Good Works - Servant of Chaos

Meet the HuffPost Hopenhagen Ambassador

In the leadup to Copenhagen, The Huffington Post has been running a competition to find a citizen journalist to represent the growing worldwide community of people hoping for a global climate agreement known as Hopenhagen. At first only a trickle of submissions came through, but as the deadline approached, bloggers, activists and concerned citizens reached for their webcams and video recorders to stake their claim as the Hopenhagen Ambassador.

Each person was given 60 seconds to put forward their credentials. Voting for each person was then opened – with those receiving the most community votes making a final Top 10. The top 10 was then judged by a worldwide panel (of which I took part) according to originality, creativity and environmental knowledge.

Today, with the conference underway, David Kroodsma has been announced as the winner. He will spend the next week meeting key figures in the climate change debate such as Al Gore and the Mayor of Copenhagen, carrying out interviews, writing blog posts and reporting back via the HuffPost Green site. David’s winning video entry is below.

And in case you missed the other entries, you can see them all here – and you can also see the local entry from Cathie McGinn below. If you have not as yet signed up for Hopenhagen, please consider doing so – for while the focus at present is on the politics, it is up to us all to push our governments to not just reach some form of global agreement, but to carry it through.

Climate Change? It’s Child’s Play

Good Works

I have always been interested in action. If I see a problem, my mind automatically switches to potential solutions. I immediately begin to think through the steps needed to identify a way forward – how to position and frame the challenge, who to involve and how to build momentum. But maybe I am overthinking climate change – and the case for hope and need for action.

Perhaps the solutions to climate change are far more simple than we think. Dylan seems to agree.

Via Brand Republhttp://www.brandrepublic.com/Discipline/Digital/News/969735/Baby-Creative-seeks-simplify-climate-change-issues-YouTube-film/ic.

The Case for Hope and the Need for Action

Corporate Social Responsibility, Good Works

In a little over two weeks, the world’s leaders will be meeting in Copenhagen to discuss and hopefully agree on decisions to reduce carbon emissions. The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) is perhaps the last chance to achieve consensus on this contentious issue.

Why should you care?

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the carbon emissions for all countries must (not will) peak no later than 2015. These emissions then must reduce by 80% or more by 2050 if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Sounds bad, right? Sounds difficult, yes?

The thing is, we are being asked to make decisions – or rather – we are asking/pushing our leaders to make decisions on our behalf. But these decisions won’t just change our lives – they will have far reaching impacts on our children and grandchildren. How important are your children to you? What kind of world do you want to see them live in?

I don’t know about you, but one of the most joyous memories I have from childhood is running through a sprinkler with my brother on the hot days of summer. These simple, common activities bond us as families and communities – they signify where you grew up – where you belong. And I have a feeling that losing these things will profoundly affect the way that we see ourselves as a society.

Already, the world I live in looks vastly different to the one I grew up in – and the opportunities and experiences I had may simply not be available to future generations.

Is this a big deal for business?

One of the biggest challenges for business is not necessarily the costs involved with climate change – it is the uncertainty. As James Farrar points out, “Most business leaders already understand that CO2 emissions are a significant risk to the sustainability of their business but they lack the regulatory certainty and incentives necessary to begin to deal with the problem.” Once these frameworks and incentives are in place, business leaders will be able to focus on the programs of change, innovation and investment that will put them at the forefront of their industries.

What? You're a climate change skeptic?

I am not asking you to change your beliefs. I know all the facts in the world won’t change your position. I am just asking you what are you prepared to risk? What is the risk of inaction?

What can you do?

You can start by registering your petition with the Hopenhagen website – calling on global leaders to “seal the deal”. There are Facebook applications, blog posts, T-shirts and so on – all available from the Hopenhagen website.

Of course, there is more. There is always more that we can do. The important thing is to start.

One Wish – The Charter for Compassion

Good Works, Life

If you had a wish, what would it be? Would you direct it inwardly or towards others? Would it be personal or would it be communal? Would it be larger? Would your wish be transformative, transactional or fanciful? Could you name it, nail it down, write it on a sign? Is it something you could share or would it remain a personal secret? Would you wear your wish upon your sleeve or swallow it like a burning truth?

Karen Armstrong has a wish. The TED Prize winner’s wish is as follows:

I wish that you would help with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, crafted by a group of leading inspirational thinkers from the three Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and based on the fundamental principles of universal justice and respect.

From this one wish a movement has been spawned. Around the world, people from all cultures and religions are coming together to affirm The Charter for Compassion. The charter:

The Golden Rule requires that we use empathy — moral imagination — to put ourselves in others’ shoes. We should act toward them as we would want them to act toward us. We should refuse, under any circumstance, to carry out actions which would cause them harm.

For me, compassion is feeling, thought and action. It is something we feel, something we consider – but perhaps most importantly, it is something we must act upon. We don’t show compassion by clicking a button, joining a cause online or digitally signing a petition. We show it by moving out of our comfort zones, stepping beyond our deeply worn paths of apathy and acting in a way that transforms (even momentarily), the life of another.

