why

[a q u i e t r e v o l u t i o n]

be you.

why
Setting people free,
to be themselves.

how
Creating (physical & mental)
spaces of permission.

what
Soul peace
unleashes brilliant minds/art.

start with why

Click above to hear Simon teaching us about why.

The golden circle.
Everyone knows what they do, some know how they do it, but very few know why.
Why do you get out of bed every morning, and why should anyone care.
Working from the inside out.

Refocus… on why.

Neocortex – (outer) -
Neocortex Responsible for rational and
analytical thought and language.
When we communicate from the
outside-in, people understand
Limbic vast amounts of info, it just
doesn’t drive behavior.
brains
Limbic brains – (inner two) –
Responsible for feelings, like trust &
loyalty, for all behavior, decision
making, but it has no capacity for
language.
When we communicate from the
inside-out, we’re talking directly to
the part of the brain that controls
behavior and then we allow people
to rationalize it with the tangible
[a q things t r e and do. t i o n]
u i e we say v o l u
This is where gut decisions come
ie: Wright bros & Langely from.

our


We wonder Our county is 6th in the
why nation in suicide rate.
people can’t Once every 9 days
wait till 3 someone takes
or 5pm, their life.
why they can’t The measure we are
wait till the currently using toward
weekend, success,
or summer, the actions we are
or vacation, currently using to fix
or graduation. problems,
We wonder even to determine
why which
we all let problems are problems,
time slip by aren’t boding us
like that. well.

Work (school) is where we get the least done.

[a q u i e t r eFriedt, Rework
- Jason v o l u i o n]

A common complaint about schools, one that is reflected for example, in the
recent report of the Carnegie Commission: In school, registered students
submit to certified teachers in order to obtain certificates of their own; both
are frustrated and both blame insufficient resources - money, time, or
building - for their mutual frustration.
I believe that the contemporary crisis of education
demands that we review the very idea of
publicly
prescribed
learning
rather than
the methods used
in its enforcement.

possible translation:
- Ivan Illich
Rather than trying to motivate youth to learn our common core curriculum
through shiny things, like gaming, or fancy technology, or the latest tools, or
project based learning, or longer hours, etc,

let’s call into question our presumption that we must teach certain things.
Let’s allow for just in time learning. Imagine being blown away by what we
then notice, dream about, and do. Imagine recapturing a soul peace from the
connections afforded in these spaces of permission to be.

be us.

why
Setting communities free,
to share themselves.

how
Creating (physical & mental)
spaces of trusting/giving.

what
World peace
allows for gatherings that matter,
per choice.

start with why

be you.
The first two years have been a
true disruptive innovation, where
we were working in the shadows,
testing and prototyping and
failing and learning.
We experimented with spaces
where people could tap into their
own genius, their own art.
We were seeking ways to
facilitate self-directed learning.
Our findings are not new.
Practicing them, however will
require a change in mindset.
It will require a culture of trust,
with (mental and physical)
spaces of permission.

be us.
The second two years’ focus will be more on
community, how do we become us.
This necessitates more visibility, a coming out
phase. We are finding out what types of
gathering spaces our people want, need,
believe in, most.
This phase will be heavy on the art of
conversation. How do we listen to each other
without an agenda on an ongoing basis. Web
access has shown us the value of connection
and ways to better connect with the invisible,
the silent globally. Transparency and the
[a ability ito lurk,rfeed into a culturen] trust. We
q u e t e v o l u t i o of
plan to use that insight an tech to better listen
to each other, locally. We know that for any
type of thriving sustainability to happen
within a community, we must create,
together.

