Human Burnout and Planetary Burnout are connected

My life’s work has been about making the world equal and sustainable.

?The job used to entail two key levers:

1. Educate leaders and businesses that environmental and human rights issues were present and existential, including for business, and
2. Build solutions to the problems that leaders and businesses could adopt.

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Through the efforts of many, and the evolution of technology, knowledge about the presence and urgency of our existential issues and how to solve these issues, is more widespread than ever before. The number of solutionists in the people and planet space seems to have grown tremendously, whether the solutionists work inside companies or as external providers of technology, programs, and advice.

?So, one surely wonders…with all of this we should just be getting on with it and bringing our world back into a balanced state, where humans can coexist with other humans, and humans can coexist with nature in a way that there is enough for all?

The fact is, we are not just getting on with it. We may be adding commitments at country and company level, but action and resources are still lagging to solve the biggest, baddest issues.

?This made me wonder: what is going on?

?My quest for the answer led me to another existential issue we now face - massive human burnout.

There is a strange symmetry between human burnout and planetary burnout:

HBR reported last year that more than half of global managers feel burned out. The IPCC reports that the world needs to halve earth’s greenhouse gas emissions in order to curb climate change. Closing the loop on the strange symmetry, the ACCP reports that half the impact profession (the people who work most passionately and tirelessly on positively impacting humans and planet), is also burnt out.

We are a world of burnt-out humans trying to fix a burning planet. No matter whether you are a business leader, a sustainability/impact leader, or a leader of another kind, this intersection of human and planetary burnout seems to be manifesting in one or more of three ways:

1. Classic burnout: this is true of both impact leaders and their business counterparts. Impact leaders are immersed 24/7/365 in a soup of existential issues, often together with others who work on existential issues, constantly consuming existential issues (through reading, discussions, contemplation). They often feel like they are pushing water uphill trying to get others to see the issues the same way as they do. Fixing the world’s existential issues is not just a job, it’s a personal mission for these leaders. Because of this, impact leaders’ work, their worry, never ends. Their business counterparts are under pressure to deliver short term results in increasingly uncertain and challenging economic and political environments. The result – classic burnout all around– including health issues and job issues including attrition. ?
2. Incrementalism: This is all about having an attitude of ‘doing what we can.’ ?We see the existential issues, we know the solutions, and we want to act. But we continue to act within our age-old constraint. Business headwinds? Cut impact budget, travel and headcount. Meeting net zero commitments will require disrupting current business models? Hope another solution appears along the way. Too many deliverables to stabilize the business in an uncertain environment? Focus on the short term financial survival. The result – the math won’t add up to solving our existential issues fast enough.
3. Compartmentalization: This is when the existential issue becomes ‘not my problem.’ In large public organizations, this often entails impact becoming the ‘Impact team’s job.’ – leading to burnout. The more concerning issue is that with compartmentalization, some public companies, private equity, venture capitalists, startups and the like seem to still be operating under an assumption that existential issues don’t exist. In many environments, over-consumption (having dozens of excess things, flying private) seem to still be badges of honor. Yet, every single person who behaves as if ‘this is not my problem,’ will still be deeply impacted by climate risks, human rights risks, and the economic and political issues that will arise as a result. The result – whatever people think is not their burden to bear, will become their burden anyway.

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So, how do we come out of this?

We do this by remembering who we are, why we are here, and how we are connected to the ecosystems (including people and nature) on this planet. Once we remember we will shift into what I call Regenerative Resonance .?

My dream is that every leader on this planet finds Regenerative Resonance. As we do, I deeply believe that we will intuitively shift into regenerative ways of being and doing and begin to heal both our human and our planetary burnout.

#regenerativeleadership #resonance #regenerative #ecosystems #peopleandnature #withinourgeneration #burnout