Steve Jordan reports on the message from the keynote speaker at the FIDI conference in Edinburgh.
The topic for the keynote speech at the FIDI conference in Edinburgh was ‘Embracing change: a strategic vision for Sustainability in the relocation industry’. The speaker was Lucas Simons, an internationally recognised thought leader on systems change, specifically with respect to sustainability. For some time FIDI has been a champion of sustainability for the industry so it was entirely fitting for this topic to be front and centre at the annual event.
These events pose a challenge for any speaker on any topic who might be endeavouring to change the way people think and affect the way they behave. The challenge is simply that they are preaching to the converted. These plenary sessions are only ever attended by a proportions of the delegation and, although this particular session was well attended, those in the audience represented organisations that were probably already taking a serious interest in improving their sustainability. That said, Lucas acknowledged this right from the start of his presentation and suggested that this was not important.
He started with a few shock tactics. 2023 had been the warmest year ever recorded. 70,000 people died because of the heat. Climate change has caused the greatest loss of biodiversity since the extinction of the dinosaurs. Every year humans create 350 million tonnes of plastic waste, 8 million of which ends up in our oceans. Scary statistics.
His main message was that, if you want to change the outcome, you have to change the rules of the game. He used the analogy of a game of Monopoly. The aim of the game is to overpower the other players by winning all the money and holding all the property. No matter how many times you play the game, the result will be the same: one person wins and everyone else loses. The only way to change the outcome is to change the rules ...
Photo: Lucas Simons.