May 15, 2024 • 15 mins
Courage is identified by the Inner Development Goals as one the key skills needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
It takes courage to go against the flow. It takes courage to say things others don't want to hear. It takes courage to innovate and do things differently.
That’s why, if you’re leading on sustainability, you need courage to make genuine progress.
We recently brought together a number of sustainability leaders to discuss courage in their work – in construction, healthcare, engineering, public service, education and more.
Listen now for powerful insights and practical advice that you can apply to be a more courageous and effective sustainability leader.
Looking for support?
If you’re wrestling with any challenges as a sustainability leader we might be able to help. Find out how at https://realise.earth/services
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Mentioned in this episode:
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Leadership for Susainability Online Meet Up 22 May 2025 Leadership for Sustainability Netwalks, Edinburgh, various dates Your Wild Nature 3 Day Women’s Retreat, Scotland, 30 May – 02 Jun 2025.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Archie (00:00):
I'll have one shot at that in the room with the CEO
Lyndsay (00:03):
discussions around sustainability result in quite a lot of conflict
Rebecca McLean (00:07):
not to give in to the fear of failure.
And that it's okay to failbecause you're trying new stuff
Adam (00:13):
It's having the courage to have those conversations and articulate the
value into why this should be prioritized
Osbert (00:18):
This is Leadership for Sustainability from Realise Earth.
We focus on the people side ofsustainability to support sustainability
directors, managers, and pioneers makegreater progress on sustainability
in, and through, their organisation.
I'm Osbert Lancaster.
And I'm so glad you're here with me today.
This episode brings you the highlightsof our round table discussion with a
(00:42):
wonderful group of sustainability leaders.
And the topic is courage.
I'll let them introducethemselves in a moment.
But first, a quick bit of context.
Courage is recognized by the InnerDevelopment Goals as one of the
key skills needed to achieve theSustainable Development Goals.
It takes courage to go against the flow.
It takes courage to say thingsothers don't want to hear.
(01:03):
It takes courage to innovateand do things differently.
And that's why if you're leadingon sustainability, you need
courage to make genuine progress.
And now it's time for ourguests to introduce themselves.
Adam (01:16):
Hi everyone, Adam Little, I'm head of sustainability
at Roslin Cell Therapies.
Archie (01:20):
Archie Lasseter, group head of sustainability at Luxion Group.
Azka (01:23):
My name is Aska and I'm a sustainability leader at
Sapphire Mills in Pakistan.
Caroline (01:27):
Hi, yeah, I'm Caroline Carlin and I'm the senior business
development and sustainabilitymanager for E-novation Consulting.
Lyndsay (01:34):
Hi, I'm Lindsay Blue, I'm Head of Sustainability at Third Way Interiors.
Paul (01:38):
I'm Paul, I am Director of Finance and Sustainability
at Heart Academies Trust.
Rob (01:43):
My name is Rob Turnbull.
I am the Sustainability Manager at theEdinburgh International Conference Centre.
Rebecca McLean (01:48):
Rebecca McLean.
I work for SWECO.
I'm their Head of Sustainabilityfor Energy, Water, Environment.
Sian (01:53):
Hi, I'm Sian.
I work for LDA Design.
I am the Sustainability Managerbut soon to be moving to
Purpose and Impact Manager.
Thom (02:01):
I'm Thom Kenrick.
I'm Head of Social Strategy forNatWest Group, Royal Bank of Scotland.
Hayley (02:06):
Hi, I'm Hayley William, now at Fife College.
I'm Sustainability Manager.
Kirsty Macdonald (02:10):
Kirsty Macdonald and I am the Head of Insight and
Sustainability at Material Chain.
Osbert (02:14):
Plus two people who had technical difficulties at this point.
Victoria Barbie, sustainabledevelopment performance manager
at the Scottish Parliament.
And Rosa Maria Orriols, vicepresident of Women in Global Health.
And co-hosting the round table withme is Morag Watson, sustainability
leadership and policy expert,and co-founder of Realise Earth.
(02:37):
Over to Morag to explainwhat happens next.
