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Climate Moment July 2024 – Heat Edition

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Since we’ve been experiencing record breaking heat this summer, I dedicated this July 2024 edition of the Climate Moment to heat and how it affects our weather. I presented this Climate Moment talk to my Provisors Palo Alto 1 group on Friday, July 12, 2024.

#climatechange #climate #climatemoment #heatwave

Transcript

Since we’ve been hearing a lot about heat in the news lately, this month’s Climate Moment is the heat edition. This chart here shows the average monthly temperature of the atmosphere [surface air measured at 2m.] And you can see over the last 12 months that the red line on the top has been over 1.5 degrees C every single month. On average, it was 1.64 degrees C. Now, you might know that 1.5 degrees C is the Paris Limit. So already for the past year, we have been over the Paris Limit.

But that’s not the whole story. The bigger story is the oceans, because most of the energy that’s being trapped in the earth is going into the oceans. And now you can see here, this is a chart of the northern hemisphere oceans. And you can see how much heat is being trapped there. And that is still going up.

Now, you ask yourself, how do we turn that around? Well, the way to know that is by something called Earth’s Energy Imbalance. And this is the amount of energy coming in from the sun and then being radiated back out into space. And that yellow line shows the amount coming in. The red line is the line going out.

And ideally, you want them to be the same or zero imbalance. But you can see now that over this last 20 years, it started a little under a half a Watt imbalance, and now it’s up at 1.4 Watts imbalance. So, it’s getting bigger and it’s going to continue to get bigger as long as we continue burning fossil fuels, emitting CO2, and then trapping the heat in the system.

And until we stop burning fossil fuels, the weather forecast is… more extreme heat and bigger and bigger ocean storms. That is my climate moment for the month.

 

Learning Styles and Hidden Potential in the Roaring 2020s

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The Roaring 2020s Speakeasy Team – Authors Kimberly Layne Roberts, Twiana Armstrong and Matt Schlegel – share examples of different learning styles and the role they play in tapping into your hidden potential.

Kimberly shares some personal examples and introduces Adam Grant’s book Hidden Potential.  Matt shares the example of Steph Currey’s learning style as an Enneagram Type 7 and the importance of making learning fun for Type 7s. Twiana describes the role of synchronous learning and asynchronous learning.

Find more about Kimberly, Twiana and Matt here:

Kimberly Layne: https://www.kimberly-layne.com/

Twiana Armstrong: https://linkedin.com/in/twianaarmstrong

Matt Schlegel: https://evolutionaryteams.com

#Leadership #Roaring2020s #hiddenpotential #stephcurrey #enneagram #learningstyles

Transcript

[Kimberly Layne]

Are you a self-learner, a self-starter, somebody who teaches themself? I can remember when I was in elementary school, I taught myself to French braid my hair. Now, how many hours and how many days? I sat in front of the mirror before it was good enough to wear to school that day. As a teenager, I taught myself how to cook as both mom and dad were working and to assist our five-person family.

In high school, I was quite shy and introverted, and I taught myself how to be social and preparation for my college years. It changed my life. I taught myself emotional intelligence and psychology, which has become a key component of my executive coaching and energy healing practice. Yes, I was an initiative taker.

When I see a roadblock, I usually find a way around it. You just have to be creative enough to figure it out and find ways to learn. I’m not saying it was easy, that I got it right the first time. I certainly was uncomfortable, especially in becoming a more sociable and extroverted person in college. If I really look at the scenario, I suspect I probably was a self-starter merely as part of my survival because I felt as a child I could not trust anyone, and I could not rely on anyone else for help.

So, as a consequence, I became a self-starter. Being a self-starter and allowing yourself to be uncomfortable. These are the traits, according to Adam Grant and his book Hidden Potential, that are keys to success . After all, according to Ted Lasso, if you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not doing it right. Matt, what are your thoughts on this topic?

[Matt Schlegel]

Oh, thanks, Kimberly. Those are great stories, and I wish you would have braided your hair for this.

[Kimberly Layne]

I was thinking about it so…

[Matt Schlegel]

You know, another really great example that Adam Grant brings up in his book, Hidden Potential is the story of Steph Curry. And he says that Steph Curry wasn’t really that great of a player when he was younger, but then he teamed up with a coach who really understood Steph’s learning style and crafted a training plan that was suited to that.

