Dream with Conscience and Humanity with Veronica Lysaght

Hello, my name is Tracey Sinclair. Welcome to Coaching in Conversation. Coaching in Conversation is a chance to discuss and explore, not just how we can keep developing and improving. Ensuring as coach practitioners, but also to consider how coaching is evolving and its future potential and place as a powerful vehicle for human development in today's and tomorrow's world. I'll be sharing some of my own thoughts on these topics. And we will also hear from some great guests from around the world who bring their unique experience and perspectives. Hello, everyone. It's Tracy Sinclair, and I am very happy to welcome you to another episode of our podcast, Coaching in Conversation. Today, I am talking to a lady called Veronica Lysacht. Who is has a master's in counseling. She's also a PCC coach and she's also worked as one of the leaders for the International Coaching Federation on our team managing Europe, Middle East and Africa. However, , at the moment, Veronica is using her coaching skills and nurturing and supporting the deployment of coaching. in a very interesting way. She is working on a project called Novara One Planet. I don't want to tell you too much more about it because I want her to share that story, but it's very interesting, very exciting, incredibly adventurous. And a way that she is finding to really use coaching in such a meaningful and practical and impactful way around the world. I really hope you enjoy this conversation. And this episode is called Dream with conscience and humanity. It's lovely to reconnect with you, Veronica. And I'm very excited for this conversation because as some of our listeners may know, coaching in conversation is really intended to look at How is coaching being used around the world? How is coaching evolving? How is coaching supporting the world, supporting society, supporting the planet? All of those lovely, big, rich questions around not just what coaching is, but also what it could be. And I know I'm it feels like I'm a child at Christmas waiting to open a present because I know that you are involved in such an exciting project and I've been holding off hearing too much about it for our conversation so that we can tell everyone what you've been doing. So I'm not going to say any more than that. I would like to hand over to you to start telling us the story and whatever you would like to share about Novara One Planet. Okay. Lovely. Thank you, Tracy. Thank you. Lovely to reconnect as well. So Navara is the name of our boat and Navara is a, for those who sail, she's a 60 foot aluminium schooner. So that means she's got two masts of the same height. Now that's the technical bit. What we're doing when we purchased Navara, which was about a year ago, but we'd been working on her for it for 18 months prior to that, we had the intention of working with communities around the world on climate change adaptation. So I'm If you don't know the accent, I'm a New Zealander, and my husband Nigel and I and our daughter Ella, we have lived in France and then the UK, and we, my husband always had this dream that we would sail back to New Zealand, and I went, oh yeah and then about 2019, my sister died, and quite suddenly. January 2019, and I got back from her this dream of yours, let's make it happen. And and he said let's do it with a purpose. And I said, and let's go home an interesting way. So the interesting way is via the Northwest Passage. And the purpose is to work on climate change adaptation. So we have put that into action, like any good. Coach. You set a goal and then you say how do you make it happen? And so over the period of the last few years, that's what we've been working towards. And a year ago, we sold our house to buy the boat. And and in May in April, Nigel moved on board and then in May, I moved on board and Navara is now our home and our place of work and where we do life. How does it relate to coaching? So I have a background in coaching and prior to that I have a master's in counseling. I am a PCC coach and, coaching is really one of the key skills that I'm using when we're on Navara. So when we work with communities, I'm using that group work and probably it's more facilitation than it is coaching because it's new communities that people are coming together and we're discussing. Maybe it's a participatory mapping exercise and we're looking at what actions need to be happening in a particular community and how might they. come to pass. And then I've, over the last six months, we've been working with a group of communities in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and I have connected many of those people with coaches to to assist them, really, to keep going and keep those projects underway. One of the experiences is with the carbon neutral islands and I've connected up some of the community development offices within what's called the carbon neutral islands, six islands in Scotland that are aiming to be carbon neutral by 2040 and connected those to a coach who's going to assist them to, in their work essentially. More on the mentoring side of things is that my husband has experience in. Funding projects that for essentially climate change projects. And he is also running it's a mentoring and a. A little bit of coaching but mostly mentoring scheme for communities where there is somebody saying I want to get this project to happen, they have a limited amount of money, how might they use that in a better way. So there's some coaching and some mentoring involved in that as well. So the skills of coaching are really sitting well into the project of Novara One Planet. Wow. It's so exciting, isn't it? And I'd love to hear a bit more, Veronica, about, clearly, coaching is a wonderful thing. We're preaching to the converted here, of course. And. The agenda of climate change is also incredibly important. What's significant for you about bringing those two things together in