In a highly co-creative workshop – catalysed by TRANS4M’s co-founder Alexander Schieffer and hosted by Goethe Institut of Cairo – a group of highly motivated Agents of Transformation from Egypt (six women and eight men) came together to further evolve their individual transformation projects, and to explore how they can mutually support each others’ initiatives, on a sustainable basis.
The group gathered from across Egypt – from Cairo to Alexandria, from Monofeya to Minya, from Asyut to Tanta to Mansoura.
Participants presented the progress of their individual projects, that they had initiated or presented in an early stage in a previous workshop that took place in June 2019 in Cairo. Each project received a feedback from each member of the group – enabling group members to learn from each other and to sharpen their group skill to co-create a nurturing culture and environment for each individual project. One group member – Dr Mohamed Senousy – who was for a work trip in the US at the time of the workshop – had prepared a comprehensive integral video on his project, which was shared during the workshop (click here to view)
In a next step the group consolidated around four key focus themes: Culture & Heritage; Transformative Education; Environment; and Children and Women Rights.
The group then began to develop a shared vision, fuelled by the aspiration to contribute as the Egyptian Genius Innovation Community on a long term basis to the sustainable development of their communities and society, and to keep developing their individual and collective initiatives through the help of the GENE-IUS process, and TRANS4M’s Integral Worlds approach.
Accordingly, the group developed four integral institutional pillars on which the Egyptian Genius Innovation Community should stand.
- Southern Pillar: COMMUNITY
- Eastern Pillar: CREATIVITY
- Northern Pillar: KNOWLEDGE
- Western Pillar: IMPACT
After intense discussion and evolution of the four pillars, the group was ready for a group presentation, where all dimensions of the Integral Genius Innovation Community were brilliantly captured in a 25min video. This video is now shared with different constituencies to invite support for “Egyptian Genius”.
A short video on the Egyptian Genius is available soon.
Watch this space.
Fotos by Islam “Shady” Safwat
Egyptian Genius Logo by Dr. Mohamed Senousy
PARTICIPANTS’ COMMENTS
“This workshop was the most powerful and most light point in my life.”
Mohamad ElSayed Khalil, Ministry of Culture, Cairo, Egypt
“Thanks so much for your effort in such a great journey. I personally enjoyed it so much; it has been one of the greatest learning experience I have ever had. As a project manager, I learned how to ground my project as the first phase while I am designing or even thinking about it. My project must reflect my personal passion to be successful. In other words, I should believe in my project otherwise. This will never happen without grounding. Grounding for me means to reflect my personal experience and the effected community. Additionally, it is a wonderful process to move from the South to the East where we should not lose our cultural values and then to the North where we need to integrate with science and technology to develop an innovative and sustainable product in the West. In simple words I would say, I love the Genius Journey and I am gonna integrate its processes in the work I do.”
Hossam Soltan, Project Manager, Nawaya Organization, Minya, Egypt
“I’m a student at faculty of commerce Tanta University. And I’m a member of ‘Egyptian Genius’. For me ‘Releasing Our Genius’ is a transformative journey. This workshop was very interactive and informative. Firstly we had followed the ‘Transformation Agent Map’ to develop a holistic solution map with regards to our burning issues. After that we had the opportunity to present our projects, and discussed about their implementation in sustainable manners. This workshop is tantamount as it provides me with a new start, for myself and for my project. So, I would like to thank everyone who had contributed to establish this workshop. Thank you Prof. Alexander for your great effort, thanks to Goethe-Institut and to the TRANS4M team.”
Mohamed Elbanby, Student of Commerce, Tanta University, Egypt