From Leadership on the Line by Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky:
“Every day, people have problems for which they do, in fact, have the necessary know-how and procedures. We call these technical problems. But there is a whole host of problems [like solving climate change] that are not amenable to authoratative expertise or standard operating procedures. They cannot be solved by someone who provides the answers from on high. We call these adaptive challenges because they require experiments, new discoveries, and adjustments from numerous places in the organization or community. Without learning new ways–changing attitudes, values, and behaviors–people cannot make the adaptive leap necessary to thrive in the new environment. The sustainability of change depends on having the people with the problem internalize the change itself.”
This is why I think climate is not just a regulatory problem. The culture itself must adapt. Regulatory change, forced upon a population who may not want it, is not enough. It is crucial but it is not enough. Because if we want the necessary changes to be permanent, we must remember that “the sustainability of change depends on having the people with the problem internalize the change itself.”
Sent via my second-hand BlackBerry