My Year of Redesigning Life, later in Week 1 Dream of Permaculture Principles

I had a dream….. I don’t mean a dream about hopes, goals and aspirations. No, no, no, I had one that was more like a ‘wake in fright’ 4am nightmare. In the dream someone was quizzing me about whether I had done a PDC course. I cautiously admitted that I had done one quite a while back. So what are the Permaculture Design Principles again they queried? Of course they would ask, I didn’t have a clue. I began searching my mind for the first principle and managed to come up with, ‘observe and something-or-other.’ It was 4am after all.

I could not remember one of them, for love nor money. After a few minutes in my hyperalert state it became clear that I was going to have to remember them if I wanted to get back to sleep. Easily said but having just moved house I hadn’t unpacked any of my books, or anything else much really. Crap, I definitely wasn’t going to get back to sleep. My psyche was pretty insistent that I find them, particularly given my intention to redesign life, self-sufficiency was a pretty big part of it. What was even more embarrassing is that I consider David Holmgren, the co-originator of Permaculture to be a good friend of mine. Finally after faffing around for a bit, I remembered they were listed in the back of a Pip magazine I’d left out to read between packing boxes. I got my journal out and copied them down. Feeling much relieved I went back to sleep. In the morning I thought about going out to pick fresh dandelions to brew tea, but still in my pyjamas I thought I might frighten the neighbours, just too naff. I opted for my usual coffee to review and reflect on the 12 Principles. It was as if I was reading them for the first time, they were just so sound and so relevant. The Permaculture Principles are underpinned by the ethics of Earth care, People care and Fair share; and can be applied to land and nature stewardship, building, tools and technology, education and culture, health spirituality and wellbeing, finances and economics, land tenure and community governance. Quite a lot to put into practice though. One step at a time I suppose. Permaculture is a creative design process based on whole-systems thinking informed by said ethics and design principles. The aspects that most interest me are education and culture and health spirituality and wellbeing. I realise that to be self-sufficient I should broaden my interest to at least include land and nature stewardship and finances and economics. In practical terms that means cultivating land and growing some veggies. It is not that I haven't grown veggies before but always in an existing garden with malleable soil. The thought of setting up from scratch in a dry region on a bare block with with compacted soil is quite daunting. Preparing the bed, mulching the soil, propagating the seeds, watering, I felt like a Luddite. Too much! The idea was to enjoy redesigning my life. I didn’t think it was going to be hard. All the local seeds and seedlings had been snapped up by the pandemic hoarders who I bet have never had a veggie garden in their life. Damned survivalists. I began to think that I hadn’t thought this through very well. I like the idea of doing it more than actually doing it. Alright, change of attitude required, and some good local gardening advice. A mattock for the dry compacted soil wouldn't go astray either. What can grow in a dry climate at this time of year? Where can I find some seedlings? Better get to know the locals! There's more to this self sufficiency thing than meets the eye. A small win I just found Morag Gamble's no-dig garden video clip. I am off to watch it for some inspiration. Reference: permacultureprinciples.com; pipmagazine.com.au Morag Gamble, No dig garden, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Wq32IRrPQ

My Year of Redesigning Life Week 1 - Enjoying Self Sufficiency

I read a Native American short story when travelling in Alaska many years ago. It was about two old women who were left in the woods to die by their tribe. Possibly the natural flow of events in their culture at that time, they were seen to be too old and a drain on the group. They were quite elderly and weak but to their credit they decided that they weren’t going to take it lying down and certainly weren't willing to die. Their story continued outlining how they overcame their fears and challenges, got themselves organized, doing first things first, and learnt how to fend for themselves in a different context. They drew on their wisdom, built on their strengths and ultimately thrived for many a long year. It was a pretty inspiring story. Well, I’m not exactly elderly but I am in a high risk category and I’m over 60 so this is my story at the time of a Pandemic. I had already made a big batch of fermented cabbage (sauerkraut if you like) as I had just moved house so was re-establishing a practice I already had in place. Good flavour, good gut health, cabbage in season and cheap as chips to make. OK Step 1 done. I need to make a plan for what is going to help me thrive at this time as I reckon this could be for the long haul. I am not talking about doing a Claire Dunn, I am definitely stocking up on matches, but I get that to stay healthy, fit and psychologically well, I am not going to get all my needs met a supermarket. Growing plants I guess. I have read the theory, even done a Permaculture Design Course but my previous veggie growing attempts have been somewhat lacklustre. Better study up,buy some seeds and get to it. I already know I ain't going to get them at Bunnings. It’s wisdom that plans ahead and it does seem to be an immediate priority. I'll let you know how I go.

