Dreams Coming True

(EN ESPAÑOL MAS ABAJO)

After 36 years of civil war and a wrecked economy, Guatemala needed to find a way to recapture the optimism of its youth. This paper explains how Franklin Covey consultants, together with the Ministry of Education, taught 7 Habits to 2,500 school teachers in all public and private schools in the country. Eventually 1 million youth will be influenced by the principles embedded in the 7 Habits. Our good friend Marta Sánchez was very directly involved and we shall be bringing María del Carmen Aceña, Minister of Education responsible of the programme and Marta to Chile shortly to explore opportunities to share the experience with Chilean educators.

To read the full article click here:

http://franklincoveyresearch.org/documents/textsearch?criteria=GUATEMALA

To See Video Click Below :

La Situación

Por 36 años, Guatemala, la tierra de la gran civilización Maya, sufrió los estragos de una guerra civil. Pelotones de fusilamiento, masacres en las villas y batallas entre el gobierno y grupos guerrilleros dejaron 100.000 muertos y la economía en ruinas. Pobreza, corrupción y desconfianza en las instituciones a cargo eran evidentes en todas partes. Finalmente, en el año 1996, en una acuerdo de paz gestado por las Naciones Unidas, las partes beligerantes rindieron sus armas. Guatemala ahora tenía una segunda oportunidad para el progreso.

El Desafío

Pero los cuarenta años de guerra causaron una pérdida inestimable: el optimismo dentro de la juventud. Creciendo en medio del temor, la gente joven sólo deseaba que se los dejara tranquilos. La apatía reinaba entre ellos y la esperanza, visiones y sueños parecían ser relevantes tan sólo para las clases altas. En el año 2003, María del Carmen Aceña, la recién nombrada Ministra de Educación en el gabinete de Óscar Berger, comenzó a visitar algunos colegios. Después de entrevistar a profesores, estudiantes y padres con alarma de dio cuenta que nadie se refería al futuro, ni al de ellos ni al de Guatemala. Considerando que el promedio de vida de la población Guatemalteca era de 18 años, donde más de un 40% era menor de 14 María del Carmen Aceña sabía que si la juventud no tenía esperanzas, Guatemala tampoco las tendría.

Por medio de una profesora rural Brasilera, la Señora ministra supo de un programa innovador que enseñaba a los estudiantes a soñar, a crear y a establecer una declaración de misión personal para ellos y para el país. Su deseo fue el poder implementar este programa a nivel nacional, pero¿cómo? ¿Cómo poder sobrepasar la inercia y la desconfianza por parte de los profesores, la apatía de los estudiantes y la inflexible infraestructura política? ¿Cómo poder introducir nuevas ideas al sistema educativo de toda la nación?

Para leer el artìculo completo y/o ver el video respectivo haga click aquí:
http://franklincoveyresearch.org/documents/textsearch?criteria=GUATEMALA

Esperamos traer a Marta Sánchez, una de las consultoras de Franklin Covey más involucradas en este programa a Chile muy pronto. Además, contaremos con la presencia de María del Carmen Aceña con quienes buscaremos oportunidades de compartir y apalancar esta experiencia con educadores chilenos.

Publicado por EQUIPO DE CHILE en 17:07 0 comentarios

Etiquetas: EDUCATION, EN ESPAÑOL, LEADERSHIP, POLITICS

WHAT OBAMA SHOULD DO

Gallup’s chief economist points to the incoming president’s most pressing economic concerns and how to solve them. He explains why policymakers keep dropping the ball and how Barack Obama can avoid doing the same. And he discusses what Obama and business leaders should expect in 2009, some of which is actually good news -- though most of it isn’t.

The first day on the job is always difficult. You must learn new names and new faces, find where they keep the office supplies, then figure out how to do what you were hired for. But imagine doing all that while your organization's financial system is in a nosedive -- its debt increasing by $3.87 billion a day -- and not long ago, many of your highest ranking coworkers actively campaigned to keep you from getting the job.

