Learning trips
Travelling out in the world to see how others create a revitalizing draft in the development work. However, you don’t have to travel to foreign counties to get new perspectives to your own business. Depending on the underlying purpose, the journey can either go to something familiar, which means a deepening of what you already know or to something unknown, which gives new perspectives.
As part of seeing learning possibilities in all situations and making use of them when they appear in everyday life, MiL’s learning travels start in some cases as soon as you step on the plane or the train. MiL uses the trip to more than transport and different mini projects can sometimes begin already during the journey or in direct connection to it.
Example – Learning from history – Vietnam
As part of understanding change, the participants visited a MiL program in Vietnam and the 250 kilometre long Cho Chi tunnels at the north Vietnamese base outside Saigon. The tunnels, which were built by Vietnamese families in an attempt to escape bombs during the war.
During ten years, thousands of people lived there underground. ”Why did they not give up, at least after a couple of years?” was one of the many questions that the participants discussed. Another central theme during the trip was the importance of the meaning to overcome obstacles and adversities.
Example – Learning from history – Florence
In order to create a greater understanding for innovation and what is the base for an innovative culture, the participants in a MiL program visited the city of Florence in Italy.
How is it that art, culture and philosophy, through Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Machiavelli took such a quantum leap during such a short time period? How were the conditions created for this innovative break-through?
During a day in Florence the participants were given the possibility to create a theory of what was behind this era of innovation. In smaller groups interviews were made with professors, businessmen and regular Florentines to explore what history can teach us about the conditions for innovation today.