What is transformation? How can insights from cutting-edge transformations research and transformative practice help develop and expand the potential of your organization to contribute to sustainability transformations? These are the core questions addressed in a series of workshops offered by cCHANGE, which can be tailored to your organization.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the many secondary effects of this global crisis, there is no better time for people working on sustainability in organizations to step up and lead change.
Program: Web-based or in-person workshops which include presentations, group work, and practical exercises.
Length: Four workshop modules, 12 hours total. Web based over four weeks. In-person over two days. On demand.
Language: English and Norwegian.
Target audience: Organizational leadership and people with responsibility and interest in sustainability.
Cost: Contact us for an offer for your organization. Norwegian companies could be eligible for support from BiO funds for bedriftsintern opplæring. We can provide advice for applying for funding from the BiO funds.
Responsible organizations have determined their organization’s sustainability objectives and have set ambitious goals and targets. Yet the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change call for unprecedented transformations. To reach these goals, we do not always need to do different things; sometimes we simply need to approach things differently.
The COVID-19 crisis is a challenge that we need to respond to immediately, yet it is also an opportunity to explore different perspectives and experiment with new approaches. At this time, individuals and organizations are being asked to be creative and to develop new solutions that contribute to ethical, equitable and sustainable change at all scales – within businesses and sectors, as well as locally and globally. This calls for an approach that integrates the practical, political and personal dimensions of transformation.
The main facilitators are Professor Karen O’Brien and Dr Dina Hestad, supported by the wider cCHANGE team.
Learning goals
These workshops will motivate and inspire you to “see change” differently, and to explore how to engage with transformative change and creating sustainability results in new and effective ways. The workshops will help you to:
- Understand different perspectives on transformations and gain valuable insights from cutting-edge research.
- Discover what transformative change means to you, your organization and sector, and identify the roles you want to play.
- Activate transformative leadership within yourself and others by linking practical solutions to values that are aligned with sustainability.
- Design integrated projects that have the potential to amplify your sustainability work.
Workshop outline
The program will be tailored to the needs of your specific organization to make it as relevant as possible. An example outline could be as follows:
Module 1: Transforming a world in crisis: How can we thrive?
- The backdrop: Climate change and sustainability transformations.
- The foreground: Multiple, interacting crises and the need for new ways of approaching them.
- Why focusing on transformations in every sector is important for sustainability.
- A distinction: Technical problems and adaptive challenges.
- The approach: The Three Spheres of Transformation.
Exercises and discussion.
Module 2: Transformations: From understanding to action
- Transformations as a concept: How has it been defined, interpreted, and perceived.
- What do transformations involve, and what do they look like in practice?
- Examples of transformations.
- Organizations as integrated and entangled instead of separated from social and ecological systems.
- Integrative approaches to sustainability transformations.
Exercises and discussion.
Module 3: Widening and deepening the solution space
- Seeing new solutions: Perspective taking and action logics.
- The relationship between personal and systems transformations.
- What are the measurable results and practical solutions?
- What systems and structures need to shift?
- Why are people such powerful leverage points for transformative change?
- Using collaborative power to build coalitions for change.
Exercises and discussion.
Module 4: Deep and lasting change and the role of transformative leadership
- Creating spaces for doing things differently in your organization and unleashing the transformative potential in yourself and others.
- The Three Spheres of Transformation as an actionable framework.
- Transformation as a practice to leverage deep and enduring change.
- Options and discussion of potential transformations within your organization.
Exercises and discussion.
“Nothing short of a new level of worldwide leadership and commitment for sustainable and equitable change will suffice to create a better world today and for future generations. For the first time technologies and resources exist to transform our situation and generate lasting results. The choice is ours.”
Monica Sharma
Image: Jacek Dylag, Unsplash