Earth Day

Today is Earth Day.  But of course every day is earth day.  

Here is something to contemplate.

Activist and author Naomi Klein tells a story about the time she travelled to Australia at the request of Aboriginal elders. They wanted her to know about their struggle to prevent white people from dumping radioactive wastes on their land.

Her hosts brought her to their beloved wilderness, where they camped under the stars. They showed her "secret sources of fresh water, plants used for bush medicines, hidden eucalyptus-lined rivers where the kangaroos come to drink." 

After three days, Klein grew restless. When were they going to get down to business?

"Before you can fight," she was told, "you have to know what you are fighting for."

I retold this story to a company recently as part of a pitch for working with sustainability managers.  Suffice to say, it wasn’t appreciated.  “As a person I get it, but it is not appropriate in this context” we were told.

Nature is worth saving for its own sake.  If we as humans want to co-exist, we need to realise our connectivity with it.  We can so easily disconnect ourselves, particularly if we are sitting in an office feeling far removed.   It can bypass us that everything around us is born from the earth, that everything we do has an effect.  To ponder on the raw materials and production processes, that made this city, this chair, this cup of coffee, one can only be humbled and awed at the gifts of nature and the ingenuity of people, and be pained at the impact we have.

The path to sustainability or a more respectful co-existence with the earth, is a spectrum.  At one end, are the companies who adopt sustainable practices as a legal obligation.  For others, it is purely a profit-driven motive, a strategic approach for survival.  Along the continuum is recognition that there is shared value in a balance (good for business, good for society).  At best,  a systemic approach, one that recognises the interrelationship between economic, social and environmental elements, is taken.

We can only do this if individually, we become more conscious of our own actions, and our sense of belonging in the world around us.   This collective sense of interconnectedness will help our communities and companies make more earth responsible decisions.

There are numerous ways and experiences that we can draw on to nurture this.  Here is one...mindful walking.  As Thich Nhat Hanh said,  'Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.'

 

Naomi Klein story (tinyurl.com/5q84zh) as told in R. Brezny (2009) Pronoia is the Antitode of Paranoia, North Atlantic Books, page 76

Leaders: here are your 3 key short-term supporters

Leadership can be a lonely place –  the more senior we are, the more isolated we may become.  The more complexity we have to deal with, the more disconnected we may feel.  Faced with huge roles and responsibilities and far reaching mandates, leaders operate in an increasingly fast paced, changing and competitive world.  I feel this is particularly pressing for those leaders who are serious about sustainability with its complexities and challenges.

Operating in this context, some leaders don’t know where to turn and are reluctant to ask for support.  We may feel like we have to figure it out all by ourselves. We may just be reluctant to ask for fear of rejection, lack of time, or not wanting to ‘bother’ someone else.

We all grow incrementally, day by day we change.  To use the caterpillar analogy, even bigger changes like shedding our skin will only take us so far.  At some point, something more transformational needs to happen for us to evolve further.  During these significant moments, it is a good idea to have particular people who can help us on our way. To help us go deeper into ourselves, to gain different perspectives, to further release our potential and gifts. Engaging with these people only needs to be short term. But they can be fundamental in giving us just the right impetus to spring forward.

Slowly, slowly there is recognition in the organisational world, that mentor and coaches can be those people.  There are still the sceptics that view coaching as remedial, as opposed to the view as held by any sports person, that it is a necessity for high performance.  Whilst some executives balk at the idea of being mentored, let alone coached, I predict with the growing interest in neurological science and conscious leadership, we will progressively see a willingness and openness to engage with, and talk about working with psychotherapists and psychologists, as leaders.   

Yes, we are fully functioning whole human beings.  But what support do we need and who will we engage to help?  So those 3,  in order of depth and possibility:

A mentor – often, but not always older and more experienced,  or with a different knowledge or expertise within or outside the organisation.  The role is focused on sharing what they know. They can be a useful ‘sparring partner’ to bounce ideas off, usually around what to do.

A leadership coach –   not necessarily from the same business/sector/expertise but whose independence, neutrality and 3^rd person view, helps us to stand back and reflect on how we operate as a leader. The role is focused on raising our levels of consciousness and helping us to find our own solutions, through challenging and supporting, questioning and feedback.

