As I hung up the phone with the Director of Sustainability of a small liberal arts university, I was struck by the number of times that I have heard the same challenge articulated. The challenge – we have no money to work with- is a common one since schools that are fiscally conservative often have a small to non-existent budget to put towards sustainability initiatives which leads their Directors to face what feels like a huge wall.

The seemingly insurmountable needs – resources, manpower, support – feel like they grow larger over time since the Director does what they can, in many cases continuing to identify more and more that needs to be done around the school.  Overwhelming for certain.

I am going to propose a solution, or even better, show you that there is no insurmountable wall in front of you, there is simply a challenge that you have yet to overcome.

In the next few sections we are going to troubleshoot some ways to help move beyond those challenges.

No money?

First figure out whose existing budget the changes you desire falls under.  While you will mainly spend your time researching and graphing out the options, this does not require you to have a budget, it works under an existing one…

No manpower?

Again, looking at existing structures will help with this.  Why do you need an army if one is already exists and is paid for?

No support?

Do you know the cost and benefits to what you are proposing?  I suggest that you merely need to understand the motivations and passions of your higher-ups in order to best present why the most sustainable option is the one to take.  I’m not talking about manipulation, I’m talking about understanding the needs of the person(s) holding the purse strings.

Doing anything alone is more difficult that doing it with others. In fact synergy shows us that when we work together that 1 + 1 can actually equal 3! Remember this and you are already in better shape than when you began your quest.

I was at a workshop when one of the leaders, who I was having a good conversation with at the time, mentioned to me that the reason she meditated every day because then she could trust herself. I felt like she was on to something that I’ hadn’t thought of in that way before.

When you meditate you close out and quiet down the noise in the mind so that you can better listen to your body and soul wisdom.  You allow for time to listen.

We all want to be heard, and in conversation we practice listening to others, but how often do we listen to ourselves or our guiding voice?  Really listen, I mean.  For those who are spiritual, prayer is the time to talk to God/dess/ the Universe.  Do they also allow themselves the time to listen in that conversation?  I believe they should.

Coming out of meditation feels like stepping out of a bath, the elation after a long run, or waking up on the right side of the bed.  In that moment and afterwards you are influenced only by your heart. You are listening to you and not the worries in your head or the opinion of others.

And so, yes, meditating has health and a variety of other benefits to it, but also keep in mind that being able to trust yourself is one of those.

One of the rules to improvisational acting is to never say ‘no’ or ‘but.’  Why?  Well ‘no’ stops the flow of creativity.  It stops momentum.  The trick is to say ‘yes, and…’

Just like a good improv, brainstorming is facilitated by always saying yes.  Gathering all the nuggets of information and ideas before determining which is best or suits the situation the best. 

The minute you say no the improv ends.  The minute you say no in a brainstorming or other business meeting the energy leaves.

So think about this as you try to fuel creativity and innovation within you business or life.  Since, you are able to pull more and more potentially good information from people by encouraging them to continue, are you really doing that through your communication?

Are you saying ‘yes, and’ or ‘no, but’ in your life?

Traditionally the hero/ine was the achetype that comes in and saves the day when something has gone wrong or justice needs to be done.

To me, through the lens of sustainability and environmental justice, a heroine is a support for people who know they need help.   She enables organizations and groups of citizens, through facilitation and training, to create a better world for themselves. A better world which is based on the shared values and culture of the community and not what someone else thinks they should be.

The heroine of now is intelligent, knows when to ask for advice and collaborates as much as possible. She listens, drawing out of people the inner knowledge that they have of self and community. She supports imagination and creativity.

She is available to guide people through the process of negotiating how to get around/through challenges.

She is a quiet, firm leader.

You know that you could use her help. All you have to do is ask. The power to change the world is in your hands.

No gender, income level, or other issue gets in her way. She is the embodiment of hope and the nurturing that our communities need.

While I cannot claim Goddess like perfection, I do seek to become this heroine more and more every day.

Over thanksgiving weekend with friends I met a friend of a friend and we spent some time getting to know each other. On the last day she made the comment “You are like a new species of bird to me. I’m so curious about you.”