Now I have a friend who is a professional basketball player who also knows the Enneagram, so he’s pretty sure that Steph Curry is an Enneagram Type 7 and Enneagram Type 7s need to have fun. So if you can have fun while you’re learning Type 7s will just do better. And this coach identified that and created fun games for Steph to use to learn to shoot three pointers. And that was so effective that Steph Curry became the best three point shooter on the planet. So understanding your own learning style and when when necessary, teaming up with somebody who can help you do that and help you become more effective in your learning style is also a great way to learn. Tswana. What are you thinking about? Emily and Matt?

[Twiana Armstrong]

Both of you provide concrete, descriptive and experiential examples of how leaders learn. Kimberly Your examples lends itself to a type of asynchronous learning driving a development plan based on your self-awareness that you need it to change your learning environment. You built are developed a process that met your needs without the need to interact with a coach or a pseudo instructor.

Matt. The Steph Steph Curry example lends itself to synchronous learning, which can be described as instructor led or in this case, coach led. The coach identified a style of learning that fulfilled Steph self awareness. The need for the learning environment to be fun and the rest, as we say, is history. Self-Aware leaders do the work. They determine their learning style, be it asynchronous a type of education that allows one to learn at your own pace, your own schedule, and you direct the curriculum burst the synchronous learning and environment where learners and instructors come together at a specific time and progress through the curriculum at the same pace.

Therefore, world leaders know that understanding their their learning style is fundamental to their ability to lead. See the links below for more information about being an asynchronous learner versus a synchronous learner.

 

Guilt, Shame, Anxiety and their Opposites

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What does the Enneagram say about guilt, shame and anxiety? We look to the Enneagram’s main centers – the Gut center, the Heart center and the Head center – for answers.

 

Guilt emanates from the Gut center – Types 8, 9 and 1. Shame dominates the Heart center – Types 2, 3, and 4. And anxiety famously affects the Head types –Types 5, 6 and 7.

 

In each center, which type is most acutely affected by these powerful feelings? To answer that, we turn to the Enneagram’s temperament triads using the triad labels in Teamwork 9.0 – the Optimist Triad (Types 3, 7 and 8), the Pessimist Triad (Type 1, 2 and 6) and the Symmetrical Triad (Type 4, 5 and 9).

 

I make the case that the Pessimist Triad types are those most motivated to avoid feelings of guilt, shame and anxiety, Type 1 actively avoids guilt, Type 2 avoids shame, and Type 6 avoids anxiety. On the other hand, the Optimist Triad types are those that purse the opposites of these strong feelings.

 

What are the opposites of guilt, shame and anxiety? They are pride, being valued, and happiness, pursued by Type 8s, Type 3s and Type 7s, respectively. That leaves the Symmetrical Triad – Types 4, 5 and 9 – in between, able to be motivated by either pursuit of positive feelings or avoidance of negative feelings.

 

In summary:

Guilt Avoidance: Type 1 — Pursuit of Pride: Type 8 — Either: Type 9

Shame Avoidance: Type 2 — Pursuit of being Valued: Type 3 — Either: Type 4

Anxiety Avoidance: Type 6 — Pursuit of Happiness: Type 7 — Either: Type 5

 

This video is an edited version of a talk I gave on this framework.

 

[Transcript]

Matt Schlegel:

What’s the opposite of guilt and what’s the opposite of shame, because maybe those will also give us some ideas about how this framework might work. But I know there’s another thing that does drive me, and that’s anxiety. So really I’m putting in anxiety into the mix of these strong underlying motivators for our feelings and behaviors. So we’ll talk about each one of those three plus what they look like in the opposite. So let’s look at some definitions. So for guilt, the dictionary definition of that is a feeling of having done wrong or failed in an obligation. And I thought about, well, what would be the opposite of that? Where I landed was pride would be the opposite of guilt, which is a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from something you’ve done. So shame is a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior.

Guilt seems to be from an inner sense of having done something wrong where shame, and I don’t know that they’ve captured this very well in this definition, but it seems to be more how the world perceives what you’ve done. Maybe that’s caught in that word humiliation, because humiliation is you need to be humiliated by the outside world. You don’t necessarily just feel humiliated by doing something and nobody else saw you. So I think that that word humiliation in there catches that sense of being assessed by the world for having done something wrong or foolish. Well, what would be the opposite of that? And to me, the opposite would be being valued or appreciated, so being recognized for one’s full worth. So that seemed to be the better definition of anti-shame. And then I added one more, which is anxiety, a feeling of worry, nervousness or unease typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.

