Push the Future

Michael Furdyk, one of North America’s leading technology entrepreneurs, closed out the presentations for PUSH 2008 discussing the challenges we face and how technology can empower us to improve health, the environment and education.

Furdyk started his career in technology before he entered high school - he launched his first web site in eighth grade. He has co-founded and sold two successful internet-based companies- Mydesktop.com and buybuddy.com. His most recent venture is TakingITGlobal, which connects youth globally and helps them get involved in projects to better their local and global communities – changes that are affecting the planet.

“If we can inspire them at the right age there is no amount of change that can’t happen,” said Furdyk.

Furdyk and his partner developed the idea of a web site where people could go to learn about global issues. That was the start of TakingITGlobal.com. It was the world’s first social network for social good.

TakingITGlobal developed training programs for teachers and students. At a school in West Philadelphia TakingITGlobal gave a laptop to every child and introduced a social network that exposed peers around the world. Teachers said that many of the students became unlikely friends. They created bonds across the country and world with the people they had met through the site.

In 2006 almost one half of students dropped out of high school because they were bored. 90 percent of dropouts were passing students. What is wrong with that? TakingITGlobal works to teach students in a fun, challenging way to keep them intrigued. If the dropout rate is lowered 1/5, the U.S. would save 18 billion dollars annually.

TakingITGlobal has many different features to fulfill its mission - to inspire, inform and involve. Features include: a global gallery, Commit to a Better World, downloadable guides to action, educational classroom games, a page on issues and lastly 3.5 million pages about countries, states and cities around the world.

The user base of TakingITGlobal is worldwide and only increasing. Thirty-one percent of users are from North America, 22 percent of users are in Africa and 20 percent of users are in Asia. TakingITGlobal is working to make information available off-line, by SMS text messages and textbooks – textbooks will reach 8 million people in the next decade.

Studies show that on average teenagers are as competent as adults. There is a proven link between their being treated as a child and behavioral problems. Young people are capable and competent - teachers need to engage them because they have great ideas.

TakingITGlobal has been on-line for eight years. 2.5 million people used the site in 2007. The site is available in 12 languages. It has had 250,000 downloads and over 35,000 actions have been taken through the site in a six month period. Youth are engaged from every country on the planet.

If young people are learning this much from TakingITGlobal and becoming involved with important global issues, think about how it is going to change the world.

Posted by Melissa Turtinen

Dr. Eboo Patel followed the Redeemer Kids perfectly with his discussion on the importance of religious pluralism and its significance for the future on Tuesday morning to start the last day of PUSH 2008.

Patel is the founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core. He wrote the book Acts of Faith and co-wrote the book Building the interfaith Youth Movement with Patrice Brodeur. Patel is an Ashoka Fellow and has been featured in various types of media including NPR, CNN and the Chicago Tribune.

“Muslim extremist murders Christian pilgrim.”

Most people read that headline as Muslim | Christian. Patel believes that people need to start reading that line extremist | pilgrim.

“If we read the line Muslims against Christians…” said Patel. “We are all going to be lost.”

That is one example of the faith line that is bound to destroy people in the 21st century. There are many factors leading to the faith line.

• The unexpected religious revival that we have experienced in the last few years

• The youth bulge – the majority of the world is the youth.

• The breakdown of socioeconomic trends – including the difficulty for many to get viable employment in traditional jobs.

• The increased interaction of people from all different backgrounds living together

But what does this mean? The youth is the most influenced age group in our society because they are looking for a clear identity and to have a powerful impact on the world, but still haven’t made up their minds on where they want to go in life.

“My fear is that the people who have figured out the energy at these four convergent trends [factors leading to the faith line] are religious extremists,” said Patel. “Every time you turn on the television you see someone murdering someone else to the soundtrack of prayer.”

How old are those murderers? Why is religious extremism a movement of young people taking action? It’s because religious extremists build from the youth.

Patel explains how vulnerable some young people are with a quotation from the late Chicago African-American poet Gwendolyn Brooks: “I shall create if not a note, a hole; if not an overture, a desecration.”

Bin Laden was 14 years-old when he was recruited to Al Qaeda. He was on a soccer field at an elite academy. How does this happen? It’s because religious extremists understand the power they have to influence the youth.

