This article provides an overview of how to create effective programs for learning and change within your organisation.
Authoring team for the foundation article
Lead authors: McGee, C., Herriman, J., Mitchell, C. and Brown, S.
Contents
Summary
This is a practical overview of how to create effective programs for learning and change within your organisation. You may be responsible for staff professional development in your organisation, or you may simply want to know how to create change within your own circle of influence.
It is primarily the ability to learn and adapt that sustains an organisation's competitive advantage. This is vital to all organisations working within the commercial property industry who want to remain competitive. The shift towards more sustainable development is happening rapidly and requires continual learning and change.
This article provides information on why learning and creating awareness is important, and its role in change creation, particularly in the commercial property sector. The article examines the steps involved in planning a learning and change program, and outlines the principles of effective learning. The likely future direction of learning and change in the commercial property sector is discussed and a snapshot of current continuing professional development programs is provided. The article concludes with some important tips and strategies for developing effective learning programs, along with links to a range of useful resources.
The importance of learning and creating awareness: why bother?
Workplaces that build in capacity for ongoing organisational learning have always had a competitive edge. This is particularly so in today's 'knowledge economy', where ideas, services and knowledge are an organisation's greatest asset.
Learning and change are now particularly important drivers for the property industry, as it becomes clear that the way forward is anything but 'business as usual'. The current mainstream approach to designing, constructing and managing buildings is now recognised as a significant contributor to a host of environmental and social problems.
This is creating a real paradigm shift for the property industry, and those organisations that can adapt to the needs of the future are most likely to succeed. This requires a renewed emphasis on change and learning. Employee engagement and awareness-raising is an important process that supports change by creating awareness of the need for learning. Fostering engagement and raising awareness can happen in a number of ways in parallel to more formal learning, and can contribute to culture change.
The role of learning in transforming the property sector
Many of the barriers to sustainable outcomes in the property sector are related to learning - some directly, some indirectly. Direct barriers include lack of awareness, lack of skills (crucial to translating awareness into action), and the time and cost of pioneering new approaches. One of the greatest barriers to sustainable development is cost, and this is at least indirectly related to learning: a common cause of increased costs is a lack of knowledge and experience about the most cost-effective way to achieve a given outcome.
Effective learning versus traditional forms of learning
The focus in this article is on effective learning. Effective learning is transformative and empowering, which is why it is such an important tool for change. It is focused on the learner and is driven by the learner. It encourages genuine, personalised learning and skills development, rather than 'rote' learning.
This type of learning has the potential to transform industry practices - and therefore to transform the built environment - by first creating awareness and motivation, and then improving the property industry's capacity for innovation and problem-solving.
How does change happen?
Rogers' five stage model of adoption
Source: Rogers, 2003
In the 1960s, Everett Rogers proposed the diffusion of innovation theory to explain how new ideas and products permeate, or not, through society. He categorised adopters of change as either 'innovators', 'early adopters', 'early majority', 'late majority' or 'laggards'. He also proposed a five stage model of adoption, where an individual first becomes aware of an idea, is then persuaded about its value, decides to give it a go, actually tries it, and then confirms or rejects it (see figure above). This model underpins just about everything that's said and written about how change happens.
AtKisson's amoeba of cultural change
Source: AtKisson, 1999
In the early 1990s, Alan AtKisson combined Rogers' ideas with Robert Gilman's ideas about culture, and developed the rather more quirky and useful concept of the amoeba of cultural change (see left figure). AtKisson identified the key roles that enable or block change, and so provides guidance for how to go about creating change. If your aim is to create change ('change agent'), then your goal is to identify curious and open-minded, but powerful, individuals ('transformers') and to translate the innovations into a form that engages them. These individuals, by their actions, will do the work of creating critical mass (i.e. convincing the 'noisy majority'), tugging the rest of the amoeba (your project team, or organisation, or industry sector, or society at large) in a new direction.
The Australian property industry and the role of learning and creating awareness
A useful framework for conceptualising the current state of the Australian property industry in relation to sustainability is the diffusion of innovation, which describes the stages in the process of an innovation becoming mainstream (see the How does change happen? section of this article for more information).
The first stage in the diffusion of innovation is awareness. Information starts to become available and, as a result, more and more people begin to 'know about' the innovation. The property industry has reached this stage - most of its members are aware of the concept of sustainability and a significant proportion of them agree that it is important and want to know more.
However, sustainability has not yet become a mainstream practice, despite the existence of many 'early adopters' leading the way. This widespread change in practice is the next step in the diffusion of innovation. The property industry is on the cusp of this change, and education is an important catalyst. Much knowledge and information already exists, and the key is arranging it into useful learning processes that engender motivation, skills development and behaviour change.
Green Square South Tower, Brisbane - Creating awareness
Clean site open day
The project team working on Green Square South Tower in Brisbane has taken the leadership role at an industry level to increase the awareness of sustainable development by sharing their experience at different platforms and events such as the Green Cities 07 Conference, the UDIA Building Green with the Future in Mind Breakfast, the GBCA Breakfast with the Stars and hosting a Clean Site Open Day in conjunction with Keep Australia Beautiful.
