Most leaders know by now that a "business as usual" approach won't work if we want to avoid the worst effects of climate change. We need expertise from across sectors, cultures, continents and disciplines to be able to resolve the kinds of wicked problems we now face. But figuring out how to do that kind of interdisciplinary, intersectional work, particularly in a Western, largely patriarchal society, grounded in somewhat risk-averse institutions, requires a major shift in our processes, systems and beliefs. And we don't have the luxury of waiting a few decades while we figure it out. That's where Margot Hurlbert comes in. As the Canada Research Chair in Climate Change, Energy and Sustainability Policy and a Professor of the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Regina, she's studying interdisciplinary approaches to these kinds of wicked problems through research on real-world projects about issues like water and clean energy. She's also been a Coordinating Lead Author, Contributing Author and Review Editor for the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change or IPCCThrough that work and her decades of research, Margot has developed deep expertise that allows her to bring a unique perspective to this challenge. In this episode, she unpacks key concepts about inter- and trans-disciplinary work, explores the very real barriers that still prevent us from doing it and shine a light on promising new approaches for current and future climate leaders. ***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

Municipalities are ground zero for tackling climate change, especially when it comes to adaptation. They're well positioned to take direct action to do things like build infrastructure and create new policies. However, they're also the level of government typically operating with the tightest fiscal constraints and most demands in terms of serving a diverse constituency.  So what does it take to be able to lead the kind of transformative change we need in such a challenging environment? That's what we're going to find out in this conversation with Norm Connolly. Trained as a planner, Norm's worked for several municipalities across the Lower Mainland of British Columbia on files from development to community energy. These days, he's the Sustainability Manager for the City of Richmond, a largely island-based municipality. Home to critical infrastructure like the Vancouver International Airport, Richmond is under threat from sea level rise, as well as events like heat domes and extreme storms. In this episode, Norm shares several stories about how he's been able to lead innovation and generate engagement for climate action, despite fiscal and political constraints. He also highlights the need for interdisciplinary collaboration, and offers insights about the kind of climate action leadership we need going forward. ***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

We often think of engineers as simply technical experts when it comes to tackling issues like flood management from climate change. But early in her career, Tamsin Lyle realized that she'd have to grow her leadership skillset and change the way she approached her engineering work if she wanted to have a real impact. That inspired her to start her own consulting company, ebbwater, and build a new kind of approach to climate action leadership that blends technical skills with so-called "soft skills" like communication, facilitation, envisioning and engagement. Along the way, she discovered that we desperately need to change the way we work to become more collaborative, creative and multi-disciplinary if we want to develop and scale climate solutions that make a difference. In this conversation, Tamsin shares the story of how she built a leading engineering consulting practice, explores the challenges of creating effective adaptation solutions and unpacks how she's been able to build multidisciplinary teams and communities that inform and inspire climate action.***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

When it comes to climate innovation, North Americans are often guilty of assuming that we do it best. But we forget that the most powerful innovation is driven by need, creativity and constraints. These are some of the key contributors to the success of Sea6 Energy, an Indian company co-founded and led by Sowmya Balendiran to develop breakthrough solutions to key global problems. Over the last decade, Sea6 has revolutionized tropical seaweed farming on the ocean through its patented solutions across the value chain, from the cultivation of seaweeds to the end products, paving the way for a sustainable tropical blue economy. Earlier this year, the World Economic Forum recognized them as a top innovator, inviting Sowmya to Davos to share their work.But building a global biotech business from scratch that transforms the way we think about, grow and use sea plants hasn't been easy. As a Ph.D. student turned entrepreneur, Sowmya's had to develop a collaborative leadership style that enables her to not only build strong teams but also thrive in a male-dominated economy. In this episode, she shares insights from her journey over the last ten years, along with what she's learned about leading climate action, specifically embracing a multi-disciplinary approach powered by curiosity and collaboration.***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

Climate action leadership isn't limited to governments and scientists. We need all hands on deck if we want to avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change today and in the future. But what does climate action look like for people not on the frontlines, like those who work in areas as diverse as finance, health care or software as a service? That's what we're going to find out today in my conversation with Abid Saifee. He's the Senior Director of Product Management for ecomedes, a climate tech company that's making it easier to source sustainable commercial building products. A veteran product developer, Abid spent years working at giants like Microsoft and Nordstrom before moving into climate tech. This gives him a unique ability to see what's needed to run a business that can make money and tackle climate change. In this episode, Abid shares his journey into climate action, reveals hidden benefits for businesses that tackle climate change and highlights how we need to change the way we work to resolve these kinds of wicked problems in the future. ***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

