A little over a year into the Obama administration we find ourselves in a jobless recovery that while hopeful, may just be a bump on the downhill ride of a deepening U.S. recession. At the same time we are witnessing the effects of widespread climate change that nearly all scientists agree is hastened by our increasing use of fossil fuels. There is very compelling evidence that we have passed the peak of global oil production and few politicians will talk openly about its worrisome implications. There is a great deal of uncertainty in the future.
Sobering facts give many people cause to be both worried and skeptical. It is hard for Americans raised in a can do culture to conceive of living in a world of less. For anyone who cares it is hard to know what experts are telling the truth; especially in an age of deep political cynicism.
Environmentalists and global corporations have spent many years in opposition and have had little reason to look beyond their irreconcilable differences. But there is now cause to look beyond those differences.
British Petroleum has been touting their significant investment in renewable energy in recent years while critics claim it is just a marketing ploy. Yet many of the oil fields in which BP hold’s leases, such as the North Sea are in steady decline. This argues that their renewable energy efforts are in earnest self interest. Could a giant natural resources company be acting on a self interest that is in real harmony with the environment?
A book released last year called "The Three Laws of Performance" has something to say about this. It is about reinvention in organizations and what it takes to make that happen. Clearly the current conditions of the economy and the global environment require reinvention. We are all familiar with the tired old arguments that thwart cooperation and thus progress. "Environmental regulation hurts business!" "Business cannot be trusted to steward the environment". If believed these arguments lead to the conclusion that the objectives of the environment and the economy are irreconcilable. In the book the Three Laws of Performance, the first "law" is ‘How people perform corresponds to how situations occur for them". Mapped on to the arguments about the environment and the economy, it is easy to see this law at work. On one side regulation occurs as a constraint while on the other side businesses occur as untrustworthy". This naturally leads to a stalemate that we cannot afford.
In the book, the second law of performance is "How a situation occurs arises in language." The authors Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan contend that how situations occur is inseparable from language and that reality itself is experienced through language. This also makes sense when mapped on to the environment/economy divide. Environmentalists might describe themselves as out to stop exploitation greedy corporations; language that sets up a David and Goliath type of struggle. Business might complain about tree huggers who want to rob people of jobs; language that presumes that environmentalists care more about trees than people. There are two different realities separated by two different uses of language.
Language like this not only promotes but requires opposition. It creates an environment where real cooperation is not possible. This brings us back to the challenge of healing the environment and the economy at the same time. We must shift the way this situation has historically occurred for us. We must change the language we have been using. Our children are counting on us to work together.
In the book, the third law of performance states, “Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people.” The language that we are using to deal with the challenges we are facing is rooted in the past and informed by decades of opposition and disappointment. The issues of the environment and the economy need this future-based language. Our attention needs to be on the future and our language needs to be about what we are creating.
This book is a worthwhile investment anyone concerned for the environment and the economy.
The Three Laws of Performance: Reinventing the Future of Your Organization and Your Life
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