Transition Edge - THE EGO TRAP

Published: Thu, 06/02/22

Transition Edge

June 2022 - Year three of the disrupted decade

The Ego Trap

Thank you for being a reader of Transition Edge. Please feel free to forward it to friends who you think might enjoy it too.

I’m Grant Symons. I convene Transition Edge to help us understand how we can transition to a low carbon sustainable world using leading thinking and practices.

We have a great Transition ahead of us. Whether it is going to be big and successful as opposed to big and calamitous, is probably going to become much more evident this decade.

This week we explore the role of ego in starting and traveling on that journey.

A world where we live in harmony with nature, each other, and within planetary limits is a long way off. There is much work in front of us. Across the population we don't know this - the vast majority of us want life and business as usual to continue as it is.

Generally this continuation and our concepts and expectations of the future are based on all that has happened so far, that which we have enjoyed and continue to enjoy - our childhood experiences, professions, lifestyles, social services, pastimes, rights and freedoms and positions that we ascend or descend to (depending on your perspective).

Of course, where we (and our ego) get to in this olde system matters too. We might be a social influencer, leader, politician, executive, or director with great privileges, authority, power and resources at our disposal.

Unfortunately, most of business as usual contributes in one way or another to Climate Change, diminishing resources, a burgeoning population, inequity and the decline of ecosystem diversity. So, the trappings of everyday existence and perhaps our successes are the very things we will need to evolve through transition.

This prospect is probably beyond most of us, due to the scale and complexity of it, and also because of the fear of loss. The loss of position, lifestyle, power, resources and control may threaten the ego. The auto responses are:

Avoidance
Distraction
Denial
Criticism
Attack

And when the penny finally drops and we begin to understand the massively challenging journey ahead, the need for diminishing ego begins to become clearer and clearer, like a mountain revealed from the fog.

Perceptions depend on our own identity and perspective -

Less EGO-Room ahead

Globally, the 'head-room', 'wiggle-room' or 'social-licence' relating to climate change, emissions mitigation, adaption and transition is diminishing. We have Net zero targets, transition plans, new climate response disclosure laws being passed, thousands of organisations that help us measure and report on carbon emissions. There are coalitions of the willing, 'sustainable this', 'circular that', green finance, impact finance and the law profession, wading in and taking institutions and companies to task through the courts. They all have a place and all add to the momentum.

The emerging trap

Yet, there are those that are ignorant, willfully or genuinely so. Those that deny the need for anything else, other than full steam ahead on consumption, competition, debt and manipulation of power, to ensure predetermined advantages and wealth distribution. And those that deliberately (or perhaps ignorantly) continue to try and distract attention away from their tardiness, by pumping resources into the marketing and PR machines, to appear as if much more is being done than really is.

This is transition avoidance and becomes a 'story telling race'...maybe to the bottom!

The intent, claims and targets become a race among executive and competitors egos. Our own Air New Zealand does this wonderfully. One of the most trusted organisations in the country, making carefully crafted claims and advertisements that disguise the true environmental cost of its activities. Only to follow its lead, the next CEO and marketing executive team need to dream up their own, even more incredulous, story. But, the trap is closing - very few understand that they do not have the transition capability to live up to their stories.

Just like an army that enters a battle with brave intent (or misguided ego), if the capabilities that are to deliver the result are not cohesive, comprehensive, coordinated, drilled, refined and highly motivated - they will probably be wiped out! So, with transparency on the rise and the size of what is at stake increasing, there seems to be an increasing need to manage ego.

Putting it away

The time is coming when we become much clearer as to what "being on the right side" of history actually looks like. Our data will be discoverable and it better tell the right story! The company we have kept will be obvious and we had better have treated others well. The things we have achieved better be for the greater good and not for the sake of ego!

We may not be a person that allows our ego to thrive at the expense of the world and people around us, but we may know such people that we can influence.

As we move from an ego-driven world towards an eco-centric world, more doing (instead of talking), more empathy, more giving and more trust...should help us find our way. Let us know what you think!?...

This weeks quote

“Only the extremely ignorant or the extremely intelligent can resist change”
― Socrates

Please recommend the Transition Edge to others today.

Grant Symons - The Transition Guy

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