Leadership And The Environment

Everyone gets we have to change system, which means global economy. They think we have to start huge. If it's not big enough, it's not worth doing.History suggests otherwise, in particular Edwards Deming's results transforming Japan in the 50s, or the U.S. war efforts before that, or several American companies since.Kevin runs the Deming Institute, which trains people in the Deming philosophy and practice. Kevin speaks from experience as the grandson of Dr. Deming. They didn't start by doing big huge things. They started with a systemic perspective, understanding where and how to act. Kevin's personal project of changing light bulbs in his house illustrates how leading this way leads to results beyond what we see with just going big from the start.I won't like that I often felt slack-jawed at Kevin saying exactly what I've tried to share with others but they never get, but Kevin speaks with decades of experience. Actually generations. I also can't wait to start working with leaders and people in organizations

Here are my notes I read from for this episode:Just say nodrugs winningTry telling smoker that cigarettes cause lung cancer and see if it stops.Doesn't. It takes work but rewardingTry giving more and more facts. They heard already.Now imagine Nancy Reagan was a smoker or cocaine user while saying just say noImagine she smoked or did drugs while saying not to.That's Al Gore, DiCaprio, everyone!The problem isn't hypocrisy. I can't stand people making environment into moral issue. I'm not good for not polluting. You live by your values as much as I live by mine. If you don't value stewardship I'm not good by your values. If you value it as much as I do, then fix your problem.The point is effectiveness. It doesn't work to lead Alcoholics Anonymous sessions with a fifth of gin half finished in your hand or weight watchers full of doof.DiCaprio, flying your whole film crew around the world when you lack snow because of global warming, can you see how you're leading AA while drunk? With your notoriety, you should ha

A few months ago I hadn't heard the names William Wilberforce or Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Now they rank among my greatest influences. Eric Metaxas's biographies of these two men were among the main reasons. Once I read them, I had to meet Eric and bring his view here.Read the books, learn about the men, what they did, and the environments in which they did it.Few who spend time with me would expect me to find inspiration from a man whom I heard describe himself as a "Jesus freak" or strongly promote President Trump, whose policies I haven't seen increasing Earth's ability to sustain life and society, but those who know me well know my intense curiosity for people with unfamiliar views. Those who know me very well will find deep values of mine that resonate with Eric's beyond taking inspiration from Wilberforce and Bonhoeffer.I recorded a longer introduction than usual to recount my discovering Eric's work so you can hear more background there. Recording shortly before the election limited our recording time, mean

J. B. MacKinnon's book The Once and Future World influenced my view of nature as much as anyone's. I thought I knew what nature was, what we were trying to conserve or preserve, but I wasn't even close. I found his writing gripping and colorful. I'll link to a couple recordings I made that quoted the book at length.We've been talking about our work, his new book he's nearly finished, my book I've just started, and how he was thinking of acting on hisresearch personally.He was sharing so personally about the challenge he was considering for himself, impromptu, I asked if he would consider recording a podcast episode. We just jumped into it. Here's both of us unrehearsed, unprepared.I loved getting to learn the backgrounds of wildlife, Hawaii, all the things I read from Once and Future World, and how and why he foundout about them. I hope you're all also on your path to discover variety in food, clothing, community, and so on that our culture obscures and makes us feel backward about.Partly I'm impressed with m

No, it's not just a piece of cloth• Context◦ Mark Meadows and Ben Carson tested positive◦ US is spreading virus maybe most in world. White House more infections than Vietnam◦ In fact there are more people in Ben Carson with covid than in Vietnam.◦ Masks halt spread.◦ People say tragic that it's become political, but even so, it's just a piece of cloth. Just wear it.◦ "A mask is not a political statement, but it is a good way to start bringing America back together," Biden said on Monday. "The goal is to get back to normal as fast as possible."◦ From leadership perspective, couldn't be more counterproductive or for that matter insensitive and insulting◦ Leading people, influence, and persuasion depend on the person being led. You have to go where they are, not where you think they should be, where you are, where others are.◦ Requires empathy, which saying just a piece of cloth shows none of. On the contrary, generally shows the opposite -- you imposing your values on them despite not knowing theirs. Nobody lik

Michael Moss had already risked his life as a reporter in Baghdad, where he interviewed Islamic militants and exposing that US marines lacked body armor. He had also already won a Pulitzer prize for reporting on food. Then he wrote Salt Sugar Fat, which has become one of the core books on the field of the food and doof industries. For me, the title has become one word, SaltSugarFat, to which I often add convenience, SaltSugarFatConvenience.The book shows how the system evolved its incentives and motivations. They lead all players to create products and behavior that take advantage of our reward systems to induce craving, temporarily satisfy that craving while re-creating it, and continuing that loop.The book pulls you along with detailed stories, often insiders where you can't imagine how he learned the details. They combine to a greater story of our industrial food and doof system. The book was a number 1 NY Times bestseller and won awards including a James Beard award.In our conversation, he shared some bac

