What do a Hydrogen Hub, an Olympic Village, and a Sustainable Leader have in common?

This episode of The Energy Detox weaves together 1) an announced alliance formed by EQT, Marathon, U.S. Steel, and others to develop an Appalachian hydrogen hub, 2) the kickoff to Beijing's hydrogen-fueled, closed-loop, fortress-like Olympics, and 3) one of the easiest and most effective ways you could be (but likely aren't) helping fuel future leaders.

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(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)

Within the last 24 hours, there were two sets of hydrogen related headlines that popped up in the news. The first set popped up here and happily show when yesterday, he Qt, the largest producer of natural gas along with six other companies said that they were forming an alliance to promote and to produce hydrogen and hydrogen utilization and production, as well as carbon capture, utilization and storage. And then this morning, headlines popped up on the other side of the world in Beijing related to hydrogen and they kick off of the Winter Olympics. And those Olympics in many ways are fueled by hydrogen. They had hydrogen Olympic torches that were being run around, there's a hydrogen powered cauldron, there's hydrogen powered buses that are shuttling all the Olympic athletes around. And a lot of the electricity that's being used, again, is powered by hydrogen. And so today on the energy detox, we're going to take those two sets of hydrogen related headlines, we're gonna fuse them together to help you as we always do, become a more sustainable and effective leader and more importantly, help promote and develop your future leaders in a way that you might be not aware of, and to take advantage of opportunities that many leaders fail to see and leverage because of a, an irrational fear, if you will, between things that are safe and easy when it comes to leadership development and things that might be seen as off limits. But before we dive into that leadership lesson, if you will, and that leadership conversation, we're gonna take a step back and talk about some of the high level fun parallels between the Appalachian headlines and the Beijing headlines. And those parallels, or at least the the most significant and visual of parallels surrounds colors, because you can't talk about the Olympics, of course, and not talk about the the Olympic rings, right. I mean, that is the symbol of the Olympics this year, despite this year's Olympic maybe being sullied by other symbols like the genocide of the wiggers, in China and other less savory type things. But the reality is that by and large, most people look at all the colors and the rings, inner join, representing all of these countries coming together and the colors of all of these different flags coming together in this big kumbaya experience over the next 17 days to to come together in the in the spirit of competition, and, you know, compete on behalf of your country in front of win some metals and have some fun, right. Whereas again, in the world of hydrogen, we also have a big focus on colors. In fact, you can't talk about hydrogen and not talk about the color of that particular hydrogen. And while today, I could probably spend 20 minutes talking about the intimate details around the different colors of hydrogen and the science behind it and the technology, I'm just gonna take maybe one or two minutes to at least use the Olympic rings here. Or if you happen to be watching this on video, you'll see that I have crudely drawn some Olympic rings here various colors, and we're going to use those Olympic rings to talk quickly about the different colors of hydrogen, whether or not you are already somewhat familiar with those different colors. And starting on the top left, you've got blue hydrogen, and blue hydrogen is produced using methane natural gas. And the big thing that makes it blue is the fact that the carbon dioxide the carbon that is produced during that process is captured is stored is dealt with in some way. And then in the middle here, this is normally the black ring, but we're gonna pretend it's a gray ring, because gray hydrogen is, I believe, the most common hydrogen right now. And that two is formed from natural gas. But the carbon that is produced during that process is not captured, it's released, it goes off into the atmosphere or wherever. And again, that is designated as grey hydrogen. On the top right, we have pink or red hydrogen, and that is hydrogen that uses nuclear energy to produce the hydrogen. And then on the bottom right, you have the fan favorite, the green hydrogen, the sexiest of all hydrogens, even if it's not the most economic right now. And it's not the most plentiful of all the hydrogen, but green hydrogen is the color indicates is produced using green energy. It's using, ideally excess green energy to turn water into hydrogen and not have any carbon byproducts. And again, that ignores the realities of all energy, even green energy that carbon is involved at some point in the chain. So as of course, it's not carbon free energy necessarily, but again, setting aside all the details here, that is green hydrogen, and then on the bottom left, this would typically be the yellow ring for the Olympics, but on a whiteboard. Yellow doesn't show up too well. So I took it as an opportunity to put a bunch of other colors in here because there are a bunch of other hydrogen colors. In fact, there are far more than the five rings here would represent you have turquoise hydrogen, which is also formed using natural gas, but the byproduct is a solid form of carbon that can be used for other things and not a gaseous form of carbon. There's