How do we get our heads out of the oven and our bums out of the freezer to make 2 degrees of change in the right direction? Paul Hawken’s Project Drawdown is the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming.

I am a big fan of Paul Hawken, The Ecology of Commerce, Blessed Unrest and other publications.  His latest work Project Drawdown is scientifically sound and socially inspiring.  Here are my notes and thoughts from his speaking engagements in Melbourne 2018.

Drawdown is the point where greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere begin to decline on a year-to-year basis. (www.drawdown.org)

It can be quite difficult for the average punter to get accurate, relevant and meaning information about climate change; that is if they haven’t switched off to it already.   Take the oft quoted predicted average temperature rise of 2 degrees and it's likely impacts.  What does this actually mean to the average punter?  Nada. 

When we think about 2 degrees average temperature rise it doesn't seem like a bit deal, but the extremes are where it’s at.  According to one meteorologist I heard a while back, ‘it is like having your head in the oven and your arse in the freezer.’  An 'average' number can fit between very broad extremes.  At those extremes we can see very unpredictable weather events.  Hailstones the size of golf balls, furious winds, and one in 100 year floods-bush fires-or-droughts happen with alarmingly frequency.

The average global temperature has risen by almost 1 degree C since 1880.  There is a whole body of validated meteorological and environmental science that sits behind that 1 degree increase.  Australia has been keeping official weather for over 100 years and tracks changes in the trajectory of hot and cold wind currents, rainfall patterns, soil erosion, water contamination, deforestation, ocean currents and environmental pollutants that are trapped in our atmosphere.

Hawken reminds us that our information sources often come as sensationalised news bites that vie for space amongst spurious advertising and click bait.  Even when accurate information does make it to the mainstream it is often so negatively focused and filtered with political posturing and vested interests that we deny it, dismiss it, disregard it, or feel impotent to act.  It is not that we don't care but it just seems too bloody overwhelming to think about. There has been so much 'awfulising' that  society has become immune the existential crisis in which we currently live.  We project our concerns out into the future – for our children and grandchildren. 

So, it was very refreshing to hear Paul Hawken’s positive framing on climate change and what we can do about it.  Hawken and his team of 1000 scientists researched and identified 100 dynamic and innovative solutions that will have the most impact on reducing carbon emissions and reducing greenhouse gases.   The results are compiled in a comprehensive body of work in which the science is impeccable, the stories inspirational and the solutions are already happening. 

Project Drawdown is grounded in science and Hawken sees it as a testament to the growing stream of humanity who understands the enormity of the challenge we face and are willing to commit their lives to a future of kindness, security and regeneration.

Some of the solutions researched are obvious.  Wind and solar are now cheaper than fossil fuel.  Reducing food waste minimises methane emissions.  But Hawken admits that the research threw up some surprises:   Globally 75% of all food is produced by smallholders.  This is something we can get behind as communities, relocalising our growing and production, supporting regenerative farming and community supported agriculture.  The processed commercial food that comes from large scale agriculture is the precursor to poor diet and disease.

Women make up 43% of agricultural labour force and produce 60 to 80% of food crops in poorer parts of the world.  They are less educated, own fewer resources and often marginalised.  Educating girls and combining this with family planning is revealed as one of the highest-ranking solutions identified in the research.

Refrigerants are still a huge issue, so we need to get to that!    Despite the work done to eliminate CFC’s and HFC’s since the 1987 Montreal Protocol to heal the ozone layer, there are still high levels of CFC’s in circulation.  Their capacity to warm the atmosphere is up to 9,000 times greater than carbon dioxide. 

