RLC Journal/Blog

Views from my former little bush cabin

Above View with one of the frequent amazing Sunset

My former little mountain bush cabin

Mr Monte Airedale - 1999-2011

Ms CassieCat - 2001-2010

My latest baby- Charlie Springer

             Although I have worked and traveled extensively overseas, I was born and have lived my entire life in Australia.

The Early Days

             Overall, my life has been a little unusual both personally and professionally.  I grew up on a sheep and dairy farm on the Southern Highlands, south of Sydney. At 15, I left school, and between then and my late 20s, I raised day old calves on a little farm in Dubbo NSW; set up and ran several small businesses of my own and lived on the banks of the Barcoo River in outback Queensland with my two dogs.

Living Under the Stars on the Barcoo River

             Whilst living in the outback, at night I slept in my swag under a canopy of black velvet studded with diamonds. And by day, not only did I watch the pelicans swimming up and down the Barcoo as if they'd been trained by the world's leading choreographer; but I also I caught “wild” donkeys and trucked them to city sanctuaries - to prevent them from being shot as vermin.

My "Road to Damascus" Experience

             It was during this time in outback Queensland that I had a major "Road to Damascus" experience ‘discovering’ that of all of the creatures out there, I – “a superior human” – was the most inferior creature around. I learned that humans are definitely a part of nature and definitely not apart from nature. This insightful and also spiritual experience, as opposed to what had previously been a more commercial view of our natural environment, awakened my consciousness to the importance of ecological diversity, and eventually led to my environmental academic journey.

Australia's First Female Oil Company Representative             

             Following my time in the outback I was appointed Australia’s first female oil company territory manager, which is when I began public speaking, and designing and facilitating public and corporate workshops.  Despite being constantly told that I had to be tough and ruthless and lay down the law to the oil company agents and dealers with whom I had to liaise; instead, I used my intuitive relationship building skills to bring in the top sales figures for the state during each budget period.  The advice I was being given came from superiors and other company representatives, who were much older and more experienced than I was.  Yet their attitude to working with people, leadership and managing a territory, just didn’t make sense to me. 

Mr E. James Rohn's Influence

              In 1980, several years after I left that job, I was fortunate enough to attend the first of many seminars and workshops presented by Business Philosopher Mr. E. James Rohn, who confirmed my beliefs and attitudes relating to leadership and working with people.  As he's done with so many others, including Anthony Robbins, it was Mr. Rohn who really changed my life and set me on the road to "readin' readin' readin'" any books I could find on Leadership, Personal Development, Motivation, Inspiration, and Environmental Issues. Prior to that, I'd hardly read a book of any kind. Now I have a personal library in excess of 10,000 books.

Media Career

              Not surprisingly, shortly after that my life took on a new direction and a successful 14 year media career ensued. My interest in the media began as a 9 year old when I made regular appearances, over a 4 year period, on children's television programs in Sydney. And so my media work began on television, co-hosting a morning talk/magazine program and doing television commercials for about 12 months. However, most of my media work was in my number one (media) love as a talk-back broadcaster on commercial radio stations around Australia, including 8DN in Darwin, 4BC in Brisbane, and 3AW in Melbourne. And in 1988, I won the radio industry’s Pater award for the best voice on Australian radio. 

My Academic Journey                      

              As well as completing numerous personal and professional development workshops, at the age of 40, whilst still working on radio, I began what was to become a decade + of academic studies; completing a BA; and a P/G Honours and two Masters Degrees – all 3 Post-Graduate degrees concurrently.  I then went on to complete a multi-disciplinary doctorate in 2000, called Heart-Centred Virtue Ethics: Raising Ecological Consciousness in Organisations, which included research in Ethics, Environmental Philosophy, Environmental Education, Behavioural Science, and forms of Spiritual and Emotional Intelligences as the foundation for ethically sustainable practices.

             As a sustainability ethicist*, speaker, trainer, and coach, I worked in Australia and overseas on a freelance and consultancy basis, and also as a contract lecturer for a number of different universities.  As a university lecturer, the main subjects that I taught were Leadership Skills, and Change Management to MBA students; Post-Graduate and Undergraduate Business Ethics and Environmental Philosophy; and Ecotourism Interpretation Skills to academic and also government audiences such as the Singapore National Parks Board. 

            In addition, I spent about 11 years, coaching and teaching MBA students Assignment Writing Skills, and Speaking and Public Presentation Techniques.

            I am also a trained and experienced mediator/conciliator.

Storytelling and Speaking - New Stories New World; New Stories New Life

            One year after I commenced my academic journey, I took a year off when I moved from one state to another. During that time, I was introduced to NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) when I attended a very intensive and extensive workshop on Public Presentation Skills, Workshop Design, and Facilitation Techniques, all of which were based on NLP. The course consisted of over 200 contact hours and a similar number of non-contact hours. I then went on to complete NLP certification at Practitioner and Master Practitioner levels. It was during my NLP training that I was introduced to the power and magic of strategic-storytelling.

