Ep 08. Sustainability and Global Citizenship, with Nicole Swedlow

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About 10 years ago I was sitting with my friend Owen, who traveled a lot for work. He mentioned that he took the train whenever possible instead of flying. I’d been on that trip he was talking about. It was 14 hours of uncomfortable train, versus 45 minutes of flying? So I was surprised. Why?

He said because as an expat he already flew more than most people. Going halfway around the globe at least once a year. He felt like he already had a huge carbon footprint from that fact of life. So avoiding air travel was one thing he could do to make up for that. Because planes only go when they can justify it based on enough passengers. While trains are going no matter what.

This made a deep impression on me. Honestly I’d never considered it before. I’m not sure if it’s changed my actions, but it’s definitely always there in the back of my mind: Should I go on that vacation? because it requires flying.

It certainly gives me pause.

Recently I saw an article that said our internet behavior (everything – streaming, surfing, social media…) is responsible for around 2-3% of global emissions, which is a bit more than the entire aviation industry. Say, what??? That set my mind spinning. That was not on my radar.

Today we’re going to talk about sustainability, which I think most people associate with environmental care and carbon footprint and emissions and trash and plastic…. The vocabulary has evolved over the years … conservation … environmentalism … global warming … climate change … sustainability.

But today’s guest is going to give us a much bigger picture of sustainability, that I think will challenge you and excite you.

My professional background – a lifetime ago, before I had kids – was in environmental consulting. It’s not that easy to sum up, but one way to describe it might be that we helped businesses not make such a mess of the world in the course of doing business. 

We also had a sustainability division, but I didn’t actually understand what they did. It seemed so nebulous… abstract and lofty….

It was years later, when I got involved with Compass Education, that I really began to see, that sustainability is not just another word for environmental conservation. We have to consider more than the trees and the water and the air, if we’re going to find solutions in our world that support people in their livelihoods going on into the future. And I began to see how complex our interconnectedness is, and yet, how simply we can shift perspective, given the right tools.

Today I’m very pleased to have Nicole Swedlow with us. She’s the Executive Director of Campus Education. 

Welcome, Nicole. Thanks for being here with me.

Nicole: [00:02:12] Thanks. Thank you, Kim. Thanks for having me.

Kim: [00:02:16] So can you give us a little bit of background: where you’ve lived, because you spent some time outside of your home country? Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Nicole: [00:02:24] Sure, absolutely, I’m a Southern California native, so I grew up in a mountain town called Lake Arrowhead and went to college in San Diego and I currently, just in the last year, living close to Laguna Beach there. But for the last 17 years, I’ve lived in a small village, so to speak, in Mexico, which is on the Pacific coast of Mexico, just outside the very popular tourist destination of Puerto Vallarta. And that’s been sort of foundational of where I’ve done all of my work up until this point.

Kim: [00:03:02] Ok, what is your work at this point? How did you get into that?

Nicole: [00:03:06] Yeah, I came to Compass just four months ago after being involved with the organization for several years and using the tools of Compass around sustainability and systems thinking in my teaching and work. But I sort of began my journey in this Mexico life. And I actually went to Mexico on vacation, to Mexico on vacation with my 11 month old son and my partner at the time thinking I was staying for two weeks. And that two weeks turned into two months and two kids and two years, eventually, and a divorce. And here I found myself living in this little sort of rural beach village thinking, I love this life and I want to contribute. had a bachelor’s degree in literature, I didn’t know anything about nonprofits or that sort of thing. But I felt like there was something I could do.

Nicole: [00:04:06] And and so my story starts by literally just saying, well, I’m going to put my kitchen table in the middle of the street. I’m going to start teaching things I learned in Girl Scouts and maybe, you know, if I teach things I know and somebody else teaches the things they know, maybe we can contribute to the general education and growth and equity in our community. And that’s what I did, and I called it EntreAmigos, which in Spanish means among friends. And it was this idea that we could sort of build community and build education from the ground up.

Nicole: [00:04:37] And I taught, a little computers, a little art, and people wandered by my table on the street. And they taught the things they knew. And it was both locals and foreigners. And it was just sort of this intention that was put into the world. And that intention grew into a non-profit that became really a large nonprofit with 40 employees and the third largest employer in the area All dedicated to social good, which was a really lucky and brilliant way to spend my time and to get to live and raise my kids.

[00:05:13] And we you know, we started… I was all about education. I was about, you know, let’s build a library and create these opportunities. And a year into it, somebody walked in who sort of walked in to help me teach classes. And her passion was the environment, sustainability. And we started to look at the work that we were doing from two lenses, from education and sustainability and for lots of reasons, and melded that into what became the organization. And our work really became — we designed our facility with recycled materials — we became the educational training center for the state of Nyati around these kinds of things and, you know, did all sorts of work. And it was lovely and fun and wonderful.

Nicole: [00:05:54] And one day I woke up and said, my kids are about to graduate high school. It’s time to pass this on and to let the next generation lead it in the way that it needs to go. And it’s time for me to move into what’s next for myself. And in that process, which, you know, my kids still had a couple of years, they were going to the American school in Puerto Vallarta. I decided to see what I could do with the school. And I hadn’t worked in formal education in that way. And I sort of went to the school administration and said, you know, these are things I know how to do. I know how to work in sustainability. I know how to do community outreach. And I’d love to contribute if there’s a way to contribute. And that turned into working with the administration and the school and the students and the parents around: How do we build a more sustainable school system? And Compass tools became the tools that I used in that. And it was a very organic introduction and process. And I became more formally trained. And ultimately, I think, you know, the tools were so transformative in my experience of creating awareness around sustainability at the school that I just got more and more involved with Compass. And that’s sort of how I am in this position that I am right now.

Kim: [00:07:09] Wow, that’s great.

Nicole: [00:07:10] Yes.

Kim: [00:07:11] So now that you have gotten deep into the Compass tools, how would you answer the question: What is sustainability? And how is it different from environmental care?

Nicole: [00:07:24] Yeah, you know, sustainability is a tough one. It’s one of those words that means something different to different people. And in a way, it’s sort of an abstract concept.

Nicole: [00:07:34] So if you look at democracy as an example of an abstract concept, right, we often think of a very narrow view of democracy, that it means that we get to go out and vote. But we don’t think of all of the other things that make that possible, checks and balances.

