As sustainability professionals, you’re often considered “change agents” for the institution – a person who acts as a catalyst for change and helps the organization transform how it operates by inspiring and influencing others. Many of the initiatives sustainability professionals work on are change projects (e.g., updating the climate action plan; developing a sustainable purchasing policy; redesigning your sustainability governance structure; launching a new initiative). Successfully implementing such projects can be a challenge and change efforts often fail.

In this session, we will use Liberating Structures while collectively deciphering why change is so difficult. Liberating structures are easy-to-learn and easy-to-facilitate techniques that build real engagement and involvement in groups of any size. Using liberating structures in your change projects (and otherwise) might be one way of counteracting some of the challenges of change. 

It would be helpful if you could bring a change challenge to the session. Some examples include: perceived lack of skill (“I was tasked with updating the climate action plan and don’t know where to start”) lack of bandwidth/staff (“I’m an office of one and there’s too much on my plate – I don’t have time to redesign the sustainability governance structure”); lack of buy-in/funding (“institution’s leadership does not believe sustainability is important and/or I have no funding to launch this new sustainability initiative”), etc.

By the end of the session you will have practiced a few different techniques and might have received some advice and solutions to your particular challenge. 

Key Details

Registration Fees*

AASHE workshops are usually priced as in the table below. We understand that costs can present a barrier to attendance and participation and we generally offer a scholarship program for all of AASHE’s virtual education programs. However, for this workshop, we are offering a sliding scale payment model. All amounts give equal access to the workshop. To check a visual description of this model, visit Massachusetts Peace Action – Sliding Scale Guidance Page.

• If your bottle is full, consider paying the usual price listed below.
• If your bottle is half full, consider paying half the price.
• If your bottle is empty or almost empty, consider paying what you are able to.

* To check if your organization is a current AASHE member, please search the AASHE Membership Directory.

Registration Policies:

• Registration deadline is Thursday, July 11, 12:00 p.m. ET
• Payment is accepted in the form of Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover cards.
  If you need to pay by check or ACH, please contact us at least 5 weeks prior to the event start date. Registration using these forms of payment must be received 4 weeks prior to the event start date and full payment must be received by AASHE within 2 weeks of event start date.
• Cancellation Policy: A 20% processing fee applies to any cancellation prior to January 29, 2024. No refunds will be given after July 1, 2024.
• No substitutions are allowed.
• Registered participants will receive access to the recording after the live event.
• Review all Terms & Conditions.

Facilitator

Daita Serghi, PhD; Senior Education Manager, AASHE

Drawing from a scientific background and over 20 years of experience in higher education and sustainability as an educator, researcher, and staff member, Daita has a profound interest in education programs that foster improved human connections, communication, and learning on a broad scale. In her current role as a Senior Education Manager, she is responsible for developing, innovating and advancing AASHE’s education vision and strategy, overseeing professional learning initiatives encompassing virtual and in-person workshops, webinars, and other educational programs. Prior to joining AASHE, Daita was the first Interim Sustainability Coordinator for the University of Hawai‘i System, and also taught courses and integrated sustainability in the curriculum at the University of Hawai‘i. Daita is a LEED Green Associate, an ISSP Sustainability Excellence Professional (SEP), and holds a BS degree in Molecular Biology and Biosciences from the University of Bucharest, Romania and MA, MPhil and PhD degrees in Biological Sciences from Columbia University in the City of New York.