This Sustainable Life

Everyone gets we have to change system, which means global economy. They think we have to start huge. If it's not big enough, it's not worth doing.

History suggests otherwise, in particular Edwards Deming's results transforming Japan in the 50s, or the U.S. war efforts before that, or several American companies since.

Kevin runs the Deming Institute, which trains people in the Deming philosophy and practice. Kevin speaks from experience as the grandson of Dr. Deming. They didn't start by doing big huge things. They started with a systemic perspective, understanding where and how to act. Kevin's personal project of changing light bulbs in his house illustrates how leading this way leads to results beyond what we see with just going big from the start.

I won't like that I often felt slack-jawed at Kevin saying exactly what I've tried to share with others but they never get, but Kevin speaks with decades of experience. Actually generations. I also can't wait to start working with leaders and people in organizations who have approached and solved problems systemically, and who saw that they had to change industries and a nation for their personal benefit.

What we need to to to reverse our environmental course!

Call me crazy, but I see combining my sustainability experience and perspective with Deming company and leadership experience getting results like Japan did in the 50s and beyond.

If Japan Can Why Can't We? is the name of the show that restarted Deming's influence in the US. I see the question as poignant today. I believe we can turn around as fast as they did, this time on sustainability.

Let's do this.

• The Deming Institute

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A few months ago I hadn't heard the names William Wilberforce or Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Now they rank among my greatest influences. Eric Metaxas's biographies of these two men were among the main reasons. Once I read them, I had to meet Eric and bring his view here.

Read the books, learn about the men, what they did, and the environments in which they did it.

Few who spend time with me would expect me to find inspiration from a man whom I heard describe himself as a "Jesus freak" or strongly promote President Trump, whose policies I haven't seen increasing Earth's ability to sustain life and society, but those who know me well know my intense curiosity for people with unfamiliar views. Those who know me very well will find deep values of mine that resonate with Eric's beyond taking inspiration from Wilberforce and Bonhoeffer.

I recorded a longer introduction than usual to recount my discovering Eric's work so you can hear more background there. Recording shortly before the election limited our recording time, meaning we covered only a fraction of what we could have. I hope this episode was the first of many.

• Eric Metaxas's home page
• His radio show

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J. B. MacKinnon's book The Once and Future World influenced my view of nature as much as anyone's. I thought I knew what nature was, what we were trying to conserve or preserve, but I wasn't even close. I found his writing gripping and colorful. I'll link to a couple recordings I made that quoted the book at length.

We've been talking about our work, his new book he's nearly finished, my book I've just started, and how he was thinking of acting on his

research personally.

He was sharing so personally about the challenge he was considering for himself, impromptu, I asked if he would consider recording a podcast episode. We just jumped into it. Here's both of us unrehearsed, unprepared.

I loved getting to learn the backgrounds of wildlife, Hawaii, all the things I read from Once and Future World, and how and why he found

out about them. I hope you're all also on your path to discover variety in food, clothing, community, and so on that our culture obscures and makes us feel backward about.

Partly I'm impressed with myself at remembering those parts of his book unaided, but really that recall illustrates the power of the book and sadly what we've done to our world. But hopefully what we can restore. I'm always impressed with how fast nature rewilds when we take our foot off the gas. And how much we enjoy the surprising discovery of simple, sustainable living.

• J. B.'s home page
• My first video essay on Once and Future World
• My second video essay on Once and Future World

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From a leadership standpoint, acting on sustainability and the pandemic overlap.

You probably see Ashish's name everywhere too. He's in the thick of it at the highest national level. He shares an inside view of the political happenings on responding to the pandemic. He also shares the emotional experience---the frustration at seeing people dying unnecessarily. I think you can tell that despite the numbers, he cares. You may hear me realized I spoke too glibly in stating the number of American depths.

Most of our conversation covered the leadership vacuum responding to the pandemic as well as the environment in general. I believe you'll hear we're moving toward talking leadership strategy, the emotional challenge of leadership, and finding what works besides management.

We cover

• Avoiding political polarization and engaging leadership from other areas than politics seem challenging.
• What opportunities exist for voices to get out there, either on the pandemic or the environment?
• How have we abdicated or lost our alternatives to lead to Washington DC or state or local government?

I don't just mean exercising authority. Leadership doesn't require authority. We can lead in other ways than political representation.

Ashish talked about debate. I've come to equate debate with provoking argument, as I alluded to. Instead, what stories can we tell? What images can we evoke? Is there a way to reach people to hear views they aren't in a way they'll appreciate after?

This is the challenge. I focus on it in the context of sustainability. It applies equally in the pandemic response.

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Why do I act on sustainability when everyone around me says there's no point?

Faith.

This episode shares a few words about faith. If you lack it, I think you'll prefer living with it, especially about things you care about.

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