From a leadership standpoint, acting on sustainability and the pandemic overlap.You probably see Ashish's name everywhere too. He's in the thick of it at the highest national level. He shares an inside view of the political happenings on responding to the pandemic. He also shares the emotional experience---the frustration at seeing people dying unnecessarily. I think you can tell that despite the numbers, he cares. You may hear me realized I spoke too glibly in stating the number of American depths.Most of our conversation covered the leadership vacuum responding to the pandemic as well as the environment in general. I believe you'll hear we're moving toward talking leadership strategy, the emotional challenge of leadership, and finding what works besides management.We coverAvoiding political polarization and engaging leadership from other areas than politics seem challenging.What opportunities exist for voices to get out there, either on the pandemic or the environment?How have we abdicated or lost our alter

Why do I act on sustainability when everyone around me says there's no point?Faith.This episode shares a few words about faith. If you lack it, I think you'll prefer living with it, especially about things you care about. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We've seen suggestions to defund the police. Many on the left consider it an obvious step. Many on the right think it's loony and will lead to society falling apart.I propose a way forward, building on my civilian service academy idea from a past episode, putting responsibility to act first on those proposing the idea. It would be hard, but if people seriously believe other agencies can do some things better than police, they can show it.EDIT: I found a story of people doing what I described. They found a place where non-police responses work more effectively than police and are implementing it. Here's the story: The Cycle of Punitive Justice Starts in Schools. Eric Butler Is Showing Kids and Teachers How to Break It. Teaching restorative justice, one hallway fight at a time. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Following up my conversations on sex, drugs, and rock & roll with Dov, previous podcast guest Dan McPherson of Leaders Must Lead and I talk about race.We start be reviewing our relationship and why we chose to record a conversation on race.We then talk about risks for white people talking publicly about race, even innocent topics everybody would value being covered. Frankly, I feel vulnerable and scared talking about my personal experience in our current climate.Then how when I hear whites describe their experiences regarding race, they sound foreign. Often the stories of people of color sound like mine. Once in my life did I hear a white person's situation sound familiar to mine, a couple months ago.We talk about why the term fragility doesn't seem to apply.Then we mostly flow about talking about our experiences regarding race. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mark Tercek stands tall in environmental action. He was president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy for 11 years.From Wikipedia: "Founded in 1951, The Nature Conservancy has over one million members, and has protected more than 119,000,000 acres of land and thousands of miles of rivers worldwide. The largest environmental nonprofit by assets and revenue in the Americas, The Nature Conservancy ranks as one of the most trusted national organizations in Harris Interactive polls every year since 2005. Forbes magazine rated The Nature Conservancy's fundraising efficiency at 88 percent in its 2005 survey of the largest U.S. charities. The Conservancy received a three-star rating from Charity Navigator in 2016 (three-star in 2015)."Before then he was a partner at Goldman Sachs. Curious how someone goes from investment banking with Hank Paulson to the Nature Conservancy? He describes that calling.We also enjoy that we both are reaching new audiences---I share about Magamedia and he about talking about global warming

Rip committed to avoid waste through coffee, which he describes as harder than he thought.Wait a minute. A three-star Marine Corps general is describing not using coffee cartridges as hard? In the Millennium Challenge we talked about in our first conversation he led a team taking on the best of the entire US war machine and won. How hard can coffee be?That's the point of this podcast. Personal change doesn't depend on calories burned, monetary costs, and so on. It depends on our hearts and minds, which depend on our stories, beliefs, images, and so on. It's as easy or hard as we believe.Another main point of this podcast is to empower you to change our beliefs, stories, and images. While a belief may make something as materially simple as changing how you make coffee seem impossibly difficult, recognizing that our belief is the issue puts resolving theproblem under our control. We don't have to accept that belief. We can change it.That's why I value Viktor Frankl and people like him so much. He turned living

Eric Orts is a tenured professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is also exploring a potential race for the U.S. Senate: the seat from which two-term Senator Patrick Toomey has announced he will retire in 2022.On this broadcast he promises, as an expression of his values, not to fly for the next year. He pledges further, if he decides to run for office, not to fly during his campaign.To join or contribute to Orts for Pennsylvania: friendsofericorts.com. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

My goal in this podcast is to bring leaders from many fields and share what made them effective. I believe sustainability and stewardship would benefit from learning more effective leadership. A goal with each guest is to feature them. Everyone is unique. Everyone brings something we can learn from.Sometimes I don't achieve my goal. Sometimes a guest and I end up talking at cross purposes, which I think happened this time, meaning I didn't do justice to the guest. This time I started off exploring Margaret's views and experiences but part way through misunderstanding arose and I don't think I gave Margaret the chance to shine that she deserved. I apologize to her. I hope I didn't distract from her work. You'll hear at the beginning how her book led me to reflect, introspect, and act so I recommend it.If I messed up, I welcome constructive criticism. I hope she looks all the better for the conversation even if I don't. I hope you, the listener, enjoy hearing the conversation and get value from each of our pers

The rest of my story riding 100 miles a week and a half ago, where I gave up on myself, having lost faith in myself, but then getting lucky to force myself to finish. Only finishing strong showed I could do it.I've since fallen into the easy path of sharing my pride in finishing, but not the shame, guilt, and disappointment in myself at giving up. Finishing strong only reinforced my giving into the sweet lies I told myself to justify giving up. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

You're in for a treat. Joe and I start talking business so you'll hear things happening while we're talking. We start by talking about his exercising while we talk, then my plans to swim across the Hudson about 48 hours from the recording (and the guy I swam with holding out on the video footage I describe in another episode). We talk about his picking up beach trash, but really about doing things, not just talking.Then we start doing. He starts planning during the call to transform Spartan Race's food and garbage plans. He puts me in touch with a food friend and starts the process to schedule a presentation to Spartan Race's leadership team to kick the process off. I tell him about podcast guest Marina McCoy for helping organize foodSince this recording, I can't give details, but the business has continued. I visited that weekend in Vermont, appeared on his podcast, and started working on sustainability. His team and mine are continuing to meet to continue the collaboration started in this conversation.You h

Jaime and my second conversation is enjoyable and challenging. It was different than usual because for whatever reason we're talking about views on environment, personal action, education, and so on, but I didn't get to the personal challenge I like to.It was enjoyable because we're both into it for exchange, education, and understanding. Challenging because we have to figure out where the other is coming from. We start this conversation where we ended the last one, which is each putting forward his view. Getting and understanding another's view takes time, especially while trying to make yours available for the other to get and understand. Probably a third party will get and understand both faster and easier than either party.We end up at what will be a starting point for a third conversation. Reaching there, I suspect we'll say things that you've heard before---I'm sure he and I have both heard most of the other's view but not talked it through.Most of the conversation I felt he was asking what people were

People criticize environmentalists as doomsayers while celebrating futurists. This episode shares key examples where the doomsayers were the ones saying acting sustainably would ruin us. On the contrary, in these cases and many others, doomsayers said changing our polluting behavior would undermine our way of life. Yet acting on sustainability improved our situation in these cases.I also share, by contrast, cases where people projected new technologies would only improve our situations, and they may have in limited areas, but they deteriorated them in others.We can learn skepticism of those saying stopping polluting will deprive us of income, well-being, or liberty. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Bob and I begin lightheartedly, covering mulberry trees, gingkos, and how our views of nature change when we act in stewardship of it. Then I ask him about the decision as a conservative to endorse Biden. Question to you, the listener: will Bob describe that decision as hard or easy? Did he face serious repercussions, wide support, or something else?What would you do in his situation? I couldn't put into words what he does. It's his leadership journey, so you'll have to listen.Another question for you. Who traveled more since our last conversation: the guy who wants to travel but can't but committedif he does to bring a spoon to avoid polluting or the guy who isn't flying?We also talk about conservativism, sustainable living, and how to practice them both. Do they need reconciliation or do they make sensetogether already?2020 has meant most political talk is polarizing and divisive. I've learned any two people can find something to disagree on. I've also found any two people can find things to learn

George's challenge involved people congregating outside, which California banned, increasing his challenge. Personally for him, Badwater got canceled for 2020, the race that starts in Death Valley and ends up, over 100 miles later on a mountaintop. Widely regarded as the hardest race in the world, he was looking forward to it. Can you imagine the training, then you feel like what was it for?So life conspired to make acting on his environmental values for the podcast more difficult. He contacted me to ask about taking more time. I share with him how guests have struggled before. I'm not trying to suggest change is easy, but to accurately show listeners the challenges. George magnanimously agreed to share his vulnerabilities. So we scheduled this episode 1.5 to share the challenges he faced.Leadership isn't about doing easy things. It's about facing what others don't and overcoming it. I believe you'll hear from George that the rewards are more than worth it. What he shares about emotions, I believe will inspir