It made me think and I liked the idea. I also realized that that is perhaps what has been missing in my approach with others in the past. I’ve allowed and nurtured myself to be different and expected others to be the same. This is not to say that they haven’t shown me otherwise, but merely that I have a sense of myself as different from the whole, when really, we are each beautiful in our own way and unique.

The quotidian behavior, which I have to a certain extent been expecting, is ironic since I myself have been questioning the cultural norms presented earlier in life and am rapidly changing and evolving. Why shouldn’t I expect others to be as well?

If I am finding happiness in being who I truly am, isn’t it probably that others are fluctuating and evolving too? Therefore, being open to listening and asking questions as if someone is a species that I do not know fully will allow me to really get to know them better and is a step in my own growth. I can see this happening in sitting down and asking questions with the genuine expectation that I don’t already know the answer, in that it may subsequently free people up to respond with how they really feel. Isn’t this a more anthropological and scientific approach?

Since the societal norms that I learned growing up and over the course of my life are the framework that I’ve expected in the past and as I’m learning, are not the only way that people communicate and behave, naturally shifts in my behavior and thinking pattern will also emerge. I am happy to identify this shift in thinking and now eager to begin to explore the biodiversity of the landscape of my family, friends, and all those I encounter in life.

Practical Advice for the workaholic

Ask yourself this question…

Is someone going to die if I take the time to myself and breathe, meditate, walk, hike, do yoga?

If the answer is no, then go do it!

You are going to be more likely to do productive and high quality work if you are well rested (9 hours per night), well fed (3 meals per day), and relaxed.

So, go ahead, sleep in every now and then.

And always remember, work smart not hard.

Recently while reading The Harvard Business Review blog I came across a post on the influence of women in Norwegian boardrooms. I found the blog interesting, however, I feel that there are some important points and distinctions that were overly generalized or not quite fully thought out.

First, I feel that when talking about a situation it is too generalized to say ‘women’ or ‘men’. More appropriately this gender barrier can show challenges that we all go through. So instead of looking at how ‘women’ handle a situation such as entering a board, can’t we identify certain leadership styles or approaches and how they are best worked with? I say this because there are men that embody characteristics that are traditionally thought to be feminine and vice versa.

Considering the section that begins “most women need support to enter the board successfully…” Does that mean that women need support but men don’t? Shouldn’t most people get support when entering a board. I remember from my studies that a common cause of problems within boards was that they weren’t made fully aware of their duties or expectations beforehand. To me this indicates that all board members should be supported when they join in any effort regardless of gender.

How do you feel about gender generalization? What I mean is making broad statements that apply to all women or men.

Recently in discussion over a particularly difficult organization issue, I was told that “what we have is more than founder’s syndrome.”

The founder in question had recently admitted to thinking that he had Founder’s Syndrome with another steering committee member. The two had been in discussion about the negative behaviors for months before this admission came about.

What does that mean? Founder’s Syndrome describes the behaviors of a founder that negatively effect an organization. The specific behaviors range in severity, but their impact holds an organization back, often because change and growth are stifled.

For example, statements in steering committee meeting such as “I’m going to do what I want to do, because I want to do it” were not rare. Those statements typically arose almost any time the founder was asked to share more information about plans made or actions taken without the consent of the rest of the steering committee.

Actions such as taking over duties that were assigned to others, happened frequently. This resulted in duplicated efforts and additional time needing to be spend ‘cleaning up the mess’ as one steering committee member phrased it. In one case, the founder’s email to a donor that someone else was working with resulted in a check for $100 when the potential was $1000 plus media support.

Needless to say these actions as well as many others by the same person were frustrating to the other organization leaders.

Founder’s Syndrome is a typical problem in any small organization (and even some larger ones.) The energy and exuberance that helps to launch an organization are not necessarily the same qualities that continue its success once it is time to build more structure and organizational capacity. Change is difficult, throw into the mix someone who is incredibly passionate and may feel ownership over the organization, and you have a mess. How big is the mess? Well that depends on how the change and transition are managed and how difficult the founder.

While it always results is some kind of limit of capacity, in some cases Founder’s Syndrome can result in the failure of the organization. So, is it really possible to have ‘more than founder’s syndrome?’