How to lead NZ beyond ‘less worse’ to better-off

Comment: Short-term thinking has led us to the sustainability, nature and climate challenges of today. But overcoming this short-termism isn’t easy, particularly when our economic signals focus our minds on near term impacts.
Looking beyond immediate pressures and navigating an enduring path to a low carbon, climate resilient and sustainable future requires a new kind of leadership. One that not only recognises the need for a longer-term lens and can effectively make the case for a different approach, but one that can also lead this transition in a more complex and uncertain world.
Disruption and instability are increasingly pervasive features of our operating contexts. Extreme weather events, volatile geopolitics and rapidly evolving technologies are just some of the disruptors affecting both the things we do and how we do them.
But as the world becomes smaller and more connected, and as the implications of our overconsumption and short-termism become more significant and more visible, it is the uncertainty of how this changing future will manifest that is the biggest test for this new cohort of ‘transition leaders’.
In a climate context, this uncertainty is seen in the breadth of plausible futures that we are being asked to consider, from ones in which we see concerted, co-ordinated climate action, to ones in which self-interest and protectionism win out. In some of these futures, we avoid the worst impacts of climate change and restore our intrinsic relationship with nature, whilst in others, tipping points are crossed, inequity is exacerbated and whole ecosystems are wiped out.
Navigating a path forward through this uncertainty is no longer about just finding the fastest route from A to B and sticking to that path through thick and thin. We are now dealing with an interconnected, multi-modal transit map with a multitude of dynamic and evolving routes.
To successfully navigate through this complexity, there is a need for greater flexibility and foresight. There is a need for leaders that can actively look ahead for the signals of disruption – planned engineering works, unexpected breakdowns, changes to services – and determine ways to move between lines and modes whilst maintaining forward momentum.
Finding a path through complexity and uncertainty to a more sustainable future is a necessary activity for our transition leaders, and that is just the beginning.
At the recent Climate Change and Business conference, the outgoing inaugural Chair of He Pou a Rangi, New Zealand’s Climate Change Commission Dr Rod Carr said:
“We actually need leaders who understand the challenge of our time, the opportunity for New Zealand not to just be less worse, but better off than we are today… we should have leaders who can explain to New Zealanders why it’s in our self-interest to do that [transition to low emissions technologies] as soon as possible, as fast as possible.”
To ensure the path forward is an enduring one, particularly when there are likely to be numerous twists and turns along the way, our transition leaders need to engender unity around the why, rather than just a focus on the what and how.
While we need transition leaders with the confidence to lead into uncertainty, this confidence needs to be grounded in humility. Humility to recognise the limits of their own perspectives and experiences, and to accept the reality of others’ lived experiences.
Our transition leaders need to understand how these experiences have shaped the mindsets of their peers and their people, and how these mindsets may impact perceptions of the path ahead. They need to be able to use these insights to elicit buy-in for the transitions that some might consider too radical, or too risky, with empathy and compassion.
Our shift to a low carbon, climate resilient and sustainable future is demanding a new cohort of ‘transition leaders’ – leaders with an understanding of the scale of the change required, an appreciation for the systemic forces that are hindering this transition and the uncertainty around how these might play out.
Transition leaders not only need to take a long term view but also that the path ahead is inherently uncertain.
In addition, these transition leaders need to be grounded in humility and empathy towards the mindsets of those they seek to lead. These transition leaders don’t necessarily need to have a technical grounding in the diverse drivers for change, but one thing is critical: they need to have the mana and mandate to drive action.
This means that the transition leader must have a seat at the decision-making table – in the executive team, at the governing body.
They need to have clear visibility across the other, often shorter-term, tactical, pressures influencing the mindsets of their executive peers and decision makers in order to be able to shape their approach accordingly.
They also need to have the skills to draw people together, seek consensus and take note of differing perspectives. They need to take people with them on the journey, as opposed to charging off in their own direction, otherwise change will not endure.
Although not all of us will be transition leaders, we all need to recognise the importance of this role and ensure those with the right skillsets to navigate both our human and systemic conditions are positioned and enabled to succeed.