Imagine like minded Part of our suggested jump
dreamers (perhaps Hsieh, Gates, start investment will come
Buffet, …) interested in financially from a rough analysis of
jump starting this next phase. school district funding, what
Investing in a mock or incubated we now get from government,
community, where red tape is so that the financial model can
essentially nill. be scaled across if so inclined.
[Perhaps the "district is on sabbatical", Spending will be determined by
perhaps the collaboratory becomes a ongoing crowd-sourcing of these
space for anyone in the world on gatherings per choice.
sabbatical, with f2f paid or partial paid.]
Something that my seem new will
We believe if we base transactions
be the focus we place on spaces
on trust rather than policy, we can
determined by why we gather,
model doing much more with less.
rather than the current focus on
This would then fall right into,
managing what we do and how
perhaps locally, supported micro
funding. [a qwe ido t in e v o l u t i o n]
u e it, r predetermined and
compulsory places.

To look more like the solution, a We’re imagining
first space we are looking to secure anywhere from three
is in the heart of the city. As a hub, months to a year
a home base, our kitchen table as before more local
people feel a pull to
collaboratory, so to self-fund. We believe
speak. A place to come together this incubated
locally and virtually, to notice the community will model
unlikely, dream boldly, make educational funding per
connections, and start doing things census, via an ongoing
that matter, to us. We are especially community voice, is not
interested in a neutral space of high only healthier for its
quality, that represents the value people, but more
we place on this ongoing financially sound and
community conversation. sustainable as well. We
believe sustainability is
(A mile high, pi in the sky, representing [a q u i e t groundedl in living n]
r e v o u t i o out
3-ish degrees of separation to finding us.) your why.

Partial Freedom is no freedom.
- Krishnamurti, The Significance of Life

Knowledge which is acquired under
compulsion
obtains no hold
on the mind.
-Plato

What if that’s why we still have so many dyingq u i aids, dyingvfrom u t i o n]
[a from e t r e o l standardization.
What if when we set people free, we find people like Angela Zhang, everywhere.

Healthy words… you
can’t have anything
to prove…

Via Traci Fenton of Worldblu, we lose 300 billion
a year because people aren't engaged in the
workplace (yeah... just imagine if we include
moneys toward disengagement in schools ...
perhaps tack on 600 bill more+). She notes truly
democratized organizations hold these beliefs:
people are good, and, you can't have anything to
prove (ego kills culture of a community, the
feeling you have to prove yourself, kills
value/culture of a person).

how?

create spaces:


A city as school, as university, as alive.

solitude space
The most spectacularly What distinguished
creative people in many programmers at the
fields are often introverted. top performing
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, companies wasn't
Gregory Feist. greater experience or
better pay. It was
Without great solitude, no how much privacy,
serious work is possible. personal workspace
- Picasso
time & and freedom from
interruption they
We're often so dazzled by enjoyed. If you have
charisma that we overlook talented and
the quiet part of the motivated people,
creative process. they should be
When we take a stance diff encouraged to work
from a group's we activate alone when creativity
the amygdala, a small organ or efficiency is the
in the brain associated with highest priority.
fear of rejection. Gregory - Adrian Furnham
Berns calls this "the pain of [a q u i e t r e v o l u t i o n]
independence.”
private spaces of solitude – Susan Cain

Trust in the silence, in the things you can’t see.

what?

art
Perfection in making is an art. Perfection in acting is
a virtue. - Ivan Illich
Trying to get away from acting, being people that
we aren’t for whatever reasons, and instead, doing
what matters most to us.
Art is that interesting piece inside each one of us.
It’s that thing you can’t not do. In providing spaces
to be, we allow people to find, grow, and create
their art. If people are doing, making, and being
their art, they become indispensable, rather than
simply virtuous, or bored or delinquent or
depressed.
We get so worried about, and expended in, a
means to improve or to prove. If we focus on
authentic art, as opposed to prescribed learning,
the proving will not longer be an issue. We’ll
wonder what all the fuss was. The kids already
wonder. The art, the sharing of that art, because
you can’t not, is its own reward.


The safest
thing they
can do
feels risky,
Take a listen to Seth above.
and the
Take a listen to his impact on us below. riskiest
thing they
can do is
play it
safe.


