.: on the frontiers of venturing and venture investing :.

Monday, April 30, 2007

Great frameworks - reframing my focus.

The two most helpful frameworks that I'm working with right now are a brilliant piece on places to intervene in a system by Donella Meadows and theory u by Otto Scharmer. The Meadows piece has helped me articulate where I'm most drawn to invest myself (mindset shifts - even more the process of doing so) and Scharmer's work is a comprehensive model of the stages involved in creating a mindset shift.

Back to the things I've been focusing on, the work on the collective potential of individual change is about finding a way to encourage individual shifts on a massive scale while the work on the entrepreneurial approach (which is about to undergo a major re-write - and an initial 'survey') is about creating entities and initiatives that can themselves take on system interventions at some level. Something else I'm sensing is a connection between the entrepreneurial approach and the process to shift a mindset. I'm interested to see where that goes.

If you are interested in participating in the initial 'survey' on entrepreneurial approach, just let me know. It is being designed to take the participants through a reflection of their own experiences and so should itself provide a valuable experience.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Entrepreneurial Approach - exploratory presentation.

I've done my quick first draft on exploring the entrepreneurial approach and its application. You can find it here. I wasn't going to post it yet, but just had a great conversation with a coffee friend (here, here, and here) that was prompted by this draft. Cheers to good conversations!

Friday, April 13, 2007

On the train

Have been meaning to post this for a while now.

A couple of weeks ago I was on a train that 'had an altercation' with a person who apparently had decided to part with the world. When the announcement came across the PA that there was a fatality and that we would be delayed at least 2 hours, there was a large outcry from many of the passengers in my car that went something like this: "Oh man... now I'm going to be late. What an inconvenience. This sucks."

Wow. What an example of our society.

My love to the friends and family of the 'fatality', to the train engineers, to the little 4 year old girl 4 seats back from me that heard the server on our car declare that "it hit just past the engine... and at first I thought it was a big branch."

Peace to everyone.

P>E>P

I've just come up with a simple image that I'm starting work with in my exploration of how to apply the entrepreneurial approach in service of restoring balance among people and the planet. Right now, I'm seeing the process as a balance of push and pull with the space in between those being where opportunity and innovation emerges, and what I see as the work of the entrepreneurial process. It's about creating that space and creating the conditions of push and pull that prompt what's most helpful to emerge.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Scaling up the social finance marketplace in Canada.

Here's an interesting map from http://www.xigi.net/ giving an overview of the latest initiative I'm co-creating. If you haven't checked-out xigi.net... take a look. A very interesting tool that's growing quickly and has the potential to make a significant contribution to the global marketplace that invests in good. Anyone else get the feeling that this 'marketplace' is really starting to take off?




make your own map at
www.xigi.net