Changemaker Lab
A space for the inquisitive minds who care to learn about the research behind the My Name My Story workshops hosted in high school and college campuses.
The goal of this lab is to put together research from thought leaders around empathy, 21st century skills, power of storytelling, changemaking, social entrepreneurship.
The goal of this lab is to put together research from thought leaders around empathy, 21st century skills, power of storytelling, changemaking, social entrepreneurship.
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Introduction
The growing body of research in Social Psychology, Economics, Education and Health essentially on how people behave, what makes them productive and happy uncover several areas for us to focus our attention immediately. This body of knowledge makes it clear that we are living in an age much different from before and therefore, we need new skills - more popularly referred to as 21st Century Skills - to cope with the problems we face today. Researchers/Psychologists/Economists such as Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely, Daniel Pink, Angela Duckworth, Brene Brown, Susan Weinschenk, to name a few, through interesting eye-opening experiments have unravelled the mysteries that shroud people’s behavior, their motivations, their drives and makes them take decisions that are usually, unfortunately, counter-productive. They have also found that there is a strong need to incorporate the 21st Century Skills which include but are not limited to creativity, meaningfulness, courage, grit, empathy, compassion, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, teamwork, leadership, SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) etc. in order for our youth and adults to experience the joy of success at work and personal life. While the skill-gap universal, it is important to note the relative poor ranking of 15 year-olds of USA in all the PISAs in comparison Finland, Korea, Japan, Germany, Canada etc. Also, the Partnership of 21st Century Skills which include companies like Microsoft, Apple, Cisco and Pearson find that a large majority of college graduates are not equipped with the necessary skills for workplace or healthy living, emphasising the need to incorporate all the cognitive and interpersonal components of these skills (Pathways to Prosperity, a Harvard Graduate School report.) ~ Monalisa Hota, MNMS Research Associate 
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External Resources
Research, white papers, articles from national and global organizations who are thought leaders in the space of Empathy, Changemaking & Social Entrepreneurship. Start Empathy Initiative by Ashoka The Futures of Learning 2: What kind of learning for the 21st century? by UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization An Educator’s Guide to the “Four Cs” by National Education Association A Blueprint for Great Schools by CA Department of Education Learning for the 21st Century by P21.org My Name My Story
Changemaker Day Workshops |
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Significance of the 21st Century Skills:
Empathy and empathetic leadership: Empathy is the ability to get perspectives of other people with whom we share our spaces, to be able to relate with them and form strong social bonds, communicate and solve problems, resolve conflicts and establish peace, reduce bullying, reduce unconscious biases and accept diversity. While neuro-scientists have found empathy to be a biological ability which 99% humans possess, a meta analysis of studies from 1979 to 2009 has found that two critical components of empathy - emphatic concern and perspective taking - have dropped by 48% and 33% since 1979. Empathy is linked positively to productivity in workplaces in the Lady Geek 2015 Global Empathy Index. Empathy is the primary motivation for us to not lie, steal or hurt. Social and Cross-Cultural Skills: “The U.S. Census Bureau (2008) projects that the U.S. population will be older and more diverse by the middle of this century. Racial and ethnic minorities will comprise the majority of the nation’s population by 2042,...” The modern models of US businesses are global in scope, success of which requires sensitivity to and respect of cultural differences, acceptance of diverse ideas and values, and collaboration amidst individuals with different working styles. Moreover, a boost in productivity is highly dependent on tapping all the talent in the pool. The ability to empathize with others would strengthen the skills required to perform effectively in an ethnically, culturally, linguistically, and religiously diverse workplace. Creativity, Innovative mindset (Design Thinking): Innovating empathetic solutions to complex problems are dependent on nurturing the right-brain through a wide range of idea creation techniques, such as Human Centered Design Thinking. These skills would strengthen the abilities to create new and worthwhile ideas (both incremental and radical concepts); elaborate, refine, analyze and evaluate their own ideas in order to improve and maximize creative efforts; as well as view failure as an opportunity to learn. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: “As important as education is to success in the new economy, the nation is not doing well compared to other countries. While U.S. students scored above the international average in both science and mathematics at the 4th and 8th grades in the 2003 Trends in Mathematics and Science Study TIMSS), 15-year-old U.S. students ranked 36th in science and 35th in mathematics among 57 countries participating in the 2006 Programme for Student Assessment (PISA) (Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation, 2007). Further, even the highest-achieving U.S. students underperform their international peers.” Most service sector companies are hiring people with expert thinking and complex communication skills, which makes it imperative to reflect critically on learning experiences and processes. These skills are essential to ask great questions to understand how parts of a whole interact with each other to produce overall outcomes in complex systems. The future is all about solving different kinds of non-familiar problems in both conventional and innovative ways. Communication, Collaboration, and Co-creation: “Employers across the United States cited professionalism/work ethic, oral and written communications, teamwork and collaboration, and critical thinking and problem solving as the most important skills that recently hired graduates from high school and two and four-year post-secondary institutions need." According to a nationwide survey of 400 employers. In addition to developing and communicating new ideas effectively, professionals would need an open and responsive mind to new and diverse perspectives. They would not only need to demonstrate the ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams but also be willing to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal. Effective communication skills would be necessary to decipher meaning, including knowledge, values, attitudes and intentions and be deployed for a range of purposes (e.g. to inform, instruct, motivate and persuade). |
“When you have empathy you are driven to do something about what you feel” My Name My Story
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