Get Off the Fence: Leadership Lessons for a Warming World, with Charlie Sheppard

🎙️ Episode: Get Off the Fence – Leadership Lessons for a Warming World

What happens when leadership replaces drama with disciplined choice?

This week, I sit down with Charles Sheppard — author, professor of leadership, and founder of World Bridge University — to explore how systems thinking can help us move from confusion to clarity in the face of climate change.

Charlie has spent decades helping people and organizations escape the Drama Triangle — the cycle of Victim, Rescuer, and Adversary — and replace it with The Leadership Triangle: Visionary, Catalyst, and Coach. Now he’s applying that same framework to the climate crisis.

We talk about why so many people still sit on the fence, how disinformation and social media shape our beliefs, and what it means to lead — in our families, workplaces, and communities — when the stakes couldn’t be higher.

💬 In this episode:

• Why leadership and systems thinking are key to tackling the climate crisis
• How to reach the “middle 60%” who still sit on the fence
• The role of language, storytelling, and education in climate communication
• What we can learn from his new venture, World Bridge University
• How AI (and even biotech!) fit into his vision for a better future

🌍 About Charles Sheppard

Charles Sheppard is a Professor of Leadership, author of Get Off the Fence and Save Your Drama for Your Mama, and founder of World Bridge University. He’s also the cofounder of Arjuna Therapeutics, a biotech company developing breakthrough cancer treatments — and a passionate advocate for systems thinking, education reform, and climate leadership.

🪴 Connect with Charles

• Website
• Book: Get Off the Fence – Amazon
• LinkedIn
• World Bridge University
• Arjuna Therapeutics

🌟 If you enjoyed this episode

Please share it with a friend or colleague who’s ready to get off the fence.

And if you haven’t yet, subscribe to Stories for the Future on your favorite platform — or join me on Substack for behind-the-scenes reflections and future fluency insights.

Want to be a guest on Stories for the future: Beyond the Bubble? Send Veslemoy Klavenes-Berge a message on PodMatch.

You can always find more information about the podcast and my work on storiesforthefuture.com