Stakeholder Collaboration: Organizing for Environmental Justice and Equitable Solutions

About

In this course you'll learn about the power of leveraging transdisciplinary (TD) approaches to plan, implement, and govern the co-design of solutions to complex environmental problems impacting environmental justice and public health. First, starting with the TD framework, we can frame and initiate conversations across multiple, geographically dispersed groups and begin to organize a co-designed vision for sustainable outcomes that can be updated and maintained with adaptive governance.

Organizing the group of key stakeholders will require a shared vision. National Park Groups, existing environmental justice organizations, land preservation groups, and grassroots environmental initiatives all share a desire of environmental justice. Whether your topic is environmental protection, climate change, air pollution, landfills, natural resources, pesticides, toxic waste, or the general environmental health of your local communities. That's why storytelling will be reintroduced from course one in this series to ensure you as a project manager can create compelling visions that are easy to remember, understand, and convey important information about complex topics for positive project outcomes. Storytelling can illustrate the need for fair treatment, regulatory solutions, and addressing the impacts of inequity on communities of color and low-income communities. Then it'll be time to capture and roadmap the vision, the way we move our current state to the co-designed outcomes creating value at each step along the way. Then establish a decentralized, agile decision-making process to enable its realization, as well as a means of managing input and discoveries across dispersed groups to include areas susceptible to environmental hazards and areas impacted by environmental injustices, with inclusion of low-income, underserved, people of color and working toward environmental quality and sustainability.

Next, using outreach to address environmental justice, we'll teach management of big events - a series of critical workshops that can bring all interested parties, decision makers, and stakeholders together to create the shared outcome. Through effective tools like collaborative learning we can engage stakeholders with the information they need to help build the shared vision for fair land use and environmental justice. However, collaborating with diverse stakeholders and influencing public engagement is often challenging, especially when addressing as overburdened groups that can have conflicting interests or perspectives on social justice and civil rights for everyone to have a healthy environment. Therefore, we also cover managing conflicts and how to find ways to resolve them in order to move forward with the project.

With solid plans and agreement, there will still be risks to identify, escalate, and manage across the complex stakeholder groups. The environmental justice movement begins with meaningful involvement, a focus on the environmental issues, clear communication, engaging all communities impacted - reducing inequity - and co-designing a vision for sustainable outcomes and environmental health. This course will wrap with a discussion on how to incorporate risk identification and action planning across a complex group to help successful navigate through execution and achieve lasting sustainable change.

What you will learn

• Evaluate various types of problems and identify appropriate solution approaches.
• Synthesize methods of planning, implementing, and evaluating transdisciplinary approaches
• Identify the four different frameworks for adaptive governance.
• Differentiate the differences between “Serving” vs “Facilitating”, and analyze how Agile is designed for Continuous Improvement with its PDCA cycle.
• Identify how to “Frame Purpose” and “Set a Direction” for your Project and Team.
• Recognize ways to avoid “Information Hoarding” and “Obscuring Progress” through the use of weekly stand-ups and assigning due dates within Sprints.
• Question how to design an environment that encourages “play”, which ultimately leads to increased optimism, happiness, productivity, and willingness to take on challenges!
• Classify the different levels of motivation and the tools that will help improve mastery amongst your team members.
• Identify the 7 important questions when analyzing stakeholders.
• Complete an ABT Framework in your notes for reference.
• Define the CCARI Framework as it relates to the narrative continuum.
• Recognize the importance of SEAVA and how to implement it within your own team.
• Discuss the different conflict modes within the Thomas Killmann model and distinguish what situations they are best used for.
• Classify the different techniques to use when negotiating, such as tactical empathy, mirroring, and leveraging “No”.
• Implement the different Thomas Kilmann's Conflict Modes while negotiating.

Skills you learn

• Problem Solving
• Environmental Justice
• Environmental Science

Syllabus

MODULE 1: COLLABORATING TO SOLVE SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS WITH A TRANSDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

1. Why Stakeholder Engagement?

2. Classifying Problems

3. Socio-Environmental Systems

4. Transdisciplinary Approaches

5. Planning and Implementing

6. Adaptive Governance

Adaptive governance

MODULE 2: MANAGING AND LEADING A TEAM TOWARDS A SHARED VISION

1. Agile Leader's Process

2. Framing Purpose

3. Adapting to Agile

4. Power of Play

5. Mastery, Autonomy, Purpose

MODULE 3: TOOLS FOR ENGAGEMENT

1. Enabling Conditions

2. Stakeholder Analysis

3. Collaborative Learning

4. Workshop Planning

5. Facilitation and Engagement

6. Casual Loop Diagrams

7. Social Network Analysis

8. Finding Stories that Resonate

MODULE 4: MANAGING CONFLICT

1. Emotional Intelligence

2. Cultural Intelligence

3. Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM)

4. CMM Tools

5. Dynamic Problem Solving

6. Negotiation Field Guides

7. Advanced Negotiation Techniques

MODULE 5: MOVING TO ACTION WITH RISK MANAGEMENT EVALUATION AND MAINTAINING RELATIONSHIPS

1. Basics of Risk Management

2. Telling Risk Management Stories

3. Evaluating Transdisciplinary Research

4. Theory of Change

5. Adaptive Governance

6. Examples of Great Champions

Auto Summary

Discover how to harness the power of transdisciplinary approaches to tackle complex environmental challenges and promote justice through the "Stakeholder Collaboration: Organizing for Environmental Justice and Equitable Solutions" course. This engaging offering from edX focuses on personal development and equips learners with the skills to plan, implement, and govern co-designed solutions for environmental issues impacting public health and justice. Led by expert instructors, this 24-hour course delves into creating a shared vision among diverse stakeholders, including national park groups, environmental justice organizations, and grassroots initiatives. You'll learn the art of storytelling to convey complex topics and foster fair treatment and regulatory solutions. The course covers organizing critical workshops, managing conflicts, and engaging overburdened communities to build a collaborative vision for equitable environmental outcomes. It also emphasizes risk management and adaptive governance to navigate the intricacies of stakeholder collaboration effectively. Ideal for those seeking professional growth, the course offers an awareness-level exploration of environmental justice, making it perfect for project managers, community organizers, and anyone passionate about sustainable change. With subscription options available, this course is your gateway to making a meaningful impact on environmental health and equity.