The causes inside you of our environmental problems

Think of something you do that pollutes, but you do it anyway. You've justified why it's okay. You're balancing you desire to do good or whatever on one side with something on the other. Actually, think of all the things you do that pollute, if you can. You've justified all of them. At least you do in the moment you do them. Maybe you fly to visit relatives, buy takeout, fly for work, buy more clothes than you need, use straws, use a clothes dryer, leave the air conditioner on when, . . . whatever. Think of your thoughts when…

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Would you have opposed atrocities in the past? Do you oppose them today?

We look up to historical figures who opposed great atrocities of the past, especially helping people who couldn't help themselves, which we consider on a different level than just helping ourselves, or at least I do. For example: Oskar SchindlerDietrich BonhoefferFrederick DouglassThomas ClarksonWilliam WilberforceWilliam Lloyd Garrison History shows that most people don't help others in difficult times. For every one Oskar Schindler, maybe millions of Germans in the 1930s and 40s figured what they did wouldn't matter and went with the flow. For every one Thomas Clarkson, maybe millions of others kept buying sugar, rum, and other slave-produced good. We…

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Liberals: get your stories straight, part 1: individual ability and responsibility.

I'll start with a liberal inconsistency relevant to sustainability, not that they monopolize them or are the most egregious, but I have to start somewhere. Mention anything related to my environmental footprint or personal action to many liberals and I'd better prepare for them to lecture me on how BP publicized the concept to deflect blame from them to individuals, or some similar reason why their or my actions don't matter. I think they partly want to show off how smart they are knowing about BP's nefarious plots, or think they are, but mostly I think they want to rationalize…

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Coach John Wooden on sustainability

I just finished reading Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court. His coaching tells more how to live sustainably as individuals and a culture than anything else I remember reading or hearing. For those who don't know, from Wikipedia: John Wooden (1910 – 2010) was an American basketball coach and player. He won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period as head coach for the UCLA Bruins, including a record seven in a row. No other team has won more than four in a row. His teams won a record 88 consecutive games. Wooden…

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Teamwork will elevate us to victory

Can anyone imagine a sports or business team suggesting the way to success is to ignore teamwork and only focus on individual action? Here is what winning as a team looks like. You can imagine how it feels. When I hear someone say, "one person's actions don't matter", "only governments and corporations can make a difference," and the like, I want to let them in on how a come-from-behind victory can feel. When everyone on the team delivers for everyone else, not for him- or herself, the each benefits individually. I've been on teams that have won great victories. I've…

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Pandemic Fatigue? How to Achieve Pandemic Thriving

I posted on handling what people call pandemic fatigue to Thrive Global today: Pandemic Fatigue? How to Achieve Pandemic Thriving. Here's the text of the article: When I learned I would be locked down indefinitely, knowing we were all heading into unknown territory, I looked for role models. Who had handled such a situation successfully? Nelson Mandela had been locked down for twenty-seven years, most of that time on a cold island, breaking rocks, with a bucket for a toilet. He negotiated with presidents of the nation that locked him up and emerged to get their jobs. I could see…

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Did you make 2020 your finest hour?

“Our finest hour” never describes a bright sunny morning with the birds singing, however fine such an hour. I associate the phrase with the movie Apollo 13. The flight director said the astronauts' perilous state after an explosion in space on the way to the moon “could be the worst disaster NASA's ever experienced.” His peer responded, “With all due respect, sir, I believe this is going to be our finest hour.” He helped make it so. Winston Churchill said of the Battle of Britain, "if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we…

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On pledges to lower emissions by 2030 and 2050

Corporations and governments are pledging to lower emissions, maybe to net zero (What “net zero” and “closed loop” mean.), by 2030 or 2050. Nearly everyone recognizes goals past the pledgers' retirement close to meaningless. What will give them meaning is not hope or appreciation, but accountability, especially imposed from without. Even with accountability, these pledges could set earlier targets. We all know they can. The tragic message from everyone except, as far as I know, me, is that these changes are a burden, chore, obligation, distraction, and sacrifice. I say they're opportunities and sources of joy. Anyone who understood my…

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Signs of hope

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…

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Differences between management and leadership

