Books
I never thought I would write a book. When a fortune teller in Sao Paulo, Brazil looked at my palm and said that “my second book would be very popular” I looked at her in disbelief. I don’t know if it was her tacit encouragement or what, but much has changed since that day. Every book I wrote was the result of an urge: “I cannot keep this to myself, I need to write it down to share it with others!”. And each one is the sum of many wonderful reads and inspiring authors. Who are the authors, the books that shaped your thinking, who loaned you words you were longing for? Who shaped who you are today?
As we increase our awareness of the planetary challenges and how they intersect with the discipline or profession we choose to focus on, we have put our attention on the external forces and impacts. What remains untouched however is the set of beliefs, values, assumptions, mental processes, and paradigms that we hold and share: our mindset. But
How do we change a mindset? This book is the first to introduce the 12 Principles for a
Sustainability Mindset, presenting educators with a framework that makes it easy to include them into teaching plans and lessons of any discipline. Written in a very clear and practical way, the book provides examples, checklists, tips, and tools for professionals and educators. It transforms the development of a much-needed mindset for sustainability
Into an accessible, fun and intuitive task. The book is written with educators from a variety of disciplines in mind, including but not limited to management educators, coaches, and trainers.
Stop Teaching?!? What instead? Yes, even before Covid 19 we realized that the traditional pedagogical approaches were no longer suited for the audience of students. What if we were able to engage and excite our students, unleash their passion and imagination, help them develop skills and knowledge, but also the self-confidence to become agents of change? As Greta Thunberg and the global movement of students is showing us, there is a generation ready to take on new roles. Educators can step up to new roles too, becoming learning facilitators, with a holistic approach, that engages head, heart and hands. Stop Teaching: Principles and Practices for Responsible Management Education is a book for educators that challenges the (outdated) approach to teaching and invites the reader to try out simple techniques following the 10 Action Reflection Learning principles. This book is part of the UN PRME Collection.
In 2008 during my doctoral research, I met with 16 business leaders to find out what had motivated them to champion initiatives with a positive impact on the environment and the community. What I discovered were a number of common aspects – in how they thought, in how they saw themselves and their purpose. I called these core aspects the “Sustainability Mindset” and realized that we could intentionally develop it for a new generation of leaders shaping a better world. ‘Big Bang Being – Developing the Sustainability Mindset’ . Read the stories of those pioneers and how the concept of the Sustainability Mindset started, now a movement of educators in over 47 countries.
Seeking for ways to multiply change accelerators, in 2009 together with my friend Mariam Tamborenea, we started the charitable organization Minervas, Women Changing the World, to promote and support self-managing circles of women that share the desire to expand consciousness and shape a better world. We then created a guide to set up and facilitate Circles of Dialogue Minervas Circles of Dialogue. Available in Spanish: Ruedas de Diálogo.