Nicole: [00:07:50] so when we first think of sustainability, we go, well, that’s “green.” And that’s sort of our standard thought process. It goes to this very narrow definition that’s around recycling and green spaces, and nature. And sustainability definitely is that.

Kim: [00:08:05] Right.

Nicole: [00:08:05] But it’s so much more. And we can be really limited by understanding it in that way. At the root, sustainability is this idea that we can sustain or hold up life on this earth, in such a way that generations that follow us, our kids and grandkids into perpetuity, have access to the same or better quality of life that we do. You know, if you begin to think what makes a quality life, it can get really existential and complex really fast.

Kim: [00:08:37] Yeah.

Nicole: [00:08:38] But at the root of it, you can understand that living on this earth right now requires the balance of two major giant systems, right?

Nicole: [00:08:47] The ecosystem or that thing we identify as nature, air and water and land that provides all of the resources that keep us alive. We can’t live without the ecosystem.

Nicole: [00:08:57] And the human system, which is part of that ecosystem, but it’s also its own system of living on this earth and how we live on this earth, how we choose to live on this earth.

Nicole: [00:09:09] And so the challenge for sustainability is looking at these two very complex systems that are independent and also form one system, and find a balance that allows us to flourish. And I do say us, like people, to flourish because nature always will find a way. It always has. It always will. You know, the dinosaurs were on Earth. The dinosaurs were extinct. We also have that capacity but nature will always eventually flourish.

Nicole: [00:09:34] And so looking for a way that we as a human system can care for each other and ourselves and our future, requires that we consider our interplay with nature. And when we start to look at those things, then we also sort of look at quality of life and having a healthy life and a safe community and meaningful relationships and realize that sustainability means all those things.

Nicole: [00:09:59] When we really begin to think about sustainability in the complexity that it is, in this big way, and when people finally get it, it’s kind of like a weight comes off their shoulders. Because they get to look at everything through a certain lens that is about human wellness and the things that we value and care about. And it gives us permission to think about things. We don’t have to think about them in so many sort of siloed ways. And I think that’s the powerful outcome that a really broad approach to sustainability can have for transformational change in our, you know, our lives, our communities, our schools, our world.

Kim: [00:10:39] It’s such a big, it’s a big word, it’s a big concept, there’s a lot to it. So I think you brought it into a nutshell when you said it’s about human wellness or wellbeing, and that consists of economic and relationships and social, emotional and the nature side. It’s all all wrapped up in there together.

Nicole: [00:11:01] Yeah, it’s interconnected, interdependent, and we have to acknowledge it that way.

Kim: [00:11:07] On the environmental care side or piece of the puzzle, how can individuals have the most impact? This is a question I see a lot of people asking. They want to know, what can I do as an individual? Do the little things that we’re told to do, like recycling and avoiding plastic. Do those things make a difference or do we really have to go after governments and corporations to have lasting change? Does it have to be bigger stuff, otherwise it’s not really going to make a meaningful difference?

Nicole: [00:11:41] I think the truth is, that we have to acknowledge, is that change has to come from everywhere. It doesn’t get to be one person’s responsibility or the government’s responsibility. But, you know, governments make the laws that the rest of us and our corporations have to abide by. And if they have sustainability as a goal or an understanding, they’re going to greatly accelerate the process by creating pathways for change, incentivizing those pathways with money or dis incentivizing other ones with fines or criminalization. And that helps. And it makes things go much faster.

Nicole: [00:12:14] Corporations are powerful, and sometimes their quest for market share or market dominance supersedes any element of conscience or concern for our world. But those that choose to lead with other principles can greatly influence their competitors to make similar changes in corporate sustainability. They often talk about the triple bottom line these days: People, Planet and Profit. And they’ve created these indicators for those items, which is a really good start.

Nicole: [00:12:44] And it’s a really great start if corporations aren’t just greenwashing their enterprises by talking about these things, but they’re providing the indicators to support the work and demonstrating this on the same annual reports that they would use for earnings.

[00:12:58] But here’s the thing. In both cases, in the government or corporations, it’s the people, it’s the individuals, who drive the decisions that our governments and corporations make. So democratic governments are determined by the people in its power and its collective strength of individuals to influence decisions and to do that by voting. And corporations are driven by profits and people can choose to use a corporation’s products or to not do so based on their own perception of the corporation doing the right thing for the environment or for its workers.

Nicole: [00:13:34] We can hold corporations accountable for the indicators on their bottom line, and we can choose to support the corporations that are really, truly committed to doing the work. It takes some work on our part to investigate and to know those things, but we can begin to put the pressure and that creates great change. So using your power or as a voter and a consumer are really the two most powerful ways you can actively contribute to a more sustainable world.

Nicole: [00:14:01] But there’s another way that I think is really important.

Nicole: [00:14:06] You you need to recognize your power, your individual power, as an influencer. And I don’t mean a social media influencer, although, you know, that could be where you have individual power. But I mean that if you believe in a more sustainable world, if you care about the environment, if you care about social equity, about fair practices, you know, if you just wish everyone picked up their trash, whatever it is, you have to make that known and you have to be the example.

Nicole: [00:14:36] People are watching, they’re looking for social cues. Some people are just looking for someone to lead and they’re ready to follow. Some people just never much thought about it, or questioned their consumption, or questioned where things come from, or never made a choice to eat at a restaurant because it serves or doesn’t serve everything with disposable plastic and styrofoam.

Nicole: [00:14:58] But if you make that choice and you make that visible … audible, you talk about it…. Recognize that people are watching you. And what you do may very well make them begin to think differently or act differently.

[00:15:14] There’s a great TED talk by a researcher named Per Espen Stoknes, and it’s called How to Transform Apocalypse Fatigue into Action on Global Warming.

Kim: [00:15:25] That’s a big title!

Nicole: [00:15:27] Yeah, it is a big title and it’s kind of a big, convoluted talk. But I found it really transformative because at the basis of this talk is this idea that it’s the spreading of social norms — sort of this peer to peer, this is how I how I do things — that is one of the greatest influences to actual change. Right? If as individuals, we one by one build communities of people who care about things that care about our environment, we create change and we influence governments and we influence corporations.

Nicole: [00:16:03] And we’re seeing that in the world. We’re certainly seeing that in the Western world. I think 20 of the largest corporate organizations just joined something called I think the Pact For Plastics. And it’s a commitment to reduce plastic consumption across the board. And that’s incredibly important. That’s one corporation like Coca-Cola saying, I do, I’ll do it. And McDonald’s saying, well, if they’re doing it, I guess I’m doing it. And we create change on all sorts of levels.

