Intro
Communication skills are all about changing something and the main goal is to affect people. In the English word "interaction" the basic word is "action" but it does not show the real meaning of communication.
I need to be honest and say that my previous image of entrepreneurship was usual one – business entrepreneurship and that is it. Even though I had a lot of experience with social entrepreneurship before in my life, I did not thought about it like a way of entrepreneurship. Now I do. Even though it is really hard (actually almost impossible) to say one exact definition of social entrepreneurship because there are loads of definitions available (from broad to narrow one's), I agree to this definition of social entrepreneurship – innovative, social value creating activity that can occur within or across the non-profit, business, or government sectors (Austin et al. 2006). It was born because for-profits weren't addressing some market failures, like pollution, poverty, illiteracy, etc (Fast Company 2010).
If we compare social and business entrepreneurs by action and motivation, it is easy to see the basic differences between them. Social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society but business entrepreneurs change the face of business. Social entrepreneurs are mainly motivated to improve society but business entrepreneurs are mainly motivated by profits. Despite this difference, social entrepreneurs are just as innovative and change oriented as their business counterparts, searching for new and better ways to solve the problems that plague society (Skoll Foundation 2010).
Green entrepreneurship
Talking about green entrepreneurship – I was like a sponge and imbibed a lot of new things, facts and ideas about this topic. Now I know what is Cradle to Cradle – doing the right things (eco-effectiveness) not only doing things right (eco-efficiency). Eco-efficiency is doing more with less. Furthermore eco-effectiveness is where clients and suppliers regard themselves as partners, aiming the highest qualities (Mpengula 2010). Let us hope that we can gain this progress of quality with time.Three principles of the Cradle to Cradle paradigm:
- - Waste equals food (technical and biological cycle – upcycling not downcycling).
- - Use current solar income (renewable sources powered by the sun).
- - Celebrate diversity (bio, cultural, conceptual) (Mpengula 2010).
I totally adore the idea about waste equals food – to take, make, regenerate and again take, make, regenerate (Mpengula 2010). We are all talking about what a huge ecological footprint we are leaving to the earth but let us start to think like the Cradle to Cradle philosophy – let us leave a big beneficial footprint (Mpengula 2010)!
Extraction or natural resources exploitation is actually trashing the planet. We are running out of resources. In the last three decades 1/3 of the natural resources has consumed and gone. For example, in the USA – forests have left only 4% of the original forests; 40% of the waterways are undrinkable; USA is only 5% of the population in the world but it is using 30% of the world resources, creating 30% of the worlds waste. If everybody would use the resources as in the USA, we would need 3-5 planets but we only got one (The Story of Stuff Project 2010)!
In the production it is used more than 100 000 synthetic chemicals where most of them are not proved what impact do they leave to health (The Story of Stuff Project 2010). In the distribution we are not paying for the stuff we buy. Those people who lose their natural resources, those people with the loss of the clean air with increasing asthma and cancer rates, etc. actually are paying for our stuff. Companies have externalized the true costs of the production (The Story of Stuff Project 2010).
Consumption – the heart of the system or the engine that drives it. USA has become a nation of consumers. An average person consumes twice as 50 years ago. Two main activities what people do in USA – watch TV and shop. There are 3 000 advertisements a day in the USA. Americans see advertisements in a year more than a people in their lifetime 50 years ago. Americans shop 3-4 times more than in Europe. They have more stuff but less time for the things that really makes them happy – friends, family, leisure time (The Story of Stuff Project 2010).
Disposal – a remarkable number of 4,5 lbs a day of trash are made each day in the USA by one person – twice that was made 30 years ago. Disposal pollutes air, land, water and it all changes the climate. Recycling is good but it is not enough (The Story of Stuff Project 2010). What are the solutions to all of this? We need to promote a new system that should be based on sustainability and equity. Things like green chemistry, zero waste, closed loop production, renewable energy, local living economies. People created the old system and we are also people – so let us create something new (The Story of Stuff Project 2010).
Communication
I loved the speech by Reider Wasenius. Obviously he is an expert in his field. That is way I found out some new things about communication. Communication skills are all about changing something and the main goal is to affect people. In the English word "interaction" the basic word is "action" but it does not show the real meaning of communication. The Finish word "voorovaikutus" does show it because "vaikutus" means affecting.Another important thing is power with that you can give pleasure or pain. If you have power, you are tried to be imitated – like in the gangs or musicians, like Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson
The chain how to work in groups (brainstorming -> combining -> criticism) was not new for me because usually in international projects this system is used regularly. What I will take into consideration is that criticism is not a sign of intelligence and that professionalism is a certain type of person at certain time. I found out that organized person is in high demand so I will continue to be such a person (Wasenius 2010).
Lastly, here are some facts, cognitions, quotations, etc. that I have learned during NBE intensive week:
- Are there too many people?
If the biomass of ants is approximately four times greater than that of all of the land vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians) combined (Mpengula 2010). - "The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation" - quotation by Albert Einstein (Mpengula 2010).
- Cost of poor indoor air quality is that nowadays over 40% of the children have allergies but several decades ago only 2-3% did and every third person in the western world has allergy problems (Mpengula 2010).
- We lose 4000-6000 times more topsoil than we rebuild (Mpengula 2010).
- "Journey is what brings us happiness, not the destination…" (quotation by Oskars Aizups).
Presentation
We are all talking about what a huge ecological footprint we are leaving to the earth but let us start to think like the Cradle to Cradle philosophy – let us leave a big beneficial footprint.
Actually these are only few of the one's that I have in my mind. There are more of them, for example, I found out that Copenhagen has the idea by marking out the word "OPEN" in "cOPENhagen". That is a fantastic idea how to popularise a city. For me as an emerging tourism specialist is a good example how to promote a place. I loved the idea from our group assignment – Green Frog Kindergarten. I hope that one day I can realise it together with at least some of the members from my group.
Conclusion
Concluding all these reflections, I want to say a huge thanks to organizers for the knowledge they gave to me. Just in case – if you want to improve the interactive methods that would help you to get the international group members more closer between each other faster, let me know – I think I could help you next time with this part of the project by organisation the whole event. I have experience in this field that could be useful for you.
Good luck in further projects. Bear in mind one of my life mottos: "Better take the risk and regret than not to risk and anyway – regret it!" (Niccolo Machiavelli)Sandris Krūmiņš, Latvia.
