My third Hidden Why, with Leigh Martinuzzi

The best conversations and podcast episodes come from friends and experienced conversationalists. Leigh and I have recorded enough together to become friends, though he's in Australia. Today he released our third conversation on his podcast, the Hidden Why (our past episodes). We covered environmental leadership and initiative. I recommend listening. Leigh is an expert, experienced interviewer. He plogs too. His show notes: Welcome back, Josh. This is my third time having Josh on the podcast. I find him absolutely fascinating and inspired by how well he aligns his life with his values. In this interview, I speak with Josh again…

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TEDx talk #2! . . . three chances to see it live

EDIT (11/7/19): The posted the talk: https://youtu.be/sTYiHr1lu10 Now back to my original post: Hello all, I'm pleased to announce my second TEDx talk: TEDxWaltham! This TEDx theme is Going Places. I proposed speaking on not flying and they went for it. It's really about joy, but I'm sworn to secrecy beyond that. I'm enthusiastic to go in a contrarian direction. Who knows, maybe karma I created helped lead to Greta sailing here from Europe. I'd love to involve you so here are 3 chances to see it live. The TEDx event in Waltham, MA, outside Boston, October 5 (details and…

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Why Greta Thunberg is the Leader of the Future

Read my post in Thrive Global following my speaking to her briefly when her boat docked a week and a half ago, then seeing her speak with Naomi Klein last night at an event hosted by The Intercept. Here she is at the event: Yes, my camera phone is the world's crappiest. EDIT: Here's the event. Naomi Klein begins introducing her at 36:38 and Greta begins speaking at 42:45. https://youtu.be/Vw58ckJdDmI?t=2197

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Your Daily Environment 007: Greta Thunberg to sail the Atlantic, July 31, 2019

A friend emailed that Greta Thunberg will sail across the Atlantic. This is Leadership. Anyone could have done it first. I've been trying to sail. She got invited. Everyone who says flying is necessary or that they can't avoid it. . . well, she put the lie to that excuse. If she's achieving her goals more by not flying, what's out there for the rest of us to do next? Can you lead your family similarly? Can you find the joy in sailing? In eating locally? In avoiding packaging? https://youtu.be/e1ntySDJBLY

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The environmental revolution begins here, with the Noetic podcast with Jared Angaza

I met Jared Angaza appearing on each other's podcast a couple years ago. We became great friends at first only online. I met him in person for the first time in San Diego in November after I attended the Summit in Los Angeles. We "broke bread" together by cooking a couple loads of my famous no-packaging vegetable stew for his family and a few of his family groups---about twenty people. Yesterday he posted our conversation on environmental leadership. We summarized my strategy and vision that my podcast and TEDx talk are the start of. Here's the conversation: two guys who…

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The first interview mentioning my upcoming book

Joan Sotkin invited me back to her podcast, Prosperity Place. We mostly spoke about environmental leadership, but it was the first public mentioning of my book coming out in a couple months. From the podcast page, the highlights: People think that acting for the environment is a sacrifice when in fact it’s fun.Regarding the environment, leadership by example doesn’t work.Josh manages to only throw out one small back of garbage a year! We talk about this.He meets people where they are in order to encourage them to change their habits.Community motivates culture change.Josh aims for measurable results while people enjoy…

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Martin Luther King and the Environment

People keep praising my polluting less by avoiding packaging and avoiding flying, but few change themselves. Would-be leaders talk about how others should change their behavior while they don't change themselves. Here's an article by the CEO of Coca-Cola, Why a World Without Waste is Possible, describing some change other people did but not change he did. Maybe he's reduced his personal pollution, but I don't see it. I suspect he flies a lot and has all the excuses in the world justifying his flying. Most people I talk to about their personal pollution claims that their pollution Doesn't hurt…

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Environmental inaction and selfishness, Environmental action and selflessness

I've spoken to a lot of people about environmental action and inaction. While I haven't done double-blind randomized controlled experiments, I have seen one broad trend: People who act on their environmental values do so for others. People who don't act on their environmental values do so for themselves. Action Typical reasons people give for acting include: "I want to leave the world better than I found it," "Other people breathe that air," "This beautiful world is a gift and it's my responsibility to steward it for others," and "I want the next generation to have as clean and pure…

