On memory and ground penetrating radar: Ken’s reflections on the remains of Indigenous children found The recent discovery of the remains of Indigenous children at a number of residential school sites has reverberated through communities across Canada and around the world this summer. Ken and members of the Human Venture community discussed their learning and reflections during the regular Friday … Read More
Thank you to our volunteers
by Laura Kennet Did you know… Human Venture is supported by a team of volunteers? Did you know… Further explorations into human learning ecology and development of resources that are shared with the community are undertaken by volunteer Associates who draw on the Human Venture framework in an effort to think, see, and care differently? Did you know… By reading … Read More
Part 2: Strategy, Grand Strategy, and Values
by Nick Kalogirou This is Part 2 of a series. Part 1: Pursuing Responsible Analytics. What is strategy? Strategy is derived from the Greek word “strategos” – the skill of a general. In a military context, a general is trying to achieve a goal while being surrounded by the fog of war (ignorance). Not only is the general trying to … Read More
Complexity Shock, Finding Patterns, and Adapting
by Laura Kennett and Eleanor Finger Introduction What a year! Full of disruption and adaptation, over and over again. If this sounds like a pattern, then you are correct. Although life is full of patterns, the emergence of COVID-19 has given us an excellent opportunity to hone our pattern recognition skills. Large-scale, sustained and rapidly spreading global “shocks” like the pandemic trigger a … Read More
Part 1: Pursuing Responsible Analytics
by Nick Kalogirou Analytics and strategy help us navigate the fog of war, but don’t necessarily make us responsible or wise. The ascendance of analytics and its importance in strategy today is truly remarkable. One only needs to admire the seemingly simple act of a Google search to marvel at how analytics is affecting our ability to adapt and learn. … Read More
Recommended Reading: 2020 Book List
The Human Venture publishes a list of books annually. The list of books includes those that were either drawn on in 2020 to support our on-going explorations and programming or were acquired in recognition that they filled a gap and could be useful in the future. The Human Venture community has read all of the books on this list and … Read More
2020 Solstice Message
by Jason Low It’s amazing to think that Ken has been with the Human Venture community for 20 years now. With that in mind, he wanted to share something that happened around this last Remembrance Day 2020 that overlaps with the solstice season. As usual, Ken had a book that he was going to recommend during one of the bi-weekly … Read More
Network Governance as an Empowerment Tool
by Blythe Butler and Sami Berger One of the functions of pioneer leadership is to build others’ capacity to understand and act in their contexts in more adaptive ways. This means helping others see “what to do and how to do it in a given situation” (Human Venture map 12.3). Even though we work with a lot of different groups, … Read More
Learnings From Parenting: Racism
by Lindsay Mitchell “I hate black people.” – Four-year-old white girl. These are words you never wish to hear spoken at all, let alone to hear them coming from your own daughter. But they did. I remember we were driving in the car. I don’t remember where we were driving to or from, only that we were together in the … Read More
An Opportunity for Civilizational Change
Image: Jason Wong, Unsplash by Elizabeth Dozois “There seems little doubt that we are currently in the midst of one of the great critical transitions of the human journey, and yet it is not at all clear where we will end up once our current system resolves into a newly stable state.” (Jeremy Lent1) “Never let a good crisis go … Read More