brown carbon, which uses coal there's yellow carbon, which uses solar and again, new colors seem to be coming into the hydrogen conversation regularly. So again, that's your your brief primer there on the day different colors of hydrogen. But now let's come back to the Olympics because again, what's going on with the Olympics and these rings coming together? Well, again, as we said before, it's this big kumbaya experience, right, just as all the different colors of hydrogen come together, and people can focus on how to use the hydrogen, even if, you know the different methods of production are still being innovated and discussed and calculated from an economic standpoint. And again, so too, with the Olympics, there's a lot of complications that come with the Olympics every year this year is no different, again, with some of the the hair that's on the fact that China is hosting it and all of the issues that are surrounding China. But again, without going down that rabbit hole, the reality is that the Olympics typically are a time of coming together, everybody coming together, much as all of the companies came together yesterday and Apple Asia to form this, this group, this alliance with a common purpose, all the Olympic countries come together to, again, have a common purpose to compete to have some fun to determine who the best of the best is, and all of these various sports. And this idea of coming together and setting aside your differences. Setting aside your genocidal tendencies, although again, I believe that the companies involved in Appalachian don't have any real genocidal tendencies, like maybe some of the ones involved in Olympics. But setting that aside again, now, we're gonna dive into the leadership lesson here. Because the reality is that for many leaders in all industries, whether it's the energy industry, or really, again, any sector that's out there, a lot of leaders spend too much time on the kumbaya stuff, the safe stuff, the stuff that again, you're going to see on NBC and you know, all the certainly if you're in China, you're going to see on all the propaganda networks, and you're not going to deal with you're not going to see the the underbelly of certain things. And again, with these Beijing Olympics, there is a pretty sizable underbelly setting aside again, the you know, the, all the issues with the wiggers genocide and, and all of the other atrocities that can be attributed to China. There's a whole lot of other stuff going on, right? This is one of the most lock down controlled Olympics that are out there. And when you look at how people have to move around, that have to have the apps and all of the control and the different bubbles and the different circles, if you will, that are actually separate and how people need to bounce from bubble to bubble and be screened. I mean, it's pretty, pretty crazy. It's pretty intense, all under the guise, of course of protecting people from COVID. But again, those aren't the things that are necessarily being discussed. But they matter, right? They're important, they should be discussed. And this brings us back to leaders, because in many cases, leaders are afraid of discussing some of the things that might be deemed harmful. And again, if you happen to be watching this, you'll see that I've got a ring here a circle on the bottom right, that is deemed harmful. Because for many leaders, there are certain things that they refuse to touch. But yet in many cases, there's opportunities there, especially to have conversations with potential leaders, emerging leaders, aspiring leaders about this sort of harmful bucket. But instead, they spent a lot of time over here on the left side on what they deemed to be helpful and safe. Whether it's a safe public release, or announcement or email from a leader, whether it's safe mentorship conversations, or save him employee performance appraisal conversations, or whatever the case might be maybe even open Slack channels that again, are purportedly there to allow for wide open conversations, transparent conversations, the reality is that those things are many cases to safe. And the conversations you need to have why here in the middle, and what I'm calling this h2 hub and not h2, again, in terms of hydrogen, but in terms of these two competing H's, the things that are deemed to be helpful and safe, and the things that are deemed to be harmful and off limits. Because the conversations that I have, with many leaders very much deal with, you know, if not the right hand side, certainly this this middle ground that often isn't discussed. And this was echoed in a luncheon, learn that I was a part of last week where again, we talked about leaders who might have access to certain insights and to certain networks. And it's the leaders who take that access and take those insights and share it with others share it with those who don't have access, again, especially those who are aspiring leaders, or are maybe outside the bubble. It's those those leaders who are able to grant access to some things on this right side that people might not see that establish a culture that is far more sustainable. And that established future leaders that again, have a much better sense of what actually drives things, what's actually going on behind the scenes and not this high level kumbaya stuff that we see in joint press releases, like we saw yesterday from the seven companies and Appalachian or like, again, a lot of the coverage of the Olympics that will focus on again, all this, this coming together this this great showcase of humanity and all of these wonderful things, we need to have these conversations. And again, that doesn't mean you need to have conversations about