Morag (02:41):
so what we're going to invite you to do is to think about a particular
occasion when you had to be courageous.
So perhaps you had to standup for values you believe in.
Or you had to take decisive action or makea difficult decision that maybe needed to
be done, but other people wouldn't like.
Or you had to challenge or disruptexisting structures or views,
(03:04):
or it might be something else.
I'm going to shut up for 10 secondsand give you an opportunity to think.
about a particular occasionwhen you had to be courageous.
So now you've got that occasion, what wewould like you to think about is, did you
succeed or fail when you tried to do this?
(03:26):
If you succeeded, who andwhat helped you succeed?
And whether you succeeded or failed,what did you learn from that experience?
What we're going to invite you todo is once you're in your group,
you can share the situation you'rein, discuss your experiences
and what you learned from them.
Osbert (03:51):
Hello, good to see you all back..
So, I hope you've had aninteresting discussion.
You've got some great insights and ideasand inspirations from that discussion.
So we'll start with Group One,Archie, Hayley, Sian, and Victoria?
Archie (04:07):
Just for a tiny bit of context, because it's important, the kind of
challenge that we spoke about, whichwas kind of my example from the company
I work for at the moment, was thatwe've gone from sort of being a small
group of two companies to a bit of alarger group with about six different
companies in and that's led to methinking I need to go and challenge, um,
(04:29):
C suite to ensure that sustainabilityis then reflected across the entire
group of all of these companies, ofall of the entities within the group.
Um, and that being a very challengingconversation by needing, you know,
suggesting that we do quite radicalthings like hiring a CSO, um, Chief
(04:51):
Sustainability Officer , linkingremuneration to, , our performance
against our carbon targets, makingsustainability skills part of every
single job description, really assigningclarity and responsibility for each
kind of MD of each entity on theirown decarbonization targets, , and you
know, I'll have one shot at that inthe room with the CEO, and he'll either
(05:16):
turn around and say, "this is somethingI need to think about a bit more" um,
"this is something that's ridiculous.
Why did you bothercoming to me with this?"
or "this is, , uh, it's really good".
Osbert (05:27):
So great context.
So did you come to a conclusion abouthow or what you're going to do with that?
Archie (05:33):
Yeah..
So it's very live.
Like this is something I've actuallybeen dealing with this week and kind of
I'm going to be going to the, the CEOin the next couple of weeks, once I've
kind of got my head screwed upon, right.
Um, but yeah, the advice inthe room was really useful.
So, um, we had kind of an idea of, um,using this is kind of showing how these
things that I've listed as solutions tothe challenge of changing the culture of
(05:56):
the business from the top down almost,um, by linking it to kind of standards.
Um, so saying, well, these arewhat these kind of standards around
sustainability like TCFD or B Corpor something suggest you do and this
is how it reflects that linking.
Likewise, showing it how it kind oflinks in with bids you might be tendering
for, and where you're losing pointsbecause of value that you're not showing.
Osbert (06:19):
I'm just fascinated and looking forward to hearing more,
but I've just realised what,how the time is pushing us on.
So room two was Kirstie, Lindsay and Rosa.
Lyndsay (06:29):
I think our key takeaway was that, um, Inherently, discussions around
sustainability result in quite a lotof conflict and challenges internally.
Um, the three of us come fromvery different work environments,
I'm construction based.
Kirsty was agency based andRosa is healthcare based.
So we all found a common ground inconflict and there being a difficulty
(06:53):
around separating emotion from suchdiscussions, I think, because, you
know, whichever side of the fenceyou sit on, people do feel very
passionately about these subjects,whether they're right or wrong.
But the key takeaway for us is thatwhen those arguments are robustly
supported with facts, figures andprocesses, the arguments around
(07:15):
doing the right thing become easier.
So it was more about focusing on,you know, the real tangible evidence.
And the processes involved versusmanaging emotions around commercial
success and other personal drivers.
. Osbert: Thank you so much, Lindsay, so, let's move to room three, which
is Caroline, Melia, Paul and Rebecca..
