Al Etmanski

John Stapleton - What Am I Skating Towards? Addressing Public Scarcity and Private Wealth

This is John Stapleton's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

I want to conduct ‘thought experiments’ concerning where Canada is heading as a nation as we race to create greater inequality through increased public scarcity and private wealth.

What does this look like? The area I know best is our income security programs so I start there.

This is the first ‘skate’. Our public narrative is the arena. A first experiment If Canadian governments were to cancel all income security payments to individuals overnight, the immediate savings to governments would be in the $150 billion range . This includes all Old Age Security, child benefits, EI, and disability payments. It also includes provincial payments such as workers ‘compensation and welfare. In addition to placing hundreds of thousands of Canadians into immediate destitution, grocery stores and other shops would take a huge hit to their sales and landlords would be forced to evict hundreds of thousands of tenants. Some would go out of business.

Although one can’t be clear if a $150 billion haircut would result in a contraction in activity of $150 billion overnight, the nominal short term Canadian balance sheet would get a sudden boost with this immediate change. In nominal terms, we could eliminate the $60 billion federal deficit and, over time, we would have many billions left over for all governments to make serious inroads in paying down their deficits and accumulated debt. Our fiscal house would finally be in order.

But something else very curious would happen. Since government and all other income security expenditures are components of GDP, the $150 billion in cancelled payments could reduce our GDP by over 10% literally overnight, placing Canada into a deep and long economic depression that would easily rival the Great Depression of the 1930’s. At the same time, millions of Canadians could become homeless. In essence, our economy would contract and tax revenues would deteriorate quickly and deeply. This pathology might sound familiar. It is the same prescription that our economies swallowed in the 1930’s. This prescription is now being recommended in part for countries like Greece, Spain, Ireland, Italy and Portugal in the modern day European Union.

If this pathology continues, it will spread to all of us. Why? Because you can’t shrink yourself bigger. Public scarcity is a choice and not an inevitability. This is the arena and I’ll be skating.

John Stapleton worked for the Ontario Government in the Ministry of Community and Social Services and its predecessors for 28 years in the areas of social assistance policy and operations. He is a Commissioner with the Ontario Soldiers’ Aid Commission and is a volunteer with St. Christopher House and Woodgreen Community Services of Toronto. He is undertaking an Innovations Fellowship with the Metcalf Foundation. He teaches public policy and is a member of 25 in 5. John has published over 50 articles, studies, and op-eds. John serves on the Board of Directors of the Daily Bread Food Bank. His website is Open Policy Ontario.

Twitter - @rampagehall

Note: I am releasing individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012?  on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Cheryl Rose, Jacques Dufresne, Linda Perry, John Mighton, Sam Sullivan, Linda Couture, Sherri Torjman and many others. You can access the accumulated essays here.

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Delyse Sylvester - What Am I Skating Towards? Investing in Collaboration

This is Delyse Sylvester's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

A more fully invested collaborator

We were very lucky to live our two daughters’ “success by six” years at a housing coop in Vancouver’s Commercial Drive neighbourhood. Last fall, after many years living in Nelson - our girls are now 19 and 20 - we returned to celebrate the coops 30^th anniversary.   

That night, as we made our go around introductions, I joked that we joined the coop 20 years ago embroiled in a heated debate about where to locate the compost pile and I wondered if a decision had been made yet. The room erupted in knowing laughter. Collaboration is hard.

Little had changed in that department over the years. Consensus still takes an inordinate amount of time and everyone had a laugh and talked about the other burning issues that had consumed the coop over its history. 

But what had changed - and was very evident to both my husband Lex and me - was that the coop had never been more vibrant. There was something in the air – it was electric – there were passionate conversations about the future and a real sense of fun expressed.

I was reminded of the challenge Adam Kahane, author of Power and Love, put forth at the BC Innovation Summit in November. It was in the form of a rhetorical question: Why would you work collectively if you can do something on your own? He pointed out that collaboration is time consuming, messy, and filled with dynamics that need to be unpacked.  It is much faster and easier to DIY. But some things can’t be done alone, and the joys of working together successfully are unparalleled. The first critical step is to know that there is no alternative. Then step into the collective space with your full commitment to the messiness and all it brings. Invest your whole self with power and with love.

