From climate skeptics to corporate teams: how to deal with denial (part 1)
Here's an answer I found over my career as a psychological researcher and business consultant.
One of the most common questions I get as a psychologist helping people working on social change, especially environmental issues, is: “how do I deal with climate deniers?”
A significant challenge facing the environmental movement, and those working in it, are the lingering impacts of various educational, political, and media system takeovers by players in the fossil fuel industry.
As I’m sure you know, the public has yet to reach a consensus on climate change. The worst reports are in, countries worldwide remain politically divided over climate action, and there are United States school districts that still face opposition to climate change curriculum. Meanwhile, the temperature still rises.
In the face of these concerning realities, many in environmental, energy and climate industries—including those embedded inside large multinationals—have approached me to ask about my research, my approaches and their applications.
What are those approaches?
As some of you know who have been tracking my work for some time, I find psychological understandings of denial, a well-known and nuanced defense mechanism, to be essential experience, but especially for those in the business of change.
Anyone in the field of any kind of system change can tell you—and you may know from your own experience—denial is often confounding and derailing.
I offer you this insight with the humbling truth that I can’t promise you a guaranteed result. What I can promise you, however, are insights for change-making that are rooted in clinical best-practices, backed up by mountains of evidence-based research, grounded in perennial wisdom traditions, and praised for their effectiveness in difficult situations.
We have our own difficult situation …
I want you to consider this idea before I tell you how you’re going to help other people through their denial: we’re all struggling with climate denial.
Myself included. And I don’t mean the “this isn’t happening/it’s not real/it’s fabricated” kind of denial, although, we’ll get to that. I mean the more nuanced type of denial. We freeze, shut down, or tune out to different degrees.
From climate skeptics, to stalled out corporate teams, to ourselves, what I’m going to share with you helps in all of these cases.
We need oxygen
Imagine you’re rafting down a fast river then suddenly—your vessel tips over and begins to float away.
Any reasonable person would find their survival instincts activated and cling to the first branch or stone they could for safety.
I’m oversimplifying a bit, but psychologically, learning about and engaging with complex issues like climate change has this effect.
It’s disruptive, alarming, confusing… all the things. And we cling to what helps us feel safe. We don’t have branches and stones, we have beliefs and identities—ones that aren’t always aligned to our respective causes, missions, or objectives.
If Guides are the ones arriving in a lifeboat, convincing this person to let go and join us, we better make sure they can come up for air. So, "pockets"—small, intentional spaces for safety, respite, openness, dialogue, sensemaking, and connection, i.e. oxygen
In my time as a researcher…
What I have found during my research in Green Bay, Wisconsin—and subsequently with communities around the world, from Republican climate skeptics to graduate students in the Tibetan Plateau—is when people are met with curiosity and inquiry, a lot changes. We hear ourselves speak, and we can find ourselves acknowledging what is so hard to admit. That we care, are scared and want a better world. It just needs some space to get us there oftentimes.
What are 'Pockets'?
Pockets are moments or spaces we intentionally create to allow our experience, and conversations, to breathe. It’s a zone of: “you are safe here, to be yourself, feeling, sensing, responding, integrating.”
They are intentionally free from immediate goals, transactional motives, or pressures to act. There is no agenda.
Instead, these moments and spaces invite curiosity, trust, and vulnerability, which are prerequisites for approaching denial. And prerequisites for navigating our hugely complex systemic breakdowns and breakthroughs.
Pockets aren’t about fixing problems or providing answers—they’re about being present and allowing space.
In that gap, we get oxygen. Change can even occur.
How to Create 'Pockets': A Practical Guide
Here are five steps to intentionally hold space in those vital moments:
1. Set the Intention: To initiate a conversation like this—in any kind of gathering, whether it’s a board meeting, Town Hall, what have you—clarify the intention. You’re here to understand. It can look like internal commitments, or a set of guidelines. “What do you know/think/feel about this?”, “What have you felt?” Stick to this intention. People are hungry for this.
