Your World View and Our Planet

I’m glad I wrote my previous post which made me feel like a total capitalist once I had posted it. I’m not really sure what I am, but it serves as a good example of how I, and we, can all change for the better. Furthermore, it can serve as an example of what a few days of landscape ecology related (and the ethics and philosophy that surround it) education can do to one’s world view.

Much of what we think and do is at some point affected by our overall world view. That is, your philosophy, ethic, and work ethic. It can be changed. Before that, we have to accept that there are ways in which we can improve the way we see our surrounding landscapes. Think past the ’stage of life’ you’re in; whether you are family or career oriented, or take the bus enough times a week so that people can shut up already. Ignoring the fact that we are not thinking enough in terms of our surrounding ecosystems is egocentric and anthropocentric (that humans are the central concern).

Ecocentric is where we should be aiming more often, considering that we are much more intertwined in our respective locations than we think we are.

Looking at my position as a resource consultant, what I do is inherently anthropocentric, so far. Our general and most used definition of sustainability is essentially human oriented; it’s about developing so that we have something to invest in for the future. Ecocentrism and humanism can be mixed (I’m happy with making a living managing land and resource use), but ecological integrity is sidelined at our own peril. How we view our freedom to emit and consume is bound to change whether you like it or not. That is what it boils down to. Your grandchildren and their children will know what went wrong when they’re living with 95 million Bangladeshi refugees – and trying to get them to take taste tests to determine if they prefer Pepsi or Coke.

Which leads me to a challenge to brilliant marketers out there: Are you sure you’re promoting the right business? I can only wish we had as many clever minds trying to sell crappy products as we had trying to sell the importance of our land and general ethic.

My first ecological restoration course went swimmingly and I highly recommend, even for general interest and knowledge, that you find the time to attend something similar. It’s never too late, and new ideas and information are appearing all the time. For the next few weeks I will be continuing discussions on landscape ecology as it refers to you and me.

Update your world view, have a look:

• Eco restoration primer, some context: http://www.ser.org/content/ecological_restoration_primer.asp

…ecological restoration aims to initiate or facilitate the resumption of those processes which will return the ecosystem to its intended trajectory.

When the desired trajectory is realized, the ecosystem under manipulation may no longer require external assistance to ensure its future health and integrity, in which case restoration can be considered complete.

• U. Wisconsin Arboretum: http://uwarboretum.org/foa/

• Info, resources: http://www.ecologicalrestoration.info/firstpage.html

• Ontario and Info: http://www.serontario.org/

Feel free to email me and/or comment if you’d like some help finding resources and events for your own location or region.

Delayed Satisfaction, Now!

Almost nothing happens immediately. For example, it takes a series of decisions before you’re brave enough to begin a battle with foot fungus; it takes years of professional upgrading before entrepreneurship is certain; and growing a career takes, if not actual planning, then a series of well planned decisions. Open your views to delayed satisfaction now, and you’re building a door for opportunity to knock on.

I think that Rebecca makes a good point in that the less you try to plan and instead live in opportunities now, the better your career will naturally lay itself out before you. But, as some commented on her post, without plans to at least give you a range of decisions to work with there will be no road to travel on.

Professional upgrading can be expensive and leave you planning less for the time being (because as you get through it you need to be stable), but it will definitely pay off when you put it into action as part of a plan. Eventually.

I cannot use my upcoming certification in proposals yet, which is a bummer because the work and funding is there – while I am in part-time school I have to know that it may take two years to pay off. Know this, and be comfortable with it.

Building a network as an action plan will have a delayed pay-off. I have a number of business cards and connections that I cannot, frustratingly, put into action yet. I tried too early once, and in being overly keen may have scared off a potential client. If you are the service provider, make that connection, but have the potential client contact you when the time is right. If you sell yourself well upon initially meeting them, the call will come in.

Think of this: when our forests are re-stocked, they are planned as harvestable in 40 to 80 years. Sometimes more. That means that the company with the lease on the land plans to exist for that amount of time, a rather lofty goal. Often the lease is auctioned off, but then the next company needs to believe in that future target. Knowing the condition of the market and industry right now the risk is massive, but the goal of that satisfaction is fair: the larger the time frame, the more disbursed the risk is.

When I finish my nearly two year investment in school I am taking that risk that more opportunities will have risen in a two-year period. Realize your niche, and bank on growth, it’s usually worth it.

Lastly, something that I am familiar with, putting your time in as an intern may suck the life out of you at times, but it is an investment that will give you a business-shoe foot in the door. Because of my 6 months (with my current company), I know lines and levels of the firm that many other employees never bothered to notice. Take pride in where you stand as an employee and use it to make your boss look good: it will pay off in time.

