Notes from the 'Innovate Symposium', Brisbane, August 2011

It has taken me a while to absorb everything that was going on at the recent 'Innovate Symposium' organised through Volunteering QLD and held at the Griffith University EcoCentre in Brisbane last month (18-19/08/2011) However, finally I have had time to reflect and can present my thoughts on the Symposium.

My First Impressions

Coming in to the Innovate Symposium, I was not quite sure what to expect. I had been looking forward to attending for months, ever since my friend Ehon (http://ehonchan.com/) who was one of the presenters, had invited me to participate.

Walking through the rainy bush to the EcoCentre at the Griffith University, Nathan Campus was like walking to another space entirely.

It is a lovely building, set in the bush near the main university covered by trees and vegetation. I felt that it was a really nice touch to arrange the symposium there. It somehow illuminated to all the participants, what the organisers wanted us to experience, an un-conference, where all would be possible.





On our arrival, we had to choose two pegs from the tree besides the registration desk that would represent us. During the day we would use these pegs to get to know the fellow participants better. It was a fun way of enhancing networking amongst the symposium attendants.





What stroke me most of the symposium was it's attempt to reintroduce to the minds of the participants the different ways of artistic expression and creativity that can enhance the innovation process.

That in it's turn reminded me that the original word technology derives from Greek and Latin 'techne' meaning the 'art' in a much broader sense as 'skill' or the art that derives from the knowledge of how to do things. It also reminded me that it is only in the last 200 years that we have separated the knowledge as science from the technology, it's practical art (McQuire, 2006).

It was a really welcome effort from the organisers to make us feel, in a practical way, the possibilities the artistic expression can and should be allowed to freely contribute in the innovation process. The artistic expression is a vital part of human creativity and can be applied anywhere, even in business.




The First Day

The first day of the symposium combined listening and learning through Panel talks, World Cafe type discussions and workshops.

We were introduced to several interesting projects, including the Community Gardens in Newcastle, Stratbroke Island Men's Shed project and North Queensland (Ingham) Rainforest Rangers by enthusiastic project leaders. All the experiences mentioned were products of the creative and innovative processes that in a wonderful ways respond to the needs of the members in different communities around Australia.

I could relate to each and everyone of the presented projects and immediately apply the knowledge of their experiences in my own organisation which is currently in the process of developing similar projects. It is really important to build new relationships based on inventive mindset.

I was very intrigued by the talk on the Creative Engagement in Action by Tal Fitzpatrick and also by our house artist Tashka Urban. They had a very practical approach to creativity and showed some very inspiring pictures that demonstrated creative inventiveness in action.

Suddenly, a poem, that was recited woke the historian in me. It was read as a demonstration of a new kind of approach to life as such, namely that 'life is not fair'. As a historian I, immediately, placed the poem solidly in the tradition of the Lutheran work ethics and was struck by the fact that, here, once again, the human memory shows it's shortcomings in failing to remember.

I discussed this with the participant sitting next to me. The question arose, should we forget or remember our history? Is in fact remembering, a way to stop us from innovating as we are naming the known and placing new potentiality in an old framework?

I have recently sat in a seminar on aging where the presenter reminded the listeners that it is only due to the progressive aging of humanity since the last 10000 years, that our technological inventions have come about in the first place. It is only due to the accumulated human knowledge that innovation is possible. Is it only the historian in me that grows frustrated when we blatantly miss a cue or is it something we should carefully think about in the process of innovation?




I chose to participate in Ehon Chan's workshop about the New Media. It was a really fun experience. Especially I enjoyed observing Ehon's wonderful enthusiasm and his thoroughly idealistic way of approaching subjects and issues. We should not be limited by our possible reluctance to learn about the new media. We should just embrace it as human potential.

The Rest of It

The second day of the symposium was spent in workshops on barriers to innovation, personal practice in transforming the barriers and applying design principals to practice.

What I took away from the symposium was the great stories that were shared by both the presenters and the fellow participants. There is a lot of experience that can be shared to aid the innovative process. There also was talk about the concept of 'living on the edge'.

