STATEMINTKYLIE IS THE FOUNDER OF
‘OF KIN’, AUTHOR OF ‘THE LEAP
STORIES’, A CERTIFIED FACILITA-
TOR OF BRENÉ BROWN’S DARE TO
LEAD™ CURRICULUM AND AN AL
GORE CLIMATE REALITY LEADER.ofk in.comI believe things only get better by being talked
about. So now, whenever I get a chance to speak
in public, after I give my ‘Acknowledgement of
Country’, I follow it with ‘A Commitment to Cli-
mate’ that goes like this:
“I acknowledge that we are in the sixth mass
extinction and contributing to human-caused
climate breakdown. I ask you to join me in acting
for the home we all share by reducing your car-
bon footprint via the way you source your energy,
travel, eat, dress, deal with waste and spend your
money and time. I ask this for this present and
future generations. I also call on decision-makers,
companies and all levels of society to implement
ambitious policies and practices that prevent the
harmful eff ects of climate change, and to secure
the living conditions of all living things, as prom-
ised in the Paris Agreement and outlined in the
United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.”
This was inspired by Climate Neutral Now’s
global climate pledge, which I discovered after
donating to the organisation to carbon off set my
voyage to Antarctica in January with 89 other
women from 26 diff erent countries. We were in
Antarctica with Homeward Bound, a leadership
initiative with the goal of building a courageous,
skilled and visible network of 1000 women
in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering,
Maths and Medicine) around the world over the
next 10 years, to lead and infl uence decision-
making as it shapes our planet.
One of the many highlights of the voyage was
having Christiana Figueres – the UN Executive
Secretary responsible for the Paris Agreement- as part of the onboard faculty. Christiana is a
Costa Rican trilingual anthropologist with train-
ing in organisation development, who throughout
her career has worked in carbon markets, renew-
able energy and systems change.
The biggest lesson I learnt from Christiana’s
onboard lectures was that in order to transform
the world at large, we have to fi rst start with our-
selves. If you watch Christiana’s TED Talk on the
inside story of the Paris Agreement, you’ll hear
her admit that in her fi rst press conference as
the executive secretary for the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, when
asked by a journalist if she thought an agreement
was possible after the failed 2009 Copenhagen
negotiations, she answered: “Not in my lifetime.”
Yet here she was, charged with the responsibility
of saving the planet.
stubbornly optimistic
KYLIE LEWISHearing herself utter those words out loud was
a wake-up call, and in that moment she decided
to change her attitude: “Because there is no way
you can deliver victory without optimism.” She
made it her mission to relentlessly inject opti-
mism about what was possible into systems at
every level – starting with her own belief system.
Optimism is not about blindly ignoring the gritty
facts. It is daring to acknowledge the facts and still
hold faith that we can fi nd the courage, trust and
critical mass to make positive change. There is an
adage that says ‘we can’t be what we can’t see’.
But as co-designer of the proposed Green New
Deal, America’s youngest ever congresswoman
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) says, “We can be
whatever we have the courage to see.”
And so what I’ve come to learn fi rsthand is that
we can no longer aff ord to believe that our voices
and choices don’t matter. We can’t aff ord to get
in our own way and buy into the negative self-talk
that tells us to play it small, or that things are
impossible. As Christiana says, “Impossible is not
fact, it’s an attitude.” Change your attitude and
look towards what is possible.
After a recommendation by AOC on her Insta-
gram Stories, I read Hope in the Dark by Rebecca
Solnit, where I was reminded that “waiting until
everything looks feasible is too long to wait”. I’d
learnt this from writing The Leap Stories about
career changers, and from my coaching clients.
And this is the basis of Greta Thunberg’s School
Strike for Climate movement. She didn’t wait
to have a posse of people willing to stand with
her to do something – she went out and did it
on her own. By embracing her own vulnerability
(defi ned by social researcher Dr Brené Brown as
risk, uncertainty and emotional exposure), she
started a powerful global movement.
The need for morally courageous leaders in
every part of every system has never been more
urgent. And we can all choose to be a leader in
our own systems – in our lounge rooms, class-
rooms, staff rooms and boardrooms. With a deep
understanding of our own beliefs, a willingness to
embrace our vulnerability, with tools to handle
our own hard emotions and the resilience to get
back up after a fall, leaders are made from within.
Optimism comes from understanding that when
we’re in struggle, it’s the actions we take in our
own lives that move us forward. ”
“
Optimism
is not about
blindly
ignoring the
gritty facts