Saturday, May 27, 2017

Change Here Now: Permaculture Solutions for Personal and Community Transformation, by Adam Brock. North Atlantic Books, 2017



 
I have a deep interest in permaculture in the agricultural sense, found “A Pattern Language” (an architecture and town planning book from 1970 that pointed out the living patterns that people use) fascinating, and am very interested in how to change the world into a better place, so the description of this book sounded like it would be something I would love. Instead, I found large parts of the book rather tedious.

Not that I think they would be tedious to everyone. The main focus of the book is on working with people: getting the best from people, getting groups to work together efficiently (which changes depending on the size of the group and what it’s trying to do), getting people to express themselves but also to listen, etc. I’ve met a lot of that in presentations I’ve been sucked into in various volunteer groups I’ve been part of, and if I’m lucky I’ll never have to go to another one. I’m a loner; tell me what to do and let me go do it. But if you need to start a group to get something done, the author presents ways of making it more efficient- and at the same time, more people oriented. And some of the things are as simple as rearranging the chairs.

The book is easy to read in some ways; the chapters are very, very short- sometimes only two pages- so you have natural places to stop and think about what you just read. The author uses some vocabulary that most people won’t have, but he gives the definitions (like, what is ‘sankofa’? I didn’t know). The rest is everyday language.

So, if you need to get people working together, invest in this book along with your Robert’s Rules of Order. Just don’t get it thinking it’ll help you create sustainability in your yard! 


The above is an affiliate link. If you click through and buy something- anything- from Amazon, they will give me a few cents. 

I received this book free from the Amazon Vine program in return for an unbiased review.

Neither of these things influenced my review.  

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