A couple more nice mentions of 21inc in the news recently.
An important part of the 21 Leaders program includes projects where participants work with non-profit organizations. They act as consultants helping increase these organization's capacity towards their mission. The group based in Bathurst, working with the multi-cultural association, has surveyed high school students on their future goals, and their results have been reported on by both CBC and l'Etoile.
21inc was also featured in the cover story of this month's Progress Magazine. I was the guest editor of this edition, which was a ton of fun to put together with Editor in Chief Pam Scott-Crace. Their Ideas Issue is a profile of the innovative work happening across the region in business, community, and government -- as well as an opportunity to put in a nice plug for the 21inc Ideas Festival! My piece for the magazine, the Fearless Symmetry Between Ideas and Action, is here.
I've been thinking about Brazil lately. My roommate is there on a Canadian government organized trade mission. This story appeared in The Daily Gleaner profiling his work and the trip.
The support and efforts taken by government to build opportunities for the private sector is awesome. These trade missions are a good example.
Over the last two and a half years starting and building 21inc, I've started wondering if we should do the equivalent in the "social profit" sector. In New Brunswick, for example, could Enterprise Agencies have someone dedicating part of their time to supporting business model development for nonprofits? I would jump at that.
Some places are already doing this. Ontario has invested millions in MaRS. The Center for Social Innovation is an excellent example (supported through both earned revenue and a generous investor).
As we increase our understanding of the importance of the social sector (and I include social enterprise and social entrepreneurs in here) to economic development, well-being, and community sustainability, we on the east coast should give this some serious thought.
Years ago Fredericton used to hold a Storytelling Festival. I remember at age eleven or twelve biking to Wilmont United Church to hear speechwriter of Louis J Robichaud, Jackie Webster, spin tales about the adventures she was involved in during those heady political days.
Storytelling has been something of a lost art but it’s recently gonemainstream. Anthropologists and business thinkers are helping develop an understanding of how a good story motivates action. It’s now considered to be one of the weapons leaders need in their arsenal.
But to actually construct and be able to tell a good story that motivates action is a hard task.
On Tuesday I gave a presentation on 21inc and our work to board members of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council and other members of the Nova Scotia business community. This opportunity couldn't go to waste. I wanted attendees to leave lunch knowing how important our work is. I wanted to affect them on an emotional level, the core of motivation.
I was aware of all the work being done on the power of storytelling (we hosted a panel discussion at the last Ideas Festival on the topic with storyteller extraordinaire Antonine Maillet) and knew that the best way of reaching this audience would be to tell a good story.
To prepare I connected with a friend of mine who teaches storytelling at the Rotman School of Management in Toronto. He uses the work of Marshall Ganz, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School who also helped design Obama’s Presidential campaign. He sent me a short article by Ganz that breaks down what’s included in a good story.
Ganz’s break down is easy to follow and effective. At a macro level, every story includes A Story of Self, A Story of Us, and A Story of Now. To get people engaged they need to engage with a protagonist (Story of Self), understand how that story affects and includes them (Story of Us), and why it’s urgent that action be taken (Story of Now).
The protagonist faces a Challenge, Choice and Outcome. Think of all the great stories out there and they include a challenge, choice and outcome. Martin Luther King Jr. faced the challenge of a racist United States and chose to fight for freedom and liberty, eventually getting the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act passed.
Most of our stories are not of that magnitude but there is still a story that can be told to get people engaged and moved to act. I wrote the story of 21inc with these directions. You can read it here.
I spent almost the whole two days prior to the talk writing and practicing it. According to the feedback and especially the follow-up discussion, the lunch went really well. The business leaders saw how our work fits both their direct organizational self-interest and also that of the larger community on which they depend.
Here’s a video where Ganz talks about leadership more generally but he gives a great reflection on storytelling.
Du secteur privé au public, de façon formelle ou informelle, le mentorat est un concept en vogue présentement, permettant le transfert de connaissances et d’expérience et la croissance des réseaux.
Puisque 21inc vise toujours à être à l’affut des nouvelles tendances permettant aux jeunes leaders de se développer, il va sans dire que nous avons considéré essentiel de permettre à nos 21 Leaders de bénéficier d’une telle expérience.
Étant à nos premières armes dans le domaine du mentorat, nous avons fait équipe avec M. Micheal Arbow de la Commission des Valeurs Mobilières du Nouveau-Brunswick et Mme Deb Armstrong, ancienne directrice du programme de MBA à UNBSJ et experte en ressources humaines afin d’élaborer un processus pour jumeler nos 21 Leaders à des leaders établis dans une relation de mentorat qui permettra à nos leaders de continuer leur développement.
Après avoir analysé le profil de chacun de nos leaders ainsi que les réponses aux quelques questions que nous leur avons posé, nous avons débuté le processus de jumelage, puisant dans nos réseaux afin de créer les meilleures opportunités de mentorat possibles.
Je dois avouer que le support reçu des leaders établis face à cette nouvelle initiative fut des plus impressionnants, tous étant plus qu’enthousiastes à l’idée de partager avec les futures jeunes leaders de la province.