Nicole: [00:16:30] And that’s a call from individuals who said we can’t keep living like this. You know, in schools and in my community work, I’ve seen it over and over and over again.

Nicole: [00:16:40] I’ll never forget I it was sort of the start of my nonprofit. And here I’m on the street and some woman comes up to super complain about the trash on the beach. And she, you know, she just wanted, she was in her space of complaining. And I said, well, I got a couple of trash bags and a bunch of kids running around, why don’t we just take them all to the beach and we can take care of that big problem that you’re looking at and get it done in half an hour. And we did. We went to the beach, we picked up the trash. We all did it together. And, you know, I never saw her back at my door complaining. And I did see her on the beach with a little trash bag.

Nicole: [00:17:14] Every once in a while, people sometimes they have to be shocked out of their patterns or out of this assumption that they don’t have any any power.

Nicole: [00:17:24] In our school, we had this huge tradition around Halloween. It was like this huge festival. And our school was famous in the region for putting on this big Halloween party. And the parents, this was the parents’ thing, you know, and they went all out and they bought every sort of disposable decoration you could possibly buy. And most of them were made out of styrofoam, right?

Kim: [00:17:46] Yeah.

Nicole: [00:17:47] You know, as I entered into the school and into the parent group and started just asking questions: Well, do we have to do it that way? Is there a different way to do it? And it was really interesting because there was total pushback by a few people who, this is how they always did it. You know: What were the kids going to do if we didn’t have, you know, styrofoam skulls?

Nicole: [00:18:09] But then, you know, people started reconsidering and asking questions and some of the groups said, oh, well, we can do it different, or we can just source things that we have at home, or it’s probably not going to be that big of a deal. And within two Halloweens, we were producing a plastic free, purchase free (mostly) Halloween event. And it was spectacular. And the same people that were maybe struggling in the beginning became sort of the biggest proponents. This became their thing.

Nicole: [00:18:36] And it was you know, it wasn’t mandated. It wasn’t. It was just sort of this is the way we’re going to start thinking about things. And then this is who we are. And it became an identity for the school community. And I think that’s really powerful because we forget the agency that we have. We imagine that somebody else has to make those decisions for us and they have to mandate them. But we have tremendous agency as individuals to affect change in our communities. And it’s the best way.

Kim: [00:19:08] That is really powerful. So you said it just started with people asking some questions. Do we have to do it this way? Why do we do it this way? Can we do it a different way? And then from there, it just kind of percolated through. And people began slowly, little by little, to see different possibilities.

Nicole: [00:19:27] Yeah, you know, I mean, a few people had to step in to, oh, we can do it different. And their displays were equally as cool as somebody else’s. And you start to see that, and you go, oh, all right. And it became almost you know, it became sort of uncool within the parent group all of a sudden to to go out and buy those things, you know.

Kim: [00:19:47] The social cues you mentioned.

Nicole: [00:19:48] Yeah, exactly.

Kim: [00:19:49] Yeah. Earlier, you talked about some corporations are looking at the triple bottom line: People, Planet and Profit. So they’re starting to report on these indicators, you said? Is that something that we, can we trust? Are they just talking about it, greenwashing, talking about it without actually making meaningful action? So how do we as consumers evaluate that and kind of know, is this for real or not?

Nicole: [00:20:23] You know, we have to do the research, we have to sit down and do the research. And there’s some great organizations like the Nature Conservancy and other organizations that put out recommendations of groups that they’ve resourced and looked at. That are evaluating the true impact and the true commitment of corporations to do this. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is amazing. And they have, they do really spectacular work around the circular economy and.

Kim: [00:20:53] Yes.

Nicole: [00:20:54] They’re a great place to go to look for more information, more resources about the organizations, corporations that are really doing the hard work and the structurally hard work of making this kind of change.

Kim: [00:21:04] Ok, that’s helpful. What about for people who have moved into a country, maybe they’ve come from a place where these sustainable practices are really part of their way of life. It’s taken a generation or two, but now everyone just accepts it. It’s become part of the mindset. They really expect that we are taking care. And then they move into a country where kind of being environmentally friendly isn’t valued yet. Do you have any tips or words of hope when we find ourselves there?

Nicole: [00:21:38] You know, I know it’s hard and frustrating and sort of shocking, right? It’s shocking. I think there’s hope that sustainability is becoming sort of more popular and more cool. It’s being talked about at every, in all industries and aspects and, you know. From from things like the makeup industry and the garment industry and to our world organizations and. I think that although we may not see it right in front of us, it is out there and people are beginning to have be influenced by this recognition. Certainly climate change is a huge conversation.

Nicole: [00:22:23] And in wealthy countries, we might not see people actively reducing electricity because it’s so cheap. But oftentimes maybe they are doing work on real technological levels and that’s a good thing. So we have to look for those things to keep our hope and to believe that it is going to be OK.

Nicole: [00:22:43] And in poor communities, not caring about sustainability is directly affecting health in the forms of polluted rivers and oceans and air and climate change and climate impacts. And so I think something that’s important to do is to really find the people who are doing the work in the area that you live, because they might not be the loudest voices, but they’re there. And simply the fact that they’re not the loudest voices means that they need your help and your support.

Kim: [00:23:08] Mmm-hmm.

Nicole: [00:23:09] And they can help guide you to things that you can do and there is so much that you can do from right where you are. And it comes back to what we just talked about. About your ability, your agency as an individual and your ability to affect change in your community and in your conversations and in the platforms that you have. This podcast is an example. You know, it’s an example of taking a platform that you have and making this conversation public, putting it out there in the world. And so we can often work on things we care about in sustainability, transcending a certain sort of country boundary and using our global connections and interconnectedness to continue that conversation and still doing it right there at home in the best ways that we can find.

Kim: [00:23:59] Yeah, so using our voice and our sphere of influence and letting it trickle out.

Nicole: [00:24:06] Yeah, it’s so powerful It’s really powerful. And I just again and again feel like I have to tell people that they underestimate their capacity to make change in their environments.

Kim: [00:24:21] Now, you moved from working in sustainable development in the community into sustainability education in a school context. Can you tell us a little bit of the differences that you observed in that transition or working in those two different contexts?

