People constantly suggest they have to balance different values as if I didn't. It came up in a recent conversation so I shared about it today. An element I factor in is how my pollution affects others---not just what I know about or wish I contributed, but what I actually contribute. Yet people think I factor in nothing else. It's weird to learn people see you as one-dimensional. If they felt others viewed them as they see me, they'd be insulted.
I think I've accidentally led people astray, sharing how much I enjoy acting in stewardship. I would prefer doing anything I wanted whenever and wherever, on my terms---that is, if I didn't have to consider how my behavior affected others, especially those powerless to stop my effects from hurting them. A worker uses a rope to move through a pile of empty plastic bottles at a recycling workshop in Mumbai June 5, 2014. According to the United Nations Environment Programme website, World Environment Day is celebrated annually on June 5 to raise global awareness and motivate action for environmental protection.…
Frances Hesselbein's Leadership Forum at the University of Pittsburgh quoted me for today's Tip of the Day. Yes, I'm shamelessly showing off ;), but I can't put into words how honored I feel to contribute to Frances's community. To serve is to live. The source The quote comes from my Kosmos Quarterly article, Our Finest Hour, If We Choose: The unedited quote Frances's Leadership Forum edited the quote from the original. Here's the original context, though I recommend reading the whole piece. Businesspeople who lead can transform markets from ‘serving growth’ to serving people and communities, like Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard.…
Talk about pollution, and people point their fingers in different directions. Many people point to Asia as polluting more. For example, this chart says Asian countries pollute the ocean more. Look at where all the so-called mismanaged plastic waste comes from---that is, plastic that makes it into the ocean. East Asia looks horrible! But look at the plastic waste per capita. The US dominates, with a few countries in Europe and elsewhere contributing, but without our total population. We see similar results for other pollution per capita. The media shows Asian cities like Beijing and New Delhi, but western nations…
From the CDC, so far: United States before Covid-19 With institutions like the CDC, Harvard, and Mayo, the United States had the world's most knowledgeable medical researchers. With institutions like our hospitals, National Guard, and military, the United States had the most ability to respond to health crises. Our entrepreneurs and business people can produce goods and services as effectively as any in the world, arguably the best. The American people want to live as long and healthily as anyone. The world has known how to respond to pandemics. Am I missing something about the people and institutions the US…
Frankly, I don't see many signs of hope for us to handle the environment. Walking around my neighborhood, I'd say maybe 20 percent of people are wearing masks. Bars and restaurants are packing people within six feet of each other. Headlines about Texas, Florida, and Arizona show people's cavalier attitudes leading to opinion over nature. Still, here are a few signs of hope. Ozone: humanity banded together to ban CFCs. We took decades to do it, but who were the doomsayers who got it all wrong? Those who said we couldn't do it. CVS cigarettes: the chain chose to stop…
Many articles lament the restaurant industry's struggles with the pandemic. What's so great about restaurants? Fewer restaurants doesn't mean fewer jobs or business, just shifting them to other areas---people have to eat, after all. People would cook at home more, where they would eat healthier, connect with family more, and pollute less. I would probably like a restaurant from decades ago, when they cooked from scratch, not all so-called comfort food. Nearly all restaurants serve mostly doof, not food. They design menus for comfort and entertainment, not health, nutrition, or local economies. Now kids can't identify vegetables. https://youtu.be/bGYs4KS_djg https://youtu.be/UmKpzKcs_0g Here…
I feel honored that Kosmos Journal's Summer Quarterly 2020 published my first piece for them, Our Finest Hour, If We Choose. Kosmos Quarterly | a peer-reviewed e-journal of transformational writing, spoken word, video, music and art. Each Kosmos Quarterly is a deep dive into a special theme through the lens of transformation. Kosmos convenes a new Editorial Circle, each season to cross-pollinate ideas and share the fruits of their practice around the emerging theme of the Quarterly. The magazine is beautifully laid out and written, containing equal parts aesthetic beauty and thought-provoking content. Here's the cover: Here are the contents, including my piece: My…