I may have written these views before, but I find they boil management, leadership, and their differences to their essence, so if I'm repeating myself, I think they're worth it. Effective management results in compliance. Effective leadership results in inspiration. Leaders without management skills are often dreamers who don't get things done. Management without leadership is the DMV. If you want an engineer to sell, you can promise all the bonus pay you want, you can rarely manage an engineer into becoming a salesperson. Show that engineer how what you're selling delivers on something he or she feels passionate about…

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Inspired by the first women to wear pants

The latest crazy talk people have hit me with is describing not flying and avoiding garbage as "unsustainable" and "impossible." Many say I'm wasting my time. As best I can tell, they're excusing themselves for living against their values, but it's let me to see my behavior in new ways. Call me crazy, but I believe polluting less is the future, no matter how impossible it seems for people who prefer to delay action by saying they're building "awareness" or making themselves more "conscious," as if they need more front-page news to remind them that nature isn't waiting around for…

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Technology won’t solve environmental issues and you know it

EDIT: I recorded a podcast version of this post (episode 63) that covered same views beyond this post: If anything marked the beginning of the industrial revolution, it was James Watt's steam engine. It wasn't the first steam engine, but was more efficient than any before. More efficient means using less energy and less pollution, right? Wrong. Each engine, yes, but more people used engines, so Watt engines used more energy and polluted more than anything. They drained mines, which helped collect more coal, which fed more engines. The direct result is today's polluted world. If you fantasize that technological…

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How to get votes for Donald Trump

Since most people I know voted for Clinton, I presume most of my readers did. Though I don't like Trump as president, as long as tens of millions of Americans voted for him, I hope my readers represent the population more faithfully than the population of lower Manhattan. Trump's win surprised most Clinton supporters. My reaching out to Trump voters and speaking with them explained a lot to me. The Trump voters I spoke to weren't the racist, sexist, xenophobic, etc people so stupid as to vote against their own interests that Clinton supporters made them out as. The tragedy…

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Beliefs and the environment

I wanted to share some thoughts on reading The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf, one of the New York Times' 10 best books of 2017. Who is Alexander von Humboldt? The New York Times review of the book explains: Alexander von Humboldt was the pre-eminent scientist of his time. Contemporaries spoke of him as second in fame only to Napoleon. All over the Americas and the English-speaking world, towns and rivers are still named after him, along with mountain ranges, bays, waterfalls, 300 plants and more than 100 animals. There is a Humboldt glacier,…

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Enron Environmentalism (Inc.)

Enron Environmentalism Enron looked profitable when it compartmentalized and hid its losses. Do you compartmentalize and hide your pollution? I just had lunch with a man who described himself as fanatical about the environment--in particular, about water bottles. He illustrated by describing how fastidiously he handled them. As he started his story, I expected him to describe how he never used water bottles. Americans have such clean and drinkable water that water made unclean makes front page news for weeks. Specifically, he lives near Manhattan, and our water wins blind taste tests with consumers. The EPA finds it meets or exceeds all safety requirements. I figured he knew that 91% of plastic isn't…

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Updates on Limits to Growth, finally!

One of my top resources on the environment is the book Limits to Growth. Reading it was revelatory. They approached the environment the way I thought made sense, then created a model, researched the numbers, plugged them in, and got answers. What made sense was what they call a systemic approach---not to look at one of all the interacting parts, but to look at the whole system, including how the parts interacted. For example, I sensed that just improving technology didn't feel like it would solve everything. The Green Revolution, for example, led to more food, but used fossil fuels…

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An ideal year’s outcome

A recent workshop I attended had me write my dream of a "Year of Opportunity"---that is, what I'd like to make happen if I achieved everything I could. Normally we don't share our greatest hopes and expectations since they enable others to judge us---for dreaming too much, for being unrealistic, for thinking too much of ourselves, for not achieving our dreams, and so on. So what? I'm going to share anyway. It's mostly about the podcast I'm working on, Leadership and the Environment, as the start of a movement to change mainstream beliefs and behaviors so people want to lower…

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How science improves leadership and coaching: My conversation with Ron Potter