terms of the initiative and the, the journey that you and your husband are taking here? I think what's most significant is that this is about collaboration. We, when I started, when we, so this boat is a specialized adventure yacht. She's made for going into what's called high latitudes, so Arctic, Antarctic. She has already been with the previous owners to both. And that's all fine and dandy. And when I started investigating what would we do? There was. An attitude about she's an adventure yacht. She ought to go to do adventurous things. And yet I consider an adventurous thing to be our contribution to climate change because The, for those who agree that climate change is man made and even those who don't, it's a bit hard, I think, looking at the changing weather patterns in Europe over the last few years and our summers and our winters, to say that climate change, that the climate is not changing. It is changing. Coaching and that. Coming together is about collaborating with those who actually want to make a difference to ensure that their community is resilient, is climate safe, and is it is going to adapt and change in the long term. Now all of those things are fundamental to coaching. Resilience, change making Allowing people to find their skill, what they're best at and using that for the benefit of them and their communities and the planet as a whole. So that resonance of this is essentially not one person's journey. This is not a hero's journey. In the past, a boat like this would have been used essentially for some bloke to say, yay, I've done it. And now the philosophy of this boat is to be used to collaborate with communities to say if it's, if the community wants it, how can our skills be of benefit to you? And if our skills are not of benefit to you, that's fine. Lovely to have met you. That's great. I come from a country that was colonized. So I'm not colonizing, there's a lot of philosophical things here about saying this is what coaching is about philosophically, which is that coaching is about allowing the person to be their very best. It's about all the control and the power is with the coachee, not with the coach. It's about saying, I have some skills that may be useful, but if you don't find them useful, that's fine too. It's about saying, what is it? A prompting or asking a question or facilitating something that might spark a thought that says, Oh maybe I could. And that's how it relates to coaching. Gosh, there are so many things firing around in my mind from what you've just shared, Veronica, but a couple of things that are really resonating with me. First of all, I loved your term adventurous things. And it feels like your boat is on an adventure. You are on an adventure. The communities that you're supporting are on an adventure. And coaching is also an adventure, isn't it? As you've said, it's about change and challenge and potential and all of, and resilience, and strengths, all of those things. So I love that side of it. And as I'm hearing you talk, it's almost as though, the boat that you're on is a being in this, it's is, I know you refer to her as she, which of course is quite understandable for a boat, but. You're talking about her as a member of this team. Oh, it's really coming across. Absolutely. Absolutely. She's when she's not just 60 foot of aluminium and reinforcement and insulation and all these things and systems that do my head in, really, but she has a I can, when we sound her, I can feel when she's comfortable. I can feel when she's at ease, we'll say, Oh, she's feeling well balanced or she likes that or no, she doesn't like that or that doesn't sound right or no, she's not happy or yes, she's happy now. Absolutely. Absolutely. I have a lot of affection for our lovely Navarra. Just like that, yeah she's our home. She keeps me safe. Yeah, I do. Yeah. What else do you need? And it's, and that has been a surprising aside is that I find I need very little. Now, we had a house that we just got rid of an enormous amount of collection of stuff to move out of. And now we're in the equivalent, it would be maybe a... 15 square meter apartment less in terms of our living space and it's fine, I don't need anything else. It's really strange. It's really strange. There's some lovely lessons I'm picking up here that I hope are helpful to those listening to this as well. It's certainly helpful to me around what you describe as philosophies of coaching and how that aligns with the philosophy that you and your husband are embarking upon with this trip. But also that sense of what do I really need, and that, that letting go, that simplicity, really, focusing in on what's truly important here. It just, it's just really speaking to me. And I would say that's where the project started. Because in 2019, when I came back from Helen's death, it was what's important is that we live life, right? We get one crack at this, so we live it the best that we can. And that's not the first young person who's died in my family. So it was It was how do I translate that lesson and put it into something positive for me and for those around me? And so it sits really solidly that when you look at what you need, you don't actually need a lot. You just, you, we need, Maslow's hierarchy of needs. We need food, shelter and I need a bit of. Adventure, stimulation, change. iF I wasn't a believer in change, I wouldn't be in this occupation for the number of years that I've been in. And and it's I'm not a royalist, but I'm going to quote Prince Philip when he retired at 90 something, who said, I've done my bit. When I get to the end of my life, I want to be able to say I've done my bit. And this is my bit. And sometimes people will come up to us, particularly when we've had tours of the boat, and people have come through the boat, and they've looked at it, and they'll talk to us. She's got a different sort of rig, so sailors always come and ask us whenever we're on a pontoon, we get sailors