Author: Kerry Akashian

Yesterday InnoWoman had the pleasure of watching the governor and other legislators participate in the Ice Bucket Challenge with Pete Frates for ALS. It was a beautiful day with a great turnout for a great cause. I particularly enjoyed that our Governor, Charlie Baker, had a playful attitude and at the same time explained that the Ice Bucket challenge is to draw more awareness to ALS and to raise money to find a cure for this disease.

While Massachusetts legislators are doing a fair share in promoting awareness and attempting to engage the public to donate funds to find a cure for ALS, the Commonwealth could do more.

Here’s where we need to go from here:

We need to continuously remind residents of the Commonwealth that we speak the language of prestige and innovation. We need to be reminded of our brand. While we can be playful, like the Governor wearing a “Free Brady” tee-shirt, we can also be serious about thinking about ways to use our brand to find a cure to ALS and other deadly diseases. Let the world look to us for the answers! Let us keep our eyes on the prize-the prize being innovative solutions to complex problems. Let us be concerned with groundbreaking research as much as we are concerned with Super Bowl rings!

We should encourage our constituents to (in Kennedy’s words to the United States) “Ask not what Massachusetts can do for you but what can you do for Massachusetts?” We need to ask residents of the Commonwealth to recognize more deeply the importance of their knowledge and expertise and urge them to bring it to the table. We need parents of our children to encourage their children to become world problem solvers. We need our residents to not be distracted by Brady-gate and get to work on real problems. We need to direct our energy at every chance we get to expecting more from our people.

Starting Points (stay tuned for more solutions):

  • Massachusetts legislators should frequently remind our public that the Commonwealth speaks the language of prestige and innovation.
  • The Commonwealth should adopt reverence, respect, and responsibility as values that represent our true North. Because we revere the Commonwealth and beyond, we respect it (the people, ideas, environment, etc.), and we take responsibility for it by learning all we can to help solve major local and global issues.
  • The Commonwealth should get our schools and universities on board with our brand and values.

I am in no way saying that residents of the Commonwealth have to become researchers. For example, a muralist can create a work meant to inspire and engage residents. Or an artist can depict a social movement in his/her work. A child can help his mother build a community garden. Whatever we do in the Commonwealth, we should keep prestige and innovation as our brand, and reverence, respect, and responsibility as our values. Also, I am not saying that we can never have fun. We can have fun everyday by making lives better locally and globally! Let’s get to work and keep our eyes on the true prize-being a world-wide hub of innovative problem solvers who are looked to for the answers.

Got Inno?

Note: The following is a brief secret identity story and short description of InnoWoman’s extraordinary abilities. More details will be revealed soon!

InnoWoman’s secret identity is Holly Fallon, an American multi-millionaire, serial entrepreneur, philanthropist, lecturer on life design, and mother to 5 year old, Kasey Chavez. She resides in the North End, a community that welcomed her and her daughter with open arms in the spring of 2014.

During the turbulent winter of 2015, Holly Fallon was given the gift of “Inno” as a result of a conversation with a snow plow driver who noticed the extreme distress that Holly was experiencing. The snow plow driver or “snow angel” as he is sometimes referred to, gave Holly “Inno” and without Holly knowing it, gave Kasey “fire in her belly”. Inno gave Holly the strength to create and live her dream life.

Phase One-Personal Mastery-In the beginning of Holly’s experience with Inno, she received messages from her forefathers and deceased residents of the Commonwealth on strategies to cultivate her Inno. The messages that she received during the night through her dreams, provided her with intellectual, emotional, and physical training. During the night her hair would often turn blue as the Inno streamed through her body. By the fall of 2016, Holly had created her ideal life, the first step in becoming InnoWoman.

Phase 2: Civic Engagement and Education One night, in her dream, Holly was visited by Paul Revere who congratulated her on the cultivation of her Inno and achieving personal mastery. He told her that embodying Inno was the first step in helping Boston and that she was now ready to be InnoWoman. He also told her that when she was given her “Inno”, her daughter Kasey was given fire in her belly. He told her not to fear, “the fire in her belly is for when you feel like your “Inno” is dwindling”. Mr. Revere explained, “The fire in Kasey’s belly will give you the ambition and determination to keep spreading your messages of inspiration and information. At some point, you will have to explain Kasey’s powers to her but for now you can channel her fire at night if you need to up your Inno.” That same night, for the first time, Holly saw herself as InnoWoman. After the meeting she slowly began to take adventures through the city while dreaming. She also visited other cities around the world to learn about what they were doing to make their cities and people thrive.

Phase 3: As the Inno intensified, she was called to create solutions for Boston and its most vulnerable residents during the night. Holly soon began to be visited more frequently in her dreams which contained messages from deceased thought leaders on how to solve Boston’s most pressing problems.

InnoWoman’s ideas and inspiration would show up on Billboards, public service announcements, and murals. The City of Boston depended on her as a source of ideas and inspiration. But most of all, her ideas and inspiration that painted the town provided Boston residents with their own “Inno”, so that they could develop and leverage their own inventive problem solving skills and position the city of Boston as the world’s center of Innovation.

InnoWoman’s Extraordinary Abilities:

Note: As the story of InnoWoman evolves, so do her extraordinary abilities.

  • Supernatural Spiritual Medium: InnoWoman has the ability to speak to deceased Commonwealth thought leaders at night in her dreams.
  • Revitalizer: InnoWoman has the ability to create murals and billboard messages that contain inspirational and educational messages about personal mastery, civic engagement, inventive problem solving, and city revitalization.
  • Rewinder: She has the power to rewind a life back to the beginning and add specific educational programs and family life experiences so that a person can make more empowered choices before the poor choice occurs.
  • Foreseer: She has the ability to see what the world will look like 7 generations from now and bring this knowledge to current Boston residents to help them make more empowered choices.

