Posts Tagged ‘leadership’

Graduation of Social Intrapreneur Fellows

Saturday, March 11th, 2017

The School for Social Entrepreneurs Ontario (SSE-O) in collaboration with the League of Intrapreneurs Canada (of which we are proudly a co-founder) co-designed the Social  Intrapreneurs Fellowship to provide social intrapreneurs with the tools, network, and confidence to make social change at their workplaces in government, non-profits, and companies. 

Last month, the 2016-2017 cohort of Social Intrapreneur Fellows completed their fellowships. To celebrate this great accomplishment as these fellows embark on a new adventure SSE-O is organizing “Fellow-bration”, a celebration of the graduates 6-9 pm on Tuesday March 28th at the Centre for Social Innovation Annex.

You can register here.

The gathering will be an opportunity to learn more about the League of Intrapreneurs Canada’s ambitious plans for the future, and find out how you can get involved.

League of Canadian Intrapreneurs – An Update

Monday, February 20th, 2017

In September of 2015 we reported on our participation in founding the League of Intrapreneurs Canada (LOI). It’s time to report on the progress since then. One of the observations was that intrapreneurs were feeling isolated and frustrated. As a first measure to address this issue founding members of the LOI (such as the School of Social Entrepreneurs-Ontario and OCAD’s Resilience Design Lab) hosted gatherings of intrapreneurs. The purpose was to strengthen network links and show intrapreneurs that they were not alone and that many are facing similar challenges.

The next step was to start thinking about supporting intrapreneurs, particularly in the public sector, by providing adequate training and tools. While the School of Entrepreneurs (SSE-O)  is focusing on the training aspect, we are collaborating with the Resilience Design Lab (R-Lab) on developing and testing tools, including processes for visualizing complex data for decision support, and methods for influencing organizational behaviour. We’ll be reporting in future blogs on some of those tools and methods.

Intrapreneurship – Big Initiative from a Small Island

Saturday, September 19th, 2015

Wasan Island is a small island in lake Rosseau in the heart of Muskoka. It is privately owned by the Breuniger Stiftung, a German non-profit organization. It offers leaders in civil society, politics, culture and business the opportunity to retreat to a peaceful and beautiful environment in order to develop their thinking, networks, and initiatives. Access is by invitation only. (more…)

Counting Down to the Business Innovation Summit

Friday, March 6th, 2015

In partnership with the Conference Board of Canada, Manara would like to invite you to attend the Business Innovation Summit 2015 on April 28-29, 2015 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. As a valued member, we are happy to extend a reduced rate of $795—that’s $500 in savings—for you to attend.

The speakers will be asking tough questions and push you to innovate like a champion! The event will feature speed networking with mentors, interactive learning sessions, and plenary sessions, all accounting for opportunity to dialogue and collaborate with the key players.

Business Innovation Summit 2015 features some of North America’s leading innovators to share their candid advice and insight. The Conference Board has secured a number of highly profiled leaders in innovation, including:

  • Allen Lau, CEO and Co-founder of Wattpad, and Craig Hunter, CEO of Bitmaker Labs to share their successes as serial entrepreneurs;
  • Dan Waldschmidt, Author of Edgy Conversations: How Ordinary People Achieve Outrageous Success to tell you how to innovate like a champion;
  • Ashley Good, CEO and Founder of Fail Forward will explore how to fail intelligently in practice; and
  • Sir Terry Matthews, Founder, Wesley Clover Corporation, and Chairman, March Networks will explore how Canada needs to seize today’s opportunities in the digital world to create more global success stories.

View the full agenda on the Conference Board’s website.

Register to reserve your seat at the leading innovation event in Canada. Quote your rebate code PRM10 when registering to take advantage of your special rate of $795. Please note that this rate is available for non-registered delegates only.

If you have any questions about the program or need help with registration, please contact Emily Hayward at hayward@conferenceboard.ca or 613-526-3090 ext. 393.

We hope to see you at this important event!

 

Business Innovation Summit 2015 – Special Rate for Manara friends!

Monday, January 26th, 2015

We are pleased to announce that we have partnered with The Conference Board of Canada on the Business Innovation Summit 2015: Connect, Collaborate, and Innovate Together taking place on April 28-29, 2015 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Business Innovation Summit (BIS) 2015 is the premier event to connect, network, and learn from Canada’s top innovators! (more…)

Studio Summit at Copenhagen Business School

Sunday, August 31st, 2014

As part of the 7th Art of Management and Organization Conference 2014 of the Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Stefan Meisiek of CBS and Moura Quayle of University of British Columbia organized a summit dedicated to the studio teaching/learning method.

