In this issue: Inspiring Stories of Change Agentry / Training Preference Survey / 10,000 Pyramids
I have just returned from attending the 28th Annual Meeting of something called “the Balaton Group,” after the great Hungarian lake by which we usually meet. Readers of The ISIS Agreement know about this Group; I describe its origins in the early 1980s Cold War, as a meeting point between East and West, for researchers working on sustainability and systems science.
Times have changed since then, and the Balaton Group has changed with them. Today, our members come from all over the world. Researchers have been joined by practitioners of all kinds. At this meeting, we had many scientists and researchers, but also government officials, management consultants, educators, and leaders of many stripes. Systems thinking and sustainability action still unites the group, strongly. But it is also united by the mutual inspiration we give each other.
For example, it is hard not to be deeply inspired by the work of Emelia Arthur, formerly a forest activist in Ghana, now the mayor of her resource-rich district. Emelia nearly lost her mayoral seat because she refused, very publicly, to pay the expected bribes. The resulting uproar, especially from the youth and the paramount tribal chief in her district, resulted in public apologies to the President of the country by the officials involved, and a jubilant reinstatement.
Less than three months into her position, Emelia is continuing to turn corruption on its head. Offered a kickback for the purchase of road equipment, she took it … and then very publicly returned the money to the public coffers, noting that it would pay for providing water to villages needing it. Now, the folks in a neighboring district are asking uncomfortable questions to their officials, who have also just purchased road equipment. What bravery! What creativity!
At the other end of the planet, in Japan, Junko Edahiro was participating last year as the sole female, civil society member of an advisory council to the Prime Minister on climate change. Junko’s amazing life story is also known to readers of The ISIS Agreement (see the last chapter), but her story continues to inspire. For example, when it was time to write the long-term vision statement for the nation’s climate policy, Junko and a colleague did something very clever: they volunteered to write the first draft. Their recommended words survived all the way to the final version. (“Volunteering” is one of the “Seven Secret Powers of the Change Agent,” also described in The ISIS Agreement.)
To inspire you, here is the translation of the final paragraph:
Each of us today holds the choice in our own hands.
To bring this vision to reality, we must take action now.
I could tell several more such stories … but then, so could you! Through the great network we call the Global Sustainability Movement, there are thousands, millions of such stories. One of my Balaton Group friends is working with a website designed collect such stories; when it’s ready, I’ll alert you. Till then, keep telling your own stories … and keep doing the things that will later become the inspirational stories that others tell …
Warmly,
Alan AtKisson
President & CEO, The AtKisson Group
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Online Training, or Live? Which Do You Prefer? Both are Now Available …
What kind of training do you like? Click here to tell us! (The on-line survey takes one minute or less.) Now … if you are happy to sit in your own home, working with your own computer, joining conference calls and “webinars,” then please join our on-line professional training course on Practical Tools and Methods for Change Agents. Over four weeks in October, Alan AtKisson will lead this course in partnership with the International Society of Sustainability Practitioners. Using readings, exercises, e-forums and webinars, you will get thoroughly introduced to the ISIS Method, and learn how to pick the right tool for the job, in any sustainability change effort. The price is reasonable, and the carbon cost is low, too! http://sustainabilityprofessionals.org/workshops#Tools Meanwhile, Alan will also be traveling to San Francsico to offer a two-day ISIS Academy Intensive sponsored by Sustainable Silicon Valley, on 16-17 November. The workshop is filling up, so please register early. You can get details at this website (look under the ticket info!). http://changeagent.eventbrite.com/ A one-day workshop is planned for Seattle, Washington, later that same week; watch WaveFront and the website for details! And if you are an educator working in Asia (or anywhere else for that matter!), don’t miss our first-ever Compass Schools workshop — see below. Questions? Please click here to send us an email. |
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Becoming a Compass School: A Train-the-Trainer Workshop in Thailand
Our new Compass Schools program is designed to support schools through a whole-system approach to sustainability in curriculum, administration, and community relations — and it is attracting a lot of interest. To get things moving moving quickly, we have decided to run a special “early-bird” workshop, for people interested in how to lead schools through the Compass Schools process. Especially if you are working on education and school sustainability in Asia, please come to our first-ever Compass Schools workshop, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Taught by a team of four very experienced education professionals, this workshop promises to be dynamic, inspiring, and empowering. Click here to read more about the Compass Schools workshop … |
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10,000 Pyramids … A Vision
If you are familiar with our Pyramid workshop, then you know it is both very engaging and very productive. Pyramid takes a group quickly through the whole ISIS process — Indicators, Systems, Innovations, Strategies — and leads to both better decisions and tighter teamwork. Pyramids usually take 1-2 days … but lately we’ve been developing a new version, “Pyramid Lite,” which takes just 3-6 hours. Want to see what it looks like? Watch the youtube video … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp_CEMK5Od4 … of a church group in Atlanta, USA, using Pyramid to define its visions and projects for the coming years. They called the proess, “like capturing lightning in a bottle.” We have a vision that in the coming years, more and more groups will use Pyramid to create or strengthen their sustainability initiatives. Why not 10,000 such initiatives? we thought. Pyramid Lite is designed to make that goal more possible. We are still testing Pyramid Lite, and we are looking for people who would to try it. If you have a group that would be appropriate for a 3-6 hour workshop that leads to the creation of a sustainability project or initiative, please click here to write to us. You have to be willing to tell us what happened, and how we can improve it! |
Things we’ve heard or read that seem to sum it all up …
The facts and figures on these pages might tempt some readers to write off the patient, or despair about treatment, but that’s not the case. These pages highlight significant, even worrisome, symptoms. But we also see a planetary organism that is boundless in its beauty and still reasonably healthy. We share a destiny entwined with global human cultures that share responsibility to care for the Earth.
EarthPulse is also an excellent interactive website on global sustainability issues and trends. See:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse
Thank you for reading this issue of WaveFront. Please write to us with ideas, suggestions, comments.
