Training solutions and courses

The Sustainable Future Planning & Design training workshops

The SFP&D development program, which introduces participants to the basics of Open Systems Theory (see below), offers a range of one-day train-the-trainer workshops designed for businesses, communities and schools. These workshops can be run as public courses or they can be tailored specifically for your organisation or group.

The public courses are:

1. Business: introduces business leaders to practical planning and design tools for creating sustainable cost efficient organisations

2. Communities: introduces local government and community leaders to practical planning and design tools for establishing sustainable communities

3. School communities: a modified local government program to train primary and secondary teachers to engage students/staff/parents in the development of sustainable future plans for their school communities

What participants will learn

All the SFP&D courses provide participants with the tools to create the conditions that enable people to work together with shared responsibility to take action now on climate change, and in doing so, create a future that is environmentally, economically, socially, and culturally sustainable.

These courses will enable participants to:

analyse and synthesise ‘changes in the planet’ data for an effective ecological strategy
identify the implications of ‘changes in the planet’ data for organisations or communities
discuss and practise identifying and prioritising actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change and reduce the costs of its effects
design action planning groups that are committed to implementing sustainable future action plans
design coordinated action planning groups for sustained performance improvement
produce an in-house, step-by-step plan for a particular organisation or community SFP&D workshop
run their own sustainable future planning workshops

Using the tools and processes learnt in the SFP&D course and by referencing the online ‘Sustainable Future Planning and Design’ handbook (see below), (and an optional Climate Change Survey- see REFERENCES AND PUBLICATIONS), graduates can now conduct in-house sustainable future planning and design workshop for their organisations or communities.

Their goal is to identify action plans to mitigate and adapt to climate change and reduce the costs of its effects, and design coordinated action planning groups for sustained performance improvement.

Benefits

The SFP&D development program is a thorough curriculum in sustainability and climate change issues. It gives participants the skills, knowledge and tools to apply in their workplace, school or community, enabling them to make the cultural changes necessary to pursue a sustainable future.

Graduates of SFP&D courses will learn how to run Sustainable Future Planning and Design workshops, how to access and use information, and how to design groups and plans for action.

Graduates will:

Be able to run Sustainable Future Planning and Design events within their organisation or community
Receive a SFP&D Handbook that includes:

- Detailed workshop program steps and tasks

- Sustainable Future Planning and Design ground rules

- Simple explanations and diagrams for ecological strategy development and organisational design

- Explanations on how to analyse and synthesise ‘changes in the planet’ data for an effective ecological strategy

- Information about how to rationalise conflict

- Knowledge of how to design action planning groups that are committed to implementing sustainable future action plans

Have access to social trends affecting climate change beliefs and actions*
Become part of a ‘Sustainable Future Network’ to share and learn from other climate change initiatives

* This assumes that graduates send us the raw data from their ‘Sustainable Future Planning and Design’ event and/or they have conducted a SFP&D Climate Change Survey for their particular event.

Other Open Systems Theory courses

The SFP&D development program introduces participants to the basics of Open Systems Theory (OST). For those who want to further develop their OST knowledge and skill, Professor Merrelyn Emery provides a one-week course on the ‘Theory and Practice of Making Adaptive Change’.

With a small amount of assistance from an OST practitioner, graduates of this program are soon able to run their own Search Conferences, Participative Design Workshops and produce Unique Design solutions for specific socio-ecological issues faced by organisations and communities

And for those who like statistics, Merrelyn offers advanced OST statistical training too. With these skills you’ll be able to help undertake OST-based Market Research, OST Personality Tests, OST Organisational Health surveys, and produce socio-ecological Global Trend Reports.

For further information about OST courses please visit the 'SERVICES & PROGRAMS' section or CONTACT Merrelyn Emery.