Collaboration & Co-Creation Collaboration & Co-Creation Organizational Governance

Upskilling for Post Growth Futures, Together

When I was seven, I was given an Apple Macintosh in the hope that Mavis Beacon would teach me how to touch type. It was an unreasonable expectation, for I was actually more interested in escaping to the fantasy lands of Dungeons and Dragons and Lode Runner. Yet, these games had a lasting, unexpected impact on my thirst for learning. In playing Dungeons and Dragons, I remember being particularly excited each time my archetypal characters would gain ‘experience points’ that enabled them to upgrade their abilities.

By Donnie Maclurcan | Published 10 years ago | About a 8 minute read

When I was seven, I was given an Apple Macintosh in the hope that Mavis Beacon would teach me how to touch type. It was an unreasonable expectation, for I was actually more interested in escaping to the fantasy lands of Dungeons and Dragons and Lode Runner. Yet, these games had a lasting, unexpected impact on my thirst for learning. In playing Dungeons and Dragons, I remember being particularly excited each time my archetypal characters would gain ‘experience points’ that enabled them to upgrade their abilities.

I still feel that childlike thrill each time I learn something new. It’s the giddy rush that comes from the outcome of a simple transaction: effort goes in, new skill comes out. And as the acquisition of knowledge or skills opens new doors of possibility, the world around me continuously changes; like reaching the next level on a computer game. What’s more, I’ve discovered I get the same rush watching others learn, and that my experiences are enriched when I participate in learning alongside others.

As my work has expanded to explore how humans can flourish within the planet’s biophysical limits, I’ve also become painfully aware that in some aspects of my life, I’m not very well-equipped to flourish in futures beyond economic growth. In retrospect, my formal schooling gave me a good base in certain skills such as public speaking, writing and analysis, but did nothing to prepare me in other areas of life, such as growing food, relating to animals and building things. I was being prepared for labor specialization, often at the expense of learning practical skills that will matter for us all in years to come. We are now heading into a time when generalists — people who can see the big picture and connect seemingly disparate skills and fields of knowledge — are needed just as much as specialists.

But the rising value of the generalist does not mean we each need to know how to do everything ourselves. Voids in our individual skillsets are actually critical to building harmonious communities. As Bill Kauth and Zoe Alawan say, “We need each other, and we need to need each other." Caroline Woolard of the New York City barter platform OurGoods elucidates this concept in sharing that, “When you take a class in a barter system you know the teacher needs you, too.”

Thus, I recently found myself wondering, what range of skills might we collectively need in order to thrive in post growth futures? Or, if the Post Growth Institute were to develop a platform for ‘resilience training,’ what existing efforts should we be promoting? What would we include were we to extend beyond traditional areas of sustainability reskilling such as growing food, building energy systems and learning techniques to effectively bring communities together?

Loosely sorted into nine categories, the list below contains areas of knowledge and skills I consider most important for collective thriving in a range of possible post growth futures. What would you add, change or remove?

Means of Learning and the Self

Individual asset mapping
Systems thinking
Finding your purpose through strategic questioning
The latest science on learning processes and knowledge retention
Speed reading
Touch typing
Mysticism and the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine within
Developing intuition
Yoga and breath work
Meditation
De-cluttering
Time management techniques

Community, Family and Leadership

Key lessons from human history
Asset-based community development
Running an ‘offers and needs market’
Relationship skills
Non-violent communication and conflict resolution
Diversity sensitivities (including GLBTQIA, cultural, religious, disability, age, indigenous/First Nation)
Parenting and family dynamics
Dynamic teaching and group facilitation
Circle work and other decision-making techniques
Confident public speaking
Singing in harmony and dancing together
How to read and play music
Holding and participating in sacred rituals
Improvisation theatre
Storytelling
Restorative justice
Fun cooperative games for children and communities (including outdoor and card games)
Sharing law
Effective campaigning and lobbying
Child honouring and protection (including an introduction to ADHD, child trauma and special needs)
Graphic facilitation
Conversational French/Spanish/Mandarin/Arabic
Archiving (sound, video, images, stories, items, documents)

