Peter Senge & Organizations as Living Systems

By Juan Sebastián Cárdenas Salas

“Business and human endeavors are systems…we tend to focus on snapshots of isolated parts of the system. And wonder why our deepest problems never get solved.”[1]

Peter Senge

When Peter Senge launched his materialized vision about the management of organizations in 1990 with a famous book called The Fifth discipline: The Art and Practice of the learning Organization, he encouraged a revolution on defined paradigms linked to what an organization is. In this book Senge introduced the innovative concept of Learning organization which is basically those who are immersed in a constant process of adaptation, improvement, and evolution, where people are constantly setting up their collective intelligence “learning how to learn together” (Senge, 2006). This is the key point to understanding how his vision impacted the paradigms of business more than 20 years ago, and how it is still sowing a new conscience around the business practices.

Peter Senge is currently senior professor at MIT and founder of SOL (Society of Learning Organizations), a non-profit organization composed of researchers, consultants and corporations constantly working for the enhancement and wellness of organizations (Senge, 2008). Because of his achievements in the field of organizational management, he was named the “Strategist of the Century” and one of 24 personalities who has boosted the way business is led today (Smith, 2001).

I strongly think it is a fact that those who work -or are interested- in the realm of organizations are familiar with Peter Senge’s statements. However, the concept of learning organization requires going beyond the criteria of management. It requires thinking business as a Human Community[2] or a living being whose intelligence, continuous capacity of adaptation, and evolution, depends on its cells: People. As is known “Cells are the smallest form of life—the functional and structural units of all living things” (Machalek, 2011). Therefore, as human beings we are those essentials forms of life from organizations. Our human behavior, as an integrated system of cells, defines the biopsychosocial[3] state of business that we are shaping, and this system affects whether or not an organization is healthy (has a sustainable life) or has a type of disease. In that way, business, similar to humans, can have a long healthy life, or die of cancer (cells degeneration). So to understand organizations as living beings is quite relevant, as is being conscious of its developing and improvement as a human. 

In order to explain the concept of business as a human Community, Senge starts by thinking about the principal issues where organizations are involved: energy, climate change, food, water, materials waste and toxicity. In concordance, he considers business are “the most powerful [institutions] in our modern society,” (Senge, Oct. 2006) whose influence has a huge impact on developing and sustainable progress of our planet. On one hand, Senge affirms that:

“Many good business are naturally concerned about their impact on their local environment, both the communities in which they operate and the natural systems… you could define a good business by its sensitivity to its environment.” (Senge, Oct. 2006).

On the other hand, many of them because of the capacity of power and control used in order to privilege a few at the expense of many, are negligent of “philanthropic gestures” (Senge, Oct. 2006) and do not truly care about these issues. They instead focus on getting the maximum monetary profit. Hence, according to Senge (Oct.2006), “the ones that survive for a long time are relatively more responsible and sensitive than those that aren't.” Those that are conscious to invest in social- environmental capital will have a profitable life generated by trust from its stakeholders.

In addition, to keep clarifying what the “organic model of the corporation” is, Senge (Oct. 2006) describes the origin of the problem which, according to him, comes from the last more than 80 years of education on business schools whose “dominant mythology” has been focusing in the main aim of a business is maximizing “return on investor’s capital”. If we stare two centuries back, this foundation, indeed, starts with the Industrial Revolution where developing machines to enhance industrial process released a “monster of progress” which was devouring all resources for getting the maximum monetary income regardless whether it implies a sustainable process or not. Therefore, according to Senge (Oct. 2006), it established the mythology of “companies as [machines] for making money” whose outcome we can compare to the famous fable of The Goose With the Golden Egg where the owner, because of his desire for power, killed his company -The Goose- breaking its sustainable process: one golden egg every day. Thus, Senge affirms that making money is not related to making profit:

“For a human community, profit is the consequence of being effective in pursuit of your purpose or mission. Or, is a company first and foremost a machine for making money, and the people and relationships among them is secondary, they are simply "human resources" needed by this machine.” (Senge, Oct. 2006). 

I consider it is one of the most important statements to understand an organization as an intelligent living being. A machine does not have conscience, whereas “as a human community we have an ethical foundation based on our empathy and compassion for the larger living systems within which we as a living system exist.” (Senge, Oct. 2006). 

