25 July 2010
Reframing the Conversation: Challenge & Strategy Sessions for Sustainability Leaders
We all know a great deal about what is wrong with our society, regardless of what perspective we are coming from. To take a page from Dick Cheney’s playbook, if there is even a 1% chance that our current way of being is causing irreparable damage to the earth—to its atmosphere, its oceans, and its web of life—we have a responsibility to address this challenge. It may be that part of what is wrong with our society is also a dysfunctional government, an economic system that is designed to crash periodically and is making everyone poorer in the process, and a lack of intelligent discussion throughout our culture; but the overriding concern is whether we will survive as a species.
We need to begin to change the dominant conversation, and one place to start is with “missed opportunities.” We all know what’s wrong with what others are doing; but maybe it’s more important to look at the “missed opportunities,” as a way of stopping things from turning out badly for us and for our descendants.
At the SLF we are discussing the idea of changing the format of our monthly meetings, to be less “presentation” meetings, and more challenge and strategy sessions, with people doing interesting work and willing to share it. Consider, for example, some of the issues that we can address in this way, from the design of transitional shelter in Haiti to the greening of the cities and towns we live, from the possibility of a local currency to the need for altering the social environment of consumer society; these are issues that we can actually do something about, if we are willing to discuss them in this way.
In reality we need to invent a new form of social structure, based on truthtelling, relevancy, and a search for common frameworks. Let me spell out each of these in turn.
Let’s start with the fact that we do not all tell the truth, all the truth and all the time. We live with polite fictions, with “hope,” and with ideological doctrines that obscure as much as they illuminate reality. If we’re prepared to admit this, and ask others to do so also, can we agree to a focus on “telling it like it is,” whatever that means to each one of us.
Secondly, can we agree that some issues are more important than others? Can we agree that “energy independence” is as important as “clean energy,” that is to say energy generation that is not putting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and that is not piling up toxic wastes for future generations to contend with? Can we agree that restoring the health of the oceans, cleaning up the atmosphere, and preventing the loss of biodiversity are all important goals, as important as giving people the opportunity to improve their living conditions, their education, and their civic engagement?
Finally, then, it comes down to a search for common frameworks that can sustain massive social, political, economic, and ecological changes. What we know is simple, that we need to live in greater harmony with nature. We need to derive our energy from its natural cycles, and not from the stored-up energy of geologically remote eras. We need to increase our well-being, and that of others on the planet, while operating within our planetary limits, and protecting and restoring its regenerative cycles in every way we can.
For the SLF, this means transforming our meetings into conversations for action around sustainability initiatives, taking advantage of the opportunities that are constantly arising, and exploring the possibilities of productive dialog with people of all persuasions, beliefs, and faiths. Look for these new kinds of events — “mini-unconferences” — starting in the fall.
Posted by Admin under: Forum; Leadership; Organization; Sustainability .