Many of the participants I talked with felt that this has been our lot. Being there, on the edge, just about to fall to the precipice of the new and the unknown. The Symposium really brought forward the fact that 'living on the edge' is a happy place to be instead of the frightening place that we think it is.

Now, after a month, I still think about the Symposium. Suddenly, during a busy day, I stop and visualise the picture that was shown there of a huge war tank artistically covered with a pink knitted quilt. I smile and go about my day ready to continue my 'life on the edge' of it.

Reference:

McQuire (2006) Technology. Theory, Culture & Society, 23 (2-3)


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High Ideals and Community Capacity Building Basics

Reflections on the 10th World Congress of the Theosophical Society.


Not so long ago, I attended an Emergency Relief training seminar for community organisation workers where the participants introduced themselves to others by explaining what sustained them. On the surface it is an easy question and can have a few easy answers such as family, children and partners, compassion and love. On a deeper level it is interesting to further develop a personal understanding of what it is that really makes one’s life worth living; what keeps us doing what we do. This applies especially to people who work in difficult circumstances where they meet others with complex needs and help them to get over difficult phases or life situations on a daily basis. What is it that sustains their ability to cope and give?

My answer to this was and is: an unshakable belief in that there is an underlying goodness in human beings. Later, while searching for definitions of the concept of Philanthropy, this belief emerged as an underlying condition for it (Juusola-Halonen, 2010).

Another way to train and to continue a compassionate life is to attend such congresses, which remind us of the practice of high ideals, where principles are talked about by such individuals who apply them in their daily living. High ideals remind us that there is something worth living and worth striving for in our community and for the humanity. High principles, such as Compassion, Kindness, Unity and Justice are worth thinking about and can be applied to community building, as well as, other more ordinary things. Money might be the deciding force but the guidance of ethics and high ideals can help to bring the priorities to a more manageable focus.

I found a keynote speech by Dr P. Krishna, at the 10th World Congress of the Theosophical Society in Rome titled ‘What Divides Us’ a very enlightening reminder of how to go about building unity in community, especially where small differences are blown out of proportions to create divisions between people, nations and communities. He is the Professor of Physics at the University of Varanasi in India.

In his speech, he reminded the audience that on a deeper level we all function in the same manner, with the same ability to react and experience. On the molecular level, our abilities, our senses, our brain works just the same, with no difference. It is the memories that we store that are the only difference. What divides us is when we ‘put tremendous importance’ in our own memories and consider them more valuable than other people’s experience. “Division comes from the ego process”, Dr Krishna said. We say that our understanding is the true experience, our view right and the other’s point of view wrong. Then we proceed to judge and act on creating a gulf between our ‘superior’ opinions and the other’s ‘wrong’ or less worthy opinions and manipulating them into the same belief patterns we have.

Dr Krishna further reminded us that memories are a rather superficial way of dividing humanity. Stressing the similarities, the unity of everything, would be a more constructive way of building a more inclusive, peaceful and harmonious society. ’’All is connected. It is a scientific fact”, he said.

Community capacity building can be discussed from many angles, from the need analysis to service quality management and operational policies and processes. Sometimes it is good to start from what should be the basics of an ideal community and how to aim for it. This can help to find a way to integrate and look for holistic models in community development.

Another talk in the same congress by Vic Hoe Chin Jr., the President of the Theosophical Order of Service (TOS) in the Philippines, presented a practical example of how to build capacity for the community.

Vic is a long time advocate for youth services in the Philippines. According to him, it is the young people that should be educated. The high ideals should be popularised for them. Unity, Self-transformation and Peace education should be part of curriculum in all schools and youth projects. He is the Chairperson of the Golden Link College in Caloocan City. The school provides education for students, starting from the pre-schoolers and up to the tertiary level Bachelor Degrees in Education and Business. All levels include Theosophy or Perennial Wisdom studies aimed at popularising high ideals such as Unity, Peace and Self-transformation for the youth. One problem Vic has identified is the difficulty of getting skilled volunteers. This is where our views co-inside very well.

