Reflections on Climate Change, Resilience, and the Role of Coaching

Today, I felt a strong desire to share my thoughts on how the recent flooding in the UK has impacted me and left me shaken. Within just 15 minutes, our entire garden flooded—far too early in the year, and without any warning. Water seemed to come from every direction, and despite our efforts to move everything to higher ground, the floodwaters kept rising, and we could not do anything. In the years we’ve been here, I had not seen that much water force its way through our garden within such a short time.

Our kitchen has a unique feature—a well that was part of the original 1930s house, now integrated into the floor with a light installed so we can see the water table rise and fall. Yesterday, it hit an all-time high, a stark reminder of the constant, powerful presence of water beneath us. Even our picturesque village pub flooded twice in the last two days, making the unpredictability of the weather feel even more real for the local community.

On my way home from teaching an evening class last night, I listened to an episode from the Association for Coaching’s podcast. Jeffrey Hull, Ph.D. BCC spoke about the opportunity for coaches to influence leaders in a way that contributes to meaningful environmental change. He noted, “Maybe coaches can be at the forefront of the kind of change you’re talking about. Coaching, by itself, does not hurt the environment. It’s not automatically an exploitative industry. There’s a lot of opportunity if we can influence the leaders of these organizations to be part of the necessary change.”

Hearing people I value discuss climate change and how we might—just might—make a difference, no matter how small, felt reassuring. It also made me reflect on how other thought leaders in the coaching world are exploring our connection to this earth. I keep hearing them talk about the importance of self-reflection in perceiving beyond ourselves, recognising the deep interconnections between systems, people, and nature.

This line of thinking leads me to wonder how Robert Kegan‘s ideas of developmental stages might help us expand our understanding of these interconnections.

Can coaching, or even reflective practice, be part of a broader solution to the challenges we face?

If you’re interested, the episode is from The AC Podcast: The Future of Coaching (7 Nov 2022) and offers a fascinating look at how coaching could contribute to positive environmental change.
(Listen here)