👁️ Life's Work: The Vision Cultivator
The next stage to re-imagine innovation education
Greetings fellow travelers,
I thought last fall was the fullest on record, but it keeps getting fuller 😅 Fortunately this time I had the foresight to down-regulate for a few weeks in August, which I sense has enabled me to stretch in my capacity for the fall harvest (like rocking a 12 day conference on a boat crossing the Atlantic).
Lots to report, but the headline today is that my team at School of Wise Innovation and I are launching something special, that feels like the next step in a journey of many years of hard and mysterious work towards shifting innovation culture.
It’s neither an accelerator, nor a decelerator, but a CULTIVATOR!
Because while technology is awesome and solving lots of important problems, it’s also multiplying and amplifying others in the process, inadvertently screwing over our kids and institutions and the natural world we depend on 😓.
How might we chart a different path forward?
The WAY we are solving problems IS the problem.
We need vision to address the seemingly intractable challenges of our time. But the startup culture of how we are bringing visions to life often creates more problems than it solves, and in the process hurts a lot of people, including the vision-holder and the relationships that matter most. Whether it’s the unintended consequences of lead / asbestos / DDT / PFAS, social media / generative AI, absentee parents or a toxic workplace…
In the absense of educational pathways that support a different way, I’ve been on a personal mission the last few years to better understand what visions are, how different cultures relate to them, and how to bring them to life in ways that are better for all touched. Similarly to raising children, where the conditions of pregnancy and early childhood have an outsized impact on how that human unfolds and impacts the world, I see the imperative for humanity to learn a visioning and idea stage process that yields innovations that are in what traditional cultures refer to “right relationship” with the web of life.
As I’ve had my antennae up for people who have the scent of the camel here, I’ve built relationships with some incredible teachers that can speak to the full spectrum of the entrepreneurship process, from inner to organizational to product development, in an accessible and effective way.
The Vision Cultivator is a context to bring all these teachers together to teach this wisdom to growing numbers of creators who are intrinsically motivated to learn and apply it, namely second time founders and Gen Z. We’re going to learn and practice a more holistic innovation culture together.
💌 Please consider sharing The Vision Cultivator with individuals and groups in your life who are:
Starting something new and want to give that baby the utmost love and care
On sabbatical or in transition and a phase of learning
Investors and philanthropists who want the best for their founders and portfolio companies
Org leaders, intraprenuers, coaches and consultants interested in these topics
🤲 Seeking sponsors to help us develop this groundbreaking curriculum
We’re inviting founding patrons to support this key stepping stone towards being able to adapt the material and training teachers to deliver it to high schools and universities, corporate learning & development programs, retreat centers, and governments around the world. Building towars a vision of 1000 wisdom schools for entrepreneurs.
Help us design the experience beautifully, compensate teachers well, and share our learnings outwards with a growing community. No amount is too small, and all amounts are tax deductible.
❄️ Join the Winter Season
We’re designing the cultivator in such a way that one can join for the full year, or a season of chocie.
In case oyu haven’t noticed, I’ve become a lover and student of winter 🤭 Inspired by the 42-day “annual Shabbat” I was invited to experience last year in India, we are particularly excited to offer a virtual version that is available for anybody interested in slowing down, integrating the lessons of the year, reconnecting with purpose and values, and setting a good foundation for the coming cycle.
We’ll make better choices for ourselves, families, organizations and creations when we make dedicated time for rest and renewal, reflection and re-alignment, remembering and practicing the richness of being human. The Winter Cultivator will feature information fasting, nature connection, right hemisphere activities, dialing healthy habits.
Ya know, all the good stuff! In an age of exponential technology atrophying the best of what makes us human, winter is a good time to re-human.
Please reach out if you have any feedback, questions, ideas! Is there something you’d like to teach? What do you think we ought to have in the mix?
With gratitude,
Andrew