There is very little skilling provided for volunteers on the ideals behind community participation. The research shows that to keep volunteers happy to continue volunteering, the volunteer relying organisation need to strive to match the provided volunteer opportunities with the individual volunteer’s motivation to donate their time and effort, be it driven by a social, ideological or feel good need to participate (Halfpenny, 1999; Schmid, 2002). There is not much adequate education or skilling about the ethics of volunteering in relation to community capacity building. Neither is there much discussion about the responsibility and community participation for volunteers. It could be really interesting to develop some international co-operation in volunteer training from the ethical point of view. Self-transformation could be seen as a motivation to volunteer given the right environment. This would provide for more awareness building for aspiring philanthropists.

There are great ideas out there. Attending a World Congress on Theosophical ideas brings the high ideals into focus. From there it is easier to proceed to building a core of Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Humanity without distinction.

I did bring a souvenir from the Congress back to Australia with me. It is a small, knitted bear. One of the international projects of the Theosophical Order of Service is the ‘Heart Babies Project’ where children with a heart condition are brought to India for surgery. It is shown by research that those children who have a little bear along to cuddle recover quicker and easier. The Italian TOS section had knitted hundreds of bears that were destined to be owned by children in hospitals in India and Africa. This is just one example of a project that can bring unity, peace and harmony into community.


References:
Halfpenny, P. (1999) Economic and Sociological Theories of Individual Charitable Giving: Complementary or Contradictory? Volutas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations; 10(3)
Juusola-Halonen, E (2010) Is a Volunteer a Philanthropist? Queensland University of Technology, Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies. (a working paper)
Schmid, A. (2002) Using Motive to Distinguish Social Capital from Its Outputs, Journal of Economic Issues; 36(3), September

Volunteering as grandparents to build social capital in our community

Recently, I completed an academic literature review titled: “Is a Volunteer a Philanthropist?” It explores the relationship between volunteering and philanthropy as concepts. It seeks a simple answer to the question.

The review finds that no such simple answer to the question can be found and thus continues to explore what kind of volunteer is a philanthropist by categorising the available literature in different discourses in relation to volunteering and philanthropy. I found 13 different categories in four different discourses that could define a volunteer a philanthropist or not. Only one of the categories, the ideological volunteer actually did qualify as a philanthropist without any additional fittings.

One of the most difficult questions in volunteering seems to be if an immediate family member is qualified as a volunteer when providing services or time to another member of their own family. Particularly the role of a grandparent as a volunteer in their own family comes to mind.

It is interesting, in my opinion, as very often the family consists of only the parents and the children. In some countries the grandparent, particularly grandmother is counted as part of the family and in others not so. There are two interesting articles and one book I found which would be considered to discuss informal volunteering by parents or grandparents (Petriwskyj and Warburton, 2007, Khalil, 2004, Prochaska, 1988).

I am also reading articles on grandparenting as such that can contribute to this discussion. Coall and Hetwig have done a huge overview in the grandparental investment from the Darwinian point of view (Coall and Hertwig, 2010) . Eric Uslaner looks into our cultural heritage as a bearer of the trust factor in our life and finds that the people from the Scandinavian background are the most trusting people in the world (Uslaner, 2008).

I’d like to hear from anyone who is interested in volunteering and grandparenting from a cultural point of view or just as an interest. My question is how in a multicultural society like Australia, we can preserve or transfer our heritage and culture to our grandchildren in order to help to bring them up as healthy and balanced human beings?

References:
COALL, D. & HERTWIG, R. 2010. Toward an integrative framework of grandparental investment. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 40.
KHALIL, E. L. 2004. What is altruism? Journal of Economic Psychology, 25, 97.
PETRIWSKYJ, A. M. & WARBURTON, J. 2007. Redefining volunteering for the global context: a measurement matrix for researchers. Australian Journal on Volunteering, 12, 7-13.
PROCHASKA, F. 1988. The voluntary inpulse: philanthropy in modern Britain, London, Faber.
USLANER, E. 2008. WHERE YOU STAND DEPENDS UPON WHERE YOUR GRANDPARENTS SAT: THE INHERITABILITY OF GENERALIZED TRUST. Public Opinion Quarterly, 72, 725.