Here is a summary of the ORID focused conversation method, as described in Change Management for Sustainable Development.
ORID
What 'might' a sustainable future look like?
I've been reading a lot of stories this year, and exploring creative writing. This has been a treat and I've seen it as an alternative to working or the news. But of course, there's sustainability and change-related learning there too if you look for it. So here's a combination of an exercise from Tim Clare's 100 Day Writing Challenge, and ideas from some of the utopian fiction and positive sci-fi (solar punk) I've been reading.
The 'do they really mean it?' test
Sustainability initiatives! Low-carbon innovation; gender equality; getting rid of single-use plastics; well-being.... In-house sustainability change makers and the consultants who help them are forever devising and launching initiatives and campaigns to get colleagues to do things differently. Sometimes colleagues take them up whole-heartedly and they develop a life of their own. Sometimes you get feeling people are sighing and rolling their eyes, waiting for it to fade away. What makes the difference?
Celebrate your achievements!
One of the lovely things that we did at She is Still Sustainable last month, was to build a wonderwall of our achievements. And wow! What a lot we have achieved.
Some were very personal – surviving divorce, arranging funerals, raising children....
Some had enormous reach – training 100s of facilitators, systems change programme with Sierra Leone Ministry of Health to improve community health, part of a team delivering a sustainable London 2012...
Breaking the Ice
Here are three great ice breakers for meetings, as described in a recent column in the environmentalist. They are:
- what we have in common;
- human bingo;
- getting to know you.
NB the photo used to illustrate the article is not a meeting set-up I would recommend. And what's with all those tissues...?
Use, adapt, enjoy, tell me how it goes, and warm things up a bit.