How can we create enhanced value in our teaching as well as in our sustainability efforts? I am suggesting that we explore the reciprocal relationship between them.
I gained a important awareness about this at a webinar that I recently attended that dealt with the role of Place in sustainability work. This was in the service of focusing on the regeneration of ecology in a section of the state of Ohio.
Place has been defined by some writers as:
"The unique, multi-layered network of living systems within a geographical region that results from the complex interaction throughout time of the natural ecology and (human) culture." (Mang and Reed)
This conversation about Place has often arisen in the course of work dealing with regenerative development and design.
There were a number of both academics and people working in organizations in this webinar. At one point, someone made the comment that we should view Place from the perspective of each of our disciplines. I found this comment very impactful. It would certainly bring a richness to the exploration of the role of Place. It would bring a freshness and immediacy to our teaching, for example bringing in the disciplines of art, music or literature as perspectives on Place. This is what I have been striving to do in my teaching. This comment provided an interesting framing to my work.
I teach in a Masters program in Organization Psychology. The goal of this program is to develop OD consultant and managerial skills on the part of participants. I have endeavored to make connections with sustainability in one of my courses in order to support the use of skills offered in the course in the pursuit of sustainability.
Bringing an Organization Development (OD) perspective to a discussion of Place gets us into issues of how to design for complex change, how to work with many divergent agendas, and how to mobilize the commitment of people who work and live on the land. It opens our eyes to the reality that land and the people who live and work on it are not just objects to be moved about as part of a cognitive design process or even ignored.
On further reflection, I identified a nuance to this framing of my work. More than bringing an OD perspective to the discussion of Place, I think I am bringing a perspective of Place to our work as OD consultants and managers. In this regard, Place becomes an umbrella term for a regenerative and ecosystem perspective which looks a how all can flourish by attaining a deeper alignment.
OD has always been a field that has prided itself on its life-giving potential. This perspective of Place makes it even more so - in a way that connects to what is deeply embedded in each of us - our connection to Place, the people and species connected to Place and the stories that embody all of this.
Recently, I have noted that a number of workshop sessions have started out by honoring those who lived on the land before us, for example indigenous people in New Zealand, Australia and the United States. There is a sincere effort to connect to their naming in the Place as we move forward in our endeavors. Some Ecovillages have picked indigenous names for their Place with the permission of indigenous elders.
There is a growing effort to recognize how Nature does things in our efforts to design how we will work and live upon the land. We note how the land is replenished, sustained, drained, protected. Using this as a lens for our work helps us literally to be grounded in what is most enduring in our lives and work.
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