What is the word for anti-anxiety? Ataraxia is anti-anxiety, and this is a Greek term, a state of serene calmness. Who feels guilt, shame, and anxiety most acutely? I hear the ones, that was a very common theme for them. I had conversations with twos, they tell me that they really don’t feel shame but they’re so focused on helping other people. Where is the shame? If I am totally focused on helping you why should I feel shame? But why is it that they’re so focused on helping other people all the time? Is it because it’s driving them to avoid that feeling of shame?

For anxiety, I would put the six in the category of the one that feels anxiety the most. These three is that they’re the members of the same temperament triad, of the pessimist triad, the one, two, and six. The anti-shame people might be the optimists, the three, the seven, and the eight, who are most pursuing pride, recognition, and happiness. The eight, nine, and one would be mostly centered guilt. The twos, threes and fours would be centered on shame. And then the five, six and sevens would be centered on anxiety. Is there a role for anxiety and anti-anxiety, for shame and anti-shame, for guilt and anti-guilt?

DEIB Value in the Roaring 2020’s

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The Roaring 2020s Speakeasy Team – Authors Kimberly Layne Roberts, Twiana Armstrong and Matt Schlegel – reflect on the changing landscape of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) initiatives in organizations.

 

Find more about Kimberly, Twiana and Matt here:

Kimberly Layne: https://www.kimberly-layne.com/

Twiana Armstrong: https://linkedin.com/in/twianaarmstrong

Matt Schlegel: https://evolutionaryteams.com

 

#DEI #DEIB #Leadership #Roaring2020s

 

[Video Transcript]

0:00 [Kimberly Layne Roberts]

1:18 [Twiana Armstrong]

What’s occurring in workspaces in which we see institutions and organizations contorting or eliminating their DEIB initiatives is a contrived conflation set in motion by outside machinations.  Such conflating has these same institutions and organizations undermining their most valuable asset, their employees, while also failing to profitably penetrate new or obscure markets and not fully understanding the needs of their consumers. Making decisions not in the best interest of the company, but in the interest of risk management and partisan public opinion in an attempt to stave off potential monetary liabilities, lawsuits and litigation. Even in the face of proven success. Strategic plans that maximize profits through leveraging DEI and B initiatives should not be thrown out with the proverbial bath water. Leaders should  invest in a cultural competence assessment to determine how well you understand not only your workspace environment, but also your stakeholder and consumer environments.  Opportunities and profits abound when you are fluent in operating and working in diverse cultures. Assessments will collect data about cultural awareness, knowledge, skills, encounters and desire. I’m encouraging leaders I work with to complete a cultural competence self-assessment. Analyze the data and construct a strategic plan that achieves your goals whether it’s increasing revenue, reducing expenses, recruiting or workforce management.

3:19 [Matt Schlegel]

First of all, I love Kimberly’s story about how building a diverse and inclusive group can be so exhilarating. That’s certainly a great benefit. And Twana, as you point out, the backlash that we’re seeing to DEI efforts lately is quite remarkable.

I would encourage people in DEI leadership roles to be sensitive to your organization’s culture and understand how to really demonstrate the value of DEI initiatives in your context.

Remember, company boards of directors are becoming more diverse at a much slower rate than organizations themselves, and DEI leaders must be sensitive to that dynamic and be able to demonstrate value to their leadership.  Especially the financial benefits and positive impact to company profits, both on the cost side and the revenue side.

Your organization will reduce costs if you have a culture where people feel included.  It’s going to lower turnover rate, and you will reduce your recruitment fees. Also, if you have a welcoming, inclusive environment, you have a much bigger pool of people to draw on and will make it just that much easier for your organization to find extraordinary talent to help it grow and thrive.

On the revenue side, having diverse staff will help you better position your products to address broader marketplaces. Your diverse team’s perspectives will help you position your products and your services to identify with a more diverse customer base.

Diverse perspectives also reduce or eliminate blind spots that you may have in your marketing efforts, and that will help you grow your revenue and your sales.

So these are just a few examples of how a DEI leader can demonstrate the financial benefits of DEI efforts to their organization.