On the other hand, how old was the Dali Lama when he started his movement – 19 years-old; Martin Luther King Jr. was 26 when he led the Montgomery bus boycott. Youth can be influenced with extremism or pluralism.

What is going to make a difference in the way the world goes? Patel believes it is youth, his basic idea behind the Interfaith Youth Core.

The Interfaith Youth Core believes that we need to build religious pluralism and institutions nurturing young people can make that happen.

“The central challenge is to have young people be the leaders in religious pluralism and be the architects of a society in which people from different backgrounds live in equal dignity and mutual loyalty,” said Patel.

Posted by Melissa Turtinen

Tuesday morning, PUSH 2008 began with Cecily Sommers announcing a newly established partnership between The Push Institute and the Redeemer Center for Life, a program of Redeemer Lutheran Church, which serves a mostly segregated area in North Minneapolis. This special relationship with Redeemer developed through the Institute’s part-time intern, Karis Thompson, who is also a Redeemer staff member.

The collaboration will involve a scholarship program that will make possible the participation of Redeemer youth in the annual PUSH conference as well as a year-long curriculum, in which The Push Institute will find partners to help the Redeemer Center host events, develop mentor/mentee relationships, and assist in meeting other community needs.

The program is modeled after the award-winning Harlem Children’s Zone, which covers a 100-block area within Harlem and delivers education, health care, job skills training and parenting classes, among other services.  Currently, 80% of its $35 million budget is from private contributions.

The Redeemer Kids group, which included some youth leaders, presented the audience with three multidisciplinary pieces.  The first was in rap style, performed by a young man who introduced himself as the group’s host.  He said it was a journey rather than a poem, even though many of the lines rhymed.  Here are a few of the verses:

“I was born within the valley of peace ….”

“Hands reaching out for freedom, but it never seems to come ….”

“Hands through the clouds ….”

“They clipped my wings before I had a chance to fly ….”

“A dream is a silly thing to put your hope in ….”

“What happens to a dream deferred? ….”

The rapper was gradually joined on stage by other members of the group, including a break dancer who seemed to spend as much time on his head as on his feet.

The second piece, urging problem solving, collaboration, dialog and activism and led by a young woman, was a slower rhythmic recital composed just for PUSH 2008 :

“Some people say stop these tears ….”

“With no struggle there can be no gain ….”

“Some people in this system test our lives ….”

“If we don’t want to right it, then we must be insane ….”

“It’s time for the rich and the poor to join hands ….”

“All you people here together are powerful ….”

“We should know by now that nothin’s ever been solved with a gun ….”

“So don’t sit back ….  With your Push ….”

“If we sing it together we can never come unglued ….”

The last piece, about faith, had the audience standing up, swaying and clapping their hands above their heads in time with the music. 

The enthusiasm generated by the Redeemer Kids was truly contagious.

Posted by Wallys Conhaim

J.D. Steele closed out the first full day of PUSH 2008 on Monday evening with a performance about what he has been doing in Africa. He entertained the audience with a cultural experience and music.

A little background: Steele and his family began touring the international hit show “Gospel at Colonus” with Morgan Freeman around the world. The show had a nine-month run on Broadway in 1988. After that success, The Steeles signed their first record deal. Since then J.D. Steele has produced, performed and recorded six Steele albums and has written, produced and performed with many artists including Prince, Fine Young Cannibals and Donald Fagen. He has also written many songs and arranged credits for movies such as “Corina, Corina”, “Blankman” the award-winning documentary “Hoop Dreams” and was nominated for an Emmy Award for the PBS version of “Gospel at Colonus”.

But those accomplishments are nothing compared to what he has been doing recently. He went to Nairobi, Kenya to work with a group of children in the Shangilia (meaning rejoice child of Africa) orphanage. At the orphanage he worked with the children singing songs.

Steele played a video of the children and the town the orphanage is in. The video gave a personal look inside the town, the orphanage and the children. He described the town as a place of hopefulness. The people are happy and excited all the time, with hope for change in the future.

“They are truly my heart,” Steele said about the children.

As the video was playing, Steele started performing, explaining all that he and the children have done. They took their first airplane to Greece and did multiple concerts. They have been aired on BBC and appeared at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and have gotten funding for a new school just outside of the city.

Steele ended his performance with two songs, one about saving Africa and the other about riding on the wings of love.