Nicole: [00:24:39] Sure, sure. My introduction to sustainability was very grassroots and as you said, it was very rooted in community. I was working with very poor children in a rural beach community. My focus was to get these kids to school and to keep them there. Which which was a real challenge in a town where education wasn’t necessarily valued and kids could work and do other things. So here I am and I have the scholarship program and 100 kids in a scholarship program, and we’re providing school supplies and uniforms and tutoring and all sorts of educational support.

Nicole: [00:25:16] Which, you know, when you start paying attention, you realize that none of that serves anything or is any value if these kids, you know, my kids, are getting sick from bathing in the river that’s polluted with sewage and trash. So when I tried to figure out, well, how do I keep my kids in school? I had to also focus on cleaning up the river. And that evolved into becoming sort of an environmental education center. And doing tree plantings and fairs and educational outreach. And in community, what’s interesting is there isn’t sort of a permission to be asked. Especially in this nature of small rural communities, you can sort of jump in to do the thing that you think is best to be done and people join you or they don’t.

Nicole: [00:26:02] And that’s how it happens. Right? And so we had sort of been able to create this movement and conversation around sustainable development and preserving and protecting nature and and all those things. And we just did it, right. And so then I go to work in the American school and, you know, you realize really quickly that change doesn’t quite happen that way. At least not naturally and organically.

Nicole: [00:26:28] Schools are, schools have structures and they have hierarchies and that helps keep them functioning. And there’s people that everybody listens to and there’s people that they don’t listen to. And power and influence show up in formal ways and informal ways. And so when I began to work in that more structured environment, it’s where I really valued the Compass tools, which helped provide indicators that were very understandable in a school environment. So that administrators and teachers could look at those indicators around the things that sustainability thinks about.

Nicole: [00:27:06] So the nature: What are we doing on our school campuses, around outdoor spaces? How are we treating and caring for them? Are we using pesticides? Are we not?

[00:27:16] The economy: How are we spending our money? And, you know, are we buying materials locally? Are we buying the cheapest thing we can find from the Wal-Mart down the street? What are we doing with the funds that come in? Do we have scholarships for local kids? Is that important to us, et cetera, et cetera? Right?

Nicole: [00:27:33] Social: What is our community, what’s our school community like? Are we paying attention to the relationships that we have as a school community, and looking at the ways that those interact not only in the school but outside of school?

Nicole: [00:27:46] And then we think about wellness: How are we taking care of our people… Our kids, our teachers, our educators, our community. And what’s our responsibility there?

Nicole: [00:27:59] And so in a more structured environment, it serves you to have a more structured, formal way of thinking about sustainability and talking about it and measuring it and considering things. And so I found that I had to approach it differently. And it didn’t mean that we didn’t do things from the ground up and sort of things from the top down if you look at hierarchies in that way. But it did mean that we could start to create common understanding and language about what success or what a more sustainable system looked like. And that helped us unite and share our understandings and also our roles in each of these things. I found that not even to be infinitely harder than the more organic way, but just different, and important to acknowledge in trying to create change in a system like a school.

Kim: [00:28:56] Do you think that that structure and that shared vocabulary and those shared understandings would be helpful to take out into a community setting that is more organic? Would that help people to be able to think about things in a shared way? Or is that just so different from your experience, it’s hard to see how it would apply?

Nicole: [00:29:18] I think it’s absolutely helpful to understand it. You know, communities are just made up of so many systems and so many groups, it’s really hard to create shared understandings necessarily. Although, you know, you can see it right now with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, right? Those are shared understandings around how do we accomplish sustainable change on things like hunger, poverty, and…. And that helps us frame it from, you know, a world community around those sorts of things. So I think it serves everywhere. And there’s all kinds of people and structures in communities. And so having different ways that unite us around, ultimately creating common language and thinking on creating sustainable change is of value. It’s absolutely of value.

Kim: [00:30:07] Ok. So Compass Education works in schools and school systems. Can you tell us what is Compass Education? What is the big vision, and where do we stand within that vision?

Nicole: [00:30:21] Sure, Compass Education’s a non-profit. It’s dedicated to bringing systems thinking for sustainability into education, which is fairly unique. We’re a global movement. We have educators in 42 countries and we have 25 facilitators. And we’ve been working for 10 years entirely as a volunteer organization. These are just dedicated educators who came across systems thinking in more of a corporate setting, and said these tools serve education. And then they really set to work to figure out: how do we adapt these tools for the language and the frameworks that we have in education. And this is a spectacular history because it’s so based on individual passion and people’s dedication and commitment to make change.

Nicole: [00:31:13] In the last six months or so, Compass really started to look at how important it is to get these tools and these skills to a wider audience. And continuing on as a volunteer organization was lovely, but it wasn’t getting that work done. And so they pulled together resources and hired me to come in. And we have a small paid staff now and we have this sort of huge mission that we set out.

Nicole: [00:31:40] We want to bring sustainability education, specifically the Sustainability Compass, which is sort of the base level of systems thinking and sustainability education, to 1,000,000 educators in the world. And not just private school international schools, but to every educator. It’s so simple and it’s such a simple perspective and framework that we truly believe that if educators have these tools in their hands, that they’re the leverage point to create real change in the future.

Nicole: [00:32:04] And we feel that it’s our mission and purpose to bring these skills to as many educators as we possibly can in whatever format that takes. And we’re on that mission. We’re on that mission right now.

Nicole: [00:32:16] We just launched the first evolution of our full online certification course for this kind of learning. And it’s called Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable World, a systems thinking approach for global citizenship. And it’s really focused at educators and for educators to give them these initial base skills to really bring these kinds of teachings into their classrooms. And to do it in such a way where it’s not just an extra….

[00:32:43] The thing that I think our educators get slammed with is like they’re constantly given the new thing and the extra thing. And I think the thing that’s so brilliant about systems thinking tools is that they aren’t actually – they actually just make the work that you’re already doing better, richer, deeper conversations.

Nicole: [00:33:01] You know, we’re constantly talking in schools about how to have better conversations with our students, how to get them fully engaged and involved. And these tools just sort of do it naturally by by their nature. I think it’s a gift to teachers to have in their tool belt as they’re working in their classrooms.

Nicole: [00:33:16] And so that’s it. Then we’re on this drive and we’re going to be bringing out a whole bunch of different kinds of products, almost all of them online in our current life situation so that educators can have access to them.

Kim: [00:33:29] I love that mission. Sustainability education is not a topic, it’s a way of approaching every subject area, and that’s why it’s not something extra for the teachers. It’s a way to approach what they’re already doing.