Stefan had started the Studio at CBS three years ago, and it has grown to become a space for education and industry interaction over time. The summit is meant to connect likeminded individuals, exchange experiences, and lift studio work to the next level, beyond the formulaic.

The first day was dedicated to exploring the various studio practices of the participants and understanding the current state of studio education and the use of the studio method in general. The format was that of a World Café with a synthesis in Plenum. It was encouraging to discover how may business schools were experimenting seriously with variations of the studio method.

On the second day we explored in 5 breakout groups how to push the envelope of the studio method, particularly into domains other than architecture, art or design. Some interesting frameworks emerged, which will be presented in a blog soon, so stay tuned.

On the last day the agenda is to synthesize the gained insights and findings and chart the next steps for this new community. It goes without saying that intense networking and peer learning is happening constantly even late night after a long day. It is what makes these small focused gatherings (25-30 people) such refreshing and learning intensive events.

Conference Board Workshop: Foresight & the Learning Organization

Thursday, June 5th, 2014

The Conference Board of Canada is organizing June 11-13 the Joint Councils of Human Resource Executives in Quebec City. The title of the event is: Predictions and Plans for the Changing World of Work. We have been invited to provide a mini-workshop on the role of foresight in the learning organization. Using four scenarios for Ontario in the year 2032 participants will engage in a facilitated exploration of the implications of each scenario for their organization and the sector. The consideration of multiple scenarios supports expansive thinking and planning for possibilities not usually considered in traditional strategic planning.

Taking Over Toronto

Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

The Toronto Overlappers community has been seeing a resurgence of activity recently thanks to the initiative of Michael Dila founder of Foundery and the support of Overlappers like Leila Boujnane, CEO of Idee Inc., and Mathew Milan, CEO of Normative Design who hosted monthly dinners for the group in November and December 2012. On February 6th the Strategic Innovation Lab (sLab) at OCAD University will be hosting the next dinner gathering of the community.

In true Overlap fashion, no strict agenda was set for these gatherings. Beyond strengthening the bonds and introducing new friends into the community, the conversation that is starting to emerge is exploring the real potential for Toronto to become the global hub for an innovation for change movement and how the Overlap community could play a leading role in it. Stay tuned for what is certainly a very exciting and promising emergent thread.

Sustainable Business Models – A Demand Side Perspective

Sunday, November 11th, 2012

As a convener of the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Group (SSBMG) at OCAD University’s Strategic Innovation Lab (sLab) I am committed to developing tools and methods to help organizations become more sustainable. As such I am thrilled with the research of colleagues like Antony Upward in developing an exhaustive business model ontology and deriving new visual tools from it (a super version of the BM Canvas tool developed by Alex Osterwalder). It struck me, however, that not withstanding all the good intentions behind the development of the many tools and methods trying to achieve the same, they all can be classified as “supply side” solutions, that is beautiful and interesting solutions developed without seriously researching what the needs of the intended users are.  I set out therefore to add “demand side” research stream to the research agenda of SSBMG.

To investigate users needs we thought we would start by better understanding how important business decisions are made in organizations and at what stage of that decision process business model considerations come in. We were interested particularly in decision-making processes in situations  involving trade-offs between economic, social and environmental elements. The first steps in that direction was to investigate the mindset of leaders in organizations that are progressive in their views on balancing these elements. This research is currently underway through a Major Research Project by Ben McCammon as part of his  degree requirement at the Strategic Foresight & Innovation (SFI) Masters program. Ben is using the design probe method to collect information on the mindset of leaders in Canadian B-Corps. I am anticipating reading about his findings before the end of this year.

The next step will be to do the same research on regular organizations and comparing the two mind sets and decision making processes to better understand how decisions pertaining to sustainability are made and what the optimal leverage points would be to influence this process. The aspiration is to use these insights to inform the design of tools and methods intended to assist organizations become more sustainable.

A Week of Awards

Wednesday, July 25th, 2012

This week two of the educational programs I have been involved with have received awards. First, the core curriculum of the new Design, Engineering & Commerce (DEC) College at Philadelphia University was recognized for its transformational nature and won the Core77 Design Award in Educational Initiative category. The jury commented on all finalists by video; the DEC segment is towards the end but may be worth watching to understand why the program won top honors.

Then the World Future Society announced its F:BL 2012 awards (Futures: BetaLaunch 2012) and I was thrilled to learn that the Strategic Foresight & Innovation (SFI) Masters Program at OCAD University has been selected as one of the top future-oriented start-ups.

When innovators go into uncharted areas and design new solutions, they frequently can’t tell whether they were right or not about their innovation. It is only when their work is recognized by others that they can reduce uncertainty and feel on the right track. There is no better moment for innovators! Congratulations to the teams at DEC and SFI for their excellence.