Sustainability Mindshift

Today's episode is another sneak peak at a new approach that I and my new collaborator, Melissa O'Mara of The Leaders Co-Lab, will be using for our upcoming speaker series called “Conscious Corporate Catalysts: The Changemakers Journey."  

This new approach is designed to provide a deeper learning experience for both guest speakers and YOU, the audience participants. We will use a combination of The Bigger Game framework, lessons from The Hero's Journey, references to Integrative Enneagram (IE9) archetypes, and the Reinventing Organizations Map (which measures the consciousness level of an organization on their "path to teal") to draw out the personal stories and insights from our guest speakers' change-making journeys.   

In this episode, Melissa walks us through The Bigger Game and shares how she has used the framework to better understand herself and her own true calling (what she calls her “soul work”). She talks about how she uses this framework to help clients raise their capacity to see the world, both inside and outside of their business, and to understand the interconnected nature of everything in terms of how they show up and drive change within multiple spheres of influence and systems (personal, team, company, society, planet).   

Melissa explains that the beauty of The Bigger Game framework is that it is an activation tool that provides a lens through which we can see ourselves, our work, and our impact in the world both individually and collectively as a team. Melissa says that the sooner we can figure out our Bigger Game and understand our life’s work, the better, because then we know what and how we are personally contributing to something bigger than us that is both meaningful and impactful. Melissa says her personal goal is that everyone, both inside and outside and at every level of an organization, viscerally feels “my work matters.”  

Stay tuned for an announcement and more information about our new livestream speaker series where we will be interviewing corporate catalysts / changemakers from brands you know well.  

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MELISSA, please visit: https://linktr.ee/Melissa_OMara_TLC 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY MINDSHIFT, please visit: www.sustainabilitymindshift.com 

Linkedin: @Sustainability Mindshift and #SustainabilityMindshift

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/5et65nar

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SustainabilityMindshift

Twitter: @Sustymindshift

In this episode, Brad talks about his experiences as a sustainability practitioner, consultant, and change catalyst, and shares the epiphany he had in 2017 that led him to the work he is currently doing as a change-maker with Sustainability Mindshift. 

Specifically, he is working to: 

1) help raise awareness to the fact that 'inner development' (i.e. shifting mindsets, higher levels of consciousness, and developing sustainability leadership skills and capabilities) is critical for us to avoid catastrophe and achieve a future we desire.  

2) advise corporate clients and co-design experiential learning solutions and strategies that will enable sustainable culture and business transformation.   

3) connect his rapidly growing network of global thought leaders, experts and solution providers with his existing network of HR, business leaders, change-makers, and sustainability practitioners to build a collaborative community of practice and to accelerate sustainable transformation for business success.  

This episode is a sneak peak at an interview framework that Brad and his new collaborator, Melissa O'Mara, will be using for their upcoming speaker series called, “Conscious Corporate Catalysts: The Changemakers Journey". Melissa and Brad will interview guest speakers using The Bigger Game framework, lessons from The Hero's Journey, and referencing Enneagram archetypes to draw out deeper understanding and insights from their guests' change-making journeys and stories: what big "gulp" or deep desire or personal calling moved them to start their change-making journey, where have they stepped out of their "comfort zones", what bold actions have they taken, who are their allies, where have they met resistance, and what have they done to sustain their efforts in the long run. 

Stay tuned for an announcement about “Conscious Corporate Catalysts: The Changemakers Journey" speaker series soon!  

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY MINDSHIFT, please visit: www.sustainabilitymindshift.com 

Linkedin: #SustainabilityMindshift

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/5et65nar

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SustainabilityMindshift

Twitter: @Sustymindshift

Jan Artem Henriksson is the Executive Director of the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) - a global initiative that develops inner abilities, skills and other qualities for people and organizations to contribute to a more sustainable global society. He also initiated ‘MindShift: Growth that Matters’ - a global conference bringing academia, public sector and business together to focus on the link between human growth and sustainable development. In the past, Jan has been a public speaker and adviser for several global organizations and governments, and he also founded two companies: 1) Self Leaders - a Nordic leadership development company that has put 70 000+ people through leadership development programs and, 2) Relate - a relationship building app and thought leader for healthy relationships. Jan is also a faculty member and senior lecturer at Stockholm School of Economics Executive Education and a board member at Ekskaret Foundation.

In this episode, Jan explains how we lack the inner capacity to deal with our increasingly complex world and why human, leadership and organizational development are necessary to address today’s global sustainability challenges. He talks about how the IDGs is a blueprint of the capabilities, qualities and skills we need in order to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were established by the United Nations in 2015. Jan explains how the IDGs are the result of a massive global effort involving two surveys with over 1000 participants as well as the co-creation and collaboration of some of the world’s leading scientists, researchers, experts, and organizational partners. This effort resulted in the development of a framework comprising five categories of higher order capabilities - Being, Thinking, Relating, Collaborating, and Acting - and twenty three specific skills that are critical for supporting the SDGs and our transition to a sustainable planet.

Jan shares examples of how the IDG framework is already being used by fast agents and leading companies such as IKEA, Ericsson, and Spotify, as well as forward-thinking national governments such as Costa Rica. He explains that the guiding principles of the IDGs is to remain a not-for-profit initiative and to continue to develop the framework (and associated tools and resources such as an IDG field-kit to be released in April 2022) through co-creation and an open source format. This enables organizations and leaders from around the world to easily access the IDGs and put them into practice, reflect objectively on their leadership and cultural dynamics, gain clarity on what is expected of them and what may be missing, and integrate the skills and qualities that are most congruent with their organization, leadership and culture. The IDGs truly has the potential to become THE guiding resource for sustainability leadership of the future.

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT THE IDGs, please visit: www.innerdevelopmentgoals.org

****For those interested in contributing to the research and field-kit to be released during the IDG Summit on April 29, 2022, please take the IDG survey listed on the website. If you would partner with the IDGs or participate in the Summit, please reach out to Jan****

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT US: Please visit www.sustainabilitymindshift.com and follow us on social media #SustainabilityMindshift

Patricia Albere is an internationally renowned Spiritual Teacher and Bestselling Author of “Evolutionary Relationships: Unleashing the Transformative Power of Mutual Awakening.” She is a recognized leader and innovator in the emerging field of ‘inter-subjective awakening’ and 'post-personal development.' Patricia is also founder of the Evolutionary Collective: a global community of innovators, pioneers and WEvolutionaries committed to exploring the highest potentials for human consciousness, culture and spiritual development through mutual awakening. She has worked with over 200,000 people teaching about consciousness. One of her most popular offerings is a 4-week class that takes people into a state of mutual awakening along with experienced teachers from around the world.

In this episode, Patricia shares her personal story about how she discovered an ability to access higher levels of consciousness through a shared experience - a mutual awakening - with another human being. She explains that most of us today are living in a reality that has been shaped by a consciousness rooted in ego, subjectivity and separation, and that our own pursuits of awakening through meditation and self development can be limiting because they are not tapping into the consciousness that exists in ‘the shared space between’ two or more beings. The result is that people, even those who are considered some of the most awake today, who may be able to perform better individually, will not necessarily be able to function at higher levels when working as a team.

Patricia emphasizes how today’s challenges require a level of human development that generates a more ‘unitive’ way of being together; one that enables us to be in tune with our social and planetary systems, to be able to act more selflessly, and to co-create and collaborate at speed and scale without a lot of egos, charismas, feelings, thoughts, or agendas getting in the way. Patricia calls this ‘non-egoic shared unity.’ She talks about how people, when accessing this sacred and interconnected state of being, operate from a different source of identity almost as if they are a superorganism. We have all seen this unitive flow state displayed by a sports team or an orchestra. It also exists among the Navy Seals and it enabled the 911 rescue workers to respond at ground zero with high levels of clarity, orchestration, speed, and an orientation toward what works and what is most efficient and generative. With mutual awakening, miracles are possible.

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT PATRICIA, or to buy her bestselling book, please visit: https://evolutionarycollective.com/

****Patricia is generously offering listeners a complimentary Mutual Awakening e-Course which includes a starter kit on the first 4 chapters of her bestselling book, practical exercises, and additional insights.****

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT US: Please visit www.sustainabilitymindshift.com and follow us on social media #SustainabilityMindshift

Lorna Davis is a highly sought after speaker and coach who is passionate about bringing indigenous wisdom into business and helping leaders live and lead with love. She currently serves on several boards; including the Social Mission Board of Seventh Generation, the Advisory Board of Radicle Impact, the board of Guayaki, and the board of B Lab Global. In the past, Lorna has served in various executive roles, including as President of multinational consumer goods companies Danone, Kraft and Mondelez. Notably, while serving as CEO and Chairwoman of Danone North America, Lorna led the company’s purpose journey; including establishing the $6 Billion company as a Public Benefit Corporation in 2018; making it the largest B Corp in the world! Lorna is also deeply committed to wildlife conservation, especially rhinoceros protection.  