When you buy a digital ad through something like Google, it usually gets placed on a website. But you don't get to choose which websites it goes on. Who does? The ad tech industry. Which is not a problem, until you discover that they're running your ad for your precious brand on a site that promotes disinformation, racism, hate or even treason. So how do you stop that from happening? That's what Claire Atkin and her partner Nandini Jammi are trying to figure out, through their work at their Check My Ads Institute. Together they're taking on a ridiculously huge and largely unregulated industry to fight not only disinformation and hate but the rise of global authoritarianism. In this episode, Claire shares the incredible story of how they got started and have gone on to defund some of the biggest names in disinformation and hate speech, from Steve Bannon to Fox News. Simply by starting to ask questions and call out lies in public, they've started a movement that's garnered support from across the industry. They're also working hard to inform policy and best practices while pushing for more transparency about where client funds go and how they're used.This is my new favourite episode and I'm grateful to Claire for sharing their work. If you'd like to support them, you can sign up to become a CheckMate at https://checkmyads.org/membership. And if you want to know more about how to protect your business, subscribe to their newsletter Branded to get behind-the-scenes stories the ad tech industry doesn’t want marketers to know.***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

It's one thing to take on the challenge of bringing an innovative product to market. But figuring out how to build an entirely new industry requires next-level vision, creativity and passion. Mark Smith brings all of that and more to his role as the President and CEO of the Pacific Seaweed Industry Association. He and his tiny team are working with growers, manufacturers, distributors and governments – including First Nations – to scale seaweed production across Canada. And they're doing it in an environment that's short on infrastructure, production systems, clear regulations or even a market. In this episode, Mark shares the backstory of how he and his colleagues at the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance managed to get the island designated as a foreign trade zone – then leverage that win to start building out the seaweed industry. We explore the incredible potential for seaweed products – including foods, biofuels that can replace fossil fuels, and nutriceuticals. And we unpack the secrets to his success to date and what's going to help the industry become a world leader, in a way that's economically, culturally and environmentally sustainable.   ***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

When Deljit Bains stepped into her new role to lead the South Asian Health Institute in British Columbia, she knew she had a big challenge ahead of her - trying to find ways to improve health outcomes for the huge South Asian population there, which had really high rates of chronic disease. A nice neat plan had already been developed for her, where she was supposed to find volunteers to go into the community to do things like educate people, give flu shots and run exercise programs. But when she started to put the plan into action, she realized quickly that it wasn't going to work. It had been designed for a predominantly white, educated, English-speaking health care system that operated from 9 to 5 on weekdays – not a culturally rich, Punjabi-speaking, population with often low literacy rates that gathered in the evening and on weekends. If she was going to have any impact at all, she'd have to let go of old-school approaches to health promotion and adopt an innovation mindset. And that's how the Apnee Sehat Design Lab for South Asian Health started. In this episode, Deljit shares her biggest insights about leading change in an incredibly complex situation and tells us how she found a new way forward using human-centred design. You can find much more detail about the project in the evaluation report. Or watch the video summary of the project. ***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

We wouldn't expect someone to be able to run a bank or do surgery unless we trained them to do it. So why do we think we can "magically" adapt to climate change when we haven't taught people how? Workers across every nook and cranny of society need to learn what climate change adaptation is, how it affects their jobs and what they can do to tackle it.That's why Vivian Forssman, Robin Cox and the team at the Adaptation Learning Network (now CanAdapt) at Royal Roads University in  British Columbia decided to spend almost 4 years of their lives figuring out how to teach Canadian workers to address adaptation. Though they had a pretty straightforward plan to identify core competencies and develop some courses, they soon found themselves having to find new ways to "do" higher education as they navigated a world disrupted by COVID, JEDI, reconciliation, and a looming recession. In this episode, Vivian shares her story about how they wrangled unforeseen challenges and developed deep insights that are now informing work to educate professionals across Canada, including the entire civil service. Read the Adaptation Learning Network's final report, discover the future of this work and find out more about climate change adaptation educational opportunities. ***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

