Australia's Climate Future: innovate or die.

As someone who started my first company in 2009 as an entrepreneur moving people from energy to carbon markets, from equities to ESG, then led various ventures in governance with a focus on climate risk and intergenerational equality, I am excited by the shift in hope and narrative towards a more positive Climate Future for Australia. However, I often hear in many different circles that "innovation" is the solution and I worry about Australia's ability to execute.

I now work in global tech where we build innovation software for our customers who are major corporations and government agencies. While we enable many of clients to crowdsourcing their ideas into applied innovation, there is an art & science to innovate, and there are so many obstacles in the way of getting it right.

So, when faced with the complexity of a VUCA world, how might we better execute collaborative problem solving towards the magnitude of these global issues (like climate change)?

On one hand I remain optimistic about climate action in Australia, particularly with a more progressive Federal Government, and more industry Net Zero, but on the other hand, I grit my teeth too often and say, "FFS, can we stop with the 'talk-fests' and patting on the backs of these mediocre commitments of Net Zero 2050 towards climate action?"

In a recent Advance.org climate progress forum, I (made a statement and then) asked the question,

"In 2009, then CEO of Westpac Gail Kelly was awarded World Economic Forum no.1 sustainable company, and in 2015, then CEO of AGL Andy Vesey was in France at COP21 for the Paris agreement. So, who are the CEOs now that are leading climate action across the ASX200?"

And the underwhelming response from the panel was that nobody was mentioned.

That said, there are some amazing Think-Tanks and research being done by the likes of ClimateWorks, Carbon Markets Institute, Australia Policy Institute and many universities and States, and now Federal and progressive Teals movement in regards to climate policy too. As citizens, many are walking the walk as activists and changing behaviour (EVs/cycling, responsible superannuation, renewables rooftops, electrifying their homes etc) but, is this where it stops?

As a nation, we have some amazing systems thinkers, designers, responsible investors, new economy progressive directors in boardrooms, policymakers, industry leaders, startup founders, and non-profit provocateurs, et al but this often talked about focus towards innovation as an enabler to solve the problem fails time and time again. I fear that this too often leads to climate inaction. The challenge to seriously move the needle of big, bold climate action requires both collaboration across an awkward and diverse stakeholder mix, coupled with robust process to enact applied innovation. If we look in the mirror, we must ask ourselves uncomfortable questions and face some home truths,

"Who has taken an idea from concept, to commercial GTM, MVP and then got product market fit and generated sustainable reoccurring revenue?

How many of us have executed highly successful applied innovation?"

I think the answer for most of us, except the entrepreneurs, is 'not many' in industry, and actually not many of us outside the startup founders.

The truth is that applied innovation is damn hard. First of all, we have to invite diverse voices into these VUCA problems and go through various stages of divergent and convergent thinking. See image below and this process itself can sometimes take weeks, if not months.

Alongside this is that often we often fail to invite the right diversity into solving the problem. For example, we often exclude hearing Indigenous voices, their spiritual intelligence and custodianship of the land for 40,000+ years towards climate action solutions, or we forget to invite minorities to help solve a.i and data ethics.

Not only is inclusion an issue, but when we do try to choose which ideas or projects to execute during the convergent process, we often get stuck. We also don't like to use the word experiment and yet, this is exactly what we need to do next if we are to successfully implement these solutions (applied innovation). We need to reframe the narrative, of 'fail fast' that is is rapid learning, and that this enhances agile thinking and adaptive leadership combined. Leaders need to seek out and recognise and celebrate their employee's "scars" of failure. Rapid experimentation should be seen as the cornerstone of business development and future proofing the organisation's risk against disruption.

We need to recognise that innovation is hard and we need to appoint more Chief Innovation Officers (CInO) to teach this new and evolving discipline across departments. The CInO will be a connector and visionary to communicate that we all need to play a role and that this MVP, POC, prototype et al language is merely market testing and that it's communicated as commercialisation, new business model opportunities and risk management.

I fear that there is a complete disarray of innovation in Australia with SIX Ministers owning the Federal portfolio over the past 3 years. We also need to better understand that applied innovation requires all of us, and there is a role for everyone; the creatives and problem solvers (front-end), the analyst, researchers, strategists, HR and people connectors (mid-zone), project managers, technologists and subject matter experts (back-end), executive leaders to empower, and boards to invest in risk capital (innovation strategy, Horizon 3, futures strategy, climate risk disclosure etc).

Innovation is a team sport and we as a nation are damn good at sport, innovation is creative and we are awesome at art, we're inventive, we are food aficionados; we've got such eclectic and diverse ingredients. So teamwork and our Aussie hard work ethic ethos will ensure that the Australia's recipe for applied innovation can enact climate action, and beyond. The recipe for applied innovation for Australia is just like the Hills Hoist in our own backyards, or Wi-Fi in our homes and solar on our roofs. Let us all rejoice, and Advance Australia Fair.

If you want to engage more on Australia's innovation, climate action and more broadly the SDGs in action for Australia, act now over zoom and let's stop, collaborate and listen.