I've got a plan!

By now it is crystal clear for me that I want to help people. I have understood where this will comes from and know I need to translate it into a plan of actions. Before I start explaining this plan I would like to point out that ‘making a living by making a difference’ isn’t just about giving but also receiving. Now it is scientifically proven, solidarity acts on brain chemistry like a vitamin of health and personal fulfillment. This brings me to Rousseau’s ‘Social Contract’ in which the author declares “Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains” and also to the word crisis (from the Greek – krisis) that also means ‘testing time’. Let’s make use of the ability to attune ourselves with others (empathy, compassion) and the willingness to help (supportive gestures) – that seem to be intrinsic to human nature – to rethink our future and build a society that promotes cooperation.

To do so it is important to understand the purpose of Business, that in which we allocate the majority of our time and energy. Business (from ‘bisig’, busy + ness; ‘sense of work, occupation’) is the origin and capitalism the engine we’ve created triggering prosperity and progress. Quoting Polly LaBarre, we need to “reimagine a profoundly principled, fundamentally patient, and socially accountable capitalism”.

That is exactly where I stand. At the intersection between people and businesses. On the one side, through human centered approach putting human needs at the forefront, finding people’s desires and wishes, and discovering their aspirations often articulated by latent needs. And on the other side, helping organizations redefine themselves through reconceiving products and services, redefining productivity in the value chain, and building clusters and framework conditions in order to provide real value to the user by solving social problems. This is the foundation of long-term capitalism along with the notion of ‘shared value’.

This paradigm shift affects all three sectors: public, private and third. Public needs to regulate minimum (high) standards setting the stage for private and third to compete. Even if non-profits still need to emerge as professional organizations (aka social businesses) capable of facing fierce markets, these often already have the appropriate mind-set. Whereas due to their flexibility, companies can create sustainable and scalable solutions to many social problems in ways that governments and NGOs cannot. This is why recent collaborations between multinational corporations (MNCs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have resulted in innovation of disruptive products and services. MNCs and NGOs have very different core ‘businesses’ which are highly compatible since the first is excellent at doing business and the second has extensive information about the needs of a specific target population.

My idea is to be a facilitator / translator at the center of this triangle, bringing together foundations and CSR departments (for now), non-profits, and ministries. It is the promotion of a greater well-being rather than a single-minded pursuit of growth and profits stimulating a strong sense of community that will generate coopetition (healthy competition) and therefore social innovation. This is the level I found myself to be most profitable, especially in the actual European context filled of opportunities.

Hopefully this is what awaits me at Soulsight – a strategic design consultancy from Madrid- in which I will start working beginning of April. In “The quest for paid work” I will talk about how I managed to get to this win/win situation.

Thanks for reading! :slight_smile:

The condition of social designers

Hey Tiago, well done! I think this report of yours is a true statement of your profession and nicely interogates the condition of a social designers and innovators…

I have a quick question: what do you mean by innovation of disruptive products and services? Can you give me some examples?

Also,  Oscar is a new Edgeryder having the same passion as you, I already introduced your reports to him - http://edgeryders.ppa.coe.int/statuses/1052 . maybe the two of you could get in touch…

Congratulations for the new job, looking forward to hear more about it!

Disruptive Innovation

Excellent Noemi, you spotted THE question!

Here’s a straightforward example:

Picture Fundación Vodafone and ONG ONCE (Organización Nacional de Ciegos en España) working together to develop a service for the blind. At first we would assume not being interesting for Vodafone since it’s an ‘insignificant’ and tremendously difficult market. Think again, the ONG is probably THE entity knowing best the target needs. By collaborating and creating an unexisting service for this niche market they are also solving many problems of the rest of the population. This is something we also do in the design process: always design for an extreme user so that the product or service will fit all other users.

In the not-so-long run this will turn out to be a competitive advantage for MNCs making it a corporate strategy giving new business opportunities benefiting large scale sustainable change.

