A Meditation on Impact

The Domino Effect

I have spent much of my career leading teams on media & advertising technology focusing on scaling businesses, sales and marketing programs. A few years ago, I embraced a new chapter of my life: motherhood. The transformation into motherhood has sparked a profound reflection in me about the world we are shaping for younger generations.?

Contemplating this made me recognize the weight of responsibility we all bear in shaping our world. We have all observed that society has become more ambivalent in recent years, resulting in growing disparity, inequality, and suffering.? To change this, we all need to actively participate in the change we want to see in this world. To do this, we must look far beyond corporate walls and include all industries, creatives, and deep thinkers. Leveraging collaboration, innovation and pure passion, I truly believe that we will begin to see the ripple effects of our collective and individual actions.?

In the coming months on my new podcast, we are going to take a deep dive into what it truly means to create a meaningful impact in today's rapidly evolving world. The podcast is an ambitious endeavor with a goal to spotlight those around us who inspire us, and continue to make bold positive changes across society.?

By highlighting the problems and showing awareness first, then choosing how to take action; I believe that together, we can help solve some of the biggest global problems we face. It is up to us to collectively transcend the confines of our roles across borders and industries to create a lasting legacy of hope and progress.

Questions to ponder:??

• ?How can you make an impact on our world and the environment?
• ?How can you make an impact in your everyday life??
• ?How can you make an impact on the people around you in a positive way?

Chasing Innovation in the Climate Crisis?

As industries around us rapidly evolve and grow, we strive to forecast what is next in business. Yet no matter how rapidly we evolve, we are always left wondering when the next technological revolution will be, worried we will be left in the dust.?

As we try to keep up, whether we like it or not- we are continuously bombarded with the increasingly stressful realities we face living on this planet. Week after week is declared the hottest week on record, and the temperatures of our air and oceans continue to rise at an alarmingly fast rate.?

• Heat Warnings - One-third of Americans are under excessive heat warnings this week, and much of the world is scorching with record-breaking temperatures every day. An example of the harm this is causing are the people in Arizona getting hospitalized with third degree burns from simply touching, or falling onto the hot pavement.?
• Fires -? There are record numbers of forest fires, floods, tornadoes, and droughts across the globe in 2023.?
• Tornadoes - In just the first three months of 2023 alone, the United States broke the record for most tornadoes ever, with a startling 466 tornadoes reported between January and March of 2023.?
• Flooding - This spring season, approximately 146 million people were at risk of facing flooding, with nearly 6.4 million at risk for moderate flooding and 1.4 million at risk for major flooding. A perfect example of this is the recent floods that have destroyed much of Vermont. “I think we all understand that we are now living through the worst natural disaster to impact the state of Vermont since 1927 when dozens of people died”, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said, referring to the catastrophic floods.
• Power Outages - As we have witnessed in Vermont, with each natural disaster, a chain reaction follows. Flooding leads to power outages, power outages lead to loss of phone reception, access to the internet, the outside world, and the loss of perishable foods. Most notably, loss of air conditioning or heating (in extreme hot or cold weather conditions) can be fatal to our most vulnerable populations.
• Farming - With flooding and drought, we also begin to lose the farms that provide food for us and our communities, which inevitably leads to a loss in food security. Natural disasters such as this have been happening relentlessly all across the world.

These are just a fraction of the problems humanity is facing, and as you can see - it’s a domino effect. A chain reaction. The negative impacts of these events continue to snowball, and before you know it- we have entire industries that need to be rebuilt from the ground up. When new systems need to be reimagined, that comes hand in hand with new ways of thinking. We are left saying:

?“Where do we go from here?”

or

“What can I do about it? I’m just one person”.

Often, the problems are so big that they are too hard for us to conceptualize. So, we get up, we go to work, and we put off thinking about it for one more day, one more week, one more month, one more year.?

And then, it happens. Perhaps you can't get to work in person one morning because a thunderstorm unexpectedly turned into a flash flood. Your day goes from worrying about your pitches at work, to figuring out how to get power and clean water back to your family and neighbors. This is the day that changes your perspective. A chain of events unfold, and you discover that floods lead to blackouts and contamination in the water. Often, the infrastructure needed to deal with emergencies of this magnitude does not exist. Put simply, you are left on your own to solve these problems, because our current systems are not designed to deal with the issues we now face.?

Perhaps your child can't go to daycare today because the forest fire smoke is too bad, and the local authorities have ordered residents to stay home, close their windows and turn on their air purifiers (if you are lucky enough to have one). In one fell swoop, you are facing the reality that the air you breathe is toxic, and you can't escape it. Events such as these are scary, dangerous, and can be traumatizing. That is why the more things like this happen, the more we feel a strong urge to band together and change the trajectory of things, knowing there must be a better way to live and move forward collectively.

The Inescapable Reality of Climate Disasters

These are just a couple of examples of how climate disasters are upending life as we know it. It doesn't matter where we are, how much money we make - it is clear that we cannot escape this reality. That realization is leading to fear and determination in individuals and community/ business leaders. They are starting to take matters into their own hands and problem-solve, and because of this we are seeing innovation happen now at lightspeed. Moments like this can be a lesson, and the driver of profound change in our communities and world.

?One of my favorite quotes by Henri- David Thoreau makes me consider the lens we are looking through to gain our perspective: “It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.” Where others see problems, leaders see innovation and solutions. People who can see the world in this way are not afraid of big ideas, even if for some folks, the change that would come with these ideas is too scary or uncomfortable.

____________________

On DRIVING IMPACT my mission is to talk with and learn from a diverse group of global leaders, thinkers, entrepreneurs, scientists, artists and philosophers about how to move forward innovatively, and with kindness and grace in a world where we face these unprecedented challenges.?

We will be learning about their courage to lead others, their innovations, and the risks they took to get where they are. We will celebrate their ideas, and pick their brains about what they will do next.

Now I turn the focus back to you: What do you see? How do you think we can forge new paths together, innovate, and help each other make an impact on our future???

Join the conversation! Please send us your comments and questions on Driving Impact, innovation and doing memorable work in your field.? Feel free to share with us ideas, and comments on what types of episodes you would like to hear related to these themes. We need you! I look forward to connecting with you all.?

A bientot,

Katheline