Squashing Lantern Flies & Energy Lies

Pennsylvania's spotted lanternfly infestation hasn't been blamed on frac'ing...yet.

But when the media (inevitably) does report (one-sidedly) on some kind of (flimsy) link, are you and your fellow industry leaders ready to squash yet another onslaught of energy lies as enthusiastically as kids across PA have been squashing lanternflies this summer?

If your answer is no, then check out this episode of The Energy Detox, which uses the "Kill it! Squash it, smash it" campaign from the PA Department of Agriculture to help arm you and your stakeholders with the 4 tools necessary to eradicate (figurative) spotted lanternflies that are wreaking havoc inside and outside of your organization:

1) Squash lanternflies head-on: Address misleading narratives or misconceptions directly. Like spotted lanternflies—which can’t jump to the back or side—they will escape the bottom of your foot unless you attack them from the front.

2) Seek, demand, and utilize good data about lanternfly whereabouts: Don’t assume that an occasional employee engagement survey or town hall meeting is revealing everything you need to know about the location and severity of toxicity within your organization.

3) Make good use of internal and external predators: Ally with trusted, knowledgeable resources who can hunt out lanternflies and help you construct innovative control methods.

4) Require and demonstrate universal responsibility: Nobody—including you and other leaders—is exempt from the responsibility of squashing lanternflies; and if you’re not demanding that everyone takes actions to protect the integrity of your organization, then you risk having an irreversible infestation.

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Transcript

(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)

