“The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. You are not discovering yourself, but creating yourself anew. Seek, therefore not to find out who you are, seek to determine who you want to be.” ~ Conversations With God
Absolutely! I believe we create our own futures and I live the belief that one of the best ways to determine who we want to be is by focusing on our talents, interests and passion. At the same time though I cherish the fact that life is a process of discovery, discovering truths and purpose, talents and passion, discovering the joy of other people.
Augmented Reality
Over the last couple of weeks I have begun work on a project involving the deployment of an Augmented Reality showcase of Dunedin’s heritage, arts and culture. Our project is inspired by immersive heritage experiences like Museum of London | Street Museum with so much potential for the platform we propose, I feel amazingly blessed to have discovered collaborators to help create and share this vision for our City.
In order to create my own future, I’ve committed to this project the most valuable resources I own, my talent and time, passion and energy. I wholeheartedly believe that this project will serve our City for years to come, providing not only a fun and engaging, compelling and immersive user experience but also establishing an open access platform that many members of our community can contribute to and potentially monetise.
Collaboration & Gratitude
I am inspired and encouraged by the range of support I have discovered in bringing together this collaborative. I see this project as a catalyst for on-going and future collaboration, spanning many of Dunedin’s most talented and creative industry sectors.
Most importantly, Thanks to my Great Omnipotent Deity for blessing me with talented people to work with. Thanks & massive respect to my talented collaborators Stu FlemingTim CalderPierre-Emmanuel de La Bussière and community support from:-
I found Sir Ken Robinson’s Ted talk immensely inspiring and encouraging but it leads me to wonder why did it take me so long (15yrs) to choose my passion and talent over my need for achievement?
…we make very poor use of our talents…I meet all kinds of people who don’t think they are really good at anything…who don’t enjoy what they do they, they simply go through their lives getting on with it, they get no great pleasure from what they do, they endure it rather than enjoy it… but I also meet people who LOVE what they do…it isn’t what they do, it is who they are…their most authentic self… Sir Ken Robinson”
My talents and aspirations didn’t align because I was self centered and vain. Now, I was blessed to be raised in a family that nurtured my talents, surrounded by people that assured me that I could do anything I wanted. The education system, with which I am now thoroughly disenchanted was – up until I was about 15 years old – an environment in which I thrived upon learning and the ongoing recognition of academic, sporting and cultural achievement.
Yet for a long time now I have not lived up to the potential, that others saw in me. Despite the fact that I studied, worked and strived to become a better person, I was so self centered and focused on my own goals and achievements that I could not see opportunities to do what I most aspired to – help people and effect change – passing me by.
Over the last year, working as an aspiring social entrepreneur, I’ve recognised that I had things round the wrong way. Even as lately as January 2009, I thought that if I could make myself “a better person” then I could help others. Yet it now seems so apparent that only by helping others first will I ever be the person I aspire to.
The How: Helping Others Employ Their Talents
Using social networking to create a community in which people can feel OK about promoting and sharing their talents
“…natural talents: human resources are like natural resources, they are often buried deep. You have to go looking for them, they’re not just lying around on the surface you have to create the circumstances where they show themselves…” Sir Ken Robinson
This is not going to be an easy cause to gather people to and therein lies the challenge: to effect the national mind set.
We kiwi’s are not known for our self promotion, why would we when tall poppy syndrome is so alive and well in this country, ready to cut back down to size those that are too confident, too successful or aspire to lofty goals. One way I have found to overcome this barrier of talking about talents and strengths is simply to ask:
what are your interests?
what do you like to do?
what are you passionate about?
what interests would you want to share with other people?
By creating a talent profile and sharing you passion, talents, interests and values with the world we can match you with opportunities to LOVE what you.
I’m excited about the potential of “Aotearoa, World Leaders in Environmental Innovation” and I work towards this goal by supporting and connecting the talents of our nation.
When I spend anytime looking it seems obvious to me that we kiwis have the time, talent and resources to lead the world when it comes to reducing our carbon emissions. It simply will require change because as Albert Einstein points out:-
“…The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them…”
Yet, despite Einsteins wisdom, it seems the potential of our next generation of entrepreneurs – to innovate and create the solutions we need – is being overlooked, or is that ignored? in favour of preserving the status quo.
Let’s support kiwi entrepreneurs as they forge new industries by 2020 from the seeds we plant today.
Sustainable housing. Earth homes and straw houses are just the tip of the iceberg.
