Leadership And The Environment

People ask me if I worry or lose sleep from my environmental habits in a world where most people pollute profligately and unnecessarily.In this post I try to illustrate by analogy how it feels. How would you feel if you were magically transported to the 50s or 60s and most people smoked and drove cars with no safety equipment but they all considered it normal? Or to 1850 Alabama and someone offered you products made by slave labor?Here are the results to a search on "Mountain Dew teeth," to which I refer in the audio. This click is safe, it's just text search results, but you may want to prepare yourself before clicking from there to images or videos, except that you see equally unhealthy things in the litter, exhaust, and pollution around us all the time.To expand on parallels with living in an environment accepting slavery, here are episodes 098: Would You Free Your Slaves? and 040: Which is easier, freeing slaves or not using disposable bottles?. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Tom's Do The Math blog is one of the best site on internet. If you measure a site by how much it can improve a reader's life and human society, I challenge you to find one with greater potential. A couple peers include Low Tech magazine and Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, which is a book that you can download for free.Tom makes the physics behind the environment and our interaction with it simple and accessible. If you don't like math, well, it's the language of nature, so it's important to understand what's happening in nature. But even so, the point of collecting data and calculating results isn't for the sake of the math. It's to get past it to get to your values and to act on them.The point of the math is to get past the mathWhen W. Edwards Deming initially apparently contradictory statements make sense, you understand the point of taking data and calculating results. He said:“Without data, you're just another person with an opinion.”and"Management by num

From our first conversation you know Tim's history as a musician and founder of the Eden Project. This time you'll hear the passion of a man who loves restoring the Earth's ability to sustain life and human society.He talks about the spirituality of his work, connecting to the Earth, eating, and growing. For city dwellers like most of us, he shares the potential for that connection available to all of us. We have to take the steps, but the emotionally rewarding results are there.As you listen to this episode about food, plants, land, connection, community, and many things wholesome, I recommend contrasting Tim's world with, say, Facebook or Doritos. In my experience, they disperse community, make connections superficial, and plasticize nature to create craving for brief, regrettable alleviation from that craving. Are they worth it?Usually I prefer second episodes to cover the personal challenge a guest did. In Tim's case we didn't, though it's hard to miss that he lives a life of having done so for years. See

Laura and I go back a few years, from being on her podcast.We talk about her concept of emotional obesity: a parallel between physical health and emotional health. I find it a rich analogy on many levels. Characteristics of addiction to food that cause obesity resemble thoughts that cause emotional obesity.She describes her concept in more detail, but I find most helpful about it that it enables you to make yourself emotionally healthy in the ways you make yourself physically healthy. You'll note the parallels in problem and solution as she describes it.Think of thoughts you kick yourself with. If your friend said those things you'd leave that friend. Yet we keep doing it, unable to see that we can stop it.Dwelling in unproductive thoughts and blame doesn't help.We expand it to environmental obesity, where we look at addictive environmental behaviors, another approach that helps understand and solve behaviors we don't like. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mark and my second conversation it about happiness, pleasure, meaning, and purpose, though it sounds like it's about personal growth, food, and environment.In our first conversation, he didn't really connect on the environment at the start. This time you'll hear it resonates with him, largely through health and food.I see the pattern over and over: people protect themselves from saying the environment means much to them but when they talk about it, they care deeply. I think mainstream strategies to act on the environment---"try this one little thing," "if you don't, you're destroying the Earth," facts, figures, doom, and gloom . . . none of which do I call leadership---lead to people protect themselves from revealing how much they care.Making it moral, about facts, right, and wrong and other ways that motivate people to protect themselves motivate people to protect themselves.Change will come from the opposite tactics: opening up, allowing people make mistakes and learn, not feel compelled to comply or to imp

Outside the MBA world, not everyone knows McKinsey. Within it, and at the upper echelons of business and government, McKinsey advises some of the largest and most influential organizations, including governments and the world's largest companies.If a company wants useful advice, it has to share everything, which means McKinsey is privy to the secrets of the most influential people and companies.McKinsey is hierarchical. After business school people start as consultants, they move up in management to partners. Later directors. Eventually you end up at Global Managing Director.Today's guest, Dominic Barton, was the Firm's three-time Global Managing Director.Since effective leadership is fundamentally about influencing people's behavior, Dominic influenced the influencers of the most influential people and organizations, where the stakes were highest and repercussions greatest.High stakes and repercussions? Sounds relevant to the environment in 2019.One of this podcast's most important topics to me is our agreem

Nadya and I mostly talk about business and sustainability. She describes what she saw growing up in the dissolution of Kazakhstan, where she saw the opposite of sustainability.I can't describe what she saw, but you'll hear the craziness of collusion, economic collapse, political collapse, and so on.She talks about how business works best when sustainable. I tend to agree. Tangential to what Nadya and I covered, when companies influence government to distort a market -- say with subsidies for fossil fuels, paying for a military to maintain supply lines that everyone pays for, roads that I agree I benefit from but don't use nearly as much as others yet I pay for, and farm subsidies for meat, I could go on -- unsustainable companies can profit.So companies that pollute but the public pays to clean up, or for other reasons we don't accurately account for their costs, can sustain themselves profitably while not have a sustainable business model.As a matter of accurate accounting, a prerequisite for capitalism, I s

