Tap..tap.. is that a signal? | #16
Updates after a new job, country, and viewpoints since we last met here
That last update from me on November 23, 2023 I wrote about losing my job and seeking new opportunities. Today, I write to you with updates, and from a new home in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
From behind the veil of a screen on that day, I explained what happened at the firm and briskly requested a meeting for new connections of opportunities. Within and with my family, the situation catalyzed a deep period of reflection about life and career that had been lingering. This was amplified by the pressure of maintaining a household and a raising a child, and trying to minimize disruption - at first.
Through the community I’ve developed through Emergent Outcomes (my personal think tank and sometimes consulting platform), and my network of complex systems thinkers, I was introduced to the CEO of the Dutch agriculture technology firm Meridia. The firm has an origin in farm plot mapping in Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Indonesia, and now develops a software product to assess risk in sustainability and compliance of deforestation in the agriculture commodity supply chain. The CEO and I had a discussions about satellite imagery, index development, risk evaluations, and the human side of farming in a global trade system.
He asked me “would you be interested to interview for this new position, and if you get it, would you be willing to move to The Netherlands?”
Yes.
I share with you now that I am the Head of Data & Methodology for Meridia, and I write now from Amsterdam, in The Netherlands. So again, quite simply told, both items worked out, and a new adventure began.
In reality, the physical, emotional, and logistical aspects of this life chapter have been messy, hard, rewarding, and exciting over the past year. Many cherished things faded away, like a land in New Mexico we love, the familiarity of things, routine hang outs with close friends, but also projects, routines, and my updates to this newsletter.
On the other side of those challenges has been so much growth, both personally and professionally. So now, feeling even somewhat settled I wanted to write again and share what I have been up to and thinking about.
I reviewed this guiding question from that post recently:
“what do you want to do more of, and what do you want to do less of?”
More work at the intersection of climate, technology, and capital
More team building
More networking with a wide variety of people
More research and deeper analysis with a systems science framework
More ownership and accountability of strategy
Working at the intersection of climate, technology, and capital is the place for me right now. There is no greater reminder that we are all connected than the global supply chain, which links the lives of farmers to the security of society through sustenance. It is clear that new challenges and risks are emerging, as changes in weather, ecosystem decay, and market dynamics unfold. Managing these risk of increasingly relies on high quality, localized data to structure financial contracts that result in a sort of resilience to the overall system by distributing risk or production among the right parties. This combination of planet, people, systems, technology, data, and markets combines the professional, academic, and life experiences I’ve been developing for myself over the past decade, or more.
The move to Europe has enriched my relationships and interactions with a whole range of cultures on a daily basis. I manage a team based in Indonesia, Amsterdam, and Lithuania. My colleagues are Dutch, German, Greek, French, Ghanaian, British, Ivorian, Mexican - that is just a sample. Our clients are international commodity businesses with global operations in Africa, Latin America, Asia; truly it is a reminder that we all share this planet together.
My role as Head of Data & Methodology I consider systems science and cybernetics to be a lens through which I view the world and problem solving. The software accepts the geospatial properties of farm plots as inputs, and returns a risk score across multiple dimensions, such as deforestation, legality of production, and human rights. What information is required, and how much information is enough to form an accurate evaluation of an esoteric risk? How granular of an assessment can we make with the information we have available about a plot of earth and the products that come it?
I view this as an increasingly important capability within the global economy. Sustainability, in the simplest sense, is about choosing actions that result in the long term viability of an asset to produce what’s intended. For agriculture, this means practices that preserve nature and ecosystems so that the land we have currently available remains available, and even increases yield, to support the population of the earth.
In these updates I will continue to share the deeper, more technical, systems side of my thinking and personal philosophy. This is my corner of the digital space to muse a bit more, and connect with other like minded systems thinking folks across disciplines. If you are reading this still after a year gap of no updates from me, then thank you. Many of you have sent me emails with ideas or further questions in the past. These messages always delight me, so thank you for those as well and keep them coming.
In fact, I would love to hear what you have been up to in the past year yourself. Any new ideas or directions at the intersection of business, art, and life for you?