Source: Leighton Contractors |
Planning your learning project
Key steps to planning an effective
learning project
Whether you want to train up an entire organisation in sustainable building practices, or simply want to get your building contractors to source sustainable products, any effective education and change intervention needs to first be well considered and planned.
The key steps to planning an effective learning project are outlined below (see left figure). Thinking through each of these steps before starting your learning project will ensure that you have a clear path to success, in part because you will know how to recognise success when it appears.
- Overall aim: Why are you doing this project? Distil this down to the top-line objective or aim.
- Learning or change outcomes: What do you want people to learn and do differently as a result of the project? Learning outcomes need to be action-oriented and specific.
- Target audience: Who is your audience? Define who they are and then find out more about them to help you plan the best way to reach them. This will help you to start where the learner is.
- Program design: What are you going to do to engage your audience, in order to help them find their own motivation to learn and act? Plan the activities with the learning outcomes and nature of your audience in mind. Read the principles of learning and creating awareness for some guidance and use the tools provided in this article.
- Measurement and evaluation: How will you measure the effectiveness of the training and the changes that result? Plan how you will measure if the training or intervention reached the target audience and motivated them to adopt the desired changes. Actively involve your audience (the learners) in this process to encourage their critical thinking, reflection and feedback.
- Follow-up and communicating results: How will you communicate the results of the learning project to the audience or other stakeholders? How will you maintain the changes into the future? Plan some follow-up to ensure that the change is maintained.
Principles of learning and creating awareness
The advice contained in this article is aimed at a diverse range of people and professions within the property sector, so it has been distilled into six key principles that can be used across all groups.
The key principles of learning and creating awareness are:
The following sections explain why each of these principles is important and provide examples of how each one may be implemented.
We have set out these principles for a number of reasons:
- Principles are easy to remember.
- Principles hold true for a range of different contexts; what changes is how they are applied - the specific activities and outcomes.
- A focus on principles encourages critical thinking about how best to apply the principles to your own situation.
Foster participation, empowerment and ownership
For any change program to succeed, it is important that all those who are being asked to participate in the change are engaged and feel empowered to make the changes and influence the process. Therefore, it is important to involve your audience in the development of the vision, strategy and process of the program. All levels of the organisation should be included in this, not just the top levels.
A key means of making change easier is to foster an innovative and dynamic culture in the organisation so that people are able to embrace change and learn new methods readily. Collaboration and knowledge sharing are important ways to encourage creativity and learning.
Why do this?
If your audience are engaged and feel that they are empowered and in control of the change, then they will be much less likely to resist the new approach you are proposing. Sustainability in the property industry requires a new approach and this can be daunting or even threatening for those who are adept at 'business as usual'. Empowering your audience by listening to their concerns and asking for their contribution to developing the change program has a twofold benefit; it increases the level of 'buy-in', and it also helps you to identify the starting point for your program, as this will depend on current attitudes, skills and knowledge (for more information on this issue, see the Start where the learner is section of this article).
It is also much more likely that the change you're aiming for will continue into the future if your target group take on ownership of the change and adopt it as part of their normal way of doing things. By increasing opportunities for your audience to collaborate and share knowledge, the new approaches you want to foster will spread more readily among the key actors in the change process.
How do I do this?
There is a range of strategies that you can use to empower your audience and encourage their ownership of the change process. Some strategies are discussed below.
- Allow employees to work on issues they care about – for example, invite staff to form issue-based, cross-organisational working groups to come up with solutions to support the change you are working towards.
- Facilitate self-directed and peer learning – provide the tools for your audience to learn about the issue (e.g. web-based learning programs or workshops). Encourage learners to identify what they want to find out about, and let them define the way they'd like to do that.
- Mentoring systems (external and internal) – use informal buddy systems to pair up more experienced and less experienced people. Encourage those who are more informed of the new systems to pass on their knowledge to their peers; for example, building managers with some experience of sustainable building practices could teach other building managers what they have learnt and how to overcome the challenges. Encourage more experienced internal employees or external industry experts to become a formal mentor to key people you wish to empower and educate in more sustainable practices. External mentors could be sourced from organisations who work in the field of sustainability (e.g. a green building industry group or a firm of eco-designers or architects). For more information on mentoring, see the Mentoring section of this article.
- Set up and embed formal and informal mechanisms for sharing information and learning – there is a range of internet tools available for information sharing, or you could use more formal face-to-face methods. For more information, see the Tools for encouraging a culture of information sharing, participation and learning within your organisation section of this article.
- Engage your audience in the process of program development – involve a smaller group of your audience at the beginning to help you scope and pilot the program and to provide valuable feedback and testing. Never underestimate the value of testing out any program first, then refining it and rolling it out a wider audience; it will be more effective this way.
- Include collaborative problem-solving activities in training – if you are involving your audience in formal training sessions, then plan into the training some activities that involve small teams in collaborative problem-solving exercises. For example, you could run an activity where a team of designers, builders or architects (or a cross-disciplinary team) are asked to design and sketch a sustainable building. Share learning with external stakeholders through cross-sector partnerships. Invite other stakeholders in the process to contribute to the change program by sharing their knowledge and participating in training.
