Friday 28 August 2009

World Vision and Water

I am a proud supporter of World Vision’s work. In their latest supporter magazine that focuses on saving and making clean water available to all, there are several great examples of how easy it is to make a difference.

Stratco’s Water for the World project raises funds for World Vision throught an ebay style auction.

Jetstar and World Vision created Star Kids to help change the lives of some of the world’s poorest communities. 100% of donations given by customers go to World Vision.

Very small gifts to World Vision make a big difference. Just $50 for example could provide jerry cans to 8 families to help them collect water; a $100 can help protect the health of eight entire families through the distribution of hygiene kits.

Do you support organisations of stature like World Vision?

What small actions are you taking that make a big difference?

Be remarkable
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Writer and International Business Speaker on how doing good is great for business

Please take up the Make a Difference Challenge before 090909 

Thursday 27 August 2009

Business in the community - Timberland

A great example of a company who really gets involved at the grass roots level in the communities in which they operate is Timberland the outdoor apparel and shoemaker.

Timberland's candor endears them to many people and is a key reason for their success. Please read a great story by Fast Company blogger Christine Arena here. Timberland are a great example of how to grow a business that is for people, our planet, and for profit.

Be remarkable
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Writer and International Business Speaker on how doing good is great for business

Please take up the Make a Difference Challenge before 090909 

Monday 24 August 2009

Gihan Perera - guru to thought leaders

Gihan Perera has been my webmaster since I first established my presence on the web. He has saved and made me thousands of dollars through his insights and advice.

Gihan is passionate about helping thought leaders get more from the ideas in your head, the words that come out of your mouth, and the amazing potential at your fingertips.

If you want to better leverage your expertise, individually and in groups, on and off the Internet. If you want to deliver your ideas to more people for more impact, Gihan can show you how.

Gihan is obsessed with higher standards - in the areas of better thinking, greater influence and getting things done. He works in three key areas:

- As the CEO of an Internet technology company First Step, he shows speakers, trainers, coaches, consultants and thought leaders how to find, develop and leverage their expertise and influence on and off the Internet.

- As a consultant, he understands the impact of technology in our rapidly-changing world, and translates it into practical, meaningful strategies for business owners and entrepreneurs.

- As a prolific author of books, e-books, audio programs, on-line courses, webinars and other resources, he leverages his expertise to show business owners how they can leverage their uniqueness to make a difference.

Find out what Gihan is doing at www.GihanPerera.com and what he's thinking at www.GihanPerera.info

Gihan is an accredited mentor for business members of Differencemakers Community.

Be remarkable
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Writer and International Business Speaker on how doing good is great for business

Please take up the Make a Difference Challenge before 090909 

Monday 17 August 2009

Innovation must mean changing what’s normal

Innovation is the successful implementation of a idea. Why innovate? My simple answer is, to change what’s normal.

Right now in our world it is normal that:

*people die from preventable disease, under-nutrition and over-nutrition, every day
*not everyone has clean water
*at least 600 million people haven’t yet learned to read and write
*governments are slow to act and we all suffer as a result
*fundamentalism, both religious and otherwise, persists as a basic abuse of human rights
*climate change is killing our planet and us, and yet we still mainly sit our hands and allow our politicians to engage in petty, point scoring debates
*more than 2 billion people are expected to live on less than a dollar a day
*starving people don’t receive the food they so desperately need because of terrorism
*biodiversity loss is so great many of the world’s inhabitants are disappearing overnight
*economic instability and the lack of corporate accountability mean many people are suffering through no fault of their own
*electronic waste is a massive problem most people turn a blind eye to
*the social divide is getting bigger
*redefining growth has long been our agenda and yet we persist with old, worn out, and broken ways to develop
*peace is still a pipe-dream for half the world’s people
*democracy as we know it fails most people and yet we persist with the model
*opportunity for every person, a basic human right, is not possible for most the world’s people

The above are our world’s big challenges in my view. I find each of them unacceptable.

On perhaps a more personal level it is normal that:

*Most organisations provide mediocre service
*Lying, cheating, and bribery are accepted ways of doing business
*The majority of organisations have less than 50% of their employees fully engaged in their work
*Many so called great companies aren’t
*Fake leaders rule
*Most abuse comes from people in our families
*Most of what we really feel remains unsaid because we are afraid of what other people might think if we actually expressed how we feel

I could go on and on. Yet I won’t because I would get depressed. You might be already.

Who we are and what we do makes a difference, whoever we are and whatever we do.

