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| Final Review
Reflections
When starting this program I had some expectations of the outcomes, ran into a few specific challenges and have been thinking about methodologies used by Gaia University. Here I am sharing my reflections in these areas.
- Output Schedule
I am quite satisfied about how this project has been unfolding. Originally the greatest struggle was to make the time available for the different areas in my life, once I had started on this project. Creating outputs and doing the actual work, like researching, implementing, drawing, etc. all at the same time and keeping up with work and personal life was quite a challenge. Several times I thought I would not be able to complete this program in time and considered asking for an extension. Not starting immediately after the introductory workshop caused me later to scramble a lot, which motivated me to move beyond the habit of procrastination. With the clear intent to finish the degree this year, the change of the delivery day of the final review by GU as well as all the support I received, made it possible.
- Disappointment
It is disappointing to me that I have not achieved a portion of one of my main learning goals - becoming more skilled in the permaculture design aspects consisting of making design sketches and drawings, reading the landscape and using permaculture principles doing that. I did not make the appropriate effort to find peers, mentors and experts that would coax me into this direction. On a deeper level this has to do with me being caught between the understanding of producing some outcomes that are physical evidence of implemented elements and not really counting "paper" work as such. Busy with pulling everything together I neglected giving attention to this aspect. As much as this is a big disappointment, it is also a clear hint for the future leaning map.
In retrospect I think a better approach for me would have been to work on the design portion of the project as the first part of implementation and in the second part start implementing elements. I am not quite sure why I did not realize this. I feel I was blinded by the word "implementation" to mean some physical visible structure in the landscape that the design became secondary. This is a lost opportunity and I know what a misconception that was. As this is a start of a project that will go over several years I have the opportunity to revisit the actual design work.
- Stress
When I look at the original project plan and all the goals I have been wanting to achieve, it is obvious this will take some time. I need to admit, I thought I could do all during the 1 year IESD program. This reflects back to me that I am generally over-scheduling my available time and as a consequence feel overwhelmed. The project plan for the second part of implementation, which I created after realizing how overtaxed the schedule of the original plan was, had a much better conversion rate of tasks from open to being completed.
- "Single" Focus
The way I approached this program I made a choice from the beginning: I am going to focus for the IESD program on the project itself. I decided consciously to not include much of some other areas that I spend a great deal of time and effort on. This is especially true for my work in the field of Information Systems, including my work for Gaia University in this area as one of my clients. Integrating this area would have been quite time consuming and difficult to give it proper attention. It has been tempting a few times to cross the line and use some of the learning happening in this area to include in my portfolio. All in all, I am glad I decided not to do that and to not take away focus from the land-based project that I initial intended to do.
- Support
I want to acknowledge the support that I received. My main supporter is my wife, Berta. Without her effort to adjust her life and work situation to the needs of this project, it would have been impossible to even consider it. Additionally she was always ready to help me over difficult decisions or at times when I felt stuck. She initiated hiring her nephews for help. Without them, we probably would have not gotten very far in actually working on the property. Berta also discussed with me details of the implementation and several times pointed out aspects I had not considered. This also happened with Berta's nephews several times. After the first few weeks they had quickly picked up what "sustainable" means to us and provided surprisingly accurate and useful observations and input.
I also want to thank all my clients, including Gaia University, who were very understanding and gave me the flexibility to work on this project by adjusting their schedules to my needs.
Last not least, the staff of Gaia University has been accommodating to my requests for changing the output delivery dates.
Systems and Methodologies
The following reflects on some of the core paradigms, systems, approaches and methodologies that are used as part of the IESD Gaia University program.
- Output Reviews
One factor that brought some level of anxiety to creating outputs is that the turn around from delivery to review was often behind. I have to admit, that this is actually caused by myself, as the delivery was usually way later than originally scheduled and I had to ask a few times for extensions. At the current writing of the final review output, my last two outputs have not been reviewed. During most of the program's duration this was the case. This of course made it hard to make any adjustments in the design of the project and output preparation based on any feedback. This situation also caused me to wonder if the delivered outputs met the requirements or if I would need to rework parts, etc. The very encouraging feedback from the outputs that have been reviewed really compensated for this and inspired me to continue with renewed energy. The implementation outputs are a little different than the others and I am of course curious about any feedback.
- Action Learning
From what I understand, action learning is a valuable concept and tool. In many ways I think this is how many self-trained people naturally acquire their skills. The use of the 4, by now, famous questions (What has been challenging?
What is gong well?
What is your long-term vision?
What are the next steps you can take?) is helpful, especially in the beginning. I also think some modification could be quite beneficial.
I felt something was missing, regardless how honest and authentic these questions were answered and listened to. Yes, it is a good, brief review where I am at and my work is at. It often allows verbally expressing unconscious thoughts and experiences. On the other hand it did not open up the space for more in depth conversations. Maybe what is needed to address certain un-clarity, falling short of ones own expectations, feeling stuck, etc. is a combination of coaching, counseling, mentoring and reevaluation.
- Advising
At least for me I was not able to really use advising (process, project and expert) to its full potential and to benefit from it a lot. I did not get much feedback on the details of design work, which of course would require a tremendous amount of time for the advisor to be familiar with it. This maybe is not be possible or even intended. I am not sure how to resolve this. The advising sessions made one big difference for me - after every session I felt a renewed commitment to completing the program and catching up with my delayed outputs.
