If you line up all the ugly bogeys in a row you suddenly don’t want to blame the people sticking their heads in the sand – you want to join them. So how do you deal with this and keep leading the charge, in whatever way you can? Some of the advice is around self care and other worthwhile stuff. But even better is humour.
We interviewed Jess Miller on Monday for our podcast and you really need to listen to it to get the full gist of what she’s saying. Which is quite provocative. And challenging.
Miller will be stepping up to the stage at our next Big Debate on 25 August in Sydney where we discuss the big bogey in the room – can we keep knocking down the buildings we have?
The movement against demolition seems to have sprung from the dual source of sustainability but also a certain social cache that comes from the green movement and has made it “cool” to shop pre-loved, such as in fashion, where a trove of websites do a roaring trade.
Speak to architects around town and they will tell you tenants are asking for leases in older buildings because it suits the image they want to present. At the top end of town, shiny and new still works – at least until the varnish falls away under a seemingly never ending litany of scandal and taxpayer ripoffs. (KMPG said today it would sack 1000 staff as a direct result of their recent audit scandal).
You can see where we’re going with this.
But what of the “noble” causes this industry is so earnestly pursuing before we too burn up, like Europe. Wait, we’ve already been there, done that.
Thing is the news is getting so bad, that people are turning off the climate challenge in droves.
That was the part of the chat with Miller that made us stop in our tracks. People don’t want to hear about sustainability, she says.
Miller is not voicing her own concerns, she’s talking as a politician; relaying what the constituents tell her. It’s her job.
Her advice? Stop talking about it. Just stop. People are worried about how to get their kid to the doctor; at a time of crisis you think about exactly what’s in front of you, not some distant (and now not so distant) threat.
You can talk to them about the issues but they need to be framed in the cost of living that is driving so many people to the edge – and into the arms of the Orange Scourge (our phrasing).
If you line up all the ugly bogeys in a row you suddenly don’t want to blame the people sticking their heads in the sand – you want to join them.
So how do you deal with this and keep leading the charge, in whatever way you can?
Some of the advice is around self care and other worthwhile stuff.
But even better is humour.
When TFE first kicked its way into the world we tried hard to find a comedic contributor.
We’d seen one at Fed Square in Melbourne after a Green Building Council event. The performer told self-deprecating jokes about koala lovers and tree huggers, and probably muesli if we remember correctly. It was good.
A few weeks ago Philip Bull who normally rails about planning and how hard it is to “get stuff done” wrote a laugh out loud piece about the clash of cultures you get at swimming pools the further west you go in Sydney.
This kicked off an entire new series about more personal influences on planning and housing that he’s dubbed Trauma Town. See the latest here
Then this week Dick Clarke, founder of Envirotecture, has come through with a humorous piece about housing and how “shite” the designs can be.
A big chunk of one submission to council that he unearthed complaining about for a project in Sydney’s North Shore (upper case mandatory, he insists) is highly redacted but makes amusing reading. To keep the legal eagles where they belong. Up in the eyries.
But on Thursday morning social media revealed and entire new world of humour that can be actually taught through a class.
Gill Armstrong who works with Climateworks posted a lovely piece recalling the inspired choice she made for her professional development to choose humour as the route to better.
It was through Belina Raffy.
Not long after, someone sent us a clip of the fabulous late Jeff Robinson doing Sustainability Standup.
Here’s some highlights from Gill’s piece:
I signed up because I was tired of professional development that promises transformation but delivers yet another slide deck.
At the time, climate anxiety was weighing heavily. And I was looking for a stretch experience that would be challenging and meaningful, relevant to my role in the climate space. Having a PD budget is a real privilege and I didn’t want to spend it on something that I already understood or would be forgotten in a week.
So I signed up for Belina Raffy’s Sustainable Stand Up.
What I experienced wasn’t really about comedy. It is all about connecting and communication. Connecting with your audience, a room full of strangers, quickly. And keeping them engaged, with them tuned
I learned why some speakers create rapport while others can make us cringe and turn away. And how humour, when it’s coming from a place of beauty, helps people stay engaged throughout, even when it’s hard to hear. I also learnt how to stay authentic and share vulnerability with large audiences so that my message is heard long after the exact statistics have faded.
It was one of the richest learning experiences I’ve had.
The course created an extraordinary sense of psychological safety while asking us to deliver our first stand-up routine. We learned by experimenting, sharing, laughing, and reflecting together. It felt alive in a way that very little professional development does.
Two years on, I can still recall many of the lessons. More importantly, they’ve influenced how I think about communicating climate change, leadership, and complex ideas. And the people I met on that course, I now consider friends – we catch up, laugh together, and continue to support one another’s work.
Reading this new article out today about the work Belina continues to grow reminds me that the best professional development isn’t always the most conventional. Sometimes it’s the experience that changes how you think, not just what you know.
Belina Raffy plans to bring these classes to Australia.