It is a fact that putting in practice this vision is not easy because it is not only related to business but has to do with the whole systems where we coexist with others in life. This demands a high level of sustainability and responsibility. Moreover, our human complexity is a factor which is not even totally clear to understand. However, the curiosity, innovative spirit, and passion of some visionaries who habit this whole system that we know as the world, have allowed us to pick up the produce of progress and evolution despite the barriers of conscience and uncertainty to which we are constantly exposed.

References

“About Peter Senge” SOLONLINE.com April 2008. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. <http://www.solonline.org/?page=PeterSengebio>.

“Biopsychosocial” Merriam Webster Dictionary Online. MERRIAM-WEBSTER.com 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/biopsychosocial>.

Machalek, Alisa Z. “Preface: The Microscopic Metropolis Inside You.” National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH). 22 Apr. 2011. Web. 09 Nov. 2013. <http://publications.nigms.nih.gov/insidethecell/preface.html>.

“Peter M. Senge Quotes” GOODREADS.com 2013. Web. 08 Nov. 2013. <http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/21072.Peter_M_Senge>.

Senge, Peter. “Business as a Human Community - Interview with Peter Senge” SGIQUARTERLY.org Oct. 2006. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. <http://www.sgiquarterly.org/feature2006Oct-3.html>.

Senge, Peter. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. Revised ed. Random House LLC, 2006. Googlebooks.com. Web. 08 Nov. 2013. <http://books.google.com/books?id=qcHB5iEDSlgC&printsec=frontcover&hl=es&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false>.

Smith, Mark K. “Peter Senge and the learning organization”. INFED.org 2001. Web. 09 Nov. 2013. <http://infed.org/mobi/peter-senge-and-the-learning-organization/>.

“The Goose With the Golden Egg” BARTLEBY.com 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://www.bartleby.com/17/1/57.html>.

[1] Look reference “Peter M. Senge Quotes”

[2] Look reference “Business as a Human Community - Interview with Peter Senge”

[3] “Relating to, or concerned with the biological, psychological, and social aspects” (“Biopsychosocial”). Businesses as living systems are Biopsychosocial systems.

Sensitive dialogs through communication strategies

By Juan Sebastián Cárdenas Salas

We are shaped to be connected with others, and communication is the essential feed to achieve this connection. As humans, we are connected with this world through the senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. As a result, some people are more visual, while others are more auditory, or kinesthetic[1]. Hence, communication is not only related to talking, it is related to all the senses. Thus, a brand communication plan requires an accurate work to outline a strong, coherent and touchable sensorial identity. As a strategist in this realm, I want to expose a tool that I called “the emotional rational” which has been useful in my different endeavors regardless of the type and weight. I developed this tool looking for how to ensure a conscious rapport with costumers, the key of an effective communication strategy. It is basically divided in four segments whose aim is identify the specific communication needs in relation to the company’s culture and its identity: Proposal of value, Personality, Sensorial perception, and Inspiration-projection. I will expose each one of these steps.

Before defining the strategy, you should ask what the brand difference is. This question allows to identify the proposal of value[2] through three relevant factors. The first is to identify the strengthens, weaknesses, opportunities and treats (SWOT[3]) according to the brand that you want to communicate. All of these factors are related to innovation processes, learning lessons, challenges, enhancements, skills, competitors, etc., that make the difference to boost the strategy. Next, you need to check what rational attributes (functional benefits) are merged in the mind of the stakeholders related to the usability of your product/service, i.e., the functionality. For instance: Starbucks’s Teas are refreshing products with tasty flavors. Then, you have to check what emotional attributes could affect the audience, i.e., the positive sensations. For instance: in Starbucks I feel comfortable in a great atmosphere where I can study or work for a while. This previous analysis allows you having great basis to structure a well-planned strategy. 

As human beings, brands have specific traits, so the second and most important step is to define the tone and style for your plan, asking who the brand is, in order to clarify its identity. You will develop an effective tone and style to start the dialog once you know what personality and verbal expression traits are linked to the brand. You ought to ask basically two questions: If this brand/product/service/event were a person, what adjectives would be describing it and how would it develop a dialog and why? We could easy deduce that Apple[4] is a creative, innovative, smart and artistic brand. Its verbal expression could be emotional, assertive, influencer and inspiring. Thus, you are going to have the hint to establish a relationship with your stakeholders through the actions or activities that you define in your plan. 

