Collaborative Forest Program & Industrial Safety. When inspiration leads to a collective intelligence boost.

This text is a tribute to the quiet innovations that are happening in countless teams or individual inventors around the world right now. Without champagne or background music, smaller and larger aha-effects are occurring, in which greater potential lies dormant. It takes courage and perseverance, with or above all without recognition, to breathe some sound into these quiet achievements.

In our global team, our work around human-centered interactions and interventions in occupational health and safety leads us to do “quick unstructured web knowledge races” from time to time. We browse for transferable inspiration. So, in our constant search for amplifiers for our unique global learning and empowerment platform, we came across the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP).

In 2009, the U.S. Congress authorized the CFLRP. It represents a formalization of collaborative approaches in forest management. Further it emphasizes partnerships among various stakeholders, including government agencies, local communities, conservation organizations, and industry, to restore forest landscapes and promote sustainable land management practices.

The concept evolved over time

The insight from today's perspective shows that effective forest management is possible through the involvement and collaboration of multiple stakeholders. Following the Organizational Analysis method at its foundation this is an interesting coalition model. The specific collaborative forest model aims to solve complex ecological, economic and social problems by bringing together different perspectives and resources.

The Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program has had a significant impact on forest management and restoration in the United States. The five most important achievements:

1.???? Improved Forest Health and Resilience | CFLRP has led to the restoration of millions of acres of forestland. The program focuses on reducing hazardous fuels, managing invasive species, and improving watershed conditions, which collectively enhance the resilience of forests to wildfire, pests, and climate change.

2.???? Reduction in Wildfire Risk | By thinning overly dense forests and removing excess vegetation, CFLRP projects have significantly reduced the risk of severe wildfires. This proactive approach not only protects forests but also safeguards nearby communities and infrastructure.

3.???? Economic Benefits and Job Creation | The program has generated substantial economic benefits by creating jobs in rural communities, particularly in the areas of forest restoration, timber processing, and related industries. This economic boost helps sustain local economies that depend on forest resources.

4.???? Enhanced Collaboration and Partnerships | CFLRP emphasizes collaboration among diverse stakeholders, including federal and state agencies, tribal governments, local communities, conservation groups, and industry partners. This collaborative approach has built stronger relationships and increased trust among stakeholders, leading to more effective and sustainable forest management practices.

5.???? Improvement of Ecosystem Services | CFLRP projects have contributed to the improvement of ecosystem services such as water quality, wildlife habitat, and carbon sequestration. By restoring natural processes and promoting biodiversity, the program supports the health of ecosystems, benefiting both human and wildlife populations.

This digital find impressed us and inspired us to create one of our analogy training courses. Is there a transferability of such an interesting development, learning and empowerment model for our international cooperation in more than 60 countries around industrial security? So we checked and tried a similarity comparison or analogy transfer attempt in our form of cooperation and learning, which is based on a mixture of constructivist didactics, design thinking and nudging as well as teal organization features (Laloux).

Our analogy/inspiration transfer building blocksReal world: Nationwide Collaborative Forest Program.

Analogy world: Global Collaboration and Learning Platform for human-centric interventions.

Comparison/Transfer method: Bridge Sentences/equality characteristics list

Fundamental aha-effects as a starting point for subsequent refined potential analyses - “from the forest to the industrial environment”:

To 1. above, the collaboration platform analogy | Improved Forest Health and Resilience

Just as healthy forests are more resilient, individuals who are empowered to manage their own learning processes develop resilience. By engaging in continuous self-improvement and learning new skills, individuals become better equipped to handle challenges and adapt to change.

To 2. above, the collaboration platform analogy | Reduction in Wildfire Risk

Recognizing and eliminating personal “burdens” such as stress, knowledge gaps or unproductive habits reduces the risk of burnout or failure. This approach enables individuals to effectively manage their workload and mental health and maintain a balanced and sustainable pace in their personal and professional development.

To 3. above, the collaboration platform analogy | Economic Benefits and Job Creation

Individuals experience a knowledge boost and take control of their learning, co-designing their learning environment, leading to potential economic benefits by improving employability and creating opportunities for entrepreneurship. Strong empowerment - when people acquire skills that match their interests and market demand, they can pursue new career paths, start businesses or find better employment opportunities.

To 4. above, the collaboration platform analogy | Enhanced Collaboration and Partnerships

Collaboration is key to a model of self-directed learning. By working with mentors, peers and diverse sources of knowledge, individuals can gain broader perspectives and deeper insights. Building a supportive learning community encourages shared learning, feedback and growth, enhancing the overall learning experience.

To 5. above, the collaboration platform analogy | Improvement of Ecosystem Services

In a people-centered learning model, the focus is on improving individual skills, well-being and contribution to society. By promoting self-directed learning, individuals can develop the skills and knowledge they need to make a positive contribution to their community and society, in much the same way that restored ecosystems provide important services to the environment.

Conclusion

Maintaining the fascination of learning and the appetite for innovation in a globally active team requires more than coffee mornings, refresher sessions or gamified shows. The occasional look at cooperation and collaboration models from completely different working environments, with almost illogical activities and peculiarities compared to our own work, always offers astonishing insights and transfer possibilities of approaches, procedures and amazingly clever elements. Collective intelligence involves work and is usually a longer journey - but the benefits for a group or for yourself are enormous and commendable. Simply prepare a few tasty snacks for the road.

Note: As already mentioned, analogy exercises provide silent sparks of innovation. Appreciation even for small things works here in a similar way to the joy of finding the smallest and tiniest diamonds and later polishing them into a consolidated yeah-effect.

How do you track down the transfer possibilities from a community forestry program to a community in global industrial security? For example, with a full-day, intensive analogy learning workshop, unexpected, abstract and surprising commonalities emerge. The most significant discoveries create unexpected momentum within the team and are steps towards networked thinking and true collective intelligence. A boost for the desired self-directed learning and joint learning, development and application - sometimes even an update in the interpretation of measurement data.

By the way, my original spark for this kind of smartness update: In 2011 I met my eye-opening inspiration for this approach: the artists-in-residence Heathrow airport project. For 16 months, the author Tony Parsons roamed the infrastructure and brought the “unseen” to light with short stories. Almost a kind of fountain of youth for analogies.