• An interview with Fred Jones, creator of Our Future Leaders.

• Conducted by The Wisdom Factory.

• Topics cover the older and younger generations collaborating to improve world leadership.

‘The Wisdom Factory” is operated by Heidi Hornlein and Mark Davenport. They are located in Umbrio/Italy.

Among their many activities, Heidi and Mark host public live video conversations.

They chat with people who want to share their experience, knowledge and wisdom with the world. More information can be found on their website at: https://thewisdomfactory.net/about-mark-and-heidi-and-the-wisdom-factory/

Recently, I was privileged to meet with Heidi and Mark Davenport online.

Some of the topics discussed in the hour-long conversation were:

POSITIVE IMPACTS: Working with youth enables older people to make young friends, stay active and relevant.

FACILITATION: A brief overview on how youth sessions are easily facilitated.

GROUP DIVERSITY: The benefits and power of having groups of diverse ages and backgrounds including family members.

PILOT PROJECTS:  Looking for youth to join pilot projects where they can contribute and innovate the sessions.

POSITIVE LEADERSHIP: Leadership skills such as effective communication and humility will encourage our youth to practice more service leadership. This will have a positive impact on our world.

PIONEER vs. PRISONER:  Encourage older generation to become pioneers of the future and not  prisoners of the past.

If you wish to review the interview, you can find it below.

NOTES ON THE POWER OF CHANGE DISCUSSION: – [Video time stamp in brackets].

[3:24]  -Working with youth has enabled Fred to gain many young friends which he finds invigorating. The highlight of his week are the youth group meetings.

[6:28] -Fred is setting up groups of youth to connect online. This is to assist them in learning communication and leadership skills. By assisting our youth to learn and practice appropriate leadership skills we can positively impact our world.

[8:30] –How to facilitate youth sessions by offering a variety of roles to perform. Roles such as Interrupter Counter, Mystery Master, Jokester, Quizzer, are  fun ways to learn. In addition, participants can discuss various topics such as those in Coach John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success.  They also practice giving feedback to each other.

[12:50]-Diversity can be powerful when the group members are from different ages, backgrounds and  include siblings from the same family. It is unusual to have such diverse groups working together. The results can be amazing. Parents have said these sessions have changed their children’s lives.

[23:40} –Pilot Projects: Searching for young people to set up pilot projects exploring technologies and techniques attractive and useful to youth.

[26:00} -A readily available Parent’s Guide provides techniques for parents in assisting their children.

[28:00} – Humility  is important. Also work is changing dramatically.  There will be more ‘projects’ with people competing with each other on the internet. This is why online coaching is of assistance.

[29:30] – Jobs in the future will become more project-oriented with personnel working online in locations around the world.

[33:20] -After living overseas in Africa for 22 years, Fred returned to Canada. He found leadership was a large challenge.  If we have more positive leaders, that would make a significant difference.

[37:05] -Hierarchical or top down leadership versus bottom up leadership.

[41:05] –The Power of Change: If you face challenges, you can become a pioneer of the future and not stay a prisoner of the past.

[50:00] A quote from Nelson Mandela about the power of education to change the world.

IF YOU LISTEN TO THE RECORDING, I hope you enjoy it.

Please share your ideas on how we can assist our youth to learn and practice leaderships skills.