Leadership notebook 2
Part of my course work for Seth Godin’s Leadership Workshop, done through +Acumen and Udemy.
This course is challenging me to reflect on leadership; to write and speak about what matters, what I see and what I’m capable of.
We’ve been asked to engage our fellow students and share our thoughts with each other — to help us build self-awareness.
I’ve decided to share my thoughts with a wider audience. Please feel free to share your thoughts too. I’d love to hear them.
What about your leadership journey might not work?
I was asked to put 20 minutes on the clock and write about this, because writing it down makes it far less powerful.
What about your leadership might not be successful?
I dream of a world without extreme poverty, inequality and climate change. The United Nations believes we can get there by 2030 – and so do I.
I believe that if we apply circular economy and service design thinking to key leverage points in our global systems, a few motivated people could possibly set in motion a series of self-sustaining butterfly effects that’ll push humanity towards achieving the UN’s 17 Global Goals by 2030.
There's just one catch.
It's not enough to know which key points to leverage, there must also be enough motivated people to leverage them. These problems are bigger than any person. Bigger than any country or nation. Hell, they'll soon be bigger than all of us if we don't pay serious attention to solving them.
Creating this level of impact requires co-ordinated effort from across the globe. Enrolling enough people with enough passion to help me solve these problems will be my biggest challenge.
This is not the sort of journey one can walk alone.
And the truth is, I might fail. Actually, I probably will fail — a few times before I succeed. So, why do it at all? Because taking responsibility for trying scares me far less than taking no responsibility at all. Far less than watching us destroy the only earth we have.
Failure will be a part of the journey. It's not what scares ME the most.
To be honest, what scares ME the most is that WE might not care enough to try. That WE are too far gone to devote any more energy to this causes. That pessimists and politicians have numbed our sense of social responsibility.
After all, didn't Al Gore take on a similar challenge?
Sometimes I wonder if I have what it takes to inspire enough people to move in this direction, to begin making a change. I mean, I no longer work within an industry dedicated to sustainable development.
So, what the heck do I leverage?
"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." — Max Planck
Well, as it stands, I do happen to work for one of the largest companies in the world. If I’m looking for key points of leverage within our global system, changing a global company is about as good as it gets.
Its all about perspective.
I just have to be clear on which of the 17 Global Goals I'm taking on, when I'm taking them on and where.
Does describing the chasm in front of you make it more likely that you'll fall into it?
Maybe. Maybe not. To be honest I think this particular chasm is so big that I'm definitely going to fall in at some point. And I'm okay with that, because I know that I'll find a way out eventually.
It's just what I do.
Hit the ❤️ button below, leave me a comment or share this with somebody else. If you’ve been inspired by my writing, I’d love to hear why.
I hope you continue to follow my journey, please stop by again soon. 👋🏻