Over the next few weeks you will be introduced to InnoWoman’s overarching vision, direction, cast of characters, explanation of gear, and other significant features of Boston’s new superhero. Thanks for following!!!

InnoWoman

Over the past couple of weeks I have been excited about the enthusiasm screaming out from Boston leaders, businesses, and nonprofit organizations. From initiatives and services like Greenovate, My Brother’s Keeper, Boston Creates, and BostInno, to Mayor Walsh’s efforts to gain city support for viewing the U.S. women’s soccer games, and the rapid cleanup of damaged property in Christopher Columbus Park by the Boston Parks and Recreation Department. Boston is currently displaying the 3 most important “R”s-Reverence, Respect, and Responsibility.

Let me briefly break down the 3 “R”s:

Reverence: To show reverence for something is to hold it sacred, to want to protect and nurture it, and to make choices that honor it.  The “it” can be people, landmarks, and new ideas in Boston.

Respect: is different that reverence. We might not revere the same religions or philosophies but we revere Boston and Bostonians. To promote respect, it is crucial that Bostonians learn about various viewpoints and perspectives. They do not have to take them in as their own, however we need to learn and respect the variety of ideas, beliefs, and ethnic backgrounds of our people.

Responsibility: When we show reverence and respect for Boston, we begin to make responsible choices that reflect our love of the city. We begin to see ourselves as active participants in Boston with a commitment to making choices for the good of Boston and its residents.

The 3 “R”s in action:

When Mayor Walsh offers and promotes events that get the city excited about women’s sports, he is showing reverence, respect, and responsibility for Boston residents; especially Boston’s population of women. Currently, we deeply revere male sports teams in Boston. Last week, Mayor Walsh’s actions helped to continue a shift in admiration for female athletes and women in general. Pretty soon women will be throwing out the first pitch at more and more Red Sox games (I’d be honored to throw out a pitch by the way!). Actions that promote the celebration of women can empower a new generation of women to realize that their voices and contributions matter. Thank you Mayor Walsh for demonstrating the 3 “R”s.

viewing party

How do you or someone you know demonstrate the 3 “R”s in Boston? Please share your stories with me!

InnoWoman

Please see the following websites for more information and ideas to show reverence, respect, and responsibility for the City of Boston and beyond.

http://www.greenovateboston.org/

http://www.cityofboston.gov/mayor/mybrotherskeeper/

http://bostoncreates.org/

http://bostinno.streetwise.co/

http://humaneeducation.org/

Note: The 3 “R”s are adapted for Boston based on Zoe Weil’s work at the Institute of Humane Education.

The ability to cultivate and tap into my “Inno” was a gift given to my secret identity during the terrible series of snowstorms that hit Massachusetts during the winter of 2015.

The “Inno” in InnoWoman is a quality that Bostonians already possess but sometimes fail to leverage. Perhaps we have forgotten about about our inno?

Inno is our mojo, if you will. One of my dreams for Boston is that we continue to develop and tap into our “inno”.

Inno=INTERGRITY-NO-NONSENSE-OPTIMISTIC-OPPORTUNIST

Bostonians with inno have integrity. They make choices in line with their values and the person they want to become. They keep their thoughts on what they intend to create. They take personal responsibility for their choices and recognize that every passing moment is a chance to make a different choice. They value sincerity and honesty; especially within themselves. They also have the courage to admit their mistakes and call themselves out on their excuses. They recognize that they are not perfect and have the ability to bounce back when they realize that they have been living out of integrity.

Bostonians with inno take a no-nonsense approach to communicating their purpose with clarity and power and when exercising their opinions of authority. They recognize that discussion and debate are our greatest tools in refining our collective ideas. Regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation, Bostonians are fearless in delivering their ideas and insights.

Bostonians with inno are optimistic opportunists. They are alert and receptive to ideas, opportunities, and support that comes their way.

Once Bostonians develop and harness their inno, they are more capable of creating new knowledge and systems to improve current practices and programs. But idea development is just the beginning. Bostonians with inno can also sell their ideas!

The more “inno” in Boston=the more value we add to the world

Got inno?

InnoWoman

A major problem with Boston right now is that we’ve lost our competitive edge. And one way that we can fix this problem is to remember our legacy. Things were better when we used to be patriots instead of just cheer for the Patriots. Now while I do love the football team, it is time for us to go back to our roots and become more visionary. Paul Revere has taught us diplomacy and political savviness. We are excellent at this. But we need a little kick in the rear. We need to become visionary giants and Olympians, no matter what.

In 2015, the best improvement we could possibly make as a city is to prepare for the Olympics whether or not we have the Olympics in 2024. We need our citizens to become Olympians; contestants in the game of life. We need to believe that ALL of our citizens are Olympians and educate and prepare them as such. There’s simply no time to waste if we ever want to take back our legacy as innovators and visionaries.

Now is not the time to fold our hands and say that we can’t do it. We need to roll up our sleeves and do the work. But even if the work is not good enough for the Olympics in 2024, it will happen for us when we are ready to receive the torch. Olympians don’t give up and neither do Bostonians.

Either way, in the summer of 2024 I know that we will look at the improvements that we’ve made in the hopes of having the games but also at making our citizens feel like Olympic athletes always.

InnoWoman