The SoE heads to D.C.!

I’m excited to announce that we’re adding something new to the School of the Environment’s schedule for this summer.  For one week during our six-week session, we will all be going down to Washington, D.C., to supplement our curriculum and leadership training program with visits with environmental leaders, organizations, and agencies to explore first-hand the strategies for … and challenges of … leading in a time of political change.  In addition, we will engage closely with Frank Sesno and his team at Planet Forward, an organization based at George Washington University with the mission of moving the environmental narrative of the planet forward (hence the name) with evocative storytelling and communication.

Alumni from the MSoE’15 will remember Frank Sesno as our keynote speaker and one of our guest practitioners. He is currently the Director of The George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs and the creator and host of Planet Forward. He was formerly CNN’s DC bureau chief, as well as anchor, interview host, and White House correspondent. He was the long-running host of CNN’s Sunday talk show Late Edition, and he remains a frequent guest host for CNN’s Reliable Sources.

Together with folks at Planet Forward, the MSoE faculty will help the students in this year’s program confront the question, “How can you lead in a time of change?”  In fact, the political transitions we see in the U.S. today call upon all of us to recognize that leadership and strategies for environmental engagement must be responsive to dynamic political and cultural environments, and the question of how to lead in a time of change will frame our entire program this summer.

Our week in D.C. is included in the overall session and will not require any additional costs for the students.  We will depart from Middlebury on Sunday, July 16th, and return on Saturday, July 22nd.  This is the 4th week of our session, giving us plenty of opportunity to prepare in our classes beforehand and to follow-up with what we learned afterwards.  We will be staying in the dorms at George Washington University’s Mt. Vernon campus, and we’ll take advantage of the facilities at the GW School of Media and Public Affairs as well as Middlebury College’s own office complex on K Street.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Washington, D.C., is one of the global capitals for environmental policy and engagement.  The opportunity to integrate this experience with the traditional MSoE curriculum is amazing!

I’ll be posting more about this trip as details are confirmed.  But I can guarantee that the week will be amazing!

Ask More, by Frank Sesno

It’s exciting to see that past-MSoE practitioner and lecturer Frank Sesno has a new book out, titled Ask More: The Power of Questions to Open Doors, Unlock Solutions, and Spark Change.  Sesno, a former senior correspondent for CNN and current director of Planet Forward in Washington, D.C., joined us in 2015 as a practitioner-in-residence and also delivered the MSoE public lecture that year on the power of stories to inspire and motivate.  Frank’s passion is transforming both individuals and society at large through changing our capacity to create compelling narratives — both spoken and visual — of solutions to today’s challenges related to peace, justice, and the environment.

The following text is taken directly from the book’s website.  Check it out!!

“What hidden skill links successful people in all walks of life? What helps them make informed decisions, inspire creativity, and forge stronger connections?

The answer is surprisingly simple: They know how to ask the right questions at the right time.

Questions help us break down barriers, pinpoint solutions, and explore new ways of doing things. But few of us know how to put questions to work in a truly effective way. Author Frank Sesno aims to change that with Ask More, a guide to unlocking the power of inquiry that’s both intriguing and instructive.

Sesno, an Emmy Award-winning journalist, has spent decades questioning global leaders and everyday people alike. He draws on his formidable interviewing skills and experience to break down the art of inquiry into eleven useful categories of questions, each designed for a specific purpose.

Ask More is packed with illuminating interviews and stories from dozens of leaders who have used these questioning techniques to innovate and excel. By the end of the book, you’ll discover what to ask and when, what you should listen for, and how each different type of question will move you toward your goals.

Among the insights you’ll find in Ask More … 

  • Colin Powell shows how strategic questions can define a mission and forecast success – or failure.
  • Turnaround expert Steve Miller employs diagnostic questions to get to the heart of a company’s problems.
  • NPR’s Terry Gross digs deeper with empathy questions.
  • Journalists Anderson Cooper and Jorge Ramos explain how they use confrontational questions to hold people accountable.
  • Creative questions drove a couple of techie dreamers to imagine Uber, and a young mayor to challenge history.
  • Karen Osborne asks mission questions to help nonprofits raise awareness – and money.
  • Dr. Anthony Fauci posed scientific questions to help crack the HIV/AIDS mystery.

In an age of instant answers, fly-by facts, and relentless clickbait, Sesno makes a powerful case for the value of observing carefully, listening intently, and asking more. He reveals a roadmap to inquiry that will change the way you question – and that might even change your life.”

The coming years in US politics

It’s been almost a week since the US elections.  Although there were numerous offices, from local to federal, represented on our ballots, the office that dominated our consciousness over the last two years was that of US president.  I don’t presume to know how every reader of this blog viewed the results from last Tuesday, but I’m confident that the majority of the readers here were surprised by the results and shocked by the sudden awareness of what the next four years might be like under a Trump administration.  If a Progressive agenda can be described as efforts toward support for peace, justice, and the environment, then Candidate Trump’s campaign can unarguably be described as anti-Progressive.