coming to ask us about how she's rigged. Anyhow and often they'll say, Oh, I'm jealous. And I think, Why are you jealous? You've got just as much an opportunity to find out what your dream is and do what your dream is. Just because this is what I've decided to do, that's where I think the coaching philosophy comes in, where you figure out what your dream is. Figure it out, and then figure out how to get there, how to put one foot in front of the other, have, commit to it, have confidence in yourself, and just take a step and go. And if you get it wrong, who cares, start again, whatever, learn. Oh wow, you make it sound so simple. Simple is not necessarily easy. Yeah. Yeah. Very simple. Yeah. It is actually simple, but that doesn't make it easy. And... And on that, Veronica what therefore do you think, with the adventure that you've embarked upon, that is a dream for you, a beautiful dream, I must say what has been difficult? What challenges you around all of this? Firstly, leaving our daughter behind. I thought it would be big seas. And now I think, nah, I'll be fine with those. The boat's safe. I'll hook on, put a life jacket on, we've got safety lines everywhere. Nah, that'll be all right. iT's been, interesting things have been, my husband had a lot more sailing experience than me, so working out how we share. Tasks, roles, power. That's been challenging. In 15 square meters, yes. Yes. So one of the first things I did was when we came on board and we were living on board is I couldn't get off because I couldn't drive the dinghy. I didn't know how to put the outboard in the water, get it on the dinghy and drive off. Now I do. So when we, so having to learn those things that allow me to have my independence. I think losing my, not losing my professional identity because I haven't, because I'm still coaching and I'm still doing work, so that's not it, but a change in my professional identity, seeing my professional identity as being coaching plus rather than coaching and seeing the Novara One Planet project tied up with that role of coaching. Yeah, that's some of the challenges. I could probably write a blog on each one, , yeah. What are you, what are you learning that's important then so far? You are obviously only partway through this whole expedition, as it were, but what's really coming out for you that is key learning for you, do you think? To keep being courageous, because this takes courage. It doesn't mean that I don't have it, but it takes courage. It takes courage to have a difficult conversation when you're on 15, when you're in a small confined space. It takes courage to do the physical things. To, we crossed the channel, it wasn't bad, it was two to three meters swell, but there was green waters or waves coming over the foredeck and I needed to go up forward and change a sail, to not change a sail, that's dramatic, to put a reef in. Anyhow, that's jargony. So to have the courage to do those things What else am I learning? I'm learning in Sheryl Sandberg language to lean in to instead of leaving the skippering and the navigation of the boat to Nigel because he's already got those skills to lean into learning them myself, which is part of the reason on the boat I've taken on the role of being the person who deals with the sails because otherwise I was just going to sit back and be a passenger rather than a partner in this adventure and that's not okay for either of us and it's not safe. sO it has been challenging myself every day to say, what can I learn today? And how could I do that in a way That's going to work, really. It's each day is a little coaching pit talk and off you go. It sounds like it. It sounds like it. Tell us a little bit more about the route, where you've been and where you're going. Okay, so we had Navara moored in Dover while we were preparing her, and then we we went to pool, we spoke at what's called the Ocean Cruising Club, so a whole lot of people who live on boats or cruise on boats, so do what's called blue water cruising, so longer than a thousand nautical miles. Long distances on boat. We spoke to them about climate change adaptation, and then we I went to New Zealand for a wedding, so I missed out on a couple of weeks as Nigel went up the Irish Sea to Campbelltown in Scotland, then we went through the Caledonian Canal and up to Shetland. We were, we spoke at the climate festival in Shetland in June and then we to Fair Isle, then the Orkney Isle, Orkney Isles On, and we worked with one of the carbon neutral islands on ho and walls on ney. Then we went through to Stoneway in the top of the outer Heide to the north of the outer Heide, then to Rui, which is between Sky and the mainland. Then crossed the minch again back out to the outer Hebert debar, where we spoke at a science festival then to Isla. And again, worked on the. wiTh the community there on climate change adaptation and then Isle of Man, down the Irish Sea, crossed the Channel to France, and then have crossed the Bay of Biscay. to Spain and down the Spanish and Portugal coast. And we're currently sitting south in southern Portugal. We're going to have some work done on the boat over the next week or two, and then we're going to Morocco to work with the community in Agadir, and then to the Canaries, and then to the Caribbean, then up the east coast of the Americas, then through the Northwest Passage, and then into the Pacific. So there are, why that route? There are three main coastal communities that are most impacted by climate change and they're the Caribbean, the Arctic, and the Caribbean. So we were determined that we were going to have tho those three regions would be part of this adventure. And you said the three are, again, Caribbean, the Pacific, and the Arctic. So you are targeting and going to connect with each of those three. Marvelous. So how long before this whole initiative, when you're expecting to complete? I don't think we'll get we will officially on track at the moment, we