Welcome to the Zenergy Blog
Welcome to the Zenergy blog,
This blog is for conversations about meeting our vision of Whole people cooperating in a sustainable world.
Feel free to join in and post your comments or share some of your questions.
Stephen
6 comments on “Welcome to the Zenergy Blog”
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The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World (2009) by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler
The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World (2009) by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler.
This accessible book is based on a series of interviews between Howard Cutler MD (an American Psychiatrist and neurological expert) and his Holiness the Dalai Lama, held over a number of years. The book explores how individuals can access happiness and through this also help to positively change the world.
Cutler’s interviews document conversations in which the Dalai Lama shares his inspirational wisdom on the subject of happiness. Cutler also provides an overview of the scientific research into happiness and brain functioning. This overview of research into positive psychology and neuroscience has revealed that positive emotions serve to promote more positive ways of relating to others.
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What they teach you at Harvard Business School (2008) by Philip Broughton
This is a well written, witty and revealing book that gives an insider’s look into “the Cauldron of Capitalism” that is the Harvard Business School (HBS) and describes the strengths and weaknesses of this institution.
Philip Broughton, (born in Bangladesh, grew up in England), abandoned a promising career as a journalist for a two year Harvard MBA, 2004-6. Broughton thought a Harvard MBA would open the doors to a successful and secure job in business. He writes of his time at Harvard using an approach similar to the participant observation method of anthropology.
HBS teaches finance, strategy, accounting and process through professors that have experience beyond academia and visiting influential entrepreneurs. The school relies heavily on the use of case studies to learn business skills. There were 500 during Philip’s two years study. The case study approach teaches how to make business decisions with partial information, as in the real world.
HBS courses include Entrepreneurial Marketing; International Financial Management; Strategy and Technology; Coordinating and Managing Supply Chains; and Dynamic Markets. They also had some courses in business integrity and moral judgment but it was well understood that the main reason that people were there was to learn how to make lots of money.
This book is useful as a look into how the HBS works and is useful to anyone (least of which are potential MBA students) because it shows how some of the people who (or used to) run the world, think. Broughton points out in his book that many people don’t like business people with MBA degrees (especially from Harvard) because of their part in the 2008 international financial crisis.
After he did the course and wrote this book, Philip Broughton wrote in the Sunday times of London (2009), that the Harvard MBA degrees are now “scarlet letters of shame” and the Harvard Business school brand has been damaged, “time after time and scandal after scandal”. The school, graduating 900 students a year, found many of its graduates in the thick of the 2008 financial meltdown.
The assumption was that if you’ve done a Harvard MBA you are automatically part of a world leading business and financial elite. Many Harvard MBA graduates were involved in the thick of the decision making process that caused the financial meltdown. For example, some of the Harvard Alumni involved include:-Stanley O’Neal and John Thain, former CEOs of Merrill Lynch and Co. ( in charge during the companies decline); Rick Wagoner who was the ousted CEO of General Motors Corp; and Christopher Cox, former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. There are many other Harvard MBA graduates that face allegations of corruption and greed in the wake of the 2008 collapse of financial markets.
The school may bear some responsibility for these graduates’ decisions but the school also deserves credit for producing many graduates that are providing leadership and whose financial companies have survived.
Harvard graduates tend to focus on things like cost-benefit analysis and making as much money as quickly as possible as distinct from considering humanity and business ethics. The Global economic meltdown of 2008 highlighted this weakness for HBS in that their graduates were at the forefront.
Oliver Staley writes in Bloomberg.com 1/4/09, his article headlined, “Harvard begins case study as Tainted MBA’s reveal damaged brand.” Harvard BS is using the world financial collapse as an opportunity to create self reflection and reform in the school. Harvard has moved to fix the ethics problem in appointing a new Dean, Nitin Nohria, a specialist from the school in business ethics. Another example is a student initiative called the “Harvard MBA oath” which students make an Oath (like the medical Hippocratic Oath) to be good ethical business citizens.
Philip found his two years at HBS personally rewarding but his quest for employment in the well paid corporate sector, showed that you need to be a business type to get maximum gain from a HBS MBA. As an ex-journalist “square peg”, he couldn’t find a job after graduation.
Broughton writes in his book that he was happy he did the course (even though it cost him $170,000 US for two years study at HBS) because ”you emerged from the school un-intimidated by business and it’s practitioners” and that it pushed him “so aggressively against the window of my soul.” He found through the experiences of classmates that the highest paying jobs that Harvard MBA grads aspire to, have a cost to family life and to “the soul.”
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Happy 17th Birthday Zenergy
Happy 17th Birthday Zenergy
Matthew, Stephen, Idil, Dan and Diana
Shirley, Dale, Jo, Matthew, Stephen, Idil, Diana (front) & Dan
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The Art of Facilitation by Dale Hunter to be published in Korean
The Art of Facilitation (fully revised 2007) by Dale Hunter with Stephen Thorpe et al. is being translated into Korean and will be published by Sigma Press in Seoul before Christmas this year.