Start where the learner is
When developing any change program, whether it's a simple behaviour change campaign or a formal training program, it is important to start where your audience is and create a tailored program that will engage them effectively. To do this, you need to investigate your target audience and use this information to inform the content, pitch, medium and format of your program.
Your audience will almost always be heterogeneous. Think about the possible dimensions of this – how they might differ (e.g. experience, training, trade, discipline, sector, phase of building process, etc.). Your program may need to cater for a range of learning styles, needs and levels of awareness. More than one program may be needed if your audience comes from a diverse range of groups.
Green Square South Tower, Brisbane - Training and educating project participants
Sustainability posters on site
All project participants in the Green Square project (Brisbane) are exposed to extensive education on sustainability issues through induction materials, educational posters on sustainability aspects of the project and an ESD section in the project newsletter. Some of the project team members also undergo more formal education through the Green Star Accredited Professionals Course.
Source: Leighton Contractors |
Why do this?
By designing the program to meet the needs and interests of your audience, you are more likely to engage them and achieve strong participation. They will feel the program is relevant to them – that 'this is about me' – and will be more likely to do things differently. Different groups within the property industry have different drivers, questions and spheres of influence, and a good training program will take this into account. With a well-targeted program, you have a better chance of achieving the change you are after.
For example, the Master Builders Association's Green Living training program is structured to follow the typical house construction process and focuses on the key decision-making points where builders can make a difference. It also addresses up-front the questions of:
- How do my practices affect the environment, and why does it matter?
- How can I make a difference?
- What's in it for me and what's in it for my customers?
The program's development was based on research with builders. The builders were asked about their drivers and learning needs. They were also asked to reflect on what worked and what didn't about previous training programs they'd attended.
How do I do this?
It is important to research and engage your audience during the planning stage to find out their:
- profile - job roles and other relevant characteristics
- values or world view in regard to the issue
- circle of control or influence regarding the issue
- perceived information or skill gaps
- drivers, perceived barriers and opportunities in relation to sustainability issues
- preferred learning styles.
For more assistance with understanding your audience, see the ten questions for the various Your Building user groups to get an idea of what your audience wants to know.
Once you have a better understanding of your audience, you can use this research to:
- inform the content, pitch, focus, medium and format of your learning program
- set up the motivation for people to change by addressing questions such as: 'What's the issue?, What's my impact?, What difference can I make?, What's in it for me?'
- develop change outcomes or learning outcomes to guide program development; this ensures that the program stays learner- and outcome-focused
- mirror daily practice; you can structure the program and design activities to reflect typical 'real life' decision-making processes and situations.
Embed processes for critical thinking and reflection
The ability to reflect, learn and adapt has always been an important skill. In evolutionary terms, it is this responsiveness to change - the ability to survive change by changing - that determines survival. This is also highly relevant to businesses operating in today's rapidly changing world. For the property industry, the need for change has become clear - the traditional 'business as usual' approach to designing, constructing and managing the built environment is creating serious environmental, social and economic consequences. In response, a paradigm shift is starting to occur.
Great critical thinkers raise important questions and issues, analyse key questions and problems clearly and precisely, and recognise key questionable assumptions. They are also able to clarify key concepts effectively, frequently identify relevant competing points of view, reason carefully from clearly stated starting points, and are sensitive to important implications and consequences. What organisation wouldn't want this?
Why do this?
The property industry is undergoing a paradigm shift towards more sustainable development, and those organisations that best adapt to the associated challenges and opportunities are most likely to succeed.
In today's 'knowledge economy', workplaces that build in organisational capacity for learning through critical thinking and reflection have a competitive edge. This is particularly true for the property industry in the context of the rapidly evolving knowledge field of sustainable development.
Building in processes for critical thinking and reflection increases an organisation's capacity for creativity and innovation, empowering individuals at all levels of the organisation. This helps to ensure that organisational knowledge is captured, shared and continues to evolve. It encourages self-directed and peer learning, with a reflective focus on direct experience and 'trial and error'. This is how adults learn, so it is much more effective than conventional 'stand and deliver' models of learning.
How do I do this?
Embedding critical thinking and reflection in decision making
When making decisions, it is important to build in time for critical thinking and reflection. This may initially seem time-consuming, but it greatly enhances outcomes and the efficiency of the process. Critical thinking and reflection should be encouraged as a practice for both individuals and groups. It is particularly powerful when done in a group context.
You can embed critical thinking and reflection in decision making by:
- adopting a more flexible approach to project planning that follows a continuous cycle of 'plan, do, reflect, adapt' (instead of the typical linear approach)
- building in feedback mechanisms and time for reflection (and ensuring openness to a potential change in approach) at regular stages of the project
- capturing 'lessons learnt' at the end of each project and using them to inform the development of new projects
- using cross-disciplinary and cross-hierarchy teams within your organisation to capture the benefits of a diversity of perspectives and ideas. This encourages innovation and delivers added relationship-building benefits
- allowing for a high level of collaboration and input from a broad range of external stakeholders, right from the conceptual stage of the project. This ensures that the situation is examined from a broad range of perspectives, that more opportunities are captured, and that issues are resolved in the most creative and efficient manner.
