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Today we had the joy of spending the day at the Western Canada Permaculture Convergence - what an amazing ENERGY, beautiful setting, and great people! Puzzle Permaculture held a short session on Tips and Tricks to Becoming a Purveyor of Permaculture - we had a great time and it was wonderful to gather other individuals input and experiences. We have included a few highlights below and some links where you can gather more information below. Thank you to those whom attended - if you're interested in hosting this workshop (or a longer version) at your event please contact us. Basics We touched VERY quickly on two important key items: 1) Emotions and Learning 2) Maslow's Hierachy of Needs 1) Why emotions? Emotions forge strong memories and drive behaviour (we like to gain pleasure and avoid pain) - we encourage you to think of the emotional responses you generate - love, happiness, and joy help facilitate learning! For an interesting viewpoint on killing the loss messaging (which generates emotions of sadness and pain) in regards to saving biodiversity on our planet check out this link here - we think this is equally relevant when sharing the permaculture - we want more love for permaculture! 2) Maslow's what? For more information check the great link here - it is important to consider where your audience is in terms of their Hierarchy of Needs and what they are experiencing to facilitate learning. Starting Your Journey One of our key points when being a purveyor of permaculture was to take off from a common point of a departure - what we can call this is the sweet spot! This is where you start on common ground in an area that is relevant to you, permaculture, and most importantly your audience. From here you can take off and expand to other concepts, ideas, and information. We love to use 'hooks' to start this journey - these can be anything that your audience finds interesting (and ideally is relevant to your message!). Think food, pictures, stories, props, songs... the potential is endless! One great question raised was: What to do if your conversation is going downhill and crashing? You could end that journey and take off from a new point of departure! If emotions such as fear, frustration, and anger are being felt you will want to ensure the emotions on your second journey change to pleasure - perhaps a comedic break is needed, a story, or asking the person about themself will help you recover the conversation. On Your Journey When trying to find ways to share permaculture be aware of different ways people learn, the learning process, and multiple intelligences of individuals. (Click on the words for more information). On your journey make sure you have fun and follow the general guide below: 1) Feel (build that emotional connection) 2) Think (stimulate the mind) 3) Do (provide opportunities for action) 4) Review (summarize key components) Always remember: change what your doing, change how your doing it, change anything you can... Why the importance of change? Simply speaking, it can be hard to focus on one thing for a period of time and not everyone learns the same way. So change anything - stop talking and sing a song, share a photo, move to another location, show a model, have a discussion, play a game, or stand up and take a stretch! This simple article provides 8 Tips to Keep Your Audience Engaged - we highly recommend it. Our Last Tip... Be careful interpreting your audience's behaviours when building the love for permaculture; especially when in group settings. Perhaps the person texting on their phone has been paying attention and is writing about you; or the person whom sits alone during breaks is taking time to process the information by them self and is not disengaged from the conversation. As a purvey of permaculture we encourage you to think about the quote below during your journey of inspiring hope and awe for a sustainable future - and always remember to have FUN! ‘Awaken people's curiosity.
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