Explaining ‘My Job’ to my 2 year old
Purple, Daddy does the same thing as Super Why!: "...we changed the story we solved the problem we worked together so hip-hip hooray"
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New Year’s Goals?
Every year the team over at MVMT hosts a New Year’s Brunch, and offers a tool to the community. Last year we offered the MVMT New Year’s Guide. We created this to help you to start your year off right.
Here’s the video & link to download the guide. Feel free to use it for 2012.
Download the free 90 Min Evaluation & Planning Guide..
We’re planning the 2012 brunch now. We’re slated to do two:
- One in Brooklyn, NY (Hosted by Jullien Gordon)
- One in Oakland, CA (Hosted by Rolando Brown)
If you’re interested in getting a free invite, comment below with your contact information. -
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Keba Konte Gift to Grow
I value community leaders. Community leadership often extends beyond those that we normally imagine—people democratically
elected to govern or those trusted to manage large scale community based organizations and campaigns. Community leadership is found in artists, entrepreneurs, teachers, elders, social workers, and young people.
One such leader is Keba Konte. An Oakland native, artist, entrepreneur, father, and all around investor in the “future of young people,” Keba is a community leader and a gift to those who know him.
Keba Konte at Life Is Living Emancipation Park in Houston, TX. Photo by Alefiya Akbarally
Keba and I have built with each other in several capacities, most notably collaborating for years on Life Is Living. We often exchange ideas, share technology, and recently have been working together to launch a new cafe in San Francisco named Chasing Lions.
I am a big fan of the artistic practice he has of printing photography on small and large scale wood, copper and vintage books. Many of these works were collected and presented in an epic art installation named 888 Peices of We. Keba writes:
a process of reviewing and selecting from thousands of images spanning my 42 years in order to choose the 888 that reflect my journey thus far: protests and portraits, street moments and political movements, freaks, friends and family members.”
Today, I was surprised with a very generous gift from Keba.
Keba Konte Gift To Grow
I’m amazed by how many pieces of myself I see in this photograph.
I dont’ see the young man in this photo as a stranger.
Neither is the environment surrounding him.
This is here I grew up.
And I feel connected, invested even.Below a poem inspired by the photo.
“GOD” tattooed on the neck of a young man dressed in white
much like me at one point in my life.
Handball & Basketball courts with concrete floors, high walls and fences.
Surrounded by brick buildings and full of people who gather.
Reminds me of places where I gained my earliest insights into
what it means for all to be human, and what it means for some to be raised.Many of us experience moments in our lives where we are thankful for the gifts of others. Some of us share these stories, some of don’t. I encourage all of us to consider at the very least sharing these moments with the people who take time to offer you gifts.
As we go into the holiday season, expressing gratitude for and honoring the many people who contribute to your life can be a source of great joy.
Thanks Keba!
-Grow
P.S. Here’s a great article about Keba Konte and his work written by Kori Chen for 12 Ft Dwende.
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Basic model for an effective MVMT Maker
Drucker’s basic model for an effective executive can be summarized as follows:
- one, executives must carefully choose how to spend, and not to spend, their time;
- two, executives must consciously choose what they want to contribute to the organization and ask their subordinates to make such a choice also;
- three, executives must choose people to perform tasks based on their individual strengths and the fit between strengths and tasks–people should not be chosen for whether or not they lack weaknesses;
- four, executives must deliberately choose long-term business priorities; and
- five, executives must choose from among all of the alternative opinions offered within their organization.
Imagine if it was, Basic model for an effective MVMT Maker can be summarized as follows:
- one, MVMT Makers must carefully choose how to spend, and not to spend, their time;
- two, MVMT Makers must consciously choose what they want to contribute to the movement and ask their fellow leaders to make such a choice also;
- three, MVMT Makers must choose people to perform tasks based on their individual strengths and the fit between strengths and tasks–people should not be chosen for whether or not they lack weaknesses;
- four, MVMT Makers must deliberately choose long-term personal & communal transformation priorities; and
- five, MVMT Makers must choose from among all of the alternative opinions offered within their community the ones that empower them to love unfraid.
See:
http://www.businesslistening.com/drucker-effective-executive.phpAlso, talks about the importance of listening.
-Grow
UPDATE:
In 2012, I’ll be offering a group class covering my thoughts and practices related to this subject. I’ll offer the first class on Jan 2, 2012 for free! If you want in, and will be in Oakland, CA please email me at rolando@mvmt.com.