For 20 some years, I’ve stood in front of Today, I stand before you,
various groups of kids, with a geeky joy literally or figuratively, with a
about school math, and an unsettled geeky joy about life, and
soul about why. I would entertainingly incredible soul peace about
and enthusiastically say to them such why. And with great humility
things as… and love, I say to you…
Today we’re going to rationalize denominators. Today we’re going to be about freeing
This is something you are going to need to know people up. This is something you need to
how to do, in your future, ie: if you want to be know how to do. This is something the
successful in calc, and college, (which are/were world needs from you.
obvious goals for everyone, no?) That’s it. That’s what I do now.
That was my job. And, what I was And it’s the most rational (lucid,
sharing with all these kids, was/is sensible, balanced, sane,
deemed as rational, reliable. It was a normal, ..) thing I have
service I provided.., helping kids learn to offer you.
school math. Because many kids Freeing people up to be
didn’t/don’t resonate with school themselves.
math, many stressed over school math, And the way we will do that is
so I did feel I was providing a service, by creating mental and physical
making math fun, alleviating a little spaces of permission. And what
stress, connecting because I was we’ll have as a result, as a sign
helping to alleviate past pain/fear. of success,.. alive people.

Take a listen, as Bunker Roy explains how credentialing could come from
how well your community is doing.

imagine a community such as mine,
Loveland, CO. You, a university, or a CEO of a
company, come to me today, asking if Peter is a
good fit, if he’s worth consideration at your
establishment.
I say, most likely not. I explain to you, that currently, Loveland has 400+ charitable
organizations, so one would think we wouldn’t be dealing with homelessness, our county
wouldn’t be 6th in the nation in suicide rate, etc.
I say, what the heck has Peter been doing, letting that happen in his community.
imagine you come to me a year from now. Loveland no longer has 400+ charitable
organizations, but rather, one kitchen table. They engage in ongoing conversations,
conversations that matter. They’ve freed people who were homeless up to take care of their
situation. Because they question how we spend our days, health has improved, the suicide
rate has gone down.
And now, now I say to you, yes, Peter. Peter is perfect. Whether or notvhe helped to change
[a q u i e t r e o l u t i o n]
our community for good, he has been living in it. He’s associated and with people that are
free and are practicing their art. Peter is gold, he is indispensable.

Two things I have learned from the last four years in regard to education/learning/life:

Self-reflection is key to success.
Spaces of permission are gold.
Only you know what you know, only you know
what you value. Only you can change you. We
Listening without an agenda,
don’t take time today, we aren’t offered time
believing that there is never
today, we are afraid of time, of solitude time,
nothing going on…
today, to look ourselves in our own eyes/soul,
those are like offering people
and ask ourselves, why am i doing what i’m
the most precious of jewels.
doing. Does it matter. If that happened, if
Sweet honey.
everyone did that daily… we would be success.
Many of us have been a
We would be finding the problems in the
member of the inside of the
world worth solving. We would start seeing
school mob.
problems as solutions. And none of us would
We have experienced school.
need money or carrots or rewards or praise, to
These are not spaces of
carry on, the thing our soul insists that we do.
permission.
That is rigor. It comes form self-assessment.
Lovely people dwell in them,
no doubt, but all are prisoners
Standardized assessment may be good for
to some degree.
some people, but it is not healthy to insist
everyone participate in order to receive their
mark of value/success.

1) Self reflect.
2) Spaces of permission.

I have you right now, for some reason, you are taking this in. So perhaps, I can
grant you some permission, perhaps permission you are waiting for, to be you.

Take time now, to self-reflect. Talk to you, ask why you do what you do.

The next slide is a prompt only if you feel the need, if you feel so inclined, to
use it.

If you don’t want/need this time to self-reflect, perhaps you could see it as a
moment of silence, for all the years, of those 7 hours a day, we call school,
where we killed
a bit of this person,
and a bit of that one,
by encouraging them to be..
other people.

And if you don’t believe this is worth changing up, perhaps spend some time with
Seth Godin’s words, as he so eloquently paints our picture, and as he encourages us to
Stop Stealing Dreams. Let’s change the conversation. Change it, change us.

rid yourself of mind chatter…

Turn the lights down, crank up the volume, take a listen..

behind-every-old-general

why

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