Back in our coop days, I realize now, I didn’t quite do that. In the back of my mind, I knew that we could purchase a small home for $180,000, which meant for us that we had options beyond the coop. We didn’t have to commit fully to a life of dialogue, compromise, and unpacking. I dreamed of a family home and frankly my half-hearted commitment to the coop showed.

I continued to contribute to meetings that were a mixed bag of wonderful community sharing and frustrating discussions. When the girls reached school age, we left for our DIY dream in Nelson.

Returning 15 years later on that anniversary evening, and watching as children of the current young families were rocked to sleep in the arms of neighbours, I saw this collective had some new inspiring plans. They had a pool of skills - trade, administrative, sustainable acumen, modest funding and even childcare. This was a group focused not on “maintenance” but on “revitalization.”

Today’s residents have few options. This will likely be their collective home for generations to come. Perhaps because of that fact - they are committed and frankly, thrilled about the challenge.  I saw in them the same promise of the coop life that had drawn me, a practical approach to problem solving mixed in with vision for a sustainable future.

This is what I am skating toward.

I take to heart what so many people I admire state: we have less than 50 years to turn this world around. There is extreme urgency now. And yet, this is not a DIY moment. We are in it together. This is the home we have to share – we have the skills to pool and we can and must enter into this fully knowing that we must work together.  It is a time where my own tendency toward the practical and demanding clear results must come together with my belief in the power of collaborative problem solving. I have to commit fully to the global coop.

Inherent in a collaborative approach is what a wonderful leader in our community, Shayla Wright, calls entering the space where “no one has to be wrong.”

This is profound as judgment has been my life’s sidekick – a side effect of having high expectations. The ability to listen without one-upping -- or as Tim Broadhead cautions, the “gotcha accountability” -- is required.

This is my work: for the next 50 to continue to welcome partners to the table with whom I’ve shared a history of finger pointing. To listen fully and to let go of the belief structures I’ve collected over the years that have resulted in fears and suspicions that prevent me from doing so. For me, this means the citizen sector, government and the private sector together. It doesn’t mean I have to agree to all I hear. But it means I must commit my whole self to collaboration.

I realize now that perhaps it was not the messy, slow pace of change that kept me from being fully invested in the coop. Perhaps it was the other way around. Maybe it’s our inability to fully commit to collaboration as the only option that is the problem. Now is the time to test my theory.

It’s a beginning and the ice feels a little thin. But like my backyard rink cousin says “yeah it takes commitment getting out there every cold winter night adding another layer, but in no time the ice is thick enough for the whole neighbourhood to skate on.”

Delyse Sylvester leads Ashoka's Changemakers Community Team creating compelling campaigns and messages that invite millions of changemakers to care and to act. She brings the lessons of successful fundraising and social marketing to inspire individuals, corporate leaders, media mavens, community organizers and enthusiasts to make a personal commitment for themselves and their loved ones as active members of the Ashoka community.

Note: I am releasing individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012?  on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Cheryl Rose, Jacques Dufresne, Linda Perry, John Stapleton, Sherri Torjman and many others. You can access the accumulated essays here.

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John McKnight - What Am I Skating Towards? Cooperation

This is John McKnight's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

Cooperation is the context for each of us to value doing well for ourselves and others.

I have always believed that competition is the thin ice of society and the further we get from it, the safer we become because we will be surrounded by rescuers rather than people who believe we should "sink or swim"

In his brilliant book, “No Contest: The Case Against Competition,” author Alfie Kohn defines competition as the process by which for me to win, you must lose.

Our children’s lives are filled with the competitive experience. Most of their activities called ”sports” are pedagogies in competition.  Although we teach them that a real sports person is a “good loser,” we all know that the truth was revealed by the great football coach, Vince Lombardi, who said, “Winning isn’t everything. Winning is the only thing.”

Our children’s video games are all about winning–war to car racing.

In schools where our children are graded on curves or continuums, the message is, “I’m not good enough unless I get an A.  Then I am a winner and I can see all the others behind me– the losers.”

When our young people move on to college, the competitive culture is reinforced as they learn that the real hero of higher education is the “winningest coach” – people like Joe Paterno.

The college classroom is a daily pressure cooker where an A is the winning recipe. All lower grades need an explanation on your resume.

Finally, having been immersed in the competitive idea for 21 years, our young people matriculate into the working world as bona fide members of the competitive culture. They understand that livelihood is all about competition. In their work, advancement is winning. Staying in place is losing, even if the work might be very satisfying.

