Ask a Climate Therapist: How do I avoid getting trapped in the system I hope to change?

Dear Leslie, I work as a civil engineer, and I want to change the way roadway projects are seen, from constant expansion to holistic community-led improvement — but I feel like I don’t have enough traction as an entry-level employee. I am scared I will get sucked into the system as it is now and never effect the change I envision. How do I make sure I don’t fall into this trap? — A Worried Engineer Submit a question for a future Ask a Climate Therapist column Dear Worried Engineer, While it might not feel like it, your concern is an asset: It signals that you’re aware of how systems suppress creativity and reward business as usual. You’re right that as an entry-level worker, you may need to take the long view and build credibility before you can shift your organization’s culture and policies. This approach is called strategic patience — an intentional practice you draw on while you’re working toward values-based change. (It’s completely different from capitulation, which involves rationalizing a particular story so you can feel OK about your workplace or industry as it is.) Think of this as a time for reconnaissance and field research on your part. Keep your eyes wide open to the specific challenges you think your organization needs to overcome in order to adopt the more holistic, community-based approach that you want to see in action — and write about it, to help keep yourself on track and hone your ideas about how to transform some of the established practices in your field. Ask a Climate Therapist tackles your questions about how to navigate the emotional side of climate change, with leading climate-aware therapist Leslie Davenport. Have a question? Ask it here! The “trap” that you want to avoid also has a name: bureaucratic absorption, the gradual process by which people who enter systems intending to change them are instead changed by them. So, how can you avoid falling into that? Most climate psychology tools fo