Green Education. Thanks to programmes like enviroschools we could potentiality add Enviro. to most of today’s existing job titles
Green energy. Wind Wave Solar Tidal…Check.
My point is simply if we can think of these today, what can we come up with tomorrow? Why limit our future potential by trying to peg it to the realities of today? Our collective potential might even exceed 40% by 2020.
The concept of Time Trade is a social change movement active in 22 countries and across six continents.
It began in the 1980’s ,invented by Edgar Cahn, a former legal advisor to Robert Kennedy, as a way to make up for the cutback of social services. While each time bank may state a different focus the system of trade is facilitated in order to help communities meet unmet needs with untapped resources.
“…To develop a sustainable community centered and supported network that will utilise available and untapped assets through a complimentary economy. Our ultimate goal is to help to bring about meaningful social change for the betterment of humanity…”
The following examples are the mission statements of various time banks as listed in the international Time Bank Community Directory
Time Trade is about Helping Others
Bringing People Together to Help Each Other
To provide access to services and high quality volunteer opportunities by serving our community with passion and commitment.
To support and expand our volunteer programs
Time Trade is about strengthening communities
To build a stronger, more unified community which supports, includes and honors persons of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds.
Building a stronger community one hour at a time.
To strengthen friendships, families, neighborhoods and communities.
Time Trade is about connecting communities
Working together as a sustainable community of families to nurture quality time, talent and fun
To nurture, inspire, and motivate the building of a network of neighbors to come together to create a sharing and caring community.
To connect diverse neighborhoods, service organizations, food producers, businesses, and individuals in ways that promote resource exchange, cooperation, and community-building while increasing access to local services and goods.
Time Trade encompasses both broad and specific goals
To help mobilize social capital to fight poverty and build community in Lewis County.
To meet unmet needs of home schoolers with untapped resources.
To assist the senior and youth population in relationship building and tapping into valuable resources
Time Trade is about Respect Recognition and Empowering People
To invite all people in the community to join in a supportive, reciprocal network where all members are respected and valued for their time and talents, through the sharing of our needs and gifts.
To Empower the Disenfranchised and to do this with Compassion!
Time Trade is about awareness of alternatives
To experiment with innovative approaches to social welfare
By facilitating the exchange of services we redefine how people interact with each other
A network of members sharing their time and skills without the need for money.
Time Trade is about resilience
Helping our beautiful small community become closer and more self reliant.
Strengthening local economy in this time of hardship.
Inform the community of resources that will enable the community to become more knowledgeable through the circle of life, resulting in people always needing people.
We facilitate Time Trade as a means of recognition for the work contributed by volunteers in our community.
We hope to encourage more young people to volunteer because we believe volunteer work develops a service orientated work ethic and skills that assist the study to work transition. Some of the skills volunteers can develop include:-
Leadership & team building skills
Relationship building skills
Communication skills
Negotiation skills
Creative thinking skills
Organisation & time management skills
If you know a cause that could benefit from additional volunteer support or wish to volunteer your time and talent please contact us
I studied business extramurally because, as far as I could see, the best way to learn business was simply to get involved. I planned to gain real life business experience while building and diversifying my skills in preparation for “one day” when the right opportunity came along for my own venture start-up.
I never exactly knew when that “one day” might be but I’d been pretty generous and given myself until 35 to discover it, on the basis that I would intuitively know the right opportunity when I saw it. And so in early March 2009 my one day arrived and I was ready.
Status Quo, Schmo
Jamie’s idea to develop an online contractors marketplace to help people find work, immediately struck a chord with me.The idea was, in essence, exactly what I needed and wanted for myself.
It was a means to encourage and support business creators, owners and collaborative teams. It was everything I wasn’t, but wanted to be and I immediately recognised his idea as a means to achieving my longest held work aspiration – to build a company that could truly help people.
We are quite happily, not in keeping with the status quo. Indeed as statistics bemoan rising unemployment I tend to see the job losses as inevitable because for social innovation and change to occur one must in some way destroy the old.
For all practical purposes this meant; if I was actually going to help people be their own boss; if I hoped to promote entrepreneurship and new business creation as a viable alternative to employment; if I was going to prove work existed but that the way we connect with it was changing; I simply could no longer work as a full-time employee
Making the Change
Mentally, in a recession leaving my only secure source of income was a pretty tough call to make. But in life we must take calculated risks. I was determined that money would not hinder my pursuit of the dream and in that decision alone I have learnt lessons for life, about the potential to get work done without the need for cash – ergo Time Trade.
