Leadership

Climate Week NYC was a month or so ago, but its sliminess lingers. I'm writing this post not to complain, but to call attention for the need for leadership, integrity, and credibility. I saw none there, but huge demand for it. I haven't engaged yet with the event planners so attended passively, therefore include myself in showing no leadership there. It's further motivation to finish my next book, which will be my platform for taking responsibility and leading. In the meantime, people act performatively---that is, as if they were helping, but doing nothing effective, or more often counterproductive. Take, for example, the first thing on display at one of the main events, a race car. Is the idea that its being electric means it helps?…

With a podcast and book on sustainability leadership, I've been invited to many events at so-called Climate Week. It's when people fly from all over the world to talk about what other people should do. I wrote the following as constructive criticism. It's what I would expect people who take personal responsibility for how their actions affect others would want to know. My top thought is surprise, even as jaded as I am about so-called environmentalists: Everyone I heard speak, when they talk about polluters, they talk as if it's different people than themselves. This makes no sense. They are among the greatest polluters on the planet, who have ever lived. Why do they act like the big polluters are other people? It bears repeating:…

There's nothing like Hands-On Practical Experience. People who haven't tried keep telling me various ways of hurting people are impossible, that people wouldn't go for them. Yet, simply trying reveals ever more little advances. Once I learned to find it joyful and rewarding to reduce suffering instead of a burden or chore, as mainstream global teaches, I find ever more ways to create joy and find reward. Two examples I don't claim these examples make that much of a difference, but the Spodek Method leads to a mindset shift followed by continual improvement, not followed by perfection. For years, for some reason, I've had a hard time moving sound and video files from my computer to my cell phone to where I could listen and…

Working in sustainability leadership, I interact a lot with people working on sustainability. Most of them are politically liberal or progressive. I'm prompted to write this post after finishing This Changes Everything and What If We Get It Right, both books promoting those politics. They keep saying how individuals acting aren't the answer. They imply or say that suggesting so is harmful. They all keep falling back on BP and its industry distracting from themselves by promoting individual carbon footprints. They oppose not just any one individual acting. They tend to oppose any individual action at all. From a leadership perspective, doing what they say is a problem while telling others it's bad when others do it seems to sacrifice their credibility, integrity, and effectiveness.…