“The Art” was first published in New Zealand in 1994 by Tandem Press (reprinted 1997, 2002, 2004), and also published by Fisher Books USA 1995, and Gower Press UK 1996 (hardback),1998 (paperback).
The book was fully revised (actually rewritten) and updated to bring it into the context of the growing profession of facilitation and republished by Random House NZ in 2007 (Tandem had been bought out by Random), then Wiley/Jossey Bass USA in 2009 and soon Sigma Press (Korea) 2010.
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The Self-Aware Universe: How consciousness creates the material world (1993) by Amit Goswami
Goswami Amit with R.E. Reed & M. Goswami (1993) The Self-Aware Universe: How consciousness creates the material world. Tarcher/Putnam Books.
With many diagrams and illustrations Goswami gives the case for the self-aware universe and argues with clarity how quantum physics supports his arguments. It supports the idea of many religions mystical traditions because the consciousness of the observer influences the outcome of whether an electron is a wave or a particle. That is: that consciousness seems to create at a quantum level the entire make up of the universe.
1 comment on “The Self-Aware Universe: How consciousness creates the material world (1993) by Amit Goswami”
- Graham says
I thought it might be this guy
http://www.whatthebleep.com/scientists/#Goswami
He is really engaging in the film.
‘Science within Consciousness’ - sounds like an interesting discipline!Leave a comment
Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality (2006) by Dean Radin
Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum reality (2006) by Dean Radin, Pocket books, New York.
This is a groundbreaking book about the research into Psi or psychic phenomena. It also is an explanation how in a quantum reality, parapsychology or psychic phenomena such as telepathy, psycho kinesis and clairvoyance could work in interaction with the new physics. The book is easy to read, entertaining, eye opening and convincing.
2 comments on “Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality (2006) by Dean Radin”
- Liz Olsen says
Sounds fascinating.
- Dale Hunter says
Liz - I agree. i am fascinated by the research that has been done in this area and it is now a lot.
Dean Radin has a very interesting UTube video (quite long) which talks about the taboo around researching psi or even asserting that it is real. Yet using the filter of quantum physics (non locality and flexibility of time and space) it seems to make a lot of academic sense even apart from one’s own personal experiences.YouTube -
“Science and the taboo of psi” with Dean RadinLeave a comment
Biocentrism: How life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe (2009) by Robert Lanza with Bob Berman
Biocentrism: How life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe by Robert Lanza with Bob BermanBenBella Books.
Biocentrism is a theory put forward by Robert Lanza that life creates the universe instead of the other way round. It argues that current theories and a “theory of everything” on the physical world will not work unless the consciousness of life is included in the equation. It is a proposal for a paradigm shift in Science along the lines of Quantum physics and what’s called Biocentrism with “Quantum weirdness.”
This is a well written book about a new scientific approach of looking at the world. It is not hard to read although it is about complex theories of science from the viewpoints of biology and astronomy. Robert Lanza is a medical doctor who is also a well respected scientist and covers the biological aspects of the book while Bob Berman is one of the best known astronomers in the world and covers the inter-stellar aspects of the book. It is not a long book or technically written and it includes passages from Lanza’s own life.
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1 comment on “Biocentrism: How life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe (2009) by Robert Lanza with Bob Berman”
- Peter says
Actually I am reading the book, slowly, because I’m enjoy it so much. Robert Lanza not only describes a new world view, he tells us also how he personally reached this world view, with some interesting stories from his childhood. You know, there are several books about famous scientist like Schrödinger that describes his environment and how it maybe influenced his world view and ideas. In Robert Lanza’s book we get this information from first-hand.
Biocentrism makes sense and not only physicist should read it. The psychology, the biology and all the other fields of science can benefit from a new fresh worldview.
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The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East (2008) by Kishore Mahbubani
The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East (2008) by Kishore Mahbubani, Public Affairs New York.
Kinshore Mahbubani is Dean of Public policy at the National University of Singapore and former ambassador of Singapore to the United Nations.
This book is a very well written account of how Asia (including India) is returning to the position of importance it held before the industrial revolution launched the West forward socially and economically. The entire book is devoted to documenting Asia’s growing power using the Western model, which Mahbubani calls “the march toward modernisation”.
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Chindia: How China and India are Revolutionising Global Business (2007) Edited by Pete Engardio
Chindia: How China and India are Revolutionising Global Business (2007) Edited by Pete Engardio, McGraw-Hill.
