INSIGHT: What's Your Course?

Explaining To Learn
Everyone should teach. The younger the students, the better. Having to explain what you know, or think you do, to inquisitive youth keeps you honest. This week, I started leading a seminar on innovation and design (with a strong sustainability subtext, of course) to high schoolers from around the country. Formulating a lecture or discussion on a subject I practice just about every day forces me to question what exactly I do, how and why. Understanding your subject is just the first step. Figuring out how to effectively convey it to a diverse group is a completely different challenge. Some of Foresight's recent projects have really highlighted for me the extent to which, in sustainability circles, we're trying to initiate a shift while rarely questioning our approach. We use what we know. Which isn't necessarily bad, it's just that I'm finding that many issues require new strategies, or a coordinated combination of diverse efforts. Having to stop, reflect, organize and teach, inserts a self-reflective function that not only builds important future capacity, but helps us be smarter today.