2. Set the Tone: You are an active component of this process—unless you bring in a facilitator like me (but even then, if I can help it). The point is, your own ability to regulate matters. Remain curious, calm, and attentive in these spaces.
3. Active Listening 100%: Focus on listening to understand, not to respond. Resist the urge to interrupt or solve problems (also known in MI as ‘Righting’). Practice reflecting back.
4. Ask Guided, Open-Ended Questions: Think about the Three As and ask questions that leave room for a response. Questions like, 'What makes you anxious about climate action/climate change?' can invite connection and relief.
5. Honor Silence: Sometimes, the most meaningful moments happen in silence. Don’t rush to fill pauses yourself all the time—let them breathe.
As highlighted in The Secret To Talking About Climate Change, the key is not to argue, persuade, convince or pitch. And this is where our skills in navigating denial really matter. It is vital to seek to understand, and listen, to what Three As—Anxiety, Ambivalence, Aspirations—are underneath our varieties of denialism. What are we scared of, anxious about losing, or feeling conflicted or torn about? Practice really listening. And asking questions. Save your reactivity for later when you are alone, with a friend or out on a run or walk to process.
An Invitation
This week, I invite you to experiment with creating a pocket—whether it’s with a friend, stranger, colleague, or even yourself. Notice how it feels to slow down, listen deeply, and give space for something new to emerge.
Let’s continue building these small, powerful spaces together.
Blessings for a peaceful and healthy entrance into a new year.
x Renée
P.S. I do teach and ‘guide’ these tools, methods and approaches, with teams inside big companies, and am happy to discuss any number of engagements that bring this work into the hands of those who can best use it! I love working with groups, teams and leaders. I am passionate about scaling a psychological literacy for existential change, because this work enables us to help others with ease and push new boundaries for climate action. Please do reach out if I ever catch your interest. Always open to ideas for speaking, workshops, and engagements with your boards, grantees, or groups.
End Of The Year Recap (More resources)
It’s been an exciting 2024 …
I started this Substack!! Woohoo! Thank you for subscribing, sharing and amplifying.
To kick it off, I shared this piece drafted earlier in the year about ‘so-called impact gatherings’ and provided lots of specific guidance and suggestions. This got a lot of traction and the attention of several noteable curators and conveners. It matters A LOT how we convene, use our resources and design impactful events.
I recently spoke in-depth about this critical role of convening, skillful curation and faciliating impact spaces, and much more, for World of Wisdom with the lovely and insightful Iceland-based Amit Paul.
On the CSO Impact podcast by Futur/io, you can hear more about the nature of my work advising CSOs and leadership teams, creating programs to enable systemic change inside big companies, and emotional intelligence as baseline.
In a feature with ING, we explore how vulnerability, self reflection, and compassion can make an appearance in our work inside business.
This explainer video, produced by The Alliance for Climate Education (ACE), became my most viewed post on LinkedIn to date. This project was to help high schoolers talk about climate change with their parents, but I saw it resonate with a far larger audience than just them!
I also had the pleasure to speak at the Katapult Conference, for NBC’s audience via morning news segment, with tech leaders at Verge in San Jose, and many more opportunities that showed me how eager the world is to dive into a relational approach to our existential change work.
BONUS! A colleague surfaced this wonderful piece in The New Republic from 2021. You tell me: Still relevant?
(Technically it’s for 2025, but…) I’ll be heading to SF on January 9th for “Bridging Sustainability and The Wellness of You”. Come join if you’re in town! I will lead an interactive workshop on Guiding, and convene an incredible panel.
Also… let’s get social:
Find me on BlueSky: @drreneelertzman.bsky.social
Follow my LinkedIn for more musings: linkedin.com/in/reneelertzman
Like what you read? Leave a comment below!
I always feel that I learn something new and valuable in reading your work.
Very much appreciated this evocation of the power of 'pockets.' May I ask, what is 'MI'? Ie 'known in MI as righting?' Love the term 'righting' -- never heard before!