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things that are top secret, or that are confidential or that are truly off limits or that are non public. But ask yourself today as a leader, are you taking the opportunity to share even generic insights anonymous insights of how individual leaders who have risen the ranks, how they process things, how they ask questions, how they deal with uncertainty? Are you taking those insights not just of your own being right as a mentor? But are you taking the insights that exists here in this harmful off limit territory? And are you bringing it to the middle here, you bring it in and bridging these two rings, which again, in many cases are separate, much like a lot of the bubbles at the Olympics that, again, are meant to separate athletes, from fans from media from others are, you know, bringing these two things together and forming, I'm calling it an h2 leadership hub, so that you actually have meaningful conversations, and you're sharing things that actually matter. And I say this, again, not just as a coach who has the privilege of having conversations that again, live very much in the middle here and certainly leaned towards the right side, avoiding confidential things and avoiding things that, again, I'm not allowed to know. But I also speak as someone who benefited from this sort of middle ground right here benefited from leaders who were, you know, figuratively, bring me into these meetings and figuratively bring me into these conversations, even if I wasn't there and give me insights into again, how people act, how people react, and do it in a way that, again, doesn't divulge any visual necessarily doesn't divulge anything that I wasn't supposed to know. But that individual leader asks himself or herself, hey, are there things that are missing? Are there things that again, don't exist on this surface level, this supposedly helpful level? Are there things that are being missed, that can be brought up in conversation. And again, there's a lot of gold here, but there's a lot of leaders who aren't taking the time to give people access. And then the other thing that can be done again, especially if you're having to be in person, or or even if you're having virtual meetings is to literally bring people into the conversation, ask yourself as leader are you missing opportunities to again, bring people from this high level surface level, moderately helpful realm over into this, you know, this this other echelon? Right? Can you invite people into meetings who might not normally be there? Are there meetings that are being had that, you know, again, we're gonna touch on anything strategically, or top secret that an individual, you know, still here, right. And you can take that to an extreme, I've been in meetings where there's six levels of management, right, I've got, you know, three levels above me and two levels below me. And, and again, there's only six or seven people in that meeting. And again, that doesn't necessarily speak to an efficient use of time necessarily, but there are opportunities where you can bring people in. So ask yourself, are you missing those opportunities, because there is no better way to help develop future leaders and to help sustain momentum for your company, than asking yourself if you're spending too much time over here on this, helpful each side of the equation, and not enough time bringing people over at appropriate times over into the right side, and then again, meeting in the middle and having a conversation that is going to provide a lot more fruit a lot more benefit than this kumbaya conversation that drives unfortunately, so many interactions within an organization. So with that being said, as always, I hope you ask yourself these questions, I hope you ask yourself, whether again, you're you're living in a world where these rings are, are separated, you know, if you're living in a world where again, like China's is separating people apart, or if you're living in a world that is artificially brought together in some surface level manner that, again, doesn't actually move people along and generate future powerful, sustainable, confident leaders that you need to move the company and to move your industry forward. And so with all that being said, I thank you, as always, for tuning into the energy detox. if you so choose to watch the Olympics, I hope you enjoy watching and cheering on your favorite athletes in your favorite countries of which I'm going to hope that America's is one of and if you're not watching the Olympics, then I hope you at least have a safe enjoyable weekend. And that again, you you take these lessons to heart and you take other opportunities to you know, look for for ways to bring other people into the fold not just in business world, but also in your personal life, whether it's your children, your friends, your spouse, Are there conversations that you're not having, because you're afraid of kind of blending these two rings together. And so with that again, have a great weekend. Thanks again for tuning in and take care

Leadership, Management, Coaching, Energy, Envronment, ESG, SustainabilityJoe SinnottLeadership, CoachingComment