Learn it, Live it, Love it: The Discovery Edition

Learn it:

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve embarked on the “discovery” phase of the design thinking process. We’ve defined our challenge; How might communities of freedom-loving young people flourish across the country? Now, we’re interviewing our existing communities to learn as much as we can about how they succeed, and the challenges they face. It’s such a great exercise and will help immensely when we move onto phase three… prototyping! If you have no idea what I’m talking about, learn more about Design Thinking, a project development roadmap before diving into your next project.

Live it:

If millennials go down in history, for one thing, I hope it’s for the rise of the social enterprise. There are few things more inspiring than seeing people of my generation identifying problems, and recognizing that great change can come through business and empowerment, rather than from waiting for a government hand-out. I recently learned about an amazing project in San Francisco, called La Cocina, a nonprofit food incubator that provides underprivileged women the ingredients necessary to launch a successful food business. One of their restaurants was awarded a top ten best new restaurant by Bon Appetit this year; the story is beyond inspiring. What social venture is most inspiring to you?

If you are in the DC area, be sure to check out 2018 Buckley Award winner Rob Bluey at the Wednesday Wake Up Club Breakfast hosted by the Leadership Institute on Feb. 6.

Love it:

I’ve recently been watching a lot of Jamie & Jimmy’s Food Fight Club on Netflix. I love a weekend food project and this show has all kinds of fun suggestions. But what I really love, is that in each episode, the pair identifies a problem in the food supply chain, and works to develop a market for those items. Rather than asking the government to pass a law, they recognize the laws of supply and demand, and they put that to work. Capitalism strikes again!