In this episode, Lorna talks about her own personal journey of self-discovery and her awakening to the fact that, as leaders, we must overcome our heroic mindsets and sense of self-importance that tell us we have all the answers and that we know, with precision, the path to success. The hero in us shapes our destiny and our realities within the context of small, tidy, and achievable goals which provide us (and everyone around us) with the illusion of progress, action and success. However, to solve today’s complex challenges, for extraordinary things to happen, for real change to occur, we must stop pretending that we have all the answers. We must acknowledge that the true path to a sustainable future is independently unknowable and will only fully reveal itself through collaboration and radical interdependence.  

Lorna explains that a leader’s hero journey is a part of our human experience that is not working for society today. Even well intentioned leaders who feel the weight of responsibility to make a difference in the world can be driven by their egos and sabotaged by the fear of being wrong or making mistakes, and also their desire to be recognized for their individual achievements. These human characteristics can obstruct our ability to ask and sit with the big, deep, unanswered questions; the answers to which, if unveiled collectively, will help orient us and carry us toward that future we all viscerally desire. 

She goes on to say that a more highly evolved consciousness calls on our abilities to collaborate, and she affirms that collaboration is inherently human. She uses the example of parenting and how this role, similar to caring for each other and the planet, is one of the most important roles we have in our life. And this role, while not easy, is something we are innately designed to do. It is filled with uncertainty and ambiguity, moments of success and despair, short and long term tradeoffs, and a lot of stakeholders…and we get the job done. Do we set small goals and dreams for our children? NO! We dive into parenting with so much love, passion, AND uncertainty. And we find our way, step by step, bit by bit, with deep humility; enrolling our family, our friends, and our community to share in the journey of bringing our dreams and our children’s future to life.  

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT LORNA, please visit: https://www.lornadavis.net/media and watch her TEDx talk here: www.ted.com/talks/lorna_davis_a_guide_to_collaborative_leadership   

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT US: Please visit www.sustainabilitymindshift.com and follow us on social media #SustainabilityMindshift

Michelle Holliday is a living systems pioneer, strategist, facilitator, speaker, researcher, and author whose work has centered around thrivability — a set of beliefs, intentions and practices based on a view of organizations as living systems. Her book, “The Age of Thrivability: Vital Perspectives and Practices for a Better World,” is a comprehensive guide to the transition that humanity is undergoing. More importantly, it outlines a straightforward framework for enabling life to thrive along the way. Michelle has dedicated the past two decades to helping steward change for people and organizations; helping them understand what it takes for life to thrive and why that matters. Michelle also serves as a host to many communities of practice, public conversations, and workshops where she brings people together to help them navigate complexity, discover ways they can feel more alive, connect more meaningfully with each other, and serve life more powerfully through their work.   

In this episode, Michelle explains how her early quest to explore what was missing from today’s mechanistic organizations, leadership, and cultures led to her discovery that the missing ingredient was life itself! This began her lifelong journey to understand what it takes for life to thrive, to understand the dominant stories and paradigms that have shaped the way humans think, act and organize, and to cultivate wisdom that would help organizations become living systems once again. In her research, Michelle found that there are four conditions or patterns which she calls “life’s universal design principles” that are required to support all living systems and, by default, all of humanity: 1) diverse parts, 2) relationships, 3) integrated whole, and, 4) self-integrating, self-organizing, self-generating, self-regenerating, self-healing = LIFE!  

Michelle tells us how major eras of humanity followed these same design principles and patterns; starting with hunter gatherers who were rooted in wholeness and in-tune with all of life, to the agricultural era that shifted the paradigm to relationships between parts, to the scientific and industrial age which focused on reductionist separation and divergent parts, to today’s era where life is beckoning a convergence of all of its universal principles into our organizations, our leadership, our societies, our cultures, and into our own beings. Our organizations can be excellent practice grounds to intentionally manifest what is needed. The time for deeper conversations that bring healing and wisdom, shift how we see ourselves and the world, cultivate deep presence, and allow stewardship to flourish in alignment with life…the time for thrivability…is now.  Watch or listen to this episode and others on our website, Youtube, Facebook, Spotify, and other channels (link in the comments).  

