The Strategy Skills Podcast: Management Consulting | Strategy, Operations & Implementation | Critical Thinking

This discussion explores climate change through the lens of leadership, human behavior, and systems design, drawing on Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson's experience across academia, consulting, and nonprofit leadership. Rather than revisiting scientific consensus, the conversation focuses on a more practical question: why progress remains uneven despite clear evidence and available solutions. A central theme is the structural disconnect between natural systems and modern economic models. As Wilkinson observes, "that is not how nature functions… everything in nature is cycles. There is no such thing as waste." Yet many industries continue to operate on linear, extractive models—creating tension between how systems work and how they are designed. Her experience in consulting reinforces that execution challenges are rarely technical alone. "Often they were about people… leadership and culture," with outcomes shaped by alignment, values, and clarity of purpose rather than strategy in isolation. The discussion also refr