Dear friends,

I am excited and humbled to introduce you to SALT for Climate, The Institute of Applied Metatheory’s newest IAM Foundation Incubation Grant recipient, led by Dr. Gail Hochachka, PhD and Lisa Genki Gibson.

The Sensemaking, Action, and Leadership Training (SALT) for Climate initiative addresses a critical blindspot in today’s climate action efforts, which have not put more conscious sensemaking as the core and highest-leverage foundation upon which all climate action must be built.

By drawing on cutting-edge climate research, nuanced facilitation in human interiors, and Big Picture metatheories, SALT for Climate seeks to help climate actors heal the psychosocial blindspots in prevailing technical, scientific and philosophical paradigms. The team at SALT for Climate aims to bridge the disconnect between climate policies and public perception, which often leads to stalled initiatives and societal polarization. By developing and delivering specialized sensemaking and leadership training and coaching that can be scaled globally, the climate sensemaking initiative enhances the emotional, social, and consciousness capacities of climate leaders. This scalable approach is a long lever that can unleash liberating praxis and leadership skill at every level of the climate action spiral, not only complementing the scientific and technical aspects of climate action but also fostering deeper public engagement and support.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Gail Hochachka, PhD and Lisa Genki Gibson to the Institute of Applied Metatheory (fuller biographies below).

If you believe humanity needs to apply integrative Big Pictures to our most pressing social-evolutionary leverage points, and are passionate about supporting concrete initiatives like SALT for Climate, please consider supporting the IAM Foundation.

We will share more exciting developments from the IAM network soon, but thank you to all of you who have reached out to join IAM or support our work.

Loving regards,
Robb Smith

Gail Hochachka
Dr. Gail Hochachka, PhD, is a researcher, thought-catalyzer, facilitator, and coach. She has pursued a unique area of research on the human dimensions of climate change: on the diverse ways people make meaning about climate change, on how to find shared meaning in diverse settings, and on how to accelerate climate action in a transformative manner. She does speaking events and convenes novel conversations amongst experts, inviting collaborative wayfinding on the climate challenge. Gail also teaches graduate courses at UBC, such as on Climate Communications and Engagement, and she is an associate-level Integral Coach. With SALT for Climate, she seeks to move research into practice, at the very leverage points where greater climate action can happen.

Lisa Gibson
Lisa Genki Gibson is a systems change consultant, educator, facilitator, and coach, with a background in social justice, gender and development, and community engagement across multiple, complex issues. She specializes in working with individuals, organizations and multistakeholder spaces to embed systemic change, transform belief systems, and construct alliances across diversity towards clarified action. As a Zen teacher in the Soto Zen lineage, Lisa also brings invaluable dexterity and nuance in working with human interiority to the project team.