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