After work their recreation is usually their enjoyment of winners beating losers. Whether playing or watching sports, the game is the same: who wins?

For entertainment, they are treated to normal non-competitive activities converted into exercises in winning or losing. Cooking becomes a competition between chefs. Making clothing becomes a competition among designers. Dancing becomes a competition among non-professional dancers. Even losing weight becomes a competition among the obese. In many of these competitive, ”entertainments,” the loser is publically humiliated and removed from the “fun.”

Undergirding the domestic competitive culture is the perception that the nation’s future depends on winning the race against China.

The result of our win/lose society is a deep belief in the myth that competition is the proven method for achieving efficiency and excellence. The truth of the matter is the opposite. Alphie Kohn’s “No Contest” is the primary text that provides the empirical evidence that cooperation “beats” competition in most of the important areas of our lives. His data clearly shows that people who cooperate are more productive, learn more, enjoy playing more, and have better character and interpersonal relationships.

Kohn explains the failure of competition as the inability to recognize that trying to do well and trying to beat others are two different things. Cooperation is the context for each of us to value doing well for ourselves and others. Competition is the context for each of us who believes that doing well results from beating others.

There is a ready-made, accessible context for reintroducing ourselves and our children to a life of cooperation. It is our own neighborhood.  There, the possibilities for a good life depend upon cooperation rather that competition. A neighbor is not someone you beat. The word signifies a friend with whom we share a local community. And community is not a place where we gather together to beat each other and create lots of losers and one winner. The neighborly way is described in our book, “The Abundant Community.”

So when we admit that most of us don’t really know our neighbors, we are revealing that the primary site for genuine cooperation is absent from our lives. And, perhaps the reason for this unusual lack of relationships is that the only way many of us know how to act is in a world that creates one winner and lots and lots of losers.

John McKnight is emeritus professor of education and social policy and co-director of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University. He is the co-author of Building Communities from the Inside Out and the author of The Careless Society. He has been a community organizer and serves on the boards of several national organizations that support neighborhood development.

Note: I am releasing individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012?  on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Cheryl Rose, Jacques Dufresne, Linda Perry, John Stapleton, Delyse Sylvester, Sherri Torjman and many others. You can access the accumulated essays here.

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Peter Deitz- What Am I Skating Towards? Microphilanthropy

This is Peter Deitz's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

"What are you skating toward?" is a Canadian remix of the classic Siddharthian question, "Whither will my path yet lead me?"

I recall coming across this question in high school, and thinking, "that's one of the best questions I've been confronted with ever." I printed it out on our family's first black and white laser printer, and carried it with me for several months. "My path" jumped out in contrast to "the path" I gloomily felt I was traveling along with little influence over the route, mode of transportation, or final destination.

If the last seventeen years are any indication, I'm doing a fairly good job of proving my glum fifteen year-old self wrong. Al's question "What are you skating towards?" has just as much agency built in. It conjures a skater or team of skaters who have fixed their sights on a hockey puck and are doing their best to land it exactly where they want it to be.

So what is the puck I'm skating toward in 2012? Where is it now? And where do I want it to be? Of all the big ideas I've taken a shot at in the past several years -- social enterprise, nonprofit technology, open data, impact investing -- the one that still holds the greatest promise in my eyes is microphilanthropy.

Microphilanthropy spans the transactional (giving of time, talent, and money) and the non-transactional (giving a damn about the people and world around us). Microphilanthropy is in equal parts something we do and something we care about deeply.

Unlike democracy, economic development, and the like, which have their champions, some more legitimate than others -- microphilanthropy isn't even on the radar of most systems thinkers and social innovators. As a result, the infrastructure for it appears underdeveloped. In our daily entanglement with mobile, social, and cloud technology, we aren't exactly confronted with an abundance of "one-click checkout" buttons for creating the change we want to see in ourselves, our families, and the world. And yet, I've learned the presence or absence of such buttons has little impact on microphilanthropy's long-term prospects.

To be activated, microphilanthropy requires little more than tightly networked individuals who share a deep and common concern. Fortunately, the technology sector, after years of making money by isolating individuals behind television sets and word processors, has transformed itself into a multi-billion dollar industry that thrives on tightly networking individuals. The tighter the networks a technology company can create, the larger its valuation. Viewed through the microphilanthropy lens, this is a very good trend.