Practically however, it is not at all hard to work your way out of a job. I’m not particularly proud of the way I left my last employee role but it was best for both parties. Indeed the hierarchy and their methods of control and authority, even their use of these words – when I aspire to collaboration and leadership – are driving factors in the development of Worknow.
Worknow
We are building this community and marketplace on the belief that 1) networking platforms can help us find connect and work together in new ways and that 2) there are other talented people here, that seek new more collaborative and flexible ways of working.
With this blog I intend to relate my experience as a business creator, owner and contractor, in hopes that my journey may encourage others along this path.
Social innovation refers to new strategies, concepts and organisations that meet social needs which in our case, influenced by economic recession, means the need to support communities and help people find work.
Although there are already volunteer networks, community and business groups that contribute tirelessly to this need, we believe social networking technology can help foster and harness the collective potential of existing communities and distributed groups by providing a way for people to easily find, connect and work with each other.
Time Trading a.k.a Time Banking
Time Trading a.k.a Time Banking is simply about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community. In recognition for your contribution you receive one Time Credit which you can then gift or trade, with other members of the community, in exchange for their talent and time. It’s a simple idea, but it has powerful ripple effects in building community connections.
When times get tough, our most important asset is a resilient and supportive community. More secure than money in the bank, and more long-lasting than storing food and water; creating a more self sufficient community is the smartest investment we can make now… they strengthen the community by creating an incentive and market for people to help each other. Source
Worknow
We are building a user friendly, online solution to help people find, connect and work together, in new ways. One of the first services available incorporates the concept of Time Trading via the provision of an online system to automate the transfer of time credits between Community Members.
Governments including the USA and Australia are touting “green collar” jobs as a way to create new forms of work and aid economic recovery. The ever expanding Green sector encompasses industry and fields from engineering and planning to science and management, from construction to manufacturing and retail of alternative energy sources such as solar, wind and wave energy.
Copenhagen Climate Summit 2009
This year the environment will receive some serious attention with the international effort to address climate change culminating with the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, 7-18 December.
Already campaigns supporting environmental reform are in full swing. Global Environmental, Humanitarian and Animal Welfare organisations are taking a united stand to raise awareness on climate change.
Celebrities encourage people to Sign on with slogans from the likes of Ex NIWA Jim Salinger stating “The Science is bloody obvious”.
And with a ground swell of support, grass-root movements such as 350Aotearoa freeze sees people of all ages and backgrounds taking a statue like stand, to raise awareness and get people to question “what’s all this about?”
Growth of Contract Jobs in Green Market
Indeed, increased environmental awareness bodes well for the emerging Green industry which is already proving that it can create new jobs. Not only is the expanding industry creating “employment” but contract work too.
The green market has historically been one of permanent job placements…However, as the field broadens we are seeing more opportunities for contractors as engineers become more involved in the space, innovation creates short-term opportunities and many organisations opt for a more flexible workforce in light of the uncertainty of economic downturn. Source
While the UK is heralding the flexibility and creativity, for which contractors are known, as the potential savior of UK economy the benefits of outsourcing and contract work are also being recognised here in Aotearoa. Hence, it is likely that with the growth of Green Industry, we too will experience growth in the number of contract opportunities.
Contractors Marketplace
At Worknow we support and encourage a more flexible, entrepreneurial work ethic and are here to help contractors find, connect and collaborate on project work opportunities.
Social networking tools will play an important role in the future of work organisation by helping us to create, connect and collaborate as project teams, regardless of time or place.
As workers move toward contracting and business’ take the opportunity to outsource work to increase productivity new methods of organising and facilitating work will arise.
Institutional “containment” as we know will cease to exist and with it the barriers to productivity that stalled the growth and development of our people and businesses.
Networking Tools & Platforms
Today’s social media tools and network platforms have created an environment where communication, collaboration and coordination are already in use. They need simply be applied in business to make it quicker and easier to get work done.
No longer limited by time or place or disadvantaged by the costs of travel, the concept of using networking tools to facilitate projects begins a paradigm shift in the way we think about and accomplish work.
IT and business technology will take center stage in the post-recession economy. The crisis…will sweep away organizations that do not grasp the importance of and utilize social network technologies.
