One of the things I love about being an executive coach and organizational consultant is how creative I get to be and how many different things I get to try.

Every year, at least 10 or 20 pretty significant books on related topics get published. They talk about personal performance, about how to get people to change, how to get teams to become more effective, and how to get organizational culture to shift.

Helping clients navigate change is definitely fun, but it can also feel like an infinite candy shop. It's hard to choose a single approach as the right one, and hard to combine a bunch of different approaches into anything resembling a coherent strategy and action plan.

And the truth is, when you look at the field of consulting and coaching, we don't have a great track record.

As in, there's a lot of stuff that people do that seems nice—and just doesn't work.

I remember when I first went back to graduate school for public health. I had this naive idea that anything that had a good message was good. So I thought that DARE—Drug Abuse Resistance Education; the drug education program where police would come into the community and tell kids not to do drugs—was great.

And then I started looking at the research that DARE just didn't work. The kids who went through DARE were using drugs at least as much as kids who'd never been exposed to it.

And then I started looking at abstinence-based sex education and realizing that there were more teen pregnancies there than in communities where kids were taught how to use birth control and how to talk to each other about sexuality and sex.

Stuff that seemed like it was obvious, wasn't.

Those revelatiopns made me realize how badly we need science in the social sciences to inform what we do.

And that is all by way of teeing up today's guest, Dr. Richard Boyatzis, who's written a book called The Science of Change.

It's a guide for changemakers, for practitioners, for scholars, for academics, for community organizers, for honorable politicians, and for activists.

It explores key questions relating to how we bring about change.

What's the recipe? What are the intructions. What are the key elements, and what are the tipping points to pay attention to?

In other words, how do we put it all together and lead change effectively and not just creatively and heartfeltly.

It's not an easy book. But it's for you if you really want to understand how to create change the most micro level—the personal—and in concentric rings outward, to the familial, communal, societal, and national levels.

The Science of Change, by Richard E Boyatzis

Helping People Change, by Richard Boyatzis, Melvin Smith, and Ellen van Oosten

I Heard There Was a Secret Chord, by Daniel Levitin

This is Your Brain on Music, by Daniel Levitin

You Can Change Other People, by Peter Bregman and Dr Howie Jacobson

Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell

Start with Why, by Simon Sinek

This is What It Sounds Like, by Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas

According to climate activist Joanna Macy, there are three stories that explain the world we're living in.

The first is Business as Usual.

That is, "Don't worry. Everything's fine."

For example: "Global warming? No sweat — we're going to figure out how to suck carbon out of the air. No worries. The capitalist system will figure things out and the people who come up with the best, most valuable ideas will be rewarded. All is good."

Sounds reasonable, especially if you consume mainstream news and listen to experts and pundits promoted and funded by capitalism.

The second is the Great Unraveling.

As in, "We're doomed."

And it can sound like this: "The oceans are dying. Fisheries are collapsing. There's poverty everywhere. The climate is chaotic and dangerous. Everything's on fire or under flood waters. There's oppression and war and degradation, and income inequality is skyrocketing. And it's too late; there's nothing we can do anymore."

Well, I can't argue with any of that. When I read scientific papers on climate science and oceanography, when I talk with farmers — it's hard to feel a big surge of hope about our future.

And then there's a third story: the Great Turning.

The Great Turning says, "Let's build a just and life-sustaining society."

Living into the Great Turning isn't a spectator bet on what will happen, but rather a decision to get onto the field of play to affect the outcome.

And that's what my guest, Jess Serrante, and I, cover in this conversation.

So if you have been in despair and rage, bewilderment, and depression; or if you're thinking, if only we had elected the other folks then everything would be fine — this third story will offer you a way forward.

We Are the Great Turning Podcast

JessSerrante.com

Jess Serrante on Instagram

"Wild Geese," by Mary Oliver

An amazing Padel point

YogaBody.com

Doctors Ayesha and Dean Sherzai founded the Healthy Minds Initiative (HMI) to scale their impact on the tragic epidemic of dementia plaguing the world today.

The first thing that we have to understand is that the majority of dementias are preventable through diet and lifestyle. The Sherzai's acronym NEURO—nutrition, exercise, unwinding, restorative sleep, and optimization—encapsulates the pillars that can determine our cognitive trajectory as we age.

Second, individual behavior change is hard. And it's especially hard when the community norms are unhealthy.

Third, traditionally underserved and marginalized communities are bearing the brunt of the damage and ensuing tragic consequences.

And fourth, circling around, those communities can actually become leaders in the public health crusade against toxic lifestyles, since their empowerment can become the solution.

HMI exists to empower communities to spread both the message and practice of lifestyle medicine. But in order to do that, the Sherzai's and their partners can't come in as experts.

Instead, they approach as curious partners, willing to learn, and willing to stick around and provide support for the long term, and not just until the latest research grant runs out.

In our conversation, we talk about the need for systemic change in research models that prioritize community engagement and sustainability.

And we talk about what sustainable progress looks like, and can look like—in other words, a blueprint for community engagement and empowerment that can create a grassroots, decentralized, democratic health movement.

The Healthy Minds Initiative

The Brain Docs

Nourishing Our Brains and Preventing Dementia with Ayesha Sherzai, MD: PYP 279

The Role of Science in Public Discourse and Racial Justice: Dean and Ayesha Sherzai, MDs: PYP 414

The Alzheimer's Solution, by Drs Ayesha and Dean Sherzai

The 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution: The Definitive Food and Lifestyle Guide to Preventing Cognitive Decline, by Drs Ayesha and Dean Sherzai