Letter from tod@s to the Three Wise Men

What I promised is a debt. A few days ago I launched an open letter to the Three Wise Men with 10 requests for the Era of Collaboration. At that time, I asked you to also collaborate with your contributions, and so you have done. With them, with the gifts that you “expect” for this year that has just begun, I have composed a second letter. I have called it Everyone’s Letter.

As you can imagine, in this list there is a little bit of everything. There are dozens of gifts, so I have tried to elaborate a nutritious synthesis. What I liked the most has been the passion, imagination and desire to grow and improve that you have put into it. With your contributions, the conversation has reached another dimension.

Thank you very much to all of you. And happy new year. You know:

Together we have drawn up a gift list; now it is up to us to make it a reality.

A dose of revolution for digital natives

So that they understand that freedom and participation must be taken care of, and that if they – who were born “in the Network” – do not want to change everything, it will be very difficult for their elders to do so. Augustine

An opportunity for teleworking

In big cities, commuting to work is a meaningless extension of the working day. It is a real penalty for employees, as well as a waste of resources: wasted time and money, traffic jams, pollution, bad moods, etc. Not to mention people who want to reconcile work and family life… Most of the time, a responsible person can do the job perfectly from home. Technology provides us with the tools. Now it is up to companies to learn to trust their collaborators. They must get rid of the “supervisory boss” model, which lurks around the office in the late afternoon… Daniel

Digitizing tablets for entrepreneurs

So that they can get up on January 7 with strength and will to make the most of the possibilities offered by information technologies and web 2.0. In short, so that organizations are more competitive and can combat the crisis by putting all the gray matter into innovation within business processes. Xsoler

3D glasses to see freelancers up close

That the King and Queen distribute 3D glasses to companies, so that they can see more closely and appreciate the contribution of freelancers to the business of organizations. Dani

Sustainability: less business individualism and more collaboration

Sustainability to be able to approach business by combining the short, medium and long term. An antidote so that not only numbers, double-digit growth, sales at any price, and business individualism that refuses to collaborate and take part in this new world does not prevail. That increases confidence and investment in new – and good – projects to promote innovation and development. And that discontent among professionals subsides. It must improve the management of companies and the growth opportunities of professionals. Well, and CARBON for those who do not take a step towards a more collaborative environment.

Carles

An epidemic of the “ethicus virus”

We could use a massive contamination of the ‘ethicus virus’. A small infection of the ‘long-term virus’ would not be bad either, let’s see if we learn to combine the present with the future once and for all. Laurent

An education of the future for our children

New technologies should be included in our children’s education. Currently, unstimulating and unintuitive textbooks are used: based on them, the teacher decides which part the children have to copy in their notebooks. It would be nice if, when a teacher can’t find something and an 8-year-old child suggests: “Why don’t you Google it?”, the teacher does not have to answer: “What is that about Google? It would also be advisable for children to have time to play from the first day of school to the last, instead of spending every afternoon, every weekend and on holidays doing homework and preparing for exams. Perhaps in this way they would have the time and opportunity to cultivate their creativity, which is what really moves our society forward.

Ana

Free passage for new professions and innovative sectors

Let the old professions and the old industrial structures stop weighing down the economy of this country, so that new professions and innovative sectors can take off, as has happened in Ireland or Finland. In particular, we need ‘free passage’ for computer engineering. Eduard

Fewer letters to the Three Kings and all hands on deck

If we really miss something, we must get down to work to build it. Fortunately we have the desire and the tools to change things without having to ask anyone. So fewer ready and going. If later on we discover that what we are building does not fit what we need, we will always be in time to change it. Javier

Kings don’t exist, so let’s work so that collaboration is really a fact, so that teleworking is not the “bogeyman” that scares bosses, and to have friends like José and his band of digital natives who trust people like me and continue to have childish illusions. The most beautiful. Carmen

Optimism. Soul, passion and enthusiasm in everything we do

An extra dose of joy in the personal and professional environment, so that we can be an engine of change. That we recover the smile, the warmth in the eyes, the sparkle in the eyes… and not wait for the neighbor to initiate the changes. Mario

Passion, enthusiasm, desire to do whatever it takes with all its consequences; to make a fool of yourself at some point. José María

Enthusiasm to carry out the professional and personal challenges that are posed to us, and optimism to improve day by day. Monica

With optimism we will obtain the energy and gain to improve, generate ideas, make plans and carry them out; we will obtain more enthusiasm, more motivation, more fun, more enrichment, more to share, more satisfaction… Mingo

Reducing inequalities

Web 2.0 could help us achieve a fairer world. Inequalities are not only between the first world and the others. They are between urban and rural areas, between digital children and parents who cannot or do not want to participate, between people without disabilities and with them, etc. The situation in which we are immersed (environmental, economic, values, security crises, etc.) I think is evidence of a total collapse of the industrial model, which managed to weather the era of the “.com”, but which is now cracking with web 2.0. We need the leaders of the first world to undertake policies other than spending what we do not have to perpetuate the unsustainable, and to focus on reducing inequalities to consolidate a model of collaboration versus exploitation. One of the ways can be to fight to close the digital divide between citizens, within countries and between them and the other less favored countries. The leaders of these less favored areas must facilitate access (freedom and availability) to the network for their citizens.

