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Jim Jenkins
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INITIATIVE ESSAY, JIM JENKINS 2024-07

Who am I? Initiative-entrepreneurship-responsibility

A crusader for just causes, a do gooder, someone who is known for smuggling lost dogs into my University dorm on a very cold night to keep them warm and who is willing to ‘do the right thing’ even though it may create professional strife for me.

I’m determined, structured, an analytical thinker and logical in achieving goals, with an eye for innovative ideas that moves a purpose or objective forward to make things work better. These traits and my science background makes me a great problem solver; gather relevant information; engage others, look at the broader system, analyze the situation, develop options, try a few things out, plan and execute.

A considerable amount of my professional work has had to do with identifying problems and influencing change. I prefer to work within the existing system and structure to influence positive change but am also a provoker if I need to be. It is important to me to understand the vision of where we are trying to get to in an initiative. Once I have that, and decide it is a worthy cause, I am usually able to marshal a considerable amount of intrinsic motivation to engage and inspire others to invest time to turn intent into action.

I see taking responsibility as a hallmark of ‘good leadership by example’. The quote on my Linkedin in page comes from Robert Swan, ‘The biggest threat to the planet is thinking that someone else is going to save it’. Sometimes I take on too much responsibility that ends up diluting my effort or overall outcome. This is something I’m working on to be more selective about the responsibilities that fit the priorities that mean the most to me, don’t let people put their monkey’s on your back. Often enough, I take on extra responsibility on purpose to get my foot in the door on an issue of concern to me or to challenge myself in a new area. It’s that motivation thing again.

I don’t really think of myself as much of an entrepreneur but I do think I need to become better at it and understanding how they think. Why? because entrepreneurs think differently and it likely has a lot to do with where I’m taking my career next and the cross collaboration I think is needed between communities, commercial enterprises, entrepreneurs….

Why am I telling you all this?

Planetary sustainability is about the biggest problem that modern society has ever faced. It is different from most other problems we’ve faced in our current social construct. That means we need to think differently to solve these ‘new’ problems with different solutions. For the most part, so far we’ve been using traditional thinking to solve these new problems. That gets us some incremental improvement, NOT ENOUGH. To borrow a book title from a very famous leadership coach, What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There.

I believe I have a lot of transferrable skills and enthusiasm I can bring to bear to create new thinking and outcomes. But, I realize I have to learn new things and change my own thinking or I’ll just be part of the problem. I started a career pivot toward sustainability about 3 years ago. No one asked me to within my company, it was just the right thing to do. Today I estimate 80% of my role has a direct link to sustainability. Some of that is skunk works but so what, you have to start somewhere. Skunk works can turn into something.

Thoughts on questions:

What motivated you to learn initiative? What do you hope or expect to come from learning initiative? Strengthen my initiative skills, and broaden my perspective. I have a pretty good plan on where I’m intending to go. I recognize the value of this course as a practice field and structure to aid in getting me where I want to go faster.

What do you think about taking responsibility, taking initiative, solving problems, and creating projects? Familiar territory for me.

What are your models for how taking initiative and entrepreneurship work? Collaborative model, you can’t do it all yourself, remember to ask for help, define your desired outcome and your vision of the future and make space for others to share in that vision, build in independent feedback mechanisms into your plan to identify blind spots.

What has worked for you so far in creating projects? Structure: thoughtful reflection, Clear goals, purpose, meaningful outcome, anticipated problems. What hasn’t? ad hoc, make it up as you go.

Where do you want to take initiative? To business, your social life, family, yourself? Use it to enact my next career chapter to establish myself as a Known Authority in creating positive sustainability thinking and change.

What is your relevant history of taking initiative, if any? This can be your first memories, other relevant memories, and so on. For example, current active work projects I took the initiative to define and start.

Green Products assessment and improvement approach

Product Chemical Risk Management profiles (sustainability footprints)

Community ecosystem sanctuary development

What is the value in taking a course like this? After writing your essay, I recommend sleeping on it, rereading it, and editing it before moving on. Ok, I slept on it. See above but I also expect there will be additional value discovered that I can’t see yet.

My field of interest: Positive sustainability mindset change leadership that turns intent into action

The three lists of three people:

1. Name three people closer to your field of interest:

Per Espen Stoknes, psychologist and economist

Eva Gladek, founder of Metabolic, Eva Gladek has a compelling drive to change the way our economy functions. Her passion and determination to shape a sustainable future has led her to work with organizations in nearly every economic sector, from progressive cities and NGOs, to industry leaders.

2. Name three people with high status or value in your field:

Chistiana Fugue

Christiana Figueres – Co-Founder, Global Optimism

Figueres is an internationally recognized leader on climate action. As Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, she steered the global diplomatic effort that culminated in the 2015 Paris Agreement

Sally Uren

Sally Uren, a global expert on sustainable development, has spent the past two decades developing and delivering sustainability strategies. Renowned for her role as the CEO of Forum for the Future, Sally is on a mission to accelerate progress toward a sustainable future – which she aims to do by catalysing transformational change on a global scale.

Ganesh Shankar –

Water security, safety and conservation are all issues that are becoming increasingly pressing, which is why it is a focus for Shankar. He is the Founder of FluxGen Technologies, which has the goal of de-risking industries from water crisis, and The Sustainability Mafia, an organization aiming to multiply the impact of sustainability leaders through goal-oriented collaboration

3. Name three relevant role models: These three can be people who are living or historical. For all three lists, name people, not positions like the CEO of some company. After you make these lists,

Marshall Goldsmith, Leadership Coach, mindset changes.

Simon Sinek, English-American author and inspirational speaker, positive thinking, leadership

Ken Webster (UK) is a leading thinker in the circular economy field. Ken is widely acknowledged as one of the foremost thinkers in the field. From 2010 – 2018, Ken was Head of Innovation for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, shaping current concepts of a ‘circular economy’.. Ken also co-wrote several books including Sense and Susta

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