Alfonso Romo - Mexico

Global Catalyst

(Host of the 2015 Be The Change Conference)

Story told by David Wygant

Taking the first step is famously the most difficult part of any journey.  However, by taking the first step, you begin to move in a specific direction.  This movement is critical to success and to reaching your destination.  Imagine a ship dead in the water.  You can move the rudder all you want, but until the ship moves you’re not going anywhere.  The same principle applies to setting and realizing a vision.  Where there is movement a “success friendly” force is created.   

Also key to realizing your vision is persistence.  Persistence is the combination of conviction or passion for the cause (vision), and faith that a successful outcome is assured if only you don’t quit

So vision, taking the first step, and persistence enable “challenge conquering.”  When I asked Alfonso what his biggest Design for Change (DFC) challenge was, and how he overcame it, his response was definite.

“One of the biggest challenges I faced was to convince donors and allies that something that could be explained in four words could be so powerful and capable to generate a social change movement.  I overcome it with conviction and hard work and a fair amount of luck. Now that we can show more than 15,000 stories of change is different.”

In the discussion, it was clear that Alfonso’s energy went a long way toward “taking the first step,” but his persistence brought the success.  Listen for it in what he said.

“Even in the face of temporary setbacks and micro-failures, we remained determined in our desire to share with everyone.”

“Also, it is been very challenging trying to reach all the schools in Mexico that is something we are still working on. We believe that we can overcome this challenge by establishing strong collaborative relations with the private, public and civil sector, working with other organizations that from all sectors, share our passion about education and the belief that this is the way we can change Mexico… and the world.”

If passion is the sum of vision, energy, and conviction, then Alfonso certainly is a passionate man.  He and his team have had great success in spreading the DFC contagion in Mexico.  His passion has been aimed at finding financial support too.

I asked Alfonso how they’ve raised the needed funds.  What has worked?

“We mainly receive donations from corporate foundations and corporations. Networking is very important, sharing what we do every time we have the opportunity, conferences, and business meetings, being willing to present the project, share the stories and evidence of the impact.” 

Persistence and patience are needed.”

While he didn’t say so specifically, there is little doubt Alfonso has faith in a successful outcome.  He is a true believer!  He’s also willing to work very hard.  To do what it takes.  He and his team are dedicated.

“Stubbornness, you have to be very dedicated and push and push. You have to be willing to put not only strategy and intelligence but a lot of hours behind it to make it happen.”

Have you heard the phrase, “Many hands make light work?”  Alfonso is not alone, and he relies on his team, and they him.  He reaches out and recruits others to help too. 

“Allies, we have to be able to align objectives and see in what we are the same and forget about small difference. You have to let go of pride and put the end result and objective of the project before anything else.”

Ultimately, our conversation drifts back to why.  Why spend so much time and energy?   Alfonso is quick to give inspiring examples. 

Talking to the teachers in schools provides instant feedback:  

“The most inspiring moments for the team are those that come from talking with the teachers leading “Design for Change” in their schools.” 

“Reading those emails or receiving those calls where teachers share their experiences, challenges and above of all, the effort, work and commitment they have to facilitate a meaningful experience for their students.  Those stories are always inspiring for all of us!” 

Sometimes, incredibly inspiring moments grow out of one specific situation.  A single little girl who is a true Superhero can shine as bright as a sun.  

“A little girl form a rural school called our offices crying, we didn’t know what was happening, so we picked up the phone to ask her what was wrong, she told us that none of the teachers or her peers wanted to do DFC but that she really wanted to participated and asked/begged to let her do it by herself, of course we let her, next year the full groups from that school participated thanks to the courage and drive of this little girl… Goes to show, we only need one really driven person…

What’s next?  I asked him what he is most looking forward to in the future.  His answer was in two parts, beginning with the 2015 Be The Change (BTC) Conference.

