Hello friends,
it’s been a while since I’ve sat down to write! With temperatures rising in the last weeks I spent more of my free time outside. Besides, the weekly publishing schedule didn’t feel particularly natural to me. So for now I will write when I have something to share.
This issue is called tiny impact because yesterday was a day to raise public awareness of small business. I’m a big fan of small endeavours, creative ideas and letting go of maximising everything. There’s lots to do and lots of conventions to let go off.
3 Ideas to tinker with:
Creating Shared Value: A way of delivering business to the benefit of all. Businesses are often stuck in a vague “social responsibility” mindset in which societal issues are the outer periphery, not the core. The authors say we can do better and move beyond by including social and environmental considerations to the core of activities.
Surviving the 21st Century: “Humanity is in the early stages of the most significant evolution in its history: learning to think as a species.” That is when individuals see beyond the nation state, and beyond the lifespan of the currently living generations. Global thought is opening the way to solve some of humanity's greatest threats and to move from vanity and individuality to humility and connectedness.
15 Toasts: A series of small dinners on big matters. The dinners give 15 guests the permission to be vulnerable, engage as human beings in an open and genuine conversation, and surprise one another and themselves. The dinners raise awareness of issues that might be too big and elusive to be captured by formal agendas but deserve deep reflection and meaningful exchange.
Many small people who in many small places do many small things can alter the face of the world. - Small segment of the Berlin wall
A Snapshot
We just wrapped up the summer cohort of the Facilitator Masterclass! It’s been some dense days shaping the course content, recording videos and finding exercises to apply the learnings. This funny snapshot captured a very rewarding moment at the end of the cohort:
In the feedback form someone noted: “You both are hugely engaging and your energy makes it very easy to be on a journey with you. Thank you for this opportunity to learn from you both.”
Words like these warm our heart and let me think about impact in a different way. We can never know how far our ideas travel.
Gardening Day!
During the last year I found myself becoming more and more interested in growing food. In Utrecht there is a growing movement towards more local products appearing in restaurants and shops, citizens are farming in municipal parks and food collectives are being organised.
A while ago we stumbled across this urban agriculture project in Utrecht at Koningshof. Every Saturday they open up for volunteers from around town to help plant, clean and harvest food for the community around. I was lucky to bring home some beautifully imperfect veggies as you see and this handsome walnut-raisin bread.
This was it for today, as you might notice I’m experimenting a bit with the format of this tiny email. My personal goal is to inject more personality and share broadly from whats on my plate. Thanks for reading along, have a good start into the week!
René