Saturday, July 28, 2012

Positive Culture

  • The social, cultural and work environments where we spend most of our times, especially as adults, can be very limiting for the expression of the full potential of our humanity in our communities. We can almost say that not only there are factors stopping us from being the best we can be but also encouraging us to show the poorest qualities we can hold as human beings: greed, selfishness, apathy, judgement, hypocrisy, violence, addictions and all sorts of other characteristics.
  • I believe that I can use sport/ultimate disc as a petri dish to create culture mediums to grow the best human qualities of participants. 
  • The program will encourage, rebuild and create strong local interaction and personal relationships through the development of positive club culture.
  • Through the creation of business model canvases, participants will be able to create culture mediums or add ingredients to medium recipes to obtain positive club culture (a culture is positive when it brings the best human qualities of its participants). 
  • Participants will be able to identify what culture medium (a.k.a business model canvas) has been the most successful at growing the best human qualities of its participants. 
  • It will provide a business-like approach that allows the identification of potential participants outside the immediate local community.
  • After success with individual participants at the local level, it will expand to other volunteer based organizations. 
  • It will change the current cultural meaning of work (Boring, purposeless and just for money)

The inspiration:


Most people do or try to spend 40+ hours a week at their jobs (or jobs' related activities) to "survive in this world". Jobs are usually boring, lack meaning and/or purpose by definition (job is what you do for a pay) and they should be done by machines, hence industrialization and human labor replacement by technology when cheaper. The business model canvas of today's employment environment has being a key ingredient for creating a negative culture, which is to say, a culture that brings the poorest human qualities of its participants. It encourages inhuman treatment to humans (think of any military body, prison, many academic institutions, corporations and multinationals, banking system and institutions, fast food industry, chemical industry) and of course to the human surroundings. Governments try to fight unemployment by creating more jobs rather than fight lack of purpose and loss of human qualities by creating more work opportunities.

If people had a magic wand, they would create an environment that enhances the best of the human qualities. People wouldn't go to prison, they would be treated in adequate environments provided with programs aimed at social inclusion, not seclusion. Wars would be unnecessary, human rights would be systematically covered, it would be impossible not to. The creation of this environment implies the provision of meaning and purpose to what people do to make it happen. The actions involved in the process become work, it cannot be mechanized because it is unique to the exceptional qualities that emerge in each individual. 

The general goal of the program is to allow individuals to experiment with the conditions that could create such environments using Ultimate Disc as the social sample. The program addresses the need for humans to be able to be, express and manifest the best of their qualities in every aspect of their lives. It facilitates the transition from a job market to a work environment.

How does the program solve the need??

Making clear the difference between job and work is essential. Most of the world population has a job and plays a specific role within a company or organization. Very few individuals can say that what they do every day of their lives is their heartfelt motivation and inspiration to leave their homes and that it brings absolute meaning to their lives. The program shifts the language and focus from job for a pay for survival, to meaning and purpose in every action, which is the essence of work. 

My passion for Ultimate Disc is priceless. To bring the best of the human qualities from people is my purpose and what gives meaning to my work as a coach. I would like to offer my work as a gift to my local community. A gift is a gift. I am not selling my gift. Participants will have the opportunity to give back 1) to me through others by choosing from my wish list of items I'd like to get. These items don't have to be purchased, they can be borrowed from a library and brought to me, photocopied, copied, second handed...no limits to imagination. 2) to me by giving to others through my list of favorite organizations to support. 3) To me by using the qualities you have strengthened through the program to improve the local community. 4) To me by enhancing the experience of the Ultimate Disc program participants with your work as a gift. Or 5) To me by helping me get things done.

Program Feature List and Benefits (In progress)


Training Sessions: 3 times a week that complement each other and reinforce the concepts learned from different angles. It gives continuity to the topics covered, allows progression and room for feedback for coming sessions. 