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT MICHELLE, please visit: www.michelleholliday.com. For more information about her book and thrivability, please visit: https://ageofthrivability.com/ 

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT US: Please visit www.sustainabilitymindshift.com and follow us on social media #SustainabilityMindshift

Sonja Klopčič is a leadership expert, innovator, entrepreneur, and author of several books including “The AEIOU of Leadership: Five Approaches to Leadership for Tomorrow”. Sonja is currently an independent business consultant who specializes in leadership development for conscious organizations. She is also a mentor and coach to leaders, executives, and managers, and founder of the Global Community of AEIOU Leaders whose mission is to support leaders who lead from love, purpose and inspiration in order to create prosperity for all. In the past, Sonja has created and managed several companies in Slovenia in multiple fields of business, and she has been recognized with many industry awards in both entrepreneurship and innovation.   

In this episode, Sonja explains how she came to understand through her various roles in business that the current systems in which we live and work are not serving humanity and no longer support life in general. An engineer by training, Sonja has always had an insatiable curiosity to understand her own mindset as well as the motivations that drive today’s leaders and organizations to think and behave like machines. This curiosity is what drives her lifelong journey of exploration to study human and organizational dynamics, consciousness, cultures, and ancient wisdoms from around the world.   

Early in her journey, Sonja began to see patterns and, working with other experts in Slovenia such as Violeta Bulc, recognized that organizations evolve through four stages: from ‘working’ (hierarchical) to ‘learning’ (knowledge) to ‘thinking’ (creativity where innovation is a value add) to ‘conscious’ (participation from all in leadership). She found that, in order to solve today’s challenges, we need to build conscious organizations. To do so, the leap to conscious leadership must be made which involves a comprehensive transformation of our manner of observing, perceiving, feeling, thinking, and acting.   

Sonja created a powerful leadership development code using a deliberate combination of words and colors carrying timeless wisdom from our ancient ancestors across five continents. This code, with the acronym AEIOU, supports leaders in their journey to create conscious organizations. When put into practice, these five powerful words - Aroha (love), Eb (interconnectivity), Ikigai (purpose), Oikos (responsibility), and Ubuntu (relationships) - help leaders develop their mental, emotional and spiritual intelligences that are necessary for effective leadership transformation, and to better collaborate and co-create our new sustainable future together.  

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT SONJA, and to purchase her book, please visit: https://www.voditeljstvo.si/en/   

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT US: Please visit www.sustainabilitymindshift.com and follow us on social media #SustainabilityMindshift

Jeroen Janss is a facilitator, resilience coach, mindfulness trainer, and keynote speaker. He is Founder and Co-Director of the Inner Green Deal: a not-for-profit initiative cultivating sustainable and compassionate leadership for a greener and fairer society. Jeroen works with leaders in companies and international organizations such as the European Commission and European Parliament to facilitate systemic change. He and his colleagues develop training programs and tools that address the human dimensions of climate leadership and action that can be used by organizations and facilitators around the world to scale impact. He is passionate about his call to the community of facilitators, mindfulness teachers and coaches to use their skills and understanding of how humans function to facilitate a shift in mindset and a more compassionate way of living and working.

In this episode, Jeroen talks about why he launched the Inner Green Deal in response to the growing need to address the inner dimensions (the mindsets and behavior changes) that were not formally a part of the EU’s Green Deal initiatives which focused primarily on ‘external’ progress such as infrastructure and land-use planning, for example. He saw the need for facilitators, who understand how the mind works, to play important roles in initiatives that are working to solve the societal and environmental challenges of today and tomorrow.

Jeroen describes how, in today’s busy world, we are often distracted and stressed and, in this state of being, we become disconnected from our true selves, from others, and from nature. He explains that, under stress, we often exist in a state of fear and take on a view of the world that can best be described as ‘tunnel vision’; making it difficult to think clearly, to address new challenges, to listen with humility, to see emerging options, and to slow down and be present. In many cases, we have become cynical and have lost faith in our own ability to change and solve today’s challenges, both as human beings and as institutions. The result is that we shut down, act defensively, and fight to protect ourselves instead of the other way around. This state of mind and being, in and of itself, does not allow us to live the best version of ourselves.

Jeroen stresses that we, as living creatures, do indeed change and adapt all the time. By taking a hard look at our inner selves, through facilitated expeditions into our minds and our collective consciousness, the Inner Green Deal helps us find and develop spaces for compassion, vulnerability, collaboration, and psychological safety so that we can better understand ourselves and how we are all connected.

