Tag: helping

What does collaboration really mean for the world?

Posted on by philipdodson

What does collaboration really mean for the world?

I think that we would all agree that with 7 billion of us on the planet and with limited/dwindling resources, something has to change.

The problem at the moment is, we have not yet reached that critical tipping point, where necessity forces change on those who are most resisting it. We need to have shortages of fuel, food, water etc on big scale.

The reason it needs to get to this almost anarchic position is, that the old school system doesn’t want change. It likes the old scarcity, fear based world that it controls. It likes hoarding all the knowledge and it definitely does not like sharing.

The top 1% globally that controls all the wealth and power likes the status quo exactly as it is.

However the collaborative or sharing economy has the potential to give the world a complete ‘software’ upgrade, where we can move from ‘old school bollocks’ 3.8 to a brand new operating system, which is completely focused on sharing. Thus avoid having to wait for a total catastrophe.

The benefits of this for the human race are enormous, it is a chance to start implementing the solutions that can save our world. The world is on ‘fire’ and you’re not going to put it out by pouring the odd bucket or two of water on it, which is the mainly what the governments of the world do. In fact many of them actually help the ‘fire’ to spread by pouring ‘petrol’ on the ‘fire’ not water.

Most of the worlds problems could be solved and be solved by many of the new technologies that are or could be developed if enough resources were allocated to them.

One example could be hydrogen cars or other alternative fuels coupled with driver-less cars that are shared in a community. Why do we all need to own our own car and use up massive amounts of the world’s precious resources. Why because the old school world needs you to buy oil.

We can already share car journeys with platforms such as Bla Bla Car. We can recycle our furniture with Furniture Re-Use Network, we can get people going our way to delivery things via Nimber. However at the moment this sharing economy is in it’s infancy and this what needs to change and fast. The momentum needs to be accelerated.

That’s why collaboration is so important, so time banks like Echo (Economy of Hours) can grow and replace the need for money in the way in which we use it today.

We need that knowledge that the old school system keeps, in order to maintain it’s power and control over us. We need to start sharing ideas and collaborating with others to improve those ideas in order to improve them and unlock that huge latent potential that exists among the 7 billion souls that inhabit this planet.

It’s time to stop all this small minded nations and petty party politics, we need to start thinking about the world as the human race, for many reasons, and we need to get people leading who are not shackled by the dogma of a political agenda that’s based on self-preservation.

Sharing is the only way that we can change the fact, that the 85 most wealthiest people have as much wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest. I defy anyone to give me a rational argument that’s right and good for the future of the human race.

Sharing and collaborating is the only way to get the message across, that once we reach a level whereby we have food, shelter, and enough ‘creature comforts’ in life that we don’t need to carry on hoarding and accumulating wealth and resources.

I am not suggesting that we all have to live in a shed eating worms, but we all know that we reach a level where adding more material things is an indulgence.

So the time has come to work with each other, help each, give and not do it just get money. Do it to help your community, to help others succeed and to collectively work to replace the old school OS that is now so riddled with bugs and viruses, that it is beyond repair.

I am not suggesting that we have Robin Hood style approach where we take from the rich and give to the poor. It is the responsibility of everyone of us to take ownership of this and do our bit the bring about change. We can bring about that change by collaborating and sharing. This is the way to bypass the old system and create new communities that are not driven by profit and endless accumulation resources for a very, very select few.

Essentially we need to collaborate or die.

Education – it’s a 21st Century fail

Posted on by philipdodson

Education – It’s a 21st Century fail

old school

20% of the jobs today didn’t exist 5 years ago, self-employment is on a global hockey stick growth curve, we’re living through the biggest revolution since the industrial one – a digital revolution.

We’ve moved from an industrial age into a digital ideas economy, there is a rising collaborative sharing economy and there is the ever growing and more powerful connected generation. We have an increasing number of social enterprises and people are looking at life very differently.

People are turning their backs on the old world capitalist model, turning their backs on consumption, turning away from the world order of yesterday.

However, how are we preparing the next generations for this new world, how are we equipping the children of today to face this new age?

By largely serving them up the same old out-dated stuff that has been served up for decades. Education in the developed world is largely failing to prepare our young for the world they will be facing.

Giant state run education factories, preparing children to jump through meaningless government imposed hoops, in a typical party political lead box ticking exercise. That will all be undone and changed in a few years time when the other lot take over the reigns of power.

Then you have private independent schools perpetuating the privileged class as they desperately cling on to a Victoriana Imperial world of times gone by.

The net result is the connected generation of today’s youth are bored, disenfranchised and are being sold woefully short of a proper preparation for their lives ahead. In fact not just the millenials, but I would say anyone who has been educated from 1970 onwards.

We need to move towards smaller community based local schools, we need to start properly bringing the digital revolution in to education.

Prepare them for being self-employed, after all 50% of the working population within 10 years will be. Prepare them to embraace social media and the internet, not try to scare them away from it. They are all using it anyway.

Bring coding in to education, teach them how to set up a company, run one, show them about opening a bank account, pensions, real life things.

Stop filling their heads with a chronological historical route march through time, stop teaching things they can look up on the internet.

Allow them to be truly creative, don’t teach them all the same, work out what they are good at and love doing and then help them to succeed in that.

This is not some utopian fluffy pipe dream – just need to stop party politics and open our minds that doing the same old, same old, will get the same poor results. Use imagination and harness children’s lack of fear and imaginations to create truly amazing things.

Bring in meditation, yoga, wellbeing and other proven things. Bring in partnerships with local businesses and other elements of the community.

Teach them all first aid for example, not by a teacher in a stuffy classroom, but get them to work with St John’s ambulance. FT (food technology), why not take them to a real live restaurant or a bakery to learn from experts.

Half of what they are taught is generic, out dated and to be honest they will never ever use.

Everyone needs a bank account, most will fill in a tax return, have a pension, may run a company, the list of real life practical things to teach is endless, yet none are taught.

Stop failing our society with old out dated rubbish and start teaching them what they need and start allowing them the true freedom to be creative.

I have recently been working with many young students and from all over the world – the theme is common with all, they are not being equipped for the world we live in and the world that is evolving.

Many are doing business degrees, yet they are not being shown or taught the most basic things about business or about being an entrepreneur.

So what to do? we all need to campaign for a change in the system and encourage others to do so. We need to get more integration between business people, community leaders and education.

We need to remove party politics from education and most other aspects to be honest. We need to help young people and give our knowledge and experience to them as business people, get involved in mentoring and coaching.

Things have to change.