I was going to start this post with a comment on my friend and colleague, Jennifer Tishman Willey’s newsletter about how being a woman can be exhausting. This year the Thanksgiving coincided with my birthday and the celebrations continued apace through the holidays and my boys’ birthdays January 5th and 10th. Winter break for the kids seemed endless as they had 2 days of school before the weekend then 3 snow days and 2 more days of school.
I love a snow day but I also wanted to get back to my routine. Monday was circle back day and I had grand plans to start the year off right.
Then Tuesday, the wildfires started in Los Angeles and the minor disruption to my schedule seemed like a gift compared to the devastation happening there.
The landscape is changing
I already knew that 2025 was going to be rocky but it really hit the ground running. Watching the speed and scale of the fires in LA, we watched a landscape change in real time.
Somewhat isolated from immediate effects on the East Coast felt like being in a horror movie. At first people cancelled calls because power was iffy then they started evacuating. Some people were hard to get in touch with and some lost everything. It all happened so fast.
The fires were not even contained before people started searching for someone to blame. It’s a response that is as misguided as it is human.
Multiple systems failed and are failing. As my friend Liz Rubin* pointed out in her LinkedIn post, just because a catastrophe of this scale hadn’t happened before doesn’t mean that we couldn’t have prepared for or predicted it.
And the damage doesn’t end when the majority of people check in safe.
The Ripple Effects on Communities
The consequences of wildfires and other climate-driven disasters like the flooding in Western North Carolina last year extend beyond immediate destruction. They disrupt economies, displace populations, and reshape the social and cultural fabric of affected areas. These impacts reveal how interconnected and vulnerable we are to environmental changes.
- Economic Disruption: Wildfires destroy infrastructure, disrupt supply chains, and halt economic activity, leaving a lasting impact on local and regional economies. This economic disruption is felt not only by businesses but also by workers, consumers, and governments tasked with recovery efforts.
- Social Inequities: Disasters often exacerbate existing inequalities. Vulnerable populations—including low-income families, elderly individuals, and marginalized communities—bear the brunt of the impacts, from housing instability to health risks. Globally, these inequities highlight the need for inclusive and equitable disaster preparedness.
- Environmental Degradation: Wildfires contribute to environmental degradation, releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide, destroying habitats, and reducing biodiversity. These changes have cascading effects, impacting food security, water availability, and air quality for communities far beyond the immediate area.
What does this have to do with snow days?
I brought up what I prepared to write about because this is just the first of many times we’ll have to adjust to a change in the path we’ve laid out for ourselves.
Even before I was aware of the wildfires, Jared and I in our intro to season II of 12PointFive minutes talk about what we’ve seen as corporations roll back their DEI programs. It’s a turning point or a crossroads for those of us who started our businesses for a purpose and intend to live our values.
As my Diversity Masterminds® business partner, Heather Cox said, there’s a backlash against DEI because people don’t know what DEI is. Looking at the wide-ranging effects of the wildfires above, the same thing happens when companies, and we as a collective, abandon our values – economic disruption, social inequities, the further degradation of the environments where we live and play.
A Path to Creative Solutions
I hate to be a total bummer in these posts and there are some activities and events that I’m looking forward to in 2025. I didn’t have the time I wanted to relax and reflect on my actual path forward but here are some things that I believe will serve us on a micro and macro level.
- Fostering Collaboration: I know I talk about this all the time. But beyond my own business, I’m looking forward to helping other businesses collaborate. We’ll need to lean on each other.
- Promoting Sustainable Practices: With that in mind, more sustainable practices and not less is the answer. I look forward to fostering collaboration, learning about and promoting sustainable practices by attending my first ever We The Change retreat in April for B Corp certified and curious companies who want to be in community and make change with like-minded leaders.
- Reimagining Systems: I’m still thinking about what this can look like for me and my business. For all the companies rolling back commitments to DEI, there are some that are doubling down like Costco and Apple.
Some questions I’ll be asking:
How willing am I to have a client that’s misaligned with our purpose and values?
What might I have to adjust in my business so my purpose and values are in alignment?
It’s all connected
The interlocking problems that result from catastrophes like wildfires are the same ones that result from shifts in values and commitments. The solutions can be the same too.
I look forward to seeing and promoting examples of fostering collaboration, promoting sustainable practices, and reimagining systems that work for us throughout the year. Thanks for being my accountabilibuddies!
*Liz linked to these resources to help. Another LA person said, “Do for one person/family what you wish you could do for all of them.”
https://lnkd.in/eEyNCJcp
https://onetreeplanted.org
https://lnkd.in/evwv-wtq
