Empreendedorismo e Estratégia Educacional: YES or NO for GB?

Empreendedorismo e Estratégia Educacional: YES or NO for GB?: Scottish are facing a big dilemma: to remain or not remain part of the Great Britain! ( British paper about the Queen’s position o...

YES or NO for GB?

Scottish are facing a big dilemma: to remain or not remain part of the Great Britain!

( British paper about the Queen’s position on the subject)  

Being in Scotland and England for this short period of two weeks allowed me to witness this historical moment closely. Should Scotland depart from the Great Britain? One should study history to understand the memories and foundations of a YES for a bit more than 50% of the votes according to the surveys. It is difficult to say what will happen as there are also the undecided voters. A Brazilian friend of mine who has lived and worked for more than 10 years in London told me: "I would not like them to go..." And this seems to be the way English are feeling.

There is a bond, anyway. For me, I would say they are very different and alike at the same time. I know it is a strange thing to say, but that is exactly how I feel. I understand the reasons, but GB has a glamour of its own. Whatever the case, and because it is a classic case of  "unsolved business" I just hope understanding and history make the ends meet.

While organizing the retrospective posts the clock is ticking and the events don’t stop. Last week I had the opportunity to work with simultaneous translation for the Latin American Timberland Investment Conference in Rio de Janeiro. it. was tough work, different accents, different subjects every half an hour. Challenging and rich both in knowledge as well as networking. Planted forests, green and brownfield investments, native forest preservation. How can humankind balance development, survival and environment preservation? It is a matter of knowledge and common sense, and it seems to be possible. While the sun shone outside, there we were, working in our booths. Learning, of course... What made it worth...

(view from the hall windows, where the conference auditoriums are set)

The Conference happened on 25th and 26th of August, where many panels and presentations focused on global market trends. The conference gathered several different enterprises to discuss about the different perspectives for Timberland investments in South America, specially in Brazil. Agribusiness was a matter of discussion too.

For this important event I counted on Danuza Corradine Knuth's support, one of our translators/ interpreters. She lives in Chicago nowadays and has participated in many of On The Road's events since the early 2000s, helping with Copel Araucaria translations, The Appreciative Inquiry and African Delegations to mention but a few.

(Danuza and I)

It’s been some time since I last wrote on the blog about the activities On The Road and I have been involved. Almost two years without posting, and gladly this is because of many other projects taking most of our time. Among these many projects, one of them that really caught my attention was the opportunity to work as interpreter for Brigitt Wolf and her Design Thinking approach.

(Brigitt Wolf and I)

Brigitt brilliantly introduced me to Design Thinking during IDEMi October 2012 in Florianopolis – SC. I was so amazed  that it became part of our everyday work.

(BCCenter Design Thinking Project)

On The Road has evolved significantly since my last entry here, and another important step in this evolution was my last visit to New York City. This experience was both professional and personal. The quality and variety range of arts, business, monuments and places makes NYC the Mecca for English learners of any culture. Starting of course with the Central Park, where I stayed just beside during the beginning of my trip.

(Central park during Saint Patrick’s day)

Talking about the professional side of the trip, I’ve been to AMCHAM meetings, where “How to do Business in Brazil” have been discussed and a lot of network and understanding about our culture, opportunities and difficulties, specially in the legal and bureaucratic aspects. Their office is in the heart of  Times Square. There was the first time I handed our new two fold business card, what, by the way, Allexandre Trauer (our designer), was a success.

(AMCHAM - Times Square)

And from the professional / personal perspective, Gi Mazzali and I had an awesome time enjoying the arts NYC has to offer. After studying some English with us, Gi, who is an artist and photographer, was interested in developing some of her skills studying abroad. The National Academy School of Fine Arts was what to seemed to be the best option, and proved to be. Another great experience was to discover Spring Studio, quite close to SoHo where we spent one afternoon drawing the human figure… Simply amazing.

