Links/Resources Recommended
These links are roughly in the order of subjects mentioned in John and Peter’s August 28 conversation with Al Etmanski.
www.projectfriendship.com for information on the Project Friendship Society in Canada that John mentioned in his introduction. The organization connects people isolated with various disabilities with the community, by encouraging the citizens of Prince George to welcome them into their local associations, thereby helping isolated people develop meaningful relationships and gain valuable experiences.
www.clubofrome.org for information on the organization founded in 1968 to address the dilemma of prevailing short-term thinking in international affairs and, in particular, the concerns regarding unlimited resource consumption in an increasingly interdependent world.
www.ottoscharmer.com for information on Scharmer’s Theory U of leadership and innovation. See also http://www.presencing.com/ for Scharmer’s work with The Presencing Institute, an action-research effort for profound societal innovation and change.
www.artofliving.com and www.frankieleeslater.com links provided by listener Frankie Lee Slater for information about Circles Uniting. Slater also recommends http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJGzAKUTwD8
Adam Kahane, Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change (paper). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2010.
Interesting origin of the word “guest” provided by Guest 79 at http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=stranger&searchmode=none. The meaning of the word is related to “stranger.”
www.wendellberrybooks.com for bio and further links to the work of Wendell Berry, academic, economic and cultural critic and the author of more than 40 books of poetry, fiction and essays.
http://www.sustainable-everyday.net/manzini/ for background and writing by Ezio Manzini, design, social innovation and sustainability thought leader.
www.aletmanski.com is Al’s blog
Follow-Up Resources
These “Five Good Resources” came from Al in a follow-up blog post titled Five (Plus One) Good Ideas about Social Innovation.
- Anything by Frances Westley. The best introduction to her work is Getting to Maybe: How the World Has Changed (Random House, 2006), co-authored with Brenda Zimmerman and Michael Quinn Patton.
- John Elkington and his team at Volans are at the leading edge of thinking about social innovation. Check out their website and their recent report Future Quotient.
- Ezio Manzini is a leading European thinker about design, social innovation and sustainability. Check out his blog. Here is a link to a long but inspiring video of a recent presentation in Australia.
- Adam Kahane has practical insights and proven strategies to improve our ability to work with allies and colleagues as well as strangers and opponents. His latest book, Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2010). Read his approach to change-labs.
- The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide a counterpoint to today’s accelerating culture and help make long-term thinking more common. Their most majestic project is the Clock of the Long Now—a clock designed to tick for 10,000 years but will only tell the time if you power it.