How well President Trump’s agenda aligns with or achieves what he stated repeatedly during his campaign remains to be seen.  In the last few days, much has been written by better pundits than me about how much of his campaign was merely empty rhetoric, how much Congress will follow his rather than their own agenda, and how much he is really interested in doing the hard work necessary as president.  I have my own predictions, but if last week’s results tell us anything, it’s that predictions don’t really mean a thing.

But what I do know for sure, based on a lifetime of experience that includes the presidencies of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush, is that no one should take last week’s results as evidence that our work is done.  Giving up because “this is not my America” should not be viewed as an option.  If anything, the results call upon us to redouble our efforts, roll up our sleeves, and dig into our work even harder.  Work — and progress — on behalf of peace, justice, and the environment did not halt under previous administrations precisely because people did not stop working toward what they believed in.  They did not stop speaking their truths … and especially speaking those truths to power.  And they did not stop trying to improve their abilities to be effective agents of change.

I say this to all of the MSoE alumni who went through the program thinking that the issues aren’t real and that their engagement as leaders would not really be needed: Take a close look at the US and the world today, and truly understand how much you are, in fact, needed.  Your work is not done simply because you completed the MSoE curriculum.  Your work is just beginning.

And I say this to all of you who are wondering if the Middlebury School of the Environment is really necessary: Take a close look at the US and the world today and ask the question of whether we need more people willing to work effectively and creatively toward a more positive future.  Your answer must certainly be “yes.”

Last week’s results sadden me, but no more so than a thousand other events that have unfolded over the last several years that call into question humanity’s directions in the immediate future.  More than anything, I am reminded of why the Middlebury School of the Environment is so important, and I recommit to redoubling my efforts, rolling up my sleeves, and digging into the work.

Join me.

Peter Forbes joins us this summer

I’m pleased to say that Peter Forbes will join the Middlebury School of the Environment this summer as guest practitioner.

Peter ForbesPeter describes himself this way: “I am a life-long student and advocate for the relationship between people and place. I’ve worked with many different people in very different geography from remote Nepal to the Rocky Mountains to central Harlen, New York. My life as emergency medical technician, photographer, author, father, farmer, and facilitator combine unusual aspect of the practical and visionary to produce work that has been helpful to a variety of sectors: conservation, leadership development, sustainability, philanthropy, and social ventures.

The list of his specific projects and writings is long and diverse:

  • Negotiating Generational Change
  • A Man Apart (2015)
  • Making Allies: Western Maine
  • Making Allies between Conservationists and Rural Native Communities
  • Coming to Land in a Troubled World (2004)
  • Integrating Conservation and Human Wellbeing
  • The Great Remembering: Further thoughts on land, soul and society (2001)
  • Connecting Native and Contemporary Land Trust Leaders
  • Strengthening Conservation by Connecting with Community
  • Making a National Case for Community Conservation

Through his work with the Center for Whole Communities, the Trust for Public Land, and currently Knoll Farm (with his wife, Helen Whybrow), Peter will bring to his conversation with the MSoE students a wealth of experience in integrating the voices of the people and the needs of the land. And we greatly look forward to his time with us!

Managing Environmental Conflict

Jeffrey-Langholz-2Having passion is important.  Having a great idea is a good thing.  But sooner or later, in one setting or another, everyone encounters a conflict in moving an idea forward or getting a message across.  It’s normal, and therefore a successful leader doesn’t focus just on avoiding conflict but also on managing it when it occurs.

This summer, we’re pleased to welcome to the MSoE Dr. Jeffrey Langholz from the Middlebury Institute for International Studies, in Monterey, California.  Jeff is recognized as an expert in international environmental leadership, with extensive experience in working with environmental groups in Africa and Asia.  He will join us to teach a workshop called … appropriately enough … Managing Environmental Conflict: a guerilla guide.

Dr. Langholz’s research focuses sustainable use of natural resources worldwide. How can we use fisheries, forests, wildlife, water, and other natural resources in ways that guarantee their long term survival while also being good for people and profits? He is a recognized authority on the growing role that private lands play in accomplishing the triple goals of biodiversity conservation, economic development, and social justice. A past member of the World Commission on Protected Areas (IUCN), much of Jeff’s work takes place in and around parks of varying kinds. He was a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at South Africa’s Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University for the 2005-2006 academic year, researching best practices for combining conservation and development on private lands in southern Africa.

We know that the student’s will be as excited to work with Jeff this summer as the faculty will be to have him join us!

