#HowAreYouWired?

10 Apr #HowAreYouWired?

Positive Wiring – Positive People is a project that has been baking for almost two years. And now it’s ready. Im so pleased to have been a part of it but I also hope that this is just the beginning…
I had the privilege of being present at the launch of Elgin High School’s Positive Wiring – How Are You Wired? website. You can get a taster of the day in the video below and read more about the event and the project itself on the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) news website.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPZRQax4lYI&w=584&h=438]
Positive Wiring was one of three projects piloted as a result of the SSSC/IRISS Workforce of the Future (WotF) Challenge (WotF was a collaborative project which crowd-sourced ideas via a website and then, over the course of two days workshopped, prototyped and pitched them with social services staff from across Scotland. Five projects were selected by those who took part and two in particular – Positive Wiring being one of them – have seen significant results.)
However, what I want to write about here is a little more about the process.

Recipe for change
If change and innovation has a recipe then, among the many ingredients, buy-in/commitment is the yeast. That teaspoon-and-a-bit may seem insignificant next to a mound of flour an butter, yet it permeates the entire mix and has a significant effect. Without it, their may still be a product, or service, but it’ll be distinctly flat.
Success
And so while there are dozens of factors that contribute to the success, from my perspective, the constant here was the commitment.
All projects require all involved to be 100% invested. And yet it doesn’t always happen. The Elgin Positive Wiring team demonstrated what happens when everyone, at every level and stage of the process, wants the project to succeed; and is prepared to go out of their way to make it happen. In this case, as the young person at the end of the film says, everyone wanted Positive Wiring “to thrive.”

And there’s a lot to shout about: the website (howareyouwired.wordpress.com) – for young people, by young people, in the voice of young people; the ten young ambassadors who fully understand and appreciate the research the project is based upon – whose enthusiasm alone may have more impact than the website through word of mouth/one-to-one, with friends and family.
Positive Wiring is a particularly interesting project because its aim is fundamental change,  a cultural change. Changing behaviours in people is no easy task.
But Positive Wiring is not a sticking plaster, it’s not even a solution, it’s a preventative measure. It demands we change our ways to provide better futures for children not yet conceived. Positive Wiring demands teenagers and young adults think differently and more responsibly about becoming parents.
Positive Wiring is an opportunity to significantly change the lives of future generations; not through a poster in a GPs surgery or national advertising, or even through Government legislation – but through 14/15yr olds. And what a group of 15yr olds we had.
Hopefully other Positive Wiring teams across Scotland and the UK will follow in the footsteps of Elgin. They’re big shoes to fill – so are you up to it?

If you or your class/school/club or youth group would be interested in becoming a Positive Wiring Team please get in touch and I’ll pass you on to the right people.