Nicole: [00:33:45] Yes, it’s just a lens, just saying, you know, sustainability, ultimately, it’s about our collective future. And so we don’t exist without it, without thinking about it and bringing it into everything that we do. And so we can’t think of ourselves as separate from. We are part of a system on this earth that has to be sustainable if we’re if we’re going to survive.

Nicole: [00:34:11] And so just bringing that into everything that we do and the way that we think about it makes it natural. And it means that as our kids, these kids that we educate, grow up to become business owners and business leaders and family, heads of family, they’re going to be making changes with that framework in mind. And it’s going to be second nature. It’s going to be their nature. And I think that brings us to a better world.

Kim: [00:34:36] Yes, and I know early on a big piece that was talked about with Compass Education was sustainability that is “caught rather than taught.” And I think that’s what you just kind of alluded to, is that as they grow up with this way of thinking, because it’s just a natural part of their educational process, they bring that way of thinking into everything they do for the rest of their lives and all the decisions that they’re making.

Nicole: [00:35:04] Absolutely, absolutely.

Kim: [00:35:07] You’ve used the term systems thinking a lot. Can you explain: What is systems thinking and why is it important?

Nicole: [00:35:14] Sure, I can do my best. Systems thinking in its sort of most basic definition is a collection of elements that work together towards a common purpose. The most obvious and easy example is the systems of our body. Right? We have a respiratory system that keeps us breathing, a digestive system that gives us fuel, a circulatory system that distributes nutrients, etc. And each of these are separate systems themselves. And collectively, they form a larger system whose common purpose is to keep us alive. Right?

Nicole: [00:35:54] So systems thinking recognizes the complexity of this and the idea that if one system fails or is failing, our entire system is affected and will likely fail. So previously I talked about sustainability as two giant systems, the ecosystem, the human system interacting on that earth. And ultimately being one entire system. And so to keep us alive, we have to acknowledge and understand and attend to the complexity of that system. And we have to work to keep it healthy. We don’t get to have one. We don’t get to have a flourishing human system at the expense of our ecosystem. Everything’s interconnected and interdependent. And systems thinking is sort of acknowledging this, acknowledging that it isn’t simple and that we have to deepen our thinking to really understand how to make change and to do it well. Everything that we do has to be considered and understood in this way.

Nicole: [00:36:49] So today we are challenged by covid-19, which has affected all of our lives. And I can literally say all. Every one on the planet Earth. Our interdependence is indisputable, right? There’s no hiding behind ideologies or governments. And so systems thinking goes beyond our individual actions. Right? There’s nothing that I can do or my country can do to be completely insulated from covid-19. That’s just not real, right. We have to look at connections, causes, consequences, in order to fully understand anything happening on this planet and covid-19 in particular. And to act in a way that sort of reflects that complexity and interconnectedness. And just acknowledge that nothing’s external. We are part of everything. We influence everything. And if we begin to really own that, then we can make better decisions, more sustainable and meaningful ones, rather than one off solutions that often cause more harm in the long run.

Nicole: [00:37:54] You know, and we’re seeing that reflected in some of the ways that different governments have responded to the covid-19 challenge and the consequences of that.

Kim: [00:38:05] It has really. Yeah, it has really highlighted the interconnectedness in a very stark way. And you can’t parse out economy from any other piece and you can’t parse out food supply from any other piece. It’s just all together.

Nicole: [00:38:22] It’s all together. We just have to begin to acknowledge that there aren’t quick fixes and simple solutions. And systems thinking requires that we look at things deeper and recognize that. It isn’t right and wrong, and black and white. It’s complicated. And embracing that complexity and looking for the best places to leverage and make changes is all about what systems thinking is.

Kim: [00:38:52] Yes, it’s not black and white. That takes me down a path of thinking about spiral dynamics, but that’s a whole other conversation. So how does this systems thinking, how does that play out in a school setting?

Nicole: [00:39:08] Well, you know, schools are complex systems. We have a bunch of elements, right? We have teachers and students and parents and administrators, we have the community. And the more, what we know from schools is: The more that all of those elements are engaged in a similar way towards a common purpose, the more effective our school is, the more successful our education is. But that’s a complex process and

Kim: [00:39:30] Yes, it is.

Nicole: [00:39:32] Yeah I mean, really right. We really struggle. And so often in school decisions, they get made in silos. For for lack of time or lack of consideration or lack of lots of things. Or they get made in departments or in administrative offices. And there’s not enough thought about how those decisions, you know, whether it’s a certain curriculum approach or an administrative decision to something simple: to change classroom cleanings from a Tuesday to Thursdays.

Nicole: [00:40:01] Very often we don’t consider all the consequences that those decisions might have on our system, our school system. And so when we begin to think about our school system, we take into consideration and account our decisions a little differently, and who we have to ask and what conversations have to be had. Often we see school boards create these really well intended policies or directives, but if they don’t do so with the engagement and involvement of all the elements of a school, the students, the teachers, the parents, so often we see those policies fail.

Nicole: [00:40:38] And I know it’s hard. It’s harder to have the bigger conversations. It’s harder to look at the way that things are interconnected. But if we want to have more success in our school schools and school outcomes, we have to take the time to do those things.

Nicole: [00:40:53] And it’s really interesting because the challenges aren’t just top down. It’s not just, you know, administration’s fault that we aren’t always doing these things. It can happen also from the ground up, right? You see classrooms or student groups and these great initiatives, like to create recycling on campus. Sounds like a great initiative. And so they say they want to start, and they put out some bins. And don’t necessarily consider what that means to a school system.

Nicole: [00:41:22] You know, who’s going to clear the bins? You know, is that the maintenance job, or is that a student job? What happens to all that plastic when you start gathering? It’s all lovely and cool, but then what do you do with it? Is there somebody to take it? Is there somebody to pick it up? What do those people do with it? Right. Are they you know, in the states of Mexico, we do recycling and all that recycling gets sent to China. Does that actually make any sense?

Nicole: [00:41:48] Are we you know, are we incentivizing using plastic? So one of the challenges is often that we sort of create rewards around “let’s recycle more.” And we consider more recycling as an indicator of success. Well more recycling can also means more consumption. So maybe.

Kim: [00:42:05] You are describing the exact thing that happened at our school the last two years.

Nicole: [00:42:09] You know, I think it happens at every school because we fail to look at the way that everything is interrelated, right?