 

Environmental practitioners at the School of the Environment

As I’ve written about before, one of the most important elements of our leadership training program is the opportunity for the MSoE students to interact with environmental leaders from across a wide spectrum of pathways and experiences in life.  These leaders are real practitioners — people who are actually working on real projects and in real settings to bring about a positive change in the world.  Rather than simply have these practitioners tell their life stories, we ask them to share with the students some of the lessons they have learned about how to be effective — things that they are glad they did and things they wish that they hadn’t.  From hearing the stories of what others had to learn through trial-and-error, the MSoE students gain a leg up on developing a professional skill set earlier in their efforts to make their own mark on the world.

The roster of practitioners who will be joining us this summer is shaping up and looks to be our most exciting yet.

  • Bill McKibben, noted author, climate activist, and founder of 350.org
  • Mary Powell, CEO of Green Mountain Power, Vermont’s largest energy utility and a leader in the implementation of renewable energy systems
  • Peter Forbes, founder of the Center for Whole Communities and co-owner of Knoll Farm, an organic farm dedicated to promoting resiliency, transparency, and the health of the land.
  • Kim Stone, city councilwoman for Highland Park, Illinois, and environmental advocate for alternative transportation.
  • Alden Woodrow, financial manager for the Makani Project (part of GoogleX), a company developing alternative strategies for harvesting wind power.
  • Adrian Benepe, Senior Vice President and Director of City Park Development for the Trust for Public Land, as well as former New York City Park Commissioner.

And we’re working to finalize arrangements with a number of others, hopefully representing professional fields such as state government, the military, and community development.

We’re excited about our guest for the summer, and we know that the students who join us will benefit in untold ways from the conversations that will unfold.

Persuasive public speaking

Traditionally, colleges and universities have placed a lot of emphasis in their curricula on persuasive writing.  This is all to the good.  It seems to me, however, that the vast majority of communication asked of us — especially if we are trying to advance an idea — is verbal.  Yet verbal communication, or public speaking, is one of the skills that is given the least amount of attention in higher education.  And when we do provide exposure to it as a skill, it is most likely to be oriented toward formal presentation of research results in the format most appropriate for a professional conference.

It’s not that the ability to speak effectively at a professional conference is unimportant.  It’s just that it represents only a small part of the persuasive speaking asked of us in being agents of positive change in the world.

We need to be able to make our points clearly and succinctly in public forums.

We need to be able to convince someone in 30 seconds or less to give us a hearing in a full proposal.

We need to answer questions convincingly.

We need to engage audiences, large and small, with compelling stories that capture their imaginations.

In other words, public speaking comes in all forms, for a host of reasons, and directed to a diverse range of listeners.

And to be effective, it all needs to be persuasive.

At the Middlebury School of the Environment, we focus a great deal on honing our skills in persuasive public speaking.  Much of it comes within the formal classwork, but it all builds off of our workshops on public speaking.  Lead by Mike Kiernan, these workshops are fun and engaging, but more importantly, they are effective in helping students become confident in their abilities to use their voices to make a difference.

Colchester, Vermont (January 29, 2013) - MiddCORE Winter Term (j-term) class at VPR with Jane Lindholm. (Photo © 2013 Brett Simison)

Mike is a physician, actor, public speaker – and one today’s most energetic and engaging voices for creative leadership and communication.  He will once again be joining the Middlebury School of the Environment as a Fellow to engage with the students on persuasive communication skills.  He has been an instructor in Middlebury College’s leadership and innovation training program, MiddCORE, since 2008 in all areas related to leadership and communication: crisis management, networking, story-making, and both strategic presentation design and delivery. He has also worked as a communications consultant with political candidates, physicians, business executives, and teams on leadership retreats. Mike is an actor and member of the local professional theater company, the Middlebury Actors Workshop. He is also a physician and recently was President of the Medical Staff at Porter Hospital. Mike serves on the Technical Advisory Group for the Green Mountain Care Board and the Executive Counsel of Vermont Medical Society. He is also an advisor to the State of Vermont Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy Committee.

He has consistently been one of the School’s most popular presenters, and we are excited to have him join us again this year!

Fundraising as a leadership skill

In my role as a professor of biology at Middlebury College, one of the classes I teach each spring semester is Conservation Biology. I teach the course not only through the lens of how the principles of ecology and genetics can be applied to conserving life on Earth, but also through the lens of how conservation is practiced out in the real world.  Many of my students want to become conservation practitioners, working for government agencies or environmental NGOs, and as practitioners they need to be fluent not only in the knowledge base that informs our thinking about what we should do but also in the skill set in how to do it.

Over the years, as I explored what that ideal skill set ought to look like, I continually asked the conservation leaders I worked with — agency heads, executive directors, entrepreneurs, activists — what skills they found most critical to being successful in there jobs.

When I began this informal survey, I was expecting them to tell me about special technical skills like GIS, remote sensing, plant identification, animal tagging, DNA barcoding, and the like.  The kind of skills that we try to incorporate into our traditional academic majors.  What I found was the exact opposite.

Without exception, the skills that were named were these:

  1. Raising money.
  2. Managing money.
  3. Managing people.

In retrospect, it makes perfect sense.  Success emerges from the effective operation of a system, whether that system is an organization, volunteer initiative, business plan, or political campaign.  And such systems require money and people.

This understanding informs much of how the Middlebury School of the Environment approaches the issue of environmental leadership, and in particular, why it includes “fundraising” as one of its eight important leadership skills.  Some people are naturally gifted (or naturally un-self-conscious) at asking others for money to support their good idea.  However, for a variety of reasons, many of us have an aversion to asking for financial support: embarrassment, shyness, a sense that money itself is a “bad” thing.  The list goes on.

The good news is that this aversion is complete unnecessary.  Fundraising need not be viewed as something that must be done against our wills, and thus as a negative.  Rather, it can be viewed as a positive, a way to help others with financial resources to support achieving their own goals and desires.

Sue KavanaghThis is the foundation for the Fundraising workshop offered in the MSoE.  Taught by Sue Kavanagh, we guide students through the steps for a positivist view of fundraising.  With over 25 years of fundraising experience, Sue currently serves as director of principal gifts at Middlebury College, where she is responsible for providing direction and support for the cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of Middlebury’s highest-level potential donors.  With most of her career in higher education, Sue’s work has focused primarily on individual fundraising.  Her practice spans two comprehensive capital campaigns at Middlebury and before that at Paul Smith’s College in the heart of the Adirondacks when that institution was developing its first environmental programs. Sue started working in political advocacy and fundraising in New York State’s capital following completion of her BA in communication at the State University of New York at Geneseo.

With Sue’s guidance, students in the MSoE will comes away with greater confidence that they can successfully attract financial support to launch their ideas that will make the world a better place!

What does “Teaming” mean?

In a blog post last fall, I identified “teaming” as one of the eight essential leadership skills that everyone who wants to make positive change in the world needs to have.  In fact, I identified it as the first of the eight.  This likely sends shivers down the spine of every student who has ever been forced to do a group project in a class.

Sometimes they are positive experiences, but more often than not they are painful, involving a complex dance of seemingly having to force others to do things the “right” way, to get them to complete their parts of the project on time, and to drag them along with you to get to completion.  Few students actively seek opportunities for group work, preferring to work alone in their own way and in their own time.

But there’s a saying that highlights why working in groups is effective: If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.

“Far” doesn’t just mean distance.  It also refers to the magnitude and importance of the challenge.  The greater the stakes, the greater the scope, and the greater the potential impact, the greater the need to do it in a group.  In a team.

And thus, the greater the need to be able to work effectively in a team.  Not just in a grin-and-bear-it kind of way, but in a way that allows you to harness the imagination, creativity, and skills of everyone involved and promote the kind of interactions that elevate everyone’s contributions.

Teaming, the ability to work effectively in a team, is so critical that emphasize and practice the skills associated with it throughout the School of the Environment, both in our formal classes and through workshops taught by experts and practitioners.  Effective environmental leadership demands it.

Environmental Leadership in Practice

This week’s posting in The Stream comes from guest blogger Hernan Gallo-Cornejo from Pitzer College (’17) and the Middlebury School of the Environment (’15).  Hernan recently attended the North American Association of Environmental Education conference in San Diego.  There he presented a paper on the work he carried out with Dr. Curt Gervich in the MSoE class “Wicked Environmental Problems,” putting his skills as a persuasive speaker to the test.  Here’s Hernan’s description of his experiences there:

“On October 15th and 16th, I attended the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) conference to represent the School of the Environment! My professor from the School of the Environment, Curt, and I lead a workshop on systems thinking and environmental educational games to a group of over 30 people. In this workshop, I shared my experience with creating an educational game on sanitation in India throughout the course of four weeks in my Wicked Problems in Environmental Policy class this past summer. Creating a game for the first time was frightening at first, but I was able to collaborate with my classmates to create an entire game that the School of the Environment played during our last week of the program. I really enjoyed having a creative final assignment for the course because it pushed me to think in a unique way about the topic.

As I presented on my experience at the NAAEE conference, several people asked detailed questions about the game I created and how I went about doing it. Since most of the people in the room had never created a game before, they really wanted to know how in depth our game-making process was so that they can effectively create their own environmental educational games to share with others. Although I was one of the youngest attendees of the conference, I was able to apply the leadership skills I acquired at the School of the Environment to confidently present to and interact with my audience. I hope to continue using the skills and knowledge I received at the School of the Environment and share them with others to create change in the environmental movement.”

Hernan Gallo

Middlebury School of the Environment ‘15

Pitzer College ‘17