Hello and welcome to the energy detox. I'm your host Joe Sinnott, coming to you today from outside the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. And surrounding me today are lots of pit students who are preparing to go to class on Monday morning at the start of the fall semester, but also surrounding me today are lots of spotted lantern flies. And now some of those spotted lantern flies are crawling up tree some of them are hopping around or flying around awkwardly as they're known to do. But most of the spotted lantern flies are squashed dead on the sidewalks surrounding Pitts campus. And why is that? Why are there so many dead spotted lanternflies? Well, it's because people here in Pennsylvania are listening to our government in particular, we're listening to the Department of Agriculture, who has told us to kill spotted lanternflies whenever we see them, and why why would they do such a thing? Why would they encourage Pennsylvanians including my kids who are so excited to go out at any opportunity and do their duty and kill as many spotted lanternflies as possible? Well, it's because this invasive species that came over here from China about 10 years ago, is proliferating in the state. And these things can cause a lot of destruction, these things, by some estimates will lead to the loss of 1000s of jobs alone, right here in Pennsylvania, and can lead to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars per year in terms of GDP, again, just in Pennsylvania, alone. And so it makes sense, of course, to eradicate this nuisance to eradicate this pest to squash them to kill them. And so what's the point? Why are we talking about that today here on the energy detox? Well, it's because you as a leader in the energy industry, are faced with plenty of figurative spotted lanternflies, both within your organization and external to our industry that are not just the past, but destructive, and not just destructive to our industry, but in turn to everything our industry does. And that is, of course, to generate prosperity to generate health and well being and oh, yeah, a significant portion of the economy and the GDP. And so it's up to you as a leader, to not just squash these figurative lanternflies yourself, but to empower your people, your stakeholders to do the same. And again, back to your internal organizations to empower your employees, your internal stakeholders or colleagues, to squash, whatever it is whatever toxicity, rumors, hearsay, negative engagement, morale, killers, all of those things that are destructive, that need to be eradicated. And so today, we're going to give you some tips, some tools we're going to play off of the same tools as Department of Agriculture have given us here in Pennsylvania to eradicate the spotted lantern fly, and we'll translate them into simple things that you can use day in and day out to eradicate spotted lantern flies in our industry. But before we do that, and as some people in front of me here actually go through and do their job and kill some spotted lanternflies. Good job, guys. You're doing your part. Let me explain why I'm here. It's not to, to exchange with with the locals with the students. It's not to fight traffic and find a place to park on my way home from a day at work and challenge everybody that's trying to move into their dorms here. No, that is absolutely not why I'm here. I'm here because the University of Pittsburgh Department of Public Health was part of a $3 million study paid for by the taxpayers here in Pennsylvania, to look at a potential link between unconventional natural gas development here in southwestern Pennsylvania and adverse health effects primarily related to asthma, cancer and lower birth weights for our youth. And obviously, in the case of birth weights, newborn children. So long story short, that study finally came out about a week and a half ago. And as you would expect, the headlines and the coverage of that largely focus on sensationalized headlines, falsities that were in the study or not in the study and misleading headlines that in essence are clickbait, when in reality, the study actually corroborate. And it's consistent with a lot of other studies that have shown that there is no significant link between unconventional natural gas development here in southwestern Pennsylvania, Oregon is distilled usually in the media, just fracking, although, as you know, as a viewer of the energy detox, that's only one part of the operation. But long story short, there's a lot of positive in this study that should be touted that should be equally shared with the masses, but of course, is not. And that is a perfect example of a figurative spotted lantern fly that needs to be eradicated. Again, not the fact that the study was done in the first place. But the fact that there was positive information that isn't a highlight, and that the study itself has significant flaws, both in terms of its methodology and in some of the data analysis and the approach that it took. So with that being said, I'm not going to talk about the specifics of that much more because there's plenty of entities out there, including Marcellus Shale coalition, who this week released some great information about that study, sharing again some of the facts and figures and squashing some of the myths truths and the lies that the media have been talking about related to that study. So I'll leave that to them because they do a great job of again, squashing those lanternflies. Because today's about you, as an individual leader, what can you do? So, four things, four things you can do. The first is, of course, squash, those spotted lanternflies. But don't just do it passively, you need to hit them head on, because the spotted lantern flies are not very good at jumping side to side or backwards when they're threatened, they pretty much just jump forward. So you need to literally hit them head off, boost your odds of success so that they jump into the bottom of your shoe and you can squash them, you need to do the exact same thing within your organization's you can't just fiddle around and and suddenly try to attack rumors, and hearsay and negativity and all of those things, you need to be blunt, you need to be clear. And you can't just rely on others to do your dirty work. But when you do need to rely on others, you when you do need to empower them, again, you need to make it crystal clear to them that they need to attack at front on to, that's their job. And again, from a macro standpoint, from from an industry wide standpoint, same thing, you need to be proactive. You need to be out there talking about the positives of this study, not just debunking the study, not just looking for holes in the methodology of which there are many, but also acknowledging that, hey, if you look at this objectively, there's a lot of good stuff in here, that's being proactive, and not just sitting on your heels and being defensive and trying to sneak up on your enemies, if you will, and hope that you're going to be able to eradicate their false message. The second tool tip trick that the Department of Agriculture has given us is of course, to report spotted lanternflies. When you encounter them, after you do your duty and you kill them, you're supposed to call the Department of Agriculture at 18884. Bad fly, that's the number for ba d f l y or go on to their website and say, Hey, here's where I encountered it, log that location. And that helps continue to build the database. But the problem is, we're on year three now of the spotted lantern fly. And a lot of people think well, obviously everybody knows they're around. Why would I go ahead and log an encounter with them? Everybody's encountering them? What good is this data? But the state is saying no, no, no, no, we want that data. Don't assume that we know where these things are. And again, back to you. That's the exact same thing that I see all the time as a coach in organizations, leaders have this false sense of security, because nobody is elevating these figurative spotted lantern flies up to their attention. So how the heck is that leader supposed to help eradicate them if he or she does not know they exist. So use those channels if you have access to them. And again, I'm not just talking about the compliance hotline or the equivalent of the spotted lantern flying hotline. But I'm talking about any channels, whether it's through one on ones casual conversations with leaders from up above, don't hold back because they don't want you to, but guess what, they're ignorant. They're ignorant to a lot of the problems. And it's because you're not using the fingertip hotline. And again, moving to the wider industry, what can you do? Well, again, you need to use the channels that are available. You need to maybe not call your newscasters but maybe you need to call your newscasters, maybe you as a leader need to get in front of them, you need to share the message again, you need to be proactive and use those channels that are there. If you want to go and be brave enough to go use those channels to share what information you have about the facts about the energy lies the equivalent of the spotted lantern flies that are out there. You need to go and use those channels just as Pennsylvanians are accused, accused or encouraged rather, to use those hotlines. The third consideration that you need to have in mind is the use of predators. And predators are one of the things that scientists I'm sure on other buildings here on campus at the University of Pittsburgh are working on but basically finding a predator that can attack and help eradicate the spotted lantern fly. But because these things came over from China, there is no natural predator here in the United States. And so there's discussions about introducing some other species including some from China to fight the spotted lantern fly here on our soil and again is as scary and as concerning as that sounds. That is one common methodology when you have invasive species whether they're of the insect variety or the plant variety, another avenue which I have not confirmed so maybe I shouldn't spread rumors and hearsay maybe you need to squash this but after lunch this week with two individuals who shall not be named they said that actually here in the United States some entities are actually trying to train existing predators here to try and attack the spotted lantern fly I don't know get them to to go after these things that they would otherwise ignore. So again, all kinds of different avenues that bring it back to you as a leader. What predators can you employ to attack these things? Do you need to bring in other resources do you need to use employment engagement surveys do

