Last year I participated in a series of workshops examining climate change knowledge needs for river and waterway management professionals. The results are now in with a report on ‘hydro-climate buy cialis online uk knowledge needs for climate change adaptation’ available. The report’s authors identify new roles for hydrological models to play in assisting decision-makers work out the impacts of climate change, and how to best manage our water resources. You can find the full report by following this link to the Water for a Healthy Country website.
I recently found a new TED talk that I have been sharing in workshops and with friends. It is by Shawn Achor and it is all about how happiness makes sense for the individual and the organisation. The talk is very entertaining and demonstrates how investing in happiness can boost an organisation’s productivity by investing in people and creating conditions in which they can flourish. In terms of ourselves, Achor says
there are five things that we can do to foster happiness:
- Positive emotion (practice gratitude each day)
- Physical Health (exercise, mediation)
- Meaning and Purpose in your personal and professional life
- Others and Connectedness (random acts of kindness)
- Achievement and Accomplishment
You have probably heard about most of these but the one I wanted to focus on was practicing random acts of kindness – the reason is that Veronique, a lovely lady I met in Mackay, sent me a gorgeous card with message:
”Thinking of You”!! This is Broken River, Eungella National Park near Mackay. It was 4.30 pm, the sun was starting to go down, the temperature was dropping by the minute, the colours were glorious…
It felt so lovely to be sent something out of the blue and I was happy for the rest of the day – thank you Veronique!
I encourage you to practice a few random acts of kindness today, a thoughtful email, a thank you, an unexpected cappuccino…. it will make those you are being kind towards feel so good, as well as giving you a happiness boost too.
Siwan
Shawn Achor – the Happy Secret to Better Work
With applications closing on 1 August, this is your last chance to apply for an IWC Masters Scholarship (full-tuition) to study the Master of Integrated Water Management in 2013.
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Nicola Dixon from the Sydney Metro CMA got in touch to tell me about a ‘Passion Mashin’ workshop she recently attended:
What sounds more intriguing: environmental volunteering, or environmental volunteering at dawn, in the nude, with yoga, where you knit tree guards and make instruments from the woody weeds you’ve removed, followed by a big brekky made of native bush foods and weeds, and a photo shoot for a volunteer calendar?
Change consultant Les Robinson’s ‘Passion Mashin’ workshops are all about harnessing the power of re-invention to rethink the models we are wedded to and spark new interest in existing activities.
I attended one of Les’ workshops recently and was delighted
to see some of Sydney’s long-term Bushcarers come up with innovative ways to attract potential new volunteers to their groups, which in turn reinvigorated the group members themselves.
If you would like to know more about the mashing of passions or any other of Les Robinson’s workshops, please visit his website
Sounds like great fun to be able to expand your ideas and free your thinking…..though getting up at dawn to do nude yoga while knitting a tree guard might take a bit of getting used to as an approach to community engagement – oh dear, my natural conservatism is showing itself…..must work on that!
Siwan 
Resources | Siwan Lovett | 
19 July 2012 10:58 am | 
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