Eloy

May 2009 become a case study for the business schools of the future

May the year ahead become a case study because:

• Despite the crisis, disruptive and innovative business models were created that set trends for the future
• The old fear-based management system became obsolete, and leaders worked from collaboration and talent
• Agility became a common language in companies
• Digital immigrants learned the language of the younger ones and implemented new modes of communication and organization
• All of the above was put in place from the first moment, and it did not remain on a wish list

Integration, inclusion, introspection

Inclusion of all ideologies and political tendencies in the construction of the new participatory model of society 2.0. Integration of all people regardless of races, religions, countries and nations, social classes, sexual orientations and even intellectual and educational levels. That this integration includes both the followers of their Majesties from the East, and the followers of the “chubby man with a white beard”.

Introspection to assimilate everything, process it with personal values, and act accordingly. Jorge

A process moderator, a gene mutator, and a bicycle for each

A process moderator so that companies, in their eagerness to scale and rationalize costs, do not turn their employees into children for everything, and distance them from those tasks in which they really add value. A gene mutator, to get us to collaborate more on the web and in real life. A bicycle for everyone, with a good urban planning manual for those who design our cities. So that we lead a more active life and use a sustainable means of transport such as the bicycle, and so we can arrive at all our appointments with a well-oxygenated brain.

Alejandro

Courage to change the world

Courage to work collaboratively, courage to accept our limitations and to try to overcome them. Courage for organizations to be transparent. Courage to believe in ourselves, without resorting to “punching the table” to feel useful or important. Courage to recognize the value of others. Courage to recognize that we were wrong and courage to accept that we have done well. Courage to surround ourselves with the best, without being afraid of it. In short, courage to make organizations true niches of participation and to change the world. Leticia

Desire to work and a smile

An antidote to “perecitis” in public and private organizations, and a smile despite the difficulties. Javier

An eraser to erase obsolete learning

Obsolete learning – limiting conventionalisms – prevents us from being open to new ideas, visions and styles different from what is known, what is traditional, what is conventional. New situations scare us, and most of the time we reject them without analysing them. That is why it would be good for both the people who run politics and companies, as well as ordinary citizens, to use a rubber band every day to erase the rejection of what is different. That will help us so that, in the future, we do not need equality policies, quotas or integration laws for people with disabilities, or programmes that teach us what diversity means. Carol

That we do not lack people with capacity, who understand and explain what is happening to us, and are capable of making proposals for the future. Of a future without biases from the recent past, because this new era requires new ways, not extensions of those that already exist. Chano

Big ideas, big ideals

We need high-flying ideals. It is said that great ideas and great ideals are what have driven humanity, and today we are largely lacking in them, especially in the formal leaders of this global world. Ideals generate illusion and illusion generates trust and commitment. When this occurs, economic activity goes hand in hand. I would ask the Three Wise Men to leave us to the star of Bethlehem, so that it could go around the world and we would believe again in great goals, beyond ourselves. Carlos

We need constructive and positive thoughts that move the world, and the renewable and inexhaustible energy of generosity and creativity. We have to trust that the network makes us more equal and connects us to love and to others; that it acts as a communicating vessel between the haves and the have-nots, between talent and ignorance. Carolina

We have to continue to have doubts that allow us to grow, and that allow us to discover a little more every day; we have to develop the art of listening; we must pursue our dreams. Loreto

Creativity and innovation

The search for the new, breaking molds, stereotypes and routines, precisely this year 2009 declared by the European Parliament as the YEAR OF CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION. Flower

CREATIVITY, because the doors to access the new world are not unique. You can create your own access: you just have to share your dream and make it come true. Carlos

Peace

As things stand today in the land to which the Three Wise Men are traveling, I hope that they survive the bombings, the missiles, the offensives. They have a lot of work to do there and in the rest of the world. I ask you for gifts to shout out loud: social justice, illusion, common sense, education, solidarity, optimism, respect, freedom, PEACE, health, integrity, activism. Isabel