Before ubiquitous electricity, when daylight was fading but it wasn't yet dark enough to justify lighting the candles or lamps, people would take a 'blind man's holiday'. Too dark to work, or read, this is a time of obligatory rest which is no longer part of the rhythm of our lives. How can we reclaim it?
Here is a summary of the ORID focused conversation method, as described in Change Management for Sustainable Development.
What if driving, cycling, being a passenger or pedestrian, isn't a competition? What if it's a beautiful dance, whose purpose is to make it as easy as possible for the other people to arrive? To enjoy the journey for all its tiny dramas and interactions? Above all, to live it stress-free in a spirit of curiosity? Welcome to the world of Ogmios School of Zen Motoring.
There are brilliant, committed sustainability professionals working hard inside or with some of the most insidious and damaging businesses. Can we turn them into low-carbon, equitable and just institutions working for noble purposes? Or is the best we can do to make them a little less awful? Before we begin working with a business that is in the 'bad' zone, how can we know?
One of the distinguishing features of deliberative processes (e.g. Citizens' Juries, Citizens' Assemblies and other similar dialogue processes where the participants are 'mini publics') is the use of 'experts'. Who chooses them? What role do they play? If you haven't had enough of experts, read on...
In August, Bertha Benz, without telling him, took her husband's car and drove her teenage sons the 65 miles to her mother's house in Pforzheim, Germany. No, not a story of marital strife, but of pioneering action by a woman - for the year was 1888 and this was the first ever long-distance drive in a car with an internal combustion engine. But movement is on the move. What kind of novel ways of getting around would Bertha and her peers use today?
What magic words can add 11% to the number of people supporting 100% renewable power, and take support for ending deforestation up to 84% of respondents? Dedicated specialist researchers at Climate Outreach have taken a deep dive with their seven segments of the British population and tested some different framings of the climate crisis, in the run-up to COP26. What did they find?
Earlier this summer saw the launch of London-based Lawyers for NetZero, a peer network for in-house counsel. But which other unlikely professions are changing from the inside out?
When you need to help people get their creative juices flowing, free up their imagination and come up with ideas in quantity rather than being silenced by the need for quality... a brainstorm is the go-to technique. But sometimes the ideas stop, especially in a virtual meeting. Here are ten ways to get things moving again.
When a facilitator invites a group to write multiple answers to an open question, put each one on a separate sticky-note and post them on a real or virtual wall, it's the first step in a classic technique called 'meta planning' (other names are available). So far, so good. But why do we do this and what happens next?
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.
You've probably spotted that some people like to spend time getting to know others, building a strong relationship with them, and may let deadlines or quality slide so as to not fall out. They have a strong 'relationship focus'. Others like to know what's expected, what the deadlines are, and focus on delivery even if it means other people are side-lined or criticised. They have a strong 'task focus'. How can you persuade task-focussed people to put time into relationships?
