Helping Portfolio

The year has started off well with an amazing Melbourne summer, just the right heat to feel the sun and just enough cool reprieve to function with fun.  I have been reflecting on how we can help the world be sustainable, well and peaceful…small issues.  I’ve come across some excellent examples of how we can be exceptional helpers.  Let me share with you my Helping Portfolio:

 

1. Social Enterprises

I spent a lot of the summer reading Daniel Flynn’s Chapter One book on co-creating thankyou a successful and dynamic social enterprise.  Thankyou has generated over $5 million of profits and all that money has been directed to helping the poor.  They are a true cause-based enterprise who are radically changing the fast moving consumer goods industry.  Their passion, creativity, ingenuity and naivety have enabled them to capture market share in established markets which are tough to break into.  They are a great example of Millennials getting on with fixing problems by radically transforming traditional business thinking and practices.  When I buy my thankyou hand wash and body wash I know I am helping the world through my conscious retail choices.  It is a very clever yet simple way of making a positive difference and helping the world each day.  Thankyou is an exceptional leading social enterprise that is helping all its stakeholders every day.

We have 12 charities that we support locally and globally and we donate to help the causes we are passionate about.  Our causes include cancer cures, wellness, environmental sustainability, supporting refugees, saving horses and helping the poor.  There is an area that we have not overtly supported yet and that is in our own backyard.  In this new era of intelligence where cognitive augmentation, artificial intelligence (AI) and nanotechnology is evolving rapidly, we have a grand opportunity to help Australians become more STEM savvy and embrace and lead collaboration between humans and robots.  We are working on setting aside a significant percentage of our profits and directing the funds to up-skill Australians in practical STEM competencies, particularly those that need job retraining or are disadvantaged – it’s still a work-in-progress.  The plan is to ourselves embrace the coming of the intelligence age.

My 11 year old daughter spent a term at school coding.  She was introduced to making applications, electronic circuits and software programs.  Her future will be filled with AI and I want her to be equipped and capable of embracing the intelligence age as we were capable of embracing the industrial revolution and the information age.

2. Everyone needs a ‘Donna’

I also caught up on one of my favorite shows Suits and found myself desiring a ‘Donna’ in my life.  For those of you who do not know about Donna she is a magical, intuitive, intelligent and sassy Executive Assistant that can do all.  She is proactive, friendly and firm and has an amazing knack of accessing people, information and intelligence through her extensive contacts and influencing techniques.  Donna is a magnificent helper and I really want to be more like her.  She uses all her intelligences – head, heart and gut (analytical, emotional and intuition) and she has amazing knowing and wisdom.

I know she is a fictional character but what if we could find the ‘Donna’ within us to effortlessly help others and ourselves.  In my coaching I mostly help other’s realize they are more than just their brains.  I help people tune into their heart and use their emotional intelligence and tune into their gut to switch on their intuition.   Marvin Oka and Grant Soosalu published mBraining research that validates our multiple intelligences.  The Heartmath Institute and Howard Gardner have many research studies of our amazing multiple intelligences.  When she was in year 2, my daughter’s teachers helped her work out that she had preferences toward kinesthetic and musical intelligences.  To be more helpful to ourselves and others, we need to tap into our own multiple intelligences. 

The knowing peace is a curious area for me, when I am in my element and working with leaders I tap into more knowledge and know-how than is just within me.  I tap into the collective intelligence or the collective unconscious.  I am not sure what the theoretical construct is – a combination of Jung, Pierre Levy and new age deliberate receiving.  The leaders and I co-create the knowledge in the space we have created and it is unplanned and spontaneous.  Imagine if we are all capable of this - how much more could we achieve and be?

3. Identify your type of help

When I was 16, one of my teachers asked me what I wanted to do and be in my life.  It was the first time anyone had asked me that question.  The gift my teacher, Mr Quin, gave me was the gift of choice.  He made me realise that I had a choice of what I wanted to do and be – it was so empowering.  The answer I blurted out was “I want to help people.” 

The definition of Help is to make it easier or possible for someone to do something by offering them ones services or resources.  Over the years I have been clumsy in helping others who actually never wanted help.  I have also realized you can’t help people who do not want to help themselves.  Being a witness and confidante can be all the help some people want with no advice or projection.  The magic happens when you attract people who want help and you can help each other – the exchange is beneficial for the giver and receiver.  What type of help do you offer and what type of help do you need?

As Simon Sinek states in his book Together is Better:

“The value of our lives is not determined by what we do for ourselves.  The value of our lives is determined by what we do for others.”  How should we ask people to judge our legacies... by the number of emails we answer or how many times we went to the gym? Or by the character of the children we raise and the people we led?  Or the impact we had in the lives of people around us…

I am still working on my Helpful Portfolio looking forward to giving and receiving in 2017.