I knew my daily streaks of writing in my blog and doing burpees of nearly ten years were just starts. I like to find role models. I discovered sidcha streaks that dwarf mine, in fact that started before I was born. Two organizations---Streak Runners International and United States Running Streak Association---track people who have run at least a mile per day. Their slogan: "Through weather, injury, illness, and life events, we run everyday." I put their list below of runners with streaks longer than my longest sidcha---writing in this blog. The longest active running streak belongs to Jon Sutherland, at…
The four-step process I describe in my first TEDx talk goes: What does the environment mean to you? What do you think about when you act on the environment?I invite you at your option to think of something to do to act on that meaning or motivation?Make it a SMART goalSchedule a follow-up conversation to hear how it goes. My new challenge I developed another challenge for when someone practices something that pollutes or hurts others and they want to decrease. For example, someone who mows their lawn with a riding mower, so far thinking there was no alternative. This…
I talk a lot about Nelson Mandela during the lock down. Americans lose our shit after a month or two locked down. We can access all the culture, music, art, literature, etc that's ever been recorded. We can buy food from all over the world. We can talk to friends and family with video. Yet we act like we can't handle it. Here was Nelson Mandela's cell for 18 years on Robben Island, their Alcatraz: The red bucket was his toilet. People around here are barely wearing masks---maybe 20 to 25 percent---let alone acting on significant problems of the day.…
Few associate environmental action with the American political right. Many think that community doesn't care about clean air, water, and land. I don't buy it. I think they care as much as anyone. How they act is another story, but I see almost no one on the American political left acting any more. I believe politics has made a wedge issue out of something everyone cares about, leading one side to smugly say they're right while not acting, while the other says, "you're telling us what to do buy you aren't doing it yourselves," so nobody acts and everyone feels…
The Heroes of New York podcast host Anu Senan posted our conversation. The show features people who show exemplary behavior in the epicenter of the epicenter. She liked the episode enough to invited me for a second episode (EDIT: here's the second episode: Heroes of New York, episode 2: Doing meaningful things, a conversation on change), so I think you'll like it too. See the show notes below for details. Listen to the episode. Show notes “Prison life is about routine: each day like the one before; each week like the one before it, so that the months and years…
People keep citing Elon Musk as helping the environment. As best I can tell, most things he does harm the environment---that is, they lower the earth's ability to sustain life and human society. He might think he's helping, but I see the pattern going the other way, as I described in my podcast post and episode, Technology won’t solve environmental issues and you know it. One electric car compared to an internal combustion engine car saves fuel, but he wants to sell as many as possible. His overall strategy increases overall consumption, just as the Watt steam engine led to…
Chris Gassman of The Market and the Good podcast posted two episodes with me. The first covered my work in under 10 minutes. Since I described my podcast 4-step process, he chose to try it out, which we did for the second episode, as a deep dive. Most podcast hosts shy away from being guests on their shows. They tend to feel vulnerable at answering questions, especially about stewardship. Chris went the other way, embracing vulnerability and responsibility, as leaders do. Check out the episodes:
Ledarskap och miljön Sverige (in English Leadership and the Environment Sweden) launched today! It is "En podd om att agera pÃ¥ sina värderingar för naturen och att finna glädje och mening i det" or "A podcast about acting on your values for nature and finding joy and meaning in it." Beautiful! I'm proud to be the first guest. Here's the first episode: https://shows.acast.com/ledarskap-och-miljon/ Why start a new branch of Leadership and the Environment? I've shared for a while the opportunity to start new branches of Leadership in the Environment X, where X is something you love that I'm not, for…
I posted the following to my Psychology Today blog: Image courtesy Freepng.com An article today, Bill Gates Thinks That The 1% Should Foot The Bill To Combat Climate Change, said, "Bill Gates believes that private investors should foot the bill for increased spending on technologies to fight global climate change. He has pledged to commit $2 billion himself." Does something strike you as disingenuous? Don't Gates's yachts, jets, and mansions burn through fossil fuels more than nearly anyone in history? When one person's actions matter Before you say, "he's only one person. He could only infect a few people, what's…