            From then on, as well as my academic studies, I coached public speaking and presentation skills to private and also academic clients, and MBA students. And because of the training I'd received, all of my presentation skills trainings included strategic-storytelling. Strategic-Storytelling was also a key module in all of the academic subjects that I taught. 

            As a result, it shouldn't be surprising that the two foundations theories for my doctoral thesis were (1) Social Constructionism, which says that the stories we’ve believed in the past, have constructed our world today. I argued that we can therefore construct new stories to change our current situation – with specific reference to our environmental situation.  (2) The other theory was Virtue Ethics to ensure that our new stories are ethical and affect positive change.            

Finding my Dream Job             

              In mid 2007, I finally discovered my dream job: researching, writing, and sharing my passions with people around the world via the Internet. AND I can do it all from home - wonderful. Not only more environmentally sustainable, but I can assure you, DEFINITELY more personally/socially sustainable too :-).

             My personal life has been even more eventful than my professional life, experiencing everything from extreme hardships to absolute miracles.  One of those miracles occurred early in 2005, when I found and moved to the place that I’d been searching for my entire life. It's a little cabin in a peaceful and idyllic bushland setting, on 17 acres of land, in the middle of the Great Dividing Range - 3000' above sea level - in Far North Queensland (on the Eastern side of Australia up in the pointy end). So whilst I'm in the tropics, the altitude gives us the most perfect weather possible. Well except for the odd unpleasant weather event, like the 2006 Category 4 Cyclone Larry: - )!  

             The photos on the left are of my little bush cabin; the views from my front patio taken during the day; and almost the same shot with one of the amazing sunsets that are so common; and my two babies Mr. Monte Airedale, and Ms CassieCat. Below is one of the Pretty Faced Wallabies, a type of kangaroo, taken from my house paddock fence. Mobs of them come and visit most evenings.

Post Script:

            Finding my dream job in 2007 was the beginning of several amazing years, which on the surface might seem terrible. However, they led to a wonderful new shift in consciousness. You can read my three part story at the following links. All links open in a new window.

http://www.kashonia.com/summary/changed-life-pt1-of-3

http://www.kashonia.com/summary/life-change-pt2-of-3

http://www.kashonia.com/summary/consciousness-shift-pt3

Dr Kashonia Carnegie - PhD, MSc; MA; BA (Hons)

Sustainability Ethicist & Philosopher

• 2000 – PhD – Thesis: Heart-Centred Virtue Ethics: Raising Ecological Consciousness              in Organisations (University of Queensland)

• 1996 – Master of Science-double major in Environmental Management and                                     Environmental Education (Griffith University)

• 1996 - Master of Arts in Applied Ethics - Dissertation: Environmental Ethics: The                           Corporate Challenge of the 21st Century

• 1996 – Honours Degree-Environmental Philosophy (University of Queensland)

• 1994 – BA-Peace & Conflict Studies and Moral Philosophy (University of Queensland)

           In addition, I've completed countless personal and professional development seminars and workshops with people such as Jim Rohn, Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Denis Waitley, Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, Depak Chopra, Robert Kiyosaki, Marvin Oka, Stephen Pierce, and John DeMartini, to name but a few.

           I also got my first copy of Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich in the mid-1970s, and studied it so closely in the first few years that I wore out two copies:-). The third copy is still with me.

Professional development courses also include:

• 2007 - Clare Graves/Spiral Dynamics - Chris Cowan & Natasha Todorovic

• 2005 – Green Globe 21 – Certificates of Proficiency – Ecotourism Standards and                           Company Standards

• 2002 – Certificate in Coaching Psychology (University of Sydney)

• 2002 – Emotional [Intelligence] Competency Inventory (ECI) assessor accreditation

• 2002 – Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training (SA TAFE)

• 2001 – Certificate IV in Small Business Management

• 1991 – Master Practitioner Level NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming)  Training.                          (Marvin Oka's Maxxum International Training)

• 1991 – NLP Based Presentation, Workshop Design, & Facilitation Skills – over 250                          contact hours + a similar amount of non-contact hours – (Maxxum)

• 1989 – Certificate in Mediation (Vic TAFE).  Since then I have conducted well in excess              of 200 mediation/conciliation conferences with a success rate in excess of 90%.