Real climate innovation is incredibly complex. Even when we manage to develop technical solutions that allow us to cut fossil fuels, we still have to "sell" those to others – make it easy for them to switch from the way they currently do things. Fortunately, that's one of Shayna Rector Bleeker's superpowers. As a former advertising exec who worked on energy challenges from Shell, she's able to bring diverse partners together to find new ways to solve some of our toughest problems. These days, that means leading EV start-up 7 Gen, along with her co-founder Frans Tjallingii,  to advance fleet electrification. In this episode of the Qwest for Good, Shayna shares the story of how she came to be an accidental entrepreneur and champion of electric transportation. And takes us behind the scenes to show us how she and her partners are finding new ways to do everything from financing to fleet management."Fleet electrification right now is complex. And, we're just, we're in it. We're innovating. And the thing with complex challenges is that it is emergent. You probe, you try, you sense and you respond. Okay, what worked? Do that again. What didn't work? How do we adjust? That's where the market is right now.  And we're committed to the vision. So when you have those hard days, the setbacks, you get up the next day and you find a new path."Shayna's concluding remarks remind us to 'just get going'.  We have much work to do, and rather than waiting for things to be perfect - just start from where you areIf you'd like to learn more about Shayna's work and how Canada is poised for leadership up and down the transportation electrification supply chain, here are a couple of her most recent articles.Why it's time to electrify medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (iPolitics March 2021)Why Electrify Medium and Heavy Duty Vehicles (White paper for Electric Mobility Canada (October 2021)***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

After a brief hiatus to shift direction, I'm back with an amazing line-up of innovators ready to share the stories of how they overcome barriers to create breakthrough change on issues from fleet electrification to chronic disease. In this episode, I talk briefly about the new direction and what to expect, introduce my new online journal packed with innovation stories and strategies from global change agents, and share highlights from the first three years of the show. Grab some inspiration. Grow your influence.  Get more impact. And join me on my Q.west for good!***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

We're changing things up a bit this episode! Before taking a break for the summer, I wanted to share my TEDX talk on Narrative Intelligence. It's a great introduction to how we can use stories to make personal, cultural and social change, weaving together everything I've learned over the last 30+ years of work as a filmmaker, educator, consultant and coach. If you'd rather watch the video for the full TEDX experience, here's the link. And don't forget to check out my free online webbook that unpacks all the science and shows you how to put Narrative Intelligence to work right away.Happy listening and have a great summer!***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

Food does more than just provide the chemicals we need to survive. It feeds our spirit, imagination and relationships. It connects us to the land, our history, our culture and each other. Perhaps most importantly, food also gives us the power to heal our relationships, systems and society. But to do that, we first have to start to explore, understand and ultimately shift the dominant narratives that define our relationship to food. And that's exactly what Shizue Roche Adachi and the team at Food Culture Collective are trying to do through story-driven events and strategies with food culture workers. In this conversation, Shizue helps us unpack the power of food to nourish and heal a struggling society. She also shares examples of the ways in which stories can not only reveal harmful narratives but also create opportunities to shape the future. Find out more about upcoming events at the Food Culture Collective here, and check out their recent piece in the Non-Profit Quarterly here. ***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

The only way we’re going to make progress on complex environmental and social issues is through collaboration - bringing together groups with diverse perspectives, needs and skills. And the only way to do that is to find common ground as a place to start - something that’s getting tough to do in an increasingly polarized world. That’s why I’m so excited to have George Chmael II and Rachel Seba from Council Fire join me for this episode. As long-time leaders in sustainability consulting, they’ve recently integrated a more intentional approach to storytelling in their work, with impressive results. In particular, their recent film, Fishing for Data for the Net Gains Alliance offers a powerful case study of how to use stories to bring diverse stakeholders together to tackle a common problem.In this conversation, we look at how they've used stories on multi-year projects to not only find ways to engage diverse communities in co-creating a better future together – but also address historical injustices along the way. In particular, they walk us through two powerful case studies - Fishing for Data, and the development of Masonville Cove - the first urban wildlife refuge partnership in the USA. They also talk about their decision to develop their internal storytelling capacity to elevate the power of stories in their client work, as well as how they managed to build such a powerful creative team as a small business. As George reminds us: "We've got to get the word out. We have to tell the stories. We have to connect to people such that we can drive action in the masses. The activity of an individual company or an individual person can't get it done by itself. We have to do it at scale and storytelling is a key tool to help us do that." ***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

