YOUR Big Ideas

[Zak Schwarzman]

Dear Inspired, Creative, Doers Of The World,

FutureShifters wants your ideas. Wait! Hear us out. Think about it til you're done reading this post and if you think of a business, nonprofit, development or social change idea that you think might make the world a better place (even if it sounds ridiculous or ridiculously small), post it in the comments section for someone to pick up and run with.

A couple months ago, Seth Godin blogged about a project he gave students in his 6 month MBA course. All 9 students were tasked with coming up with 111 business ideas each, to demonstrate Godin's contention that ideas are worthless and execution is priceless. To underline this point, all 999 ideas were published free to the world, free for anyone to pick up and execute. You can check them out at http://www.sixmonthmba.com/2009/02/999ideas.html .

We have huge numbers of young, talented and eager people out there and so many powerful ideas that people are too busy to develop or are otherwise unable to pursue. In a small effort to open source this mutha and open up the idea marketplace we want to replicate Seth's 999 free ideas project with a social change twist. In partnership with the social change organization AllDayBuffet (www.alldaybuffet.org), we're compiling a list of ideas here for social businesses, innovative nonprofits and unique development initiatives.

Here's How It Works: Post a comment below with a 1-5 sentence description of your idea(s) that might help shove the world in the right direction. It can be for profit, nonprofit, big, small, tongue in cheek or dead serious. Maybe it's been eating at you for a while or maybe you just thought of it this second (or you will by the time you finish this post), either way, share it with the world! If we get enough responses we'll summarize them and AllDayBuffet will publish the list.

Don't have the details worked out? Don't think it would work in the real world? Wouldn't have that big an impact? Not sure people would go for it? Think someone somewhere is probably already doing it? Post it anyway!! Who knows, maybe someone will read it and run with it. Maybe they'll take it in a direction you never even thought of. Maybe your idea, that you were never gonna do anything with anyway, will inspire someone to pursue their own world changing idea. You never know.

This post's almost over, have you thought of an idea to share? Write a comment below and share it now! If we get enough

Thank you all, we can't wait to read what you come up with. Please pass this to all your friends and let the idea sharing begin!


Zak

[Brooke]

Hi Zak,

Great Idea! What a fun way to spend my morning. It's a fantastic idea and I think a really great exercise for all of us. We can 1) see what other people are presenting 2) connect with other creative people through your network 3) have the opportunity to play off of each others ideas and 4) have the opportunity to comment and provide feedback on the ideas.


So here's mine:

1) Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, RE-SELL: A magazine made up of all recycled materials that shows you hot to turn your junk into something valuable that can be sold somewhere.

2) Art Junkie: a physical journal or art notebook made from all recycled materials. Not just the brown paper or whatever, but actual clippings from magazines or ads or prints or anything else with designs and sketches and color and patterns and words. A collage like recycling project that not only provokes inspiration, but also provokes extreme creativity. There is nothing more intimidating than a black bound leather crisp white paper sketch book. :)

3) Heroes on Bikes: Think Geek Squad, but for technical support for social ventures that need help.

4) Creative PR: We all know people who play music, sing, dance, juggle, play with fire, are yoga/gymnastics acrobatic freaks, are artists and wildly entertaining people. Instead of then doing their thing independently, or even busking on the street, why not bring them together to create a Creative Public Relations Troop. We could dispatch this army of creatives to raise awareness for events or causes or even fundraising.

5) X Share: I'm thinking like how Netflix works, but for other more useful things to people like us like books (particularly on Social Business or other adventure with a purpose focused work), lectures (from conferences, classes, speaking events and so on), magazines (NEED, SEED, GOOD, and other relevant publications), and other types of information that us creatives would be able to use for entertainment and education and knowledge building and sharing.

5) Hybrid Tuk-Tuk USA: I have no idea if this one would be legal in the US, but bring these bad boys to the US of A!