The points above are all important ingredients of what is commonly known as an integrated design process - a key to achieving effective, best-practice outcomes. An integrated design process was employed for Melbourne's Council House 2. The process brought together stakeholders from a wide range of different disciplines. For example, stakeholders traditionally involved later in the process, such as builders, were included from the outset to contribute to the design and to advise on 'buildability'. The process, managed primarily through a series of workshops, was designed to encourage critical thinking and reflection.
Processes to enhance critical thinking and reflection
Providing and receiving feedback is perhaps the single most effective means of developing critical thinking and reflection skills. Follow these easy steps, and be prepared to transform and be transformed:
- Start with a single, specific positive comment (e.g. 'I thought the story you used to explain the concept connected well with our experience in the project').
- Continue with a single specific negative (e.g. 'However, I think the discussion then went off-track').
- Wrap up the feedback with a general positive comment (e.g. 'Overall, though, the session was useful because it allowed us to air concerns').
- Then, to make sure that the person receiving the feedback actually gets a chance to engage with it, ask them what they will change (e.g. 'So, what would you do differently next time?').
- Build in quick and easy processes to examine what worked well, what didn't, and what you (each of the people involved) would do differently next time (e.g. allow five minutes at the end of regular project meetings for this process).
To identify potential levers for change, it is important to examine those elements of a situation that are usually unsaid, such as the influence of underlying values, power structures, and individual and collective assumptions in relation to the issue.
Critical thinking and reflection in training programs
Training that expands the learner's capacity for critical thinking and reflection encourages continued self-directed learning. This in turn increases organisational capacity for innovation. You can encourage critical thinking and reflection through training programs by:
- setting up guiding principles and exercises that allow learners to practice applying the principles in different contexts. This ensures that learners are using their critical thinking skills instead of 'memorising the example'
- setting up problem-solving activities that involve critical analysis of situations from a group perspective, based on typical 'real life' work situations. This encourages peer learning and experiential learning, which are both very effective learning modes
- involving learners in training development to ensure that it is learner focused, by piloting the program first, and by using learner feedback to guide refinements.
Foster creative thinking
Creative thinking is linked to innovation - coming up with new ideas about issues and problems. Everybody has the capacity to think creatively, and it is a skill that can be learnt and developed.
Why do this?
While critical thinking, reflection and analytical thinking are all important for understanding and describing the nature or components of problems, creative thinking is required to generate new solutions.
Dedicating time to creative thinking means that the number of options available to evaluate in decision making may be larger, and the nature of these ideas may be more innovative and less tied to 'business as usual'.
How do I do this?
Nel Monstert (2007) from Unilever describes the creative process, based on her experience facilitating teams in more than 125 creativity sessions and her research on creativity sessions over the past four years at Unilever. She describes the creative process as having four phases:
- Getting into contact with the problem
- Incubation time to think about a solution
- The 'aha' moment when you think of an idea
- Action to share the idea with others
There are several tools that can be used to help individuals and groups think creatively. These include:
In addition, there may be features of a workplace culture that are supportive of creative thinking and expression. Creativity generally involves taking risks - thinking up new ways or new connections, and suggesting ideas. Not all of these ideas will seem like 'good ideas' on further reflection. In addition, many people do not identify as 'being creative', although they are regularly involved in generating ideas. Creativity may therefore be enhanced in an organisation through establishing a supportive environment that promotes confidence, feeling comfortable, trust, sharing ideas, feeling safe, recognising common ground, respect and connection, as well as explicitly recognising the important role that creativity plays in problem solving.
Encourage systems thinking
Systems thinking is sometimes referred to as systemic thinking, linked thinking, joined-up thinking, or thinking in a web rather than a box. Whatever you call it, systems thinking means recognising that we live in a highly interconnected and complex world. Systems thinking is a useful tool in approaching organisational change and is particularly relevant to understanding sustainable commercial buildings, because they are complex systems in themselves.
A systems view of sustainable commercial buildings provides a framework for weighing up the sustainability pros and cons of different design decisions. It helps to ensure that synergies are optimised and trade-offs are managed to produce the best outcome from a sustainability perspective.
Whilst a traditional problem-solving approach deconstructs situations, systems thinking examines the broader context and how the parts interact. It views multiple influences and relationships, creates awareness of the boundaries and assumptions used to define issues, recognises the influence of world views and perceptions, and embraces uncertainty and complexity.
Why do this?
We cannot observe properties of the whole bit by bit
Sustainability, by nature, requires us to consider connections that traditionally have been overlooked. Systems thinking allows us to view the world and sustainability issues in a broader, interdisciplinary and relational way, and therefore supports more sophisticated decision making.
Organisations, which are systems operating within broader systems (such as the economy and the community), can learn much about the conditions for success by taking a systems view. All parts of a system are interdependent and need to work together to achieve a common purpose. Performance is determined by the way the parts interact, and how well they 'self correct' by learning from and responding to feedback.
The way we think influences what we see
Systems thinking makes it easier to identify leverage points - the places within a complex system where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything.
How do I do this?