Polarization has become a major roadblock for those working on issues from public health to climate change. Unless we can figure out how to shift cultures and the stories that shape them, it’s going to be tough for us to find ways to move forward together. That’s why I’m so excited to have Laura Hughes join me for this episode. As a senior policy analyst in the Alberta clean energy program at the Pembina Institute, she leads the organization’s files on women in the energy transition, the Alberta Narratives Project, and nature-based solutions. She also works with municipalities to support their transitions to renewable energy. In this episode, Laura walks us through the details of the Alberta Narratives Project – an incredibly successful initiative run with Alberta Ecotrust and Climate Outreach to help everyone move past the polarizing stories that were holding them back and find common ground to start creating a better future together.  She outlines what they did, who they worked with, what challenges they faced, and – importantly – what they found in their evaluation. She also talks more broadly about the value of taking a narrative approach to policy development, as a key strategy in creating the cultural momentum necessary for any successful change project. With competing stories and ideologies tearing apart families, communities and nations, learning how to find common ground to tackle tough issues is a critical skill we all need to develop. Laura and her team have created a model for how, exactly, to do that. So be sure to check out her work!***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

"In so many ways I have seen people downplay certain aspects of their identity. When in reality, they should be really, really kind of doubling down on being more of who they are." –– Jenn T. GraceDespite decades of advocacy for diversity in publishing, a quick Google search for the top non-fiction authors inevitably turns up a list of white men. This matters, for lots of reasons. If we want people to be transformed by books, they have to see themselves in those books. Which means that we’re not connecting with a vast majority of the world. Plus, by not publishing work by under-represented writers, we’re missing out on all the wisdom and expertise they have to share, stuff that only they know.Nobody knows this better than Jenn T. Grace. As an author, speaker, founder and CEO of Publish Your Purpose, Jenn has a fierce commitment to bringing voice to the invisible stories that free people from their isolation. She’s published six books of her own, including her memoir “House on Fire” and coached hundreds of authors to help them bring their stories into the light. In this episode, Jenn shares key insights from her publishing journey. We talk about why it's important for authors (and the rest of us) to get raw and real when we share our stories. We explore the one-to-one connection authors must create with their readers. And we talk about the need for more diversity in publishing – something she's trying to change through her work."It tends to be either women or LGBTQ people or people with disabilities or people of color, people who are coming from some marginalized standpoint that go and enter into the publishing space, and just don't feel seen. And if you want to share your story, speak your truth, impact people, you have to be working with a partner that helps you feel seen and heard. And there's just not a lot of that still in the publishing space. And so our focus is very much on those voices that are often excluded from those traditional publishing settings.Jenn also has some great tips for authors who are just starting out, and those who want to take their work to the next level. Find out more about her and her journey here. ***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

Leaders across the globe are beginning to realize that the biggest thing stopping us from taking action on climate change isn't a lack of capacity or technical solutions. It's a lack of engagement. Of historical and cultural context. Of connection to people and place. No one wants to have climate action done to them. They want to play a role in creating solutions. They need to see themselves, their homes, their businesses and their families reflected in goals and strategies. Of course, the best (and possibly only) way to create that kind of engagement is with stories. That's why I'm so excited to have Jeff Biggers, founder of the Climate Narrative Project,  join me for this episode. Jeff draws on decades of experience as a journalist, oral historian and author to help communities shape new narratives on climate change and regenerative solutions. As a global leader in climate change communications, he's worked with groups ranging from the elite of Silicon Valley to small towns devastated by broken economic and social systems. His narrative change work has been featured in the New York Times and Chicago Tribune  - as well as on NPR and MSNBC.In our conversation, Jeff shares some beautiful and powerful stories about how he works with leaders and communities to help them create a vision of an "ecopolis" where they'd like to live in the future – then reverse engineer or backcast it to figure out what stories they need to bring to life to make it happen. Here are a couple of articles about his ecopolis work: https://artistsandclimatechange.com/2018/12/06/shaping-new-climate-narratives-why-a-journalist-historian-turned-to-theatre-for-climate-stories/https://thesolutionsjournal.com/2017/01/15/ecopolis-iowa-city-envisioning-regenerative-city-heartland/Jeff also shares critical insights about what's stopping municipalities and communities from being able to move ahead on climate action and offers tangible ideas about what we can do right now to get unstuck. (Hint - it's to hire a climate storyteller!)Jeff's approach works across cultures, continents and communities, and generates co-benefits that go well beyond mitigation and adaptation. You can find more stories about his work and outcomes here. ***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