Does a background in science help someone lead? ... does it help someone coach? If so, how? I spoke with longtime leadership and executive coach Ron Potter, who came from an engineering and technical background to coach executives at top levels of major global companies, about how our backgrounds help. We covered: How a science and technical background helps us understand and work with emotions better than others ... and the limits of rationality ... and how to work with them effectively, calmly, and productively How science helps change beliefs, freeing yourself and teams from mental jails How a science…

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Absurdly Useful Leadership Tactics That You Can Use Today: the second interview with Jim Harshaw

I don't know if the interviewers are getting better, if I'm developing in conversation, or if I'm just enjoying podcast conversations more, but it feels like the interviews are getting better all the time. Yesterday, Jim Harshaw (scroll down to learn more about him) of the Success Through Failure podcast posted our second conversation. Second conversations lead to greater comfort, depth, trust, and intimacy, so I recommend listening. We cover a couple exercises from the book, connecting leadership to everyday living, sports, and more. Jim was a division 1 athlete and coach, among many other achievements so he knows leadership…

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How I will measure the success of my book

People keep congratulating me on publishing my book, for selling copies, for celebrities mentioning me. I like those things, but the book is a medium of communication. I consider it a means to an end. The point of the book is to give people tools to improve their lives, to develop the skills of empathy, compassion, responsibility, self-awareness, discipline, creating meaning, value, importance, purpose, passion, and related social and emotional skills that traditional education doesn't teach. "Leadership" is the closest word to it, but conjures up mental images of a man in a business suit giving orders for many people…

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The Leadership Podcast interviewed me. What great interviewers!

The Leadership Podcast---hosted by Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos---posted their interview of me today, "What An Ivy League Degree Can’t Teach You." Jan and Jim have clear passions and experience for leadership and interviewing. Their questions got to the heart of what I teach, what my book, Leadership Step by Step, is about, my goals in teaching, my motivations, and the inside story. Highly recommended! Here's their introduction and description on their page with the interview Professor and scientist, Josh Spodek, created specific exercises that teach emotionally intelligent behaviors   Summary & Ideas for Action Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim…

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Blurbs and Endorsements for Leadership Step by Step

Reviews of Leadership Step by Step By Joshua Spodek Buy Leadership Step by Step on Amazon! https://youtu.be/3n2gecJha6o Great leaders aren’t born with a ‘leadership gene’; great leaders develop the necessary skills and gain confidence through practice and hard work. In Leadership Step by Step Joshua Spodek presents a thoughtful approach to becoming a highly effective leader that emphasizes the importance of experiential learning. It will serve as a valuable resource for leaders at all levels in any profession. Indeed, Joshua’s practical exercises will help prospective, as well as experienced leaders, to master their craft and ultimately to succeed in leading…

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Stop Unwanted Beliefs From Sabotaging Your Self-Improvement: Read my guest post in Tanveer Naseer’s blog

Tanveer Naseer is the recipient of several awards and recognitions as one of the top thinkers/writers in the leadership sphere, including being recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the Top 100 Leadership and Management Experts, earning a #3 ranking on HR Examiner’s Top 25 Online Influencers in Leadership, and being consistent ranked on numerous lists as one of Top 15 Leadership Bloggers in the world. He read an advanced copy of my book and asked me to write a guest post for his blog. I wish we could have recorded our conversation about leadership, writing, and teaching. I agreed and…

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Listen to a wonderful interview of me by Sami Honkonen of Boss Level podcast

Sami Honkonen records Boss Level Podcast Interviews with interesting people doing awesome things Boss Level is a podcast on people and organizations aiming for the boss level. Boss level is the status a person or an organization achieves by making a better quality of life for themselves and others by doing what they need to do regardless of all the haters and obstacles out there. I love his interview of me, "Joshua Spodek and seven years of burpees," which he posted today. If you like my material and, especially, if you're curious about my long-term direction and goals for it---my…

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The leader as accompanist

The mainstream view of the leader is as the quarterback or command-and-control general. It's changing, but those views seem the most common. Different models for leading work better for different situations. Alternative models that I find work more often are that The leader serves his or her followers, see "Lessons in leadership from Frances Hesselbein, part 1" The leader is like a gardener, see "Jack Welch’s Gardening Model of Leadership" Another model I've used in teaching that applies to leadership comes from one of my physics professors who has become a friend since the early 90s. He plays piano and…

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