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you need to bring in coaches like me to have these conversations to hunt out these issues that aren't getting to your attention in a timely manner or in a complete manner? What can you do to bring in predators to hunt these things down? And again, as we've been doing here, from a macro standpoint, what allies do you have outside the energy industry that you can align with, again, not as predators and the negative connotations there, but you know, who can you have to help hammer home, your positive message about everything that the oil and gas industry does, and has done will continue doing right here in southwestern Pennsylvania. And a great example of that, of course, is the trade unions. Trade unions have a great presence here in southwestern Pennsylvania and the energy industry has been aligning ourselves with them, because we have a shared vision of jobs of prosperity, of making sure that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania thrives and takes advantage of all of its natural resources, both in natural resources under our feet. And again, in the case of agriculture, protecting the fruits and vegetables and about the 70 species of plants that the spotted lantern fly are attracted to and are damaging, it's no different. You need to find allies, and you need to use them. And you need to use those predators, so to speak, to double, triple, quadruple your your attack power, if you will analyze and out the falsehoods that are impacting our industry. And the fourth piece, and maybe this isn't a formal Department of Agriculture, chip or requirement or request. But that fourth piece is that nobody is exempt from these responsibilities. You as a leader, of course, need to make it clear that if you are introducing figurative spotted lantern flies into the environment within your organization, somebody needs to squash those and tell you that you need to stop it. Or again, from a public standpoint, if you are unwittingly out there with messaging that might be counteracting the overall message, the positive message of the energy industry, maybe somebody needs to reel you in. But have you empowered people to do that? Or are you just off on your own doing what you think makes sense? Again, nobody's exempt. And you need to make sure that anybody is empowered to squash the figurative lantern flies that they come across. So all that being said, as always, I appreciate your time and attention tuning in today and learning a little bit about the spotted lantern fly, especially if you're not from here in Pennsylvania, or some of the surrounding states that are dealing with this problem. And of course, as always, I encourage your feedback. And if you have any questions about predatory tactics, or you know different ways to have an internal hotline to identify these problems, I welcome that conversation. Because in large part, that is what I do as a coach, I enjoy attacking these problems head on, especially when leaders like you aren't fully aware of what the problem entails, where it's coming from, and what you can do about it. So that being said, armed yourself with whatever information is out there, whether it's silly podcasts or conversations like this, or more seriously some of the information that as I said earlier, the Marcellus Shale coalition has put out this week. As always, I'll link to some of that information in the show notes along with this episode. And can I encourage you to not just take a look at that information, but take it and give it to your people and power them. And again, I will emphasize for I don't know the 20th time today to require your people don't just give them permission to go out and share this information but require them to go out and squash these falsehoods squash these figurative spotted lantern flies that threaten their well being not just as an employee of the industry, but as a stakeholder of the industry, which we all are. So that being said thank you again for tuning in and hope to catch you next time. Right here on the energy detox

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