Many of the Drawdown solutions are technological, some are biological, all are sociological; and all require us to work in harmony with each other and nature.   We are currently living in a humanitarian and ecological crisis of increasing inequity across all scales.  Hawken posits that a way to stop stealing from the future, is to address our current existential concerns.   We cannot focus on future existential threats when our current existential threats remain unaddressed.  We are not wired that way.  He is talking about the need for relevant and comprehensive education, proper nutrition, healthy psychological and physical environments, meaningful work and affordable housing for all.

In a polarised world of haves and have-nots, many are in survival and others are ‘all right Jack’ with little awareness how life is for those outside their own bubble.  There is a lot of blame and shame bouncing across that divide.  It doesn’t help.  We need to rise above it and use our collective intelligence to create life enhancing conditions for all life. 

Reducing global warming is an urgent goal.  In Australia we could use the $5-6 billion annual fossil fuels subsidy and put it to towards creating jobs that regenerate the way we live and what we do create a viable life for all.  We could get over ourselves and actually put a price on carbon. There is plenty we can do and are doing already.

The 100 Drawdown solutions Hawken and his science team offers are measured, mapped and scaleable.  They are well researched, tried and tested.  They show possibility and a comprehensive pathway.  He reminds us that yes, of course the science is impeccable, but it is people that will create the solutions of our current existential crisis.  He exhorts us to focus on those.  He says there are no small solutions, they are all part of a whole social, spiritual, economic and environmental interconnection.

When asked about whether he is pessimistic or optimistic about the future his response is always the same, “If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.’

Do you change the fish or change the water?

Working in sustainability I tend to think of water in the literal sense so it was sweet reminder of the importance of taking responsibility for acting with integrity in environments that can sometimes be pretty murky.  This story is good insight into keeping your water clean!Who 's Polluting Your Water? Liam Forde - The Zone

Will Education for Sustainability Influence Business Practices?

In many years of working with organisational change, I have felt at times that I have been complicit in a conspiracy to fit individuals into systems that were innately dysfunctional, whilst ignoring the need to make deeper cultural and structural changes that would really make a difference. 

My observations and discussions with participants of organisational change programs have led me to conclude that despite the huge amount of money and time spent, programs frequently fall short of delivering the intended change outcomes.  Typically, there is a buzz for a short time. People know what needs changing. The ‘Values Statements’ are framed and duly dispensed at prominent locations around the buildings walls and the expensive consultation reports are filed.  And like an elastic band that has been momentarily stretched, things go back to business as usual with no real commitment or clear articulation of how the changes might be made and sustained.  I suspect that many organisations can underestimate the complexity involved in making deep level change; as well as the need to stay the course until the change has taken root. 

The drive for business to prepare to operate in a low carbon economy and become more sustainable has upped the ante of organisational change to achieve tangible outcomes. Yet with a predisposition towards political and economic short-termism and the failure to recognise the combined impacts of complex global changes, this is no small challenge for businesses to address. 

Business can no longer afford to focus only on economic gains or they risk perpetuating a system that has reached its functional limits.  How much and to what degree organisations take on a culture of sustainability along with the practical skills needed to deliver their products in a sustainable way will set the scene for a feasible and equitable future for all.  

There are viable pathways for organisations to continue to make a profit, and address its social and environmental impacts.  One such pathway is to educate for sustainability (EfS) which provides practical insights and information that creates understanding, surfaces outdated world views and engenders behaviour change.  Where necessary it can be backed up with educate about sustainability (EaS) which provides factual science-based information about prevailing and predicted environmental, social and economic conditions.  The uptake of professional development in EfS can support a new kind of success in business.

Education for Sustainability (EfS) has already made a mark in the industry sector with some 1000+ vocational educators from around Australia in 2012 and 2013 trained to embed sustainability principles and practices into formal curricula.  As well, numerous private providers and community organisations have taken up the mantle. 

As the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005 – 2014 draws to a close it reminds us that “all sectors of the workforce can contribute to local, regional and national sustainability,” and that business plays a key role. EfS hold the potential to change in the world of work, and have a flow on effect of making sustainable change that contributes to the environmental, social and economic wellbeing of all. 

This may be the Trojan horse that infiltrates a world view that will crumble a linear, hierarchical and fundamentalist way of being that no longer serves us.  Then wins for all will ensue.

Pallet House I Beam Design

Brilliant inventive design!

Marshmellow Lesson on Creativity Design and Collaboration

We can learn a lot from kindergarten kids who show us how to design for success without getting fixed on getting the one right answer!

Life Is....

I moved house recently and sorting through papers I found a couple of verses I had penned about LIFE!

Life is....
A small plant
two tiny unfurling blades.
Is it unaware of its abode
washed by stearic acid and
sodium laurel sulphate
as it valiantly clings to the
frame of the plug hole?



And on the meaning of life....

I always suspected that life has no meaning
Meaning, after all is to satisfy the mind
How's that for a dose of responsibility
And Lord how we take on making it mean this and that

I always suspected that life has no meaning
Quite liberating really when you think about it
'Why' being the booby prize question that sets you off
meandering or urgently lurching from one drama to another

I always suspected that life has no meaning
The ultimate ego trip to self important city
My life has a purpose
I'm here for a reason
This little sunbeam smiling in God's eye.

New models for doing business

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

Here is another example of how we limit our creativity. In the hierarchy of education of maths and language at the top, humanities next and the arts last the skill that we need the most for the current age is creativity. We usually educate it out of kids and move whole body education up to the left side of the brain.

300 Years of FOSSIL FUELS in 300 Seconds

I first saw this informative clip on Patrick Jones' blog http://permapoesis.blogspot.com/
Filtering the volume of information we have at our finger tips can be overwhelming. This clip is one of the simplest potted history I have seen and is a great introduction to the new book by Richard Heinberg and William E Rees, Thinking Resilience, Ch.3, The Post Carbon Reader, Edited by Richard Heinberg and Daniel Lerch, 2010

Changing Behaviour Is As Important As Changing Technology

Compared to what is put into technological research behavior change is a neglected area of climate change education. Yet unless we can do something different things wont change. I think this is a brilliant article on how to get more savvy with behaviour change. Using behavioral science to make smarter energy policy | Energy Bulletin

Here is a small excerpt from the article:

"How much does it cost for a given climate solution to eliminate (abate) a metric ton of CO2 emissions? With plug-in hybrid vehicles, that ton costs around $12. With wind power, it's $20. With carbon capture and storage at coal-fired power plants, it's $44.

How much does that same ton of CO2 abatement cost using these behavioral programs? -$165. No, that's not a typo. It's a negative sign. As in: $165 worth of profit per ton of carbon pollution reduced. If similar programs were expanded nationwide, Allcott and Mullainathan estimate a net value -- savings minus costs -- of $2,220,000,000 a year. Of course much research and testing remains to be done before it's clear whether these programs perform equally well at scale, but as a first approximation, that's not too shabby."

metro regrets.... as sung by men in suits

Coming Home Workshop December 3 Melbourne

I had the privilege of doing Ian McBurney’s ‘Coming Home’ workshop earlier this year which is a meaningful, fun and inspiring professional development experience that explores ecological sustainability from a really unique approach. The workshop content is up to date and relevant AND his facilitation is really brilliant. As a professional facilitator I cannot help but admire work that is well constructed. He covers how we learn and why we change, why conversations beat solar panels, what we can learn from nature and how to win in a green economy. The workshop has been in development for over ten years and is delivered with Ian's trademark humor, passion and clarity. It is a fast paced and inspiring look at the fast growing green economy and the largest people movement in human history.

Working in the sustainability field professionally I have attended lots of these kind of workshop this was really worthwhile and lived up to its promise. The workshop is for professionals who want to engage in a more meaningful approach to sustainability rather than only a techno fix. ‘Coming Home’ is on at the Abbotsford Convent on Friday December 3 from 9am to 4pm. The cost is graduated to enable individuals as well as community and corporate participants to attend.

The details are on http://www.liveecological.com.au/ where you can download a brochure or register.

Please contact me if you would like to know more about the workshop. All the best!

