About Us

Who Are We?

We are a group of people who believe that many events and problems we encounter can be solved and improved through different and untried methods. We started our movement in Istanbul with this belief. As we began our journey as a small group, we aim to create a large community worldwide by offering everyone we touch the opportunity to be part of this voluntary movement. We believe that together, through various educational and social responsibility projects, we will make a positive impact on our planet. We are building the Smiling Movement as practitioners of the Agile system with this purpose.

Our Method

As the Smiling Movement, we use Agile Project Management in a way that suits the structure of civil society organizations, progressing continuously with a method that values the process more than the outcome. We notice the life flowing around us and the elements that make up this life. We think about the roles of each of these elements. We make plans to ensure that the roles, especially those of humans, are realized in a manner that respects human dignity. Then, we design how to make these roles more realistic and develop them. We start our project and make mistakes in the process. We increase our experiences with our mistakes and immediately design the next step in an agile manner. Thus, we transfer our experiences to others, enabling them to develop the next process faster and more confidently.

Our Story

One of the ideas revolving in a brain found the right environment to sprout in our process. You know, ideas are contagious, intriguing, and seek opportunities to come to life. Not long after, another person noticed this idea inside that brain and started to design a suitable environment for it to sprout, grow, and develop. These two individuals with different experiences and backgrounds nurtured this idea and believed it would quickly grow and touch many areas and people. This belief turned the journey of two into three, then four. The transformation from four to five and from five to eight happened faster than expected. One person lived with that idea for 3 years, two people matured the conditions in 8 months, and three people found themselves in a system design in just 2 months. Interestingly, our ever-evolving system split into three units when we reached five people. When we became eight and then ten, three teams had actually accomplished something larger than it seemed: We learned the joy of working together, making decisions together, and learning from our mistakes together. This 10-person team established the Smiling Movement Association in just one month, started classes and workshops with students in two youth centers, and took steps to spread neighborhood culture and highlight the richness of diversity. Yes, we began our work as the Education Team, the Outdoor Activities Team, and the Administrative Team, creating our own teams, setting our internal dynamics, and embarking on our journey. You know, once an arrow is shot from the bow, it continues until it reaches the target. We think big and dream of being an arrow that continues to the next target once it reaches the first.

We envisioned a system that centers on people, values ideas that seem small, prepares the conditions for their maturation, is agile, aims for long-term, lasting impacts, values making mistakes, constantly learning and developing together, making decisions together, and offers the opportunity for rotational leadership. We continue to design and develop this as a team. Our ever-growing, diversifying, and enriching process has become our most precious output.

We sincerely hope to experience the Smiling Movement together with you, who have taken a small look here, heard us, and are curious about us. Oh, by the way, sincerity is one of our must-haves 😉