6) Beyond the Book: Create a website where people can plan their traveling with an entirely eco-tourism focus. A place where people can find sustainable hotels, hostels, modes of transportation, tour companies, educational trips, projects and other like minded people who have the same values that they do. They can connect with other people like a social network style so they can communicate with other people all across the world who are trying to do sustainable traveling as well. They can exchange links, ideas and maybe even meet up for a drink if they are in the same location at the same time. Kind of like a green sustainable blend of a Wiki, a Facebook or Ning Platform, TripIt and I Wanna Go There.

7) Wasteless: Think Threadless, but with a focus on sustainable creativity. All the clothes can be organic cotton or made out of recycled bottles (like what Patagonia does) but have the designers be everyday people that create works of art or whatever to be printed on shirts, tote bags, dresses, etc. Part of the money from the sales could go to a "Cause Fund" that rotates every year or something.

8) CommunITy or maybe Focus Home: Community building is on it's way to being the new "it" thing. People are wanting to eat local, buy from people they know, lower their carbon footprint, and just get back to basics. This idea would be to develop an online platform where people can post a variety of information that is focused on their community. Community businesses, farmers, small time growers, artists, retailers, etc can all have access to a community wide platform promoting ways for the community to develop in a more sustainable way. There could be sections for Business (to advertise only if they are locally focuses and community based), Community Events (fairs, farmers markets, local car washes to raise money for girl scouts or whatever), Community Focus (everything from talking about local news or a community lost and found directory or other community wide focused issues), City Hall Discussions (like a small version of whitehouse.gov but with forums for people to discuss issues where the politicians can see and hear those discussions), Education Information Sharing (linked to local libraries or community newspapers or even videos of their student's presentations or performances), Groups (from gardening to carpooling to recipes sharing to babysitting), as well as an Application option, so people can develop their own as the needs become apparent. This model could be easily be scaled and replicated to thousands of other cities.

I really look forward to seeing what other people will post too!

[Ari]

Great ideas! Wow! You are a true visionary.

ari
changeyourlife.org

[Jeff Tkachuk]

The Agoge was a rigorous education and training regime undergone by male Spartan citizens. It involved separation from the family, cultivation of loyalty to one's group, loving mentorship, military training, hunting, dance and social preparation.

The need for such a rite of passage has not dissipated. The need for training in the art of being an excellent man and citizen has not dissipated. Yet modern society simply fails to cater to this innate psychological need, and instead leaves teenagers to discover their own rites of passage that often involve drugs, reckless stunts, street fights or other harmful tests of their courage. Moreover, our education system fails to infuse wisdom into our kids, opting instead to prepare them for standardized tests and, some may argue, entry into the world of work.

The basic premise of my “big idea” would be to create a summer camp of sorts that combines rigorous martial arts training with intensive intellectual cultivation in various philosophical, psychological and social disciplines.

Students would undergo verbal/intellectual sparring along with physical sparring in order to be exposed to and master fear. Students would be exposed to adrenaline and taught how to think through the chaos and utilize what is actually the most powerful chemical in the human body. The student would determine his level of fear exposure, and it would be our job to respect his current limitations and try to coach him through his fear. We would create a rite of passage in a safe, controlled environment, and induct him into the ranks of men after teaching him the facts of life and testing his courage.

Why fighting? There are many reasons, among them are the following:
1) Young boys have a lot of aggressive energy that needs to be purged, preferably in a controlled environment.
2) Having to spar with someone demands that you acquire respect for his will and keep your ego in check. Accidents will happen and everyone learns by necessity how to shake it off and touch gloves.
3) It builds confidence and physical health.
4) The idea would be to use kids’ natural fascination with violence to stimulate intellectual curiosity and really develop their characters. The topic of physical violence easily lends itself to exploration of moral theory, topics such as courage, pride, justice, and so forth.

