Wet activism: Swimming against the tide of dominant stories
As I wrap up the edits on my book Story-Centred Leadership, I keep circling back to the stuck stories that dominate so much of our thinking, including humans as rulers over nature. It’s a story that shapes policies and values ecosystems only for what can be taken from them, not our interconnection with them.
This isn’t theory for me. I swim year-round in the Thames and recently those cold-water dips have become political. “Wet activism” feels like our new reality. For the last two Fridays, the irrepressible Teddington Bluetits (my fellow river-lovers) and I have been joined by members of the London Assembly and local MPs—including Sir Ed Davey— to talk about:
Our support for more designated bathing spots in London
Our opposition to a proposed Thames Water River Abstraction scheme
Why? The Thames Water plan is built on the mindset of extraction. An industry source quoted in the Guardian recently said, “Father Thames is going to get hit because you’re taking clean water out and putting dirty water back in”—all for a project that could cost customers up to £535m, yet only be used less than 10% of the time.
But imagine if the river could speak for itself. Some pioneers are bringing non-human voices into policy. Phoebe Tickell’s Moral Imaginations team, for instance, convened an experimental interspecies council with DEFRA to explore how more-than-human perspectives can be represented in policy development. In Barking, they also brought together a group of trained participants to imagine the needs of species around the River Roding.
In my book, I challenge the metaphors that keep some stories stuck. What if we swapped out our “mechanistic” metaphors (all inputs/outputs) for ecological ones that reconnect us to nature? Emma Fromberg’s doctoral thesis on using “the forest” as a metaphor for the circular economy is inspiring. It’s a hopeful reminder: stories and metaphors can shift.
I’ll share more when Story-Centred Leadership launches later this year. Meanwhile, I’m still diving into final edits… and the river.
Question for you:
What metaphors shape the way you see nature, work or leadership? Drop your thoughts or favourite stories below—I’d love to hear them!