...the company I work with.
Obsidian is known for supporting authentic leaders working transparently for the global common good:
- We help them refine and clarify their messages and deliver inspiring communication and sustainable models for learning.
- We help them develop and engage people and build new competencies so their organizations can move differently and successfully in the changing cultural landscape.
- We help them see the possibilities for their own teams by providing a working example of a sustainably connected and collaborative organization.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Rioting Monks?
Hey, what's going on with the rioting monks? I feel myself wanting to say, "Hey, you guys are monks! What's up with that?" But instead I am feeling their strain and their pain and wondering how we might be able to collectively stay focused on the potential for good.
I absolutely believe in the critical importance of maintaining a positive future vision. But in the midst of where I live and the onslaught of bad news, I sometimes find it difficult to stay with the positive. The last couple of days I have battled a bit. I wonder how to stay awake and stay positive at the same time. I am not talking about that kind of positive where we don't really acknowledge the painful truth of our situation. I am talking about a simultaneous holding of a visceral knowing of the truth that what we are doing isn't working and holding a positive vision of our collective ability to heal it.
And if someone walks around in the world holding both this knowing and this vision, what does it look like when the person shares these knowings with someone else. One of the people in my class suggested that in some cases this sharing may not even require speech.
I absolutely believe in the critical importance of maintaining a positive future vision. But in the midst of where I live and the onslaught of bad news, I sometimes find it difficult to stay with the positive. The last couple of days I have battled a bit. I wonder how to stay awake and stay positive at the same time. I am not talking about that kind of positive where we don't really acknowledge the painful truth of our situation. I am talking about a simultaneous holding of a visceral knowing of the truth that what we are doing isn't working and holding a positive vision of our collective ability to heal it.
And if someone walks around in the world holding both this knowing and this vision, what does it look like when the person shares these knowings with someone else. One of the people in my class suggested that in some cases this sharing may not even require speech.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Learning about Landfills and Wetlands
These blogs are the kinds of things our customer is trying to figure out how to respond to:
http://www.noexpansion.org/
Now, the problem is only partly that this company wants to make more money every year, regardless of what it means to this little guy.
The rest of the problem is that we are generating enough garbage in the US alone to make this company number 181 in the Fortune 500 with $13 Billion in revenues.
Here is the story of why.
My suburban neighborhood (in the Houston city limits) doesn't even pick up recycling. So I drove my recycling to the recycling dumpster-sized containers at the HEB grocery store down the road. Last time I went there, the containers were overflowing with recyclables because the pick up wasn't being regularly enough attended to. This time the containers were gone.
http://www.noexpansion.org/
Now, the problem is only partly that this company wants to make more money every year, regardless of what it means to this little guy.
The rest of the problem is that we are generating enough garbage in the US alone to make this company number 181 in the Fortune 500 with $13 Billion in revenues. Here is the story of why.
My suburban neighborhood (in the Houston city limits) doesn't even pick up recycling. So I drove my recycling to the recycling dumpster-sized containers at the HEB grocery store down the road. Last time I went there, the containers were overflowing with recyclables because the pick up wasn't being regularly enough attended to. This time the containers were gone.
It is Cold there But...
Sentences from today's news...
Beachcombing is a popular activity in remote western Alaska. Among the recent discoveries was a sail boat that washed onto shore last October.
"It's kind of a sport. It keeps us occupied. It's one of the pleasures of living here," Brandell said of the village reachable only by plane or boat that is too small to have its own store.
Strange and Hopeful Things in the City
I took this picture with my stupid PDA phone outside the building of the company mentioned in my previous post. This art sneaked in on the back of a street sign. The bird is a mosaic of city images. It feels right to me.
The painful irony of my life: an interlude.
Just a quick check in to let you all know the obvious: I am struggling...struggling to keep up in my life--and only occasionally having the luxury of any time to even begin trying to get caught up in this course. Also, I have emotional "issues" (I actually remember a time when the word "issues" did not mean problems) associated with the cognitive-emotional dissonance of my work.
Anyway, here is a snapshot. Our company is designing two workshops for an offsite meeting for a very large US company that manages waste and landfills. Here are the two topics: (1) generating awareness of the new green and sustainable service offering and (2) what Community Relations people need to do in order to get municipal and county approvals for new landfills and for expansions of existing landfills.
Kill me. Please. No, I am serious.
This has been absolutely gut wrenching. We really didn't understand fully what this project was when we developed the proposal. And we don't get to do (1) without also doing (2). And (2) is as bad as anything you might imagine (campaign donations, spin, "partnering" with "powerbrokers," etc.). We will close the doors before I will ever do another project with anything that stinks as badly to me as this. My partner, Kimberley, goes from railing against "the man" (so to speak) and trying to prop me up by telling me that there must be a reason we are in this thing--that we need to understand how this works from the inside. But I am sick, tired, and heartbroken right now.
Anyway, here is a snapshot. Our company is designing two workshops for an offsite meeting for a very large US company that manages waste and landfills. Here are the two topics: (1) generating awareness of the new green and sustainable service offering and (2) what Community Relations people need to do in order to get municipal and county approvals for new landfills and for expansions of existing landfills.
