We’re now over halfway through the year (where did that go?!). We’ve taken in a bewildering array of information, which at times I’ve struggled to process and reflect on.  But as the days get longer and I’m forcing myself to slow down a bit, I feel much more confident that I am developing a coherent picture of what leadership for sustainable development means to me.

Much has changed since December, but one thing has definitely remained – the pressure on our time. If I’m honest it has hit us all quite hard over the past month, with the previous week of seminars and presentations at Forum for the Future probably the toughest week of the course so far.

The emotional demands of starting a new job six times in one year does take its toll. Combine that with work in the evenings and at weekends to catch up on reading, write reports and build a business case for a sustainable construction training provider (our group project), and it can easily take over your life.

And that’s not the best way to learn. As the course progresses I’m focusing my interests on the field of sustainable education, and one of its central tenets is to give students space and time to learn in a variety of ways.  The creativity and inspiration you get whilst walking on the South Downs, singing in the shower or racing taxis on a bicycle down Piccadilly is just as important as the times when you are ‘being taught’ in the narrow sense.

Finding ways to protect that mental space for creativity and inspiration by controlling my workload has been the biggest challenge for me since Christmas, but is a crucial and enjoyable learning experience. My course mentor has been invaluable help – if you join the course, get yourself a good mentor. Trust me – you’ll need them!

Just after my last diary entry in December I met Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project. We had a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion. He said two things that stuck with me particularly:

• When you are advocating sustainable development always do so as if it is you personally that has to act, not someone else. ‘We can/should/must do this’, not ‘they can/should/must do this’.
• People are convinced not by rational argument or by guilt, but by stories that we can identify with. If we are going to avert our crisis of unsustainability we need to develop a new sort of story about how the world works that makes sense to us as people.

These two thoughts are helping to shape my approach to the second half of this course, and to my personal leadership style. But I could just as easily have forgotten all about them, moved onto the next discussion and failed to maximise my learning.

This is where the course is somewhat unusual in its self-directed learning – it’s up to us as students to prioritise our time as we see fit. This does mean that there are times when several of us have felt swamped and under pressure.  But I think it is also helping us to develop a very important skill – recognising the importance of slowing down and having a bit of fun once in a while. It’s a skill that will stand us in good stead once we are leading change for real.

Three months ago the idea of taking leadership for sustainable development was a little terrifying – I mentioned in my last entry how daunting it was to be giving advice to senior local government officials. Now? Well, it’s still a little bit terrifying, but I think that as a group we are developing a much clearer picture of where our individual strengths lie, and what it is that we can offer in terms of leadership. And, just as importantly, I feel as if I have a good idea of what I need to take from the remainder of the course so that, come July, I’m ready to join my course colleagues and previous alumni in this leadership role. And that’s an exciting prospect.