Rebecca McLean (07:39):
We all told kind of our own stories and I think What we found was
there were so many similarities regardlessof where we worked, and a lot of it was
about psychological safety to actuallybe able to move things forward, because
if people are fearful, or they don'tunderstand what it is you're trying to
do, or they don't see that it's part ofa kind of strategy and a, and I kind of
(08:01):
a complete motion that sometimes you getresistance, um, or if people feel at risk
that their status might be taken away, orthey might be seen to be not doing what
they should, that sometimes you can getweird pockets of resistance from from ego.
And I suppose not to givein to the fear of failure.
And that it's okay to failbecause you're trying new stuff.
(08:24):
So if you're trying new stuff and itdoesn't work, don't get down heartened.
You know, you can go home and have alittle hide under your duvet for an
evening and then just get back on itbecause actually there will be some stuff
that will go really well there'll besome stuff that you will learn from that
process and then do things differently.
Osbert (08:41):
Thank you, Rebecca.
And as you were speaking, I was justseeing lots of nodding heads and
big smiles, a lot of that resonating.
And finally, Room 4, Adam, Rob and Thom.
Adam (08:51):
We all kind of raised different points, but when we kind of brought
them together, the themes arearound kind of trying to change
your mindset within an organisation.
So with different perspectives, um,Thom's from a very large organisation,
uh, myself and, uh, Rob from, uh,from much smaller organisations.
But what was, what's trying to be,uh, implemented is that changing
(09:12):
mindset, whether it's through, um,introducing a strategy or a plan in
my case, that's new to the business.
My role is new in the company, soI'm trying to kind of educate and
inform people as to why sustainabilityis important for our industry and
the value that that will bring.
Rob's in the position of bringingteams together to facilitate
(09:32):
kind of sustainability delivery.
Um, and it was all about kind ofcontinuing those conversations and trying
to kind of elevate sustainability in thesame way that safety might be considered.
Um, for example, through just generalday to day discussion, safety seems
to be embedded into how peoplethink about doing their jobs, but
sustainability isn't quite there yet.
Osbert (09:54):
Again,
Adam (09:54):
where's
Osbert (09:55):
the courage?
I can sort of guess where thecourage is, but do you want to just
finish on the courage bit on this?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Adam (10:02):
It's having the courage to have those conversations and
articulate the value into why thisshould be prioritized as, as, as
equally as other things should be.
Osbert (10:10):
Great.
Thank you so much.
I'd just love to open this conversationup, but we don't have time to do that.
So I'll hand back to Morag tohelp us pull this together.
Morag (10:20):
Okay, so we're now into the last 10 minutes and we're really keen
to ensure that everyone has a chanceto contribute to this last part here.
So here's how this is going to work.
We'll give you a moment to reflect oneverything that you've discussed and
you've heard in the last hour and just tothink next time you face a situation as
a sustainability leader that tests yourcourage, what could you do differently?
(10:45):
Or what you already do thatyou're reminded that you
should be doing each time.
I'm going to invite you to completethe sentence, "The next time
I need all my courage, I will…"
So we're going to start with Rebecca,and then we're going to come to Paul.
Rebecca McLean (11:03):
I will keep smiling and think, what would
Beyonce do in this scenario?
Morag (11:09):
We'll go to Paul and then we'll come to Kirsty.
Paul (11:13):
I think I would, um, remind myself why I do this.
And for context, I work inschools and it's for all the
children that we work with.
Morag (11:23):
Thank you, Paul.
Kirsty and then Hayley.
Kirsty Macdonald (11:27):
I would prepare myself for everybody's
perspectives, not just my own.
Morag (11:33):
And then we'll go Hayley, then Thom.
Hayley (11:35):
And remember to be friendly, but not shy away from
those difficult conversations.
Morag (11:40):
Thom, then Sian.
Thom (11:42):
I'll remember that it's a long term game.
Morag (11:48):
Thank you, Thom.
Sian, then Rosa.
Sian (11:51):
The next time I need all my courage, I'll remember it's a shared responsibility
and it doesn't just come down to me.
Morag (11:57):
Thank you.
Rosa, then Adam.
Thank you.
I will, I will put myself inthe shoes of my interlocutor.
