Brace, brace!

Last Thursday​ in central London, a panel of nine climate experts invited more than 1,000 business chiefs, senior civil servants and civic leaders to what they called the 'first-of-its-kind national emergency briefing'.

Their message was stark. 'We are facing a national emergency,' said one, 'not only because the climate is changing, but because the living systems that protect the climate are breaking down.'

The speakers were pulling no punches. And maybe it’s because I ended my career in TV drama penning global doomfests such as Supervolcano, but I can only agree that the story we’re collectively writing for ourselves does not have a happy ending – unless we start to do things very differently. And on a scale far beyond what we're currently doing.

But is it already too late?

Mitigation or adaptation?

A growing number of climate scientists are saying that we're past the point where we can stop major shocks to life on Earth. The focus for our efforts now, they argue, is on how best to adapt to what's coming down the line.

In a sense, though, whether the best course of action lies in mitigation or adaptation, at the heart of rising to the challenge sits the same word – collaboration.

But it’s up against another 'c' word – conflict.

The challenge of the climate crisis will bring into even more conflict those who think that radical change is essential and those who don’t. And that’s before all the associated challenges kick in, such as how to deal with increased migration flows and the numerous ways in which we’ll be forced to pay for a significantly warmer world.‍

We need a revolution

‍But wherever you place yourself on the spectrum between ‘Oh my God, the world’s coming to an end’ and ‘Chillax – it’s all a load of apocalyptic baloney', one thing that we’re going to need by the buckets-full is better communication between people, individually and in groups.

We need to massively up our game in how we talk and listen to each other – how we understand each other – so that the inevitable conflicts can be overcome and collaboration supercharged.

This is one big reason why Peter Osborn and I wrote The Talking Revolution.

At its heart is a set of skills and attitudes called creative conversation.

And since the book's publication in December 2018, we’ve been working hard to turn creative conversation into practical, doable, learnable actions. Things that anyone can undertake to make themselves better communicators and collaborators, and more able to deal positively with conflict.

We've worked with with organisations, large and small, hundreds of individuals, and recently with whole communities in an effort to bridge increasingly fractious divides.

Based on all that we've learnt since writing The Talking Revolution, we've produced a web-app that distills everything into 7 Habits.

It's available here. For free. Because we want everyone to have it.

Conflict and caring

Why?

Well, there’s an old saying that ‘Good by the inch invites evil by the yard.’

Which means that when those with good intentions come together to tackle the climate crisis, they will inevitably find themselves in conflict at some point with each other – because they care about it. And conflict arises from people caring.

But we need to get serious about working together – at every level – to address this ultimate challenge to humanity. Which means we need to find a way of making sure that the good manages to overcome the obstacles that will inevitably arise to scupper our efforts.

And at the heart of that is the need for us to be able to talk and listen to each other in a way that strengthens the connection between us, even when – especially when – we disagree.

Explore the 7 Habits

We think creative conversation offers a way do that.

Do join us. Explore the 7 Habits today – or encourage someone else to take a look if you're already signed up.

And then let's talk.

PS While you're at it, check out The Talk Show...