As the COP26 U.N. Climate Conference wraps up today, news stories will be filled with number-filled recaps of the progressโor lack of progressโmade by world leaders over the past 2 weeks. There will undoubtedly be summations of the billions of dollars in monetary commitments, summations of the metric tons of CO2 reduction commitments, and perhaps even summations of the amount of fossil fuels required to fuel the conference and the tens of thousands of people who converged upon Glasgow to participate.
But as big as those numbers might sound, there will continue to be people representing every climate-related angle there is asking, "So what? What do these numbers even mean?"
And whether or not you care to dive into COP26 numbers, this is a good time to ask how much your stakeholders actually care about the numbers you're relying upon to measure progress, motivate your teams, and create urgency.
The headline: ๐๐ก๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ ๐ข๐ 1.5: ๐๐ก๐๐ญโ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ฆ๐๐ญ๐ ๐ญ๐๐ฅ๐ค๐ฌโ ๐ค๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐จ๐๐ฅ (by Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press)
The article: https://apnews.com/article/climate-science-business-scotland-europe-7b282af7df95b55dff2630e158631a73
The goal: to (๐)๐ซ๐จ๐ฐ, (๐)๐ซ๐จ๐ญ๐๐๐ญ, ๐๐ง๐ (๐)๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ข๐ง success by pondering these 3 questions throughout your day:
๐ก How many qualitative metrics should you use to measure "meaningful" growth?
๐ก Are you over-using or mis-using numbers to protect a narrative?
๐ก How much time do you spend helping stakeholders understand their direct connection to "the numbers?"