Organisational processes and decision making
Systems thinking should be encouraged as a practice for both individuals and groups during learning activities, in problem solving, and in decision making. A systems approach requires all parts of the 'value chain' to communicate and cooperate (e.g. a sustainable building needs to be well-designed, constructed, managed and operated to optimise outcomes).
You can encourage systems thinking in organisational processes and decision making by:
- allowing for a high level of collaboration from a broad range of internal and external stakeholders, right from the conceptual stage of the project
- encouraging cross-sectoral partnerships between industry, government, research institutions and the community. Involving elements of these different 'systems' in partnerships focused around common goals can be a powerful force for change
- considering the 'up and down' scales of systems that might affect or influence the issue/s. This will help to explore the problem boundaries and remind decision makers to consider the 'big picture' and 'small picture' in decision making
- looking at the 'cause of the cause' in defining problems - for example, the sustainability of commercial buildings is influenced by a system that includes business, politics, technology, management processes and people; all of these factors are worth considering, even if the resulting decision making focuses on only a few of these
- recognising that 'interventions' to systems may have unexpected results and that time should be allowed for modelling and testing different approaches.
For practical exercises in systems thinking, see the 'Linking thinking
' resources created by WWF-Scotland. Whilst targeted at senior high school students, these could be easily adapted for use in work teams or training.
A systems approach in training programs
The property industry is, by nature, highly interdisciplinary. Training that expands capacity for systems thinking supports learners to operate more effectively in this context, and increases organisational capacity for innovation.
You can encourage systems thinking through training programs by:
- setting up exercises that allow learners to explore the principles of systems thinking and to apply these to the problem being examined
- encouraging learners to identify boundaries, relationships, connections, feedback loops and drivers in relation to the issue being considered
- recognising the importance of interpersonal changes, as well as structural changes, to achieving sustainable outcomes, and by inviting participants to reflect on what might need to happen in those realms
- recognising that learners in organisations have a range of personal and workplace experiences that affect their priorities, attitudes to sustainability and potential to create change. What is happening elsewhere in the individual's life or experience of the organisation will influence their response to your training. Sometimes a seemingly unconnected part of the system - the organisation's reporting frameworks, a conversation with a client, or recent media coverage on an unrelated issue - will influence the part of the system you are focusing on
- involving learners in training development to ensure that it is learner focused, by piloting the program first, and by using learner feedback to guide refinements.
More information about systems thinking can be found on the Australian Research Institute for Education for Sustainability portal.
Build in accountability and incentives
The combined use of 'sticks' and 'carrots' plays an important role in driving the uptake of sustainability by the property sector, through building regulations and incentives. This 'sticks and carrots' approach also applies to an organisation's internal structures and processes. It is important that individuals and teams are accountable for achieving agreed sustainability outcomes, and that they are rewarded for good performance.
Why do this?
Building in accountability and incentives builds motivation, which is an essential driver for effective learning and behaviour change. Accountability mechanisms encourage employees to view sustainability as integral to what they do, instead of an optional 'add-on'. It also makes clear to employees, collaborators, partners and other stakeholders that your organisation is serious about the issue of their contribution to a sustainable built environment. Incentives are important in both bringing about behaviour change and sustaining it over time.
How do I do this?
At the organisational level, accountability can be encouraged by:
- building in accountability and incentives at both the individual and team level, so that achieving sustainability outcomes is seen as everybody's business and happens collaboratively
- developing relevant sustainability-related goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) for people and projects, aligned with the organisation's overarching sustainability goals
- establishing processes for regular evaluation and review of goals and KPIs
- linking good performance to incentives. Develop the right incentives by asking recipients what will work best for them, and continually re-assess options
- extending accountability to external partners (e.g. sub-contractors) by contractually linking payment to the delivery of specified outcomes
- including sustainability success stories (both of employees and projects) in annual reports and internal communications.
Accountability can also be encouraged through learning programs by:
- asking learners about their needs and interests, and using this to inform program development. This ensures that learners have an incentive to participate and learn, and empowers them to create their own learning path
- building incentives into programs by providing a clear rationale up-front, so your learners know 'what's in this for me'
- developing practical assessment tasks that mirror everyday practice, in preference to more 'abstract' methods like multiple-choice exams (this is especially useful if you are assessing learners for accreditation). Better still, you should assess learners in practice where possible. Remember that assessment tasks should align with learning outcomes and should test how well these outcomes have been achieved.
Future directions for learning and change
This section discusses emerging opportunities for learning and change within the commercial property sector.
Although awareness of sustainability is high, some groups within the property sector need more convincing of its value than others. Prevalent attitudes and awareness levels will determine the balance of 'why?' and 'how?' that education needs to address.
The property industry has come a long way in recent times, but only a continued, exponential increase in awareness and skills can deliver the paradigm shift that is needed to achieve a sustainable built environment. Change in one part of the industry can have a flow-on effect, influencing change in other parts of the industry.
The design professions have traditionally been the most proactive when it comes to sustainability and education. Builders have tended to see themselves as having less potential to influence sustainability outcomes, as their role is usually to respond to a defined brief. However, demand for 'green' builders is increasing and it is becoming more common to involve builders earlier in project development through integrated design and partnering processes. Recent years have also seen developers and property managers undergo a shift in sustainability-related awareness and skills.
