s
Evolutionary theory has taught us that it is not the strong that survive, rather it is those that can adapt best to their environment that survive and thrive! As a true lover of change, my faith in this tenet has been tested in the past few weeks, and has remained strong. I have now finished my first two weeks at Sustainable Waterloo Region and this has been an eye-opening time. While I knew the learning curve would be steep, there are a few things that took me by surprise:
  1. The incredible team: there is a large team that supports this organization and I will be relying on them fairly heavily to make sure I can not only keep things running, but move things forward as well. This team is a group of incredibly talented and committed people and I am lucky to be working with them.
  2. I feel at home: everyone I meet is so warm, supportive and open. There was never any doubt that people would be nice, yet I expected at least a little resistance to a new face. This has not been the case. Staff, volunteers, board members, community partners and member organizations have all been so amazing and I can’t say how much I appreciate it.
  3. There is so much to learn: much more than you would think in fact! The analogy that I have used is that I feel like I am floating over the ocean, watching the waves shift and move and wishing that they would just stop moving for a moment or two so I can get a handle on things. It is all still the same ocean, but there is constant movement.
  4. A cause is very inspiring: I am thrilled to be able to be a part of creating change. This is exactly what I was looking for and the reason I made this leap. It has, however, become very apparent that a cause’s scope can grow exponentially, and it is important to have a clear understanding of what we are focused on.
  5. This is a definite change: what I was looking for was a way to change my life, and I have found it. To say that this is different from my previous career at The Letter M would be an understatement. This is a whole new world and one I am to grateful to be a part of.
As for the future, every day I have new ideas, the team comes up with possibilities for what we can do together to support business in meeting its environmental goals in economically sustainable ways. I won’t share what we are doing, as so much is yet to be decided, but I can say this; it is going to be a fun and thrilling ride.