Adam, then Rob.
Adam (12:07):
Uh, I will not be afraid to ask for help from others.
Morag (12:11):
Rob then Archie.
Rob (12:14):
I'll remember that it's all worthwhile and we're all in this together.
Morag (12:18):
Archie then Lindsay.
Archie (12:20):
I'll have more empathy with those I'm speaking with.
Morag (12:24):
Lindsay then Victoria.
Lyndsay (12:26):
I think it's important to remember that it's the bigger picture
that's really key and that we have tokeep working towards sustainability being
business as usual and not a luxury add on.
Morag (12:38):
Victoria then Caroline..
Victoria (12:41):
Remind myself to dig deep and believe in myself.
Morag (12:47):
Um, Caroline?
Caroline (12:50):
The next time I need all my courage, I'll believe in myself more,
and if I need it, I'll ask for help.
Osbert (12:55):
Lots of great insights and ideas there from our guests.
Which of those resonated with you?
What will you do the next timeyou need all your courage.
It seems to me that discussion highlightedthree distinct aspects of being a
courageous sustainability leader.
The first is about approachinga challenging situation with an
understanding of, and an empathyfor, other people's perspectives
(13:17):
and the realities they face.
The second is about being prepared, havinga proposal or a plan, supported by good
evidence and arguments that are relevantand meaningful to the people involved.
And of course you can only do that ifyou understand where they're coming from.
And the third is about whatit is that gives you courage.
We heard just now about having a senseof commitment and purpose, a vision
(13:40):
of what we're working towards and why.
Approaching the situation, knowing thatyou might fail and that that's okay.
Recognizing that it's not allon your shoulders that you
can ask for help from others.
I hope you found these insights fromother sustainability leaders interesting
and useful, and that you'll joinone of our round tables sometime and
(14:01):
share your experience with your peers.
We always encourage you to buildyour network of collaborators,
allies, and supporters.
Not least so that you have peopleyou can turn to, if you need help.
If you are wrestling with any challengesas a sustainability leader at the
moment, and you don't have the rightperson in your network, or you want
to talk to someone with a bit ofdistance from the situation, do get in
(14:22):
touch, or we can set up a time to gettogether to help you find a way forward.
See realise.earth/servicesto find out how I can help.
I'll put the link in the show notes.
And if you'd like to have a chatover a virtual coffee before
committing, I'm up for that.
Keep up the good work, be courageousand make sure to look after yourself,
because the world needs effectivesustainability leaders now more than ever.
(14:44):
Bye for now.
I'll have one shot at that in the room with the CEO
Lyndsay (00:03):
discussions around sustainability result in quite a lot of conflict
Rebecca McLean (00:07):
not to give in to the fear of failure.
And that it's okay to failbecause you're trying new stuff
Adam (00:13):
It's having the courage to have those conversations and articulate the
value into why this should be prioritized
Osbert (00:18):
This is Leadership for Sustainability from Realise Earth.
We focus on the people side ofsustainability to support sustainability
directors, managers, and pioneers makegreater progress on sustainability
in, and through, their organisation.
I'm Osbert Lancaster.
And I'm so glad you're here with me today.
This episode brings you the highlightsof our round table discussion with a
(00:42):
wonderful group of sustainability leaders.
And the topic is courage.
I'll let them introducethemselves in a moment.
But first, a quick bit of context.
Courage is recognized by the InnerDevelopment Goals as one of the
key skills needed to achieve theSustainable Development Goals.
It takes courage to go against the flow.
It takes courage to say thingsothers don't want to hear.
(01:03):
It takes courage to innovateand do things differently.
And that's why if you're leadingon sustainability, you need
courage to make genuine progress.
And now it's time for ourguests to introduce themselves.
Adam (01:16):
Hi everyone, Adam Little, I'm head of sustainability
at Roslin Cell Therapies.
Archie (01:20):
Archie Lasseter, group head of sustainability at Luxion Group.
Azka (01:23):
My name is Aska and I'm a sustainability leader at
Sapphire Mills in Pakistan.
