My new career adventure addressing systems change and our climate crisis

I’m wildly proud to share that I’ve joined forces with a team and organization actively accelerating our transition to a circular economy, and I've never been more excited in my career!

For the past 5.5 years I’ve been fortunate to study and practice new ways of working, learning, and collaborating with dozens of teams all over the world. These experiences offered incredible insight and knowledge about what it takes to work well together, with lessons learned along the way touching on individual behaviors, organizational capabilities, leadership styles and more. Each new project was like playing in a new sandbox: I was free to experiment with whatever idea felt right in each environment, and was trusted that however we approached a challenge, we would always make progress. Behaviors, processes, tools; It was truly a journey of many firsts and lessons learned.

Now, after so many inspiring and challenging experiences, I have the opportunity to take all I’ve learned and apply it directly to something I care so deeply about: reducing our waste to zero and living in sustainable, circular, environmentally-regenerative ways.

My partner Arielle and I strive to live as sustainably as we can. We compost, grow food, reduce waste, use renewable energy, reuse as many household items as possible, and so on (#AMA!). We have both volunteered with our grocery co-op’s Plastic Reduction Task Force to help eliminate as much single-use plastic waste as possible. This stuff is me down to my core.

My new role as Director of Organizational Effectiveness was designed in partnership with the Founder/CEO and Chief of Staff, and is a pitch-perfect harmony of what they need and what I offer. We’re all mission-aligned and values-based, and the organization is led by a mom who figured out how to use the system to change the system. That’s something I admire. I am so inspired by her and the entire team of The Recycling Partnership for proving what can be accomplished when resources are invested into modernizing systems and designing for circularity.

The work I’m embarking on will help the whole organization build capacity through new ways of sharing knowledge, collaborating asynchronously, and innovating as a team of teams. I’ve never been more excited by a challenge and I cannot wait to wrap my head around the problem and get my feet firmly planted.

For what feels like a decade, I’ve been sporadically writing letters to you (thanks for always being here!). Over that time I’ve renamed my newsletter many times, adjusted the theme and topics several times, changed the formatting too many times, and—honestly—lost my way, also several times. I’ve experimented with making and selling digital products, designing and leading virtual events, and sharing my ideas even when I feel I know nothing. It’s been a wonderful trip, and it’s time for me to move forward.

This letter will continue to exist, but I will no longer be experimenting with my identity the way I have; I now know who I am. I no longer will try to be someone I think I want to be, only to feel neither confident nor comfortable in the pursuit. Instead, I’m leaning in fully to what matters most in my life: contributing to climate action, raising a family, and giving myself to my people and communities.

I intend to document what I learn through my experiences, and hope to develop a cadence of writing. As time goes on, I'll share what I find worthwhile through this channel. I’ll also continue digital gardening and learning in public at The Refined Mind.

Thanks for being a part of my journey. I can’t wait to teach everything I learn!

Mike