One World in a New World with Hank Dearden – Executive Director, ForestPlanet
Hank’s background has been on the leading edge of inquiry and movement toward the science of taking care of our Mother Earth.
Queried on the usual question of how he found passion and purpose in life, Hank reflects that he’d always had a predilection for math and engineering; getting things to work in harmony. He uses several illustrations you’ll enjoy as we move through his life and work.
How do we applying engineering toward working with our planet better? Hank feels the admonition and practical application of, ‘thou shalt not mess with your nest,’ surely applies and space won’t matter if we cannot take care of our planet. Our conversation covers a plethora of possibilities.
Delving a little deeper, Hank relates his experience at Dartmouth in exploring systems engineering through computer modeling in the early days. Worth giving some attention to in the diversity of systems he mentions and how they connect. He covers mental as well as physical systems, their non-linearity and, at times, non-local nature.
Hank goes on to speak toward fulfillment, inclusive of life and work, though he admits many find no fulfillment in their jobs and seek fulfillment elsewhere. What if there was, from an engineering standpoint, a perfected form, fit and function in the world? The conversation goes deeper.
Discussing systems dynamics and flow, scaling systems and learning how to work together better to serve the planet by so doing is a conversation that is growing in importance. You’ll find new insights and perspectives from the dialog. Quite an intelligent conversation.
Business processes, according to Hank, are what’s missing in the service organizations and that these processes are necessary for charities and organizations as well. Everything is a process and processes evolve for a lot of reasons. Leadership is key.
On very practical levels, Hank and Zen explore deeper levels of systems across society and how they interact effectively and ineffectively. The circuitous conversation explores interactions from material to spiritual to populations and exploring the unknown. They have some surprising reflections.
Speaking of process and flow, the ‘rest of the story,’ as Paul Harvey would say, is worth your time, even if you’re just listening in the background. Hank and Zen, both with varied backgrounds that include engineering, science and planetary service, offer a thoughtmosphere of curiosity, inquiry and pragmatic considerations. Thank you for being here now.
Hank on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hankdearden/
Hank’s website: https://forestplanet.org/
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Connect with Zen: https://linkedin.com/in/zenbenefiel
Zen’s One-Sheet: https://zenbenefiel.com/one-sheet
Zen’s books: https://amazon.com/author/zendor
Global Peace Movement: https://liveandletlive.org