The Golden Rule

Leadership Change Comes from the Heart

I am really getting into Otto Scharmer's work after working with the wonderful Dale Hunter in a Facilitation Master Class in August:

"The key leadership challenge of our time is to shift the inner place from which we operate. As individuals, as teams, as institutions, and as societies we all face the same issue: that doing 'more of the same' won't fix flawed and failed systems. We have to leave behind our old tools and behaviors, and immerse ourselves in the places of most potential. We have to listen with our minds and hearts wide open, and then connect with our deep sources of knowing and self. It's only when we pass through this eye of the needle-letting go of the old and letting come the emerging self-that we can begin to step into our real power: the power to collectively sense and create the world anew. Theory U describes a social grammar and practical methods for such a transformative leadership journey."

-- Otto Scharmer's take on the essence of leadership today - from his blog
(http://www.blog.ottoscharmer.com/?p=169)

Nimble Minds at U3A

I had great fun last week with a U3A group in a rural town. It was quite inspiring to work with these elderly nimble minds. It was a three hour session about the debate on climate change. Their questions kept me on my toes and I had to be inventive with activities that could accommodate their not-so-quite nimble bodies. It reminded how flexible we need to be as facilitators. Here's another story from a session I ran quite a few years ago.

A friend once asked me if I would run an assertiveness session for her client group...some blind people(she said)...of course I was happy to(I said)....well actually they are quite elderly too(she said)....ok that's no problem (I said).....that's great but some of them are deaf as well(she said).....O h k a y then I guess I can do that(I said)....don't worry we have someone to sign for you(she said)....(Now how you sign to a blind person I wasn’t quite sure but ....I am sure we can work something out(I said).....Great, now one last thing, quite a few of them have Alzheimer’s(she said)......Right, well it will be interesting then. (I said)

Well as it happened it was one of the more delightful sessions I have run and the group renamed the session, 'Querulous Training.' They had wanted the Assertiveness Training primarily because when they went to the Doctor, they felt that the Doctors generally treated them as stupid, didn’t bother to explain things and prescribed medication without providing information. So as a group they ended up coaching each other on shaking or stamping their white cane at the ‘Quack’....if they were going to be treated as stupid, then they decided they may as well ham it up and get fractious and querulous and insist that the young whippersnapper give them their due. The session was a great success and a fabulous learning experience for yours truly. I was told a few years later that they are still shaking their canes!

The Change Leadership Sustainability Demands - The Magazine - MIT Sloan Management Review

The Change Leadership Sustainability Demands - The Magazine - MIT Sloan Management Review

Women Lead in Sustainability

I am really excited to be involved in a new project developing women as leaders in sustainability starting soon in the central goldfields region of Victoria. We plan to work with about thirty women from all walks of life over several months, training them up as leaders and facilitators to enable them to educate friends, colleagues, family and community about how we can live and work in a more sustainable way.

Later in the year I will be working with Fabian Dattner to bring another leader program on sustainability to regional Victoria. More details to come.

In the mean time a colleague sent me the three minute video on Leadership Lessons from a Dancing Guy by Derek Sivers. It is really worth the watch. Enjoy.

three valuable words that make a difference

CLARIFY COMMUNICATE ALIGN(c)

Three powerful words that when enacted make a huge difference to the success of an organisation.

Occasionally I talk with people in business and ask how they live the organisation’s values at work. It is a question that elicits some interesting responses. Some simply list them from the poster on the wall with no real connection with how they are enacted or why they exist. Others are completely flummoxed about how to answer.

Rarely a group is really clear on what they mean, how they work in practise, the degree of personal and group alignment and the relationship to the business strategies.

Values mean different things to different people and the behavioural equivalents can range broadly. Almost any couple will tell you this if you ask them what love means to them (the value) and how they show it (the behavioural equivalent). It is generally not the same and is often the crux of communication confusion, breakdown and conflict.

This area is seldom addressed adequately in business. Values relate to the people side of business - how we are being with each other and the group we serve. It is the pearl that is too easily dismissed as fluffy and unimportant. Ironically it takes leadership and courage to steer true north here and much can be gained from clarifying what they mean, communicating explicitly and creating alignment about how they are enacted. A truly aligned group is a force to reckon with. Values work takes groups to the next level of meaningful productivity. It is a powerful thing to bring them into balance with the strategies.

(c)I learnt thes power of these three words working with The Zone over a number you years in the area of values based organisational change. It is so satifying to see a group put their own values into action.