Innovation will be defined by networks, [collaborating to] work with partners or competitors or customers using social technologies. George Colony, CEO of Forrester.
The way we work is changing and with it comes a shift in power, away from the corporate hierarchy that directed and controlled productivity in the past towards the innovative, more flexible contract workers that are ready and able to work, as needed.
Connect & Collaborate with Worknow
Networking tools and platforms give individual contractors and dispersed project teams the ability to compete with institutions at an unprecedented level. At Worknow we support this more flexible, entrepreneurial work ethic and are here to help contractors find, connect and collaborate on project work opportunities..
The UK is heralding the flexibility & creativity, for which contractors are known, as the potential savior of UK economy.
UK organisations start to appreciate the benefits of a flexible contractor workforce, and …the positive impact interim executives and IT contractors are having in achieving technology innovation within large organisations, despite reduced budgets.
“The UK workforce has demonstrated unprecedented flexibility during this recession,” comments Keep Britain Working founder James Reed, “allowing organisations to explore a whole range of cost-cutting responses, other than relying solely on redundancies.”
The benefits of outsourcing and contract work are also being recognised here in Aotearoa as 63% of White-collar New Zealander’s look to sacrifice the security of nine-to-five salaries in order to head out on their own as private contractors.
As companies continue to let staff go and struggle to contain costs in the face of falling profitability both workers and employers are beginning to recognise that full-time permanent employment is not necessarily the most effective or efficient way to get work done.
The Benefits of Outsourcing Projects & Contract Work
By outsourcing work to private contractors businesses can get work done and maintain productivity while minimising payroll expense. While “employment” may by comparison seem safer, more secure, working as a private contractor also promises better pay and the flexibility to live a more balanced, family orientated lifestyle.
Future Models of Flexible Work
At Worknow we support a more entrepreneurial work ethic and are developing ways to help people find and connect with project contract work opportunities.
Entrepreneurship is not yet considered a viable alternative to the professions because, as Sam Morgan noted November 2008, New Zealander’s tend to view entrepreneurship as a niche, high risk, slightly crazy alternative to employment.
This sentiment permeates New Zealand’s culture as was confirmed when I spoke to students attending the Otago University Career fair about news of a trend in New Zealand towards private contracting instead of employment.
When asked whether they would consider private contracting as an alternative to employment some did not consider it a viable option while those that did support the alternative noted that it’s often seen as too risky.
Our education system undermines the development of a more entrepreneurial culture by encouraging our smartest people towards “safe, secure professions” such as lawyers, accountants, and doctors.
“We seem to have focused wrongly on building CVs rather than building businesses” Sam Morgan
As a result we have a wealth of talented people preparing themselves to be “employees” rather than cultivating talents which could drive economic growth through the creation of new business and new jobs.
Aotearoa NZ, Past Achievements.
We would do well to remember more often that our small pacific nation has lead some of the best innovations and achievements of the last century.
Rutherford split the atom, Hamilton built the first jet engine. We were the first to allow women the right to vote and our spirit of adventure inspired Sir Ed to summit the tallest peak on earth.
More recently, Sam Morgan and Trademe introduced us to a new world of buying and selling online and Stephen Tindall and the Warehouse forced us to reconsider our need for plastic bags. History proves, we are an innovative nation.
Present, Our Entrepreneurial Nation
Entrepreneurship is one of our economic strengths. In 2008 Auckland was voted the most entrepreneurial city of the OECD. The same research in 2006 identified Maori as the third most entrepreneurial people in the OECD yet we still promote the fallacy that entrepreneurship is too “high risk” without qualifying or highlighting any of the benefits of risk vs reward.
Future of Entrepreneurship
Gen Y demographic research shows that more than any previous generation Gen Y has a more flexible and entrepreneurial approach to work. The traditional dependency on employers has begun to weaken as more and more young people recognise the potential we have to connect with others in order to create our own forms of work.
While our entrepreneurial and flexible approach to work demands of us greater self-reliance in return we reap the ability to shape our own future rather than “comply” or “conform” to the expectations of a workforce that often fails to utilise our talent or understand our work ethic.
Inspire Encourage & Support Change
Rather than bemoaning the generational differences we suggest it is time to inspire and encourage a more entrepreneurial culture to support the development and growth of talented “business owners & teams” rather than just “employees” .
Educate and promote the economic, lifestyle and personal benefits of a more entrepreneurial culture
Encourage and support entrepreneurship as a viable alternative to the traditional “professions”