November 12 sees the launch of the Charter for Compassion and along with the celebrations and events that will be taking place around the globe to mark the launch of the Charter, a number of Australians were asked what compassion means to them. These individuals shared their time and their thoughts on compassion. But you can do more. Visit the Charter for Compassion website (or Facebook page) to learn, share and act.

Oh, and you can view the Australian video below. In order of appearance, it features: Adriano Zumbo, Cathie McGinn, Dr Stephen Saunders, Neil Perry, Melissa Leong, Barry Saunders, Mitzi Macintosh, Mark Pollard, Julie Posetti, Venerable Sujato Bhikkhu, Gavin Heaton, Reverend Raymond Minniecon, Bronwen Clune, Reverend Bill Crews, Rabbi Mendel Castell, Graham Long and Tim Burrowes.

Australians on Compassion from TED Prize on Vimeo.

Don’t Let Malaria Slip Through the Net

Good Works

Malaria is a disease which infects between 350‐500 million people each year and kills more than one million. Most are young children living in Africa.

The thing is, insecticide treated bed nets have proven to be a cost effective way of impacting malaria, reducing child mortality in affected countries by 20% and illness by 50%. The nets protect children and their families from malaria mosquitoes – and each net only costs NZ$11.

UNICEF Undercover is aiming to raise $385,000 by the end of 2010. That will put 35,000 nets into the homes of those who would otherwise be at risk. Even one donation of $11 will make a difference. You can donate here.

On Generosity and Grace

Future of Your Brand, Good Works, Storytelling

I normally don't re-post articles that I write for the MarketingProfs Daily Fix, but I wanted to make sure that I shared this with you all. Generosity and grace is a topic that has been on my mind for some time – and something that goes, I think, to the heart of the transformation that we are seeing in consumer behaviour. It's also something that I touched on my post last night appealing to the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to address the crisis faced by Sydney's Wayside Chapel.

You see, social media – or what I am increasingly calling "participatory media" is not just about connecting. It's more active. It's more emotionally engaging than it appears from "the outside". It's COMPASSIONATE (more on this next week). It's about moving from emotion to thought to action within the blink of an eye, the click of a mouse and the shaking of a hand. It's why I think it is the future of your brand. I'd love to hear your thoughts on generosity and grace:

We are marked each day by the casual collisions that are the artefacts of our existence. There are phone calls, messages and the relative anonymity of online interactions. And in the search for connection, communion or community, we thoughtlessly mistake message for meaning, words for action and interaction for friendship. It’s a confusion of intention – and we are the poorer for it.

When I began writing my blog I did so with no expectation of return. Like a long-dead star, I felt that I was emitting the weakest of signals with no hope of a destination. The gravity of my expectations was as light as utterance, each word or post marked only by the steam of my breath.

But over time an unexpected, slow kind of success appeared in my orbit. Each comment felt like a gift, each email a revelation, and each face emerged from the ether to reveal some other – living, breathing, longing being.

Through words, through ideas and by sharing stories we began to find each other – you and I. And each time we brushed past one another we each revealed, perhaps inadvertently, some secret or grain of truth. And yet in losing some small essence, rather than being diminished ,we grew. We prospered. Not in the way of casual connection, but in more mysterious ways – for we were encountering ourselves by way of grace.

The paradox, of course, is that with every gift of self, with the free transmission of what-is-mine to what-now-is-yours, our gravity expands. Such reality requires new thinking on all our parts. After all, who among us has not looked with envy on the success of our peers? It’s as if the well-spring of success has only finite resources and each cup taken is a cup lost to us all.

But we are living now in a time and a space where both opportunity and results are being reconsidered. We are turning towards the hard face of generosity – where an act of grace is not just expected, but is a mandatory condition for a relationship to take root. We are mercenarily applying the judgement of our peers and their peers to the decisions that we make in business, as families and as individuals.

This does not mean that we are un-generous – quite the opposite. It means that your reputation precedes you. It means we act, not alone, but in cognitive unison. We’d like you to understand this. We’d like to help you make all our worlds better places. It starts by being generous. It starts with good grace.

Dear Kevin Rudd, Wayside Chapel Needs Your Help

Good Works

It seems everywhere that I look that I see a problem I would like to help solve, an issue I’d like to address or a challenge that I’d like to take up. But after pulling together The Perfect Gift for a Man in support of the Inspire Foundation, kicking off the Age of Conversation III (supporting Make a Wish) and #Movember – I wonder how much more I can take on. However, tonight via Paul McKeon and Leigh Sales, I learned about the desperate needs of Sydney’s Wayside Chapel. Wayside is a charity that has been in the consciousness of Sydneysiders for decades – caring for and supporting homeless people around Sydney since before I was born.

Wayside Chapel Need $2 million

As Graham Long explains:

We are in a spot of real bother with our building. We’ve already lost the use of both levels of our theatre. It is boarded up and we cannot enter it. It is condemned. We have now lost the use of the upper level of our main building because of fire risk. The third level of our main building is jammed in every corner with our staff and I have to find somewhere to put them. The lower levels of that building are full of staff and programme areas … Our programmes are successful and expanding just as our building is shrinking.