Perhaps one of the greatest immediate areas of opportunity is for project managers, as sustainable development relies on a paradigm shift in terms of processes - including a much higher degree of stakeholder collaboration, and more flexible and iterative project management processes.
Other significant areas of opportunity are property investment and leasing, where the growing prominence of corporate sustainability presents a huge driver for change. There is scope for further educating building owners on the investment value of green property and the potential for attracting tenants. Similarly, there is scope for further educating tenants on the benefits of leasing green premises and how to reduce their environmental impact.
For maximum effect, change and learning programs should be based on the principles of learning and creating awareness.
The table below provides a snapshot of ongoing continuing professional development (CPD) courses offered by peak industry organisations within the property sector, particularly those focused on sustainable commercial and mixed-use development.
This table was generated from a review of industry organisations' websites and is indicative only. It is intended to illustrate the range of courses available and the range of organisations offering them. It focuses on ongoing continuing professional development (CPD) courses, and does not include one-off seminars and events, or tertiary and postgraduate courses.
Continuing professional development courses in the property sector
Tools
This section provides useful information, tips and resources for anyone wanting to develop effective learning and/or awareness-raising programs within their organisation.
Tools for encouraging a culture of information sharing, participation and learning within your organisation
Mentoring
Mentoring can be a great way to pass on expertise from more experienced people inside or outside the organisation. It involves linking up suitable experts with the key staff you wish to skill up in sustainable building practices. The key to successful mentoring is to make participation voluntary for both the mentor and mentee, and to ensure that clear roles, responsibilities, goals, limits, and expectations are set on both sides. Mentor relationships are built on trust. You may already have experts within your organisation who can take some time to informally meet with the staff you wish to skill up, or there may be external experts that you wish to invite in. Sustainability forums or green building associations are useful places to start when looking for sustainable building experts to act as mentors.
Links (organisations):
Green Building Council of Australia
Association of Building Sustainability Assessors
Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand
Links (general information):
Dusseldorp Skills Forum – Australian site focused on enabling young people to meet their potential
Andrew Gibbons – useful gateway to mentoring tools and information
Engagement and information sharing
Engaging your audience and encouraging them to collaborate and share knowledge is an important part of any change process. You should aim to provide channels and opportunities for them to share information and ideas.
There are numerous computer tools that you can use to support information sharing, including:
- intranet information portals with discussion boards
- blogs and chat pages
- online forums
- online surveys for regular feedback to new initiatives.
You can also arrange face-to-face or verbal exchanges for your audience to share information. These may include:
- regular project group meetings
- video or phone conferencing
- encouraging employees to attend external events in return for a report back to peers, structured around simple questions such as: 'What was the event/course? What did you learn? What surprised you? What disappointed you? What can our organisation learn from all this?'
- bringing staff from different locations together at a central venue for conferences or workshops
- taking staff on field trips to see things in practice
- having a staff notice board or poster display of the new ideas
- holding a round-table discussion for all employees at the conclusion of a project, explaining why the project happened, what the project was about, how the project was completed, and what will happen as a result of the project.
For more information about engaging your audience, see the Know your audience section of this article.
Links:
DSE effective engagement toolkit
Know your audience
At the start of any change program, it is important to research your audience. The best way to do this is usually to ask them directly for feedback.
There are a number of ways you can survey your audience, including:
- talking to them informally
- interviewing them individually or in pairs (by phone or face-to-face)
- through an online survey sent to them by email
- through a paper survey (for non-computer users)
- by inviting them to a group meeting and facilitating a discussion where you ask all your key questions - for large groups, consider running a survey at the meeting or split the group into smaller focus groups
- engaging a market research company to survey very large groups - they can do a phone or web-based survey, or run focus groups with your audience
- observation - go to where your target audience works and observe their behaviours.
Links:
DSE effective engagement toolkit
The importance of values
When planning your project, it is important to find out the values or world view of the people that you wish to influence, so that you can tailor the program in a way that they will respond to.
Sustainability is inherently a values-based pursuit. Sustainability proposes that it is important to protect the social, economic, physical and environmental well-being of the present generation, as well as that of future generations. Importantly, sustainable development seeks to simultaneously allow development while protecting the earth's resources for future generations.
Different people respond to these values in different ways and you may encounter resistance to some of the motivations you put forward for more sustainable practices. Therefore, you need to elicit which values and motivations do resonate with your audience and emphasise these. For example, environmental protection may not be a motivating factor for some people, but economic sustainability of the business or the community may resonate with them - for these people, you may need to find arguments for why 'green is the new black'.
Be mindful that your learning project is likely to be aimed at successfully influencing the attitudes and actions of your audience. Changing underlying values is a different kind of objective, and a little harder, but it is certainly possible. After all, the ultimate kind of learning is changing as a person - changing how we are in the world.
A key influence on your audience will be the values of the organisation they work for, so you will need to consider these as well. You should also be aware of potential differences between the kinds of values that are espoused (e.g. in company documents) and the values that are in action in the workplace.