This is an insightful book about the recent growth of two economic superpowers and also the opportunities they offer to business. The book is a good introduction into the opportunities offered by both countries for global business. The Editor Pete Engardio is an award winning senior writer at Business Week. The book is built from the archives of Business Week articles and is a good historical source that describes and documents China and India’s emergence as economic superpowers over the recent past. China and India are now widely recognised as the next economic superpowers. China has surged past European nations and even Japan in economic growth as a trading superpower. They are set to dwarf every other country except perhaps the United States.
China and India have a huge base of consumers and workers that are willing and able to work for much less money than Western workers. These two countries are beginning to have a powerful influence on nearly every dimension of global business. Both are immensely populated and are “taking off” economically at the same time, and they account between them one third of the population of the planet. As Engardio puts it: “As consumers, suppliers, competitors, innovators, investors, and sources of skilled labour, they are reshaping the world”. With free trade and globalisation this gives them a big comparative advantage, and is why many western firms chose to base their factories and corporations there. China and India have benefited from economic globalisation as labour –intensive and less skilled can be done at less cost and therefore more efficiently cost-wise in these countries. Free trade neo-liberal economists have said this is fine, as higher-valued goods made by skilled workers in which Western workers have a comparative advantage will offset the economic damage.
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Making Globalisation work - by Joseph Stiglitz (2006)
Making Globalisation work: The next steps to global justice - by Joseph Stiglitz (2006) Penguin books Ltd, London
Mainly focused on economics, this is a well written book by Joseph Stiglitz who is a Nobel prizewinner in economics. He has served as chairman of the Council of Economics Advisors to President Clinton and has been chief economist at the World Bank. Therefore the book is written then by an insider however a man who wants to see the global economy and powerful institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reformed to serve the interests of everyone not just corporations and an economic elite.
This is the sequel to his book Globalisation and its Discontents, which showed how globalisation doesn’t work for the world’s poor. Globalisation is seen as the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, the flow of money and capital, migration and the spread of technology.
In this book Stiglitz outlines how globalisation can work for the worlds poor and tackles the issues of how to address the problems that corporate economic globalisation has caused by tackling globalisation itself. He outlines these changes needed to bring the global economy to serve the interests of everyone and not just the corporate interests of multi-national corporations.
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The Bottom Billion - by Paul Collier (2007)
The Bottom Billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it - by Paul Collier (2007) Oxford University press.
In this thought-provoking book Collier puts forward the case of an overall plan to save the failing states and thus get the bottom billion of the poorest people on earth out of poverty.
The countries he mentions in his book are:
Non-African: Haiti, Bolivia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar(Burma), NorthKorea, Yemen, Tajikistan, Afganistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekestan, Kyrgystan, Turkmenistan, Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia, Qinghai Province(China), Xinjiang Province(China), East Timor and the Solomon Islands.
African: Somalia, SierraLeone, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Cote D’Ivoire, Togo, The Gambia, Niger, Rawanda, Uganda, Sudan, Kenya, Burundi, Madagascar, Lesotho, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Chad, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic republic of Congo, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Malawi and Cameroon.
The problem is much more than just about aid in that he points out that aid won’t solve everything in helping the bottom billion people trapped in poverty in these failed (or failing) states and that several other policy instruments including trade must be used. He points out four traps that doom these states (that are mostly in Africa) to poverty. These are the conflict trap, the natural resource trap (that’s counter to what you would expect it’s actually too many natural resources), Landlocked with bad neighbours and the bad governance trap.
2 comments on “The Bottom Billion - by Paul Collier (2007)”
- Anonymous says
I don’t believe he mentions any countries that comprise the bottom billion.
- Matthew Hodgetts says
Thanks for the comment.
The “Bottom Billion” book by Paul Collier doesn’t include a list of countries because he thinks this might lead to a “self fulfilling prophesy” however he does point out that they are mainly in Africa and central asia and that there is about 50 of them.He does mention those countries throughout the book.Leave a comment
Microtrends - by Mark Penn with E.Kinney Zalesne
Microtrends - by Mark Penn with E.Kinney Zalesne (2007) Penguin Books, London.
Mark Penn has written an interesting argument in this punchy and easy to read book that sets out the idea that there is a varied amount of small trends in the USA (the book is very US focused with only a small section at the end setting out some international trend)that can be described as Microtrends Penn’s thesis that is backed up with a good use of statistics in every Microtrend is that here are many subcultures and many Americas and a sample of them is shown in this book. These are smaller trends that often go unnoticed or ignored but these small forces are behind tomorrow’s big changes. Penn has been a pollster for 30 years and has been a key advisor to Bill and then Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair and Bill Gates. He also coined the phrase “soccer moms” when identifying a microtrend for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Penn is clear in his point of view in each section and backs up his thesis on each Microtrend with good statistics to provide the truth and sometimes with his personal experience. A Microtrend according to Penn is an intense identity group that makes up 1% or more of the US population and is growing; such a group according to Penn can have a big impact. Only 1% of the public or roughly the population of New Zealand, 3 million people is capable of bringing about big changes in business or even create a social movement. Penn profiles 75 of these groups in total. He backs up his arguments with pollster style statistics using demographics and graphs to illustrate the existence of these trends. Penns central thesis is that the Internet, changing lifestyles, demographics and other factors break the USA up into Microtrends, examples of these being set out in this book. He breaks the book up into 15 groups of mostly five micro-trends each as chapters in the book, these including: Love, Sex and relationships; Work life; Race and Religion; Health and Wellness; Family life; Politics; Teens; Food, Drink and Diet; Lifestyle; Money and Class; Looks and Fashion; Technology; Leisure and Entertainment; Education and a chapter on International trends. In his entertaining style and often with humour he documents these trends and works out what their impacts may be.