Caroline (01:27):
Hi, yeah, I'm Caroline Carlin and I'm the senior business
development and sustainabilitymanager for E-novation Consulting.
Lyndsay (01:34):
Hi, I'm Lindsay Blue, I'm Head of Sustainability at Third Way Interiors.
Paul (01:38):
I'm Paul, I am Director of Finance and Sustainability
at Heart Academies Trust.
Rob (01:43):
My name is Rob Turnbull.
I am the Sustainability Manager at theEdinburgh International Conference Centre.
Rebecca McLean (01:48):
Rebecca McLean.
I work for SWECO.
I'm their Head of Sustainabilityfor Energy, Water, Environment.
Sian (01:53):
Hi, I'm Sian.
I work for LDA Design.
I am the Sustainability Managerbut soon to be moving to
Purpose and Impact Manager.
Thom (02:01):
I'm Thom Kenrick.
I'm Head of Social Strategy forNatWest Group, Royal Bank of Scotland.
Hayley (02:06):
Hi, I'm Hayley William, now at Fife College.
I'm Sustainability Manager.
Kirsty Macdonald (02:10):
Kirsty Macdonald and I am the Head of Insight and
Sustainability at Material Chain.
Osbert (02:14):
Plus two people who had technical difficulties at this point.
Victoria Barbie, sustainabledevelopment performance manager
at the Scottish Parliament.
And Rosa Maria Orriols, vicepresident of Women in Global Health.
And co-hosting the round table withme is Morag Watson, sustainability
leadership and policy expert,and co-founder of Realise Earth.
(02:37):
Over to Morag to explainwhat happens next.
Morag (02:41):
so what we're going to invite you to do is to think about a particular
occasion when you had to be courageous.
So perhaps you had to standup for values you believe in.
Or you had to take decisive action or makea difficult decision that maybe needed to
be done, but other people wouldn't like.
Or you had to challenge or disruptexisting structures or views,
(03:04):
or it might be something else.
I'm going to shut up for 10 secondsand give you an opportunity to think.
about a particular occasionwhen you had to be courageous.
So now you've got that occasion, what wewould like you to think about is, did you
succeed or fail when you tried to do this?
(03:26):
If you succeeded, who andwhat helped you succeed?
And whether you succeeded or failed,what did you learn from that experience?
What we're going to invite you todo is once you're in your group,
you can share the situation you'rein, discuss your experiences
and what you learned from them.
Osbert (03:51):
Hello, good to see you all back..
So, I hope you've had aninteresting discussion.
You've got some great insights and ideasand inspirations from that discussion.
So we'll start with Group One,Archie, Hayley, Sian, and Victoria?
Archie (04:07):
Just for a tiny bit of context, because it's important, the kind of
challenge that we spoke about, whichwas kind of my example from the company
I work for at the moment, was thatwe've gone from sort of being a small
group of two companies to a bit of alarger group with about six different
companies in and that's led to methinking I need to go and challenge, um,
(04:29):
C suite to ensure that sustainabilityis then reflected across the entire
group of all of these companies, ofall of the entities within the group.
Um, and that being a very challengingconversation by needing, you know,
suggesting that we do quite radicalthings like hiring a CSO, um, Chief
(04:51):
Sustainability Officer , linkingremuneration to, , our performance
against our carbon targets, makingsustainability skills part of every
single job description, really assigningclarity and responsibility for each
kind of MD of each entity on theirown decarbonization targets, , and you
know, I'll have one shot at that inthe room with the CEO, and he'll either
(05:16):
turn around and say, "this is somethingI need to think about a bit more" um,
"this is something that's ridiculous.
Why did you bothercoming to me with this?"
or "this is, , uh, it's really good".
Osbert (05:27):
So great context.
So did you come to a conclusion abouthow or what you're going to do with that?
Archie (05:33):
Yeah..
So it's very live.
Like this is something I've actuallybeen dealing with this week and kind of
I'm going to be going to the, the CEOin the next couple of weeks, once I've
kind of got my head screwed upon, right.
Um, but yeah, the advice inthe room was really useful.
