The sky is the limit

The new sustainable development leadership has to show us the way not only how to deal with the climate and financial crisis but also how to deal with morality. The climate and financial crisis are two sides of the same coin: a moral crisis. A culture of grab what you can grab, everyone does it. You have to score now. A culture of theatre, idols and spectacles. Greed is good. Happiness equals possession of goods. The sky is the limit. Both crisis make it clear that we have now reached that limit.

We have to change. Environmental experts point at innovative energy systems, new CO2 markets, innovative natural resource management. Financial experts ask for new financial systems, national and international. A new balance between government, private enterprise and society. A new approach to what real added value is. Will that lead to positive change? To sustainability?

Only when we also tackle the morality crisis, the new systems will work. We need a morality that balances individual freedom with social equity and justice. A middle way between doing what you like and interfering in the private domain. Between autonomy and solidarity. Between emotions and ratio. Leadership training should not only focus on the knowledge and skills we need for the external world. But also for the internal world that guides what we think and do. Lao Tse, Aristotle, Erasmus, Ghandi into the curriculum...!

Future Leadership Training

Supporting the next generation of sustainable development leadership was the title of one of the workshops during the World Conservation Congress. It was well attended. What struck me was the amount of young enthusiastic professionals consuming silently an hour of speeches and the ceremony of signing an MoU. The speeches were about how CEOs and young professionals of sustainable development institutions had planned their career and what made them land into their current position. This 'framed' the discussion, that followed.

During the signing ceremony, there was a bit of a dissonant, when a young professional tried to make a point. Although he referred to an earlier meeting that I did not attend, what came across for me was that young people to a certain extent hold the older generation – the leaders of the sustainable development organizations included - responsible for the current crisis. They don’t like to hear: “we are too old for change: it is up to the next generation to make the real changes”, or words of a similar meaning.

For me he was at the core of the leadership discussion. If current leaders cannot change and walk the talk of new values and lifestyle, they cannot ask of the next generation, once they make place for them in the system, to say: “No, I don’t need that UN salary and the lifestyle coming with it. What the world now needs is leaders that simply live simple. Leaders that say no to personal or short term organizational gain when that goes at the costs of other people, the organization or society. Leaders that live the universal values that will make the earth a place where diverse cultures live together in a civilized manner.”

Leadership training should be about how current leaders learn and change. About what makes them take decisions to generate transformational change in systems, and how in the process they have had to change themselves to have a real impact. It is one thing to learn how to become a CEO or get a job in a sustainable development organization, but it is quite another thing to look at a range of challenges for leadership positions in societies all over the world that may not have the same pay but are similarly or even more important for the changes we need. The workshop ended with the hope of one participants that the next Congress we have an MoU with more than 400 organizations.

Innovative communication approaches

Beyond Jargon is the title of a workshop during the WCC in Barcelona in which National Geographic and CEC showcased new approaches to communicate the environment. Here are links to a few of the initiatives presented.
Earth Gauge is trying to transform weathercasts into "envirocasts." It helps to tweak TV weathercasts to provide context as well as content. In this way TV weather helps connect the dots and become a leading source of environmental education.
LIFEONTERRA is a collaborative filmspace and laboratory exploring the questions and ideas on the cutting-edge of science and at the farthest horizons of the natural world. The "TERRA: The Nature of Our World" video podcast launched in October 2005. TERRA films have been downloaded over one million times.
INCEF stands for integrating conservation and health through communications. It is dedicated to building capacity among local populations to create and disseminate their own conservation, health and community awareness films and other media on issues of local importance with respect for local languages and culture.
“Research Ambassador Program” (RAP) to facilitate the establishment of direct communication between scientists and the general public. One of its projects is to investigate methods to sustainably grow mosses for the horticultural trade, Research Ambassadors enlisted the help of inmates at the Cedar Creek Correctional Center to grow mosses.

Workshop preparation - do's and don'ts

There are different ways to prepare a workshop. Over the last few months I have been working together with scientists to prepare for a workshop next week during the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona. Being confronted with their normal apprach, I learned there are two different ways to prepare a workshop. You can focus on the content or on the impact. It makes quite a difference in organization. Click on the matrix to see the differences for yourself.