Kim: [00:42:17] So schools are full of very passionate people. Teachers are so passionate. Students are so passionate. And we want to encourage them to have these wonderful ideas and run with them. Do something with their idea and learn from it. And if we are acknowledging how complexly connected so many issues are and we want to look, OK, what’s the knock on effect and then the next and the dominoes and follow the train all the way down…. How do we keep from getting paralyzed?

Nicole: [00:42:48] Yeah, it’s a good question. I think this is where systems tools become really helpful. Really, really helpful. Because systems tools are just simple tools. But they let you maybe think a lot deeper, really quickly. And help you to understand places where you can make change that might not be the most obvious. And maybe it isn’t the recycling program. Maybe it’s building a different kind of awareness. And and so they help you think a little more critically about it.

Nicole: [00:43:20] The other thing about perfection and being paralyzed. I see it all the time in people who contact me because they want to start nonprofits. And how did you do it? And they go straight to absolute success. Right? They go straight to: Well, I need a board of directors and I need to raise all this money. And you’d have all this planning and I… And it’s this huge, convoluted thing.

Nicole: [00:43:45] And so what happens is, is that we never take action – step number one – and absolutely nothing happens. And that is sad. That is sad. And so I think we can choose to do little things. And we can encourage our kids to do the things that they feel passionate about. And then to have conversations about why that didn’t work or what else they have to think about. The beautiful learning of developing a recycling program and then watching it fail. Right.

Nicole: [00:44:19] It’s never a failure if we sit down and talk about why that happened. Right? And because that’s beautiful. For education that is the very best way for kids to own a process and develop their understanding of what makes change. And so if we, if we just let kids start things and let them potentially not be successful and then absolutely own our responsibility to have a conversation about that and to really think deeply about that, then we’re creating real change. Because the next time they do it, they’re going to do it so much better. And that’s that’s the whole purpose. That’s why we’re here as educators.

Nicole: [00:45:00] So I think we can eliminate paralysis by not being scared of failure and by giving it our best shot and then really working through what worked and what didn’t, and make it better. And recognize that this idea of ideation, right? Entrepreneurship is so huge right now in schools and education. And one of the big aspects of entrepreneurship is this idea of having a minimum value proposition, like the littlest thing you can do that you think brings value and you try that. It works, it doesn’t work. You build on it, you build on the next thing. That’s sort of an element of entrepreneurship that we can bring into our schools. Create a little tiny recycling program and then analysis and see what happens. And then build on that to make the next one and the next one. And so each of us in our individual lives and choices can do that. As long as we’re committed to evaluating and improving, we’re making huge transformational change, I think.

Kim: [00:45:59] Getting over that fear of failure is a life skill that we all need. No matter what we do.

Nicole: [00:46:08] Yes. Systems are characterized by synergy, the whole system is greater than the sum of its parts because the relationships among the elements adds value to the system and relationships and the understanding of them are critical to systems thinking and application in schools. Relationships. Right. But it’s complex and it takes more time and it takes empathy and listening and building of these synergies.

Nicole: [00:46:38] But if you invest – and invest is the right word – if you invest in relationships in your schools and building them, then the outcome when you approach school as this whole system, is that you create a better, more sustainable, more equitable system. And I think that’s what we’re trying to do. And I think it’s… I know it’s worth the investment.

Kim: [00:47:00] Yes. Now, for those of us who’ve been trained in linear thinking, which I would say is most people who went through the public school system, at least in the US, probably a lot of other countries. Jumping into systems thinking can be a big change. Are there some ways that families can get enough of an understanding to begin practicing systems thinking in their daily lives and in their conversations? Families aren’t going to go through the Compass Education training, probably, but maybe some of us get inspired and want to do a little bit at home.

Nicole: [00:47:39] Absolutely. And the individuals from families who are really passionate are welcome to the Compass Education trainings for sure. Even though the conversation is about education, it’s really easily adapted to your family and your life. And people are encouraged to look at their own context so. Just to put that out there, that people can definitely join in on those trainings.

I’m popping in here to insert after the fact, a little more information. After we talked, Nicole said she wanted to tell listeners that, If anyone who’s not an educator would like to take the course, that is definitely encouraged. For the course, every participant is matched with a 1-1 mentor, and usually it’s an educator. But if you aren’t an educator and want to sign up, Nicole said she would personally step in to reframe it and mentor you in the context you are in. That’s such a generous and fantastic offer, I had to drop it in here so you don’t miss it. If you want to take advantage of that offer, do let me know so I can follow up and make the introduction.

Nicole: [00:48:07] I know that you say systems thinking, and this, and it feels confusing, complex, and. But it doesn’t have to be completely. It doesn’t have to be. There are some ways to really bring systems thinking into your life. And and my personal belief is it will make your life better and your relationships better.

Nicole: [00:48:27] But I think one of the best ways to start to shift from linear to systems thinking is to practice identifying – whether it’s something that you see, an action, a way somebody speaks to you, trash on the beach – if that’s the problem or if that’s maybe just a symptom of something deeper. So just taking that brief pause to think about those things.

Nicole: [00:48:48] So, for example, in linear thinking, we tend to see something that happens, an event, and then we work to fix that event. So in school, you know, a kid fails a test. We give the kid tutoring and help them pass the test. But very likely there’s much deeper reasons why that kid failed a test. And maybe there’s something going on at home. Maybe he or she is struggling socially and was distracted the moment they took the test. Thinking deeper about what we see as an event and not jumping to fix it or jumping to conclusions is an example of systems thinking in our everyday life. Asking, is this the problem or is there something else contributing here?

Nicole: [00:49:30] So in systems thinking, we teach a very powerful tool called the iceberg, and this is a tool that you can search for and find online. And it’s a really great way to begin to think deeper about things. And it’s fairly simple. So just explain it briefly. So the obvious analogy of the iceberg is that the things that you see above the ocean is the tip of the iceberg. That’s where the statement comes from, is because the mass of the iceberg is below it and you don’t see it, right. So you see the tip of the iceberg. You don’t see everything that’s contributing to that tip being there.

Nicole: [00:50:06] So the iceberg, you know, if you start going deeper and you look at the tool of the iceberg, it says, well, at the very top are the events. But underneath those events are the patterns and the trends that contribute to that event happening. And underneath that are the systems and the structures that contribute to the patterns and trends which contribute to the events. And beneath that are the mental models. And the mental models contribute to the systems and structures that we create. To the patterns and trends that happen, and ultimately to the events that we see.