Things around make sense when you can feel these. Next, it is important to check how you the brand is going to connect with people through the senses. Therefore, you should ask your clients or costumers what type of images, sounds, scents, and sensations of weight and textures are in their mind when they are thinking about the brand. When I think about Disney World, the first image that comes to mind is Mickey Mouse, then, Cinderella’s Castle. Regarding sounds, immediately I hear to Tinker bell in the Disney’s audio books. When I´m planning to go to the cinema, I start thinking about the smell of pop corn, and if I think about ice cream, I feel the softness in my mouth. As a result, you can enhance your call to action and communication activities using all this background of sensitive information. 

Finally, when you already have a good background of inspiring and useful information to define the strategy, you should apply benchmarking to identify how other similar brands could inspire your plan, not in order to copy it, just to have a wide vision about styles and communication impacts. You must define a time to make real the goals as well. With an accurate timetable you will able to define a well-structured and measurable action plan. You should define your economic resources according to the impact that you wish to get, for this reason, before defining the action plan from your strategy, you have to ask what amount of capital you are willing to invest to get what you want. Remember that the creativity to define it should be even more important than capital. Moreover, with all this prior background of relevant and strategic information which has allowed you to know many things about you, you should be definitely able to be creative. 

In consequence, using this practical tool/survey which is a channel to understand your brand before to communicate it, you will shape an effective dialog to ensure a good and profitable relationship with your stakeholders in all the senses. As human beings, organizations are living beings which need to express an identity. As a strategist of communication and branding you always have to make sure that this expression through communication strategies will be coherent and honest with the promises and actions from the company where you are in charge. People almost always avoid having trusted relations with liars, in the context of organizations it is the same, keep that in mind.

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[1] Look at NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming)


[2] David Aaker’s statement. David Aaker for several years has been a well-recognized strategist in the theory of marketing and branding.


[3] Well-known Marketing tool


[4] Think different is the promise which we can see in its innovative products.

Big brother practices from the U.S. Government, are contagious?

By Juan Sebastián Cárdenas Salas

In the Sci-Fi cult movie “The Matrix”[1] life is an illusion created and controlled by machines. This control is represented by the Service Secret Agents of the Government as guardians inside that illusion whose mission is spying and keeping control over whatever sign of liberty and rebellious behavior against the system by humanity. It is not odd at all The U.S. Secret Service practices surveillance over humans had been the best inspiration for the creators of this movie since this entity has characterized several years ago by the reputation of keeping the world under control troughout spying practices.  For these days (as in the past... and it will be in the future), the polemic about the Government tactics to invade the privacy of people has released the discussion about United Sates as "The Country of the Liberty” once again. The question is will it have a possible solution? On the one hand, there is a background of terrorism attacks and threats which could justify to some extent these intromissions avoiding future possible attacks against The U.S. system and people. On the other hand, is stated the polemic about how “the paranoid”, which has become in a kind of illness truly contagious have infected other instances from The U.S. (especially companies). In my opinion, regardless the cause, the answer is the “Big brother”[2]  practices will continue infecting society, not only in The U.S. but over the whole world.[3]

After the fatidic attacks upon the world trade center at 9/11/01, all The United States was vulnerable. The Government Intelligence Services (The Pentagon) failed in its task to protect the integrity of its nation. Thus, the main learning lesson (undoubtedly) was increased intelligence tactics and procedures of surveillance. In that way the “Big Brother” practices -spying procedures- were considered as an effective tool approved for The Government to weed out whatever sign of terrorism and destroy it, regardless what they needed to do for getting it to protect the country and their people, even going against constitutional rights of privacy and liberty, to preserve “the liberty”. This is may be a great paradox whose complexity is not easy to understand, but for governments or mechanisms of power[4] is really useful to keep propagating this illness. 

Therefore, the background of terrorism attacks and threats which has had The United States, might be a good reason to be paranoid about the possibility of dangerous attacks everywhere (mostly for The Government) and this somatic marker seems to have infected a considerable range of entities which are investing and using technology to spying on people. One example could be the discographic firms. If you download a song -without pay- using one of these open source softwares you can find surfing online, it is possible you receive a legal threat from one of those companies. In addition, could be a considerable amount of companies –including universities- which are surveilling on their people digging into their emails, callings, etc[5]. That is such an additional considerable hint propelled by this contagious effect.

