Reflection, reflection and more reflection.

I did it! Finally, after a lot of weeks of research, organization and fights with Word, I can say I have produced something I am proud of. Although the final product is quite different from what I had intended to create at the beginning, it is nevertheless relevant and it will hopefully have a positive impact on the business practices. Now that I have concluded my project, I am taking some time to reflect on my most significant learnings.

First of all, I have realized that it is very important to understand the interests and expectations of the stakeholders, in order to set shared targets and produce something relevant. At the beginning of my journey I made the wrong assumption that my interests were perfectly aligned with those of my supervisor and this set me slightly in the wrong path at the beginning of my research. Thankfully, through reflection I was able to reframe my approach and negotiate a compromise on an alternative pathway. If I had spent more time negotiating with him at the beginning, I would have probably saved quite some time.

Moreover, I reflected consistently on how sustainable development is perceived  by people that do not work in the industry. As I mentioned in my previous blog, I noticed that the majority of people I talked to did not have a clear answer on why sustainable development is important, or what it even means. What I found more interesting is that there seemed to be a general feeling that development is not relevant in Australia, because it is not a developing country.

This insight is very useful for my future research for two main reasons. First, it implies that I should never assume that everyone is aware of what sustainable development is and what it aims to achieve. Second, it made me reflect on what the targets of sustainability are. The SDGs are directed to all countries, however, there seem to be little awareness around them outside of the professional sphere in Australia. I am therefore asking myself: are we doing enough to mainstream sustainable development? Or are we still assuming that it is only something that involves the Global South? In this perspective, my RRR will be around the mainstreaming of sustainable development and whether enough is being done to overcome the idea that development is not a field the Global North should be concerned with.