“I’m all the things I have done; I’m all the things I have seen,” sang Steele in the song “On the Wings of Love.”

“It will inspire you, take you higher.”

Posted by Melissa Turtinen

Nate Garvis, Vice President of Government Affairs for Target Corporation, spoke in the political section of PUSH 2008 about leadership in reverse.

He is responsible for political, legislative and regulatory affairs at the international, federal, state and local levels of government. He is recognized as a thought leader in the areas of integrated public engagement strategies and emerging trends in the interrelationships between multi-national corporations, non-governmental advocacy groups and governmental institutions.

Garvis started by asking an unanswerable question, “What is the meaning of life?” No one knows the answer, but finding the meaning of life is the path of humanity, it’s what public policy has always been about.

Public policy is measured in outcomes. Too often things are discussed by inputs, but at the end of the day we experience outcomes.

Our dilemma is mobility- the mobility of information. Right now, we live in an age of storytelling. It has never been easier to get your story out there, and that is what is needed in the consumer world – consumer input to get the outcomes you want.

Garvis gave the example of a toolbox: it isn’t about one tool, it’s important to have the entire box. These tools are how people get what they want. The first tool in the box is being literate, not how well you read, but how you know the authentic qualities of that technology or institution – institutions such as government, business or NGOs/ non-profits.

The next tool in the box is the “how” not the “what.” It is important to know how institutions or technologies do what they do, not what they do. Institutions, such as the Target Corporation, need to listen to the consumer and know what they want, everything they want.

The consumer is in command. Be literate. As the consumer, express what you want and be a conspicuous consumer.

“It used to be, I’m rich and famous and I drive a Ferrari, you can’t,” said Garvis. “Now it is I’m rich and famous and I drive a Hybrid, why don’t you? No one said boycott the Ferrari, it’s that more people want the Hybrid.”

We need to practice a reward culture. Institutions are playing not to lose. We need to live in a world where we want to win, and where as many people as possible win. We need to enable these institutions, be clearer about what we want and reward good behavior.

We should look at the whole tool box of institutional energy that is capable of doing so much good, but also capable of many screw ups.

“As a consumer we owe it to these folks to tell them exactly what we want. Our job [as the institution] is to be better listeners than ever, to provide as much value as possible,” said Garvis.

Doing this is “leadership in reverse.” The consumer is leading the institution to get the right outcome.

Posted by Melissa Turtinen

In an extraordinarily moving hour after lunch, Rich and Yvonne Dutra-St. John, founders of the Challenge Day, gave participants a taste of the transformative experience, which is now practiced with youth in almost all US states and Canadian provinces as well as in Germany and elsewhere in the world.

The vision of the program is “that every child could someday live in a world where they feel safe, loved and celebrated.”  The founders launched it after years of professional work that dealt with symptoms, such as drug addiction and crime, and wanted to address the real causes of these symptoms – separation, anxiety and loneliness in our society, in their view. 

“Why do some people need to get “into the system” after drug treatment or something else before they can get the love and attention they deserve?” Rich and Yvonne asked themselves.  “21^st Century teens are under more pressure and less equipped than ever before,” they said.

“Our goal became to create a program that was safe enough and powerful enough to bring everyone together on campus,” Yvonne said — different races, body types, economic situations and all other factors that separate people. “If we settle for tolerance, we have failed.  Our goal became to bring them together in love.”

Videos in high school settings showed how the Challenge Day program achieves its goals of breaking down barriers, starting with games to loosen things up and proceeding quickly into participants’ revealing some of their most difficult experiences, each completing the sentence to their peers, “If you really knew me, you would know …” They took a stand — “crossing the line” across the gym – admitting to difficult issues in their lives, issues that are rarely discussed: if they had ever been hurt or judged because of the color of their skin, because somebody thought them too fat or thin, if they had ever been humiliated in a classroom by a teacher or student, if they had ever been teased or hurt for a need to wear glasses, and more.

The process ends in an amazing level of new understanding and commitment to take on the challenge of changing the environment in the larger student body.

In a similar vein, PUSH 2008 participants were asked to stand up in silence at their seats and recognize their colleagues who also answered positively by standing if they had ever felt alone in school (almost all audience members), been called stupid or lazy or not good enough, been hurt or judged because of the color of their skin, ever been or had a family member homeless or on welfare, ever witnessed or been part of an act of violence (many), ever seriously considered or attempted suicide or knew someone who had (more than anyone could imagine), and more.  This was an experience that brought tears to the eyes of many audience members.

