Propositions
The Second Nature Program
The Second Nature Program has 5 general Pathways for activating your sustainability transformation:
Interventional: Rapid targeted system interventions into specific sustainability problems.
Experimental: Pragmatic experimentation to develop responses to specific issues created by internal and external drivers by applying key patterns to multiple organisation contexts.
Developmental: Focus on capability development as a catalyst for change, with entry driven by facilitated experiential learning through conversations and storytelling between colleagues to create and grow culture while working on sustainability issues and relevant grounded organisation challenges.
Seeding: An on-going placement where I am embedded for deep engagement with people across the organisation with a responsive outlook to identify and support existing and emerging initiatives; supporting key participants as in-house mentors – facilitators – activators; to facilitate workshops; meet with teams; mentor individuals; monitor progress; give feedback; and identify needs for further action.
Programmatic: A purposefully-designed program of activities to engage the whole-of-organisation and to spark activity at many different parts of the organisation concurrently for as long as possible.
Mentoring
I believe that the next generation of sustainability changemakers need deeper and more challenging engagement beyond business-as-usual professional development, training and coaching, in order to develop innovation and strategic design capacity to lead change for sustainability. I further believe that we develop as better professionals through experiential learning situated in personal relationships, conversations
and storytelling between mentor and practitioner. As a path forward, I offer:
- Personal mentoring for sustainability professionals, individually; and in communities-of-practice, by arrangement; and
- One-on-one mentoring for experienced professionals from all backgrounds who are leaders in their discipline, yet are at an early stage of the sustainability journey, and need to activate new ways of thinking to lead the sustainability transformation.
Living Systems Design Lab
The Living Systems Design Lab has been designed as a structured experiential learning environment providing a community-of-practice for advanced sustainability practitioners. It is based on the core of a program I designed and delivered at Swinburne University over 6 years and in my PhD research through Murdoch University.
You can access the online Living Systems Design Lab here.
The principles of Living Systems Practice underpin all learning activities. Participants will work on complex sustainability challenges; real projects situated in the NGO, Non-profit and Social Enterprise sectors; or on authentic problems from their own workplaces. The Living Systems Design Lab is available as:
4 weekly 3-hour foundation workshops, in-studio, in Melbourne.
4 weekly 3-hour foundation workshops, online
An 8-week mentored project, by arrangement
Intensive short online workshops on specific Living Systems Practice topics
Research + Writing
As an experienced sustainability educator, researcher and former PhD supervisor in the University sector, I am available to provide the following services:
- Industry research and reporting on sustainability topics
- Preparation of case studies
- Writing presentations, webinars and teaching materials
- Preparation of white papers on sustainability topics
- Commenting and proof reading of technical reports and written materials.
As this service is flexible and responsive, please contact me to discuss your needs and I can confirm my contribution.
Speaking + Inspiring
I have been delivering presentations on sustainability topics to many different audiences for over 40 years. My purpose is to inspire people to change professional and living practices. I can speak on a variety of sustainability, circular economy, sustainable technology, strategic design and innovation topics. I can tailor the message to suit the audience and their professional or community sector through:
- Meeting keynotes
- Conference keynotes
- Professional development workshops
- Industry communities of practice
- Industry webinars
- Communities and community groups.
Please contact me to discuss your needs.
I write regularly on Living Systems Practice and other sustainability topics my online publication, Second Nature.
You can access Second Nature here.
On Second Nature you can access with a free subscription:
- Foundations of Living Systems Practice
- Retro Thinking – extracts of my past writing, with new commentary.
- Sustainability Insights
- Reviews of sustainable products and services
I also offer resources via subscription for sustainability practitioners applying Living Systems Practice in their work:
- Living Systems Practice Notes
- Living Systems Research Notes
- Living Systems Pattern Atlas
I will also regularly post my thoughts on sustainability leadership and practice in the Thinking section in this website. I will also post shorter ideas and links to these posts on Linked In – the link is in the footer below as are links to my writing on the following academic repositories:
- Research Gate
- Orcid
- Academia
- Google Scholar
Links to the above repositories plus my personal twitter feed are also in the footer below. Full-text copies of my work are available on Research Gate. You can also access a full-text copy of my PhD at the Murdoch Thesis Repository.
