006 – Mats Larsson – The Blind Guardians of Ignorance: Covid-19, Sustainability, and Our Vulnerable

The Systems Engineering Podcast

Interview with Mats Larsson author of: The Blind Guardians of Ignorance: Covid-19, Sustainability, and Our Vulnerable. A handbook for change leaders, young and old.

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blind-Guardians-Ignorance-Sustainability-Vulnerable/dp/1788360486

MATS’S WEB LINKS:

• http://getinstitute.com/mats-r-larsson/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/mats-larsson-4098392/

Podcast Page:

https://www.joshuasutherland.com/podcast-006/

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Intro – Music
• 00:10 Intro – Mats Larsson
• 00:53 Explain the book title
• 01:37 What are the challenges for the future?
• 03:41 Sustainability is not about the environment? Peak oil?
• 06:12 Book structure. 1. Age of Ignorance. 2. Driving the Change. 3. Starting the Transformation.
• 08:34 The Age of Ignorance. Covid-19 exposes production challenges? Economic growth challenges? How to maintain growth?
• 16:20 What is the end state? Where do we want society to go?
• 18:46 Who is working on the economic research for stable state economies?
• 20:04 Why not follow Elon Musk to Mars?
• 22:59 Taking for granted luxuries of the modern world? Production systems are fragile?
• 25:46 How does Covid-19 change your thinking on these topics?
• 30:08 Efficiency removes buffers, but we need buffers for resilience?
• 32:31 Economic measures of resilience?
• 36:46 Growth model is in the human spirit? In our DNA?
• 40:16 “A handbook” for change leaders. What is a handbook and who is a change leader?
• 45:10 Change management. How slow change can be in large companies. Can we make such big changes in a quick time? Like WW2? Examples of these large endeavours.
• 54:13 Does IT technology not make things easier now to meet the challenges?
• 57:48 People are now experts. No one is looking at the big picture and addressing the big picture problems?
• 1:01:11 People are more interested in sustainability now, but are Greta’s environmental protests useful? What should people do?
• 1:05:45 Large companies often have people with the skills needed. Business managers.
• 1:06:38 How did Mats get into this area?
• 1:10:06 Change in public awareness of the ideas over the last 30 years
• 1:14:07 How are these projects financed?
• 1:17:05 Electric vehicles. What is your advice for auto executives and governments?
• 1:24:24 Governments need to finance breakthrough technologies?
• 1:27:40 Do we need competition to tackle the challenges of the future? USA vs. China vs. EU ?
• 1:37:30 Tesla created their own infrastructure for electric vehicle charging. Good idea?1:41:36 We need people to run experiments of business models for sustainability?
• 1:48:35 What are the key points you would like a reader to take away from reading your book?
• 1:53:36 Rate to convert conventional vehicles to electric vehicles
• 2:00:25 How to get the book. When it is out? What is the cover like?
• 2:02:26 Final thoughts
• 2:04:03 Contact details