will get to Alaska around September, October 2025. So in two years time, and then we have the whole of the Pacific Ocean, which covers nearly half the globe to cover. So 26 ish. 26, yeah, maybe into 27. Who knows? Who knows? Who knows? Who knows? And that's a learning, to really, probably this is one of the biggest changes that I've had to take on board, is that we are subject to the wind, to the weather, to the climate, and we go when the wind, the tide allows us to go. Now if it doesn't allow us to go, then we don't go. And the patterns of climate are changing. We have a shorter window that we can cross the Atlantic in. We have a shorter period of time and that we can be in the Caribbean for. And the hurricane season is growing and becoming, so expanding in terms of geography, going further north and further south, as well as becoming a longer season. So that then determines what we can do. And then the ice is melting. And that means that there's a lot of ice coming down into the Arctic, which is actually, ironically, clogging the Northwest Passage. We can only go when the Northwest Passage is free for us to go through, and we might not make it through. We may get stuck. We may have to turn around. We may have to overwinter. We go when and where we can go. And that's it. And that's a totally different philosophy, again, from saying, I'm going to be on Tuesday afternoon at 3pm, I'm going to be sitting in an office or getting on a flight or whatever. You make those plans knowing, eh maybe not. Change. Even you and I took three cracks. Yeah. I was just thinking about that. We are third time lucky. Yes, absolutely. So in a way, the mission here is around climate change and you're living with climate change within this whole process. in terms of how you plan your journeying. And if people that are listening are as intrigued as I am about this and would like to know more about what you're doing, maybe follow you or whatever, where could they find out more? Okay, so our website is novara. world november, Oscar, Victor, Alpha, Romeo, Alpha, dot world. Or they can follow us on Instagram, Novara One Planet, or on Facebook as well. And I'm posting regularly on LinkedIn about what I'm doing as well. And, Happy really for anybody to connect at any time. Would love to hear from anyone. Particularly love to hear from coaches who may be interested in working with you on the Coaching with Conscience around supporting not for profit. Organizations that we're working with. Absolutely. Absolutely. This is just such a wonderful example of where coaching in just such a meaningful way can just be plugged in to some of these communities. Yeah. And add some value. I think it's, I think it's wonderful. And. Before we start to bring this to a pause, I could talk to you about this forever Veronica, but before we start to bring today's episode to a pause, is there anything around all of this that we've not shared that you would like to share to anyone listening in terms of what you're doing and why you're doing it? Anything that you'd like to share as a parting comment? I would just say dream. Whatever it is that, I would say, dream with a conscience and with humanity. If you think that you can make a difference, or that's probably, or do your bit, then talk to someone about how you might make that happen. Because It's surprising the number of people who will support you when you start saying I'm doing this because I think that it's valuable. I think that it's valuable that it has a value, as you say, to the world, not necessarily what has a value to individuals and to the world. Wow. Wonderful words, Veronica. And climate permitting, it would be wonderful if you and I could connect. I want to connect with you again soon anyway, but I'm thinking it would be lovely to. Hear more about this initiative, perhaps once you've done some of the work, either in Agadir or in the Caribbean, it might be lovely to hear a little bit more around some of those specific projects that are being done in those communities. Would that. Would you be up for that? Absolutely. So one of the things we are doing is linking some of the island communities in Scotland with some of the island communities in the Caribbean to say what are the lessons that can be learned between the two. We're also contributing to the Global Centre for Adaptation on the projects that are working so that there's a knowledge base there where people can share best practice essentially around what people are doing in adaptation. I think we have moved, although the focus politically has been on mitigation, we have moved past that now. Mitigation, we're not going to meet our targets, we're not going to stop this climate change happening, so we need to look at what do we do as it is happening. Yeah, how do we adapt? And how do we adapt? How do we change? Yes, absolutely. How do we adapt and change? That takes us right back to coaching again, doesn't it? Yeah thank you so much, Veronica. I really hope that people listening to this are as excited and impressed by what you're doing as I am. What a wonderful combination, to bring coaching To something so important and so meaningful to such far flung parts of the world in many cases for such an important reason and to be fulfilling a life dream at the same time what's not to love about that? What's not to love, exactly. Thank you so much, Tracy. Really lovely to talk with you. Thank you Veronica and Bon voyage as you continue. Thank you,. Thank you. You have been listening to Coaching in Conversation. By Tracy Sinclair, a podcast aimed at exploring how coaching is a vehicle for human development in today's and tomorrow's world. You can learn more about coach training and development at Tracy Sinclair dot com and follow us on social media. If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a rating and review, and also share it with your networks to help us expand our reach. Thank you for listening and see you next time.