Positive reactions on Buddy experiment

Intergenerational partnerships: what does it mean in practice? Over the last five months members of the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication partnered with Youth. 62 ( 35 Youth and 27 CEC members) out of 160 participants gave their opinion on this experiment in a web-survey held two weeks ago. The results showed a gender, age and regional balance among respondents. The average age of respondents was 36 with extremes of 17 and 72. On average buddies had contacted each other 7,3 times. Email was the most favourite way to communicate. Some buddies had had over 42 email contacts. A few had had face to face contact. Over twenty buddies had used skype and chats. A few had had no contact at all.

The objective of the survey was to learn about this modality of intergenerational partnerships. The majority of respondents thought that to have a buddy of the same sex was not a precondition for success. 2 male and 2 female respondents were of a different opinion. 38 buddies had discussed their professional work and career. Over twenty had communicated about professional skills or sustainable development. IUCN and Earth Charter were only a topic for 6 respondents. The added value of these contacts most respondents see in new ideas, inspiration and working together on a joint project. The buddy system was perceived by most respondents primarily as a learning tool for young professionals. Around 90% would participate again in a Buddy experiment or recommend it to others.

The average satisfaction level was neutral. This may have to do with the fact that especially Youth had high expectations and CEC members may have been too busy to invest enough time. From the comments and suggestions it is clear that buddies want to make their own choice who they would like to partner with, based on clarity of what the other party brings and want to take from the exchange. Quite a few respondents expressed the need for more facilitation, more reminders by the organziers, more joint projects and joint follow-up. During the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona the results of the survey will be further discussed in a special workshop. For more information on intergenerational partnerships: click here.

Framing the workshop theme

Talking in advance to panelists and participants, it appears that most people associate the theme environment and security with environmental care by the military. We want participants to think beyond environmental care. We are now testing some posters for in the workshop space to help frame the issue differently.

Organizing a round table

The objective of the workshop we are organizing during the World Conservation Congress, is to let the world of conservation meet with the world of security and explore new partnerships. Organizers, speakers and participants assume that this means every fifteen minutes another introduction. And as the military have to be specially invited to this Congress, they need to be a speaker in order to get permission of their superiors. We want a real meeting of minds, not a series of lectures. Round tables means everyone is a speaker. For a week I meet with partners and speakers. And over the phone I talk with invited guests. In the process we agree to invite the majority of guests as a speaker at one of the round tables. It works. We cannot get around all lectures. So we have now 3 key-note speakers, each 15 minutes, 5 panel members who submitted each two questions they would like to answer in two minutes and one and a half hour of 5 simultaneous round tables with plenary conclusions.

How to handle stress?

My colleagues organizing a conference are under heavy stress. So much that it seems to impact their performance. I remember the deadlines we had to meet when we worked for a pitch. Often for days deep into the night. And the way we kept stress at productive levels. For that you have to know what you are dealing with. When stress becomes too much you feel first a certain alarm, then resistence and in the end you feel completely exhausted. A certain degree of stress helps your performance. If it gets too much it impacts your judgment: you don’t know anymore whether you are doing the rights things or are trying to do the things right. It turns positive energy into negative energy: you become unfriendly, angry or aggressive. Stress finally stops your mind totally from functioning. It leaves you behind helpless: time for sick-leave. Unless you act in time. What can you do? Double-click on the box to read some advice from the old days, which is still helpful for me.

Making a powerfull point

Today everyone uses Powerpoint for his or her presentation: here is an example - sent to me by Mercedes Sanchez - how to make a real powerful point. It shows that a presentation becomes powerful by keeping it simple and personal :

Each slide has a minimum of text and one message per slide.

The visual language supports the main message, using big simple images.

No details, no data, no flashy colours, no sentences, just statements.
All slides contribute to the one point you want the audience to learn about and act upon. For more inspiring examples of making a powerful point look at: sustainable marketing.