Main Papers & Publications

PhD Thesis and Masters Dissertation

Carnegie, Kashonia L.  2000.  Heart-Centred Virtue Ethics: Raising Ecological Consciousness in    
          Organisations. Doctoral Thesis. University of Queensland: St Lucia, Brisbane      

Carnegie, Kashonia L.  1996.   Environmental Ethics: The Corporate Challenge of the21st Century                    Master of Arts Dissertation.  Griffith University: Nathan, Brisbane  

Refereed Papers

Carnegie, Kashonia L.  1998.  “What Matters Most? Casuistry as the Basis for Analysing Environmental                       Ethics in Organisations”.  Refereed paper presented to the 1998 Academy of Management                                 Conference – San Diego, August 1998

Carnegie, Kashonia L.  1998. “Environmental Action Ethics: A Journey to Environmental Responsibility
            through Casuistry and Appreciative Inquiry”.  Refereed paper presented to the 1998                                  (International) Society of Business Ethics Conference – San Diego, August 1998

Carnegie, Kashonia L.  1998. “An Integrated, Ethics Approach to Ecologically Sustainable Development                       Decision-Making”.  Refereed paper presented to Management for Ecological Sustainability
            Conference, Brisbane, September 1998

Carnegie, Kashonia L, Howard Neilsen, and Colin Glover.  1999. “Stepping Upstream ‘Naturally’ for                           Cleaner Production through Community Environmental Learning”. Refereed paper for The Second                     Asia Pacific Cleaner Production Roundtable Conference.  Lead paper in division. Brisbane, April,             1999

Carnegie, Kashonia L, Howard Neilsen, and Colin Glover.  2000  “Stepping Upstream ‘Naturally’ for                          Cleaner Production through Community Environmental Learning”. Journal of Cleaner                                        Production.  8 [5]: 391- 396

Gould, Janet, Kashonia L. Carnegie, & Margaret Heylen.  2002.  A Guide to Social Planning for Local                          Government in South Australia. Adelaide: Janet Gould & Associates

Sullivan Mort, Gillian, Jay Weerawardena, and Kashonia Carnegie.  2002.  “Social Entrepreneurship                            Towards Conceptualisation and Measurement”.  Refereed conference paper for the American                            Marketing Association Conference

Sullivan Mort, Gillian, Jay Weerawardena, and Kashonia Carnegie.  2003. “Social Entrepreneurship:                             Towards Conceptualisation”.  International Journal of Non-Profit and Voluntary Sector                            Marketing  8 [1]:76-88

Academic Course Design Materials

Carnegie, Kashonia L. and Anne Pisarski.  1998. Negotiation Skills for Organisations. Brisbane:                       University of Queensland.      

Carnegie, Kashonia L. and Anne Pisarski.  1998.  Mediation Skills for Organisations.  Brisbane:
            University of Queensland

Carnegie, Kashonia L. and Anne Pisarski.  1998.  Power and Negotiation.  Brisbane: University of                         Queensland

Carnegie, Kashonia L.  2002.  The Emotionally Intelligent Leader. Adelaide:The University of Adelaide

Carnegie, Kashonia L.  2002.  A Systems Approach to Managing Contemporary Organisations
            Adelaide: Adelaide University

Sundry Publications and Non-Refereed Papers

Carnegie, Kashonia L.  1997.  Assignment Writing Handbook.  A 53 page published handbook. Brisbane:             University of Queensland

Carnegie, Kashonia L.  1998. Handbook for Honours Students.Brisbane: Graduate School of Management,             University of Queensland 

Carnegie, Kashonia L.  1998.  “Integration of Business Ethics Education into the Undergraduate and
            Postgraduate Management Programs”.  Research paper prepared for the Graduate School of
            Management and Department of Management Review Committee, University of Queensland.

Carnegie, Kashonia L. 1999.  “Increasing Ethical Sensitivity”.  In J. McColl-Kennedy and G. Kiel (eds)
            Marketing: A Strategic Approach. Melbourne: Nelson ITP

Carnegie, Kashonia.  2001.  “Rationalism Fails the Ethics Test”.  In ‘A Special Report on The Green                            Bottom Line’. Australian Financial Review. August 1st 2001: 14-15

Carnegie, Kashonia L.  2001.  Assignment Writing Handbook. 2nd Edition.  120 pages.
            Brisbane: Graduate School of Management, University of Queensland

Carnegie, Kashonia.  2009.  Writing University Papers in 10 Easy Steps. Formerly Assignment Writing                         Handbook. 3rd (International) Edition. Ravenshoe, Queensland. Australia: A Kashonia International             Publication 

Carnegie, Kashonia. 2008. We Can All Be Inspirational Leaders through Emotional Intelligence.                     Ravenshoe, Queensland. Australia: A Kashonia International Publication   

Carnegie, Kashonia.2008. Sustainable Living for a Sustainable Life & a Sustainable World. Ravenshoe,                 Queensland. Australia: A Kashonia International Publication

Some of the more

Memorable Workshops and Learning Activities

will give you an idea of my diverse range of interests

I continue to research, and spend a fortune on books, CDs, and workshops; but there's no need to continue to list them at this time.

* indicates intensive and extensive private research which frequently included regular correspondence with a range of academics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - USA - who provided me with some wonderful ground-breaking information.