1 month gone, 1 month to go

Half of my time in Brazil has passed already. Very fast, as I expected. Today is Friday, I can hear the helicopters flying all around Avenida Paulista ("the Brazilian Wall Street"), and in a few hours I'm flying to my hometown, see my family, a few friends and relax.

The days at the bank have been interesting. We have had a lot of meetings and hours of discussions. As the topics of the project are quite abstract, it was not a waste of time, but necessary for creating a shared understanding and a common "working language". During the first week, we spent one day at The Hub São Paulo (ver inspiring space) defining our Purpose and Principles, using Dee Hock's chaordic model. Five weeks later the project has a much better defined shape and we are ready to invite potential partners to join in and create a real network. I learned a lot about the methodology of Co-Creation, and I even facilitated a presentation/training for the Human Development area last week. They loved it and I felt quite comfortable about it.

Besides that, I've been practicing Yoga two or three times a week (offered by the bank for the employees, from 6.30-7.30pm), getting used to longer lunch hours (1h-1h30min) and longer office hours (no earlier than 6pm), and lack of coffee (I reduced the amount of coffee consumed in 95%).

Meanwhile I start to plan my year ahead at the Kaospilot, my third and final year. I need to find a host organization for my internship in October-December, and define my final project (Feb-May 2009). At last but not least, find a way to raise some money to pay Ove, the school money man :)

Chaordic Principles and Learning Networks

I arrived in São Paulo two weeks ago. It's funny and nice to be back here 3 years later (I lived here before in 2003-2005). I got invited by an old friend Zoe, who works for Banco Real, to join a project on Corporate Education. As they defined it, they want to pioneer the future of corporate education in Brazil, in a very innovative and interesting way, through co-creation of multi-stakeholder networks, where educational experiences take place, creating value for all participants, society and for the bank (and other institutions). Banco Real recently received the award of "Most Sustainable Bank in the World", given by the Financial Times. It's amazing to see how much the language and 'walking-the-talk' is developed here. Not perfect, but far ahead of most of the private sector.

There are three key concepts involved in this project called "Vanguard in Education":

• Experience Co-Creation: developed by C.K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy in their book "The Future of Competition", a new paradigm for ceating products and services engaging stakeholders. The "consumer" becomes a key player in the creative process, The individual experience is central in the conception of "value".
  
• Chaordic Governance: combines chaos and order in a harmonious way, competition and cooperation. It was inspired by Dee Hock's work when developing the concept of VISA International through the 60s-80s and beautifully told in his book "The Birth of Chaordic Age".
  
• Networks: people find meaning and get engaged when colaborating with other people, instead of working alone. People get even more engaged when colaborating with other people from other organizations, based on knowledge networks and interests.

Instead of hiring a specialized consulting firm with a developed model to be implemented, the bank decided to look for young, entrepreneurial innovators to co-create and implement the new platforms. Kaospilots would naturally be a place to find people like me! :P

These first 2 weeks were designed for a better understanding of the project today, its needs and also get a better feeling about the bank and the context. Banco Real is starting a merging process with Banco Santander (from Spain), which will create one of the largest private banks in Brazil, with over 50,000 employees. It does affect many people, their careers, etc...

The team behind this project is also very promissing. International, diverse and passionate. Chaordic and self-organized :) Half of the team have been involved in AIESEC before (like me). For the next two days I'll be taking part in a national seminar "Networks and Development", hosted by LEAD Brazil and SENAC. Researching!