                                                                                                                                        

A psychotherapist/psychologist - usually independent and there to go deeper into the workings of our minds, to explore why we think and do what we do. The role is focused on helping us to uncover ingrained beliefs and patterns, often going back into our childhood experiences.

These 3 may overlap. There may be mentors who will use a coaching style. There may be coaches who offer specific advice.  Coaches or mentors may be trained in psychology or/and psychotherapy.  But essentially each will be clear as to what they can and cannot offer.

As an example, I have been working with a UN leader who is looking to be promoted, and is keen to develop his diplomacy skills.  In our coaching discussion, we concentrated on exploring what diplomacy means to him, how he already demonstrates diplomacy in his professional and private life, what he struggles with and what he think he needs to work on.    One of the questions I asked, was “who is a good role model for you?”;, “what could you do that he does?”. This lead to identifying a colleague in the organisation he would like to have an explicit mentor relationship with.  And I know from our discussions, that there are patterns of his control behaviour that are so embedded, I can only help him so far.   However for now, the support I can give him is enough from where he stands.

Leadership is an act of courage.

Part of that courage is to know how to seek support and to be prepared to take a deep dive into that ‘inner place’ from which we operate.         

It sounds like a start of a joke.

3 people could walk into your office.

One will help you figure out what you need to do.

One will help you figure out how you think.

One will help you figure out why you think like you do.

Each unfolding will reveal greater understanding and solutions for you.

You just have to figure out who you will engage with, and when.

Notes:  If you would like to engage a leadership coach, please feel free to contact me.

Photo Dennis Flood 2003 via google images

When the rubber hits the road: VW scandal

It is an industry which epitimises power and control...it creates products of power and control...its leadership is about power and control.

The recent scandal at VW has revealed the dark side of this focus.  An anthropocentric view of the world, willing to deceive to get diesel cars sold in America, to supersede the competition, to win and dominate at all costs. 

The irony is that, as Whiteman points out, only ten days prior, VW was named by the

Dow Jones Sustainability Index as the industry group leader for sustainability in Automotive and Components, with the now ex CEO Martin Winterkom saying “it confirms that the Volkswagen Group is well on the way to establishing itself long term as the world’s most sustainable automaker”.

And so to the words of Eckhart Tolle..”Are you polluting the world or cleaning up the mess?”.  As he points out, “the more the dysfunction of the human mind plays itself out on the world stage, clearly visible to everyone in the daily television news reports, the greater the number of people who realise the urgent need for a radical change in human consciousness if humanity is not to destroy itself and the planet”.

In many ways, VW has responded in typical fashion – with Winterkom’s resignation.   The new CEO Matthias Müller has come in, with the “urgent task to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group – by leaving no stone unturned with maximum transparency, as well as drawing the right conclusions from the current situation”.

I can understand the logic of such an approach.  However, perhaps counterintuitive and risky, what if they took the alternative to this traditional reaction of damage control designed to sooth the market...and Winterkom stayed not out of denial or defiance but out of integrity?.  To enable the real wound to show.  To enhance the prospect of authentic, open and honest conversations to take place internally and externally. 

As the poet Rumi wrote “the wound is the place where the light enters you”.

Arguably removing Winterkom reduces the appearance of the wound...and therefore the amount of light able to enter.  

Perhaps true transparency can only come with true vulnerability, where there is a willingness to expose and engage with an undefended heart as opposed to the default of power and control.   Müller does have a huge challenge – he has to create that space for deep reflection, deep listening and deep inquiry.  To be willing to not rush to get answers and solutions, but to allow the hurts, doubts and worries to surface. To allow sense making to occur.  To have the courage to explore the failings of the company and look into the shadows that allowed such betrayal to people and planet.    

The extent to which VW and indeed the rest of the automobile industry responds to this scandal and engages in exploring their individual and collective unconsciousness to create real transformation, will be when the rubber hits the road.  The real moment of truth.   

Sources (in addition to hyperlinks): Eckhart Tolle, E (2005), The Power of Now, Hodder and Stoughton Ltd, London (quoted pages: 65 and xii respectively.)  and image: www.freakwheel.com