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THE SUPER CITY
GREATER AUCKLAND
Auckland needs and has needed for many years a body responsible for the overall built up area of ‘Greater Auckland’ and of the surrounding areas which will be subject of pressure for extension. Without such an organisation Auckland can never reach its full potential as any kind of ecological city.
At between 1 & 2 million people Auckland is not a large city, but because it is NZ’s major urban area (but not its Capital), because of its international and national significance and because of its unusual physical site, the ability to consider and balance many competing priorities make it essential to have overall governance.
This does not mean that full and detailed local involvement is excluded - far from it. Within the overall regulation it would be essential, desirable and feasible to have local Community bodies and these perhaps being grouped into Bio regional clusters.
It is very unfortunate, but my perception is that most people in the the progressive Auckland environmental lobby have very poor understanding of what a holistic and environmental future government for Greater Auckland should be like. To understand what kind of body would be needed to envision, empower and realise the implementation of a Greater Auckland.
There is a misplaced, almost religious, belief in ‘Localism’ as being able to perceive and tackle the opportunities and difficulties of the urban region. Such a ‘Localist’ structure cannot deliver what is needed. What is more, it is impossible to engage local participation in a meaningful way without a holistic overview of where Auckland in itself, in New Zealand and in a eco-friendly world might be. It is outdated environmental thinking to contemplate that it could be. This is one of the issues which urgently needs updating in the ‘environmentalist’s’ belief system. (see What is Next)
Local plus local plus local does NOT equal global. I’m afraid much valuable enthusiasm and energy will be expended by serious concerned people in opposing what Auckland urgently needs. It is true that the party political circumstance of the proposed change is very unfortunate in that it is very right wing and opposed to local empowerment. But opposition to a holistic opportunity for Auckland’s governance is totally misplaced. What is more, from what I have seen of the more vocal groups opposing a wider Auckland, their objection is based on parochial narrow territorial defence and the myopia and parsimony of ratepayer groups.
I am sure that Auckland’s one great visionary, Robbie (Sir Dove Meyer Robinson) , would urge adoption of one government for Auckland. If I was still involved I would argue for a Greater Auckland Council. But, I would also argue for a community structure with strong influence at local level . The two things are not incompatible.
Once more I fear the people and place of Auckland are going to miss out on making serious decisions because of an inability to perceive the real issues.
Figuratively the Kauri is lovely and is for cherishing - but alas in Auckland, a view of the whole forest and its ecology is not seen. Or to put it in the old way ‘ Auckland can’t see the wood for the trees!’
Bill Berrett. 15 06 09.
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Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D.Williams
Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything (2006) by Don Tapscott and Anthony D.Williams
Atlantic books London.
This interesting, hopeful and optimistic book is written for anyone (but particularly leaders in business such as company directors and CEO’s) who have an interest in how the internet and mass collaboration is changing the way companies work. It sets out the advantages which Wikinomics (online mass collaboration) offers progressive businesses and how these businesses can thrive in an age where traditional top-down command and control structures are being aggressively challenged by these sorts of new approaches to business. A primary example of Wikinomics is the free encyclopedia on the Internet that anyone can edit using web based wikisoftware.
Millions of people online are a self organising collective force using wikis, blogs, chat rooms, peer to peer and other web enabled ways of participating in this truly global movement that challenges the traditional top down notion of corporations. While hierarchies are not disappearing through these major changes in technology, demographics and the global economy but these forces are producing a “perfect storm” of powerful new models of production based on community and mass collaboration. The book is a look at how these new technologies are transforming business and society. It is a useful guidebook for business leaders on how to get up to date with the advantages of these new uses of the Internet. This is a new economy where firms coexist with millions of online autonomous producers who connect in this new collaborative economy
1 comment on “Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D.Williams”
- Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D.Williams | BigB says
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The Audacity of Hope By Barack Obama
The Audacity of Hope By Barack Obama.
Published in 2006 by the Text Publishing Company, Melbourne.