Nicole: [00:50:37] If you take that into a really real example, and we’ll continue with this idea of trash on the beach. Depending on where you live that’s a real common thing. So often there’s trash on the beach and our initial reaction in all of our school service groups. What people do is they go out to pick up the trash on the beach. And there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Nicole: [00:50:59] But it doesn’t fix the problem. And two weeks later, two months later, there’s trash on the beach again and we go out and pick up trash in the trash on the beach again. We are not addressing what some would call the root cause of the problem. So if we use the iceberg model and started to think, well, OK, there’s trash on the beach, but what’s happening?

Nicole: [00:51:20] And we walked ourselves a little bit deeper down this model, we would look next at sort of patterns and trends and we might notice that there’s more trash on the beach after holiday events, for example. Or we might notice that there’s more trash on the beach after a big rain. And we might ask ourselves, well, what does that mean? Maybe after a big rain, because it’s being washed down from from the rivers. Maybe after holiday events, obviously because people are coming. More people are at the beach. And we can start to look at how can I affect change maybe at that level?

Nicole: [00:51:57] And then if you go even deeper, you look at what are the systems and the structures that are contributing to this. And you can start to say, well, there’s no trash pickup in this community that’s on the beach, or in this community that’s upriver from the beach. Because now you’re looking deeper into why is the trash on the beach? There’s no pickup for trash. Or there’s only food that’s available to purchase at the beach, is sold in disposable styrofoam. And then there’s nowhere to put it right. You can start to look at deeper things that are happening and you can start to consider how could you make change at those deeper levels. Right.

Nicole: [00:52:33] And then if you go all the way down to the mental models, you can start to wonder why these things exist. What do people believe about the world that makes it so that there’s only disposables available, or that makes it that there’s no trash pickup in poor communities? And you can start to think deeper about that. And then you start to recognize, well, what the tip of the iceberg does from a system standpoint is it gives you deeper and deeper places to make more substantial, more sustainable change. So if a mental model around trash on the beach is: It doesn’t really matter. Somebody else will pick it up. It’s not important what I do. If that’s a belief I have about myself and that contributes to my behavior to throw my trash out the window or onto the beach. If we can make change at that deeper level to help people understand how they’re related and interrelated in our environment that they do matter. We’re making the longest lasting, most sustainable change at every level. Systems thinking allows us to think about it.

Nicole: [00:53:34] And so one thing you can do individually is you can look at the iceberg model and you can apply it to your life or you can apply it to an event that you’ve seen happen. And you can start to ask yourselves those kinds of questions and just make it a practice to look at something. And before you make an immediate solution or immediate judgment, to consider what else is happening here.

Nicole: [00:53:56] And it takes practice and persistence and a real desire to want to understand things in a different way than many of us have been trained or conditioned to do. But the outcome: Such more significant results. And I think all of us want to feel effective in our relationships and in our lives. That we want to make this like long standing, valuable change that really matters. And if we really want those things, then we have to consider making changes to the way that we look at things and consider things.

Kim: [00:54:26] Yeah, when you talk about mental models, that is so difficult. I don’t know if I understood how difficult that was until I moved out of my country and looked back at my country kind of as an outsider or found myself in a completely different cultural context. And then, Wait! They think about things differently than I do. And even then, it’s hard to identify what is my mental model. I can see that is different, but even to put it into words can be really hard.

Nicole: [00:54:54] Yeah, it can. It’s where practice is … practice and not having it perfect is really important. You know, having the conversations, trying to put words to what you’re feeling. Considering those things it’s just this huge step. It’s a huge step. And as we begin to open ourselves to that step, we’re going to do it better and better and feel more confident in the process.

Kim: [00:55:20] Mmm-hmm, yeah.

Nicole: [00:55:22] And I think importantly: influence the people around us to also think deeper. And that’s, again, another reason why it’s worth investing in ourselves and in considering the thinking more systemically. Because when we do so, we recognize the way we impact other people. And it is a constant theme for me, as you can tell, because you really can contribute to other people beginning to change those those models in themselves.

Kim: [00:55:49] Yeah, yeah. Do you think there are ways that families can encourage their schools to get more involved with Compass Education? Maybe get their staff trained? How can families support their schools to further their implementation even after they’ve gotten some staff trained? Because I know there are enormous pressures on school administrators. Teachers have time constraints. They’re typically feeling very overworked. So as you said earlier, it can feel like an extra thing. So how can we encourage people to take on something? Yes, getting trained. It is a new thing and practicing these new ways of thinking. It is hard work, but it’s so worth it. So how can we kind of influence in that direction?

Nicole: [00:56:36] Yeah, you know, I think the first space is bringing the conversation out there and having the conversation. And really listening, right. Oftentimes we sort of shut off or shut down and we’re too busy. And that’s something to be acknowledged in schools. Absolutely. But there are so many spaces where we can start to have these conversations and we probably will find less pushback than we think. But but maybe people do see, oh, no, I can’t put this time in, in this space.

Nicole: [00:57:07] But we have to remember that we make choices about our use of time all the time. And, if we care deeply about things, then we choose things that support that. And we can ask our schools, our school administrators, to consider caring deeply about giving this broader support and education to our teachers.

Nicole: [00:57:29] Wellness is a critical aspect of sustainability. And wellness is a theme that is in every one of our schools these days and student wellness and teacher wellness, learning to care for each other, doing a better job. And so to me, taking some time to consider sustainability concepts in a thoughtful, holistic way is a practice of wellness. And recognizing and valuing wellness in our schools. And I think we care about that. And we can make time for that.

Nicole: [00:57:57] So as parents, having the conversation and then really listening to your administrator when they say, well, we don’t have time. And looking for little spaces where there could be time or little opportunities. If you have resources, supporting – and resources are the issue – then supporting people and getting trained. Or you know, bringing them great snacks when they’re dedicating this extra time. And making sure that we acknowledge as a support group, as a parent support group, that teachers are putting in all this effort and really taking care of them. I think goes a long way to having shared conversations about anything that we value. And I think if people know that they’re important and they’re cared for, they’re more likely to be receptive to making changes or making time.

Kim: [00:58:44] Very true. Now you have a background in community building, and I know you told me the other day that you have a lot of strong opinions on that topic. And I think that you could talk for a very long time about how we impact each other as expats or as foreigners moving into a new place, and that both cultures impact each other.

Nicole: [00:59:07] Yeah.