Kill me. Please. No, I am serious.
This has been absolutely gut wrenching. We really didn't understand fully what this project was when we developed the proposal. And we don't get to do (1) without also doing (2). And (2) is as bad as anything you might imagine (campaign donations, spin, "partnering" with "powerbrokers," etc.). We will close the doors before I will ever do another project with anything that stinks as badly to me as this. My partner, Kimberley, goes from railing against "the man" (so to speak) and trying to prop me up by telling me that there must be a reason we are in this thing--that we need to understand how this works from the inside. But I am sick, tired, and heartbroken right now.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Butterfly Lightness
The butterflies came. Are coming. And what will that mean to the landscape? Looks like some trees are coming up next door, and I at least am glad for it.
What will they think, all of them? I can see them through the windows—some hunching over their computers googling “Giant Butterflies.” No one told them. It wasn’t on the news. Maybe it’s just some wild trick we saw on YouTube.
The windows are full of emptiness. And some are talking near the water cooler. So much has changed, but there’s still a water cooler. If things were to continue—which they won’t. If things were to continue on this track, each person would get hooked up to some hydration system. Water coolers are inefficient.
And butterflies don’t need them. Butterflies will be lighting, will be light. But they will turn the place upside down and inside out. And it will not be a violent thing. Shit, they’re butterflies. People will be transfixed as they do what they do, their movements random and intentional.
Unless you look very closely, you can’t tell the difference between a male monarch and a female. I imagine they look closely. There is not much I know about what butterflies do with their time, but I know I love them. I know I want them to land on me and stay long enough for me to miss dinner.
I have heard that butterflies can be fierce. Not really. But it’s interesting to imagine. They are tender, and we need them.
What will they think, all of them? I can see them through the windows—some hunching over their computers googling “Giant Butterflies.” No one told them. It wasn’t on the news. Maybe it’s just some wild trick we saw on YouTube.
The windows are full of emptiness. And some are talking near the water cooler. So much has changed, but there’s still a water cooler. If things were to continue—which they won’t. If things were to continue on this track, each person would get hooked up to some hydration system. Water coolers are inefficient.
And butterflies don’t need them. Butterflies will be lighting, will be light. But they will turn the place upside down and inside out. And it will not be a violent thing. Shit, they’re butterflies. People will be transfixed as they do what they do, their movements random and intentional.
Unless you look very closely, you can’t tell the difference between a male monarch and a female. I imagine they look closely. There is not much I know about what butterflies do with their time, but I know I love them. I know I want them to land on me and stay long enough for me to miss dinner.
I have heard that butterflies can be fierce. Not really. But it’s interesting to imagine. They are tender, and we need them.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Bill McKibben at SXSW
Funny you should mention Bill McKibben (Sharon & Janelle, in my comments). I am sitting in a breakout room at SXSW, waiting for him to begin a panel discussion called, "Building a Worldwide Climate Movement." I have not yet read his book Deep Economy, but I will. I have read the Cliff's Notes ;-), and I understand that McKibben's vision is focused on our need to reestablish local economies and local communities.
From my vantage point, that makes all the sense in the world (not some of the sense. ALL of the sense). I am watching what's happening to our energy supply up close and personal. And let me just say that (while we may get a fluctuation here and there) the price of oil is going nowhere but up. China is buying tons and tons of heavy sands from Canada. We are drilling in miles of deep water offshore in the Gulf with more technology than the space program. We are now trying to drill sideways to reach trapped reserves that we have known about for decades.
I am a little freaked out, frankly, by how not freaked out many people are by this. Oh, but the connection I was going to make, and maybe this is stating the obvious, is that since our entire economy is fundamentally predicated on the unlimited availability of cheap oil, we are about to be in some pretty deep doodoo. Expensive oil means:
From my vantage point, that makes all the sense in the world (not some of the sense. ALL of the sense). I am watching what's happening to our energy supply up close and personal. And let me just say that (while we may get a fluctuation here and there) the price of oil is going nowhere but up. China is buying tons and tons of heavy sands from Canada. We are drilling in miles of deep water offshore in the Gulf with more technology than the space program. We are now trying to drill sideways to reach trapped reserves that we have known about for decades.
I am a little freaked out, frankly, by how not freaked out many people are by this. Oh, but the connection I was going to make, and maybe this is stating the obvious, is that since our entire economy is fundamentally predicated on the unlimited availability of cheap oil, we are about to be in some pretty deep doodoo. Expensive oil means:
- low-income people will no longer be able to afford to drive (to places of employment, for example)
- I will not be able to buy kiwi fruit from the other side of the world because it will cost too much due to an increase in shipping costs (Kiwi, I will miss you)
- products built by the lowest labor bidders from all over the world will cost lots more because the shipping costs to get them to a central assembly point and to customers from there will no longer be negligible
This means, as I finally get around to it, we are going to have to shrink our supply chain to food and materials we can reach. Lots more to say here.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Going to SXSW Interactive
I am participating on a panel at South By Southwest (http://www.sxsw.com/) in Austin this week. (Bear with me; this is related to my class.) The topic of the panel discussion is, "Can Enterprise Save the World?" Now this conference is huge and it's really targeted toward creatives in music, film, and interactive digital media. Sustainability is only a recent focus area of the "Interactive" segment of the conference, and ours is one of the last panels on the last day of the conference, so I am going to be very interested to see who shows up.
