“Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know” – D.J. Boorstin
In the week running up to the climate change negotiations in Paris last December, I was privileged to take part in the Youth in Landscapes Programme: a four-day workshop together with 49 other youth in landscape professionals. We were divided into 5 teams and each team was dedicated to come up with a solution for a specific landscape challenge. On top of that, we had to craft a compelling pitch to present our solution and convince a high level panel jury a.k.a. The Dragons Den at the Global Landscapes Forum. The heat was on from the start. Only the thought of these dragons breathing down our necks was enough to put all of us on the tip of our seats.
Team effort
With a clear focus on delivering a creative and compelling solution for our Education Challenge, we dove in head first with ten brains at full steam discussing what a Landscape Academy should look like. Which skills and methods are instrumental when teaching about the landscape approach? And when does someone actually qualify as a fully-fledged landscape professional? We all raised a whole bunch of questions, answers, ideas and perspectives. And then it struck me: we had another challenge to deal with to be able to deliver on our actual assignment. We had to work as a team.
Connect and communicate
The Youth in Landscapes programme was a humbling experience for me. It showed me once again that what you think you already know, you don’t know. I didn’t learn what I expected to learn in advance, but I learnt a lot more than I expected. Instead of digging into detailed knowledge of land-use modelling and analyzing the landscape approach, the focus of our workshops was on personal skills such as active listening, critical thinking and pitching ideas. In between there was a lot of attention to team building and fun energizers, to keep energy levels up. Actually we were continually busy with creating a productive environment for team work in mind and spirit. Such an environment, in which people are truly connected and communicating with each other, was critical to successfully work together and meet our challenges. And on top of that it was a lot of fun!
Place people first
This is my take-away: to be able to work as a team is not a given. It is a process and it takes time and effort. But is the only way to go, especially considering real-life landscape challenges which involve individuals, multiple groups and institutions. The interesting thing is that this necessary mindset for partnership and building personal skills which contribute to a conducive setting for team effort is often neglected and bypassed by mere focus on technical skills and project planning. “While we are likely to realize more success in any project if we place the people at the centre of the work”, according to my team member José Carlos Martínez, Director at Reforestamos México.
Separate skillset, shared mindset
Throughout the week our Education Team worked together on the concept of a Landscape Academy and we came up with the innovative idea to develop a self-assessment tool: LandSelf. This tool should help prospective students find out which additional courses they need to build capacity as landscape professionals. Because before teaching and training, we need to know which knowledge gaps to address for each individual student. LandSelf should function as the portal to the Landscape Academy and after completion generate a tailor made curriculum. The self-assessment tool can also help highlight the need for specific soft skills which are key for landscape professionals. We stress that professionals have separate skillsets but need a shared mindset to enable experts from various disciplines and backgrounds bring their knowledge and skills together in a landscape approach.
Learning all the way
The Youth in Landscapes Programme taught me that learning never ends and every partnership or team effort will teach you new things. Everyone has something to learn and everyone has something to teach in order to #ThinkLandscapes together.
Lastly, a big thank you to the organizers, moderators and all supporting contributors as well as to my fellow youth participants who all together made the Youth in Landscapes Programme the success it was!