Rinku Sen is an expert on shifting narratives. In her role as the Executive Director of the Narrative Initiative, she leads a team that works across timelines, cultures, sectors and the country to make equity and social justice common sense. As an author, former ED of Race Forward and Co-President of the Women's March, Rinku brings deep experience in racial justice, feminist and labor movements to her change work.In this episode, Rinku demystifies the work of narrative change, helping us understand what's required, what can stand in our way and what we need to stay committed in the long term. “It's just about putting in the time and the creativity and the hard work. It's not magic, like the kind of magic we don't have access to. The magic is the combination of having people willing to do this work and letting it be loose.  In non-profit land, in the United States and NGOs globally there's not a lot of room for experimentation. And even in cultural production in Hollywood, for example, or in publishing,  people's ideas of what the market wants and what there's a market for and what there isn't a market for – those kinds of requirements for art do limit what kind of art gets made and what kind of art gets distributed. So finding free spaces to do narrative thinking and narrative work  can be a structural challenge.” Plus, she shares several excellent examples of narrative change in action, highlighting successes, failures and ongoing challenges on issues like gender equity and racism. In particular, she describes the support her team provides through its Wordforce program and explores early work focused on shifting the model minority narrative about Asian-Americans.To make the process more accessible, Rinku walks us through the powerful Four Baskets Framework she and her colleagues at the Narrative Initiative use to research, create, test and deploy narrative strategies that inform and inspire action.Want to know more? Check out the Narrative Initiative and its fantastic resources. You might also want to explore the work of their colleagues at The Opportunity Agenda (listen to my interview with their President Ellen Buchman), the Center for Story-based Strategy, ReFrame and the Center for Cultural Power.***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

"By telling a story, you put in motion this vast sort of undercurrent of cognitive abilities that we all have for determining what's plausible. What's likely? What would play against what else? And there's nothing quite like narrative for doing that."---Leaders and organizations live and die by their ability to plan for and navigate the future. While tools such as data and analytics have a key role to play, the most powerful way to explore and shape the future is through the lens of story. Nobody knows that better than award-winning science fiction author and futurist Karl Schroeder. Over the last 40 years, Karl's helped organizations from the Canadian military to Intel use tools like strategic foresight, prototyping, and design fiction to anticipate and prepare for the unknown, through his creative and consulting practice with the Human Futures Studio.In this episode, Karl shares crystal clear insights about why it's so hard to plan for the future, how tools like strategic foresight can "innoculate us" against surprise, and how we might use future stories like his latest novel Stealing Worlds as thinking tools to tackle global issues like the climate crisis.He also shares recommendations for three fantastic books, for those who want to learn more.The Origin of Stories by Brian BoydDynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System by Alicia JuarreroScience Fiction Prototyping by Brian David Johnson.While it's true that we can't predict the future, we can prepare for it. Storytelling is one skill we all have that we can use to understand future trends and develop responses to potential scenarios. Don't miss this episode to learn more about how you can become a better leader, for good. ***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.

Creating narrative change is always tough, but doing it in the arts, where beliefs and behaviour are grounded in centuries of stories and tradition can seem impossible. You need to be able to weave a powerful vision, rich data and purpose-driven leadership together into a compelling story that informs and inspires change. And that's exactly what I talk about in this episode with Aubrey Bergauer.As the CEO of Changing the Narrative, she uses classical music and the arts as a vehicle to create social and system change. Her work builds on her success as the Executive Director of the California Symphony, where she propelled the organization to double the size of its audience and nearly quadruple the donor base in less than five years.A graduate of Rice University with degrees in Music Performance and Business, Aubrey's work and leadership have been covered in national publications including Entrepreneur, Thrive Global, Wall Street Journal, and Southwest Airlines and Symphony magazines, and she is a frequent speaker at universities and conferences across North America, including Adobe’s Magento, TEDx, Opera America, the League of American Orchestras, and Orchestras Canada. In our conversation, she tells us how she combined stories and data to find new opportunities and engage both staff and subscribers in a new narrative for classical music. She also unpacks her leadership approach to finding, testing and building on small experiments that ultimately pay off big for her clients. And she shows us how having a strong, clear purpose helps her create a bold vision that makes it easy to win the support of boards and donors alike. ***If you like this episode, please subscribe, like and share it with your networks. And if you want more great content like this to help you share knowledge, get support and grow your audience, join me on The Q.west for Good.