A lot of people go to New York in regular basis for vacations or special events. However, not many truly experience what the city has to offer, truth is most of them just go there for the big city aesthetics and the cool places to do some shopping. Not that there's anything wrong with that, after all capitalism is inherent to US culture, but if one can look beyond the bright lights of the city, you will find yourself in one of the most amazing places in the world to learn.

Due to this trip to US, I ended up spending two days in Boston, visiting a friend in Dudley and closing a deal in Northampton with ILI. In Boston, I stayed in this lovely hostel 4.0 Berkeley, where I got to know the CoLaboratory 4.0, an interesting place where women gather and find support to  develop their own business. It inspired me to develop a new concept in the BCCenter. People can hire a chair here and spend their time working, developing network and receiving advice on Business Strategic Planning.

(CoLaboratory 4.0 - Boston, USA/ BCCenter - Cruritiba, BR)

I’m truly amazed with the opportunities our new place has to offer and how much we can draw from it pushing forward our skills even more.

to be continued...

Interpreter work in New York and Boston

I spent two weeks in USA last month due to some interpreter work for Amcham. It was great experience to participate in the "How to do Business and Invest in Brazil" seminars. The one in New York was hold at Harvard Club and the one in Boston at  The Exchange Conference Center , opened by the Massachusetts Governor.Our economic situation has called the attention worldwide and new initiatives have been taken to help the understanding and communication between the two countries. Brazil offers great opportunities of investment. There is a lot to be built in terms of infrastructure, like roads, airports, sanitation. After that, Charlotte (North and South Carolina region) delegation came to Curitiba to Brazil to present their region for possible businesses and investments too. I am very proud of being part of all this process with my colleagues from On The Road. We translated their book and worked as interpreters in the event in Curitiba. Great experience! 

KM BRASIL 2011 (Otober 5ty, 6th 7th, 2011

Working at KM Brazil 2011 was a learning experience! We were hired to work as interpreters for the three international keynotespeakers: Jay Cross, Nick Milton and Bob Boiko. Knowledge Management is a subject of interest, and this was a motivational factor that contributed to our enthusiasm when searching for their videos on the Internet. We had received some of their presentations beforehand, but if there was something we can say that was crucial for the job’s success, it was the interaction they all made possible.

Jay Cross is the Johnny Appleseed of informal learning. He wrote the book on it. He was the first person to use the term eLearning on the web. Since designing the first business degree program offered by the University of Phoenix (www.jaycross.com), he has challenged conventional wisdom about how adults learn. He talked about informal learning, how it happens in our lives and inside organizations. We met Jay shortly before his talk, but we had already found videos where he spoke about informal learning.

Compared to formal training offered by organizations, which follows rigid programs, informal learning is a new way of creating innovation and it happens through good management (managers). Companies should also be more aware of the influence of WEB 2.0 and how will continue to grow as the great converser of human beings. There is an acceleration of knowledge sharing and knowledge availability, which is more conducive to informality (web jam, feeds, wikis, blogs, tweets, social bookmarking…). It seems there is an evolution here. These activities are flexible, based on a self-service platform (text from the presentation) and there are plenty of them. It seems people will have to assume more responsibility for their own learning. After all, in Jay’s own words, “People can train you but they cannot learn you”.

Nick Milton is a director and co-founder of Knoco Ltd - a Knowledge Management consultancy comprised of seasoned knowledge management practitioners, mentors, and coaches. Knoco Ltd has been delivering successful and sustained Knowledge Management implementation to clients since 1999. Nick Milton focused on showing us how to create an organizational culture to support knowledge management. It is important to understand that sharing knowledge and asking questions can be met with resistance due to many factors. Employers/Employees wonder whether implementing knowledge management will represent a burden to their day jobs. The counter argument to this view is quite simple. It is important to seek, share and re-use knowledge for the good of the organization, but the best tools in the world will not work if people really don’t want to use them. There is an urge to change knowledge emphasis inside the organizations and it can only be done by taking into account the individuals that work in them and are part of them. The old culture considers knowledge a personal property or advantage. People can perceive new knowledge as a threat to their own knowledge and admitting ‘I don’t know’ can be thought of as a sign of weakness.