Regarding Oscar - bienvenido-, he is a great professional and very close friend of mine since we were together in the design for social business master. Thanks Noemi! :slight_smile:

Happy hormones, bliss

Houlà, really looking forward meeting you this week!

About the scientific proof, whoa, euh, I need a little bit more solid foundations than this…

Actually, you are right, in a sense, solidarity acts on brain chemistry.

There is a physical state of being called ‘bliss’. Bliss produces 4 kinds of happy hormones, that act on the brain and the entire body.

Well-being translates into a biological response because your brain secretes things like dopamine, and opiates and serotonin, oxytocin, all of which are hormones which make you happy.”

But there is no scientific tool yet to properly measure levels of physical bliss.

MY PLAN is to make sure that scientists will get interested in this stuff and push frontiers of knowledge in this scientific area.

Very good plan. Looks fantastic. Bon succès (I never say ‘good luck’, I prefer 'bon succès).

Did u hear about the handbook? We’re poking holes in analyses

Hi Tiago,

This excerpt is from the research paper on Edgeryders making a living, in the section about entrepreneurship:

Similarly to Alberto Massetti, Tiago in his mission report “I’ve got a plan” seeks to find a more profound meaning of his professional life. He quotes Polly LaBarre:

“[…] we need to “reimagine a profoundly principled, fundamentally patient, and socially accountable capitalism”. […] That is exactly where I stand. At the intersection between people and businesses.”

Even a superficial look at the social structure, background and networks of the Edgeryders makes us realise that they are truly an elite capable of starting new projects and processes. They posses enormous social capital and are well aware of it, while carefully nurturing social relations that could help them to build more sensible communities and businesses.[…]

However, innovative minds find it very difficult to act in a restricted world of administrative burdens and a lack of understanding of their resources and potentials. There are many new forms of making economic values that do not receive any support from the standard political and economic establishment. Most of them were a subject of discussion during the Edgeryders June conference. It was of the utmost importance for all contributors to the new entrepreneurial forms to meet with the policy makers and try to deliver their message. Some of the topics, like crowd funding, crowd matching, angel investors, basic income, barter currencies and time banking could indeed be used as “wildcards” in reinventing and boosting European economy.

and it’s the closest it gets to policy recommendations…  Now I wonder what do you think? Is this ammendable, does it require some more concrete steps for making better policies? Maybe have a closer look and comment, or join our discussion here on the platform where we refine what should go in the handbook we’re building with help from the community.

Thanks, any point appreciated, if anything even to say it’s you in this picture and like how you are portrayed.

Hopefully you’re having a warm August and this won’t keep you from enjoying it  :p

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Getting back on track

Hey Noemi, how are you doing? Still not visiting Madrid?

Work overload before august and literal disconnection during holidays!

Thanks for the poke, I WANT to get on it as soon as possible!

haha, not YET visiting Madrid

I know what you mean, I thought you may have gone on holiday… had the time you deserved ?

I didn’t take a proper “off” vacation, but full weekends  - seaside or hiking - were a blast :slight_smile:

Well if the full report is too long, you can still read the summary, it’s pretty short. Main question is: does it answer your questions or there are important ones left out? Hopefully we’ll get this first round of feedback done by sometime beginning of September. See you, take care friend!

Good to know

Seaside, hiking… it does sound like proper weekends! Well, friend, you already know you can come for a weekend and enjoy the extremely saunish hot Madrileño weather, tapas and good energy!!

So i’m guessing the summary is the paper that was shared by Nadia and Alberto this morning?

Thank you and take care too :))

Nope

It’s this one

http://edgeryders.ppa.coe.int/making-sense-edgeryders-experiences-where-do-we-go-here/mission_case/making-living-reloaded

The one shared by Alberto and Nadia is a different paper, a community response to an official motion of the CoE Parliamentary Assembly. It’s also Edgeryders input, but for different purpose, not directly related to the Handbook. Let me know if you have questions!