Ποιειν Και Πραττειν - create and do

Just thought I'd let you know about a short course that I have organized on the topic of 'Building the Sustainability Pyramid'.  It will be facilitated by Roberta Fernandez, the Director for Business Development and Training for the US division of The AtKisson Group.  I'm not sure if you might have heard of Alan AtKisson, but he has been contributing to the sustainability world for over 25 years.  Before he started AtKisson Inc in the early 1990s, he was a founder of Sustainable Seattle, as well as a recording musician. Alan's international consultancy has been very influential with businesses, governments, non-profits and educational organizations.  His creativity has combined in the most marvellous ways as he has built and refined an array of effective sustainability planning tools - which are now integrated into a toolbox called the ISIS Accelerator.  A centrepiece of the approach is the 'Sustainability Pyramid'.  In brief, the pyramid-building process brings people together who share a common goal and leads them through four basic steps:

• identifying the trends that are occurring in their area of interest (which could be narrow or broad)
• identifying the external and internal systems that are affecting those trends, as well as the 'leverage points' where innovation could help to change the trends
• creating innovations that could be used to intervene in the systems, thereby producing desired changes
• strategizing how to bring those innovations into action in effective ways.

Over the two days, participants will actively apply the pyramid-building tools, as they:

• develop insights into how to identify meaningful indicators of trends,
• apply systems-analysis in very practical ways,
• learn how to identify leverage points within complex, interacting systems
• generate, assess and prioritize innovative ideas for bringing about change towards sustainability
• strategize on how to effectively implement desired changes.

This course is one of a series of courses that, when completed, provides participants with the ISIS Academy’s Professional Certification in Strategic Sustainability. Depending on demand, my company, WorldViews Consulting, will work with the ISIS Academy to bring all the courses to Toronto -- which is the first time these are being offered in Canada.

Sustainability Champion Bob Willard, has this to say about the ISIS Method and "Building the Sustainability Pyramid":

The course is being offered on September 6-7, 2012.

Location is Wellesley Community Centre, (Wellesley St East and Sherbourne St, Toronto) - made possible through our partnership with the City of Toronto, Live Green Toronto program. I would also like to acknowledge our other partner, The Sustainability Learning Centre.

For more information on the course and registration, please go to WorldViews Consulting

If you have any questions, please contact Douglas Worts at <douglasworts@worldviewsconsulting.org>, or call 416-515-1652.

Culture and Sustainability Specialist, WorldViews Consulting

LEAD Fellow

Toronto, Canada

email: douglasworts@worldviewsconsulting.org

personal website: www.douglasworts.org

business website: www.worldviewsconsulting.org