TED and TEDxConnecticutCollege posted my third TEDx talk (scroll down for my first two). I can't express my gratitude for the organizers for the opportunity to develop and deliver this talk. The event was February 29, just as the pandemic was starting. I believe the pandemic only makes my message more valuable. People Don't Want to Do Small Things. They Want to Do Meaningful Things. https://youtu.be/3GMTpaxlLGg I consider it my most meaningful talk. Times rehearsing it, tears streamed down my face, thinking of role models who led us through challenges before---especially that boat. If you like it, please share and…
[EDIT (May 4): My third TEDx talk just went up. I recommend watching it.] I gave the following talk for My Green Lab's Sustainability Summit. I recommend watching it to the end. It's based on my third TEDx talk, for TEDxConnecticutCollege, which TED is still editing but should appear soon. We're probably all used to keynotes delivered from people's homes, but on March 24th it was still new. The people I mention in the talk My sledding hill, covered in the Philadelphia Inquirer: "the hill on the northwest side of the house was called Tommy's Hill, considered for generations one…
James Lipton, who started and hosted the show Inside the Actors Studio, died yesterday. Here are the notes I read from for this episode: I could talk about how much I enjoyed the episodes, his humor, and a few things I learned from his guests that only his interviewing could have elicited but I will go deeper, to share how fundamental his work has been to mine. Many times I've said that if my courses existed before I went to business school and someone were teaching them, I would have taken them instead of business school and gotten more of…
The media has covered me and the blog in the past couple weeks.: ForbesThe Faherty JournalA top 15 must-read blog awardA top 100 blog awardA top 10 influencer award Forbes I'm honored that Forbes contributor Mark Nevins mentioned me and a life principle of mine in a piece What Are Your Big Rocks?: Getting prioritization right means ensuring that you have a small number of clear goals, and that you are ruthless in focusing your time, energy, and other resources on accomplishing those goals—while at the same time not getting distracted by less important things.  As my friend Joshua Spodek likes…
Would you expect me on a podcast called Ask Women Podcast: What Women Want? With an episode title "How To Be A Leader With Women | The BJ Technique"? Yes, 'BJ' meaning what you think. Here are the notes about the hosts, Marni Kinrys and Kristen Carney: What do a female comic and a professional wing girl have in common? The realistically raw and hilarious perspectives on what women ACTUALLY want in a man. Prepare to be offended and awed as Marni Kinrys & Kristen Carney take you through the uncensored and often ridiculous mind of a woman to help…
". . . but what I do doesn't matter . . ." Regular listeners know I can't stand this phrase. If you're like most people, you want to act on the environment. You want to make sure you make a difference and fear wasting your time or doing pointless work. I felt that way before I started the path that led to this podcast. Taking initiative overcame it. I wrote my book, Initiative, on taking initiative based on the course I've taught at corporations and NYU to stellar student reviews and videos. If you want to make a difference on…
You know how Hollywood and other media can lead people on the environment? They can write characters that act environmentally as a matter of course--that is, without calling attention to it. Not to make an environmental superhero or character that makes a big deal about it. Make characters eat sustainably, put sweaters on in the winter, bring bags shopping, take public transit, choose to vacation close to home, and things like that. Making it showy, I suspect would make the effect preachy. Making it normal, I expect would lead people to feel times have changed. It may sound small, but…
I gave the lead off keynote talk at the 9th annual Sustainology, hosted by the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce at Citi's headquarters in Tribeca, Manhattan on November 12, 2019. 12 Nov. 2019 New York NY USA Sustainology Summit 201912 Nov. 2019 New York NY USA Sustainology Summit 201912 Nov. 2019 New York NY USA Sustainology Summit 201912 Nov. 2019 New York NY USA Sustainology Summit 2019 Sustainology's mission “An Impact Unicorn is a disruptive company impacting over 1 billion peopleâ€Let’s measure the success of unicorn companies through impact instead of dollars! In a single day, ‘Sustainology Summit – One…