Registration will be simple. It will be a 5 hour day, you will walk away with something concrete to move forward with, and free lunch will be provided. All are welcomed, though I’m sure the majority of the room will be people ritually engaged in social change work / movement building.
Thanks!
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30 under 30
back in the days.
it was great to be recognized.
the impresario that made this possible was Martha Diaz,
who so generously invited me to support her in her vision for community transformation.
I talk a bit about this time in my life here.
AWE
Advance Weekly EntertainmentNovember 30 – December 6, 2006
30 UNDER 30
AWE spotlights some of S.I.’s hottest up and comers.HIP-HOP IMPRESARIO
Rolando Brown, 24, New Brighton nativeAs the executive director of the manhattan-based Hip-Hop Association,
Brown produces international film festivals and education summits across
the globe in Spain, South Africa, the U.K., and in California. The world
traveler is a leadership and management studies major at New York University.
For several years, he did marketing and public relations for August Bishop,
LLC heling to launch new products for L’Oreal, TBS, TNT, Sprite and the
New York Knicks. “I grow, and grow things, being that my personal growth can
ensure the growth of other people,” he says. -
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“Where’s the Innovation?” Grow, Howard Greenstein, Wharton School Supernova Forum
Experimenting with Youtube’s new features, I came across these videos:
An two part interview with Howard Greenstein (awesome guy), during the Wharton School produced Supernova Forum in 2007.
Story
This was held during my time as the Executive Director of the Hip-Hop Association. In brief, our mission was to facilitate social justice, education reform, cross-cultural unity and civic engagement, while preserving Hip-Hop culture for scholarship and future generations. Such a great time! I had the pleasure of combining my love for culture & technology, work online with people from several countries, travel, learn and have a lot of fun!
The Supernova Forum explores the transformation of computing, communications, business, and society in the Network Age. Held since 2002, Supernova events bring together several hundred leading executives, entrepreneurs, intellectuals, government officials, and business practitioners to make connections, discuss emerging trends, and discover innovative new ideas and companies.
Briefly, I was invited to travel to forum in San Francisco and speak. However, due to having just produced the highly successful and well attended H2O [Hip-Hop Odyssey] International Film Festival in NYC, I decided that I couldn’t make it in person. Howard welcomed me to join via live stream. These videos are a recording of that stream.
The talk was themed “Where’s the Innovation?”
Watching this interview reminded me: I began clearly sharing my thinking regarding Technology & Culture as far back as 2007. It seems like it was so many years ago. I’m actually shocked that it was only four. I guess in technology years, it feels more like 8 years.
Howard was a great listener, and he asked good questions.
He summarized my work as: “using the power of what’s being created to amplify my own community.”
I really appreciate Howard’s insight here. I plan on using this language more often from this point forward, as I remain rooted in much of what I shared with him at that time. I still love music, I still love culture, still teach and organize, and I still find new tools and share them intentionally with people that are doing good work.
The search for innovative ways to add this type of value still informs much of the work I do. I’m a bit more entrepreneurial in my efforts, but overall I remain committed and interested in this work. I guess I’ve also grown up a bit, have four more years of technical and life experience to boot, and live with a broader experience of what culture and technology is.
I imagine my work now extends beyond what was then a rich, deeply lived understanding about the transformative power & potential of Hip-Hop, into a clarity about how we can use technological innovations to amplify how we go about transforming our society. We’ve seen so much evidence of this potential over the last four years.
Humanities relationship with technology is transforming. Note, 2007 to 2011: a lot has changed. To be more specific, not the launch of the iPhone in 2007 to the mass use of web based applications and mobile devices to engage millions of people in social justice efforts world wide (i.e. 2011 Egyptian Revolution; recent #OccupyTogether movements, etc.).
Personally, I look to contribute. I want to invest my time and skills in ways that push this transforming towards our experiencing more love than fear, more space to imagine and experience joy, and even more room for people like us to actively express and inspire leadership.
At the very least, outside of the hopes that this quick rant inspires something, I am glad to share the interview with you.
It’s another direct look into my life.
The interview is about 14mins total.
Two parts, 7mins each.Please, let me know what you think about them.
Thanks Howard!
Rolando Brown Featured at Supernova – “Where’s the Innovation?”
