As students head back to school, are you ready for the ‘Greta Effect?’

Children and youth all around the world have been striking and marching, wanting their voices to be heard on the urgent need to take climate action.

Even before Greta’s impact, young people who were questioned as part of the MASDAR Youth Survey 2016 identified ‘climate change as the biggest threat to the world in the next decade.’

The young people that I know and work with in my learn to move mountains® innovation and entrepreneurship activities, are really incredible with the speed at which they dream big. 

I know that you need practical ways to take action, which integrate sustainability into curricula, increase wellbeing and build ‘future of work’ skills; and learn to move mountains® is built around those elements.

I’ve taken my proven approach of engaging young people through Innovation Challenges around the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and created an online workshop - Create Your Innovation Challenge - to train you as educators, librarians and youth advocates in NGOs.

In this 3-hour online training, I give you a complete toolkit for creating an SDG Innovation Challenge to engage children and youth in your community, from 8 – 18 years, regardless of academic ability.

When you create an SDG Innovation Challenge, you make a space for every child to show-up with their unique imagination and creativity, build core skills, connect them to a sense of purpose and have a starting point to turn ideas into real action in your community.

The next training takes place online on Thursday 19th September 18.00h – 21.00h CEST. Find out more about it here and book your place.

If you want to hear more about why SDG Innovation Challenges matter before you sign up, how the training will work for you and what you’ll be putting in place, then I’ll be running a FREE 30-min webinar on Tuesday 27th August 14.00h -14.30h CEST. Click here to register for the FREE webinar.
 
I am really excited to be sharing this training with you. I have worked in social change for 25 years and integrated my expertise on problem-solving for sustainability and sustainable development into education settings since 2011 with curricula, workshops and service-learning strategies. I also continue to work with leaders and entrepreneurs to imagine sustainability solutions, design them around flourishing of people and planet and build the resilience for the journey of turning ideas into real projects.

learn to move mountains® innovation and entrepreneurship activities are designed to engage young people, as the new generation of problem-solvers for the planet. As well as the online training, I come to your sites to deliver learn to move mountains® workshops and challenges directly with your young people.

I also run Youth Entrepreneurship Workshops in partnership with the United Nations Conference on Trade & Development (UNCTAD) – Division of Investment & Enterprise (DIAE) team at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

You can ask me about how both of these options will work for you in your settings. Just drop me an email for an informal discussion.

#flowinaction #imagination #ideas #creativity #wellbeing #resilience #innovation #entrepreneurship #youthvoices #youthentrepreneurship #sdgs #climateaction #sustainability #sustainabledevelopment #learntomovemountains 

I’ve been littering my articles with talk about love for some time now.

I see that some of you are also beginning to say the L-word too, which is excellent. Perhaps we can join forces and work together?

I’ve even gone global about the L-word in my September ‘learn to move mountains’ column of Sovereign Magazine – it really feels like a go-big or go-home moment – given the magazine is distributed to outlets in hardcopy and digital all around the world.

Why? Why do I keep talking about love? Why do I keep talking about it in relation to sustainability and sustainable development?

Because it is the starting point of true innovation and action.

My way of calling it is the Tao of Innovation. The ‘how’ of things, ‘how’ things happen, unfurl, unfold.

Love, with all of its spectrum, “is the white light of emotion[1]” and each of us is a prism. It is the micro-moments of connection with yourself and with others[2].

It is the ground zero of your imagination and creativity.

When you look through this lens, you gather your courage to explore and create your best solution. You can’t look away from the impact further down the line on people or planet. You are forced to keep coming back to designing solutions around flourishing.

In Love Letter to the Earth, Thich Naht Hanh writes:
“We are a living, breathing manifestation of this beautiful and generous planet. Knowing this, we can begin to transform our relationship to the Earth…We will fall completely in love with the Earth.”

In my September Sovereign column, I give you a task to do, set by young people that I’ve talked to. I don’t want to duplicate that so you need to read the article. I’m giving you another one to do, again set by the same young people. 

Dust off your organisation’s values. Whether you’re a solopreneur or a micro-business or a global brand. Is ‘love’ one of them? I’m guessing no.

What if it was? What if you and your organisation had to live ‘love for the planet’ as a value?
What has to change? Might you have to relinquish a growth business model for a model of flourishing? How would your business processes change? How would people show-up and do their job? How would you show-up and do yours?

Imagine it. Imagine how things would be different. Imagine how incredible real, disruptive innovation might be. It is so much more exciting than lazy duplication that promotes a status quo for a few. 

You are the thought-leaders, impact investors, platform builders. Maybe it’s time to break your own rules? After all, every journey starts with maybe.

You will need help. We go far together, so I have rather excellent workshops and coaching we can roll out to get everyone looking through this lens, connecting values and businesses processes, bringing new perspectives to increase innovation and impact.

I’ve often been urged to deliver messages more softly, to ‘pick pockets’ rather than punch. Meh!

I’m working on it but the opposite of love is fear, avoidance, scarcity; and we’re seeing tidal waves of that everywhere. I don’t much like tidal waves at the best of times, so I feel there is a need to be direct. You need to start breaking rules!

Do the exercise. With some urgency. Then take action. You don’t need to go alone. I’m here to walk the path with you, with a whole toolkit to help.

I wish you love and a kiss on the brow for courage. This is the how of things, the Tao of Innovation, how things happen, how things start.

[1] Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of Love
[2] Barbara L Fredrickson 

#flowinaction #wellbeing #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #purposedriven #values #resilience #socialinnovation #sustainability #sdgs #climateaction #noplanetb

"Design thinking becomes a thing of spectacular beauty when used not just to create a solution but, to create a solution which places designing for human needs in the context of designing for the wellbeing and flourishing of people AND planet."

Read on in the August edition of Sovereign Magazine at this link...
https://www.sovereignmagazine.co.uk/2019/08/13/learn-to-move-mountains-2/

​#flowinaction #wellbeing #love #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #climateaction #noplanetb #sustainability #sdgs #takeaction #climateemergency 

The August edition of Sovereign Magazine is out!

Sign up to read my article on 'Design Thinking as an Essential Skill' and a whole host of other insights too.

I am thrilled to have become a columnist for Sovereign Magazine and I am incredibly grateful that this column is sponsored by Lemania-Verbier International School which educates children and youth from 3 - 15 years, embedding in them a love of the outdoors, passion to use their strengths for #sustainability and shows them how to be young leaders.

Having worked with Lemania-Verbier International School students' I am excited to share insights from the work we have done together and their call-to-action to us as executives and entrepreneurs to take action for the planet, in this and future editions.
My column is called 'learn to move mountains' - so get reading and figure out how you can get started too.
https://issuu.com/mtnme…/…/sovereign_magazine_-_august_2019…

#sovereign #sovereignmagazine #flowinaction #lemaniaverbierinternationalschool #designthinking #sustainability #noplanetb #climateaction #sdgs #youthvoices #entrepreneurship #innovation #wellbeing #circulareconomy #lovemountains #mountains