Hey friends—
This week we’re talking about triangulation, which sounds like something you had to do in algebra class but is in fact the root cause of the ineffectiveness of most organizational responses to the planetary crisis.
In this strategically compromised episode, we explore how:
Our hope for an orderly transition leads us to accept the idea that slow, incremental steps today must be able to be transformed into bold action through grand policy wins in the future.
The rise of a class of climate and sustainability professionals has coincided with the rise of triangulation strategies. These strategies defend organizations from criticism and pressure by highlighting claims that minimal commitments being made now are “in line” with bold action in an orderly transition—that the institution, enterprise or community is “doing enough.” They protect the organization from having to change its priorities in any more fundamental ways.
For these triangulating strategies to work, though, a boundary must be delineated between the pace of change that many established professionals agree to consider realistic and responsible, and faster-paced strategies deemed unrealistic and reckless. Professionals who stray beyond that boundary must be policed.
That boundary, though, also keeps triangulating professionals from engaging with disruptive reality—it has become part of the expertise bubble.
