As a new and not-yet-well-understood viral strain, COVID-19’s rapid spread is disrupting what we thought was our normal and tasking us to innovate for a more resilient future. Working with entrepreneurs over the past eight years, the Thought for Food Foundation has been taught a powerful set of attitudes that equip them with a positive and solution-oriented mindset. Thought For Food® believe in the importance of tapping into the power of these 6 Next-Gen Innovation Attitudes, a powerful framework that equips anyone to solve the world’s most complex problems in new ways. 

It all comes down to attitude. They are encouraging you to incorporate the following 6 Next-Gen Attitudes in your personal and professional projects too. And if you feel ready to become a changemaker, apply here for the TFF®? Ambassador program.

1. Openness

This attitude is about embracing new experiences and multispectral ideas and connecting the unexpected dots to create new ideas. Since many of the meetings we were supposed to attend have been cancelled, we have extra time to dive into new topics and learn about completely disparate industries that could provide exciting insights. What new ideas can you be looking into?

2. Collaboration

Based on an open attitude and the willingness to dive into the possibilities of digital technologies, anyone can collaborate on anything, anywhere, at any time. The critical aspect to solving future challenges is having more minds work together. While COVID-19 has shut down schools and offices in many countries, tools like Zoom, Skype, Slack and the TFF Digital Labs™ are helping to keep businesses and education programs running. Technology will propel solutions across time-zones, language, cultural, and disciplinary barriers. How can you foster increased digital collaboration?

3. Beginner’s Mindset

This attitude is about holding on to the playfulness and intrinsic curiosity that we all recognise in kids. We love the novel “crowdsourcing” approach that the University of Washington is taking to combat the spread of COVID-19. Using their Foldit platform, they have introduced a puzzle that challenges scientists and the public alike to build a protein that could block the virus from infiltrating human cells. Rather than getting sucked into the endless stream of clickbait media articles about coronavirus, we are spending our time playing and promoting this game, and we think you should too. How can you dive into a new subject, and unleash both creative ideas and potential solutions through positive engagement?

4. Entrepreneurial Methods

Entrepreneurs are some of the best solution-finders out there. In every challenge, they see opportunity – and in today’s world, it has never been cheaper or easier for them to take a risk in pursuit of a beneficial breakthrough. Thought for Food’s Covid Collaboration Collective (Co3) collects and shares the solutions that TFFers around the world are developing, so that they can be deployed more quickly in other places. Another great example of how the open-source movement is galvanising entrepreneurially-minded innovators is the #OpenCovid19Initiative by the French non-profit Just One Giant Lab (JOGL). What problems can you turn into opportunities?

5. Purpose 

The purposeful attitude is critical when it comes to building emotional intelligence and resilience. If you are looking for tips and tricks on how to find your purpose, and adopt a strong and bold leadership mindset to cope with “black swan” events like COVID-19, be sure to check out Thought for Food’s “Founders Therapy” course on the TFF Digital Labs™. What might be some other actions you can take to become a purposeful next-gen leader?

6. Larger-than-Life Energy

Ultimately, relationships drive everything we do. Our support system revives and propels us during the hardest of times. Nurturing personal and professional relationships requires a different approach when we aren’t able to meet in person. Thought for Food are currently looking for the next TFF®? Ambassadors, a volunteer role for young people from around the world that can help propel your career in food and agriculture and connect you to a global community of social changemakers. In case you have a penchant for activism and volunteer work? This might be for you! Apply here by August 1st, 2020.

Thought for Food are confident that by tapping into these next-gen attitudes, and by coming together to support each other as a global community, we can accelerate our collective potential to create positive change in the world.