DesignWISE
Sustainable Leadership - Facilitating Journeys of deeper Change
DesignWISE: Sustainable Leadership - Facilitating Journeys of deeper change is designet by Gry Guldberg from Emerging Earth.
​
The pre-journey
In every process, the participants need to be aware of and articulate the values that they want to bring into the world through products, services and systems. Therefore, they should consider the framing of the process before entering the journey. What is the overall intention? What is the desired outcome? What are the principle and rules?
​
Designing the atmosphere
The process starts by carefully preparing the room. The participants are asked to build a mandala of nature materials. This process takes place in silence. After the the preparation the journey into the wheel begins.
INITIALIZE
Looking back to look ahead
The journey starts with a story of Janus, in Roman mythology the god of doors, gates and transitions. Janus represents the middle ground between life and death, beginning and end. The month of January is named for Janus. By the end of one period/one year, we are looking back to look ahead on a new period to arrive.
​
After the story about Janus:
​
The participants are seated in groups.
1. Individual brainstormning on notes: A. What do I want to get rid of? what do I want to pass further? B. Summarize in one or two sentences what you are leaving behind.
​
2. Bury your weapons. The participants are asked to find a thing or an item that represents something they want to bury, a bad feeling, an unpleasant event, a dispute, something that is holding them back.
​
If possible this session can can take place outside in nature.
Individually and in silence the participants bury their weapons for example by throwing them away, e.g. in water, bury them under a tree, a bush, etc.
INTUIT
What is emerging?
​
This Intuit phase is initiated by a movie sequence of sunrise and beautiful music (there are plenty of films on Youtube)
The following question appear:
What are you longing after on a deeper level as a leader/ facilitator/consultant/teacher/student and/or on a personal level?
​
Write down your thoughts or dreams.
​
This phase can continue as journey of individual introspection or the participants can share notes in the groups.
​
​
INSPIRIT
Look to the stars
The participants are asked to imagine the starry sky as if they were children, symbolizing freedom to dream, open roads, child mind.
​
Imagine what you could do, if you were totally free. If everything was possible for you as a leader/facilitator/consultant/teacher/ student or in your personal life.
​
Let the ideas come to you.
​
Write down as many ideas as possible on sticky notes or pieces of papers.
​
If the participants work in groups it is possible that the group selects one mutual idea to work with for the rest of the journey.
​
To set the scene for the Inspirit phase, e.g. use en video of starry skies.
​
​
​
INSEMINATE
Sowing dream seeds
In this phase, the participants are asked to begin a process of sowing a seed - to give their ideas specific form and fertilize the ground.
​
1. Select the idea/seed that is most sustainable/has the strongest vitality.
Selection from the following criteria (or other criteria):
​
A: Your heart/passion: How close is this idea to your heart? Your passion?
B: Maturity of where I am, as leader/facilitator/consultant/ teacher/student. Where am I in my cycle and how mature am I to live it idea out?
C: Organizational maturity: How ready is my organization for this idea?
​
2. Write the selected idea on a beautiful piece of paper.
Share it with the group.
​
Distribute materials on each table/place - e.g. toothpicks, paper, color pens, leaves, clay, other natural materials, etc.
INCUBATE
Protect and nourish
In this phase the participants are focused on protecting their new idea in their organizational, societal context or community.
They do that by building an umbrella or a greenhouse with the materials distributed.
​
Subsequently reflecting:
a. If you look into your organization/community, what does your umbrella/greenhouse symbolize? Who or what is it that can help you protect your idea?
b. What can you possibly do yourself to give your idea the best growth conditions in your organisation?
c. How do you fertilize the soil in your organization - what needs to be weeded out if your idea is to succeed good growing conditions?
Write down your reflections or share with the group.
​
INDUCE
Flourishing
The Induce phase is introduced with a preliminary note about the broader context of the process. The idea is, that it is time to build another root system or another portal for the future.
​
Possible questions to initiate reflections:
- What is a ressource? In a paradigm of economics it is money.
- What is resources in a view of sustainable transition?
​
In this and the next phases we are moving to the new paradigm, looking at our organization/community/society and/or our private lives through the lens of this new paradigm.
​
The participants interview each other 2&2 - and help give birth to the new.
Look at the organization from the three soil layers:
1. The Earth's soil (the formal/the immediate)
2. The dry unfertile soil (the pain layer - where nothing new can grow)
3. The growth layer (the fertile soil - where the new can grow).
Emphasize that something grows up and connects, in a network it is strengthened.
​
It is also possible to see if there is any pain layer around the plants that needs to be removed and whether something needs to be done, better soil or fertilizing?
INJOY AND INTEGRATE
What stories do we tell?
​
The phase is framed by a "Imagine - what if …." mindset.
​
1. If you did the bravest thing you could:
- What would come of it then?
- Who would you like to be - in 1 year, 7 years, 14 years?
- What seeds would your idea throw away? Think 1 year ahead? 7 years ahead? 14 years ahead?
The participants share in a quadrant process - and imagine the effects of their seeds. How does your idea support Mother Earth?
The participants now manifest their seeds and effects of it, e.g. in clay or other nature materials.
​
The phase ends with a sharing of manifestations/sculptures.
​
Chairs in quadrants.
The journey end in a circle, sharing insights and reflections.