It’s been a bit hectic this week, to say the least. The thing is that we suddenly realized that one million plants and animal species are threatened with extinction around the world, and that there is no indication that the situation will improve. You probably knew all this already, but it came as a shock to us how quickly we are ruining biodiversity and how devastating the consequences are. We hurriedly set up a bunch of bee hotels to mitigate the shock, but of course that’s far from enough.
It all started the other day when we listened to our colleagues at U&We. They had a lot of information to share on how humanity keeps cutting down our own branches of survival, due to pure ignorance and with our heads tucked deep into the sand. This inevitably leads to increased business risks, crises and conflicts, but we do it anyway.
What strikes us as a sledgehammer is that human beings are generally hopeless at keeping two thoughts in the head at the same time. Now, it is all about COVID-19. Then, we are totally unable to think about ecosystems, humanitarian crises, integration, inequality, mental illness and climate change. And how could we? After all, the time slot before most people stop listening amounts to maximum a tweet or a powerpoint slide. Everything must be fast and simplified, black or white. What’s the matter with us?
One of our wise colleagues, Annika Wålinder, often talks about Slow communication. We love the concept. Because it is not about slowness at all; it’s about allowing for complexity. That’s how we work at Greengoat all the time. We believe that you must start in complexity and then break it down into manageable pieces in order to prioritize wisely. What happens if you start with simplification? You obviously risk missing the important issues and spend your resources on the wrong things.
With all this in mind, Greengoat’s Friday thoughts had to wait until Saturday. We understand you really missed us (well…), but we had to digest the information.