This book is very well written and was aimed at the United States electorate and policy reviewers in the lead up to the US presidential election. It is a good summary of Obamas approach to US public policy issues and offers a look into the workings of the US political system from the now president’s view. At the time Senator Obama wrote this book for the presidential Campaign trail and as such has been described as a “breath of Fresh air” in that it is his thoughts on reclaiming the American dream. At times it is not an easy read as it reflects Obamas in-depth knowledge of the US political system from an insiders view as a lawyer and a legislator. It describes where Obama stands on policy issues and how he aims to bring out the best in US civil traditions. This is as it aims at inspiring people to stop losing hope in the US political system in that he aims to renew US democracy by limiting the lobbying power of the military and corporate interests.
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Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama
Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama.
Published by The text Publishing Company Melbourne.
This book is an insightful personal memoir of the current US president written in a time when he was not a politician but a young man trying to find out more about him-self. It was written ten years before he entered politics. It is a good book to get a better understanding of where the US’s president has come from and therefore some insight into how he thinks. This book is a great story of his personal discovery and is a well written Autobiography. It reveals more about himself than the campaign trail book “The Audacity of hope” and is not about politics as he writes about his personal journey of discovering his identity. It is a critical evaluation of his life as a Black American. It is an excellently written memoir that is a pleasure to read; the book is about his search to reconcile his divided identity and meaning in life as a black American. He is the son of a Kenyan black African father and a white American mother. Some critics say he doesn’t say enough about his mother. However you get a sense of her politics and of her as a compassionate woman raising her son to see greatness in his father even though he left her, and had other wives.
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Reflections on the IAF North American conference in Vancouver
It was a real privilege for me to participate in the International Association of Facilitators North American Conference in Vancouver on 21-23 April. The conference was attended by more than 300 facilitators from 26 countries. The theme for the conference was Exploring Diversity.
I though I would share with you some of my experience at the conference and to also share a few resources from the workshops I was involved in leading and attending.
Attending the conference for me also provided a sense of coming full circle in that I led a workshop that had some of its roots at an earlier IAF North American Conference in Fort Worth, Texas in 2002.
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Change We Can Believe In by Barack Obamas Staff
Change we can believe in by Barack Obamas Staff
(2008) The Text Publishing Company: Melbourne.
With a forward by Barack Obama, this book’s policy plan was written by his staff. As such the book is a very interesting read as it sets out Obamas manifesto for the United States of America as President. It is simple and clear to read and has his speeches from the USA presidential campaign trail and the speech he gave on election night. They are great speeches of substance and show how he aims to reclaim the American dream through many policy adaptations and by inspiring people to work hard and build a better future. The book is a plan of Obamas aims and in very practical steps sets out how he intends to change the USA. These include fixing the US economy, making health care affordable for all, and achieving energy independence.
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What is Next? by Bill Berrett
WHAT IS NEXT?
By Bill Berrett, Architect and Planner, formerly Director of Planning, Milton Keynes, Director of Planning and Social Development, Auckland, Lecturer, Leeds and Southampton Universities.
As an extension to my world of Architecture and Urban Planning, I have worked with the Environment and Human Relations since the mid 1970’s - since the time when the terms ‘Sustainability’ and ‘Facilitation’ were barely known.I have seen it as a personal task to open eyes to the understanding that the skills and techniques of ‘Human Relations’ are an essential key to working with the environment and people in the environment. I now feel that in the circles in which I have had influence, that this is now understood and practised - but - it has taken a long time.
Our precious planet and all in it are in rapidly increasing peril from the actions of we humans and we can forecast that many, many of our fellow creatures (let alone those of other species) are already doomed to much increased communal and individual suffering.
The pace of change towards ‘pollution’ continues to increase, the global pace of change towards ‘conservation’ is far too slow to keep pace with that change. This is despite the recent popular realisation in the developed world of the dangers of Global Warming.
I ask myself as I did all those years ago “what do I do on Monday?” Meaning, having got this far and having learned something - what do I do differently from what I have done before…
Click here for the full article.
Bill Berrett
Bill Berrett, Architect and Urban Planner has been concerned with whole environments since the ’60’s and has worked in NZ and UK with some wonderful people of vision trying to reveal that a whole life and a whole planet are completly intertwined. Now in age, encouraging acceleration and radical continuation of these inspirations of the ideas and implications of wholeness.
2 comments on “What is Next? by Bill Berrett”
- Matthew Hodgetts says
A response to Bills paper on “What is next.”
I hope Mr Berret doesn’t mind me calling him Bill.
I would like to convey my thanks to Bill for contributing a thought provoking and interesting paper on some of the key issues of facing up to our environmental crises.
I agree with Bill that change is not happening fast enough however I’m sure he understands that some of the problems of environmental sustainability (for the want of better words) can be solved by good Urban Planning and Zenergy type of better workplaces and Human development.