Because I work inside of a number of the multinational mega energy companies, I was invited to comment on how the "cultural transformation" toward sustainability is going within these corporations. I am not going to explicitly drop company names on this blog because I am privy to significant insider information, and doing so would neither be fair nor smart. It took me a few sleepless nights of flipping and flopping mental processes to surface what I could reasonably say in 5 minutes or less about all this. Here's what it comes down to, in my opinion:
The move to sustainability is greatly stalled by an outmoded paradigm that I will creatively call the, "Wall Street approach to the publicly-traded corporation."
Here's an example of what I am talking about. A few months back, I met with a senior-level leader at running a multi-billion dollar oil platform within an even multier billion dollar multinational energy company. He was feeling a lot of angst as he told me that his people were very disappointed in him because he had recently made the decision that, in order to speed up production, they were going to flare more gas (generate more pollution) than they had originally planned. See, his part of the business wasn't hitting its production numbers, and production numbers translate to financial numbers. "Tina, I just can't get them to understand that sometimes you have to compromise your values to stay in the game." Now, this guy has a recycling container in his office; he was very active in the discussions to set the targets for flaring and emissions at reduced levels from the get go. He is a heartful guy. He is a good guy to work with. And what he knows in his bones is that if his part of the business does not hit its expected number by the end of the quarter:
Because I work inside of a number of the multinational mega energy companies, I was invited to comment on how the "cultural transformation" toward sustainability is going within these corporations. I am not going to explicitly drop company names on this blog because I am privy to significant insider information, and doing so would neither be fair nor smart. It took me a few sleepless nights of flipping and flopping mental processes to surface what I could reasonably say in 5 minutes or less about all this. Here's what it comes down to, in my opinion:
The move to sustainability is greatly stalled by an outmoded paradigm that I will creatively call the, "Wall Street approach to the publicly-traded corporation."
Here's an example of what I am talking about. A few months back, I met with a senior-level leader at running a multi-billion dollar oil platform within an even multier billion dollar multinational energy company. He was feeling a lot of angst as he told me that his people were very disappointed in him because he had recently made the decision that, in order to speed up production, they were going to flare more gas (generate more pollution) than they had originally planned. See, his part of the business wasn't hitting its production numbers, and production numbers translate to financial numbers. "Tina, I just can't get them to understand that sometimes you have to compromise your values to stay in the game." Now, this guy has a recycling container in his office; he was very active in the discussions to set the targets for flaring and emissions at reduced levels from the get go. He is a heartful guy. He is a good guy to work with. And what he knows in his bones is that if his part of the business does not hit its expected number by the end of the quarter:
- Bob's 401(k) gets halved
- Jane's IT project gets canned
- Jack, the HR person, gets laid off
- his boss' job is in jeopardy
- he probably gets "reassigned"
So what I am saying is that, while this might seem like "evil corporate empire" kind of stuff, this was a very personal and difficult decision for my leader friend to make. See, Wall Street has expectations. And they are financial expectations. And financial expectations must be met--every quarter. And you really should not plan to make less money than you did the same quarter last year. And, sure, you can have whatever other "values" you want to have (like green and safe), just make damn sure they don't get in the way of you hitting that number.
So this model (quarterly reporting with ever-increasing financial expectations and mostly non-existing interest in other, future-oriented metrics) needs to be deconstructed and put back together in a such a way that it supports sustainability. I mean to say that it looks like to me that train is on runaway, baby, and our future is lying on the tracks with a sock in its mouth (Hells yeah! That metaphor is jumping up and down it's so proud of itself.)
What is this anyway?
Hi, my friends. Many of you know that I am working on my Master's in Transpersonal Psychology at Naropa University (it's a mostly online, low-residency program). I have adapted my program to include a concentration in Ecopsychology, and this semester I am taking a class in Deep Ecology. Our instructor has given us some leeway to develop a blog and generate online discussion instead of writing a research paper. I am so all over that, I cannot even begin to tell you—and not even completely because I hate the APA format. I really have been wanting to share more of what I am doing, feeling, and thinking as I go through this program, but I could seriously talk about it non-stop and that would be obnoxious. So this assignment is a great catalyst for me to write some stuff down, and it has the additional benefit of making your participation in the conversation voluntary. You are welcome. :-D
So, here’s my request, dear readers. Stop by every once in awhile and read my ramblings (also, feel free to share with anyone else you think might be interested). I invite you to comment and share what’s on your mind. I am fascinated, excited, moved, and energized by the work I am doing in this program and I look forward to involving you. Come on! It’ll be fun.
So, here’s my request, dear readers. Stop by every once in awhile and read my ramblings (also, feel free to share with anyone else you think might be interested). I invite you to comment and share what’s on your mind. I am fascinated, excited, moved, and energized by the work I am doing in this program and I look forward to involving you. Come on! It’ll be fun.
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