“In the near future, I a looking forward hosting the “Be the Change Celebration” in Mexico. We are working on the details and very soon we will let you know more about the experience we are building.”

For now, Alfonso and his team are asking that we mark our calendars on September 25-26, 2015 for the BTC Conference.  Following the Conference on September 27-28 the Partners meeting will be held.  The host city will be beautiful Monterrey.

The second part is really where he began.  With Alfonso’s customary vision he sees the DFC journey continuing.  He has big plans and larger goals!

“I am also looking forward to increase the number of projects and schools that participate in  “Diseña el Cambio Mexico”. We will do it with the collaboration of strategic allies and by implementing a communication strategy that will allow us to share the amazing stories of our students and teachers, inspiring more Mexicans to be part of this movement.” 

BIO

Alfonso was born in Monterrey, a city in the northeastern state of Nuevo Leon in Mexico.  He still lives in Monterrey.  He attended the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (better know as Tec de Monterrey) graduating with a degree in Agricultural Engineering.  After graduating, he founded EducarUno.  He has been President and CEO since the beginning.  He has travelled extensively.  He has journeyed to Japan, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malasia, Tailandia, Macedonia, and several destinations in Europe.  He has been the recipient of a number of highly prestigious awards including the Rockefeller Award Youth Innovator; Index: Design to Improve Life; Leaders in Action (CLASE); Universidad del Valle de México on Social Development.  

Alfonso attended the 2012 and 2014 Be The Change Conferences in Ahmedabad, India. 

Natalia Allende - Chile

Global Catalyst

Story told by David Wygant

Natalia used the 2012 Be the Change Conference as her launch pad for blasting into Design for Change.  Indeed, Natalia brings the energy of a rocket to the effort and adventure, although, she credits other people for inspiring her.  In her own words, “I decided definitely to jump on board with this incredibly talented, generous and sweet team of global partners.”

More words from Natalia:  “Our inspiration grows as the children bring results and success. When we received our first batch of videos we were moved and excited by the results.  It was inspiring to see what the children in Chile had done.”

“Apart from the winning story which Semanti has brilliantly called “A CANteen for All,” there was a group that organized a network of schools and municipal entities to care for the elderly in their neighborhood.  A third group of children worked on finding a way to protect the environment in the gorgeous region of Chile where they live.”

When asked about the future, Natalia says, “How can I not think that the future for Design for Change and for Chile holds much promise?  I really want DFC Chile to grow and become strong. I really am looking forward to achieving all the things I have in mind but still have not reached.”

Natalia goes on to say that the largest challenges she and her team face are volunteer recruiting and financing.  In volunteer recruiting, the most difficult hurdle to jump over is the volunteers’ own fear and lack of confidence.  The fear of failure looms large.   Then there isn’t a financing “silver bullet” seen yet.  Nonetheless, Natalia has faith that adding up little amounts here and there from different sources:  workshops, crowdsourcing, and partnerships with bigger organizations will continue to carry the day.

In the end, she seems to just face forward and walk one step at a time.  She uses simple words to describe her solid determination:  “To be brave and to just continue doing what I’m supposed to do, when I’m in the face of difficulties.’

Bravo Natalia!

BIO INFORMATION

Natalia was born in Santiago, Chile and currently lives in Washington DC. She is a teacher with a Masters in Aesthetics and a Masters in Literature from American University.  Natalia worked as a teacher for 15 years in the classroom followed by several years at the Embassy of Chile in the USA.  She has spent the past five years translating, including 2 years with Design for Change.

Natalia’s travels include much of South America, the USA, Italy and India.  She has done some writing beginning with a grant to study for her Masters in Literature.  An English textbook that she and two colleagues wrote won the Chilean Government call for bids and was widely published in the Chilean public school system.

Natalia attended the Be the Change Conference in 2012 and is attending this year (2014). 

Pedro-DFC Spain: DFC Global Catalyst

As told to David Wygant

The Sweet Taste of Success RECIPE

What do creative thinkers do?  They explore and experiment in what they can see around them, and inside the spaces of thought and thinking.  Pedro is such a person.  Supported by his experience managing international social and business projects, he has found a natural outlet for his social innovation passion in his leadership of Design for Change (DFC) - Spain.   Following his education and experience as an industrial engineer and EMBA (Comillas), he has travelled the globe to find programs in strategic intuition (Columbia), social entrepreneurship (Stanford) and NGO leadership (ESADE).

Listen to how Pedro describes his introduction to DFC. 

"It was in the summer of 2010. I was in London when I heard about DFC through the HUB Network.  I contacted my friend Adrian who was leading DFC in the UK.  He put me in touch with Kiran.  In the meantime, unknown to me, he also contacted Kiran about my interest in DFC.  Adrian and I would later have dinner together in Madrid where he confessed that he had told Kiran she could expect great things from DFC Spain.  Now, that was my challenge."

"Now everything in my life seemed to align.  I had recently reflected on and studied social enterprises.  I had developed a passion to become a social entrepreneur.  I had met and experienced Kiran's charisma and dedication.  I had seen the opportunity to improve and reform the education system in Spain.   I was ready to make the leap from an international corporation where I had been an industrial engineer for eight years to the social field that was my passion.”

INGREDIENTS (What to Know)

Listen to your own convictions.  Your experiences over time are the echoes of truth.

Go deeper into an understanding of any problem by listening to the experiences of others.  Don’t solve the wrong problem.

Personalize, collaborate and experiment by adding your voice and energy.  Lead toward meaningful change through student I CAN initiatives.

Align cross sector collaborations.  Through our efforts in Spain, we hope to become a relevant innovator in education.

Offer something different to students and the education program by demonstrating the effectiveness of design thinking through DFC projects.

Put it together.  “Take one idea.  Choose one week and put it into practice.  Then reflect on your action.”

Align participation and cause with efficiency and impact.  Combine the best attributes of business and social organizations.

Match volunteer skills and passions with the needs of the organization.

There is always money for good ideas and committed teams.  In Spain, we have developed a funding method for the implementation of Design For Change projects at schools.  Now we are focused on the core organization "Yo diseño el Cambio" Project.

 COOKING INSTRUCTIONS (How to be a protagonist who changes the world)

First steps to forming a team.  At first I used my own contacts to publicize the initiative, and the HUB Madrid Network to meet new people interested in the project. We formed a couple of teams and collaborated with a couple of design thinking organizations.  Then we decided to launch our own association that is called Yo diseño el cambio.  Today there are six team members in DFC-Spain (Miguel, Mónica, Natxo, Natalia, Nuria y Pedro).  In addition, there are several practitioners who help us with creative processes for schools and teachers, and a few other technology and creative partners.

Spreading the design thinking virus.  Currently, the team is considering a program in which kids would experiment with the basics of social entrepreneurship. Whether this fits into an existing module, or stands alone within a school program, hasn’t been determined.  It might fit differently in different schools and classrooms.  In these schools and classrooms, new tools for teamwork and leadership become available, and empathy and collaboration become natural ingredients in the student learning process.  The students will take their lessons learned outside the school to their communities and their lives.

"Who’s going to tell this?" I needed someone to transform these experiences into amazing stories that could infect others.  Miguel, who is a “Waker of Dreams” was that person.

"Where might we carry out the first pilot project?" Everything looked great. The next step was to build a first prototype.  As the first step, we wanted to take DFC to the schools.  So we created our first prototype for children and teachers.  We knew we needed to give project ownership to the children.  Children should feel complete ownership of the project and the process.  Then they would make the right decisions, and they would freely give the needed energy.  The prototype also needed to help teachers understand how to facilitate this result. 