If the technology sector is covering the networks, then the philanthropic sector needs to be tackling the second condition for microphilanthropy: individuals sharing a deep and common concern.

In 2012, I'd like to see grantmakers become far more visible in their efforts to deepen and widen the communities of individuals who share their unique concern for a specific cause, community, individual, resource, or idea. The deeper and wider the shared concern, the more likely we are to witness unprecedented giving of time, talent, and money.

All this to say, I'm committing to skating alongside any effort that bridges the tight-network-forming innovations of the technology sector with the common-concern-building activities of organized philanthropy. The elusive prize of a world abounding with acts of generosity, creativity, and empathy will follow.

Thanks Al for creating the opportunity to put these thoughts in writing.

Peter recently completed one year as the Managing Editor of SocialFinance.ca, an online community run by the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing, whose mission is to catalyze and sustain a robust social finance marketplace in Canada. Peter is also the Founder of Social Actions, an initiative acquired by GuideStar in March 2011, that helps people find and share opportunities to make a difference. He lives in Toronto, Canada.                                                                                                                                                   Peter's website - http://peterdeitz.com          Twitter - http://twitter.com/peterdeitz

Note: I am releasing individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012?  on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Cheryl Rose, Jacques Dufresne, Linda Perry, John Stapleton, Delyse Sylvester, Sherri Torjman and many others. You can access the accumulated essays here.

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Adam Kahane - What Am I Skating Towards? Learning to Work Together

This is Adam Kahane's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

We Need to Learn How To Work Together

We face a widening gap between our need to work together and our ability to do so.

Our societies are becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent. What people over there, on the other side of town or the other side of the world, are doing—economically, politically, socially, technologically, environmentally—is increasingly affecting the lives of people over here. It is therefore increasingly difficult for us either to grasp or to control what is happening to us.

We are increasingly unable to deal with our challenges on our own, or only with our friends and colleagues. We increasingly need to be able to work also with strangers and opponents—with people whom we don’t know or understand or trust.

At the same time, our societies are becoming increasingly fragmented and polarised. The controls and norms and solidarity and trust that have kept us together are weakening. The ideological and cultural and class differences amongst us are growing. We are increasingly free and so also increasingly different from and separated from and at odds with one another.

This widening gap between what we need to do and what we are able to do means that we increasingly find ourselves unable to make progress on our most vital challenges. Increasingly we find ourselves stuck: locally, nationally and globally.

The only way we will be able to get unstuck is to learn to work together—not only with like-minded friends and colleagues, but also with unlike-minded strangers and opponents. This is neither easy nor straightforward. But it is possible. I have seen it with my own eyes, including in the most extreme contexts.

I am trying to understand and apply, in both extreme and ordinary contexts, the principles and practices that we need to be able to work together, and thereby to make progress on our most vital challenges.

Adam Kahane is a partner in the Cambridge, Massachusetts office of Reos Partners and an Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School of the University of Oxford. He is the author of Solving Tough Problems: An Open Way of Talking, Listening, and Creating New Realities and Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change.  And here's a scoop. Adam has just finished his new book, Transformative Scenario Planning: Creating new futures When Things Aren't Working. It will be published in October, 2012 by Berrett-Koehler in San Francisco.

Note: I am releasing individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012?  on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Cheryl Rose, Jacques Dufresne, John Stapleton, Delyse Sylvester and Peter Deitz . You can access the accumulated essays here.

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Kathy Bromley - What Am I Skating Towards? A Big Black Unknown

This is Kathy Bromley's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

As Shannon approaches her final semester of high school I find myself reflecting on how things have changed since Rob and I first introduced her to the teachers at our local elementary school. We wanted to make sure they realized that what Shannon did at school mattered to us and that this was a team effort.  We would never expect them to work on activities with Shannon that we weren't willing to work on at home. Although Shannon seemed quiet we expected her day to be filled with learning and socialization. We walked into the staff meeting ready to start educating.

Throughout middle school and then high school I have continued to go into the school, any classroom that had a connection with Shannon, and show both the students and the teachers how amazing Shannon's life really is and that they could play a role in making sure that Shannon's life at school continued to be a highlight of her day.

We're now at the countdown, school as Shannon has come to know it ends with Graduation in June 2012, a time of great joy but also of fear. We are now skating toward the big, black unknown. Where do we all go from here?