I plead with you today to become more of who you are capable of becoming, and to do more to solve our problems and challenges, to change what is normal, because to do so is real innovation.

My 3 steps for innovation are detailed here.

Be remarkable
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Writer and International Business Speaker on how doing good is great for business

Please take up the Make a Difference Challenge before 090909 

Thursday 13 August 2009

Make a difference - take the differencemakers challenge 1

Here is a simple yet profound way to make a difference. Please watch the movie and take action.
Everyone can do this.



Be remarkable
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Writer and International Business Speaker on how doing good is great for business

Sunday 9 August 2009

There are rarely rewards without first taking risks

I have often wondered why many politicians who were very successful prior to entering politics, become but mere shadows of themselves inside politics.

One of my answers to this is that they stop taking risks for fear of losing their seats!

Compromise is the result. Compromise rarely achieves anything great. Politics where there is the Government, an Opposition, and a few Independents and minor parties, like in Australia, fails to understand that success in the 21st century is about collaboration not compromise.

Co-promises rather than compromise work. And they are the result of collaboration. Effective collaboration requires risk.

Right now the world is stalled on economics, climate change, and a host of other issues where change is urgent, because we lack risk takers and are being lead by compromisers.

To get to the point of achieving a co-promise with others we must lead by example. We must take risks. We must risk having our view challenged, risk being seen as out of touch, and even clueless. We must risk being ridiculed, berated, and even abused. We must risk losing in the short term.

Risk takers know what they stand for and stand. They accept what others say as a view and don’t take anything someone else says that may seem derogatory, personally.

Risk takers know that we are responsible for our own intentions, feelings, thoughts, and actions. We are not responsible for other people’s intentions, feelings, thoughts, and actions, and, we are only affected by them when we choose to be.

Risk takers know that short term pain often leads to long term gain, for all.

As I have written about elsewhere, we live in three worlds. The world in here (my view), the world out there (your view) and the world we share (our view). In the scheme of things only the world we share really matters because from shared view comes a co-promise to stand together and take action for the common good.

Risk takers are innovators more than problem solvers. When we solve problems almost always that means a return to what is normal or the status quo. When we innovate on the other hand, we change what is normal.

Are you are risk taker?

One sign that you are, or are not, is whether or not you are “doing what you love in the service of people who love what you do”, a wonderful phrase from Steven Farber the author of a great book about leadership The Radical Leap.

Other signs you are a risk taker. Your willingness to:

*speak out against injustice
*go against the flow when you see a possible better way forward for all
*speak up even when no one else does
*say what you mean and mean what you say even when it is uncomfortable
*put your insights and ideas forward not worrying about how they will be received
*work hard on relationships (which also require risk) knowing that outcomes are a consequence of processes

Be remarkable
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Writer and International Business Speaker on how doing good is great for business

“A life lived in fear is a life half lived.” From the film Strictly Ballroom.

Sunday 2 August 2009

Coincidence often leads to clarity - introducing B1G1

Keith Abraham CSP is an Australian Professional Speaker I admire greatly. Recently I went to his website to get his phone number (my phone died with all the numbers on the phone not the sim card!) While visiting Keith’s site I noticed his support of B1G1 and asked him about it. I then had email conversations with Paul Dunn the Chairman of B1G1. Long story short, Carol (my wife) and I decided our search for an easy way to give via Differencemakers Community was over and we joined B1G1. On the same day Carol and I decided this was our direction I received an email from Richard, a Torchbearer member of Differencemakers Community in Scotland, recommending B1G1! Coincidence often leads to clarity!

From 1st of August a percentage of all Torchbearer membership fees will go to B1G1. The result is two families are fed for a day in Africa/Kenya through World Youth International and we help further the work of Room to Read who believe that “world change starts with educated children- and that education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty.”

About Buy1GIVE1

Buy1GIVE1™ or B1G1™ matches businesses with charitable causes right around the world so that every business transaction makes a difference somehow, somewhere, every second, every day. But it doesn't just 'match' businesses with worthy causes; it does it at a level never seen before by matching every transaction in some way to a specific outcome. And it does more than that too. Its adds a powerful branding and marketing 'engine' that actually builds business. And that simply means that businesses can give even more to make a difference.

“We’re not here to give in order ‘to get’. We’re here to have more to give more.” - Masami Sato, Founder of Buy1GIVE1

Find out more about free membership of Differencemakers Community here and about Torchbearer membership here.

Be remarkable
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Writer and International Business Speaker on how doing good is great for business