Climate Change Coaching: The Power of Connection to Create Climate Action

330 Pages·2022·14.843 MB·English

by  Charly Cox, Sarah Flynn

“This practical guide fills many of the gaps, with tools that can help us
become better allies to each other in supporting the personal and systemic
shifts needed in our time.”
Chris Johnstone, co-author of Active Hope and trainer at ActiveHope.
Training
“Climate Change Coaching is an invaluable resource for anyone working in
sustainability today.” C
Patrick Burgi, Co-Founder of South Pole
L
I
M
Climate change is not just an environmental problem, it’s a human one. Yet as humans, we are not A
changing fast enough for ourselves or our planet. Our sense of powerlessness and the belief that our
T
actions won’t make a difference is holding us back from taking action. Working on the psychological
dimension of change could make the difference to moving us forward. E

In this transformative book, climate change coaching trailblazers Charly Cox and Sarah Flynn explain C
why changing for our climate is so hard and why coaching offers a key to affecting behaviour.
H
With practical, easy-to-grasp skills that shift mindsets and motivate action they show how to build
connection using a coaching approach, to overcome resistance and empower people to embrace A
change.
N
If people often tell you “What difference can I really make?” or “How can we possibly succeed?” then G
Climate Change Coaching will help you:
E
CLIMATE

• Understand the psychological barriers to change, and how to address them
C
• Gain practical, connection-building skills to have more impact in every conversation
O
• Build stronger, more trusting relationships to make long-term change more likely
• Develop a new perspective on how individual change leads to systems change A
• Discover how to help organisations succeed at change and what creates social change CHANGE
C
• Learn to coach and support yourself to manage stress and avoid burnout
H
Whether you are changing an organisation, engaging a community, or coaching individuals, this book
I
will change the way that you connect and how you influence. With example conversations and real-life N
stories from 40 practitioners from the worlds of sustainability, business, academia and coaching, it COACHING
G
will show you how coaching skills are being used individually and organisationally to galvanise climate
action.
Charly Cox is an award-winning climate change coach and Founder of Climate Change Coaches.
The Power of Connection
A professional coach for ten years, Charly specialises in developing leaders in environmentally focused
C
businesses. She has a background in the creative sector and worked for seven years in West Africa. O
SEX to Create Climate Action
Sarah Flynn is a psychologist and coach who supports sustainability professionals to thrive as they CO &W
create change in the world. With a background in research, she specialises in the psychology of change N
DFa
aUnndiv reerssiiltiye.nce, and teaches on the topic of ‘Resilience for Sustainability Professionals’ at Cambridge EDLYls
ITNh Charly Cox
ION
N
and Sarah Flynn
Image credit: David Cox
With a Foreword by Kimberly Nicholas
Author of Under the Sky We Make
CCooxx CCoovveerr 22..iinndddd 11 0011//0066//22002222 1155::4466::0044
Climate Change Coaching

Climate Change Coaching
The Power of Connection to Create Climate Action
Charly Cox
Sarah Flynn
Open University Press
McGraw Hill
8th Floor, 338 Euston Road
London
England
NW1 3BH
email: [email protected]
world wide web: www.openup.co.uk
Copyright © Open International Publishing Limited, 2022
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and
review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence from the Copyright
Licensing Agency Limited. Details of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be
obtained from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd of Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London
EC1N 8TS.
Executive Editor: Eleanor Christie
Editorial Assistant: Zoe Osman
Content Product Manager: Ali Davis
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
ISBN-13: 9780335250059
ISBN-10: 033525005X
eISBN: 9780335250066
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
CIP data applied for
Typeset by Transforma Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, India
Fictitious names of companies, products, people, characters and/or data that may be used
herein (in case studies or in examples) are not intended to represent any real individual,
company, product or event.
Praise page
“Climate change and coaching are made for each other. While activists
can raise general awareness, coaches are key to enabling leaders to
focus on making climate change happen. Future generations will judge
the coaches and coaching organisations of today on how we meet that
challenge.”
David Clutterbuck, Special Ambassador,
European Mentoring and Coaching Council
“Have you ever had a conversation that inspired and energised you to
play your part well in responding to an emergency? If so, perhaps the
person you were talking with has read this book or has drawn on the
understanding it shares. The human change dimension is so often a
missing piece of the jigsaw in responding to our climate crisis. This prac-
tical guide fills many of the gaps, with tools that can help us become
better allies to each other in supporting the personal and systemic shifts
needed in our time.”
Chris Johnstone, co-author of Active Hope and
trainer at ActiveHope.Training
“Climate Change Coaching is an invaluable resource for anyone work-
ing in sustainability today. It provides practical techniques that get us
to the heart of what is holding back progress, and tools to enrol others in
our vision of change. For professionals engaged in tackling the biggest
challenge ever faced by humanity, it also teaches us how to coach our-
selves to build our resilience and prevent burnout. Climate Change
Coaching gives us powerful relational tools to complement our technical
abilities, to help us move faster and farther, together.”
Patrick Burgi, Co-Founder of South Pole

For Dimitri, Nina and Phoebe, and all of our team at the
Climate Change Coaches – CC
For my husband and children … and for those working
to change the world – SF

Contents
Preface by Charly Cox xi
Foreword by Kimberly Nicholas PhD xiii
Introduction xv
PART A: What on earth does coaching have to do with climate
change?
1. A human problem with a human solution 3
2. How change works: and what that means for the climate crisis
individually, relationally and systemically 12
3. Empowerment and belief: a model for resonant action 20
4. Coaching for climate action: what is climate change coaching? 34
PART B: Transform the way you communicate
5. Climate change coaching basics 51
6. How to make and break influence 66
7. Making it OK to talk about climate change 80
8. When there’s too much ‘not enough’: dealing with scarcity 96
9. Overcoming overwhelm 110
10. Understanding intrinsic values to overcome resistance to
action 122
11. Defining a dream to run towards not a nightmare to
run from 138
12. Setting goals and getting into action 150
13. Rage against the machine: turning anger and blame into
forward energy 161
14. Making space for climate grief 175
PART C: A coaching approach in systems change
15. How to help organizations to commit to change 187
16. How to bring people with you in change 203