More VUCA in 2024 and the Roaring 2020s

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The Roaring 2020s Speakeasy Team – Authors Kimberly Layne Roberts, Twiana Armstrong and Matt Schlegel – look ahead to the drivers of VUCA – Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity – in 2024.

 

Here’s links to resources Twiana mentions:

https://www.mindtools.com/asnydwg/managing-in-a-vuca-world

https://ifundi.co.za/leading-managing-vuca-world/

https://au.indeed.com/lead/managing-leading-vuca-world

 

Find more about Kimberly, Twiana and Matt here:

Kimberly Layne: https://www.kimberly-layne.com/

Twiana Armstrong: https://linkedin.com/in/twianaarmstrong

Matt Schlegel: https://evolutionaryteams.com

 

#VUCA #Leadership #Roaring2020s

 

[Video Transcript]

[Matt Schlegel]

Happy New Year. So we’re now in 2024, the fifth year of our Roaring 2020’s, and they’re continuing to really roar!

We have a lot of things going on this year that will be diverting our attention here and there, not the least of which is the upcoming election. So we can say that the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity that we’ve been dealing with since the start of the pandemic will be continuing.

And now, on top of elections, pandemics, wars and climate change, we have artificial intelligence really taking off, and there are good things and bad things about that.

I am eager to see how AI can help with team problem solving.  I have started a conversation with a person who is using various AI platforms, like ChatGPT, Bard, BingChat, to each build a problem-solving team,  and then have those different teams collaborate across each of the AI platforms to come up with solutions for complex problems like climate change.  I am fascinated by this work and will be following it closely this year and looking to how I can learn, grow and adapt my teamwork consulting business to utilize these amazing new tools.

What are you two looking to in 2024.

[Kimberly Layne Roberts]

This is a  new ERA – where the E in Era will be replaced by “AI”-RA.   “AIRA”

Bill Gates said there were two technological innovations in our lifetime that would change the world.

The first we know was in 1980 when he was introduced to a graphical user interface—which became the forerunner of every modern operating system, including Windows

The second we are coming to know is AI. Bill observed the power of Open AI: when he observed AI engine had passed an AP Bio exam consisting of 60 questions with a score of  59/60 correct and it had  answered 5 open ended questions correct a (5/5). He thought this was going to change the world and it is! It is a new era that is spelled AIRA.

Yes, Matt and Twiana, VUCA Is alive and well, and I would like to suggest we add a “D”VUCAD for distrust and disbelief. Along with the positives of AI for healthcare, learning, the way we work, and communication, it also is creation a mistrust and a distrust of what is real and what is not.

For example, it is very likely that people will be leveraging AI and digital tools to influence the outcome of the election. We have witnessed deep fake images,  and voices,  of those in the public eye such as entertainers, and politicians.

What do we believe and what do we not? I think that D should represent defining boundaries, defining regulation, and defining consequences for creating dishonest material.

This is a new AIRA. How are we going to ensure it is to our benefit and not our destruction? I know I will be much more discerning in what I believe, observe, and adopt as reality in my communication, my coaching and in my leadership. It  instills in me a strong desire to make sure I continue to lead with strong integrity, trust, and honesty.

Twiana, what are you thinking about for 2024?

[Twiana Armstrong]

Listen up, Leaders, denial is not an option! In this world of VUCA, volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, leading and leadership has changed. Business consultants point to the beginning of the 2020s as another decade of turbulence. As you operationalize your 2024 strategic plan, assess your environment including how you will lead during these times of post pandemic, climate change, political extremism, the evolution of social justice and the revolution of AI. The US military introduced VUCA into our lexicon in the 1980s. As a leadership consultant, my conversations with leaders focus first on understanding their environment to developing a 4-point plan that leads through volatility to vision, from uncertainty to understanding, from complexity to compassioned clarity and from ambiguity to aligned agility. The most critical foundations in each of these pillars are self-awareness and belonging. Three actions to include in your plan:

  1. Hone your leadership skills – skills of the past are ineffective for success in the future. The world is witnessing a new normal.
  2. Invest in a robust change management masterplan.
  3. Surround yourself with team of experts: experts in organizational development, educational and training, conflict management and problem resolution, communication, change management and business analysis.

Below are links to resources about leading through VUCA. On behalf of the Roaring 2020’s Speakeasy Team, cheers to a successful 2024.

Happy New Year!

 

 

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