KAOSPILOT MONTHLY #3 1/2007
Content # Application 2007 # Outpost 2007 # 25 recommendations # The final recognition
Happy New Year and welcome back to KaosPilot Monthly. Time to look forward and room to revive 25 recommendations
WHAT’S NEXT: APPLICATION 2007
KAOSPILOT MONTHLY #3 1/2007
Wanna be a KaosPilot? The KaosPilots are looking for 35 new students to form Team 14 (20072010). – Every year we expect an enormous demand for places, and so we have to look closely at who we enroll as students and staff. A critical element of this is what we call the ‘entrepreneurial profile’ of a person. Here’s what we’re looking for: • • • • • • • • • • •
you are not afraid of making mistakes – because you learn from them you are curious and creative you have an inner kick-starter you want to create projects/processes or your own business you want to make a difference you are motivated to learn together with others you’re an excellent story-teller you have a good and focused self-discipline you have a fighter-spirit you have project-work experience – or similar you are more than 21 years old
Does this sound like you or someone you know? Find and download the application form at www.kaospilot.dk. – and send your application to the KaosPilots, Mejlgade 35, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark before March 15 2007.
KAOSPILOT MONTHLY #3 1/2007
Going to Vancouver along with Team 12
Outpost 2007 Sustainability and First Nation culture in Vancouver On the second year of the KaosPilot education the school moves the classroom to a place outside Scandinavia to create an educational outpost. The location for the outpost is chosen based on the emerging global trends with the intention of finding a place that is living a period of significant change in politics, culture, economy or technology. The outpost gives the students a playground with new trends, new markets, new friends, new cultures, new ideas and new techniques. It functions as a professional and cultural receiver and transmitter for the education allowing the students to receive new inspiration, knowledge and experiences and transmit it back to the local community and the organization of the KaosPilots. Having pointed out sustainability as the core purpose of the outpost, this year the trip goes to Vancouver. Vancouver has been chosen because the city is at the forefront of sustainable urban development and because First Nation culture and ideas are finding their way into the shaping of a new paradigm for leadership thinking in sustainable societies. Vancouver, or more generally British Columbia, is a place of immense beauty and a troubling amount of insecurity, political divisions and other challenges. None of which are insurmountable. There is in British Colombia right now, a cultural readiness to acknowledge, accept and embrace that much of current practice in many realms of systems operation is simply unsustainable. Sustainability has been chosen according to the new core education being sustainability, social innovation, and cultural diversity. The outpost in Vancouver gives the KaosPilots a position to develop these core areas using new concepts of information, gathering and sharing, using newmedia to reach a greater audience than our own community. So, if you like, Team 12 are really the new initiators and experimenters of the new look of KaosPilot curriculum. By working, learning and discovering with new businesses in these fields we can guarantee that our curriculum does not grow static. It can evolve, follow and influence changing trends in business design and provide opportunities for Kaospilots to work within the Forth Sector and the creation of innovations that benefit the development of a sustainable society.
This is the summary of an interview with team leader Simon Kavanagh. Read the whole interview at www.kaospilot.dk. You can follow the outpost at www.kaospilot.dk or contact Simon Kavanagh, simonk@kaospilot.dk, for more information.
KAOSPILOT MONTHLY #3 1/2007
25 RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE WORLD At the entrance of 2007 we felt it's time to revive the KaosPilot's 25 recommendations to the world to promote creativity and to make people work better. The recommendations were given at the KaosPilot inspiration conference: Don’t Forget The Future in Copenhagen 2005.
Embrace chaos Chaos is the traditional organisations’ word for the form of order that they don’t understand – yet. Be lustful Your lust leads your will. Without lust, nothing happens. Search blindly If you always know what you’re looking for, you’ll never be surprised. Sit less You can’t leap from a sitting position. When you move your body, you also move your thoughts. Wipe out habits If you do what you always do, you’ll just get more of what you already have. As Einstein said, “We can’t solve a problem with the same thoughts as those with which the problem was made.“ Give the best away Share with everyone and they’ll come back for more. And they’re sure to bring you something too. Drop plans Plan less – allow for free space. Only where there isn’t anything can something new occur. Be good to others In others’ eyes you always belong to “the others“. Beware those who are perfect They are extremely careful and afraid of mistakes. Change does not happen without the courage to make mistakes. Many inventions are the result of mistakes. Be greedy The world is boundless, Its variations infinite, And human resources inexhaustible. Be playful Be as playful as a child and as disciplined as a soldier. Be disciplined If you want to change something you have to insist and be persevering. New ideas are like children: It’s easy to make them, and after that they have to be raised with love and allowed to develop over many years. Ask anyone After asking the professor, ask the kid on the street. Ask those you don’t expect understand you. All answers are descriptions of the world and contain a truth.
KAOSPILOT MONTHLY #3 1/2007
Flip graphs Graphs show in what direction the world is going. If the good is going down and the bad up, the graphs should be flipped. Graphs are statistics. Who makes up statistics? We do! The graphs describe us. Therefore it is us who determine them. Look up from your computer It’s indispensable, but it’s not creative. Exploit each other Together we make up all that the world can do. Whatever is left unused is waste. Who wants to go to waste? Ask questions Swing your sword! Questions are a weapon. Sharp questions are sharp weapons. A piercing question can cut through cracks and knock down a warrior in thick armour. Questions also have an inherent energy that seeks answers. Ask stupid questions Children can – but we lose the ability if we’re not careful. Drop your weaknesses Your strengths are all that can cause change in the world. Weaknesses should be avoided. Find someone who is good at it. In the business world it’s called outsourcing. Do what you’re best at doing! Take more risks If you never take a risk, you get left behind. Beware of political correctness There’s a difference between acting correctly and not daring to act at all. “Danish residents of other ethnic origin“ – Does anyone really want to be called that? Defer critique Then you allow something interesting to happen before closing the door. Don’t be sure you can figure it out You know where you start a process but not where you’ll end it. Otherwise there would be no purpose in starting it. Slow down Then your brain will have time to think and your heart to feel. As the Buddhists say, “We are very busy so we have to proceed slowly.” Think in fairy tales Believe in happy endings.
The final recognition What does Chicken to Night and a duet with Elton John and George Michael have in common with the KaosPilots? ...They are all in the 90’s edition of Trivial Pursuit! Out of the blue and over a game of the world’s favourite trivia game, a friend of the house realised this when he was put the question:
What’s the name of the cultural project makers who in 1991 started their own education with Uffe Elbaek as principal? Having found its way into the Danish 90’s edition of Trivial Pursuit, we believe the KaosPilots have achieved the final recognition of the general Danish publicity….;-)
Still on sale ;-) Kaospilot A-Z 2. Order the book at books@kaospilot.dk or call us at +45 8612 9522. Of course, you’re also more than welcome to drop by the school in Mejlgade 35, Aarhus, Denmark, to buy the book. The new KaosPilot A-Z book
KAOSPILOT INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF NEW BUSINESS DESIGN & SOCIAL INNOVATION MEJLGADE 35 · 8000 AARHUS C · DENMARK TEL. +45 8612 9522 · WWW.KAOSPILOT.DK