Two tales of a City

The opening lines of the book "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens (1859)
go like that:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,

it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,

it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,

it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,

it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,

we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,

we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct

the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present

period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its

being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree

of comparison only. (*)

My story is by far less tragic than the French Revolution, but it still has its
charm and drama - I guess. I'm back to Amsterdam, after 3 years, this time for a short
2-month period, until Christmas.

I'm working for the Global Reporting Initiative, starting-off a research on CSR
"landscape", trends and hubs at national and regional level. In my short period I'm in charge
of seeting up the methodology and research on Latin America.

When I arrived I thought my life would be simple, easy and fun - just like when I arrived 3 years ago, which actually also marks the beginning of this blog!!

In 3 years, most of my friends have moved away, or got very busy into their careers. Housing in Amsterdam became much more complicated and expensive. The banks and authorities seem much more bureaucratic then never. Albert Heijn is so boring. De Heffer gatherings do not exist anymore. Nice girls got boyfriends, fiancés and husbands. Yes, the city has changed, but more important than that - I have changed! A LOT over the last three years.

I go to different bars, I listen to different music, I hang out with different people, I eat different food. How can we change so much and be the same person at the same time? I start to realize that I'm more of myself, each day, and to be conscious about that evolution is a revolution by itself! Scary eh? Yeah, sometimes... hard to understand? Yeah, sometimes...

Amsterdam will always be one of my favourite cities, a kind of tricky place that feels like an extremely comfortable couch. You love it, but you might fall sleep too easily. Amsterdam has a similar effect in people: the easygoing, laid back, relaxed and fairly safe atmosphere needs to be balanced with excitement, risks, emotions and danger, in order to keep someone awake (in life) - oh well, in January I'm back in Denmark, back to the Kaospilots, for my last 6 months in the roller coaster! :P


(*) Freely available by the Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/98/98.txt

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!

Spanish Inspiration...

Between John Milton (see previous post) and Dee Hock (wait for next post), I got a small paid assignment in Denmark: join a group of 10 young Spanish guys and girls, for 2 days, awarded for their brilliant ideas for the future of Extremadura, the province in Spain they came from. This was part of their inspirational tour in Denmark, where they visited organizations and enjoyed a nice experience. Initially I thought my role was to be translator and helper for their trip, but soon I realized that the organizers wanted someone still young, with knowledge about innovation and creativity, capable of sharing stories, to inspire the youngsters in an informal atmosphere. I think it was a very innovative idea and I had a great time! I joined them to Christiania, Legoland, besides having nice conversations about the Kaospilots, Education today and in the future, and what young people want.

Muchas gracias!!

BBC World Debate: How Accountable is Business?

Hello dear friends,

An interesting debate will be broadcast through BBC this weekend (17th and 18th of June), as part of their series on global issues called BBC World Debate. This debate was filmed during the GRI's Conference on Sustainability and Transparency last Friday in Amsterdam. It was a fair and straight forward debate, I must admit, and I hope you like it :)

(and you might see me on the second row... ;-))

If you prefer to listen to the full non-edited version, you can go to the GRI website and download the podcast - Friday morning Arena debate.

Showing Times (check your local time...):
Saturday 17th May: 0710 GMT, 1510 GMT and 1910 GMT;
Sunday 18th May at 0010, 0710, 1510 and 1910 GMT.


How Accountable is Business?

The World Debate asks whether companies, already forced to report on their finances, should also have to reveal details of their impact on the environment and society? How transparent do we expect companies to be and can we trust them to come clean? Can openness and profitability go hand in hand?

Speakers

Alessandro Carlucci – CEO Natura
Natura Cosméticos S.A. is a leading player in sales of cosmetics, fragrances, and toilet products in Brazil. It was founded 40 years ago and is based near Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Gerd Leipold - Executive director of Greenpeace International

Maud Olofsson - Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden
Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden and Minister for Enterprise and Energy.

Sir Michael Rake - Chairman of BT
Former Chairman of KPMG International.

Alex Sink - Chief Financial Officer of the Florida Department of Financial Services
Chief Financial Officer of the Florida Department of Financial Services and (Former President of Bank of America) Florida's Chief Financial Officer, responsible for monitoring the state's fiscal health and managing more than $74 billion in tax revenue coming in and out of state government annually.

Bruno Prior - Director, Summerleaze
Summerleaze is a UK based renewable energy company. His company is a renewable electricity generator primarily from landfill gas, but with an increasing emphasis on anaerobic digestion.