So, um, we had kind of an idea of, um,using this is kind of showing how these
things that I've listed as solutions tothe challenge of changing the culture of
(05:56):
the business from the top down almost,um, by linking it to kind of standards.
Um, so saying, well, these arewhat these kind of standards around
sustainability like TCFD or B Corpor something suggest you do and this
is how it reflects that linking.
Likewise, showing it how it kind oflinks in with bids you might be tendering
for, and where you're losing pointsbecause of value that you're not showing.
Osbert (06:19):
I'm just fascinated and looking forward to hearing more,
but I've just realised what,how the time is pushing us on.
So room two was Kirstie, Lindsay and Rosa.
Lyndsay (06:29):
I think our key takeaway was that, um, Inherently, discussions around
sustainability result in quite a lotof conflict and challenges internally.
Um, the three of us come fromvery different work environments,
I'm construction based.
Kirsty was agency based andRosa is healthcare based.
So we all found a common ground inconflict and there being a difficulty
(06:53):
around separating emotion from suchdiscussions, I think, because, you
know, whichever side of the fenceyou sit on, people do feel very
passionately about these subjects,whether they're right or wrong.
But the key takeaway for us is thatwhen those arguments are robustly
supported with facts, figures andprocesses, the arguments around
(07:15):
doing the right thing become easier.
So it was more about focusing on,you know, the real tangible evidence.
And the processes involved versusmanaging emotions around commercial
success and other personal drivers.
. Osbert: Thank you so much, Lindsay, so, let's move to room three, which
is Caroline, Melia, Paul and Rebecca..
Rebecca McLean (07:39):
We all told kind of our own stories and I think What we found was
there were so many similarities regardlessof where we worked, and a lot of it was
about psychological safety to actuallybe able to move things forward, because
if people are fearful, or they don'tunderstand what it is you're trying to
do, or they don't see that it's part ofa kind of strategy and a, and I kind of
(08:01):
a complete motion that sometimes you getresistance, um, or if people feel at risk
that their status might be taken away, orthey might be seen to be not doing what
they should, that sometimes you can getweird pockets of resistance from from ego.
And I suppose not to givein to the fear of failure.
And that it's okay to failbecause you're trying new stuff.
(08:24):
So if you're trying new stuff and itdoesn't work, don't get down heartened.
You know, you can go home and have alittle hide under your duvet for an
evening and then just get back on itbecause actually there will be some stuff
that will go really well there'll besome stuff that you will learn from that
process and then do things differently.
Osbert (08:41):
Thank you, Rebecca.
And as you were speaking, I was justseeing lots of nodding heads and
big smiles, a lot of that resonating.
And finally, Room 4, Adam, Rob and Thom.
Adam (08:51):
We all kind of raised different points, but when we kind of brought
them together, the themes arearound kind of trying to change
your mindset within an organisation.
So with different perspectives, um,Thom's from a very large organisation,
uh, myself and, uh, Rob from, uh,from much smaller organisations.
But what was, what's trying to be,uh, implemented is that changing
(09:12):
mindset, whether it's through, um,introducing a strategy or a plan in
my case, that's new to the business.
My role is new in the company, soI'm trying to kind of educate and
inform people as to why sustainabilityis important for our industry and
the value that that will bring.
Rob's in the position of bringingteams together to facilitate
(09:32):
kind of sustainability delivery.
Um, and it was all about kind ofcontinuing those conversations and trying
to kind of elevate sustainability in thesame way that safety might be considered.
Um, for example, through just generalday to day discussion, safety seems
to be embedded into how peoplethink about doing their jobs, but
sustainability isn't quite there yet.
Osbert (09:54):
Again,
Adam (09:54):
where's
Osbert (09:55):
the courage?
I can sort of guess where thecourage is, but do you want to just
finish on the courage bit on this?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Adam (10:02):
It's having the courage to have those conversations and
articulate the value into why thisshould be prioritized as, as, as
equally as other things should be.
Osbert (10:10):
Great.
Thank you so much.
I'd just love to open this conversationup, but we don't have time to do that.
So I'll hand back to Morag tohelp us pull this together.
