About 15 years ago, for the first time, I took time to get better acquainted with my community.
The catalyst for doing so was participation in the Leadership Austin program.
Being selected in the 1996-1997 class was transformative for me. Previously, I had been 100% focused on my career and family.
Whatever community-oriented activities I’d joined were directly tied to those priorities, e.g., a professional association “volunteer day” as part of my work-related networking. Or, a church youth activity, related to my kids’ participation in the youth group.
But, Leadership Austin led to a new chapter of my life, through deep introductions into multiple dimensions of the Austin community: healthcare, education, housing, transportation, faith communities, homeless services, and more.
Ever since that experience, I’ve maintained a nearly continuous parallel path of one foot each in corporate and community (or you might say for- and non-profit) ventures.
Since returning to Austin this summer, after a year and a half of living in and traveling to Shanghai China, I’ve had a greater appreciation than ever before of the broader responsibility and accountability to which our business ventures — our corporations — must be held.
So, I’ve begun drafting the initial branches of a new Mindmap for social ventures in greater Austin.
It’s part of my personal journey to go even further than before bringing community and corporate interests together, manifested in social ventures or social enterprises.
If you see something that you think should be added to the Mindmap, let me know.
Or, if you would like, create a free Mindmeister account and make the change yourself!
The BroadBrush Update 