Today I read the controversial blog post in which Bill Gates argues for a different approach to managing climate change. In short, he argues that addressing and managing climate change remains an important issue, but funding efforts to do so should be secondary to funding efforts to reduce poverty and disease.
My post is neither an endorsement nor an objection to his assertions. I share it only because reading it prompted me to reflect on the management and leadership lessons it contains.
1. The first lesson is that Bill has changed his mind about the relative importance of funding solutions for Climate Change since he wrote his book five years ago. He cites new data (e.g., higher-than-expected rates of technical innovation and emissions reduction) that have led him to update his position.
IMO, this is an excellent example of how great leaders make decisions and think. The best leaders are not wedded to prior beliefs or points of view. They have a combination of intellectual curiosity, objectivity, and humility that prompts them to seek new information and modify or change their positions. They focus on the right answer, not being right.
2. The second lesson is how he breaks down the sources of carbon emissions and the solutions to each. It is a tour de force in analyzing and explaining a complex problem that most people find too big and overwhelming to grasp.
Great leaders are great at decision-making, planning, and aligning the org because they are exceptional analysts of complex problems. I see this every day in my work advising and teaching companies how to develop and write world-class annual operating plans, new product ideas, and monthly business reviews.
Great versions of these documents, plans, ideas, and reviews have one thing in common: concise, clear, analytical thinking. The best plans and reviews identify the right inputs, their metrics, observations, and insights, which logically define the most significant problems, opportunities, and solutions in concise, clear writing.
3. The third lesson is about the importance of Metrics.
Hopefully, you noticed at the outset of Gates’ post that his pivot in thinking is based on the need for, or the importance of, a different metric. Gates argues that we are not measuring the problem correctly; “This is a chance to refocus on the metric that should count even more than emissions and temperature change: improving lives.”
Great leaders identify the most essential input and output metrics for their organizations, beyond the obvious outputs such as revenue and free cash flow. Their logic flows from these metrics, which define where resources, improvement, and innovation should be applied. It is the starting point for their line of thinking and therefore drives the organization’s work.
more lessons and steps in my next post
