Ethics: straight talking and myth busting. This was the theme of the fourth roundtable on climate change from the Joint Global Statement Group (JGSG) on Climate and Ecodiversity Crises.
The fourth Roundtable on 21 March was hosted by the Association of Coaching Supervisors and the Association for Coaching, with Hetty Einzig as moderator, and George Warren and Lorenza Clifford as co-hosts. The panel guests were Coaching at Work editor Liz Hall, executive coaches and climate activists, Zoe Cohen and Linda Aspey, Dr Joy Ntetha and Stanley Arumugam.
The JGSG is a collective of 11 professional bodies including the AC, AoCS, Association for Professional Executive Coaching & Supervision, COMENSA, the European Mentoring and Coaching Council Global, the International Coach Federation, and the International Society for Coaching Psychology.
Questions addressed at the roundtable included when and how does raising awareness extend beyond the client agenda, how do coaching and activism sit together, what other models of leadership can inform and help us navigate these times, and are coaches equipped to support the distress we see.
Aspey sought to dispel myths including clients not wanting to talk about the climate crisis, acknowledging that some approaches such as the Thinking Environment will mean not being directive at all. She invited coaches who identify as systemic to remember the environment is part of the system.
Myths identified by Cohen included: going back to normal: “That isn’t happening, we’re on a one-way passage to climate hell”; linear change in systems: “I really wish more people understood the exponential function”; the language of TINA (there is no alternative):
“There is – our economic system is a social construct and is completely changeable”; green growth: “It isn’t a thing globally, when the bathtub is full, adding more water makes it overflow”; technology will save us: “No, it comes from the same growth-obsessed colonialist mindset”; neutrality exists, that other people don’t care and our clients don’t want to talk about it: “Most do care; we’re told they don’t by the media”; that there are simple solutions, and our wealth and geography will protect us.
- Catch up with the recording: https://www.jgsg.one/roundtable-materials/
- Dr Joy Ntetha will be speaking at the annual virtual Coaching at Work conference on 20 June on Ubuntu leadership.