Climate Action Teams — CATS — Must Be Organic & Strategic

Olympian Fields of Action Post #16.4, the 4th post in our Climate Action Teams Subseries

With this post we are continuing our Subseries on CATS or Climate Action Teams.

Thus far we’ve discussed how CATS can make us: (1) big and broad and active enough, our first Climate Movement characteristic/imperative/goal in the first post, (2) passionate enough and deep enough, our second and third characteristics/imperatives/goals, and (3) dynamic enough, our fourth characteristic/imperative/goal.

Because we are in kairos-climate-time, to make our future come faster we need to be organic and strategic enough, our fifth characteristic/imperative/goal of The Climate Movement.

Out of all of our social forms, all the ways we can be together enough, CATS are where the combination of organic and strategic change will be — must be — the most powerful. Living in and living out our Movement Values of wisdom, pragmatism, and creativity, messy and non-linear must be combined with efficient and targeted to achieve something stronger and more effective than either alone. That’s hard. It’s also glorious.

CATS are organic precisely because each one is sui generis. In contrast to existing organizations and campaigns, there has never been a group like you before, nor will there be one like you ever again. You don’t have to think and do things outside the box because you were never in the box. You make your own box — and it doesn’t have to be a box!

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn from the past, the tried-and-true, as you freely become what your gifts and abilities inspire and allow you to be.

It does mean that the choices are yours — choices your CAT makes together and choices each individual Team Member Artist-Athlete makes within the group. Within their CAT each individual can choose to exercise gifts and talents and take on roles that no other group has provided the opportunity for them to do before.

It does mean that this unique combination of gifts of all the Member Artist-Athletes must be set free to become something new, something none of you could be on your own, offering a contribution to our Movement only you can give. As I’ve said, CATS are one of the greatest expressions of freedom of our time.

Climate Action Teams are not cookie-cutter confections stamped out at a factory. You are not robots controlled by your maker. You are not a part of a hive mind controlled by the Collective. You are one of a kind, and your unique contributions cannot be offered by anyone else.

Organic change embodied in CATS may not be as streamlined and efficient in the near term as some cookie-cutter approaches might be. But it makes our Movement more creative, more free, and thus more resilient and robust — and all of this makes us better able to achieve victory — and victory is what being strategic is all about.

This leads us to see that teams are strategic because of all their strengths I have thus far enumerated, all of the ways we embody our Climate Movement characteristics/imperatives/goals. We won’t achieve our vision, purpose, and Major Goal without our Climate Action Teams, and achieving these things is the essence of our being strategic. So by being themselves CATS are strategic.

A key reason Climate Action Teams are strategic is because they help individuals to be strategic.

As the name says, Climate Action Teams are about action —but not just action for action’s sake to make us feel better, actions to show how “good” and “pure” and “righteous” we are — narcissistic righteousness. Well past time to nip that nonsense in the bud.

In keeping with our Movement Value of success, CATS are about actions that make a difference. As lone individuals, even those connected to organizations through donations or membership, it is quite hard to be consistent and not scattered or episodic with one’s actions, which significantly diminishes one’s effectiveness.

There are many good things CATS can do on their own, especially at their local level, especially within social groups and institutions in which they or their individual Artist-Athletes belong.

Doing only what your CAT can do is strategic, because otherwise it won’t get done.

And just like the Olympics, you and your CAT need to compete on a particular Field of Action where your participation can shine, where you all are perfectly positioned to make a strategic difference.

Super heavyweight wrestlers will do well in their sports, on their teams. But they probably wouldn’t shine in synchronized platform diving or the gymnastic floor exercise.

At the same time, our particular gifts and abilities can be fitted to specific roles within the team, such as goalie, or halfback, or fullback, or forward.

But for our nation to do its best in the Medal count, our best efforts must come together with those of all the other CATS, organizations, coalitions, faith groups, and businesses. This is where CATS can greatly benefit from participating in strategic campaigns devised by organizations and coalitions.

Climate Action Teams, while absolutely vital, can only be strategic enough when they join larger strategic efforts.

Finally, like every individual Climate Movement Artist-Athlete, all CATS must not only find their particular Olympian Field of Action, but must also participate with the Climate Movement as a whole on the two Fields of Action we all share: (1) growing and improving the Climate Movement itself, and; (2) engaging public policymakers to help us achieve our vision, purpose, and Major Goal. For CATS and the Movement these are at the very center of being strategic.

So let the creative, organic nature of change find its deepest roots in your CAT, but then combine that with larger strategic efforts that keep us on the path to victory as we stay ahead of the climate clock. Only through this combination will Climate Action Teams be strategic enough.

The bottom line is this: for us to overcome climate change by creating a just and prosperous sustainability that enhances wellbeing for everyone and everything we must have a plethora of CATS the world over who are being organic and strategic enough.