The reality is we all are being watched by the whole system through “agents”, that are not only from governments but from different instances, and our privacy and liberty seem to be an illusion as in “The Matrix”. This surveillance situation won´t has a closely solution since we started to be infected at the time we enter to be part of “the system”, or to be part of this kind of Matrix which is not fictitious. That is the reason why intrusions in the existence of others, distrust and need for control, have been  convened upon the setting up of our human nature… If you had a ring with the power of making yourself invisible, what would you like to do?

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[1] One of the most iconic Sci –Fi films from the end of the last century (1999).

[2] The George Orwell’s Novel - 1984

[3] It is important clarify this problem is not only related to U.S., many governments could have the same illness

[4] This type of excuse doesn’t apply only for U.S. Government.

[5] There are several cases which support this affirmation…do the exercise to find some surfing the web (ask to Google).

What is Sustainability?

By Juan Sebastián Cárdenas Salas

Spanish version: ¿Qué es sostenibilidad?

Source: Google

When Saint Francis of Assisi praised God both through The Brothers Sun and Fire, The Sisters Moon and Water, The Mother Earth, and even The Sister Death, He was thinking in a sustainable way. This thought further than a religious frame is a simple way to understand the complexity of sustainability from several factors of life. Sustainability is living every day with both self awareness and of others -the hardest part-. That “other” is an integral being, a “whole” where we all are sharing together. It could be family, corporation, country, planet, etc. Sustainability is collective thinking and action for evolution of a particular system.

Those who were touched by The Matrix, probably remember the scene when Neo can clearly see the code -the substance- from this unreal environment and thus gets over his enemy, Agent Smith, the conscience barrier. Something similar is what we should get if we truly want to live in a sustainable system which is not an easy way yet neither impossible.

Graduation speech (spring quarter) - International English Program UC Davis

By Juan Sebastián Cárdenas Salas

Date: 7th June 2013

"We are many people here but only one spirit...

First of all I must thank you for this opportunity to represent the voice of the students from all latitudes here today.  I am proud not only for being a representative of my country -Colombia-. I feel proud to be part of the whole world. Here, all we have just one flag whose tonality is white.  On behalf of us, the students, I give thanks to all and every one of the staff from the Extension Center; you are always willing to guide us, help us, and give us additional options for our learning process and relaxing time also. Tina, thank you for the love you always give and the good energy you always have, thank you for all. Special thanks to the teachers for their great job. Teaching is not easy; sharing knowledge through education is a great gift and a great responsibility. Thank you for encourage our English learning in its different ways. A recognition to ourselves for the efforts and achievements in this quarter.

According to some researches, learning is a biological process related to the adaptation of the human beings. I feel the California’s environment; especially the UC Davis (which is an amazing campus), has a kind of magic that allows this adaptation works better. But we are who decide alternatives in addition to the classroom. How do you have lived this experience? What story have you created, or, are you creating now? Those are interesting questions. Some of you are finishing today this part of the story to start a new one, others are just shaping it. At this point is where I want to introduce the topic word that I chose for this speech. I think I have become in a “speech dinosaur” using it, but really every day I do not want only say it, I want to live it:  Take Advantage of (Phrasal verb). According to The Merriam-Webster dictionary Its Definition is: to use something, such as an opportunity, in a way that helps you. Some examples: Take advantage of the privilege to be here, Take advantage of learning every day, Take advantage of make good friends, Take advantage of the opportunity to open your mind to the world. Thus, you can create a good story; write your best composition.

Finally, I would like to close this speech with an inspiring quotation from Stephen Hawking the great British scientist, which is related to the sense of what we are doing here: 

ʽFor millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk. And we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together, to build the impossible. Mankind’s greatest achievements have come about by talking. And it’s greatest failures by NOT talking. It doesn’t have to be like this […] All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.ʾ”

View: Keep Talking - Pink Floyd

The organizations as human beings

“Implicitly, company is an organism, a living organism, a social 

organism, an organization of the organs that constitute it”

Joan Costa[1]

The organizations are not just economic-productive structures, which was an inheritance from the Industrial revolution (Senge, 2006)[2]. Similar to human beings, organizations are biopsychosocial beings with existential and identity needs[3]. According to this point of view, organizations -similar to humans- need to believe in something, have faith and a life purpose, In addition, can be healthy (physical and mentality) but can be sicker as well, thus, suffer disorders, have bad habits -like corruption- and identity issues. A clear example has been the Credit Crunch as an effect from the sickness of the financial sector in U.S. since the deregulation on 80's (Ferguson et al., 2010)[4] , according to Ferguson (et al.) "The financial sector corrupts the political sector of U.S." 