I note that Bill was a director of planning for Milton Keynes as a New Town in the UK. Although Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire is Britain’s largest New Town and has village like estates and looks like a city in a forest, however its low-density layout makes the use of cars a necessity. It is an example of housing in a green and pleasant land at the expense of car dependency. Its low-density layout reflects the planners assumptions that people would all own their own cars, live highly mobile lifestyles and drive great distances daily. This creates urban sprawl that costs much in broken car dependant communities and problems with energy supply and pollution.
To counter this waste of energy and problematic urban design we will need to support public transport, cycling with local employment and facilities to take away the need for commuter suburbs and urban sprawl. The design of these mixed use, pedestrian-friendly communities is needed to provide a sustainable form of growth. Earthsong eco-village in Waitakere City is a good example of the kind of Eco-friendly suburbs however it is also not of mixed use and is fairly far away from centers of work and facilities and also mainly relies on cars as transport.
Bill has pointed out that the focus on Climate Change as the main environmental problem can be problematic.
Bill is right that the technological fix of Hydrogen powered cars would only be part of the solution we need better urban design as well.
However if we used Hydrogen for transport it would also be an example of a solution multiplier. This is because they could help in ending the West’s addiction to Middle Eastern Oil easing tensions in a major flash point in the World for conflict. Also because they cause little or no Air Pollution and CO2 emissions they would help slow global Warming as 15% of all Carbon emissions is burned by cars. Therefore it would not be a complete panacea for all our transport problems however it would go a long way toward solving some of them.
Many people are working in different areas to bring about incremental change that moves us more towards (for want of better words-could Bill could suggest some please?) environmental sustainability or sustainable development.
I think that as Bill points out James Lovelocks (originator of the Gaia Hypothesis that the Earth is a living organism that regulates itself to support life) idea that Nuclear power is the answer is wrong. The problems of Nuclear Waste and safety issues are just too problematic.
US President Barak Obama’s focus on investing in Wind, Solar and the next Generation Bio-fuels.(Bill correctly points out here points out correctly another issue that care must be taken that Bio-fuels can be problematic in that they can take land that used to be used for food production.)Obama’s aim is to release the USA and the West’s addiction to fossil fuels that has created a dependence on oil from the middle East.
Bill is also right in that he points out that a Holistic view needs to be promoted in Global Governance probably through the United Nations.
Bill points out that the word sustainability can be a problematic word. However Sustainability has increasingly been associated with the integration of policy and environmental thought.
The UN’s Agenda 21 points out that we have to move away from compartmerntalised decision making with economic, social and environmental decisions separated to more Holistic decision making. Environment and development decisions need to be integrated. This has parallels with Zenergy’s focus on wholistic approach human development and better and more productive workplaces..
As Bill sets out Human relations companies like Zenergy with its focus of co-operating for a sustainable world is another example of another area where people are organising to create a better environmentally sound world. This is another part of the solution people evolving ways to work co-operatively for the common good.- Bill Berrett says
Thank you Mathew for a full and thoughtful response. You do raise an important issue. Milton Keyes (it didn’t have a name then) began in 1962 with a plan based on public transport (fare free)not cars. The density is not the major issue - the arrangement of settlements is. But the point I want to highlight is the time it takes for ideas to become current accepted and implimented. That of course the gist of ‘What is next?’
PS I have the greatest admiration for Earthsong and those who have persisted and brought it to tangibility.
Good wishes to all in NZ.Bill.Leave a comment
The Shock Doctrine- The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein
The Shock Doctrine- The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein
Published by Penguin Books Ltd. (Australia)This detailed and interesting book sets out how the neo-conservative Chicago School (or neo-cons) of Milton Friedman has been applied to places which have had disasters (Natural or Man-made.) These University of Chicago trained economists have led the charge in support of these usually undemocratic application of these economic policies. The neo-conservatives aim has been to take advantage of the erasure of resistance from the public or civil society when it has been shocked by these disasters.
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Online Facilitation Skills Programme
Matthew Hodgetts receiving his certificate from programme leader Stephen Thorpe upon completing the Zenergy Online Facilitation Skills programme. The next 10-week programme, starting on 4 May and runs through to 12 July, explores the key topics of the role of the facilitator, purpose and culture, shifting levels, dialoge and storytelling, addressing conflict and getting to consensus.
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Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken.
This is a compelling book that is a sweeping overview about the critical issues faced by humanity and the attempts to address them by the largest movement in the world.
It is about the massive numbers of people around the world working for the common good in civil society organisations in order to face the interconnected crises now faced by Humanity. It is a manifesto of hope in that even though we are in grave ecological peril there is an underground movement pushing for environmental and social sustainability and justice that works from the bottom up. It describes the growing unrest the frustration and courage of those who have the will to challenge the power of the corporate rule.