To address this, the Wayside Chapel need not just good will, but hard dollars – not one, not two but probably THREE million dollars. Graham believes that ONE THIRD of that could be raised – but has turned to Kevin Rudd and the Australian Federal Government for help with the other $2 million. But there is a catch:

Every Federal Minister seems to know about us and love us and believe in our work, but we don’t seem to fit anyone’s category for funding. Unless someone can judge us with a broader view, we might be sunk.

It’s Not About Money, It’s About Relationship

Clearly the Wayside Chapel has community support. They even have political support. But neither of these things are turning to action. The immediate problem is not financial – it is a problem of relationship. What needs to happen is for someone, someone close to the Prime Minister, to put Graham Long’s letter into the hands of Kevin Rudd.

Now, if I had Kevin Rudd’s phone number I’d give him a call. Unfortunately, I don’t. But you know what? One of you might. Or might know someone who does. If YOU do, please pass on this message. Send a link to someone who knows someone.

It will only take you a moment. And in that moment you will help Wayside Chapel continue to change the lives of all those others that we, personally, cannot.

Paul McEnany Mans Up for Movember

Good Works, Smart Bloggers

We all have a past – some of us choose to hide it, others feel compelled to share it. This episode of Judge Judy was obviously filmed well before Paul McEnany became a suave and sophisticated advertising executive. But some years ago, just after Pauly left his mountain home to study in the big bad city, he found himself embroiled in a legal fiasco. It was friend vs friend.

Now, of course, I am wondering whether Paul will be sporting some new facial hair – because, yes, it is Movember time again. And I am manning-up for Movember – shaving my face and then sculpting it into a furrier, more 70s version of myself – all in the name of charity.

Each year Movember aims to change the face of men’s health – raising awareness of, and funds for research for, depression and prostate cancer. You can help make sure that we never have to grow moustaches again – by supporting a “mo bro” with a donation. Although I can’t promise that Paul will refrain from resurrecting his hillbilly-style appearance.

Oh, and you can join our Movember team right here. Go on. You know you want to!

The Perfect Gift for a Man

Good Works

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the current suicide rate for men in Australia is more than three times the rate of women. But research shows that encouraging men (and young men in particular) to share their feelings and their experiences has a huge impact on their health and wellbeing.

It was with this in mind that back in July, fresh from our efforts around the Inspire Foundation’s #Manweek campaign, Mark Pollard and I decided to TRY to make a difference. Sure, there were some great blog posts written by men, for men – but how many people were we reaching? How many men in crisis were reading our blog posts? We needed to find another way.

Putting our heads together, we hit upon the idea of a self-published book. Blurb.com came to the rescue, providing an easy way for us to design, publish and distribute the book. But then – it was a matter of stories.

Putting the call out, we asked for other men to join us – sharing your thoughts on a blog is one thing – but committing them to print is quite another (plus we needed various disclaimers and so on) – so we didn’t know who would respond.

In the end, 30 writers heeded the call. The resulting book is a compilation of stories about reinventing manhood. It follows the life-arc of a man, from its beginnings through the trials and tribulations, challenges and jubilations that we all face.

The spirit of honesty that pervades the book will break your heart and allow it to be forged anew – for far from being a collection of stories of desperate lives, it is a grudging acknowledgement of the double-edged joy that life truly is.

As Scott Drummond writes:

If I’ve learned anything through all this it is that there aren’t any hard-and-fast rules for how to be a man in this crazy and unpredictable emotional tornado we call life. The only thing we can really be assured of is that life will continue to change for us all, regardless of how much we wish it wouldn’t. All I know is that how you grow and evolve as a man to meet the challenges that life will inevitably throw at you is what really counts. I’ve learned that no matter how alone or broken you feel there are men and women who care enough to be there for you, to help you feel less broken and alone.

It is in this spirit of connectedness that we are excited to now make this book, The Perfect Gift for a Man, available. Please buy it for the men in your life – regardless of whether you THINK they need it or not. Encourage them to read it and to share it with their mates, with their uncles, fathers and sons.

You can buy the printed book from Blurb.com or you can purchase the eBook version from The Perfect Gift for a Man website. ALL the profits from the book are being donated to The Inspire Foundation.

You can also find out more about the book and see our social media release here.

Last Minute Call to Men

Good Works

There are many impacts that we can have on the world – professionally, intellectually and emotionally – but for me, the most important impact we can have is on those that we love.

In mid-August, a new book will be published that documents, from a personal point of view, the stories of what it means to be a man. So far we have received some fantastic contributions – running the gamut from fatherhood to adolescent transition. There is sorrow and there is joy … and each and every story is riveting.

But right now, there is still a chance to have YOUR story included in the compilation. Quickly take a look at the Perfect Gift for a Man site, register your interest, download the template and get writing. And in case you want some encouragement – here is a cheer just for you!