A second audience exercise asked participants in teams to practice the tools the Challenge Day leaders believe to be the two most important tools that are needed in our lives, in  their philosophy:  being “real” by telling the truth, and offering the gift of listening.

To “be the change” we have to accept the challenge to do our part. “Be the difference,” Yvonne and Rich urge us.  “Find out what we are passionate about in this world.  Commit to doing one intentional act to make a difference every day” — something of service to help another human being.

Just think what a difference it would make if you consider the multiplier impacts of the days, weeks and months of these simple acts.

Posted by Wallys Conhaim

After viewing a 15-minute video presentation of Challenge Day at last year’s PUSH conference, there was hardly a dry eye in the house.

This year, Rich & Yvonne Dutra St. John, Challenge Day founders, are coming to PUSH to share their profoundly transformative work with us. Just watching a brief segment of their 2000 Emmy Award winning documentary The Teen Files: Surviving High School (below), gives you a sense of why this work is so important, and why we’re thrilled to have Rich & Yvonne be a part of PUSH 2008: The Fertile Delta.

Challenge Day was featured on Oprah in 2006 as Oprah’s High School Challenge. Witnessing the tremendous heart and humanity that this program stirred in teenagers who’d been both victims and perpetrators of racism, prejudice and extreme bullying, Oprah said, “This is how we change the world”. And later, “I believe this show represents the very idea of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream fulfilled. It is the dream of giving hope a chance, giving peace a chance, giving love a chance”.

Now, Forty-five years after Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, we’ll revisit its underlying theme of healing great divides and inventing bright futures at PUSH 2008. Beginning the evening of Sunday, June 15, we’ll spend three days digging in The Fertile Delta for new solutions and models to revive Dr. King’s vision for these times.

We’ll dig into the relationship between change and leadership.We’ll dig for innovation potentials in the widening gulf between extremes in wealth, politics, religion and technology. We’ll dig for the strategies and relationships that put it all into action.

And we’ll learn from people who’re already improving performance in economic development, public policy, business, social systems and technology. Throughout the program we’ll be treated to presentations such as Challenge Day, and performances by musicians, actors, film and story-tellers that help digest all the juicy content into something meaningful for each attendee.

This unique mix of experiences has earned PUSH its reputation as “…the rising star of executive conferences…” (Conferenza Premium Reports), and prompted Howard Rheingold to say “PUSH is the best conference ever! I speak at a lot of these things, and there’s a heart and soul at PUSH that makes it stand apart from all the others.”

We look forward to sharing it with you.
(Register here for one of the last 35 tickets)

If you can do it, or send a group from your organization, I highly recommend the Global Institute for Tomorrow (GIFT)’s Leadership Training in Beijing this August. If you’re interested, contact Chandran Nair [cnair AT global-inst DOT org] by the end of March.
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The YLP is designed for anyone with leadership potential, is interested in globalisation and development issues, and wants to work for positive solutions, regardless of his or her nationality, industry or subject discipline. Normally, participants are from 28 to 45 years of age.
The course is ideal for individuals who:
• Are poised for rapid career progression
• Have demonstrated leadership ability and need international exposure
• Have worked in demanding management positions in a global organisation
• Are at the stage in their careers where a posting to an overseas location under unusual circumstances is likely
• Have worked in a multi-disciplinary and multicultural team
• Are proficient in English and have a working knowledge of one or more other languages
• Have a growing understanding of the role of business in society in a globalised world
• Have an interest in how leadership in Asia will need to evolve to meet the challenge of the next 25 years
• Desire to complement formal business training such as an MBA with experiential immersion learning
• Are flexible and adaptable, with a curiosity for the different

Chandran Nair, Founder and Chief Executive of the Global Institute for Tomorrow (GIFT), is one of our speakers for PUSH 2008: The Fertile Delta. GIFT is based in Beijing, and its work is focused on sustainable business (and, by definition, social and environmental) for Asia, offering “Honest Inquiry. Asia’s World View. Ideas to Action.”

GIFT has an inspiring program for training Global Young Leaders, which had its beginning at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2005. Its next project takes students and executives to business opportunities in Cambodia:

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