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Liam Forde
Zenergy Diploma of Facilitation graduate and Zenergy Programme Leader
Liam Forde has recently passed a rigorous selection process to become a recommended coach for the top 250 senior executives of a major public listed company employing over 60,000 people in 62 countries worldwide. Liam bases his coaching on the key skills he learnt in Zenergy’s Coaching for Outstanding Results programme. The next 2-day programme is on March 19-20. Click here for more details.
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See Eckhart Tolle in NZ
Hi guys if you want to see him in person, details are here
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Nassim Taleb - The Black Swan
Hi all
This guy has been in the news lately.
Here is something from http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/goldbard.pdf that I liked
a few ideas his work seems to suggest:
2 comments on “Nassim Taleb - The Black Swan”
- Rick says
I think Nassim also suggests that we should accept the possibility that the known is only known until we have proof of it’s falshood. I like this concept, as it leaves us with a new dimension to occupy between that which we perceive to be and the many alternative realities there may yet be. It suggests to me the potential of infinite possibility.
In the book “Blink”, sorry forgotten the author, it is suggested that our perception or cognition of perception, lags significantly behind our primal knowledge of the events that surround us and that often there can be too much information on which to base our reactions. The Black Swan effect can still be present however when our instantaneous judgement is tempered by our previous experiences and a false knowing is possible, and how utterly convincing it can be.
I imagine the current world financial “crisis” is somewhat of that nature. Another Black Swan appears.
- Dale Hunter says
Hi Rick and Graham
I’m just getting used to blogging.
The book “Blink” is by Malcom Gladwell. He has another out now called “Outliers: The Story of Success”. Very worth reading. It describes research on the conditions which tend to lead to success. I liked the part in which he showed that talent or education get us only so far. Mastery then = 10,000 hours of practise. Also particular circumstances can make an enormous difference. E.g the birthdays of representative hockey players. Recommend this book. Another example of me/us not knowing much at all and needing to remain open, present and uncertain - as per Grahams postLeave a comment
Invitation to f2f Dialogue Auckland, NZ
Dear Graduates,
You are warmly invited to attend the following Zenergy dialogue event in Auckland.
The Topic: “What do we want from our next government?“
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Doing Democracy by Bill Moyer
This book is excellent overview of the movement for social change and how social change occurs and is very encouraging. The book sets out how social activists often believe that their movement is failing, even when it is having the normal processes of success. Moyer shows how activists should stop being burnt out and believing in movement failure when it is often untrue that they are failing that the social change process is just moving through stages.
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- Rick says
Read also essential Chomsky, a great insight into dissident support and activism.
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Facilitation Training Programmes in Ireland
In August, Dr. Dale Hunter visited Dublin, Ireland to co-lead a 4-day residential programme for Vofafone Ireland and UK with Liam Forde at The Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in the Wicklow Mountains to the south-west of Dublin. Liam facilitates in Europe and the Middle-East specialising in values-based leadership development. He holds a Zenergy Diploma of Facilitation and is an accredited Zenergy programme leader.
Taking advantage of Dale’s visit Zenergy graduate Ray Murray organised and co-led with Dale a 2-day advanced facilitation training for a Trinity College outreach programme (NIID).
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Leadership Development
For some time in my work with a range of organisations I have been reflecting on the relationship between leadership and cultural change. I have been noticing culture as an emerging force with teams and organisations which can be healthy or destructive. While the effects of culture are felt by all and affect everyone; often what causes the culture to change and develop seems to go unnoticed.
The relationship between leadership development and cultural change
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Oh No You Don’t: A Tale of Managing Workplace Bullying
This highly relevant new book focuses on workplace bullying, is written by Zenergy Diploma graduate Hadyn Olsen, and is published by WAVE Publishing.
Easy to read and learn from, this book is a useful resource for all employers, human resources personnel, group facilitators, team leaders, and workplace managers faced with challenging staff members. It provides a guide not only for dealing with problems but for creating a culture of respect, dignity and safety for workplaces.
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Chapter Online Relationships
Zenergy’s Stephen Thorpe has had a chapter drawn from his PhD on The Use of Storytelling in Building Online Group Relationships published in the new Handbook of Research on Computer Mediated Communication.
The handbook presents an authoritative collection of research on the implications and social effects computers have on communication.
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Think-piece on the Future of E-government Published
Zenergy’s Stephen Thorpe has recently contributed a think-piece on Facilitating effective online participation in e-government to the New Zealand E-government 2007: Progress Towards Transformation report by the State Services Commission. The report was released at the DevCon 2008 conference in Wellington on 19 June. Stephen’s was one of 15 contributions by individuals from various stakeholder groups, who were invited to contribute their views on the future of E-Government in New Zealand. Going forward, the State Services Commission will be exploring how the ideas expressed in these think pieces can be made further visible through engagement with other stakeholders.