“We wanted to reach out for best practices.”  What were the other countries doing?  How had they launched their project(s)?  On one side, there was India and Mexico working with very large numbers, and on the other side countries like the UK where the focus was on one or several schools in the beginning.  As it turns out, the major challenges to implementing DFC in schools were similar to those faced by the children in their projects.

"This is not about my idea.”  This is the most common learning in children after their first DFC experience and one of the biggest challenges we (adults) face today.  We are not used to teamwork.

SERVING THE FOOD (Feeding the Many)

Our first experience was in 2011 at The Quercus, a concerted school of Boadilla del Monte in the surroundings of Madrid, where Ana was a teacher in primary and secondary. There we held our first DFC program with almost 50 children.  We launched the project telling the story of Kiran as a mother and how she started Riverside school.

During 2011, we sought to understand the DFC process and what it could bring to the educational world. We set out to perform five pilot projects with different centers of education.  Our aim was to explore how to offer the opportunity to the largest possible number of children in Spain. To do this we explored variety of schools and different levels of support to teachers, and conducted the following experiences:  Three formal schools (Madrid, Tenerife and San Sebastian), Cañada Real (Madrid) with a Social NGO as a Partner, and Casa San Cristobal, partnering with a cultural organization, as an extracurricular activity and facilitated entirely by our DFC Team.

From the beginning, we’ve thought that teacher support in the DFC process was key to success.  So, we’ve designed three key elements:

            A toolkit or teachers guide to facilitate DFC projects.

The I CAN LAB where teachers can explore and experiment one and a half days about how to facilitate projects with children.

A group of experts in the methodology to support schools that request our services.

Empathy (with teachers and children) is the central pillar of a project.   Knowing that both “learning by exploring” and “learning by doing” are critical, we set up laboratory experiences.  We don't teach.   As practitioners we seek to build communities of teachers and sustainably expand the movement at the same time.  In the future, we see an online platform that will support and facilitate the creation of a sustainable DFC Community.

 Coffee and Conversation

There have been many high points during this first stage.  However, the personal growth of the team has been the highest point of the project.  Lessons have sometimes been “hard earned and well learned.” 

What have been the important lessons learned?

The project gives the leading role to children.  They take responsibility for their education.  Their commitment to their community increases.   They become different points from which the “virus” can spread.  They become CONTAGIOUS.   Their teachers are renewed and become refreshed as both the children and teachers gain diverse and multi-cultural viewpoints.    Teachers set the example of how to “BE THE CHANGE.”

Optimism grows and so does the trust children have in themselves and their teams.  Real life problems become solvable.  As they become confident they become CONTAGIOUS.   In turn, they set the example of how to “BE THE CHANGE.”

The quality of the projects, and their sustainability over time, depends on the level of support teachers receive.  I CAN LABs for learning help teachers learn to better facilitate and sustain DFC in schools.   Center stage is visual documentation.  It is key to generating stories and holding attention in an exciting way.  What they can see in their imaginations they can become in real life.

What do we in Spain aspire to do in the future?

We want to be there, and do our share with DFC World, in support of accelerating innovation and quality growth of the world movement.  Create new models that teachers and parents can use to facilitate DFC projects with Kids.  Start doing design thinking in schools on a permanent basis.

Using DFC, create activities between schools that foster learning and collaboration among their students.   Promote and support "DFCx" in Schools.  Through better storytelling (sharing) of DFC projects to increase the amount and quality of SHARING.

Find a way to bring the "I CAN bug" to the employment sector to help create new jobs.  Offer people a process and program whereby they can reinvent themselves.  DFC and the I CAN Lab have inspired us to design a “new Lab” that is aimed at those who are unemployed in Spain, or those who are in a process of professional change.  A safe place where they can find support among their peers, and tools to help them explore new possibilities.  A process that allows them to experience a different way of innovating while pushing them to reinvent themselves professionally.  We want to create opportunities for those who would like to make a difference in their lives.  We’d like to help them build their creative confidence, and come up with new creative strategies.