The familiarity of friends and routine will be disrupted, for Shannon as well as for us. We've all become very comfortable with how the week plays out. Shannon wakes up early and is off to school to be challenged, to visit with friends, to dance and to feel safe. As her parents we are comfortable knowing that Shannon's days are productive.

With no school, what's next? There have been meetings with intake workers to determine the level of funding and the types of programs Shannon qualifies for. With such high needs we have had to work with two groups, CLBC and Health, both working hard with us to come up with a plan where Shannon will be challenged and engaged. Gone is the natural group of students to introduce Shannon to, classes to enjoy and a social life she has come to love, or is it?

I've heard other families say that life for their adult children improved after high school but it's difficult to see that Shannon's life could get better than this.

It seems the first options offered are Workshops and Programs for adults with disabilities. We love the life she has now with the mix of opportunities and people to meet and learn from. Rob and I would like more for our daughter and won't stop with the obvious choices, we haven't before, so why start now?

We think back to all the incredible adventures we've experienced because of the big, black unknown, of how difficult moving forward seemed in the past and of how hard both Rob and I have worked to overcome it. The big, black Unknown in front of us seems a little bigger and a little darker than in the past. There is no obvious path around the unknown and we will continue to search, to learn from ourselves as well as others, to create the new trails we just can't see right now. And so it begins, our search for another amazing new path in Shannon's life, around, over, or perhaps right through the centre of the big, black unknown.

We can't wait to get started!

Kathy Bromley is a teacher, advocate, blogger thought leader and Mom.  Her blog posts under Time As We Know It are irreverent and poignant. Kathy's spirit of abundance is revealed in this introduction to her website:  "Time is such an important factor in our life, we are not a typical family and yet we are forced to live within the same 24 hour clock as everyone else. We don’t always arrive on time but we try our best."

Note: I am releasing individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012?  on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Adam Kahane, Jacques Dufresne, John Stapleton, Cheryl Rose and Peter Deitz . You can access the accumulated essays here.

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Paul Born - What Am I Skating Towards?

NOTE - On Thursday January 26th (noon EST/9:00am PST) Paul Born and I will offer a free tele-learning seminar on Innovating Together.  More details below

This is Paul Born's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

When the ice is good it is easier to skate than to walk. Similarly when relationships are positive it is always better to walk with others. I have this growing sense that things are going to gets a lot worse. This comes from a guy whose wife introduces him as the eternal optimist, always seeing the cup overflowing (though she quickly adds this gets annoying some days).

So why does this optimist think things are going to get a lot worse? The systems we have come to rely on no longer serve us well, they are broken. The environment is a mess, the economy is unstable to the point of being wonky, and people are angry and scared all over the place and rising up against both justice (conservative and fundamentalist movements) and injustice.

I used to think “these troubles” have always been with us and for sure we will get through them. I still believe we will get through them though I am convinced this is not trouble as normal. Things are going to get worse before they get better and no amount of innovation or brilliance will save us from the pain worse is going to cause.

So what are the things this optimist feeling pessimistic is going to skate toward in the next year to get ready to absorb the pain?

One: I am going to look for a neighborhood where people know each other and are doing things together and that engage in acts of caring and co reliance. I am going to help this neighborhood be more than they already are by inspiring a project they can work on together that will help someone other than themselves. I want to experience collective altruism with them. I may even move there.

Two: I am going to help cities realize that by ending poverty they are promoting security. Less poverty means less reason for jails and hospitals.

Three: I am going to walk with those who desire new forms of leadership. I want to visit places that embrace leaderfulness. Places where lots of leadership can co exist and where people are learning to walk together and pull in the same direction.

Four: I am going to party more, laugh harder, reach out to those who are lonely and embrace (hug) the goodness all around me because I believe that when times get bad you practice the good stuff a lot, with gusto.

and… I am going to slow down so I can see the good ice and then I am going skate there often. I am going to slow down so I can meet good people, build relationships and walk and listen and talk.

Paul Born is deeply curious about and engaged in ideas where people work together for the common good, work that he describes as collective altruism. Paul is the President and co founder of the charity The Tamarack Institute, which since 2001 has provided leadership in Canada on issues of citizen engagement, collaborative leadership and community innovation. More than 12,000 subscribers engage in Tamarack’s learning communities. Tamarack also sponsors Vibrant Communities Canada, active in cities across the country, that has so far reduced the impact of poverty for more than 202,000 people. An Author of three books, Paul is a motivational speaker who loves the power of stories.  www.seekingcommunity.ca  Twitter - @pborn

Note: I am releasing individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012?  on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Kathy Bromley, Adam Kahane, Jacques Dufresne, John Stapleton, Cheryl Rose and Peter Deitz . You can access the accumulated essays here.