Health

Basic anatomy (and terminology), understanding the body’s systems and exercise physiology
Injury rehabilitation
Holistic approaches to healthcare (including natural, homemade medicinal remedies and birth control)
Administering first aid
Administering mental health first aid
Medicinal herbs
Massage (including acupressure)
Sleeping well
Natural birthing
Natural cleaning

Food and Nature

Composting and improving soil quality
Setting up a worm farm
Growing food
Permaculture principles and sector design
No-dig gardening
Threshing
Aquaponics
Seed saving and plant propagation
Pruning
Grafting
Ploughing (with animals and vehicles)
Identifying invasive species
Connecting and working with animals (including husbandry, birthing and basic healthcare)
Horsemanship
Raising fowl
Understanding the weather (and reading a weather map)
Disaster preparedness (including earthquakes, sandbagging for floods, hazard reduction and back-burning, and fire safety)
Cooking essentials
Vegetarian cooking
Bread making
Preserving food (canning, drying)
Sprouting
Fermenting (including brewing, distilling, mead making, winemaking)

Bushcraft

Orienteering
Hiking and camping (including the ‘leave no trace’ principles)
Tracking
Fishing
Sourcing water from nature
Shelter building
Open fire cooking
Sourcing food (forest foraging and gleaning)
Fire making (including natural fire creation)
Rope making and essential knots
Hunting and using weapons
Animal food preparation

Building, Equipment and Vehicles

Fundamental principles of structural engineering
Building structures (including insulation)
Coppicing
Woodwork
Stonework
Natural brickmaking
Creating natural toilets
Smithing
Bike maintenance
Vehicle maintenance (including mechanics)
Boat maintenance (including mechanics)
How to operate heavy machinery
How to use power tools
Using non-power tools
Sourcing and installing renewable energy
Water/sewage systems design and building (including filtration, drip irrigation, Keyline and swales)
Passive solar design
Sailing
Paddling (kayak and canoe)
Swimming and water safety
Electronic basics and how to fix electrical faults
Amateur radio and setting up a mesh network
Using vehicles in extreme conditions (including towing and defensive driving)

Urban-oriented Skills

Urban farming
Setting up a rain water collection system
Setting up a photovoltaic power generator
Dumpster diving

Crafts and Making

Life hacking
Upcycling and making things from scratch (including dyes, soaps and shampoos)
Mending, knitting, sewing, crocheting and weaving
Tanning (to produce leather)
Homemade cosmetics
Drawing
Painting
Pottery

Business

Sustainable business models (including not-for-profit associations and companies, solidarity franchises, producer-, consumer-, worker- and multi-stakeholder cooperatives, community land trusts, benefit corporations, community interest companies)
Running an organization
Participatory organizing for business (including Sociocracy)
Project management
Budgeting, bookkeeping, money management and invoicing
Information management
Sourcing items ethically
Blogging
Coding
Server setup, website design and development (including CMS setup)
Using other online tools
Setting up and managing a wiki

The above ‘kitchen sink’ list appears, at times, focused on individualistic approaches to self-sufficiency that are more about surviving than thriving. Yet resilient leadership has little to do with creating bullet-proof, invincible fortresses of individuals. It’s more about engaging with others in vulnerable ways that drive human connection. By sharing personal experiences we open up to greater sharing of passions, knowledge, skills and resources, as well as discovering more clearly what work remains to be done, both together and alone. What makes the entire system strong is understanding that everyone has something to offer; that, as in nature, complimentary diversity within a community’s skill sets creates greater resilience.

Fortunately, it’s increasingly easy to locate places and means by which to seed and nurture new knowledge and skills. The Skillshare platform, for example, allows us to find ‘project-based classes anytime, anywhere.’ Thousands of intensive, live-in programs, such as the one soon to be offered by the Gross National Happiness Centre in Bhutan, are springing up around the world. Other initiatives, such as the International Youth Initiative Program in Sweden and the Mycelium Learning Journey in the USA, seek to build skills alongside the incubation of a participant’s social innovation.

Sure, there are times when it’s important to learn things alone. It’s just that there is a great deal to be gained from more of our learning happening together, building shared resilience in the process. As Eric Brende, in his book documenting his time within Amish communities, notes, there is a powerful spin on an old proverb, rather than ‘many hands make light work’, it’s worth considering how ‘many hands make work light’.

This post first appeared on the Post-Growth blog on December 3, 2013.