How to look deeper than the obvious and see the relationship between what we do and what we see the rest of the world doing.

“You’ve done well”, she said,

“but listen to me.

All this is the décor of love, the branches, and leaves and blossoms.

You must live at the root to be a true lover”.

Rumi – Dying, Laughing 

THE STORY:

As a sustainability leader you see the social and environmental problems of our world and you design projects to solve these problems. You may specialize in addressing just one or two of them, whether it is gender inequality, racial injustice, biodiversity reduction, poverty, etc.

And as a good project designer you ask yourself: “What is the problem I am trying to solve and for whom?”

You do your problem analysis and attempt to establish the correct hierarchy of problems and the causal chain, that is: to understand clearly what causes what. This helps you address the upstream causes so that the downstream problems lessen or, if they are 100% consequences, simply disappear.

As a sustainability leader, you are scientific in your approach, and you understand systems. You know that multiple factors can influence a particular problem or situation.

But do you question your own analysis enough? How certain are you that you are seeing all the relevant factors that influence a problem, and its root causes?

The “biodiversity problem”, the “climate problem”, the “gender equality problem”, the “racism problem”, the “poverty problem”, etc. are all effects of one root problem: widespread, faulty human behavior. Today, the majority of human beings behave in ways that mostly waste, sabotage and destroy the natural gifts that we are given by Nature and, by behaving in that way, they are endangering their own very survival.

THE PROBLEM:

All sustainability leaders are in fact trying to change behaviors, mostly that of other people, inside and outside of their organizations. But most leaders do not consciously know, state, and do that. And by not even identifying the main problem, they do not seek the relevant knowledge and know-how to address it.

Without thorough problem analysis, the solutions are considerably less efficient at best – increasing and creating new problems at worst.

Most leaders today do not have the knowledge or, having the knowledge, do not have the embodied practice, of deep, authentic, and durable behavioral change. They do not know how to change their own habits and behavior, so how could they change somebody else’s?

More specifically, most leaders today do not know that behavior is driven by the constant inner choices we make in our minds based on inner data flows coming equally from our thoughts and our feelings, moment after moment. They do not know that we can change our choices, and thus our behaviors, by understanding how our thoughts and feelings guide us. For instance, thanks to our feelings, we can catch and correct the faulty thoughts that arise, helping us correct behavior.

THE SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION:

Change leaders are first and foremost emotional athletes. They understand that our feelings help us think and act better. For starters, our feelings help make more thorough problem analyses and set smarter goals.

When we work more consciously with our thoughts and feelings to correct our own behavior, others around us correct theirs. By self-actualizing constantly, we adapt and adjust our communication with ourselves and the world around us. When we communicate well, we can most effectively influence other people. More importantly, for leaders, our own behavior can be followed. We walk our talk. Influencing efficiently – that is, doing less for a bigger impact – is the secret of exemplary leadership.

Instead of blaming others for not understanding us or our science – be it about climate or gender – we must make what we say simple, clear, and obvious. We must embody what we say with aligned behavior while consciously choosing the people we surround ourselves with, and listen, and speak to – our staff, our business or life partners – so that understanding may happen more often than not; hopefully most of the time.

Go deeper:

Are you addressing causes or consequences in your sustainability work?

When was the last time you changed one of your own behaviors? How did you do it?

In what ways are you failing to “walk the talk”? What would have to change for you to embody the practice of what you preach?