If
you cannot say what you mean, you will never mean what you say
By Dave Newport
If we all had English lessons as powerful as those from
O’Toole’s character, Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston, the sustainability movement
would be much further along.
In a famous scene,
Emperor Puyi, then a teenager, asked Sir Johnston why he, a Scotsman, didn’t
wear a skirt. Johnston replied Scots
didn’t wear skirts, they wore kilts. He added, it was very important to get those
words right.
“Why are these words important,” the Emperor asked?
Sir Johnston replied, "If you cannot say what you mean,
your majesty, you will never mean what you say--and a gentle man should always
mean what he says.”
I can do nothing to improve on that logic.
Likewise, sustainability professionals were reminded of the
importance of words in one
of AASHE’s best plenary presentations two years ago in Pittsburgh. Former Unity College President Mitch
Thomashow asked a crowded hall of campus sustainability professionals, "What
will your voice be and how will you cultivate the voices of those around
you?"
Thomashow’s presentation essentially mirrored the message of
Sir Reginald Johnston. “Find how your voice is best manifest. Writing,
speaking, engaging, partnering, inspiring, whatever talent you have. Cultivate that
voice.”
Say what you mean.
And yes, you can blame the existence of this blog on Mitch
Thomashow. I decided to channel my publishing past as I listened to him speak
that day. Now if I only had something to say…
Anyway, what do campus sustainability folks need to say?
Well, if you are reading this blog you must be somehow
connected to the sustainability business; a business that is about creating
change. We are all staff in The Department of Change.
And just what change do we wish to see?
Another of our favorite orators, David
Orr, once set the bar on the change we need this way:
“The
sustainability revolution will not fail because we are too radical, it will
fail because we are too timid.”
We all know the changes needed to move our
campuses and our culture to a sustainable place are very big, hairy, audacious
goals: BHAGS.
Zero waste, zero carbon, zero
pesticides, etc are all BHAGS. But there are many more we have not yet framed.
Sustainable leadership author Bob Doppelt talks about first-order vs
second-order goals. First order goals are “10% energy reduction by 2020” or
other incremental changes. Carbon neutrality, on the other hand, is a second
order goal that is transformative—and radical. A BHAG.
So when I think about my voice, I think about BHAGS and the
changes we need to attain “true sustainability,” whatever that is.
Voice your BHAGS.
The ten-year test
A recent Chronicle
piece on writing gave advice that implies visioning your BHAGS is a
prerequisite to an effective voice. The author reflected on the first rule of
effective writing:
Find
your voice; don't just "get published."
James
Buchanan won a Nobel Prize in economics in 1986. One of the questions he asks
job candidates is: "What are you writing that will be read 10 years from
now? What about 100 years from now?"
Wow. I’m pretty sure nobody will be reading this blog in ten
years—or even ten days. (I comfort myself with the corollary to the above first rule of writing: “If
your writing doesn’t measure up to your standards, lower your standards…”)
Anyway, a compelling voice is crucial to advocating for the durable
changes we need. As all literary agents know, there are very, very few new
ideas that can be sold without a fresh and compelling voice behind them.
Indeed, it can be said there are no new ideas, only new
voices. Radical new voices, we hope.
Another sharp campus sustainability originator, Dedee
Delongpre Johnston, wrote a
great piece recently about the challenges students face in cultivating a
radical voice:
One:
members of this generation realize that unlimited growth, particularly
unlimited economic growth based on a fixed set of inputs, is unsustainable. As
one young woman put it, however, “it’s the devil we know and trying to imagine
jumping off into something different is terrifying.”
Two:
members of this generation want to care and want to make a difference, but are
spread so thin and are so overcommitted, that they don’t act on their passions.
Three:
members of this generation recognize that we need radical change, but they are
paralyzed by a commitment – to their families, communities, and selves – to be
practical.
Notwithstanding students’ needs to be practical, the world
needs those voices for radical change, Delongpre continued:
At
his recent acceptance of the NAACP’s prestigious Spingarn Medal, life-long
civil rights advocate Harry Belafonte said "What is missing I think from
the equation in our struggle today is that we must unleash radical thought...
America has never been moved to perfect our desire for greater democracy without
radical thinking and radical voices being at the helm of any such a
quest."
And how do we sustainabilistas
educate and inspire students into forming a radical voice?
If
this generation feels paralyzed by practicality, how can we empower them to
think, and act, for change? In the follow-up conversations after our panel, we
found that students valued the transdisciplinary solutions articulated by the
presenters. The mix of economics, history, social equity, and ethics gave them
a new insight into the importance of multiple perspectives and it added a
pragmatic dimension to their otherwise narrowly conceived understandings of
sustainability, based on discipline-specific teaching.
In short, breadth of awareness and systems thinking can
empower a radical voice for change. Well, partly. The strength of the idea and
how well they are voiced counts too, duh. So does consistency; it can’t be a
one and done. Stake out your ground, cultivate your voice, say what you
mean—and keep saying it.
Think ten years out.
“Democracy belongs
to those that show up.”
Campus sustainability is going through some growing pains
lately (see pretty much all previous blogs)—and radical and sustained voices
for change are needed even within our own ranks. AASHE
is seeking to correct its course too and the recent launch of a “Listening
Project” seeks input to guide that reformation.
This is a great place to power up voice.
How do we reform
AASHE and empower the sustainability movement towards the BHAGS that will
be important in ten years? What are the
elements of a sustainable campus we need to fight for? How should we organize
and operate to effectively advance the revolution? And what are the radical ideas
we need if the revolution is not to fail from timidity?
Let us not be timid. Let us not go gentle.
Now is the time to turn up the quality—and volume—of your
voice. Speak it to the Listening Project.
Speak it in your work. Speak it in your life. And keep speaking it.
The story goes that back in the day President
Franklin Roosevelt met with a group of activists who sought his support for
bold legislation. He listened to their arguments for some time and then said, “You've
convinced me. Now go out and make me do it.”
AASHE’s Listening Project will become the new normal—if we insist
on it, if we keep voicing our best radical thoughts. If we make AASHE do it. We have before us a great
opportunity to shape a new organization, and new operation, a new direction,
and new outcomes for the future of campus sustainability. The
Listening Project is great—but it’s soliciting your voice. We need to assert
our voices without being asked. Long term. Not a one and done. Cultivate your
voice. Then use it again and again.
Democracy belongs to those that show up.
Show up.
Say what you mean.
See you in Nashville.
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