Register for the Tele-Learning seminar Innovating Together here.

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Colleen McCormick: What Am I Skating Towards? The New Public Servant

Here is Colleen McCormick's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

The New Public Servant

I am skating towards unleashing the power of government's greatest asset - the intrapreneur.

The economic meltdown has crippled governments already challenged by climate change, healthcare crises, collapsing social structures, and growing public safety concerns.

Faced with such overwhelming challenges, government is tempted to hunker down and depend on well-established approaches to meet its objectives.

This is a mistake. To have any chance of success, government must become adept at developing and adopting new practices that will advance innovation.

If government wants to achieve better outcomes it needs to identify, develop and unleash a unique breed of public servants – the intrapreneurs, who will drive ideas, develop innovative approaches and deliver new models.

An intrapreneur has been described as the entrepreneur of the millennium. Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO (one of the world’s leading design companies), explains that “IDEO actively seeks out intrapreneurs because they are natural integrators, problem solvers and facilitators.” Brown describes such intrapreneurs as “likely to have honed less celebrated, but perhaps more reliable, characteristics of innovation such as political savvy, tact, teamwork and patience. Rather than getting their way via force of personality or charismatic zeal, these innovators learn how to bring projects to life through the deft manipulation of the latent intellectual and financial capital inside their organizations.”

SustainAbility‘s The Social Intrapreneur, A Field Guide for Corporate Changemakers highlights that intrapreneurs are often seen as “hybrid individuals, who persistently champion a vision of change in the face of frequent cynicism and resistance. They flourish when the organization provides them with an effective base from which to create and leverage innovative societal solutions and understand business process and priorities as well as sustainability imperatives.”

Intrapreneurs are willing and able to take risks in the name of an idea. They realize their vision by moving across organizations and sectors. Most important, “intrapreneurs compel their organizations to look outside their comfort zones — to see both the strategic risks and profound opportunities that exist beyond the purview of traditional business units,” co-author John Elkington asserts.

Intrapreneurs need acceptance, a support network of mentors, and good leadership to help master their skills and concepts. Given the ever-increasing rate of change before us, it is critical for government to tap into the expertise of this unique talent pool.

Intrapreneurs Are Government’s Gamechangers

Gamechangers are being sought after all over the world. Why? Gamechangers are not interested in incremental improvements; they are interested in facing our biggest challenges head-on and finding solutions that fundamentally shift the way we do things.  They are usually more ambitious for social change than for personal wealth and advancement. Gamechangers thrive on redesigning systems and are relentlessly in pursuit of the greater good. They are destined to lead transformational change.

The only answer to more problems is more problem-solvers. Intrapreneurs are government’s greatest asset. Yet, it continues to stifle this asset. To achieve transformational change, government needs to unleash the potential of the intrapreneur and let these real gamechangers get in the game.

Colleen McCormick is, not surprisingly, an intrapreneur. She has a degree in Political Science, an MBA in Executive Management specializing in Leadership, and is Director of Innovative Partnerships for the BC Government. She is also the National Chair of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada’s New Professionals, is the founder of the non-profit Social Innovators Network, and organizer for TEDxMileZero. Colleen’s motto: Relentless optimism.

Note: I am releasing individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012?  on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Kathy Bromley, Adam Kahane, Jacques Dufresne, John Stapleton, Cheryl Rose and Peter Deitz . You can access the accumulated essays here.

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Jack Pearpoint - What Am I Skating Towards? Stories of the Remarkable and Ordinary

Here is Jack Pearpoint's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

Local stories - Local people - Remarkably Ordinary

I am a prairie boy where skating on frozen creeks and homemade rinks was a way of life. There were always cracks and rills; often you had to clear the snow, but then it was alive with surprise.  Skating in a covered rink or ‘artificial ice’ is ok – but it doesn’t compare to the frosty crisp edge of the real thing.

We have been lulled into believing that ‘artificial ice’ is the only option.  It’s not.  It’s more work to clear a local creek or create your own rink, but it stimulates the soul (and freezes your toes) when you create it.

