By Nicole Berg
I overheard a conversation today between a cyclist and a motorist – the latter was a worker for a social housing provider. The cyclist’s path took him up to the window of the company van, and he motioned to get the driver’s attention. The cyclist asked the driver if he could please turn off the vehicle’s engine, as he lived there.
We all live here – on this earth, and that is the best reason I can think of to start changing the way we do things. This exchange made me feel delighted and hopeful, until I soberly realised that I, too, was about to pass by the van, but I didn’t think twice about the fact that its engine was running. It made me wonder about other blind spots I may have. What was I unaware of? Where could I take more responsibility for promoting a safer planet?
I attended Neil Scotton and Lise Lewis’s session, ‘The earthquake, the chasm, and the puzzle’, in an uncertain state. I was unsure what exactly it was about, and unsure what the outcome would be. This turned out to be the perfect reflection of our environmental state of affairs, a.k.a. the topic of the session. As professionals and citizens, we’re aware of climate change, unsure of the whole of the problem and therefore the solution, and we find it difficult to imagine what the unprecedented outcome will be in any situation. We question what’s being done by others in the system, and by ourselves as individuals. Is turning off our idle engines enough? Coupled with bringing reusable cups to Starbucks, recycling, and not leaving the water on when brushing our teeth? What does ‘enough’ really mean?
On the whole, we want to address the situation. This was the finding of Neil Scotton when he published a stream-of-consciousness article on LinkedIn at 4am one morning, following an earthquake in Surrey, of all places. (The earthquake itself followed the beginning of officially unrelated fracking drilling.) Upon publishing the article, Neil received a flood of supportive comments from like-minded peers. Coaching is a profession full of people who care about other people; people who challenge; people who take a systemic view; people who bring clarity to complexity. The Earthquake – the Surrey earthquakes, the extreme temperatures, the floods and tsunamis the world over – has led to a Chasm: a gap between what we want to see our professional work do and the future we want, and what we see happening in the world.
Now, to the Puzzle: As coaches, how can we address climate change through our profession? Neil and his co-presenter, Dr. Lise Lewis, say that failing to ask this question is a blind spot and, indeed, failing to point our clients to this issue leaves them in a blind spot as well. If many of us are quick to ask about the ‘whole person’, including areas of life such as personal relationships, finances, and physical/ mental/ emotional/ spiritual health, why would we not include our environment in our coaching conversations?
This session gave delegates time to explore their experiences, emotions, and ideas related to climate change. We didn’t leave with the one idea that will save the earth, of course, but I – and I believe, others – left with a sense of the blinkers being removed; of solidarity, hope, and a promise to continue the conversation. Join us in our LinkedIn group to do the same; we can bring our individual pieces together to solve our Puzzle. Coaches for Sustainability LinkedIn group: