Reclaiming Resilience - Buzz Words are a Bitch!

"No, I've always been impressed with the tremendous resilience of the American economy. I think over the years, over the decades, it's demonstrated this tremendous ability to take severe body blows, if you will, and bounce back." - Dick Cheney

Need we give further evidence of the need to Reclaim Resilience? 

You are reading this because you are willing to stand out in a crowd and ask "what exactly does that mean?" You are being invited to discuss and explore the meaning of resiliency with a select group of Calgarians who like you are actively engaged in building a better city.

What is resilience? Is it just the next word to be worked into mission statements? Is resilience a "you either got it or you don't" kind of thing? Can resilience be built? What are the key elements of a resilient individual, organization, system? In a world where we address today's challenges with last year's solutions, is there any internal motivation for resilience? If not, can true resilience be achieved based on external motivators? 

Would  like to attend this event? Tell us why? And soon too, the past two breakfasts completely sold out in a matter of days.

Is ‘resilience’ just another buzz word? It well might be, or at least is in danger of becoming so. The word ‘resilience’ is being used quite a lot recently and as often happens with popular ideas, their very popularity can lead to over-use with the subsequent eroding of the important thinking behind the word. What the word ‘resilience’ represents is something quite worthwhile and it would be a good thing if we kept it alive and real.  - Peter Slattery

My Vote Can

As you know, a federal election is in full bloom even if the flowers aren't.
 
Make It Good is concerned about our resiliency. We believe the most important thing we can do is to focus attention on the issues that distract us form achieving this.
 
We have been told, over and over, that the effective function of our democracy (and politics in general) is a keystone to a resilient society.
 
Unfortunately, the political experience for most people just drives their cynicism higher while leaving them confused and feeling a little abused.
 
In the fall of 2010, Make it Good hosted an event called "My Vote Could Have Changed That" where we engaged Mayoral candidates in a dialogue about their thinking styles and their understanding about how democracy and politics work. It was a very positive experience on a number of levels.
 
The candidates behaved differently and the response from the attendees indicated they felt better equipped to decide whom they would put to work for them and their city.
 
There are enough people talking about issues. What happens when the issues go away? We want to encourage you to go a bit deeper and look at the ideas and the candidates.
 
We invite you to visit myvotecan.org where you will find an introduction to some thought-provoking content that is sure to get you thinking not only about the candidate's motivation but also about how they think and make decisions.  We challenge you to engage in the material and to share this with others.
 
Smarter voters will improve the whole experience of politics. We are at the root of the way the media and politicians behave - change needs to start with us.

Down to Earth Week: March 28 - April 1

For more details on the week long events click here:

Real "Good" Breakfast

Making things “good” is at the centre of what we do.  A selection of Calgary's movers and shakers vital to the health of our community were chosen to join us for a real "good" breakfast!

So what is "good?" Do we take "good" for granted? Do we know "good" when you see it? How do we recognize "good?" Does "good" even matter? Is making huge profits "good?" Is keeping a secret "good?" Is leaking secrets "good?" Is "good" really the enemy of "great?" We think this is well worth a conversation.
 
And that's what we spoke about.

On March 16th, 36 of Calgary's community leaders joined us to explore and discuss the purpose of good, identifying good and knowing when something is good!  What a fascinating and stimulating discussion!

To help prime everyone's brains before the breakfast, we offered three links dealing with Sam Harris' controversial book 'The Moral Landscape' in which he argues that science can be used to determine what is 'good.'

• The first is a TED talk by Sam Harris 
• The next is a Globe and Mail Article which interviews Sam Harris and serves as an excellent introduction and summary
• A response by Sam Harris 

We are currently working on a "Real Good Paper" to summarize and explore some of the discussion.  Check back to see what we found!

Woody Tasch - Slow Money: Understanding the Flow of Funds

February 23, 2010 7:00 - 9:00pm John Dutton Theatre, WR Castell Central Library: 616 Macleod Trail SE Calgary

Profit literally means “to make progress”. But in a world of fast money where people and planet are often removed from transactions, are we really progressing? By slowing money down we can reshape our local economy and establish communities and businesses that address our most pressing social and environmental problems. Come learn what’s possible in Calgary.

Woody Tasch – Founder and chairman of the Slow Money Alliance and “the prophet of modest profit”

Kris Vester – Owner of Blue Mountain Biodynamic Farms & president of Slow Food Calgary

Rob Sinclair – Owner of Conscious Brands™ and community mortgage innovator

Click here to register.

A great article about Mr. Tasch click here.

CBC’s Alberta@noon interview Have a listen - http://www.cbc.ca/albertaatnoon/ (Slow Money)