First of all: Spring is in the air! Berlin is showing the first green, some early blossoming and the smell of the south-western. After spending the night at a good friend I met Frauke Godat and René Sorensen in the betahaus, a coworking space in Berlin. We had a check-in and lunch, preparing the event for that evening. We co-designed the following:

• Framing » Introduction of the learning journey
• Opening Circle » Who and how are we?
  
• Appreciative inquiry (in groups of 3 or 4) » What is my personal learning for social innovation and sustainability?
• World Café (3 tables, 2 rounds) » What connections and collaboration do I see?
• Common Harvest » What is the next level of collaboration in Berlin?
• Closing Circle » What have I learned, and what is my next step?
• Chatter and Goodbye’s

That evening 11 people joined us in the BUNDjugend building in Berlin. Thanks to Eva Ressel, host of the space! One of the first emerging patterns was the lack of a common definition of Social Innovation and Sustainability. Let’s explore the collective wisdom at Wikipedia:

Sustainability

“Sustainability is the capacity to endure. In ecology the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term maintenance of well-being, which in turn depends on the wellbeing of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources.”

Social Innovation

“Social innovation refers to new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that meet social needs of all kinds – from working conditions and education to community development and health – and that extend and strengthen civil society.”

We discovered that although these terms still feel young and constantly changing, they are present in today’s world. Although social innovation is nothing now (think of the renaissance) is has reached a global level, and it is part of our personal lives.

A reoccuring theme during the evening is the internet. We explored the internet as a communicator, network, community and social innovation platform from different angels. Some powerfull questions emerged:

Is the internet the venue for social innovation?

Through conversation we discovered an emerging shared interest and inspiration. The key themes we discovered are ownership, stakeholdership, the balance between life and work, coworking, networks, communities, the internet, emergence and (cross-generational) collaboration.

Emerging Questions:

Why are non-profits not merging?

Where do we want to work?

What are our barriers?

What is the relation to ownership in the current young generation?

Work =/≠ Life?!

During the harvest of the World Café (“What connections and collaboration do I see?”) we stumbled upon the balance between work and private life. Do we work to sustain our private lives, or do we live to work? We work 50% of our day, and have 25% left for our “life”.

I have added an island to the “Sea of Disconnect“:

illustrations - Maira Rahme | edit pietradelmundo

We can ask ourselves how society has put us in islands. Our parents, living on the Island of Living, working on the Island of Work, sent us to the Island of Learning, because the Government made a Law, and is paying this with Tax money. Drawing this I immediately feel that this is very stereotypical. I have the feeling this is no longer the “common scenario”, but I invite you to share in the comments!

[svgallery name="berlin"]

Berlin Network Map:

One of the tables made a network map of the connections, networks and communities in the room. A lot will be missing in this picture, but it might give an image of the resources we have in a small group of people.

A network is People knowing People.

Questions that came up in the conversation around communities and networking is whether we engage in familiar networks, or do we actually join remote and different networks?

I would like to end with quoting René Sorensen:

We are building an air-plane while flying it.

We are in the air, but if we don’t build it together, we might crash.

This month I am taking you on a journey along the road towards my own social enterprise.

pietradelmundo becomes pietradelmundo. life becomes work, work becomes learning and learning becomes life.