Kim: [00:59:08] From a systems perspective, are there a few particular points you feel like expats may want to build awareness around? And I don’t know that it’s a matter of reducing the impact as much as being aware.

Nicole: [00:59:23] Yeah, you know, my history is in a in a tiny community that had three foreigners and all of a sudden has probably a thousand. And so processing, you know, being in that space of of evaluating and trying to understand, you know, how to do this better has been what I call my life’s work. And it’s super complicated. But I think the single most important thing to remember and to recognize, if you’re a foreigner entering into another culture or country or community, is that your very presence is an impact. It doesn’t matter how kind you are, or contributing, and there isn’t a good or bad label that that fits. It’s just complex, right?

Nicole: [01:00:09] Foreigners bring things, they bring education, they often bring resources. Maybe their presence creates jobs. And there’s a flip side. And the flip side can be that they displace communities or disrupt some cultural norms. Or their presence often creates low level jobs in the service industry. And their presence raises prices because they have more liquid income than the local community. It’s really complicated. And at the end of the day, we we have to accept and acknowledge that globalized community is the evolving reality in the world.

Nicole: [01:00:45] So in my opinion, the strongest leverage point that we have is respect. And I don’t mean hollowed out, naive sort of showing deference in the presence of someone that is different from you respect. I mean, really acknowledging that someone else’s experience of the world and perspective in the world is just as valid as yours. And we – and I speak in a huge generalization here, but in my experience – we as Westerners, as educated people coming from the world’s wealthiest nations, tend to think that affluence in goods and things or education suggests a hierarchy. Sort of a knowing more or knowing better than others around us. And I.

Nicole: [01:01:30] I just caution people and I caution you with all of my heart and all of my experience to back it up: It’s important to question this assumption and to allow room in our heads, in our hearts, to acknowledge that there’s so many ways of knowing in the world, and so many ways of being. And that we don’t have to label things, things don’t have to be right or wrong. Someone doesn’t have to win. One way of thinking doesn’t have to be the right way or the only way. If we embrace this complexity and we bring curiosity to our relationships, to our experience in another country instead of judgments, I think everyone would benefit. And I think we can have a better experience and we can create a better experience in the place that we are landing and impacting.

Kim: [01:02:22] Yeah, just to acknowledge that attitude of the hierarchy and knowing better, just to acknowledge that, much less question it, is a big step.

Nicole: [01:02:34] Yeah, you know, I’ve had the brilliant opportunity of working with so many good hearted people, and you can’t put that aside, right. It’s amazing the number of in my community where the number of people that wanted to help and contribute. And my job was to figure out a way to channel that so that the impact was positive but not damaging. And unfortunately, sometimes even those good intentions are damaging because we think we have it all right.

Kim: [01:03:03] Yeah, yeah.

Nicole: [01:03:05] You know, we think we have it, we have the best way. We have it all right. This is the way we do it. And that’s not always true. And there’s multiple ways of doing it. And I can’t … the number of conversations to try to help people step into a space where they were be a little more open to understanding that were the best part of my job. Because I think once you begin to question just a little bit, you do open yourself to embrace and acknowledge and create a lot of space for people that are different from you. And ultimately, our survival on this world depends on us acknowledging the incredible benefits that it has to be different from each other. And the richness that that creates in our own world, in our cultural experience. So.

Kim: [01:03:56] It’s such deep work and very beautiful.

Nicole: [01:03:59] Yeah. Thank you.

Kim: [01:04:01] All right, tell us, what do you like to do for fun?

Nicole: [01:04:06] I love to hang out with my teenage, off to college, about to be off to college, kids. I just think it’s just so fun to be able to engage with them at this age. And usually I would say I like to travel and have adventures, although that’s not exactly happening. So I’m channeling that right now in California to climbing the highest mountain peaks I can find. And doing quite a bit of paddleboarding, and that’s been lovely.

Kim: [01:04:36] Wow, nice. Thank you so much for spending this time with us. You have given us so much to think about. Really, really appreciate it. And I’m very excited about the mission of getting these tools in the hands of a one million educators. And I hope that a few of our listeners will be inspired, whether it’s themselves joining in the cause or encouraging some educators they know to join in. I’m very hopeful that that will happen.

Nicole: [01:05:07] Well, thank you, Kim, and I’m excited for the opportunity to be here, excited to share the conversation, and hope, you know, that people reach out, and you can feel free to share my contact information. And I’m happy to have conversations with people about what they can do or some ideas about how we can continue to create this movement towards sustainability and systems thinking. Whether it’s, you know, in your life, in your home, in your community or in your school. So I want people to know that we’re here. And we’re here in all sorts of capacities. We just want to see it happen.

Kim: [01:05:44] Wonderful. And we’ll have a link to the registration in the show notes so people can find it easily.

Nicole: [01:05:50] Ok, excellent. Thank you.

All right, to summarize some of what we talked about today:

You have agency. You can make a difference by 

• raising conversations and asking questions, and 
• taking actions and talking about what you’re doing, and 
• using your global connections and your sphere of influence, and
• seeking out those who are doing the work in your location so you can support them.

Sustainability is about not just nature, but also economic concerns, and social relationships, and individual wellbeing. If any of those are left out of our decision making, we’re unlikely to find lasting solutions.

Compass Education’s tools give you simple, easy to remember frameworks to go much deeper, really fast.

If you’d like to learn more about the Sustainability Compass, the Iceberg, and the whole suite of thinking tools Compass Education teaches, and things like how to identify the right leverage points to effect change … you’re welcome to sign up for the course running Sept 21 – Nov 7. And if you aren’t an educator, remember Nicole offered to personally mentor you and reframe all this into your context. Just give me a shout or let Nicole know you heard it here. In the show notes you’ll find contact details for me and Nicole and a link for the registration info.

We also talked about the importance of being committed to reflection. Because we don’t want to be stuck only in thinking mode, we need action mode too, and along with action we need reflection to learn what worked and what didn’t and why. That’s where the real learning comes from.

(Something I’m still working on practicing, because I was not brought up in a school system that promoted systems thinking, or entrepreneur mindset.)

Our kids are getting trained right now, to become the leaders of our world. The ways they learn to think about and approach complex problems will transfer to their businesses and vocations and directly influence future decisions.

We can help them practice these deeper thinking skills and actively seeking broader alternative perspectives. This comes naturally in a way living in international communities, but we can take it so much further.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Albert Einstein. He said: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”