Like many other climate folks, I’ll be making my way to the Verge conference in San Jose this Halloween week. I consider myself an old-timer at this point, since I attended my first business climate conference almost twenty years ago.
Whether you are a climate veteran or newbie, you’ll probably agree that most gatherings like Verge feature some familiar attributes: there are always the promising new technologies, lots of discussions about the opportunities with government programs, and plenty of political tea-reading.
Attendees pinball between irrational exuberance and despair — and for good reason. There’s a lot to be excited about — and a lot to be disconsolate about.
But don’t underestimate the impact these swings of emotion have on yourself and as well as those around you. I ran my own clean energy business for a long stretch and now I work as an executive coach. I’ve seen the negative impact of this thinking on individuals and companies all of the time. It limits strategic decision making, interferes with tactical execution, and it is often just needlessly exhausting.
With that in mind, let me propose some guide posts for how to be at the conference —and really in your climate tech career.
Please note, these aren’t four more things you need to DO at the conference. There are four ways to BE. You can do them wherever you are, whatever you need to do.
Be free. If you think we have it bad contemplating risks and barriers to scaling businesses, imagine being in a Siberian prison, knowing you will soon be killed. That was the situation facing Russian opposition hero Alexy Navalny, whose memoir was published last week. Whether you are stuck near the north pole or hopeless about rising ocean temperatures, it is easy to feel trapped and hopeless. Navalny pursued a mental exercise that was challenging and simple: imagine the worst outcome and accept it. For him, that meant acknowledging that he would die in prison without ever seeing his family again. (And that, in fact, turned out to be true.)
For us, it might mean accepting that the climate has profoundly changed and will never again be what many of us knew as children or young adults. The work of accepting these realities is tricky. It isn’t just an intellectual thing. It is an emotional and physical acceptance as well, but if you do it, Navalany says, you can be free. In our context, it means there will be more space for engaging in conversations, identifying real opportunities and doing actually productive work.
Be protective. Before I worked in the climate business, I was a journalist. And part of my job, I felt, was to keep up on all of the news. That meant that I exposed myself to a lot of awful human behavior, a lot of scary things and a lot of sad things. While most of this news had little relevance to my job, much of it impacted me personally, leading me to be more anxious and eventually more numbed out.
The same dynamic is true in climate. Aldo Leopold said we are “living in a world of wounds.” So protection is warranted. Don’t let the mission trick you into consuming everything. Maybe that looks like being more selective about the amount and type of news you are consuming. It also could extend to topics of conversation at Verge. Notice the topics that make you feel anxious and consider whether engaging with them is helping or hurting your work. More is not always more.
Be curious. Once you’ve created some space from doom and nirvana, let curiosity take center stage. Give yourself permission to not to impress other attendees or be an expert. Ask questions. Attend a session that may be removed from your core business. The key here is to nurture the perspective of wonder. This can have many practical effects. You may be able to identify business opportunities that others can’t see.
Be appreciative. I have faced a lot of challenges in my clean energy career. But I’ve always faced them with incredible colleagues. Sure there are bad apples, but most of the people I’ve worked with are smart, ambitious and values-driven. You have to have all of these things to make it in the climate industry. Appreciate it. Consider your colleagues not just as a means to an end, but an end in and of themselves. In religious contexts, it is much easier and acceptable to embrace the community (whether it is a congregation, a minion, or a sangha.) But it is true in business as well, especially climate. So when you are at Verge, savor the camaraderie.
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