Morag (10:20):
Okay, so we're now into the last 10 minutes and we're really keen
to ensure that everyone has a chanceto contribute to this last part here.
So here's how this is going to work.
We'll give you a moment to reflect oneverything that you've discussed and
you've heard in the last hour and just tothink next time you face a situation as
a sustainability leader that tests yourcourage, what could you do differently?
(10:45):
Or what you already do thatyou're reminded that you
should be doing each time.
I'm going to invite you to completethe sentence, "The next time
I need all my courage, I will…"
So we're going to start with Rebecca,and then we're going to come to Paul.
Rebecca McLean (11:03):
I will keep smiling and think, what would
Beyonce do in this scenario?
Morag (11:09):
We'll go to Paul and then we'll come to Kirsty.
Paul (11:13):
I think I would, um, remind myself why I do this.
And for context, I work inschools and it's for all the
children that we work with.
Morag (11:23):
Thank you, Paul.
Kirsty and then Hayley.
Kirsty Macdonald (11:27):
I would prepare myself for everybody's
perspectives, not just my own.
Morag (11:33):
And then we'll go Hayley, then Thom.
Hayley (11:35):
And remember to be friendly, but not shy away from
those difficult conversations.
Morag (11:40):
Thom, then Sian.
Thom (11:42):
I'll remember that it's a long term game.
Morag (11:48):
Thank you, Thom.
Sian, then Rosa.
Sian (11:51):
The next time I need all my courage, I'll remember it's a shared responsibility
and it doesn't just come down to me.
Morag (11:57):
Thank you.
Rosa, then Adam.
Thank you.
I will, I will put myself inthe shoes of my interlocutor.
Adam, then Rob.
Adam (12:07):
Uh, I will not be afraid to ask for help from others.
Morag (12:11):
Rob then Archie.
Rob (12:14):
I'll remember that it's all worthwhile and we're all in this together.
Morag (12:18):
Archie then Lindsay.
Archie (12:20):
I'll have more empathy with those I'm speaking with.
Morag (12:24):
Lindsay then Victoria.
Lyndsay (12:26):
I think it's important to remember that it's the bigger picture
that's really key and that we have tokeep working towards sustainability being
business as usual and not a luxury add on.
Morag (12:38):
Victoria then Caroline..
Victoria (12:41):
Remind myself to dig deep and believe in myself.
Morag (12:47):
Um, Caroline?
Caroline (12:50):
The next time I need all my courage, I'll believe in myself more,
and if I need it, I'll ask for help.
Osbert (12:55):
Lots of great insights and ideas there from our guests.
Which of those resonated with you?
What will you do the next timeyou need all your courage.
It seems to me that discussion highlightedthree distinct aspects of being a
courageous sustainability leader.
The first is about approachinga challenging situation with an
understanding of, and an empathyfor, other people's perspectives
(13:17):
and the realities they face.
The second is about being prepared, havinga proposal or a plan, supported by good
evidence and arguments that are relevantand meaningful to the people involved.
And of course you can only do that ifyou understand where they're coming from.
And the third is about whatit is that gives you courage.
We heard just now about having a senseof commitment and purpose, a vision
(13:40):
of what we're working towards and why.
Approaching the situation, knowing thatyou might fail and that that's okay.
Recognizing that it's not allon your shoulders that you
can ask for help from others.
I hope you found these insights fromother sustainability leaders interesting
and useful, and that you'll joinone of our round tables sometime and
(14:01):
share your experience with your peers.
We always encourage you to buildyour network of collaborators,
allies, and supporters.
Not least so that you have peopleyou can turn to, if you need help.
If you are wrestling with any challengesas a sustainability leader at the
moment, and you don't have the rightperson in your network, or you want
to talk to someone with a bit ofdistance from the situation, do get in
(14:22):
touch, or we can set up a time to gettogether to help you find a way forward.
See realise.earth/servicesto find out how I can help.
I'll put the link in the show notes.
And if you'd like to have a chatover a virtual coffee before
committing, I'm up for that.
Keep up the good work, be courageousand make sure to look after yourself,
because the world needs effectivesustainability leaders now more than ever.
(14:44):
Bye for now.
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