Day 1 of the week: Focus on throwing and Catching (fitness, strategy and game experience secondary but covered)
Day 2 of the week: Focus on fitness and strategy (throwing, catching and game experience secondary but covered)
Day 3 of the week: Focus on game experience (throwing, catching, fitness and strategy secondary but covered)

Training session contents (to be sent prior the session via email to those with internet access)

Date:
Venue:
Duration:
Attendance:
Equipment Needed:
Life Insights: Short exercises and energizing chats or games to introduce a concept of life that would be experienced during the session or drill (Example 1: Practice. "I hear - I forget, I see - I remember, I do - I understand" - Chinese Proverb. Sessions are designed to required as little instruction as possible. 83% of what we learn occurs through seeing and doing. Do you have examples of learning experiences where you've been told the lesson and you don't remember it now??. Example 2: Self-trust. "We teach what we need to learn". Thankfully, no body knows it all. I do not know all the answers to every aspect of the game. I am still learning my own game style and you are developing yours. Example 3: Patience and respect: It takes a baby about a year to start walking, give your best in everything you do but know that you are in a process. I can't teach you how to walk by crawling around you. You are capable of doing what I do and then master your own walking style when you get there. I won't teach you low standards of the game as if you are not good enough to walk when you're ready) 
Introduction (Aims/goals for session, reminders, etc.)
Warm Up activities.
Drills and Games.
Coaching tips/questions/challenges.
Class management/energizers.
Cool-Down activities.
Review/evaluation (Key points from session, what worked and what did not, modifications for next session, etc.)


Ecosystem of Gratitude (Explore how you can give and how you can set up a giving system using business model canvas and other tools)



Wish list: I have a list of things I'd love to have access to. I offer this list to the best of me and you and know that things will come if and when required. My most desired immediate wish is to be able to provide organic food to my family table. 

Favorite Organizations: I use this Netvibes dashboard to follow all my sources of inspiration. Help me help some of these organizations by donating to them.

Help me getting things done: Every day I have a list of things to do in Nozbe. You can have a look and see if there is anything you can help me tick off.

Improve the program: If you have an idea that could make the program better and/or could enhance the experience and life of its participants, I'll help you set up your system so that you can also offer your gifts and give participants an additional ecosystem to express their gratitude. Here is where we start experimenting with different recipes applying business model canvas. The north of your compass is to bring the best human qualities out of the people you will offer your gift to.

Improve your local community: If you have an idea that could improve our local community, I'll help you set up your system so that you can also offer your gifts and give participants an additional ecosystem to express their gratitude. This is an opportunity outside of the social sample of program to start experimenting with different recipes applying business model canvas in the general community. The north of your compass is to bring the best human qualities out of the people you will offer your gift to.


Links to be provided and canvas to be updated soon. Did you that if I win US$1000 I can register the foundation to operate the program?? If you like this draft and want me to go be able to operate legally, you can vote for my story of sharing, share it and help me win!! 

Thursday, July 26, 2012

"Share or Die" contest

Non-English speakers please select language on the left hand side of this blog. Translation will not perfect and you'll be given the opportunity to improve the translation as you move your mouse around the post.

Today I want to ask for 10 minutes of your time. I entered the Share or Die Contest with a story of sharing that I named "And Sacred Productivity was born!!". The link will take you to the actual site for the story. However, I am sharing the story here so that it can be shared to other non English speakers. Public votes are a big factor for stories to win. The prize is $1000 dollars to the participating sharing business of my choice or I can also propose where to invest the money. I would like to be able to use it to register a sports foundation through which I will strive to bring up the best version of each human participant through Ultimate Disc for free, or rather, as a gift. If you like my story, you need to register to vote either via facebook or create a free quick account. Voting closes in one week. Please feel free to share this message around if you think it is worth it.

If you have an extra 5 minutes, you can have a read at the first draft of what I plan to offer through Ultimate Disc here, although there is a new version to the draft coming soon. 

Thank you so much for your time and many blessings to all!!

And Sacred Productivity was born!!

