I suspect Caroline Dennett would not agree with me when I say she’s a hero. She’s a hero, of course, because of her courage in becoming a whistleblower over the single most important human quagmire, climate change, but she’s also a hero because of her emotional intelligence, which enabled her to see through the veil of corporate platitudes and PR strategies.
Eleven years as an independent consultant for the world’s fourth largest producer of oil and gas and she called it quits. But not before sending an email to 1,400 employees and contractors that she had worked with over the years expressing why she was resigning, and then sending a separate email to Shell’s executive leadership inviting them to “look in the mirror.”
WOW!
Then she shared her resignation on LinkedIn along with what The Guardian referred to as a “mic drop video” in a post that went viral and led to a stream of interviews with media in both the UK and U.S., and an outpouring of support from across the globe.
One week ago today, she took some time to go deep with us on the Great Resignation Uncensored.
Spurred by the BP Deep Water Horizon event of 2010 which resulted in the death of 11 crewmen and the largest oil spill in history, Shell Oil decided to get serious about safety. A big part of their strategy was to hire Caroline Dennett’s firm Clout to conduct a process safety culture diagnostic tool to identify the leading indicators of human behaviour in safety performance.
Caroline and her team designed and administered a global safety survey of all Shell operations and numerous subcontractors and affiliates, processing more than a million words of feedback from employees across the globe. Caroline expressed that as she read these reports, she treated every sentence typed in “as though it was the only sentence I was hearing,” because “it came from people’s hearts.” Which I translate to mean that she practiced active presence with each individual response so that she could capture its essence and importance. And it’s likely that her innovative work has resulted in the prevention of untold disasters.
But there was something nagging her along the way. She began to see increasing amounts of injustice, such as extraordinary levels of pollution that were very directly affecting local environments and the livelihoods and wellbeing of its people. At this time, she learned more about climate change, hearing the words of climate activist saying that we could literally go extinct if we fail to change course quickly.
A catalyst for change within Caroline was attending a talk three years ago on the science of climate change. What she learned about the extent of the change and its rate of advance shocked her. She became a climate activist herself within her local community and made the decision to divest her personal finances of anything related to the oil and gas industry.
An epiphany occurred when she realized she was “living a double life,” — a well-paid consultant for the oil and gas industry, and an activist for climate change. She felt on the one hand that she was doing important work by helping Shell significantly improve its safety, avoiding potential spills and saving lives, but on the other hand the company and its industry was leading humanity toward a perilous future.
The turning point was when she was asked to rewrite the survey to make it fit for construction. When she asked why is when she learned about new drilling and pipeline expansion in Nigeria. And she thought, “This isn’t winding down on fossil fuels.” It was then she realized that Shell’s leadership had no real intention of changing course.
Then she watched a clip of an Extinction Rebellion protest of activists who had glued themselves to the reception desk at Shell’s corporate headquarters. A protester held a poster that said, “Insiders Wanted,” and she thought, “Bingo.” She knew she needed to reach out to them, truthteller.life, as she herself was an insider with knowledge of how the risks to future humanity were being wholly disregarded.
“On a micro level [Shell is] very ambitious about safety,” she said, “But on the macro level they are completely disregarding all the risks around climate change and in environmental impact.” She recognized that safety is truly important to prevent leaks and spills and protect individual workers, “But actually, if the business now is inherently dangerous to the planet, then we’re not doing what we need to do.”
Her reason for going public with her resignation was twofold. One, to have an impact by starting a conversation within the industry around the need to transition away from fossil fuels, and two, to invite Shell’s executive committee to look in the mirror — to “Have a look in the mirror, and when you look at yourself in the mirror, ask yourself honestly is what you’re doing with continued oil and gas extraction, and in increasing that, is that guaranteeing us a safe future?”
Since her public resignation and the media attention that followed, Caroline has been contacted by hundreds of individuals sharing words of encouragement, and she noticed that many have already left the industry. But they’ve done it quietly, and not to switch to another company within the industry, but instead many have entered into renewable energy and sustainability.
Caroline feels that she has vocalized what many others are feeling and possibly provided some encouragement to leave or at least to start a conversation within the industry.
“We can’t solve the climate and ecological emergency unless we have the majority of people on board. And so, we have to listen to each other, even when that’s uncomfortable.”
Caroline shared that while she has fluctuated between hope and despair, that in the past two weeks since resigning and the “unbelievably positive” feedback she has received, “it has filled up the hope bucket.” A very powerful and poignant way of putting it.
She said, “I feel a sense of optimism, that there are enough people out there, not just activists but professional people, who are doing something about this . . . I feel a turn in the tide . . . so many big organizations, global organizations, are saying . . . it’s now or never . . . we’re at that positive tipping point.”
At great risk to her career and reputation Caroline said sayonara to 70% of her income, and yet new opportunities are coming her way as a result of the media attention, and I would estimate the graceful and intelligent way in which she shares her message. This itself is a reflection of changing culture. If she had so publicly resigned a mere five years ago, would she have recovered so quickly? I think not.
This is what so many of us have been hoping and waiting for.
It was a great privilege to spend this time with Caroline. Please share this interview widely, as it is so important and inspiring to hear how there is a groundswell of people within these old institutions who have grown uncomfortable with the status quo. They are thinking and talking. Some have resigned. Many more are thinking of resigning. And a few brave souls are going public, telling us how their leadership is lacking vision and commitment for a safe and sustainable future for all.
The time is at hand.
Links:
Caroline’s LinkedIn Post that launched the conversation
Caroline Dennett’s consultancy Clout
Linkedin News Article: Consultant cracks Shell on way out
The Guardian: Consultant who ditched Shell: ‘take a look at yourselves in the mirror’
Independent: Shell forced to pause shareholder meeting as climate protesters chant ‘we will stop you’
Ep. 8 Filling Up the Hope Bucket