And that's just the beginning of the situation President-Elect Barack Obama is facing. The list of challenges seems endless: two wars, the ever-present threat of terrorism, and a global economic meltdown, along with myriad other troubles both at home and abroad. By all reports, he's keenly aware that he must hit the ground running on January 20 and has been rapidly assembling his executive team. But, says Gallup Chief Economist Dennis Jacobe, Ph.D., -- and many other economists too -- President Obama's first priority when taking office should be shoring up the U.S. economy.

In the following interview, Dr. Jacobe outlines what he thinks are the incoming president's most pressing economic concerns and how to solve them. He explains why policymakers keep shooting themselves -- and by extension, the taxpayers -- in the foot and how Obama can avoid doing the same. And he discusses what Obama and business leaders should expect in 2009, some of which is actually good news, though the vast majority of it isn't.

Read Full Article

Politics meets innovation on way to White House

Politics meets innovation on way to White House

Harvey Schachter, November 17, 2008 at 8:57 AM EST
(At the risk of violating copyright laws and whilst I find the "right" way to do this, I am posting this excellent article on how Obama has generated a massive world-changing wave of trust which a great friend from San Diego forwarded to me. PR)

A knock against Barack Obama in his campaign for the U.S. presidency was that he lacked executive experience. But nothing could be further from the truth, asserts Umair Haque, director of the Havas Media Lab strategic consultancy.

"Barack Obama is one of the most radical management innovators in the world today. Obama's team built something truly world-changing: A new kind of political organization for the 21st century," he writes on Harvard Business Online.

Here's what we can learn from the president-elect.

A self-organization design

We're used to thinking about organizations as either tall or flat, but those are concepts built for an industrial era. They force us to think in two dimensions: Tall organizations lead unresponsively while flat organizations respond uncontrollably. Mr. Obama's organization combined the virtues of both organizations through the game-changing power of self-organization. It was spherical, with a tightly controlled core, surrounded by self-organizing cells of volunteers, donors, contributors, and other participants at the fuzzy edges.

Seek elasticity of resilience

His organization was built to remain resilient to turbulence. When challenger John McCain attacked Mr. Obama with negative ads in September, instead of retaliating quickly and decisively with its own ads, Mr. Obama's team responded furiously in exactly the opposite way - with record-breaking fundraising. "That's resilience," Mr. Haque says, the team reacted "to an existential threat by growing, augmenting, or strengthening resources."

Minimize strategy

His campaign dispensed almost entirely with strategy in its most naive sense
- as gamesmanship or positioning. They didn't waste resources on dominating the news cycle, strong-arming his party, or cleverly undercutting competitors' positions with nuanced statements. "They realized that strategy too often kills a deeply lived sense of purpose, destroys credibility, and corrupts meaning," he says.

Maximize purpose

Mr. Obama's goal wasn't simply to win an election, garner votes, or run a great campaign, Mr. Haque contends. It was larger and more urgent: To change the world. "Bigness of purpose is what separates 20th century and 21st century organizations: Yesterday, we built huge corporations to do tiny, incremental things - tomorrow, we must build small organizations that can do tremendously massive things. And to do that, you must strive to change the world radically for the better - and always believe that yes, you can," he observes.

Broaden unity

Marketers traditionally segment and target. They slice and dice, dividing markets into tinier and tinier bits. But they can be hapless at unifying segments. Mr. Obama succeeded not through division, but through unification. His words to his country were that they are "not a collection of Red States and Blue States - We are the United States of America."

Thicken power

The power many corporations wield is thin - the power to instill fear and inculcate greed. True power inspires, leads, and engenders belief.

The power of an ideal

Remember that there is nothing more disruptive, more revolutionary, or more innovative than an ideal, Mr. Haque says. "Where are the ideals in your organization? What ideals are missing - absent, bankrupt, stolen - from your economy, industry, or market? What ideals will you fight and struggle for - and live? Because the ultimate problem with industrial-era business was, as Wall Street has so convincingly demonstrated, this: There weren't any."