Credit: Dalboyne

The British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) People and Leadership (P&L) Group, Luxembourg held its last event of the year with an in-person gathering on Wednesday 1 December 2021 at Silversquare in Luxembourg City.

Over a breakfast sponsored by Spuerkeess, participants enjoyed free-ranging discussion on what has been a big year for issues related to climate change and protecting the environment. 

The welcoming address from Sarah Battey, representing the BCC Board, set the scene. Sarah outlined that the workshop was the culmination of topics which the BCC had raised at various events during 2021 under the theme of what businesses should consider when moving towards a more sustainable future. 

Dr Keith Amoss, Career Coach, facilitated the event, pulling together the various views from presenters and audience to see whether there was consensus on the best approach in convincing us to move from simply thinking about change to leading ourselves into action. The question was, despite all the media and political noise, had anything in fact been successful in changing our individual behaviours? In sum, how was everyone doing with self-leadership; and what information would lead to them making a bevioural change? 

Members of the P&L Group put forward passionate arguments for debate - and participants had the chance to say which approach was the most persuasive. 

Claudia Neumeister of Luxdates gave graphic examples of what was happening in the world and offered her views on the perils and dangers of doing nothing. 

Jill Saville, “The Leadership Woman” coach and podcaster, suggested that the way forward should be more positive. By doing something now to become a “good ancestor” there would be significant benefits for future generations.

Donald Venkatapen, Managing Partner of Wagener Legal, proposed that it was enforcement that would be effective in bringing about change - by making it uneconomic or unlawful not to adjust our habits.

After witnessing plenty of photographs and statistics, along with a measure of conjecture, assumption, guesswork, a few notable quotes and a video clip from COP26, everyone was asked whether they had formed an opinion what would persuade them to take action. This led to some heartfelt observations and an open sharing of views.

So which approach worked the best? Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was no consensus. However, there was general agreement that everything that could be done to move us into action was worth trying.

To a round of applause from the audience, the P&L Group announced its readiness to address new fields in more workshops planned for 2022. 

More information on the work of the BCC is available online at: https://www.bcc.lu/.