In Space Unlimited projects, uncertainty and risk face everyone – young people, teachers, business-people, our own team.  We have noticed that young people are often more comfortable with this than many adults. So in August last year, we were delighted to get support from NESTA to take our thinking further. We want to find out what can help adults to give young people the space for innovation and creativity.

Reacting to uncertainty is normal, and we are probably all familiar with a spectrum of emotions from mild discomfort to utter terror. Our interest is in how people choose to act and whether they are aware of the impact of their actions. In our work, young people get to explore ideas, skills and perspectives in response to a real-life question or problem. We are asking them to take some risks. The people who design and offer these experiences (usually adults) can, frankly, make or break the experience for young people.

I can’t help feeling that throughout much of my education, and especially ‘management development’, I was being trained to build the skills to predict and control. More recently, I have been lucky enough to get opportunities to practice using tools for managing uncertainty.  I wonder if the tools shaped my outlook, or my outlook attracted me to the tools.

So do we have an innate ability to manage uncertainty? Do some of us lose it along the way?

“Stories only happen to people that can tell them”.

It’s an old quote , I can’t remember where I first heard it. If it was my line I’d add … “and everyone can tell a story”.

Stories are all powerful, they comfort and educate us when we’re small. They’re how we record and share life as we live it. They become the wisdom and memories we pass on and use to keep the cold away when we’re old.

At Space Unlimited our projects are our stories, our learning, the experiences that we want to tell the world and each other. So how should we capture and tell our stories? How do we help the young people and adults on our projects tell theirs?

We’d like to hear peoples thoughts on the why and the how and the when of telling stories . And when Space Unlimited wants to find something out we ask a question so;

How do you tell a story in such a way that even the people that were there learn something?

Friday’s BBC EDUCATION NEWS ‘Talk More in Class, Experts Say‘.

A great article looking at how young people, when given the opportunity to
‘explain their understanding, express different points of view and attempt
to reach consensus through discussion’ are likely to have a better
understanding and be more motivated to learn in class.

A great introduction to this weeks Senscot bulletin.

“The big hype film just now is “The Golden Compass” from a book by Philip Pullman. The author has said about it that some subjects are too large for adult fiction and can only be dealt with adequately in a childrens story. I like this ˆ the recognition that children can see the big stuff ˆ that in the beginners mind there are many possibilities ˆ but in the experts there are few.”

A recent article has highlighted the struggle to recruit enterprising staff and the battle to retain innovative people. It’s interesting reading and relates to the type of conversation we often find ourselves having about how companies can create the necessary environments for innovation to flourish.

What do people think about this article?

Also, what do people think about the phrase ‘white sky thinking’? Something we recently heard someone say when trying to describe an organisation that is driving to support innovative processes and behaviour.

At the moment we’re wondering:

do young people care about environmental issues?

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