Action is the antidote to anxiety.

Marianna Grossman, founder and managing partner of Minerva Ventures, shares how she uses her concern for the climate to spur her leadership focused on solutions for a resilient future. She also talks about the joy she gets in bringing people and communities together to address the climate crisis while acknowledging the courage it takes to stand up and share within your circles your concerns about the climate and the future of the planet, while committing to action.

Find Marianna at Minerva Ventures: https://www.minervaventures.com/

 [Video Transcript]

Matt Schlegel:

Thanks for joining me in conversations with leaders who are using feelings as a leadership tool for both inspiration and motivation. Today, I’m speaking with Marianna Grossman, founder of Minerva Ventures. Marianna is passionate about addressing climate change. She shares how she uses that passion as a leader.

Matt Schlegel:

Now for the conversation.

Matt Schlegel:

Today I’m speaking with Marianna Grossman. Marianna is a leader on climate. She is a founder and managing partner of Minerva Ventures, a consultancy focused on solutions for a resilient future. She advises companies and communities on climate risk, adaptation and resilience and also guides clean tech startups in water, energy, remediation, finance and climate analytics. She specializes in bringing people and institutions together across sectors to collaborate, invent and implement solutions that enhance sustainability, build resilience and address the consequences of climate change.

Matt Schlegel:

I’ve known Marianna for nearly 15 years now. I am so delighted to have her with us here today. Welcome, Marianna.

Marianna Grossman:

Thank you. It’s a joy to be with you today.

Matt Schlegel:

Great. Well, thank you so much for being here. Why don’t we start? I mean, you’re doing so much around work with climate, but I’d like to just start how you are feeling right now about climate change.

Marianna Grossman:

Well, I am feeling really concerned. I feel that the scientists have been saying for decades, four decades, that we need to take serious action, transform our energy systems and the way we interact with our ecosystems and we haven’t been listening. Then when we do listen, we haven’t been making the changes we need. I’m worried about the impacts today, and the future impacts, that we’re going to have to contend with.

Matt Schlegel:

How are you channeling those feelings that you’re having about climate change into your actions and behaviors as a leader?

Marianna Grossman:

As a leader, I am doing a couple of things. One is I do find that taking action is a great antidote to anxiety. That means working with companies that are doing really innovative things, helping communities do the hard work of integrating their different disciplines to be able to make their communities more resilient and looking at investments that are advancing technology that can be helpful. I do a lot of work bringing communities together to think about values and kind of the spiritual dimension that calls us to make transformational change. Then some of the time, I just distract myself like probably everyone else does. Then I feel guilty that I’m not constantly focused on issues and action because we are in an emergency, but I find that because it’s a long-term emergency, I kind of have to pace myself and sometimes give myself a break.

Matt Schlegel:

Well, I want to just thank you for the work that you do. Again, I’ve known you for a long time. I know how you’ve put so much energy into working on solutions to help solve the climate crisis that we’re in. I can imagine that it can be a little draining and overwhelming at times, but good for you that you found a pace that you can get to and continue to do the good work that you’re doing.

Marianna Grossman:

Thank you.

Matt Schlegel:

Thanks again.

Marianna Grossman:

One other thing I wanted to say.

Matt Schlegel:

Yeah.

Marianna Grossman:

The thing that gives me the most joy is bringing people together to share information, ideas and inspiration across different disciplines. Architects, business people, government people, NGOs, all kinds of people who are investors, who are concerned about climate change and those who are really taking leadership and trying to support each other in doing more, thinking more boldly, finding connections that they wouldn’t otherwise find. I think that’s the work that gives me the most joy.

Matt Schlegel:

Yeah, that is [great 00:04:56].

Marianna Grossman:

For many years, I’ve been trying to figure out how to get leaders to wake up to climate change and then to move toward action. I think there are so many things that leaders can do that they may not feel empowered to do. It’s time for us to take on that power.

Matt Schlegel:

The work that you’re doing, just building those communities, is very empowering. Everybody feels the energy and wants to just do that much more. That makes total sense. That’s a great strategy.

Marianna Grossman:

Thank you.

Matt Schlegel:

Then what advice would you give to leaders who are having strong feelings about climate and climate change?