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Reflections on the International Association of Facilitators North American Conference in Atlanta
Dear Facilitators,What a wonderful feeling of connection and welcome I had at the IAF North American Conference in Atlanta on 9-12 April. The conference was attended by more than 400 facilitators from 26 countries. The theme for the conference was Opportunity, Optimism and Openness.
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Hello world!
Welcome to the first post on the Zenergy Blog. Comment and post - start blogging!
1 comment on “Hello world!”
- Bevin Fitzsimons says
Congratulations Zenergy on your modern use of technology in a human way!!
I am please and proud to be the first new blogger.
I’m also pleased to vouch for the financial integrity of Zenergy, being their accountant.
Kia kaha a tout le mondeLeave a comment
Welcome again to this blog site. We would love to hear from group facilitators around the world and also from social change facilitators. I have been a group facilitator since about 1990 and was one of the founders of Zenergy Ltd and the Zenergy Trust. Recently I have recognised the social change facilitator role and am interested in how that might be distinguished from a group facilitator. First thoughts are that it involves having an awareness of social change over time and space and an interest in how I can forward the values I support, such as whole personhood, peace and co-operation in an equitable and sustainable world. Does this mean I am not neutral or impartial? I can be professionally impartial in a group but I am personally not impartial or neutral. What does this mean for ethical facilitation?
If you are going to work in the realm of Social Change Facilitation, this involves a view as to change towards’what’. I don’t think you can be personally impartial. Working with the future involves a great deal of information giving to enable competant decisions. We each return again to our personal integrity. The examination and honing of that is the basic foundation of a Social Change Facilitator.
A personal and coherant view of ‘towards what’is essential in my opinion.
Hi greenmanrata
Identifying “Towards what” and honing personal integrity. Where I am heading and where I am standing or “coming from”.
I am towards an equitable, co-operative, sustainable, peace loving world.
It bothers me that 2/3 of the worlds population struggle to survive wars, famine, environmental catastrophes and more while I live in plenty.
It is not so easy working out how I can really make a difference with this. I try to do something each day.
I do consider it is a collective enterprise. Building networks, developing and disseminating skills in the area of working co-operatively, sharing concerns and ideas, supporting inititatives I resonate with, are the things I have already undertaken.
But what else? What do you see?
You make an interesting call there Bill – to what do we mean by “Social Change”? It maybe an important thing to articulate clearly the direction we are intending to go.
I have found though that I’m a little wary of the odd person who has asked me lately. It feels to me as if this person has been living down in the caves of Plato’s republic - worshipers of the shadows so to speak. There so are many indicators now that we are individually and collectively facing a radically new world and have a choice. Anyone who still doubts that the world we live in is changing fundamentally must be blind, obstinate or perhaps daft.
What I mean is that I don’t go about asking them to articulate their “business as usual world view”. i.e. that the world should not bother changing to meet the many emergent indicators of sustainability challenges facing us.
As we are beginning to see – the climate is just one of the many changes underway – ecological, economic, social, political, scientific and cultural shifts are all happening too and they are interconnected like never before in our history.
There are those who believe that group facilitation should not be about social change. However, that in itself denies the critical nature of working with groups of people co-operatively. Allowing people to participate fully and to be involved in the decisions that affect them is inherently value laden.
Social change, for me, is about choosing life and that is something I want to be a part of. As illustrated by Carlos Kneebone we’re only beginning to understand that sustainability has only one checkbox as there aren’t any other choices.
Stephen
Dale Hunter says, “It is not so easy working out how I can really make a difference with this. I try to do something each day.” No, it is not easy and you do do something each day. You also use a very interesting phrase “What do you see?” You, Dale, have seen that working one to one can reveal the other’s insights, then working with a number of others, one can empower the group. You have seen that the insights you have made, the lessons you have learned, the skills you have evolved can be carried over boundaries of society and culture, to enable others to ’see’.
But as well as ’seeing’ and helping others to ’see’there is also a component of what to ’see’.
When we start to work with the environment, often with issues which take some time to take effect, then this core of belief of what to ’see’has to stand for the time being until it can become tested by what actually happens. So I think it important to have a view and foresight which is capable of scrutiny and challenge.
Excellent comments on “what” we “see.” Some time ago I facilitated a citizen’s advisory committee that was to make recommendations for a new bridge. The new bridge would replace the existing 75-year-old bridge, which was in disrepair.
One of the issues was the height of the new structure. The old bridge had a clearance above the water of only about 20 feet. A number of people felt that the new bridge should have a clearance of at least 50 feet so that the larger recreational sail boats would be able to pass under the bridge. When asked why, one person responded adamantly, “for the future.”
Apparently, his view of the future included more and larger boats, but his “future” was not universally shared.
“Social change” can be for good or bad, depending on one’s values and preferences, and it’s very difficult to define or apply them abstractly. The issues and preferences are much more subjective than objective.
“We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are.”