In this issue: Pessimist / Optimist … Accelerating Sustainability Education in China … UNESCO experiments with ISIS … Green Mortgages in Indonesia … and more
Letter from Alan AtKisson
Pessimist, optimist … which are you?
(Click here to take our very short optimist/pessimist survey!)
When looking at the global data, it is easy to feel gravely pessimistic about what is happening to our planet.
But when watching Chinese educators (from one of my recent workshops) singing their hearts out in a karaoke palace in Beijing, optimism is the only option. Because I know that the amazing energy of their singing reflects the enormous effort they are making to spread sustainability in their country.
China’s megacities, Beijing and Shanghai, where I visited recently to teach workshops on the ISIS Method and Accelerator tools (see below), are studies in sustainability paradox. On the one hand, a few minutes at Shanghai’s riverside makes it clear coal-burning power plants will be with us for a long time (boat after boat after boat, loaded with the black stuff). On the other hand, electric mopeds are everywhere. And increasing numbers of people are dedicated to making sustainability a reality.
China is the country to watch these days. Because they are changing so fast, if and when they really get going on sustainability, the transformation could be breathtaking.
But meanwhile, I have also had the recent painful privilege of listening to high-level UN briefings on the latest findings on climate science. Things are worsening faster than the previous worst-case scenario.
There’s nothing to do but work harder, and work smarter. Yes, the economic arguments for the sustainability transition are getting stronger all the time. In fact, a whole chapter of my book The ISIS Agreement is entitled “Make Money, Do Good, and Save the World.” (See below for a note about an Indonesian bank that’s using the ISIS Accelerator to do just that.)
But in these letters, I also like to underscore that the base of sustainability is not economics. It’s science, and ethics. It’s about understanding, as best we can, what the right thing to do is, for the sake of our own future as well as the rest of the planet’s.
And then doing it.
Over the summer, we will be making even more changes here at AtKisson Group, designed to make it even easier for you to connect with us, to take one of our ISIS Academy courses, and generally empower yourself to make more change for sustainability.
Meanwhile, do seriously check out our Master Class in Sustainability Change Agentry, scheduled for Aug. 17-23, in Stockholm. This is a unique, and powerful, opportunity to deepen your own skills, reflections, tools, and sense of commitment. We have an exceptional faculty, a wonderful location, and reasonable prices. Don’t miss it!
And, don’t give in to pessimism. Just keep singing — or whatever else you do to lift your spirits — and keep on working for a sustainable world.
- Alan AtKisson
This special six-day experience in intensive learning, practice, and reflection on sustainability and change will refresh you and inspire you. It will also equip you with a wealth of knowledge and new tools to use in leading groups, doing analyses, training colleagues … and much more.
Come experience our exceptional international faculty, wonderful location, and top-flight content, which will expand and deepen your understanding of sustainability strategy and practice. Download the brochure to get the details on the first annual Master Class … and join us in Stockholm!
Click to download the brochure … or
Click here to go straight to our online registration center
Questions? Please click here to send us an email.
Case Study: Accelerating Sustainability Education in China with Pyramid and Amoeba
We recently completed a round of training workshops for senior education officials, researchers, program directors, and administrators in China, as part of an Advanced International Training Program sponsored by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and our partners, Ramboll Natura.
First, the 33 participants learned the ISIS Method and Pyramid training and planning tool, as part of a three-week stay in Sweden that covered many aspects of education for sustainability. On their return to China, about one-third of them took up the invitation to use the method with colleagues and students in their home provinces, to help develop their sustainability initiatives. The results, they reported, were very positive, and several brought slide shows documenting their Pyramid workshops. One group even tried to build a Pyramid with chop sticks!
Finally, Alan AtKisson traveled to Beijing and Shanghai to work with participants on their Change Agent skills, using the Amoeba model of cultural change. The impact appeared to be immediate, at least in one case: a participant who is designing a train-the-trainer program on Education for Sustainable Development for over 1,000 teachers said he would be incorporating concepts from Amoeba directly into his training curriculum.
It was wonderful to see how well, and how quickly, these participants absorbed the ISIS Method and adapted it to their situations. These ranged from school change projects, to developing plans for a Tibetan women’s health program.
Our thanks to our new partner, Ramboll Natura (and to the China program director Marie Neeser), for engaging AtKisson in this important Swedish initiative!
To see pictures and learn more, click here to see Alan AtKisson’s personal blog.
Case Study: UNESCO Bangkok experiments with ISIS
Senior Associate Robert Steele just completed a workshop on Environmental Protection for UNESCO in Bangkok. He used the Compass of Sustainability (Nature, Economy, Society, Well-being), the Pyramid, and the ISIS Method (Indicators > Systems > Innovation > Strategy) as the framework. Over 70 teacher trainers, lecturers and administrators of teacher training institutes and universities, from 14 countries in the Asia Pacific region, received a 7-hour orientation on “guidelines and tools” that focused on Accelerator.
The workshop was treated as an “active experiment” on using the Accelerator for ESD infusion purposes (since Accelerator was new to UNESCO), and the training program participants gave very constructive feedback on how to improve and adapt the process further. The workshops were both very well received and, according to the evaluations, proved to be one of the highlights of the entire 5-day program.
Many of the workshop participants were very enthusiastic to assist with the continued development of the guidelines using the AtKisson Accelerator tools, and UNESCO International Bureau of Education in Geneva expressed strong interest to provide funding support for the development of a sequence of curriculum development modules using the ISIS Method, to be presented at the next workshop in February 2010.
Congratulations, Robert!
Case Study: Indonesian Bank Explores “Green Mortgages” with the ISIS Accelerator
BNI 46, one of Indonesia’s largest state-owned banks, is now working with AtKisson Group affiliate LEAD Indonesia (also known as the Foundation for Sustainable Development in Indonesia) on a sustainable business development program using the ISIS Method and Accelerator tools.LEAD’s work with BNI 46 is focused on its new “Green Mortgages.” As an indicator of how important this new program is to the Bank, the first workshop (which involved use of the ISIS Method in exploring aspects of the program development) was opened by the Bank’s president.
LEAD has used the ISIS Accelerator as part of its core training programs since 2006, and several graduates of that program have now attended ISIS Academy Intensives and become qualified to lead Accelerator workshops themselves.
We congratulate Darwina Widjanti’s team at LEAD/YPB Indonesia, and look forward to continued success there!
Noted While Riding the Wave …
“Can nine billion people be fed? Can we cope with the demands in the future on water? Can we provide enough energy? Can we do it, all that, while mitigating and adapting to climate change? And can we do all that in 21 years time? That’s when these things are going to start hitting in a really big way. We need to act now. We need investment in science and technology, and all the other ways of treating very seriously these major problems. 2030 is not very far away.”
- Prof John Beddington, UK Chief Scientist, addressing SDUK 09 conference (March 2009)
“It’s important to listen to what scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient. Especially when it’s inconvenient.”
- US President Barack Obama
(Both quotes come to us via the very useful website http://www.oursouthwest.com/news/quotes1sd.htm. Thanks for collecting all those quotes!)
Thank you for reading this issue of WaveFront. Please write to us with ideas, suggestions, comments.
© 2009 AtKisson Inc.