Tools for developing effective training programs
How adults prefer to learn
People are curious, problem-solving beings, who are inherently motivated to learn and explore. They prefer to acquire information at their own pace and in answer to their own questions. The table below shows some common characteristics of adult learners and suggests some tips for assisting with the learning process.
Characteristics of adult learners
| Adult learners: |
Tip |
| Need to know why they should learn |
Provide a clear up-front rationale: 'Why is this important? What's in it for me?' |
| Want to see the direct and immediate application to their own situation |
Some background is important, but focus on implementation-oriented, practical content and key 'need to know' messages |
| Like to direct their own learning path |
Find out what your people are interested in learning before commencing program development, and involve them in developing and piloting programs. Make learning outcomes clear up-front so that learners can self-assess their progress |
| Must see the logic in the material |
Draw out the underlying principles, and provide examples of how they apply in practice. Structure the program to mirror typical decision-making processes and sequences |
| Prefer experiential learning, with a high level of personal participation |
Incorporate problem-solving activities based on typical 'real life' situations that encourage group participation and peer learning |
| Often come to a learning situation with useful prior knowledge |
Structure the program to facilitate active debate and peer learning |
Learning styles
Every person has a different preferred style of learning and will assimilate information more readily when it is presented in a style that works for them. There are many different ways to categorise styles of 'finding out' (i.e. learning). One basic model has four simple types: 'why' people, 'what' people, 'how' people, and 'what if' people. A more sophisticated set of categories is explained below:
- Linguistic – uses reading, writing and telling stories to learn (e.g. writer, lawyer)
- Logical-mathematical – understands things in a causal or numerical way (e.g. engineer, mathematician, computer technician)
- Spatial – understands things visually and spatially (e.g. architect, artist)
- Interpersonal – learning through understanding other people well (e.g. HR staff, teacher)
- Intrapersonal – learning through understanding the self well
- Naturalist – ability to discriminate between species and patterns in the natural world (e.g. botanist, chef, geologist) (ASCD, 2007).
Of course, individuals often have preferences from more than one category, and use different strategies in different situations. Well-designed education programs usually cater for several learning styles. Once you have a better idea of which styles your audience will respond to, you can use these to design your education or learning activities.
Links:
Learning styles master class
How to develop learning outcomes
The learning outcomes of your education project should contribute to the changes you are aiming to see. These changes may include:
- an increase in awareness of and knowledge about the issue/s
- changed attitudes towards the issue/s
- changed behaviour
- internalised adoption of the new approach, so it will be continued into the future.
You can use your overarching objective (e.g. 'more sustainable building design') as a starting point to determine what knowledge and skills the target audience needs to acquire in order to adopt the actions you are aiming for.
It is important to set up clearly defined learning outcomes at the very beginning, in order to guide program development. This ensures that the focus stays on the learner and what the program can help them achieve.
Learning outcomes should be specific, action-oriented and involve critical thinking and some kind of synthesis. For example: 'Compare and select building materials based on sustainability criteria, and justify your choices' is a better learning outcome than 'List the main sustainability issues to consider when selecting building materials'.
Verbs to use when developing learning outcomes
Source: Institute for Sustainable Futures,
University of Technology Sydney
Learning outcomes, being action-oriented, always start with a verb. You should avoid the word 'understand' as it is non-specific, and choose verbs that encourage critical thinking. The left figure provides some examples of verbs to use when developing learning outcomes, based on the level of comprehension required.
It is important to check and refine learning outcomes regularly while you are developing and piloting the program. You can use learning outcomes as a tool to ensure alignment between the activities, the content, and where you want learners to end up.
Once the program has been delivered, you can use the learning outcomes to guide your assessment and evaluation processes by reflecting on how well the learners achieved the outcomes.
Links:
UNSW learning outcomes guide for educators
Tools for encouraging creative thinking and participatory decision making
Creativity sessions
Creativity sessions might be focused on specific problems, such as 'how could we ...?'
A creativity session can have the following steps:
- Start with a problem definition, including an explanation of the problem background by the problem owner
- Invite the participants to generate ideas using creativity techniques that stimulate the creativity of the participants (varying from normal brainstorming to any other creativity technique that suits the purpose)
- Select a range of potential ideas
- Discuss the chosen ideas further
- Agree upon action plans for all ideas that seem worth pursuing
Monstert (2007) describes using 'five minutes of silence' in creativity sessions. After the problem owner has explained the problem, the participants are given five minutes of silence to write down their first ideas, which are then shared in small groups or collected and collated for the whole group.
Brainstorming
Possibly one of the best-known creative thinking techniques, brainstorming is a method where people are asked to suspend judgement of the feasibility of ideas and instead allow a broad range of possibilities to be expressed - 'anything goes'. Brainstorming can be done in groups or alone. Some of the pitfalls of brainstorming in practice are that sessions are not managed to allow the free flow of ideas, or are cut short before everyone has the chance to contribute or 'run out' of ideas. The term 'brainstorm' is often also used interchangeably with 'workshop/discuss/come up with a plan for', which is not in keeping with the original intentions of the word.