The main focus would be to engage them to think about how best to live; essentially how to be a man. Most of the writing and research that they would do would be centered on the idea of hero worship and then reasoning about the various models that these heroes provide. The school would not indoctrinate or strongly push a certain view of life on these kids, nor would it facilitate any indoctrination through a “breaking of the will.” Instead, it will aim to foster the will, to cultivate the flame of passion and curiosity that makes life beautiful and valuable.

[Sean Wilson]

Jeff,


Great idea, and I've had thoughts about the issue as well, and the need for some sort of renewal/reconnecting with generational responsibility, wisdom, and values. I also have a concept about using combatives, although mine is more on the sporting side.

Recalling how much fun it was playing King of the Mound (as we called it where I grew up, though King of the Hill or King of the Mountain are variations) as a kid, where someone stood atop a mound or hill and others tried to knock them off. My concept was to scale it for team involvement, with the same goals of fostering courage, responsibility, athleticism, respect, and as a sort of network/sport for restoring an ethos of male social involvement in the lives of your men and providing a way for older men to pass along guidance and restore a place of respect and prominence that has somewhat been diminished in modern times.

The concept involves taking a huge playing field, perhaps the size of a football field, creating a large central "mountain" surrounded by a series of smaller "hills." Slopes would be easy to moderate, players would wear perhaps simple elbow and knee pads, and it would have a set of rules geared at promoting teamwork. Each mound would have to be captured first, then a set number of attackers would be allowed to attempt to take the summit. It would be physical and combative, but more a series of shoving matches than impact. Older men would be the "generals" or "commanders" and direct defense and assault, help devise strategy. It would have a rank/team structure.

Simply spending time training together as a team, participating in contests together, and acknowledging a sort of rank/responsibility structure would foster respect and give teens a way to interact with older men in a sporting environment. You could do much in the way of fostering a warrior mentality, physical fitness, teach base level martial arts foundation skills (I'm talking things such as balance, leverage, falls, conditioning, perhaps simple hand grappling), create teams or clubs and each would take on some local social obligation--such as cleanup projects, working a soup kitchen, helping a community garden, fund raising for some cause, whatever. You would also teach basic principles/thought such as strategy, social responsibility, and teach basic fitness related health/first aid--stretching, nutrition, injury prevention, basic treatment of minor injuries/first aid. (It matters where the warrior spirit/ethos is concerned because a society shows itself to be weak when those who have learned to kill have forgotten or are not taught that if you are to take life, you should know how to create life, heal and save).

It would be simple enough to create the playing fields, and different communities could design them differently, teams might travel for occasional regional tournaments and try different ones out. The major obstacle would likely be insurance/liability issues.

I just know there are a lot of men in their 50's and later that would relish the chance to have an impact on young men's lives, and to be involved for health and sporting reasons. And, obviously, we're not talking about knocking gray-beards off the top of a mound (though you would knock their personal guard of 2-4 off), rather, when they are all that is left, the mountain has been captured.

Anyway, I love your idea. I know there's a lot of others out there thinking along the same lines, I've come across guys expressing thoughts on the same set of issues.

[Kathryn Lee]

Hi Jeff and Sean,
As my son was moving toward middle school age, I found myself thinking about this a lot - how to prepare him to live ethically and well, have courage and heart - all the best qualities of being a man. I was trying to create some sort of rite of passage group for him, with men I admired who could be his advisors, when I discovered The Stepping Stones Project. He joined it when he was in 7th grade and had such a compelling experience with the 4 friends and two leaders of his group that 6 years later they are all still together! In a couple of weeks they will be off to the high Sierras for a vision quest, fasting for 3 days and doing some inner work - before coming back together to make sense of it all. I agree that these rituals were there for a purpose and that many of the actions young boys get involved with now are a substitue for that felt need - they are creating their own rites of passage when they do something daring like stealing a car or whatever it might be. So while The Stepping Stones Project http://www.steppingstonesproject.org/ is not exactly what you describe, it shares many elements of that deep exploration, guidance to becoming a man and creating one's own thoughtful code of ethics. It has been incredibly valuable and powerful for our sons.
~Kathryn

[Brooke]

Thank you so much for the link Kathryn! I think that it is so valuable to learn that parents are concerned about this as well. The fact that there are others that are actively looking to explore this topic deeper and that parents such as yourself are open to it really helps to understand the need. How did your son feel that it impacted his life? In which areas in particular? How do you as a parent see the influence of the program?