Shifting to the culture of “we know”, perceiving knowledge as collective or community property and advantage, will make the same individuals feel that sharing knowledge helps them, that new knowledge improves personal knowledge and that admitting “I don’t know” is the first step to learning. Nick Milton also showed a video (leadership from a dancing guy – available on YouTube), which was a successful way of showing how to create a movement and how following great ideas is important for implementing or creating something new. The role of the leader treating his followers as equals and being easy to follow – even instructional - is very important. But without followers no movement is created, and leadership has been over-glorified. All people in the organization are important for the creation of a culture that supports knowledge management. Nobody should be left apart.

Boiko is the founder and president of Metatorial Services Inc., and is a faculty member of the University of Washington Information School. Bob has sat on many advisory boards and is the recipient of many awards including the 2005 EContent 100 Award for leadership in the content management industry. He is author of two editions of "The Content Management Bible" and "Laughing at the CIO: A parable and Prescription for IT Leadership". Bob is internationally known for his lectures and workshops.

Bob Boiko presented the theme ‘Social Media and Information Strategy’. He linked the concepts very intelligently. Presenting the importance of information and how it can and should be developed strategically, he was able to show that social media and its applications should be included in a company’s strategy. If we deliver the right information to the right people in the right way, it will help us meet our goals! In order for any information strategy to succeed it is important to know the company’s user. Some people are speaking (creating information), others are ‘listening’ (consuming information), some are responding, and others are repeating. Whenever choosing your social media channels (facebook, twitter, Wikipedia, Linkedin, blogs, etc), align your company strategy to your user’s behavior: inform listeners, facilitate responders, promote speakers and supply repeaters. The importance of information strategy is the same as any strategy. We need to find out how to use our key resources to meet our goals. To use social media in a strategic way we need to know our target public user behavior. Although the three key-note speakers spoke about different topics, they all complemented one another - a great contribution for the Brazilian Society of Knowledge Management. We all left very motivated to create, share and learn!

Second Amcham Administrative Assistant Lecture in Englsih

Administrative Assistants have a very exciting professional life nowadays. They delegate, prepare presentations, manage projects, plan events and conferences, train and supervise staff and are the gatekeepers for access to the Executive Boards of companies.

On October 20th we had our second Administrative Assistant meeting at Amcham (Curitiba) in English. We started talking about all the activities they perform and the importance of information and knowledge in their personal and professional lives. Much of what we know has been learned informally through experience, but knowledge management plays a very important role inside organizations. If we think about training and delegating, it would add a lot to the quality of our professional and home lives (can you imagine kids that actually helped with the housework?). What is news is that there is a lot more available in the market, WEB 2.0 came and is here to stay, and we are being led to improve our skills and become more responsible for our own learning.

We also talked about leadership and saw a video that Nick Milton shared at KM Brasil 2011 (you can find it at You tube - Leadership from a dancing guy). It shows how a movement is created in 3 minutes, the role of the leader and the role of the first followers; the importance of embracing followers as equals and the courage of both the leader and the follower. Actually, leadership has been over-glorified. In the end, there would be no leader without followers. The power of change is always in the hands of the ones who stand out in the crowd and dance, together.

Then, we had a look at the companies. Interested in increasing turnover and retaining knowledge, they push a lot of tools and theories on to their staff in an attempt to improve their management. The problem is that the best tools will not work if people are not willing to use them. A shift in organizational culture is what would make the difference. The shift from “my” knowledge to “our” knowledge, from “keeping” to “sharing”, from “being afraid of showing weaknesses” to “asking questions”. Asking and sharing is the first step towards learning. And this was what really made all the morning’s work rewarding: all agreed that despite not being an easy task, this was a path worth following.