- Models
I am usually not in favor of using models a lot. It is like with theories in science - yes they provide a framework to work with - and they also can easily prevent developing new approaches or new thinking. Models and theories of today become limiting concepts of tomorrow. It seems so often that the work to understand the model, view ones work through the lens of a model and adjusting or following the model itself takes more time then the actually work on a project. I do use models to a certain extent, especially in the beginning of understanding new concepts and information, and then want to break out of them. Do we need models? And why? The models I am talking about include spiral dynamics, action learning, permaculture, design frameworks, systems of ethics, western and non-western scientific paradigms, etc. The universe is not a model and cannot be described by a model.
- Preparing Outputs
When originally signing up for this program my understanding of creating outputs was somewhat different than it turned out to be. I had the impression that a variety of formats and delivery methods were available and the creation of outputs would be different than writing papers for a more conventional type of higher education. How exciting and how different! This has turned out to be not so, at least not for me. As a matter of fact, the longer I am into the program, the more academic the work on outputs became. Just to go through the guidelines available for output 3 took me a whole day. This might be solely caused by the way I was doing it and would gladly learn a different method.
- Action Learning Groups
Our Action Learning Group set up and work could use some change. As excited as I was to work together with well-experienced peers in Brazil and in Nepal, in terms of getting different views and inputs from very different perspectives, it turned out that was quite hard to coordinate the meeting times because of the extreme time differences and living conditions in some countries. Also, as the other two members have such different project subjects, there was not really any cross-fertilization. When the requirement of getting each other's work reviewed by one's peers fell away there was really no input from the ALG members. Meeting about once a month, was not enough in the beginning and was usually initiated by me. Going through the 4 questions was nice, all in all not productive though. Due of having mostly only land lines available in Brazil and Nepal, it was a few times really difficult to keep a meeting going because of the technical difficulties.
In summary I have the following suggestions I propose for considerations:
- Have a total of 2 pages of guidelines for preparing each output.
- Form ALGs that are geographically close and work on projects with comparable subject areas.
- Modify the 4 questions model of interaction to include more coaching on the advising level and project discussion and brainstorming on the ALG level.
- Explore, define and find a balance between academic requirements of performance standards and free form expression.
- Put significant more emphasize in creating a network of peers, experts and mentors that are available to provide ongoing feedback on the produced work.
- Ensure that feedback on the outputs is provided timely.
- Reduce the use of a "model" approach in scholarly work or increase other approaches.
The greatest value for myself is to see how an actual application of ecosocial design in a real project can work and that I am able to do it.
Value for the Field
and Strategic Aspects
Turning our home into a demonstration site for sustainability on a household level has already this year impacted about 70 - 80 people. This includes two young adults, Berta's nephews, who we had hired for two month during the peak of the implementation phase; contractors we worked with starting to think about sustainable construction; many people passing by asking questions and sometimes getting a small tour; all of Berta's clients inquiring why her office had moved and so finding out about it; family and friends observing our progress and a few neighbors coming by regularly to see what is going on. By documenting this whole process, the designing and planning that goes into it, sometimes describing step by step procedures, developing household scale indicators of levels of sustainability as well as project and budget plans, this project can function as a case study. It is also an example of what we can do from the bottom up, and as such complement and infuse projects that work on a larger scale, like city repair, re-localization, post-petroleum, transition towns, climate change, The Living Building and the Architecture 2030 challenges that all work bottom down, aiming to discontinue many of the self-destructive behaviors of humankind and instead provide support for individuals, households and communities to create real sustainability.
In the last few years Sandpoint, our home town, has been growing very fast and a lot of land has been or is developed for residential use. This project, even though developed around an existing home, is providing a practical alternative even for new construction and especially for home retrofitting. "Green Building" is currently receiving a lot of publicity, with green remodeling slowly catching on, both of which are aiming to create healthy, energy efficient living spaces that are integrated into the natural environment and social fabric.
We are expecting significant outcomes of this project for the regeneration of the planet. This by showing how and to what extend a regular residential home and living situation, applicable to many circumstances, can reduce its resource uses and instead produce a surplus, without generating but cleaning up "waste" and by making information available through brochures, presentations and workshops. We do not know of any project in a comparable climate that tries to achieve this type of integration of sustainable living and maintaining a high level of comfort in an existing home. There exists also a strong initiative to bring a college to Sandpoint, which will open up the opportunity to work with students. A further aspect is the beginnings of working as a consultant in ecosocial design with clients to integrate sustainability into their projects.
There are two additional and unexpected strategic qualities. One is the intensive use of information technology for creating my outputs, which increases the options and possibilities of portfolio development for associates of Gaia University and potentially using some portions as example. The other is an article I wrote while working on the survey and design outputs called "Design and Designing", as mentioned earlier .
In our current situation as humanity, with the challenges of climate change, environmental degradation, species loss and depletion of natural resources, to name a few, every real attempt to develop a path from where we are to where we want to go, is a win-win situation for everyone. Taking what already exists, which we have put in place over the last 100 - 200 years, and designing ourselves out of the corner that we have designed ourselves into in the first place - I consider that invaluable. By using ecological principles, considering social impact, culture, and specific situation, as well as using renewable resources, taking in account the natural carrying capacity and including financial planning gives an individual, a family or a group of people the tools to make an impact. If we can actually live with a small ecological footprint, in a way that keeps nature vital or restores its health, in a beautiful, natural environment, having our needs met, are involved in meaningful activity and are enjoying our lives, friends, family and community, can follow our interests, learn and share, respect each other and all creation - we can create a sustainable human culture.
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