So, as review:

• Professional Upgrading;
• Networking;
• Interning; and
• Banking on growth of a niche

…are three specific factors that you need to have some patience in. Growing a career path takes time and patience. More often than not it is about growing that path, and not a career: you may not know where that path leads to.

Keep it Simple: Zero Messages Are No Good

I have a project presentation due this week in my Business Writing and Presentations class, and in choosing a topic, it had to come to forestry. It came down to my interest in biking vs. my job in resource management, so I went job. It’s better practice.

Starting it was tougher than I thought, mostly because the topic is so massive, and the range of discussions is so broad. What do I focus on? How do I catch their attention? What will keep their attention? Rather quickly I realized that there were many parallels to my blogging routine, I have to keep it simple (even for myself), and I have to keep messages clean. Mixed messages, or no clear reason can kill peoples’ attention span.

Here’s the thing: overall, folks know that our forests are (and have been for some time) in ‘trouble’. Our land suffers etc etc blah blah blah, right? Actual forestry, though relevant worldwide, is so…so boring, and most people feel that they’ve heard it all before, or on the flipside – there’s too much information. The writer/presenter needs to recognize where the audience stands.

• I know that most of my readers (including extended family) are from the east coast of the US of A. Also, I’m usually not writing for forestry people, and don’t particularly need to.

• When I present to my class, I’ll be doing so to people who have lived in the geographic area longer than I have: I can’t tell them what they already know. Furthermore, I need a reason to keep them interested in my profession, and ‘dumbing it down’ is not a good idea – don’t make people feel dumb.

I can’t pretend that I’m doing something new and big, cause I’m not, not even here on my blog. But what I found I CAN do, is make things cool again. Cool again means fresh – like a good, original joke. One’s typical forester isn’t hard to beat in ‘coolness’ factor, but that doesn’t make your information different.

• Tell them things they didn’t know – and make it neat for them to have that information.

>>>Like, don’t be afraid to bank on and build with wood products. Trees are solar powered and sustainable as a resource when well managed. Even harvested wood is a carbon bank; 50% of its weight is carbon, unlike when it is burned for fuel and 100% is removed. Also, many mills that produce timber are run by burning waste wood material.

• Make it easy for them to act on something – and give them action items for the long run.
• Relate to their daily lives, so it pops into their head more often.

For example, I suggest you learn the most common trees in your city. Sound too dorky? Well it is, but why wouldn’t you want to know what tree you’re sitting under, which plants are native to your area, or what huge tree that is you pass on your way to work each morning? This is your landscape; get involved and look around, all it takes is observation and Google!!

The final ones (above) are what I chose to focus on in concluding my presentation as well. There is a need for a new face in resource management, and we need more people on our team. This next team needs to support a younger, more idealistic and sustainable view to management. Surely, we are all a great distance from where the real timber comes down, but action begins with the population. Action begins in the city.

Even for the most general of presentations, whether it be writing or speaking, you must convince your audience of something. So, when you do cover that ground, what is your mini-agenda, and are you using the right techniques?

‘Planting’ A Mission Statement

What I try to do here on Variable Interest is have readers think, most importantly, about the environment around them. And not just the ever-important natural one; but their business, work and social one – all of which gives to and then takes from them.

The theme is some flows and some systems, often coupled with analogies or a rant. I generally discourage rants, but too often sarcasm gets the best of me. How do I keep on track then? (if you can call that keeping on-track)

I figure that the best way is to HAVE a mission statement. Sure, mine’s a short mass of words on the right column of this page, but it’s there to remind me of a group of things. Each post needs a statement, every blog needs one, and each and every day deserves one.

The other day Todd blogged the following in writing about his upcoming search for an internship: And maybe our careers don’t have to define us as people. But do they end up doing that inevitably?

I’d say it’s a matter of it you put it out there in your personal mission statement. For me, it started to come clear over time. I never used to think of myself as a environmental consultant, just a resource/forestry one: but it’s turning into the former. More and more people are recognizing my (our company) work as similar to environmental services. After night class the other night a peer shouted out to me as I left, “Keep saving those trees!”. I laughed, cause that’s not really what my work generally does, they do the traditional opposite actually; analyze AVAILABLE timber, we show them where and what to take.

But as with trends, we’re phasing in the environmental services because that’s what is proving popular. What proves popular with your own mind? What pattern keeps on emerging which shows you what you should work on, or work with it? You should take that pattern and make it reality.

