Leaders take responsibility. We know the futility of blaming others, however much we indulge in doing so.
We can’t change the past. We can, however, act in the present.
A leadership and business perspective can help a lot in climate change, and I don’t mean by promoting technical innovation.
Twice in the past two days, and many times in past months and years, have I heard people fault scientists for things like
- Publicizing their findings ineffectively
- Not publicizing their findings enough
- Sharing data but not influencing
- Not making their data useful or meaningful
and so on in the context of global warming.
Anyone who says such things misses that once scientists publish their results, anyone–you, me, anyone–can use the results to work on global warming.
Because they created the data doesn’t mean they are the only ones who can understand it, use it, interpret it, or do anything with it.
Scientists don’t train to influence, persuade, or even engineer. If you’re reading Inc., you’re probably more skilled and experienced than they are in influencing others.
Everything anyone says that scientists did wrong or ineffectively, anyone could have done that too.
Why wait for scientists to solve the problem anyway? You can solve it as well as they can.
Solution will come from many places. Knowing the problem isn’t planning the solution.
Understanding and documenting a scientific problem is different than figuring out solutions, which is different than implementing it.
A business leadership perspective
What company over a certain size would suggest that the same team do R&D, strategy, and operations? Have them communicate, sure. But be the same people? No way.
Anyone blaming others can take responsibility. A typical American contributes more than nearly anyone alive or has ever lived.
That means you have the most to contribute to solving the problem, but not if you blame others.
The same leadership skills that you develop not blaming others will propel your business or any other projects to success.