Part One
Here, a brief explanation of my work in Hip-Hop in 2007.
Part Two
Here, I really go into my use of technology, and some my views on it. Also, a funny story about how the Wufoo founders told me that named their company by mashing together the names of their favorite groups (Wu-Tang Clan + Foo Fighters = Wufoo!) Just awesome.
P.S. Check the Hip-Hop Education Center (H2ED Center) at the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University. They just published a groundbreaking report and national scan of Hip-Hop educational programs: Re-Imagining Teaching and Learning: A Snapshot of Hip-Hop Education.
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Lift, Help Me Achieve Anything
Lift.do - Achieve Anything
#wow.
Talk about #GROW.I caught wind of Lift.do from a friend that thought of me immediately after discovering it for themselves.
I do not know how they came upon it. I do remember when they shared it with me.
I quickly signed up for a private invite to Lift in August of this year.
I do this often. Find some new technology promising to deliver progress, sign up, test it, figure it all out, and then share it ritually with my people. It’s important part of how I lead.
This week, I received an email from a highly successful technology entrepreneur named Tony Stubblebine.
His email came to me three months after I sent him an email explaining my genuine interest in contributing to whatever he was planning to launch next. He has a great blog here. I read it often.
Back to his email. It was an offer to everyone who had ever emailed him about Lift. An offer to apply for participation in a 4 week trial program being launched by the company.
The benefit was simple: they would offer me a coach, a tool, and a process that would help me achieve anything.
Sounds like #GROW. So, I decided to apply.
I have been re-imagining the next phase of my professional and personal life for a few months now. My work has brought me a lot of meaning, quality relationships, and thankfully, some successes.
I took this invitation from Tony and Lift.do as a prime opportunity to express myself honestly about what I am now hoping to achieve. It’s a bit different than what I have historically sought out to do.
You can see that application here:
http://www.rolandobrown.com/achieveanything/applicationAs you can see, the application they sent has sweet introduction text suggesting that they are empowered enough to help me transform from being super to being super human.
Who wouldn’t be moved by that?
My community knows. I’ve long hoped to achieve some reliable level of super humanity.
I have even spoken publicly about this aspiration in pros, on stage and in blog posts.
So, here’s a copy of my application for your review:
http://www.rolandobrown.com/achieveanything/growsubmittedIt wasn’t a perfect application.
I didn’t want to procrastinate and over think it, or even over strategize.I just wanted to be honest, and ask for some help in strengthening my personal and professional practices.
It was invigorating.
Whether I am accepted into the training program or not, I trust this entire process is already proving to be a valuable investment of my time.
If you have any ideas, comments, feedback, let me know.
-Grow
—
Rolando Hernandez Rodriquez Brown
Father, Poet, Cultivator & MVMT Maker“Be a contribution to those you choose to move with.”
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Grow Submitted to Lift.do
Below is the application I submitted to Lift.do.
The text can be found below it.
Application for the Lift.do 4 Week Trial Program
Summary:
At 29, I find myself at a critical juncture. I am either going to commit to wholly growing my company, or wholly growing myself within a company. I hope to achieve effectively making this decision, and then successfully creating the right environment to realize what I choose to pursue.
I’m looking to join a highly effective team, whose product or service is going to change the world.
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Story:
Thank you. My name is Rolando Brown.
After years of helping other people to accomplish their goals, it can be quite a moment when you find someone willing to help you with your own.
Whatever Lift ends up becoming, I appreciate you all for your intentions.
Intention is vital in the practice of realizing human transformation and potential. It’s a remarkable, and generous thing to set the intention of helping others achieve anything. In my own effort to help others, it has sometimes been difficult to highlight ways I could have equally used the help. With the goal of practicing generosity without expectation, I found myself very rarely asking for anything. So this feels like a significant moment.
I hope to achieve identifying, applying for, interviewing and being offered to accept a job, at a technology & community driven company. I hope to focus on strategy, growth opportunities, customer service & community development.
In particular, I aspire to be a thriving members of a technology team that is driven by human transformation, and responsible for delivering and maintaining a leading consumer product. I would love to be able to work from NY for three weeks a month, travel to the Bay Area, CA for 3 to 5 days a month, as well as visit other critical markets in the United States and/or abroad.
Furthermore, this company would valued my recent entrepreneurial experiences as an independent consultant, record label owner, community organizer, and writer.