Back to what Todd asked, if our careers generally begin to define us…I think probably yes, depending on if you let it. After all, as so many bloggers know – it becomes part of one’s brand. Be on the lookout for how others brand you and make it a mission. After all, the ‘Brand’ is about how others perceive you, so make it work for them.

At this point I was about to make a plant analogy, but of course people’s paths are more fluid, as should a healthy career be. Ah shoot, I can’t help myself: Trees in a system are born with defined missions, born with a path, obviously something they have limited control over. When that pine is seeded it could get trapped in a potentially dark under story, it has to shoot to the top and reach (race) for light to compete. Ourselves; we can choose the system below us, and we can control the environment above us to a certain extent. We can be that networking vine, that broad-leaved plant, or the light seeking pine – whichever best suits our goals and personality.

We could be all three if we can keep it under control.

Look Outside

Like an alien invasive species, you too can adjust to working and living abroad. Treating your work-life like running a business will have its advantages when you open your market to people who may see your input as valuable and creative . I think foreign consultants, in showing that they’re travelling to get their expertise out there, are seen as clever, valuable, and driven individuals.

Here’s an example: There’s a small business that’s opened up down the road from my workplace called Walk-In-Web. It is new, I hadn’t seen it before, and it looked like a good idea. Peeking in to get a closer look at their glassy, open-space setup, I think I would have chosen the Asian guy with glasses to work my webspace. Why? I don’t know, there was a certain image expertise that I thought I could roll with. Even if he wasn’t Asian, and in fact more Canadian than I, that was my initial thought.

I’m not the first to write about the advantages to working abroad, and I also recognize that you can’t just GO and work abroad, one needs to see it as a business move.

First Off, you must appeal to both culture and industry. By culture, I mean the identity of those working in your given industry. You’re not there to show them that outsiders know better, or even work differently. You need to have done your research on how work is done on their end, and show that you can adapt, accept, and improve with your personal touch. They say that the language of business is international, but you can’t count on that. Adaptation is still the name of the game.

My example considers Me vs. Japan: I know very little of the forest industry in Japan, or the way in which they handle their land, its inhabitants, and the ecosystem. But if I were to want to do business there, say, as a consultant selling my niche, I would want to know all those elements, as well as what they thought of Canadian forestry. Knowing that it would be my identity vs. theirs, what would be the best way to not only fit in, but to market a system they could identify with?

I use Japan as an example because of the similarities in our western ecosystems; a.k.a. the Pacific Rim. Several tree species grow healthily both here and in Japan (the Larch and Vine Maple to name a couple), so I figure if trees can do it (and thrive!), then so can we. Furthermore, if our ecosystems are so similar, there would be a good chance that we could (and do) use similar land management systems, or at least work them to adapt.

Another thing plants do to survive abroad is spread their seed, and quickly. I’m not talking Johnny Appleseed here. I simply mean being adventurous in spreading the word about yourself and services. You can stand out (skin/hair colour) – so why not take advantage of that? Good quality alien trees often do better than native tree species. Good looking business people do better. The best quality seeding systems enable their species grow the quickest, often overtaking and drowning out a native species.

Thirdly: recession talk. I’m no economist, and I don’t plan to panic…but it’s all the more reason to look abroad. A difference I should point out, in demonstrating my knowledge, is that invasive species are just that, invasive. The human analogy should be friendlier, as I’m hoping we won’t have ‘humanicides’ applied to us when we move to work abroad. And we won’t. Apparently Singapore’s business environment is designed to be easy on foreigners, including certain tax laws and property laws.

They’re not looking to keep us back with chemicals and chainsaws – but if business climate and culture sensitivities aren’t looked after, we may actually be seen as negatively invasive.

Why I Still Check Job Listings

I’m not planning to stray from my job in the near future. In fact, I’m not sure I could get hired as a resource consultant elsewhere quite yet. But, I still check job listings in my area every month or two.

• It keeps me aware of what qualifications are being sought after in job postings that I find attractive enough to click on.
• It’s another way of gauging the industry and economy. Even though the changes aren’t too noticeable most of the time, there are periods when there just doesn’t seem to be anything out there. It helps to be aware of that cycle.
• I don’t have to leave this job to get another – often it’s possible to seek out the funding source and work from here. Depending on the job or project type of course.
  

As I’ve written about lately, I’m going through a professional development phase which really probably (and hopefully) won’t end for a long long time. Making the decision on what type and area of schooling to continue is a big one. Monetarily and emotionally it’s a commitment. Reading about job descriptions, and keeping track of certain patterns in the market are going to help me in making that decision sometime in the next few weeks.

Just reflecting.