Adam Menter’s Blog

My mom randomly e-mailed me the following blurb about Sustainability that she found on the website of the United Nations Development Program. It reminded me a lot of discussions I’ve been having for a while about importance of branding sustainability as progress and expanding it beyond its environmental roots. Sustainability is not just about “saving the planet”, it’s about creating a society that is livable for everybody today, and in the generations to come.

“Sustainability means meeting the needs of present generations without compromising the abilities and opportunities of future generations. It thus implies both intragenerational and intergenerational equity. Sustainability is an important dimension of human development. Human development is a process of enlarging people’s choices. But such enhancement must be for both present and future generations without sacrificing one for the other.

In the 1990s there have been major global debates on sustainable development (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio, 1992) and for people-centred sustainable development (World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen, 1995). These have a common core, not to be missed, with human development. Human development is not a concept separate from sustainable development—but it can help to rescue “sustainable development” from the misconception that it involves only the environmental dimension of development.

All these approaches have emphasized the need for people-centred development, with concerns for human empowerment, participation, gender equality, equitable growth, poverty reduction and long-term sustainability.”

At its core, human development is all about creating a better world. Creating the kind of sustainable world that we all want to live in requires a vision of what we’re shooting for. And that’s the problem…we don’t know, and don’t know how to talk about, “what success looks like” for a holistically sustainable world.

(As Joel Makower just blogged, No one has created a vision of what happens if we get things right.)

I think one of the things that has hampered the creation of this vision is that we have been so focused on the environment that we haven’t fully explored the social aspects of a sustainable world. How would my daily life change and become more meaningful if we lived in a world that was more sustainable along both environmental and social lines? I want to picture it clearly. What’s the Futurama of the 21st centry?

As Makower points out, the atmosphere of hope surrounding Obama’s leadership might just create the conditions in which this vision can grow and flourish. But one thing’s for sure: it can’t only be top-down. We’re going to have to crowd-source this sustainable world and build it from the ground up.

Thank Van Jones for this sweet quote: “Barack Obama helped us take America back. Now we have to help him take America forward.”

My sister Lora and I ran a quick innovation workshop at a sustainability consulting firm yesterday. One thing we wanted to impress upon them is that being innovative is a state of mind that you can bring to all aspects of your work (not just in a brightly colored room or while wearing crazy hats). Setting the right conditions for innovative thinking - in my mind - often comes down to paying attention to the world around you, having fun, communicating openly, and trusting yourself. We also talked about the importance of letting the process diverge, being comfortable with ambiguity, and effectively harnessing different team members’ strengths at different times. We did made a quick hand-out to communicate some of this. Download the innovation handout.

We also crafted a pretty cool exercise that is fun and instructive of the power of co-creation. We called it “Doodle Fusion.” Here’s how it works:

1. Find a partner, a piece of paper, and a pen.
2. The first person draws a small squiggle. (i.e. looping curve)
3. The second person creates an object using those lines (i.e. a snowman)
4. The first person now draws a scene around that object (i.e. a small man with a pointy hat touching the snowman)
5. The second person finishes it off by adding a caption (i.e. Elf reiki training)

Some lessons to learn in this process are:

• You end up with something that neither of the two people would - or could - have created on their own.
• You create something that no one person owns, but that you both feel ownership of.
• You learn to build on others’ ideas instead of shutting them down. Furthermore, these builds can be productive in ways that you might not expect.
• Making ideas visual can be a powerful tool.

So besides being a really quick and fun game - Doodle Fusion has some important lessons that folks can take back to their teams at work.

You can even give it a try it at your next party…people will love it (but you might want to spare them the lessons-learned).

I’m doing quite a bit of cooking nowadays and am enjoying it. We recently subscribed to a CSA and have all sorts of exciting fruits and veggies around. Cooking can be a wonderful creative process, a fun training ground for multi-tasking, and a good bonding experience.

I really liked Mark Bittman’s The Minimalist article in the NY Times Dining section today. It includes a list of simple do’s and don’ts - and pantry items to stock - to make your cooking fresher and tastier. Check it out on the NY Times site: Fresh Start for a New Year? Let’s Begin in the Kitchen.

If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.