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Why I’m not waiting for the government to act on the environment

Social and cultural change generally start from outside government. Government nearly always follows. Mandela, Gandhi, King, Havel, etc all started outside government. I'd love to see government lead, but the most effective thing for anyone who wants government to act to do is to act first. That's why I'm acting, or one of the reasons. When enough other people see the pattern, they'll stop blaming others' inaction and act themselves. Then politicians will see where the votes are going. I'm pretty sure Gandhi had situations like this in mind when he suggested to be the chance you wanted to see.…

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Join the 1L1P movement

#1L1P Kevin Huhn contacted me because our spheres overlapped. We got to talking about acting on one's values even when nobody is around---that is, integrity---which acting on your environmental values teaches. I shared with him my new initiative to promote picking up 1 piece of litter (or producing 1 less) per day and inviting 1 other person to join the initiative too. I shortened 1 litter 1 person to the hashtag #1L1P. So to join, just pick up one piece of litter per day, enlist one other person to do the same, and post a picture with #1L1P, and the…

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Environmental leadership resources

Here are resources I learn from and return to about joy, discovery, meaning, purpose, community (not doom, gloom, new-age fluff, etc), in no particular order. I'll keep adding to it. I recommend bingeing on all of it. Leadership and Teamwork The This Sustainable Life podcast When people hear my podcast name, they focus on the environment part. I consider leadership incomparably more important. We know what to do. The question is changing our behavior, which is leadership. I consider my book, Leadership Step by Step, the top resource on learning to lead. The Spodek Method: Making Meaningful, Sustainable Changes The…

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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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Technology is tactical. Behavior is strategic.

People widely expect technology to solve our environmental problems. What technology? They don't know. Something someone will invent in the future. What about the pattern that technology has driven consumption of fossil fuels and plastic, accelerated using up resources, and created pollution such as plastic, carcinogens, and so on? But but but they make things more efficient. They do for a while, but the trend is toward accelerating the system creating the problems. You know the problems—sea levels, resource depletion, extinctions. Technology, especially speculative, unknown, future technology can be part of a solution. But technology itself at most suggests tactical…

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Looking to scientists and engineers for leadership distracts from getting things done

"We're doomed': Mayer Hillman on the climate reality no one else will dare mention" threatens the headline of an article about a social scientist. There are plenty of similar articles about plenty of similar people. The article recounts Hillman predicting many problems and suggesting solutions, but not getting them implemented. If we want to solve environmental problems we have to separate science and engineering from leadership. Scientists' and engineers' training and skills make them effective at collecting data, analyzing it, and making predictions. You'll find no greater supporter of science and engineering than me. They rarely have training to influence…

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Success! A first Expert Panel from the Leadership and the Environment podcast

Yesterday was the Leadership and the Environment podcast's first Expert Panel, on a path to turn the podcast into a movement of people enjoying acting on their environmental values. Expert panelists Vincent Stanley, Robin Nagle, and RJ Khalaf topped the reasons making yesterday so successful. They openly shared their struggles and triumphs in vivid, colorful stories. Each time I looked at the audience, everyone seemed engaged and enraptured. We started early at 6pm. By the intended end of the panel at 7:30pm, a sizable number of attendees seemed as engaged as ever. Many stayed until at least 8:30pm with many…

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Our first Leadership and the Environment Panel of Experts: April 3 at NYU

EDIT: We recorded the panel, which you can listen to: Here's the original announcement: Do you care about the environment? Do you care about leading? The Leadership and the Environment podcast NYU's School of Liberal Studies invite you to improve both at a Panel of Leadership and Environment Experts Tuesday, April 3, 6pm – 8pm NYU Silver Building, 100 Washington Sq E (at Washington Sq N), room 405 Free, register here Featuring  Vincent Stanley Vincent, co-author with Yvon Chouinard of The Responsible Company, has been with Patagonia since its beginning in 1973, including executive roles as head of sales or…

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Chasing Coral and Personal Responsibility