Proctor and Gamble produces a lot of plastic and waste, which makes them very interesting to me. An old me would protest. The leader me sees the opportunity to support change if they aren't changing and help motivate it if they are.Not just reduce waste---also to help increase the joy, meaning, and purpose in the process---what the "leadership" part of this podcast's title alludes to.Steve Sikra has worked there nearly 30 years. He knows their history and practices backward and forward. He's very enthusiastic.He talks about systemic change and overall reduction. I'm not sure it's P&G's main goal. Or rather, we see the relevant systems differently. One of my main discoveries in environmental action is the difference between raising efficiency and lowering overall waste. I cover this difference in episode 183: Reusing and recycling are tactical. Reducing is strategic, which I recorded after this conversation with Steve. Probably this conversation with Steve helped me get to episode 183.Working on efficiency

Mark seeks transitions---what most people avoid, certainly around leadership and the environment---and loves them. He shares them with the world. Listening to his podcast and reading his results, they're working.Change can make for a great life, as much as most people prefer to do what they always have. You'll hear him embracing challenges, learning, seeking understanding. He seeks action and people who act.He's just over 21, but I hear experience beyond those years, I think because of the challenges, and doing them publicly. Putting yourself out there forces accountability on you, which gets the job done. I recommend it.On personal change, he recognizes that emotion, not the outside world, is usually the biggest hurdle. This view, applied to environmental leadership, points to working on the beliefs and emotions driving our environmental problems for solutions.Too many of us look to others to act first or relying on technology---that is, not to where Mark looks. Our culture treats acting on your values as a

Tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of D-Day.This post is about being a part of something greater than yourself, than all of us, benefiting us all, and benefiting yourself -- one of the great feelings and experiences available to humans.I happened to read four documents around the same time that illuminated each other and our attitudes toward acting on the environment. Our complacency in the face of a danger threatening many times more lives than Hitler is all the more glaring when compared to the honor and service of the men who defended the free world storming Normandy.The documents were'I count myself lucky': D-day remembered on the 75th anniversary, a compilation of interviews of D-Day survivors in The GuardianThe Uninhabitable Earth, a book describing the consequences of global warming, to say nothing of plastics, mercury, extinctions, and other environmental consequencesIf Seeing the World Helps Ruin It, Should We Stay Home?, a silly account of selfish mental gymnastics for how to deny responsibility for c

As founder and CEO of iMiller Public Relations (iMPR), Ilissa Miller brings nearly two decades of experience in sales, marketing and product development to her clients in an effort to help them differentiate their messages and achieve notoriety within an ever expanding and evolving industry. With a wealth of experience and knowledge in the emerging global telecommunications and technology industries, her extensive expertise and practical skill set have allowed her to implement and spearhead and launch many companies as well as global product and marketing campaigns including that of international private line and networks, IP transit, peering, IPVPN, hosted PBX, cloud computing, Ethernet, managed services, colocation and data center products and solutions.She is a recognized leader in the global telecom and technology space where her knowledge and insights provide strategic guidance that enhance performance resulting in a remarkable reputation for effectiveness and client satisfaction.In addition to her afore

Sammy is a cofounder of Fitspot Wellness -- a fully managed solution for companies and properties, bringing on-site and digital workplace wellness programs and amenities to engage employees and tenants through community experiences.Sammy is an attention-to-detail aficionado who brings a blend of grit and imagination to the zillions of tasks that confront every startup. She has always thrived in operations, working as a production assistant in LA and managing operations in the fashion industry. Sammy wears many hats at Fitspot, doing everything from sketching app screens to managing the customer experience. Sammy has a B.F.A. from the University of Miami, and hails from Australia.Fitspot Wellness See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jezzibell is a co-founder and SVP of Business Development of PacketFabric. From their web site:PacketFabric redefines how companies build and use network services. The PacketFabric network-as-a-service platform provides instant connectivity between colocation facilities, to major cloud providers, and Internet Exchanges. PacketFabric is simple, cost-effective, and scalable network connectivity and all of our services are provided via our portal and API.She was an early stage employee of AboveNet Communications and Akamai Technologies, and previously served as VP of Operations at RoamData, as well as VP of Business Development for GTT. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In his words, JV Bharathan cares about every single human being on the planet and celebrates the greatness of being human.He is an accidental author. He holds a BS in electrical engineering from India and received double masters of science degrees in software engineering and management from Brandeis University.JV is an avid traveler, people lover, and enjoys working with people from cross-cultures and around the world. He is passionate about motivating people to their greatness and remains committed to creating collaborative community settings.JV's book page on Undying Optimism See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I subscribe to almost no newsletters or video channels, but I subscribe to Dr. Greger's Nutritionfacts.org. More than subscribing, I promote it. Watching his videos is a highlight of my Sundays, when his newsletters go out, and I've watched hundreds of them.Regular listeners know that food began my move toward environmental leadership, as well as loving fresh vegetables, fruit, legumes, and food without packaging nor its fiber removed. I've never eaten food so convenient, inexpensive, social, and, most of all, delicious.Several years ago I started finding videos from Nutritionfacts.org, hosted by a medical doctor on a mission to make nutrition information simple to understand and act on for everyone. The videos present digested but not dumbed-down medical research on nutrition-related topics, generally peer-reviewed in short segments usually under 10 minutes.It turns out that maximally nutritious food overlaps nearly perfectly with food that minimally impacts the environment.Watch his origin video if you have

