutions for a Flourishing Planet.'
 
"We need radical solutions to truly tackle challenges in communities and at a global scale, which means we need a new generation of intra- and entrepreneurs with the courage, vision and skills to imagine and design around flourishing, for flourishing of people and planet.

We need to cultivate the conditions for people to show-up in their organisations in this way, to create their best solutions and challenge the status quo. That means connecting them to their unique creativity and giving them the space to explore and discover.

Bringing together wellbeing tools and innovation challenges, provides a new lens to look through and ‘change-maker spaces’ to play with ideas, break entrenched rules, take risks and change perspective to generate innovative solutions; as well as building complex problem-solving, design and systems thinking skills." 

It's Global Entrepreneurship Week 2019! 

Join us on Thursday at Webster University Geneva where we'll be using wonder, love and reverse engineering in an innovation challenge, to deepen your creativity and unlock greater innovation in your solutions! 

Inspiring students to take climate action means equipping them with the right tools.

I ran an innovation challenge with students from Lemania-Verbier International School (LVIS) on 1st November 2019, exploring how to make Verbier a sustainable ski resort by 2030.

Flow In Action innovation challenges use design thinking to build student wellbeing, problem-solving skills and plant the seeds for real projects to happen.

First, we imagined and downloaded ideas. Second, we reverse engineered to the present day to understand how we get there. Using futures-thinking as our starting point, we dreamed bigger to bring in new perspectives and insights; exploring what we need to do to make it happen, opens up the incredible space of understanding impact. Finally, we uploaded ideas onto the Flow In Action Hazu edtech platform, so that they were captured as part of a global library.

Why do it this way? This style of challenge-based learning, makes a space for every student to show up with their unique creativity and become a problem-solver, enabling them to explore essential questions about impact on people and planet, so that they can adapt solutions to respect and protect.

Plus, it’s practicing and embedding the design and systems thinking skills recognised as essential future-of-work skills for Industry 4.0, if not the most vital. This learn to move mountains® approach becomes people and planet-centred design-thinking, empowering students as the innovator and entrepreneurs of the new decade.

Watch this space then. From a hyperloop inspired vertical transport system to, and around, the resort; to fully solar-powered housing; to telecabines which carbon-capture. Take a look here.
To turn these ideas into reality, students had fantastic insights on repurposing existing solar panels, incentivising different behaviour of residents and tourists; thinking about ways to manage the value chain, so as not to cause more damage and move away from a consume/dispose culture.

[Coursera Global Skills Index: https://www.coursera.org/gsi] 

#flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #wonder #lovefortheplanet #sustainability #sdgs #climateaction #designthinking #humancentreddesign #peopleandplanetcentreddesign #designforflourishing #flourishing  #playwithideas 

Delighted and excited to be a speaker on 6th Dec at the Webster Center for Creativity & Innovation International Symposium: The Real World Impact of Creativity

Thank you to Dr Vlad Glaveneau for inviting me.

​Find out more and sign up:
https://wcci.webster.ch/events/international-symposium-the-real-world-impact-of-creativity/
​

In the UK, the Durham Commission on Creativity & Education was published in mid-October, citing:

"The increasing recognition of the economic and social value of creativity and creative thinking has brought a fresh urgency to the development of entrepreneurship and the skills of the future workforce."

This is extraordinarily well-timed as Global Entrepreneurship Week 2019 takes place 18th – 24th November.

Why celebrate GEW in your school? Because it is a fantastic way to build youth wellbeing, complex problem-solving skills and solutions to challenges in your community.

How does it help? Children and youth can celebrate by using their unique creativity* to play with ideas for solutions on taking action for people and planet.

What can they do? Use a Flow In Action Innovation Challenge Toolkit as an easy-to-use, one-stop solution that you can use immediately.

Flow In Action Innovation Challenges are interactive challenge-based activities, using people and planet-centred design thinking* as an approach to:

• Building youth wellbeing through the design process itself;
• Developing complex problem-solving and critical and creative thinking skills; and
• Empowering youth to go from idea to action in their communities.

Here are 3 options:

1. Sustainable School Innovation Challenge Toolkit: You can get this straight away, complete with online access to the full toolkit on the Flow In Action Hazu platform and the space to upload 30 ideas to create a visual impact library. You can use the innovation challenge as a rapid download activity or follow the lessons in full. Either way, you're planting seeds.
 
2. Tailored Innovation Challenges + Toolkit: We'll talk and I will design with you an innovation challenge specific to your community's needs, to use with the online challenge Toolkit.
 
3. Youth Entrepreneurship Workshops: Get in touch to talk about me running one or more face-to-face entrepreneurship workshops on-site at your school. 

* The Coursera Global Skills Index 2019 identifies design thinking at the number 1 skill required across 7/10 industries.

As part of our preparations, wherever you are in the world, use this wonder activity with your young people to connect them more deeply to their creativity as the new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs taking action for people and planet. 

I'd love to hear from you to talk about how we can work together to empower children and youth. Email elaine@flowinaction.org to arrange a time to explore further. ​

When was the last time you remember feeling wonder? 
Can you remember?
Can you picture what you were looking at or thinking about?

I’m asking, because wonder is a powerhouse, creating a chain reaction to real and radical impact in what you do.  
 
Here’s the basic equation of what I do in my work with you:

Reconnect you to your unique blend of creativity,
Using seemingly innocuous wellbeing tools, (like wonder)
To open-wide the doors to your capacity to innovate,
So that you can show up to make change happen in your spaces.
 
What I’m doing with you, to you, for you is people and planet-centred design thinking …for people and planet-centred innovation and entrepreneurship. Cool, eh? 

It starts in that space before ideas and ends up where you’re risktakers, changemakers, rulebreakers.

You’re unprecedented, so truly, it is important that you’re using these wellbeing tools to flourish, so that you can imagine, design and create solutions for the flourishing of others and the planet. 

Anyway, back to wonder. As a powerhouse.

I prescribed wonder back in March 2019 and I’m excited to be running a workshop with Wonder expert, Dr Vlad Glaveneau, Director of Webster Center for Creativity & Innovation on 21st November 2019 as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2019 in Geneva.

Save The Date, details here in the link and join us at 16.00 – 18.00 + apero. 

We’ll be using wonder, love and a rapid download innovation challenge, with some insights from Scott Poynton to shake things up, to give you tools and bring new perspectives on innovating.

#flowinaction #wonder #love #gew2019 

SAVE THE DATE!!!
Join me & Dr Vlad Glaveneau on 21st November at Webster University in Geneva, as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2019!

We're going to using a couple of wellbeing tools to connect you to your problem-solving creativity and inspire you to greater heights of innovation as entrepreneurs!
​
https://liberezvosidees.ch/event/wellbeing-tools-to-increase-innovation-for-start-up-entrepreneurs/

#GEW2019 #entrepreneurship #purposedriven #innovation #wellbeing #wonder #love #designforflourishing #flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #creativity #ideas #sdgs #sustainability #designthinking #designforflourishing #peopleplanetcentreddesign 

Read my latest article in Sovereign Magazine Issue 22 - scroll to pages 52/53 to understand how #love is a necessary starting point for opening up your creativity as an innovator and entrepreneur.

On October 9th I'm really excited to be running my Resilience for Going Fast & Far on Your Entrepreneurship Journey workshop at EPFL Innovation Park for start-up and scale-up entrepreneurs.
Find out more and sign up today for this free workshop.

Click on the link https://epfl-innovationpark.ch/events/event/epfl-innovation-park-workshop-resilience-for-innovators-entrepreneurs/