Guidelines for brainstorming
- Define your problem or issue as a creative challenge. Creative challenges typically start with: 'In what ways might we ...?' or 'How could we ...?'.
- Collect as many ideas as possible from all participants, with no criticisms or judgments made while ideas are being generated.
- All ideas are welcome, no matter how silly or far out they seem. Be creative. The more ideas, the better, because at this point you don't know what might work.
- Absolutely no discussion takes place during the brainstorming activity. Talking about the ideas will take place after brainstorming is complete.
- Refrain from criticising or judging (including groans, frowns or laughter). All ideas are equally valid at this point.
- Build on others' ideas, combining ideas or reversing ideas.
- Document all ideas on a whiteboard or large sheet of paper, so the whole group can easily see them.
- Set a time limit (e.g. 30 minutes) for the brainstorming.
Links:
Complete guide to traditional brainstorming
Mind mapping
Mind MapsTM, developed by Tony Buzan, are an effective method of note taking and useful for the generation of ideas by association. To make a mind map, one starts in the centre of the page with the main idea, and works outward in all directions, producing a growing and organised structure, composed of key words and key images. Because of the large amount of association involved, mind maps can be very creative, tending to generate new ideas and associations that have not been thought of before. Every item in a map is, in effect, a centre of another map. For example, a creative meeting could begin with people spending a couple of minutes individually mind mapping the key concept. Then a master mind map could be created on a white board, allowing every idea or statement to be recorded in an appropriate place so that it can then be discussed. Using this technique, no one feels ignored, as all ideas are placed on the mind map.
Links:
Buzan world
Thinking hats
Early in the 1980s, Edward de Bono invented the six thinking hats model as a framework for thinking. In this model, judgmental thinking is accepted as important, but is not allowed to dominate as it sometimes does in normal thinking. 'Putting on' a hat focuses thinking; 'switching' hats redirects thinking.
The six thinking hats are:
- White – facts, figures and objective information
- Red – emotions and feelings
- Black – logical negative thoughts
- Yellow – positive constructive thoughts
- Green – creativity and new ideas
- Blue – control of the other hats and thinking steps
With the different parts of the thinking process thus clearly defined, the model suggests that discussions can be better focused and more productive.
Organisations such as Prudential Insurance, IBM, Federal Express, British Airways, Polaroid, Pepsico, DuPont, and Nippon Telephone and Telegraph have used the six thinking hats model.
Evaluating options
After using critical thinking and reflection to help define problems, and creative thinking to help come up with options for how to solve them, it is important to engage in an evaluation of ideas to decide which ones are most likely to be successful. A criteria-based evaluation is one in which you determine a few basic criteria that are essential for ascertaining whether or not an idea is likely to work. You then determine how well the idea meets each criterion.
For example, the criteria to choose between a list of possible water-saving measures for your building could be:
- Criteria 1: Demand reduction – How well does the idea reduce water usage? (on average likely to result in less than 5% water savings p.a., more than 10% p.a., more than 20%, more than 50% etc.)
- Criteria 2: Cost – How easily can it 'pay for itself'? (likely to pay for itself in less than 1 year, in 1-2 years, in 3 years, in 5 years etc.)
- Criteria 3: Image – Is it seen to be 'cutting edge' or innovative? Will there be significant marketing opportunities?
- Criteria 4: Selection and preparation – How easily can we access technical information and product selection support to make a well-informed decision?
- Criteria 5: Maintenance and decommission – What are the maintenance costs? How easily can the device be repaired if it breaks? Can it be recycled or re-used at the end of its life in our building?
Each option could be given a score (say out of five) for each of these criteria, where five means it performs very well, and one means it performs poorly. Each score could then be multiplied by four and the scores added together to create a score out of 100 for each option. Different criteria could also be weighted, if you think they are more important than the others (e.g. if a criterion is weighted x 2, the score for this criterion would be doubled).
This is similar to the idea of multi-criteria analysis (MCA), which is a tool used to choose between large policy or project options. It can be used just as well for possible organisational approaches to sustainability.
Links:
Multi-criteria decision analysis in environmental decision making
References
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (2007), Website, Accessed from
http://www.ascd.org/.
AtKisson, A. (1999), Believing Cassandra, White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, Accessed from http://www.atkisson.com/pubs/FR0404.html.
Dugan, M (2003), Envisioning, Accessed from
http://www2.beyondintractability.org/essay/visioning/.
Hitchcock, D. & Willard, M. (2006), The business guide to sustainability: practical strategies and tools for organisations, London: Earthscan Publishing.
Meadows, D.H. (1997), 'Places to intervene in a system', Whole Earth, Winter, 1, Accessed from http://www.sustainabilityinstitute.org/dhm_archive/index.php.
Monstert, N. (2007), 'Diversity of the mind as the key to successful creativity at Unilever', Creativity and Innovation Management, 16(1), 93-100, Accessed from http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8691.2007.00422.x.
Rogers, E.M. (2003), Diffusion of innovation (5th ed.), New York: Free Press.
The Context Institute (1983 onwards), In Context, A Quarterly of Humane Sustainable Culture, Accessed from http://www.context.org/ICLIB/icintro.htm.
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