The implantation of human traits related to brands is nothing new, according to Schlesinger and Cerverta (2009)[5] before 60’s had identified reasoning about the brand personality referring about non material dimensions which give character or identity to a product or service. The great difference is among implanting human traits on a brand and define it as an integrally being as such. Implanting traits is what has done in marketing and advertising fields, and unfortunately in many cases it have had incongruities because cannot deny that the history of marketing has shown many brands that have “promised” and “sold” an ideal or experience with basis in human exploitation (Klein, 2000), this is a clear sign of sick organizations. 

Nowadays the philanthropy, anthropology, sociology, ethics and green -sustainability- influences have created an important impact (regulation) over the corporate conception, and have motivated some organizations to think itself as an integral being or live organism. It can highlight the business success story of Apple which is the Steve’s Job legacy for the humanity. Jobs defined Apple as the crossing between humanities – human understanding and its artistic expressions- and technology, which were both his great passions (Isaacson, 2011)[6]. That is the reason why Apple, from Steve’s conception, has won reputation as a dogmatic brand with strong charisma. This brand seduces us to become in its congregation, something related to a type of spiritual connection. The question is whether Apple is inside of its internal corporate reality - shareholders- etc., really coherent with what we see, touch and feel in its products and experiences. Related to humans “We are no perfects” is maybe an affirmation that applies to organizations also, but in the same way, is not an excuse to be aware about the issues that must improved. 

We must know this humanist approach about organizations as humans - live organisms, already has been identified and applied recently by some coaching branches[7] through great thinkers and executors from corporate reality as Maturana[8] and Peter Senge,[9] for instance. It is really interesting realize as a social capital -from a sociology approach- has become in a relevant factor to earn economic capital, therefore, a stronger image, brand awareness, reputation, profitability and perdurability. These aspects allow considering that is time to the humanization of business that means wellness and positive impacts for its stakeholders and its social, cultural and economic context.

[1]From the book Comunicación Corporativa del siglo XXI (Corporate Communication for the 21st century) by Joan Costa (2006).

[2] Look Business as a Human Community Interview with Peter Senge http://www.sgiquarterly.org/feature2006Oct-3.html

[3] Find bibliography from Max Neef (economics Nobel)

[4] Inside Job, documental about the cause and effect of the Credit Crunch in U.S. (2010)

[5] From Naturaleza y dimensionalidad de la personalidad de marca en el ámbito de los servicios. Schlesinger, W. y Cerverta Taulet, A. (2009) http://www.cyta.com.ar/ta0803/v8n3a2.htm 

[6] From the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (2011)

[7] Organizational, Ontological, Transformational, among others.

[8] Biologist, philosopher, one of the founders of Ontological coaching.

[9] Author of the book The fifth Discipline, North American scientist and director of The Center for Organizational Learning (SOL) at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Communication patterns between men and women

By Juan Sebastián Cárdenas Salas

I could never take a chance

of losing love to find romance […]

no I could never take a chance

'Cause I could never understand

the mysterious distance

between a man and a woman

U2

As Mark Gungor[1] shows in a funny way, there many differences between the men and women brains, thus, in their communication as well. He explains that men brain is sorted by “little boxes” and have a box for everything -for the car, money, job, his children, love, etc.-, and when a men discuses a particular subject, go to the particular box which contains this particular subject, pull and open it, and discuses just about the content from that box. The main rule is that boxes do not touch each other. On the other hand, about women, He said that their brains are making by “a big ball of wires” where all is connected -Car with job and children, mother with husband, friends with job, etc. - and all this mix of energy-electricity is called “emotion”. This is one of the reasons why women tend to remember everything and its way to communicate with others. In addition, there are some books and literature which talk about the differences between men and women, one of these examples is the book Men are from Mars, and women are from Venus by John Gray. In this book the author expose as men and women seem to be from different planets. Even being biologically similar and using the same words, its behavior codes and language are different[2]. But as a Lieberman[3] says, “we have all grown up on the same planet, and interact with each other in different ways on a daily basis.” One of the most curious differences shown by different research is that women can talk three times more than the men (look chart 1). Women need to say not only more words than men per day, they are express more than men in all ways.

Chart 1 – “women talk three times more than men” cukmi.com (2011)

Other clear examples shown by Lieberman, is that women are more likely than the men to talk to other women when they have a problem or need to make a decision. Men go to their “caves” where keep their problems to themselves and avoid sharing personal issues…they find its own “box” to fix it. Other pattern according with Gray[4] is that the men -mistakenly- offer solutions and disqualify emotions while the women offer unsolicited advice and instructions. Also, according to Sherwood[5], they have a different ways to carry out a talking or making friends. Women friendships focus on making emotional connections, talk is important to this process “Sharing secrets, relating experiences, revealing problems and discussing are essential during girl’s development.” While men take another approach to talk and friendship “Their camaraderie is not less profound […] Buddy groups tend to be larger, focusing on activities rather than conversation”. Finally, according to Lieberman, although is funny to look communication differences between both, we must be careful to not stereotype and assume that all men and women will act in a certain way. It is interesting to know there are male and female structures into both brains which influence on the personality and communication structure from each person. 

Sources

Cumki.com - Women talking until three times more than men
http://cukmi.com/las-mujeres-hablan-hasta-tres-veces-mas-que-los-hombres/

Lieberman Simma, Differences in Male and Female Communication Styles
http://www.simmalieberman.com/articles/maleandfemale.html

Libro-s.com, Gray John, Men are from Mars, women are from Venus
http://www.libro-s.com/l/gray-john-+-los-hombres-son-de-marte-las-mujeres-de-venus-doc-4358/

Mark Gungor, Tale of Two Brains

http://youtu.be/P77JnDHUw6g

Scribd - digital Library online, Men are from Mars, women are from Venus summary

http://es.scribd.com/doc/51985054/Los-hombres-son-de-Marte-y-las-mujeres-de-Venus-resumen

Sherwood Susan, 10 Ways Men and Women Communicate Differently
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/10-ways-men-women-comminucate-differently.htm

U2, A man and a woman (lyrics)

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/A-Man-And-A-Woman-lyrics-U2/4F73F1112F2ECF0C48256F2000063DDF

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[1] Mark Gungor, Tale of Two Brains (published on YouTube)

[2] Book introduction, libro-s.com

[3] Differences in Male and Female Communication Styles by Simma Lieberman

[4] Men are from Mars, women are from Venus summary publish on Scribd online library

[5] 10 Ways Men and Women Communicate Differently by Susan Sherwood

6 ingredients to prepare a good creativity

By Juan Sebastián Cárdenas Salas

   Creativity doesn’t has a unique recipe, there are many ways to prepare delicious creativity and you are who decides how to do it, but in this case I am going to give you a recipe that I learned to prepare in these years working as a creative person. This recipe has 6 special ingredients which allow you to prepare and taste a good creativity. First of all, you need to have mind and body as a main ingredient, this is important to be connected and try to forget the external issues that bother you…ok I know that is not easy but you need to try to get it. So, you need to start by putting a tablespoon of empathy. Here the success is in capability to connecting with people, listen, reading its signs and try to understand them to be able for interpret its needs. Next, you have to pour a mixed tablespoon of observation. Be curious and unquiet, asking, inquire and research, do not stay with the first meaning, see beyond. Then, you need to add a tablespoon of culture. Fuel your intellect; know what is happening around the world, read. Find and discover different culture codes sharing with people over the world. Fourth, add lots of Lateral thinking. What things I do for inertia? Every day I wake up; I take the same route to come to my university, office, etc… Avoid routines, they are bad for brain. Challenge your brain, guess a Sudoku, solve a puzzle or anything that entertain your brain. The next step is boil all this delicious mixture in an open mind. Creativity demands us to take on a conscientious opened to experiences, an attitude of tolerance and flexibility about perceptions from others. Finally, when the “creativity dough” is ready, you can sweeten it with fun. If we do not feel that what we do is fun for us, maybe we are in the wrong place. Let out your inner child, He will show you marvelous things.

What is the definition of entrepreneur?

By Juan Sebastián Cárdenas Salas

Entrepreneurs/innovators usually are who have learnt "to see" the whole system where they are, and try to find -more than other human beings- a type of answer to the question: Why we are here and what is our purpose? They try to respond it through awareness to risk because that's where good ideas are. With its implementation they enhance and modify the world.