Chasing Coral and Personal Responsibility A brilliant, important documentary on the environment viewed from a leadership and the environment perspective. The documentary Chasing Coral is emotionally evocative and hauntingly, tragically beautiful. I can see why it got its stellar reviews. I recommend it. While I support their goals, I hope it's the last "Do as I say, not as I do" documentary. They undermine efforts to change people's behavior to pollute less. Here's the trailer: Leadership and the Environment From a leadership perspective, it didn't motivate action. It raised awareness, but the environment, coral included, doesn't react to awareness. It reacts to behavior. A touching scene occurs…

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The Future of Environmental Leadership

The Future of Environmental Leadership Want to lead? The opportunities to lead in the environment may be the best around. Hosting the Leadership and the Environment podcast has led to a lot of conversations on leadership and the environment. As an entrepreneur and adjunct professor of leadership, I talk to many who want to become leaders. Many shun working on the environment because they think it will distract from their career and leadership ambitions. They excuse themselves from acting on the environment with the complaint But acting on the environment will distract me from getting ahead. Are they crazy? There is national and global demand for…

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Learn to lead without relying on authority: Two workshops this week. You’re invited.

The Leadership and the Environment podcast team is growing, which means expanding to new ways to Develop people's leadership and Act on the environment I've interviewed Ryan and Ben, the podcast's newest teammates so you'll get to meet them when their interviews get processed. In the meantime, we've organized two leadership development workshops THIS WEEK: Wednesday and Thursday, 6pm--8pm at NYU. Click these links to register and for the details, maps, etc. Wednesday, 6pm--8pm Thursday, 6pm--8pm The event descriptions Want to improve as a leader? Do you care about the environment enough to act on it? Do both! (while having…

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Thomas Jefferson farmed, even as President of the United States

People tell me how their lives are too busy to act on their environmental values. "I wish I could pollute less," they say, "but I don't have time." I happened on a passage in a book on Thomas Jefferson, who actively farmed while President of the United States. You may say, "But the nation was smaller then." First, you don't have to farm to live by your values. You have plenty of other options. Second, he also Wrote most of the Declaration of Independence Was Minister to France Secretary of State Helped create the Democratic-Republican party Invented and designed many…

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Why the Environment Needs Leadership

Why the Environment Needs Leadership Leaders know guilt, blame, doom, and gloom don't work. What works better? Here's one effective way to lead: Go where the people you want to lead are--emotionally, not necessarily physically. That is, learn what they care about and connect those motivations to the task. Then the task will feel meaningful and purposeful to them. They'll do it for themselves. They'll thank you for leading them to work. What doesn't work: telling people that their future is full of doom and gloom. Make them feel helpless and hopeless. What also doesn't work: debating about irrelevant issues, or even relevant ones.…

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Should New York City Sue Mayor de Blasio? (Inc.)

Should New York City Sue Mayor de Blasio? Will New York City's mayor stop personally doing what the city is suing tobacco companies for? Last week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio explained why the city was suing five fossil fuel companies: For decades, Big Oil ravaged our environment. They knew what they were peddling was lethal, but they didn't care. They used the classical Big Tobacco playbook of denial, denial, denial, and all the while they did everything to hook society on their lethal product. Have they been punished for it? No. In fact, they've made trillions. Think how cynical that is. Then…

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010: Jim Harshaw, Conversation 2

The hero's journey In conversation 1, Jim shared his values and committed to live by one. In conversation 1.5, he shared problems with the challenge and how he overcame them. In this conversation he shares how it worked. Listen to hear how persevering through challenges to live by your values leads to a better life. Listen to the conversation Judge for yourself what you find from his experience. I heard: More time with his family Quality time with his family Fun Finding more challenges (why not, if they're fun?) Things became easier than before What are you waiting for? Commit…

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The Missing Element in Protecting the Environment (Inc.)

The Missing Element in Protecting the Environment We have the science and technology. We're missing effective leadership. Let's learn from past success. Who would expect an insight on how to protect the environment to come from hookworms? I recently saw Zia Khan, the Rockefeller Foundation's Vice President of Initiatives and Strategy, speak at the New York Academy of Science's Summit on United Nations Strategic Goals. That's a high-level group of organizations and people. He didn't speak on the environment, but the project he worked on showed something missing from climate change work, at least that I don't see. He talked about hookworms, hookworm disease, and how a 1909…

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