The Brilliant Innocence of a 10-year old

Jul 31

I am struck by how much of the children’s dream art seems to illustrate some of the 100 mind contributor ideas. I played a game and chose an adult dream to read and explore and then chose some child images from the 100 dreams. They complimented each other in strange and wonderful ways, as though there is a collective dream language that connects one dream to another in an ongoing mission of change.

Take these three pairs and the common themes of each:

Victoria Redshaw, Managing Director of Scarlet Opus in Yorkshire, United Kingdom says as part of her dream for the future, “We print our food, products and clothing at home. Robots undertake all physical work to allow us time for Free Thinking and Play.”

Put that against the artwork and dream of Sun Hao in Shanghai, China, who states, “What I painted is a food machine. Only put some coins in the hole and the food will come out. Also, there is a free napkin below. The machine is very convenient.”

Artist Dale Chihuly, Seattle, USA, says in his dream, “The idea of taking these huge blocks of crystal from Alaska halfway around the world to Israel was a dream, an idea, and I went for it. It is up to all of us to embrace the crazy ideas we have and make the future bright. In the future, I hope people will enjoy and work with the light and color the world has to offer; go out on a limb and turn dreams and ideas into reality.”

After reading the dream of Teo in Madrid, Spain and viewing his artwork, we hope he will take Chihuly’s advice and turn his dreams into reality. Teo says, In the future there will be magic portals where we can be transported to other worlds, cars and motorbikes will be able to fly, and there will be special schools where the children will learn to be superheroes and have super powers. I will work at Steelcase and in order to arrive on time at the office, I will have special sport shoes to go faster… By the way, I will design the future Real Madrid official shirt.”

Cassandra Treadwell, the Founder and Executive Director of So They Can in Wellington, New Zealand, dreams of a world without poverty. “We dream of a world where children are raised as global citizens and people are not dying from hunger as people are socially aware and emotionally concerned for the welfare of others.”

Maybe Adel in Selangor, Malaysia will help Cassandra achieve her dream. Along with his artwork, Adel says, “I also want a big and modern hospital so I can treat the people with low pay.”

From this generation of great thinkers to next generation’s great thinkers; which dreams do you resonate with?

Post by Steelcase 100, Dream Highlights

To Move Forward, We Must Unlearn Preconceived Notions of “What Is Possible”

Jul 18

This is the concept our sub-division, PolyVision, is talking about as it relates to the classroom environment. Recently at the ISTE conference in San Diego, one of our 100 Mind contributors, Raghava KK, addressed the crowd on behalf of PolyVision about this topic and the five things he thinks we need to “unlearn” in order to better prepare today’s students to be tomorrow’s leaders. We’d like to share a brief overview of his thoughts.

1. Educators don’t matter. Of course we need teachers, but educators should think of themselves not as lecturers, but vessels of experience for the kids to tap into. Education is about participating; it is not a hierarchical experience from top to bottom.

2. Passion will emerge. Don’t mess with it. When a student expresses a passion for art, music, math, etc., avoid the desire to direct or overindulge that individual. The best passion will find its way out on its own.

3. Hire sexy teachers. The most influential teachers are often the most charismatic and passionate. What administrators look for in a teacher is often very different than what students look for in a teacher. Don’t only evaluate the resumes. Think of education as a business where teachers are the salespeople.

4. A good education does not secure one’s future life. It actually prepares you for insecurity in your life. It gives you the ability to try your hand at many different roles in, often, many different industries.

5. Sometimes quantity is more important than quality. Not everyone is naturally a great artist or mathematician. It takes hours of practice and repetition to develop the skill. The process itself is important.

In what ways do you think we can better prepare today’s children to ensure they will make positive contributions to society when – or before – they reach adulthood?

Post by Steelcase 100, Uncategorized

Harmonious Celebration

Jul 13

We are proud to share this video as evidence of yet another creatively unique, employee-led anniversary celebration. It is called 100 Voices and was recorded with employees from our Strasbourg WorkLab. It’s a beautiful combination of voices, beat box and drums; showing the immense power of collaboration and the human spirit. Enjoy!

Steelcase 100 Voices from Steelcase Inc on Vimeo.

Post by Steelcase 100, Events

Living on Video at NeoCon

Jul 3

Throughout our company history, Steelcase has been committed to understanding human behavior. We then apply those insights into the products and solutions we offer to help humans have better experiences at work. In recent years, this research has taken us from the furniture industry into the technology space. At NeoCon this year, we sought to explore, and soften, some of the barriers for one the most prominent components for offices of the future: video. Today, people are living on video – at work and in their personal lives – though frustrations arise related to privacy, poor sound and video quality, appearance anxiety and more. This doesn’t have to be so. With solutions to these barriers in mind, we debuted some new concepts to help improve the experience of videoconferencing.

Our goal with these concept products is to create an accommodating setting that enables current technology to catch up with increasingly common trends in mobile working and collaboration. Video conferencing should be as clear and authentic as a face to face conversation. It should be as easy as picking up a phone. It should be as seamless and fluid as tapping a colleague on the shoulder.

Our concept products aim to achieve these dreams and shorten these distances. They’ll provide space that creates privacy for video calls inside an open office, and space that optimizes light and sound. Even as technological advancements become more widespread, concepts like those we unveiled at NeoCon serve to fill in the gaps along the way.

Collaboration isn’t tied to shared space – it begins at the cultural level. People, groups and corporations are what enable it to expand outward and evolve with each new mind it touches. In the future, it is our hope that this positive trend continues. Our demonstration at NeoCon also marks a new milestone for us at Steelcase – incorporating technology that was made in-house, and more than just furniture.