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT JEROEN, please visit: www.awaris.com/awaris-team/jeroen-janss; and to listen to the Inner Green Deal podcast, please visit: www.awaris.com/inner-green-deal-podcast

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT US: Please visit www.sustainabilitymindshift.com and follow us on social media #SustainabilityMindshift

Anna Birney is a world leading expert, facilitator and coach in systems change, systems innovation, leadership development, organizational capacity building, and adult learning. She is Global Director of Learning and Community at the Forum for the Future where she leads their work in designing and facilitating systems change programs that support peoples’, communities’ and organizations’ capacities to transform. She is also Director of the Forum for the Future’s School of System Change: an international learning community that cultivates, equips, and connects a growing network of change-makers to deliver systems change using living systems practices and flexible learning experiences to address the complex challenges of our times. Anna also led the Systems Innovation Lab which explores the paradigm shift that is required to shift people’s mindsets, behaviors, and societal structures, and she has also run the Leadership and Change program that works to ensure that individuals and organizations show leadership in sustainable development. Anna is co-initiator of Living Change: an emerging platform of action inquiry that explores questions in practice to better navigate complexity and change. In the past, she has worked as a trainer and educator for World Wildlife Fund (WWF-UK) and has worked as a coach and facilitator for a number of forward-thinking organizations.  

In this episode, Anna talks about how, from a young age, a learning disability fueled her internal fire to overcome her learning challenges which later grew into a passion for learning, and in the process she developed an ability to see patterns which opened the door to a heightened sensitivity and understanding of systems dynamics. She talks about how most systemic challenges today are ‘unknowable’ and ‘unpredictable’ but that we all have the innate ability to be systems thinkers and to solve these challenges by first understanding ourselves and then turning this awareness into daily practices, decisions and actions as change makers and leaders. This process helps develop the mindsets and the ‘muscle memory’ we need for systems-based thinking and being, and enables us to truly see the world from a systemic lens.    

She describes systems as patterns of behaviors and how, in order to change systems, we must first restructure the patterns into new ‘fractals’ of behavior; leveraging our systems-based mindsets to create new approaches and models for the future we desire and the systems we want to create. She also describes the systems as being composed of multi-dimensional relationships which play themselves out as exchanges of information and power. How you act, communicate, and relate to people on a daily basis become real inputs into the system (with measurable impacts) and influences how the system changes and evolves i.e. “what you put into the system becomes the system.” Anna recalls her own personal leadership journey and ‘a-ha’ moments as she learned how to be a successful facilitative leader by balancing ‘leaning in’ and ‘leaning out’ of meetings to provide role fluidity, shift power to the group, and to access a diversity of perspectives and collective wisdom. This is important for organizations to consider as they examine their roles and define their purpose within bigger and broader systems, including society and the planet.   

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT ANNA: Please visit https://medium.com/living-change and https://www.forumforthefuture.org/anna-birney  

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT US: Please visit www.sustainabilitymindshift.com and follow us on social media #SustainabilityMindshift

Andrew Jones is an expert in international climate and energy issues. He is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Climate Interactive - the climate change think tank that, along with MIT Sloan School of Management, creates user-friendly climate simulations that are used by thousands of climate analysts, policy makers, activists, academics, community groups, and business leaders around the world. Trained in system dynamics modeling at Dartmouth College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Drew was a protégé of the late Donella Meadows and works closely with systems thinking gurus like Peter Senge. He currently holds a research position at MIT Sloan School of Management and teaches System Dynamics and Sustainability at  UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. Prior to this, Drew was Program Director at The SustainAbility Institute by ERM where he delivered training and coaching to students and sustainability leaders around systems thinking as well as dynamic modeling for environmental, economic, social and health issues.  

In this episode, Drew talks about how En-ROADS, one of Climate Interactive's most popular simulations, has been a powerful tool in helping decision makers understand and address complex systems-level challenges and opportunities (e.g. climate change or the Sustainable Development Goals) and to bring about deep changes in thinking that lead to action. He explains how En-ROADS is a simulation that provides a playing field for participants to test different scenarios, hypotheses and strategies; and it allows them to explore radically different ways of thinking, reflect on the outcomes of their decisions, and to learn for themselves through experience.   

Drew stresses the importance of using simulations to deal with today’s challenges because, with complex systems, cause and effect are delayed which obscures our ability to understand the long term implications of our decisions and actions. He describes the power of simulations in their ability to provide feedback in ways that are meaningful, contextual, and ‘ridiculously relevant’; connecting the things we do today with data-backed future impacts (in real time). Simulations also help us understand how our mindsets drive our patterns of behavior which in turn shape our realities. And, most importantly, simulations help us uncover deeper truths and insights that enable us to see the future as a choice, not something that is simply handed to us, so that we can create the world for which we yearn.

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT DREW AND CLIMATE INTERACTIVE: Please visit www.climateinteractive.org  

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT US: Please visit www.sustainabilitymindshift.com and follow us on social media #SustainabilityMindshift