Cumulative Pathway Reflection - LR2

OP-Process Reflection
During the process of creating OP5 I realized how fast and strategic an OP can be produced. Through my life circumstances I had a lack in time and I needed and wanted to submit OP 5 in December 2019. So I applied the 80/20 principle (What tasks can I implement so that I reach with 20 percent of effort 80 percent of the result?) and focused on a well-planned design of the OP. I did not spend so much attention on the design of OP5 than I had spent in the design of OP4. So I can see a difference in the OP quality, but also because of the different projects itself. OP4 was very relevant to my life, so I spend a lot of attention and energy on the project itself. Doing a Learning Review is also very helpful for my ongoing life and pathway, but because of the lack in time and the organization of various other projects (preparing for birth, planning our herb teas for next year, building a new herb drying cupboard), I am not too enthusiastic about this project.

Goals
I also realized that I only can set goals for the projects I am really enthusiastic about and when they are relevant for my life. So far I sometimes tried to set SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timebound), but they were not very effective as I did not track them properly or spend enough attention on the SMART dimensions. But for the future, I am very confident to set SMART goals, as our project focus gets clearer and clearer and relevant for our life.

Feedback
I am naturally very sensitive to critique and feedback. So I am very thankful to receive feedback and also incorporate it as soon as possible (at least if it sounds appropriate for me). As a trusting but also critical person I am also able to give constructive feedback. In GaiaU it was challenging for me to give constructive Feedback for OPs (Peer Reviews), but when I did the last Peer Review I realized that my capacity to give constructive OP Review Feedback grows steadily. Slowly I can imagine to become a Main Advisor for GaiaU, as I am more familiar with the GaiaU universe.

Dissemination Efforts
My work is so far only shared on Mahara to the GaiaU community. In the future, I want to integrate it on our website. There it will be accessible for all people who are interested in our project. So far I did not spend attention to disseminate my work, because my projects had not the quality I wanted to share them. But I am confident that in my next action Learning Cycle my projects are worth to share with a wider public.

Learning Edges
Looking back to my first project related OP of this Action Learning Cycle I can discover many learning edges on different layers (project, process, OP). To the time I produced OP2 I knew that my work has many edges, but I did not know how to deal with that.
Being honest to myself, I think that only because we have a life-project now, I can develop my project skills to a higher level. If I would still no (for me)relevant project in my life, the quality of my project work would probably grow not essentially. 
So my life circumstances (includes our "life project") essentially helped and will help me in the future to bring the quality of my projects and the quality of my OPs on a higher level.

My overall participation during the second Action Learning Cycle was not very strong, but okay. Since GaiaU introduced Slack as their communication platform I feel myself more part of a global community as communication gets easier. In Slack, I am part of my Learning guild group where we exchange monthly updates and can share information or questions. I am also part of a permaculture design group, but this group felt asleep over the last weeks (at least I think so). But I will not put effort into this group, because I am ending my cycle soon and will have a longer baby pause.

OP1: Learning Intentions and Pathway Design
Peer Meetings with Mona Speth
First Meeting
Second Meeting
In addition to the calls we always exchanged updates and questions via mail (at least once a week since the beginning of May 2017)

Skill-flex-advising with Nicole Vosper
"Project Design and Management"

OP2: Life Transition Pregnancy
Peer Meetings with Mona Speth
Mona lives in a small village not far away from my hometown. We are in a good peer-contact and I visited her and we exchanged about our projects. The other day she visited me and we together created a Karrabirdt for our OP-creation process.

OP3: Laying the Foundation for our Future
Peer Meetings with Mona Speth
Mona lives in a town not far away from my original hometown Freiburg. She visited me for two days in Vorarlberg, Austria, and we had a nice exchange. We decided to host a Gaia Radio Call together and worked on the topic together intensively.

Documentation of a peer-meeting call with Mona in June

Calls
"Honeybees in resilient ecosystems": a Gaia Radio Call hosted by Mona Speth and Carolina Winter

Main Advising
Two Main Advising sessions with Laura Kaestele

Monthly Check-In with Laura Kaestele:
July 2018
August 2018

Skill-flex session
Prototyping with Jennifer English

OP4: A Design for our Property
Monthly Check-Ins with my Learning Guild (also evidence of monthly journaling):
Cumulative check-ins

OP5: Learning Review
PCM hour for OP 5:
Nesrin visited me in person when I already submitted OP4 and when I was in the process to design OP5. So during this visit, we also had a Permaculture Mentor hour for OP5. Notes can be found here.

Main Advising Session:

• One session about the Design process of OP5
• One OP draft review of OP5

Peer exchange:
Call with Mona Speth

End-of-Year Presentation:
I present my EoYP on December 18th. This is my slideshow
The recording can be found here: Carolinas End-of-Phase-Presentation