Again, thanks for jumping in to the conversation!

[Paul McDonald]

I love that summer camp idea Jeff, that's quite inspired.

My idea may well already exist: Google-Ads with a social twist: An online advertising engine similar to Google Ads which focuses on advertising social businesses and products but with user-driven ratings and comments features to help separate the genuine social products from the wolves in sheeps clothing. A good rating from the user community becomes an endorsement of a products social credentials and would be of interest to companies promoting genuine social products.

[Melissa Richer]

Zak, Awesome move with this idea-fest I can't wait to read everyone's ideas.

Here's the 411 on The Ayllu Initiative, the startup that keeps me going day and night:
Market-based solutions are emerging to solve the problems that keep 4 billion people in poverty worldwide. Known as social enterprises, these businesses offer products and services that make a difference in areas such as healthcare, clean water, renewable energy, and sustainable agriculture. I believe social enterprise is an emerging market that will steadily grow over the next 10-15 years. It could play a crucial role in employing and shouldering the 1 billion individuals due to arrive by 2050.

To grow, some social enterprises package and replicate their models with a strategy known as ‘microfranchising.’ While microfranchising has a lot of promise, to succeed it must have access to financial services. Currently microfinance institutions (MFIs), which bank to the poor, have not extended their services to social enterprise in a large-scale way. Social enterprises are scattered around the globe, so there are not enough of them for MFIs to systematically extend services. A recent report by the leading social venture firm, Acumen Fund, states, “there is clearly an opportunity for an organization with broad MFI relationships to solve this gap… by working with (or representing) multiple MFIs. This entity could offer a wide choice of microfranchising opportunities within a particular community. …MFIs could promote multiple microfranchising options and even offer loans specifically targeted for microfranchises.”

Ayllu's Purpose:
An opportunity exists to aggregate proven market-based solutions to poverty that can be microfranchised, and enable MFIs and nonprofits to nurture these small businesses in their communities. This would scale proven solutions and multiply their impact on poverty, while creating new jobs and new wealth. We are particularly interested in targeting young adults (age 20-35) as business owners because we believe they can most effectively integrate social enterprise into their economies. Youth will see social enterprise arise as a powerful market force over the course of their careers; they must be prepared to advance this emerging market in order for it to take hold.

Ayllu is launching a year of market research in Brazil to explore this idea by assessing demand, cultivating relationships, and developing expertise in the issue/constituency. Please participate in the process through comments and follow us at aylluinitiative.wordpress.com or twitter @melissaricher/@ayllu.

[Paul Kessler]

- A multi-purpose bathroom cleaning/ repair product - the toilet brush and plunger combo with pump action soap dispensing
- Office space for the entrepreneur - small businesses can rent shared office space on a daily/ weekly/ monthly basis in class a or class b buildings, in major cities that come fully outfitted
- Hotel rooms that offer guests a base rate and the guest can add all services and amenities for an additional fee (i.e. daily housekeeping, soap, shampoo, bottled water, turndown service would be bought during a stay)

[Melissa Richer]

Hey Paul,

I think this office space idea is fantastic. It brings to mind a really awesome space in Washington DC called Affinity Lab, which offers different kinds of options from conference room space to printing/copying to part or full-time renting. It's constantly humming and is a great place to learn. I spent a a couple hours there in March observing other entrepreneurs and learned a lot just by listening to them. Affinity Lab is thinking of going national and even global...pretty exciting!

[patrick o'heffernan]

There is one in San Francisco called HubSF that does this.

[Anne Illana]

Hi Melissa,

Check out this blog post I did a little while back that highlights some of these collaborative spaces.