A message to all members of Community of Practice for Environmental Water Managers
| Response of wetlands to rewetting following extensive drought: Conference and workshop
22 and 23 November 2011, Sydney Masonic Centre, 66 Goulburn St, Sydney
Expressions of interest – Speed Session Slots.
This conference and workshop aims to address both new research findings AND their current and potential applications. It will present field observations and research findings from scientists and mangers following recent major wetting episodes to identify opportunities for better management of discretionary environmental water. It will look particularly the impact of drought, recovery and response observations and water and land management lessons learnt.
Expressions of interest are invited to fill speed session slots. Please submit a brief (100 word) expression of interest for a 5 min presentation based on research or management case-studies to rivers.wetlands@environment.nsw.gov.au by 5th October 2011.
For further details see: Flyer
Presented by:
- The Office of Environment and Heritage, NSW
- Environmental Water Management Network of the Australian Water Association.
Supported by:
- National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) and
- National Water Commission
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Visit Community of Practice for Environmental Water Managers at: http://www.cop4ewm.com.au/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
As the regular readers of this site know, Siwan and I regularly run a workshop called Connecting Through Conversation and Story and one of the things that has struck me recently is that without a conversation, we cannot build a relationship. That conversation may not be face to face – it may be via email, text message (as all teenagers are well aware of), or via Skype. Conversation is how we work out how the other person fits into our world and what our commonalities are, as well as our differences.
In the environment sector (as in most sectors) we are all trying to build those relationships of trust that enable us to share our beliefs, values and aspirations for the planet in order to make a difference. The most effective way to do this is by having a conversation. The importance of this initial conversation tends to be largely underestimated. If you get it right so many wonderful things can be achieved. But, if you get it wrong, it may take years to correct the damage created in this poorly managed interaction.
Today I came across a wonderful blog posting from Ron Donaldson on how to create new links by breaking individuals out of their comfort groups. I love the way this series of conversations came together and was so impressed that they too were using Anecdote Circles.
We will be running our next Connecting through Conversation workshop in Brisbane on the 30th of September in conjunction with the International River Symposium 2011. If you would like to attend please register here.
Nerida
In November 2011 Dave Snowden will be leading an executive seminar tour called ‘The Cynefin Seminar’ in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Singapore.
As those of you who have attended one of our workshops know, we use the ‘Cynefin framework’ when talking about the need to move from simple and complicated information, into a knowledge sharing space which is more ‘complex’.
Complexity theory offers a real opportunity to transform governance by doing more with less, integrating strategic intent with operational practice, and is at the heart of the Cynefin framework, which offers leaders a typology of contexts to guide their decision making.
The one-day Cynefin Executive Seminar, led by Dave Snowden and based on his award-winning work, is designed to introduce participants to radical new ways to:
- navigate complexity in human systems,
- shift from systems thinking to complexity theory, which offers an evolutionary alternative,
- understand how cognitive complexity offers a different and complementary model to deal with conditions of uncertainty, and
- create a resilient instead of robust organisation, one that recovers quickly from failure.
This seminar will take place in the following cities:
Sydney, 1 November 2011
Canberra, 8 November 2011
Melbourne, 10 November 2011
Perth, 16 November 2011
Brisbane, 23 November 2011
Singapore, 29 November 2011
Accredited members of the Cognitive Edge Network are entitled to a 15% discount – please contact Dawn Lincoln for information.
Siwan and I attended one of Dave’s seminars last year and found we learnt so much from his one day session. We both highly recommend that anyone interested in complexity or the use of narrative to attend this seminar.
Nerida
Nerida and I have just had a really interesting week working with the Sydney Metro CMA and the Lachlan CMA. We were fortunate enough to spend time with both groups in their regions, Parramatta for Sydney, and Young for Lachlan. In both cases we were running workshops focussing on WHY we do what we do, narrative techniques, the power of story, and how to use social media to reach new and ever expanding audiences.
We had expected there to be vast differences between the two CMAs, however, apart from the contrasts of a highly urbanised community, to one that was more dispersed across a wider geographic area, we mainly found similarities. The similarities we found were in the passion and commitment of CMA staff to the work they do, and their openness to learning about how to connect even more effectively with the communities they work within.
Perhaps the most enlightening moment for all involved came when we asked people WHY they do what they do? In both workshops the responses were the same – a belief in the need to protect and care for our environment, combined with a desire to ‘make a difference’. We were delighted to see people reconnect with their reason for doing what they do – knowing what you believe in is vital to sustaining yourself and those around you – it is why we do what we do and why the ARRC exists.
Siwan
Nerida and I have been running a number of workshops over the past year, and we eagerly read the evaluation forms we collect at the end of each of these events. In the lead up to two more workshops, I revisited the evaluation forms from the recent Melbourne and Sunshine Coast Council events. These quotes are from the qualitative parts of our evaluation forms:
“Thank you, communicating verbally in groups is not my strong point, but these techniques seem easy and less threatening – very valuable” (Melbourne)
“A great workshop with real application. I look forward to using some of these tools as we engage the Sunshine Coast community in implementing our Waterway Strategy” (Sunshine Coast)
Generally we leave it at that, just read through the comments and get a general impression of what attendees felt. Today, however, I put the results into a column format and I found it easier to get a picture of what people felt about our work. This diagrammatic representation of responses gave me a very good understanding about our strenghts, areas for improvement and how to continuously adapt to meet the needs of our clients.
Overall, this exercise confirmed my view that the evaluations with greatest insights are those that use both qualitative and quantitative assessment approaches.
Our Melbourne (graph 1) and Sunshine Coast Council (graph 2) results are shown below, with the categories from left to right recording how attendees felt about a range of workshop factors – meet expectations / presenters subject knowledge / maintain attendees interest / teaching methods used / relevance to attendees work / stimulating content / well organised / supporting workshop materials. The rankings are Excellent, Good , Satisfactory - just the one satisfactory out of 30 people, and I am pleased to say that there are no Poor rankings which is brilliant! Siwan
Communities of Practice, Events | Nerida Hart | 
19 September 2011 8:45 am | 
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