Aaron is the president & CEO of the NJ Tech Council and founder of Propelify---the Propelify Innovation Festival.Propelify empowers the community of innovators who act. He launched Propelify in 2016 to inspire the tech and innovation community and those who act---who propel. Propelify welcomed over 8000 attendees in 2016 and over 10,000 in 2017, making it one of the largest tech events ever, earning a headline from Forbes calling the Propelify Innovation Festival the SXSW of the Northeast.Past speakers include Gary Vaynerchuk, Arianna Huffington, Joanne Wilson, Gerard Adams, Marcus Weldon, Peter Shankman, and CEOs/founders of livestream, MakeSpace, media.net, Enigma, Gimlet Media, FullContact, Bionic, Andela, and more. Its media partners include Entrepreneur Magazine and Cheddar. Past sponsors include Bell Labs, Google, Jet, ADP, Samsung NEXT, Staples, and more.As Propelify's motto states: idle ideas don't fly.New Jersey Tech Meetup is the state's largest and fastest growing technology community with over

I felt a special bond with Ani before interviewing him. He introduced himself telling me that he read my Inc article What a Year Without Flying Taught Me About Responsibility, Empathy, and Community over a year before and, agreeing with it, challenged himself to avoid flying.He was 14 months into avoiding flying. He joked, "I hate you and I love you," because the challenge was so great but so was the reward.More about Ani, from his page:Ani helps entrepreneurs and high impact leaders feel aligned inside out, so you can create from a profound sense of calm, clarity & comfort, and translate your limitless potential into a wildly successful and meaningful life & business aligned with your true purpose.He has spent decades studying how the human mind works, and perfected a set of tools that can help you break free of the programming that limits you and keeps you in a constant state of stress, anxiety, fear, and overwhelm, and master your mind so you fall in love with who you really are, feel seen and unde

Shana is the founder, CEO, and Lead Trainer at Yadid’it! Dog Training, the Executive Director at Yadid'it! Sustainable Dog Rescue and an ABCDT (Animal Behavior College Certified Dog Trainer). She is, in her words, super quirky, a loving dog-mom, an eldest sister to two loving siblings, and a sexual trauma survivor. #metooGrowing up a practicing modern orthodox Jew and attending a yeshiva day school from elementary through high school, Shana always had a strong inclination towards the concept of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world). Tikkun Olam, the Jewish concept defined by acts of kindness performed to perfect or repair our broken world, is the driving force behind her founding the two Yadid'it! companies.Tikkun Olam is often implemented when discussing issues of social policy, ensuring a safeguard to those who may be at a disadvantage, as in the case of people that have experienced sexual force or violence of any kind. Yadid'it! is the overarching brand-name for Shana's for-profit dog-training company and non-

You might not guess from the beginning of our conversation that we'd talk about almost being attacked by a hippopotamus in Botswana, with crocodiles, and apes that might rip your head off, nor family triumph and tragedy, the Amazon, exploration of the world, external and internal.Jonas lives a wonderful life and it wasn't handed to him.After covering his tremendous accomplishments, we turn philosophical, but also about action.Then we spend more time talking about his perspective on the environment, and how his views formed along the Amazon, Botswana, Texas, Mexico, and his own stroke, his brother's death, his art, and more.I don't know about you and I don't want to reveal his personal challenge, but I would love to go on a nature walk with Jonas, not just for the adventures he's had, which suggest he'd have more adventures again, but because he cares. He'd do it out of passion, which I expect he'd share. Then again, wherever we are -- city, suburb, exurb, slum, gentrified area -- somewhere is the most natural

I finally saw how to see reducing versus reusing and recycling. The distinction is subtle until you get it. Then you see that missing it leads people to counterproductive behavior and, egregiously, feeling good about that counterproductive behavior, leading them to do it more.I read yet another person posting about recycling who didn't realize or address that if we keep producing plastic, it won't matter how much we reuse or recycle, we'll still choke ourselves with it.The pattern and view I describe in today's episode applies for mercury, CO2, ocean acidification, using up resources other species need until they're extinct, and so on.Actually, it's more, because reusing and recycling increase supply, which lowers the cost. The place to look for the effect of recycling is not at the specific case. Yes, if you recycle a given water bottle it will stop that bottle from polluting, but lowering the price by putting it back into circulation leads to more uses, like individually wrapped apples and other waste. It's