Commentary - Pattern Design

To evaluate what goals of my Learning Intentions and Pathway Design (LIPD) were met, postponed or discarded I created the table „Tracking goals from my LIPD“. I also added my new main goals in the table.

The Mindmap „LIPD goals“ shows my original goals that I created for my Learning Intentions and Pathway Design. To read my LIPD, just click here.

In the beginning, I wanted to write my OP about herb field and business. During the time I realized that we intuitively experimented with growing and processing herbs and designing a business plan. I did not feel that I wanted to write an OP in this stage of project development. Instead, the new idea of creating a pattern design for our property developed. That made for us the most sense, as wee really need to define different areas on the property. Otherwise, we would design everything intuitively during the years. So a pattern design of the property is the basis for any further development.

What went well?
It felt that one step after the other happened without being after the next steps too much. The decision of starting with the Permaculture Diploma combined with my Bachelor was very easy. After I got the Portfolio Review (that was necessary to evaluate how permacultural I worked in the past) of my Permaculture Mentor, I was clear what next steps to take and where to work on. This was the time when I consciously started with the project.

What was challenging?
Although I tried to document the project development in an offline desktop Wiki (ZIM), ongoing documentation of the project was very challenging.
Also, it was sometimes challenging to decide on the adjustable level of detail I want to observe or document for the different phases of the Design Process „SADIED“ (Survey, Analysis, Design, Implement, Evaluate, Develop).

It was the first time I consciously designed my OP at the beginning of all work. I integrated all the Feedback to secure to miss as less as possible during work. It was very effective and time-saving! Although I spend a lot of time in planning I was a lot faster in producing the OP than ever before. In mind I had the permaculture saying: 80 percent for planning and 20 percent well-thought implementation. View my OP Design in the PDF "OP-Design"

What went well?
I strategically designed my OP and spent a lot of time designing each Portfolio Page and the paragraphs included. That was very helpful, so I was able to work even for little time frames.
I never lost the thread for writing the OP and I could work in a flow.
Consciously designed OP working days in my grandmother's house helped me to focus on the work. Through the limited amount of time, I was forced to work productively during this time.

What was challenging?
We had a lot of „worksites“ in our house, property and private life that we needed to organize while I was writing this OP. I tried to integrate all the Feedback from my last OP and the Portfolio Review, but still, I am not sure what is missing in this OP.

What went well?
SADIED (Survey, Analysis, Design, Implemented so far, Evaluate the implementation and reached outcomes, Develop a timeline for the future) is an adapted Design Process of SADIE (Survey, Analysis, Design Implement, Evaluate). This adapted Process helped me to put different steps into different phases. With this process, I was able to give a holistic view of our project and design.
Applying a typical land-based design and going through pre-defined phases helped me to structure my work in the right order. It was also nice to experience that there are a lot online and offline (books) resources available that work with this process and provide detailed instructions and examples.

What was challenging?
It took a while to play around with different adaptations of the process SADIE and also to define what I will implement in every phase.

Project Management

Project roles:
Two persons share the responsibilities for the land
Me: the initiator of the project creating a „Pattern Design“;
Fabian: interview partner and exchange of ideas and possibilities

Management tools:
ZIM: Offline Wiki
To document my work I mainly used the offline Wiki Zim; an individual structure is possible, to-does can be added and cross marked and every topic can have an individual page.

Nevertheless, in the end, it was a bit confusing, because there was too much information and I lost the discipline to categorize topics.

Managing time:

During pregnancy, I recognized that I want to finish my Action Learning Cycle before I give birth to our second child. So I estimated my time and wanted to submit OP4 in September. But I needed to wait for the Portfolio Review to integrate the Feedback in my next OP time was too meager. So I renegotiated to submit OP4 in October and OP5 in December 2019.

Best practices in Tracking:

• Word Documents helped to structure topics, these documents were: OP Design, Commentary, Core Report.
  With the help of the structure of the Core Report, I was able to work and implement focused my „To Does“. I chronologically went through my exercises and was sure at the same time that I use my time efficiently and that I can use the material produced directly in the Core Report. That was actually the most effective management tool I experienced so far

• Compiled a file for all my notes, drawings and thoughts: The file is sorted like the Core Report

Challenges:

• estimate how long a task needs to be fulfilled and how much detail is needed
• a clear documentation structure is still missing

The main personal update I delighted want to share is that I am pregnant with our second child and I will give birth in January 2020. Being a mother of two children is a great gift and I am very thankful. Nevertheless, I felt that the next year will require a lot of energy (physical, emotional and psychical) and sometimes I am asking myself how I am able to manage two children and our project.

We are still not allowed to live on the land. In autumn 2019 we want to visit the department of construction and ask for the approval of our greenhouse. We also want to carefully ask during the visit, if it might be possible to sleep in the herb hut because we need to work when the children are sleeping in the evening.

Let's see how it develops.

Monthly check-ins with my peer guild, helped me to document and collect our ongoing process.

At the same time, they were valuable for a group exchange. Every one of the group knows what the peers are working on, where the challenges and highlights are and if they need help.

Click here to open the check-ins in Dropbox.