3 Linden Rd., Hartland, VT 05048
Tel (802) 436-1277 • Fax (802) 436-1281
www.sustainer.org • Edie Farwell, Program Director
| 3 Linden Rd., Hartland, VT 05048 |
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| Sustainability Institute’s sixteen Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows met for the second of four workshops at Hartland’s Sumner Mansion and Cobb Hill CoHousing. Four intensive days of skills building and project design were balanced by time for informal dialogue, farm chores, music, team building and reflective walks in the October woods. “The Fellowship has given me very specific tools for thinking strategically about some truly vexing, complicated projects.” – Angela Park, Environmental Leadership Program The objectives of the second workshop were to introduce and practice the second phase of tools drawn from systems thinking, organizational learning and personal mastery, and to delve into the design and coaching of Fellows’ individual projects.
| SI staff presented 7 frameworks for Fellows to incorporate into their work: Fellows gained practical experience with these frameworks by incorporating them into projects that address a challenge or opportunity in their current work. Each Fellow spent two hours mapping out his or her project in a small group. Three other Fellows acted as peer coaches during these project design sessions, with one SI staff coach facilitating the process. The peer coaches practiced reflective listening and inquiry-based coaching in helping one another apply these frameworks to their projects. The application of tools, depth of analysis and focused coaching proved invaluable to the Fellows in strategizing the next steps of their current work projects. |
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Cynthia Pansing, Statewide Coordinator for Regional Development Partnerships at the University of Minnesota, will identify teams to develop regional energy visions, incorporating renewable energy and conservation. Shanna Ratner, Principal at Vermont-based Yellow Wood Associates, will create a cooperative learning community of economic development consultants, incorporating principles of organizational learning.
Julia Novy-Hildesley, Managing Director of the Lemelson Foundation, will incorporate the frameworks and tools to develop a new center in Latin America to provide support to inventors and innovators. She will address the challenges of ensuring that the center effectively reaches community innovators who will improve environmental and social conditions.
Guest speaker Nancy Jack Todd, co-founder of the eco-design institute Ocean Arks International, spoke to the group about her lifelong experiments and collaborations in sustainable living and ecosystems restoration. Fellows and members of Cobb Hill CoHousing joined Nancy in a discussion of living and working for sustainability, women’s leadership, and effective communication strategies for models of sustainable systems.
Until the next workshop in March 2004, Fellows will continue their learning and application of the frameworks through homework assignments and regular check-ins with their SI coaches. “ The Fellowship has shown me the value of good communication; how great it felt to hear and be heard, to give and receive good coaching, and how little relative impact it has to “convince” someone of something rather than let them arrive at insights themselves. It has encouraged new ways of being for me in my work. Also, in doing so, it has given me a higher level of confidence in stepping up and taking on a leadership role in areas for which I do not necessarily have a demonstrated area of competency.” – Ellen Wolfe, Tabor Caramanis & Associates
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| Sustainability Institute • 3 Linden Road • Hartland, VT 05048 • Phone 802-436-1277 • Fax 802-436-1281 Last revised on 31-mar-04 . © 2003 Sustainability Institute |