Marianna Grossman:

I think that the first thing is to be in touch with those feelings, to think about our children, our grandchildren, our future grandchildren, generations beyond that, bees, and all the other creatures that we share the earth with, and realize that life is imperiled. It really is. How do we think about all the levers of power we have? Every single one of us has more power than we think.

Marianna Grossman:

For the leader of a corporation, we have our treasury funds that we can invest differently. We have our products and our supply chains and our customers and our stockholder and employees to work with. We also have our groups like the US Chamber of Commerce and other associations, our alumni associations, our faith communities, our neighborhoods, our families, our friends. We have so many overlapping and interconnected networks. If we stand up in each of those and say, “I care about climate change and I’m committed to figuring out how to use all the levers of power that I possess to make a difference,” I think we’ll start to really see massive change.

Marianna Grossman:

To empower also think about everything, our food, our money, our clothes, our transportation, but also our relationships with political leaders or even running for political office so that the policies that are put in place help move us toward change. For example, we really need a tax, a price on carbon. Politicians have been knowing about it for years and afraid to take action because it’s going to upset the people who profit off of cheap carbon.

Marianna Grossman:

In fact, the external price of harm that these products do isn’t calculated into the price. The price needs to change. Then if you have a dividend, you give back money, you can make it be a progressive tax or a non-regressive tax so that people who use less carbon, get the same dividend as people who use more and it evens it out so you don’t have to worry about the price of gas going up because people will be getting money back to be able to meet their needs.

Matt Schlegel:

Well, clearly there’s so much that we can do, but what I heard you say, first and foremost, is just make sure that whatever circle that you’re in, let those folks know how important climate is to you and how just standing up and saying that, you are going to bring moral awareness and bring more people into working with you to solve some of these really critical issues that you’re identifying here.

Marianna Grossman:

I think there are a couple of key points. One is I might not be a scientific expert on this topic, but I can do research. I can understand it. I can partner with people who are experts. I can’t let that stop me from taking action. The other thing is it feels transgressive. Do I put a sign on my lawn that says, “Climate action now.”? Are my neighbors going to be uncomfortable with that? Or do I stand up in a board meeting and say, “We are in an emergency. We must transform the way we run our business.”? That’s a very frightening thing to say in a group of peers where everybody’s trying to show competence. If you don’t have competence on the science side, but you know that it’s a problem we have to solve, then you say, “We have to solve this and we’re going to bring in the expertise we need to do it well.”

Matt Schlegel:

That is a good point.

Marianna Grossman:

While I think hope is over, I think the future is going to be quite degraded compared to the present, we have to have courage to take action. That’s an example of that courage to say, “I don’t have all the answers, but I know that this is an emergency we have to address.”

Matt Schlegel:

You know we’re in a problem and we all need to stand up and address the problem and not-

Marianna Grossman:

That’s right.

Matt Schlegel:

… stay-

Marianna Grossman:

And get the knowledge that we need or the resources that we need or the advisors we need to help us do it. Don’t let not knowing be the reason that you don’t take action.

Matt Schlegel:

Well, that is a perfect way to end this. I feel like we are just scratching the surface on this topic. I’m so impressed with how you’re taking those feelings that you’re having about the problem and channeling them into leadership and action. I applaud you and thank you again. I hope that as you make more progress, that you can come back and share more of your thoughts of about being a climate leader in this time of crisis.

Marianna Grossman:

Thank you so much. It’s really a pleasure to speak with you today.

Matt Schlegel:

All right. Thank you.

Matt Schlegel:

Thanks for watching.

Matt Schlegel:

Being a leader in the climate movement is clearly fraught with many emotional ups and downs. Marianna shared how she feels worried about the climate crisis. Then she poignantly points out that action is the anecdote to anxiety. She also talks about the joy she gets from bringing people and communities together while acknowledging that courage that it takes to stand up in whatever your circles you’re moving and saying that you are concerned about the climate and that you want to take action. She also advises leaders to be in touch with their own feelings as a source of inspiration and motivation as they do clearly for Marianna herself.

Matt Schlegel:

If you found this helpful, please click on the thumbs up button, subscribe to the channel and get notifications of future episodes. If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section and I’ll respond as soon as I can. Thanks again.

The post Leading with Self-Awareness — Interview with Marianna Grossman appeared first on Schlegel Consulting.