With the project „Active citizenship pays off: European cooperation on a recognition system for volunteering and active young people” the project partners aha – Jugendinforma¬tions¬zentrum Vorarlberg/Austria, Young Scot/Scotland and Amt der Vorarlberger Landesregierung – Büro für Zukunftsfragen/Austria aimed at promoting and recognizing volunteering activities among young people. During the project period (1/1/2016 – 30/6/2018) the partners shared experience and expertise on voluntary engagement and developed “aha plus”, a recognition scheme for Vorarlberg: With “aha plus”, young people between 12 and 24 in Vorarlberg have the opportunity to get active in voluntary activities (“Quests”) offered by associations or other organisations, collect “Points” for the activities and exchange them for meaningful products or special experience (“Rewards”). As part of the project the basic structure of a “Social CV” was developed which lists the experience collected doing the activities and which should subsequently be of help to young people with job applications. Two results of the projects are the aha plus website www.ahaplus.at and a manual which documents the process of development and the functionalities of the two recognition schemes in Vorarlberg and Scotland. The project results were disseminated locally in numerous workshops with young people and associations, nationally with organisation in the youth information field and on a European level at a conference with youth card organisations.

"The „Artists’ Glasses“ examines and shows what professionals out of education/economy/society can learn from artists and their view and way of working.Professionals are permanently facing new challenges in their daily work. They need creativity and courage because old patterns of thinking cease to exist and new solutions are required. The “Artists’ Glasses” breaks up set thinking/acting and opens new perspectives. Visual and performing artists, composers, conductors and musicians as well as writers incorporate artistic attitudes and creative abilities, which can be adapted and transferred to other professional and social fields. Artists think differently, in new or diagonal dimensions, quite often the opposite. They develop seismographic sensors, discover, try out, discard, reconstruct in new contexts, welcome detours, stand irritations and uncertainties. They are well trained to navigate in systems with little structure, which helps to orientate in new and unknown situations.These examples describe the attitude and approach of artistic working processes. What is of interest is how artists handle the scope, come into a creative flow, analyze reality and expand their imagination. The behavior of artists should be adapted and transferred to other professional fields.The “Artists’ Glasses” is settled in the area of leadership and staff development. It is about leadership competences, initiating and coaching of changing processes, self-organization, personal resources and leadership tools, e.g. problem solving techniques. In comparison to classic methods the “Artists’ Glasses” pursuits something new and innovative. Basically it is not intended to show instruments and techniques, but to sustainably build up attitudes that form the base for individual and group related ways of behavior. Therefore, the “Artists’ Glasses” exceeds artistic interventions or arts-based trainings which are increasingly applied to organizational and staff development.The project follows a transdisciplinary approach. Based on challenges which professionals face in their daily work the “Artists’ Glasses” looks for a problem solving mix of methods coming from the arts and culture, business economics, psychology, organizational sociology and philosophy. Based on a qualitative and empiric study as well as on a theoretical reflection of the results practical recommendations will be developed, adapted and transferred in various business working situations which will be implemented as trials in companies. This procedure will be the basis for rollout examples. In a first step, students of the HTW Berlin (“University of Applied Sciences”) will analyze interviews of experts – artists as well as professionals. For the success of the project it is essential to involve Bachelor and Master students to have a profound look through the “Artists’ Glasses”. It is out of question that this approach must be part of the vocational training of future managers and staff. Furthermore, the students show a fresh view on practical working situations of professionals.The Büro für Zukunftsfragen (“Office for Future-Related Issues”) is part of the administration of Vorarlberg/Austria and works on a sustainable development; local, regional and international. They involve social fields as regional administration, tourism, education, municipality, health sector, associations and initiatives. Regarding the “Artists’ Glasses” they offer the possibility to test artistic attitudes in various platforms. Kubus Kulturvermittlung in Liechtenstein initiates and develops the “Artists’ Glasses” and leads companies and educational/vocational institutions through artistic processes. It is the goal to perceive and deepen entrepreneurial topics as values, core purposes or leadership principles in a different manner. Kubus Kulturvermittlung courageously uses uncommon methods and shows creativity and enthusiasm when it comes to artistic attitudes. Professionals out of education/economy/society experiences are valuable feedbacks to fine-tune the concept of the “Artists’ Glasses”. The book ""The Artists' Glasses - What and How Managers Can Learn from Artists"" is based on experience and knowledge of all activities in this project. It consists of a theoretical part of 29 artistic attitudes which are shown with quotes of artists about their way of thinking and working. These attitudes are connected with practical exercise, questions, instructions, studies, problem cases which inspires the readers and lead them to action. The book will fill a gap in management literature. Important to mention is that artistic attitudes cannot be learned theoretically but only through own experience. However, in order to think in an artistic mindset, the user must not become artist. It is only about the “Artists’ Glasses”.Professionals out of education/economy/society using the ""Artists Glasses"" are perfectly prepared and equipped for the challenges of the 21st century."