The SVII Society is an action learning community. There is no “Sage on the Stage” at SVII events. Instead a “Guide on the Side” consciously creates opportunities for all to participate and collaborate in the exchange of ideas.
Innovators Are Different.
Innovators sense things that most others do not. This is where insight, invention, and art come from. Communicating insights that are not readily apparent to “normal” people isn’t always a frictionless process. It’s called “breaking the mold” for a reason.
By failing to “pass the baton” of insight on to others, innovators will not be recognized for who they really are. The burden to communicate and relate falls on the shoulders of the innovator. SVII was founded in part to address this communication challenge.
21st Century Collaboration
The ability to collaborate is now crucial to earn a living as an innovator. The world has become flattened and interdependencies have increased. So it’s more difficult to go it alone than in prior times.
The ability to relate and work with others has to compliment the ability to manifest insight. No rapport means no stakeholders. Anyone your insights touch, or are intended to touch, are all people. Wether it be partners, employees, clients, customers, investors, or suppliers – people thrive by relating to each other.
It creates meaning, which supports value in their lives. Creating opportunities to cultivate the “soft skills” and emotional intelligence for effective collaboration is a core function of SVII.
Maximizing Interactivity
There’s a tried and true model out there, known as “The Sage on the Stage”. More commonly known as: the presenter and the audience, boss and subordinate, teacher and student. It implies that the person doing the speaking knows more than everyone else in the room combined.
The democratization of technology has changed all of that. Networked mobile devices are ubiquitous onramps to access much of humanity’s accumulated information, and increasingly into the future, knowledge. This forces many relationships based upon expertise to be re-evaluated.
Leaders have to be mindful that their followers know much more than ever before. The inevitable outcome of this will be a shift of power to highly interactive knowledge networks.
Conclusion
Combining these three factors, SVII continues to evolve its approach to acknowledge the fundamental differences between creative and normal modes of thinking. The results are more interactive and collaborative program and activities than the conventional approaches used even in unconventional places like Silicon Valley.