My current ‘outdoor skating journey’ is to record and share the incredible energy, talent and creativity of local stories of local people doing remarkably ordinary things.   When these stories find me, my heart sings, hope blossoms, and I become courageous to face another day in a world we do not control. 

I believe that sharing these stories in print, in video – on you-tube – enlivens the possibility for full contributing lives for citizens of all ages everywhere.  As humans, we have been sharing stories since the dawn of time.  It is time to remember how to share our stories around the campfires of our lives.

Many of the stories that find me are simple and profound.  A 16 year old boy telling the story of learning about life from his 14 year-old brother who has the characteristics labeled autism; a young woman with disability labels who has the courage to dance her dreams – and gives others the courage to explore their spiritual lives.

Many of the stories that find me feature a person with a disability label – or a demeaning label of ‘difference’.  Typically, these story creators courageously flip ‘dis’ into ‘advantage’, and thus became catalysts for convening new communities of untapped capacity.  A young woman boxer invited her gay, lesbian and transgendered friends to dream with her about creating a gym.  The Newsgirls Boxing Club now assists abused and labeled women in Toronto and Indonesia.

In Northern Ontario, isolated fly-in Aboriginal communities have unthinkable incidences of diabetes, poverty, and suicide.  Food supplies are abysmal.  A young man decides that ‘food sustainability’ will make a difference and creates a co-op.  He purchases bulk foods, arranges trucking and charter flights, delivering healthy groceries on time for half price.

Stories can maximize capacity and talent and turn depression and hopelessness into action and possibility.  They surround us, in our families, next door, around the corner. We discover them over coffee - in conversation - by keeping eyes and ears attuned for capacity. 

My secret: I believe that our culture desperately needs to slow down and remember how to listen.  Happily, unrecognized master tutors in listening surround us.  Typically, they need a hand to teach their wisdom – thus creating magical partnerships.  People with disabilities, significant labels and our discarded elders can be our teachers.  They are magnets for human gatherings.  And in the process of figuring out how to include everyone, they will teach us to slow down and listen.  Then we can see and hear the stories and gifts of everyone reemerge.

Jack Pearpoint is an independent Canadian Publisher (Inclusion Press) and catalyst for Inclusion, Diversity, Teamwork and CHANGE!  He is a respected and endearing speaker and consultant and is author of several best sellers including: All My Life's a Circle; The PATH and MAPS Handbook; and From Behnd the Piano.

Note: I am releasing individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012?  on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Kathy Bromley, Adam Kahane, Colleen McCormick, John Stapleton, Cheryl Rose and Peter Deitz . You can access the accumulated essays here.

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Maggie Vilvang and Richard Faucher - What We Are Skating Towards.

This is Richard and Maggie's response to What are you skating towards in 2012?

What are we skating toward?  The net, always the net!  Sometimes on a breakaway, sometimes receiving a pass, sometimes offering an assist, but always, we are crossing the blue line with others who share our passion to achieve the goal.  And what about passion?   In our family our passion lives in each other, our work, and quite honestly, in horses, and hockey.  We are at our best when we live in our passion.  Our passions help us to be strong alone, and to belong with others.

We wonder about people with developmental disabilities and their passions.  Have their passions been denied, considered frivolous or perhaps eclipsed by their perceived deficits?  By denying, or at least not recognizing their passions have we stolen their ability to be strong, and to belong?  We wonder if passion is not, in fact the spice of life, rather a staple that nourishes and sustains us as individuals and as community.

We see the desolation of a life defined by deficit.  We yearn for the abundance of a life defined by asset.  We struggle with how to get from one to the other.  We suspect that passion is the lever to move us from desolation to abundance. 

So, yes, we are skating towards the net; our goals.  But this year we will skate with a passion that ignites and unites the passions in others.

Maggie Vilvang and Richard Faucher are creative entrepreneurial leaders in the community living sector.  They have just been appointed co - Executive Directors of PLAN and PLAN Institute.

Note: I am releasing individual essays from the collection, What are you skating towards in 2012?  on a regular basis. Upcoming contributions are by Kathy Bromley, Jack Pearpoint, Adam Kahane, Colleen McCormick and John Stapleton . You can access the accumulated essays here.

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Becoming Visible 2011- Leveraging Our Collective Assets