It would be awesome if this company was clear, from a human resources perspective, that I was valuable investment. And that I could identify, strategize, inspire and help shape breakthrough ideas and processes.
I am a Father, a Poet, a technology and communications consultant, and a founding member of a collective called MVMT (http://www.mvmt.com).
I’ve organized over two dozen events, and have a rich social network across the country.
I presently train people how to transform their relationships with technology and technology platforms such that they develop a practice of experiencing technology as an expression of their humanity. I’m working on several projects for ZeroDivide.org.
I helped to publish two impact reports on innovative job creation during my work with Inner City Advisors.
I am asked to speak to young leaders often about my story and work.
I have several people who I work with weekly, acting as their leadership and strategic coach. I listen, and make critical connections on their behalf.
I have invested several years of my life into both the private and the public sectors, paid and unpaid.
I have made music and poetry, and still do.
At 29, I find myself at a critical juncture.
I am either going to commit to
wholly growing my company,
or wholly growing myself within a company.
I hope to achieve effectively making this decision, and then successfully creating the right environment to realize what I choose to pursue.
I’m looking to join a highly effective team, whose product or service is going to change the world.
If Lift.do can help me achieve this, I will be eternally grateful, and mutually generous.
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Rolando Hernandez Rodriquez Brown
Father, Poet, Cultivator & MVMT Maker
“Be a contribution to those you choose to move with.”
GROW » Free MVMT Guide + Video
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#occupy
“I’m Free.
Not defined by what I am,
but what I give to my community and humanity.”#occupy
First, to Hon. George Martinez & Clara Guerrero: Thank You.
Occupy Wall St. Hip Hop Anthem
Occupation Freedom, Ground Zero And The Global Block CollectivePeople have either asked me over the last few weeks “why aren’t you involved in #Occupy WallStreet, #OccupyOakland, etc.?”
Some have gone as far as expressing an expectation that I would be directly involved.
I’ve responded to them mostly with questions, questions rooted in appreciative inquiry:
- What do you believe will add value to society generally?
- What do you believe will add value to the society you move in specifically?
- What spaces have you left to occupy wall street?
- How are those spaces being cared for in your absence? And by who?
- In what ways are you unwilling to tolerate the greed and corruption?
- In what ways are you willing to tolerate the greed and corruption?
- What do expect will come from #OccupyWallStreet?
- What have seen you witnessed come from the occupation thus far?
- What do expect will come from your involvement?
- What do you expect will come from mine?
- What did you contribute?
- Who do you see at these occupations? Who don’t you see?
- If you’re like me and you’re still asking questions, what do you expect to contribute when you do?
- How & what do you expect I can contribute?
- What moved you try to move me?
I move mostly from a place of intuition, looking for where to start my contribution.
Right now, I am occupying several spaces,
and working with the intention of bringing to these spaces, questions of what I can contribute, and how this contribution acts as a offer my community, and to humanity.Occupy spaces with questions.
Occupy spaces with answers.Watching this video, was the spark I needed.
To those that participated in the creation of it, thank you.
If art is process, I wonder what questions and answers you came to in the creation of this video.To those that are asking me questions, thank you.
If asking the right questions is still a skill worthy of investment, I wonder who is invested in you?To those that are creating answers, thank you.
If these occupations lead to connecting people who can discover answers to questions asked by humanity for generations, I wonder what spaces we will occupy next.-Grow
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Commissioner Imani is an Important Leader
I value community leaders. Some weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking with Jakada Imani about his life-long commitment to improve the lives of people in Oakland, specifically his work in creating pathways out of poverty.
We spoke about the resolve one finds when they move into leadership positions that provide the platform to professionally express what they have long been exploring & developing. As a result of that conversation, I became interested in following his work with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.
It became clear to me that Jakada, whom I should respectfully call “Commissioner Imani,” is an important leader. There were at least 100 supporters present to testify to this at last night’s public meeting at City Hall. I’m clear that this presence in City Hall represents thousands of people who share Imani’s aspirations for Oakland.
I trust that this appointment to Oakland’s Port Commission will empower him with an even greater level of clarity and the authority to continue expressing and inspiring a special brand of effective leadership. I wish him, the people, and the city of Oakland, growth.
grow 2:01 am on October 20, 2011 Permalink |
#growing