There is a version of me that forgives everybody and everything, that loves unconditionally, that doesn't judge people or criticize. This version of me doesn't get stressed with the futile worries of daily life, it cries with the violence, absorbs it and transforms it in light, love and peace. This version of me embraces change and thrives in it, breaths calmness and peace, lives in the art of 100% unconditional giving and accepts and receives love in its many shapes. That version of me is most of the time covered by my usual me. I found it only deep within my heart, it speaks to me everyday and often I choose to ignore it and pretend is just my imagination. What my sharing experience brought to me was one of the most valuable insights I've ever had and led me to commit to the most challenging promise I've ever made: From now on, everything I do will be offered to that which allows the best version of me to exist.

Through Couchsurfing, we had a couple of travelers making use of bits and pieces of our house for three weeks while they were working at a mandarin farm. They lived in their self-contained van in our parking spot. In the end it felt like we were saying good bye to close friends. The relationship that developed was invaluable and there were tangible gifts and exchanges while they stayed here which made all part of the beautiful experience. However, the biggest impact they had in my life was through their job.

At this mandarin farm the boy was a picker. Paid AUD$50 per trolley one day he pushed himself to exhaustion to get 4 trolleys full and he never did it again. Another day, he and some others were asked to pick from a row of trees where the fruit was so high and cold they would only have made one trolley for the day...they refused to do it and were moved to a different row. Packing girls sort mandarins 8 hours a day without being allowed social interaction other than in their legal breaks. Cranky supervisors making sure people were appropriately behaving like machines would walk around all day. The guy would come home with sore and kind of injured hands, everyday he would say to himself that would be the last day he would do it, only to come back the day after and make himself the same promise. Nobody was allowed to take mandarins home...one day, my girl guest found out that 2 trucks full of mandarins where thrown away every single day, kilos and kilos of mandarins that didn't meet the social criteria for perfect shiny fruit. One little box of those made it to my house thanks to her frustration for so much waste, the world hunger, the environmental consequence, the thought of it happening in every farm, the fact that the farm had previously lied saying that they were juicing mandarins and the fact that they didn't want everybody to know otherwise their business could collapse. This box was of nice and juicy mandarins, not perfect, but nice and juicy. The ones that make it to supermarkets have their skin waxed to add shine and value to the fruit although it only takes 2 minutes to peel them and throw their skin away.

I truly believe that human beings are not on this planet to become machines, nor to force others to become one. For long I have been developing ideas on how to dismantle this false belief, how to create the kind of work where we can fully express the best version of each of us. Often I fall prey of the frustration and lose hope. Sharing my house with this couple brought to me something I was losing, they made my heart yell at me and say "look!! you need to keep going!!! chose me and I'll do it, put it in my hands, I can do it through you...just let me. I can be the best you, I know how, I am the best version of you, much more than what you can imagine".

The result of this call was a new approach to dealing with actions in this world, something I now call Sacred Productivity (SP), which is a kind of productivity that heals doing and being. I am never sure that the 1001 ideas that occur to me are the right ideas or what needs to be done about them. They quite often overwhelm me. I like Charles Einstein's view where both the earthly and the spiritual unite in sacredness, and in my view, they are both part of God's sacredness. I live in this world, I can't help it. Many Christians say that God put each of us here for a reason, that each of us has a purpose to be on the earth. I share that view and SP is my way to discover the purpose God has for me. Every day, I have a list of things I want to do. I print it out and I offer it to God deep in my heart where He knows that I'm only striving to be the best version of me, the best version of me is who God wants me to be... I just don't know what the best version of me does and how it acts in the world, so I offer every action of my day to God. During the day many ideas come, I find interesting info I think I might use, so I capture it all and put it all together in a long list. By the end of the day I review what I did and what I gathered. I offer my entire SP system of ideas and actions to God again looking for guidance as to what tasks to chose for the next day. In the morning I offer my SP system again and review it in case I feel called to add or take things off the "To do" list. It has been an amazing journey however short so far. I hope I can share the fruits of this kind of doing with the world.