It Starts Early

If you work in oil and gas and read the news, how do you keep going?

What do you say at the dinner table?

How do you feel when someone at a school event asks what you do?

It must feel confusing. Even painful.

You trained as an engineer - not to challenge the system, but to work within it. You probably didn’t learn about Doughnut Economics or regenerative leadership.

You entered a sector with strong rules, clear goals, and its own story about success.

That story is hard to question from the inside.

And yet, many people feel the tension:

How can I find purpose in something that harms the world I care about?

This came up recently in a conversation with a leader in oil and gas.

They described the dissonance. The discomfort. The growing urge to do something different - but not knowing how.

Every industry has blind spots.

In aviation, it’s “get people to fly more.”

In oil and gas, it’s “extract more.”

In both, the logic runs deep:

Compete. Win. Stay quiet. Don’t share too much.

These beliefs start early. At school. At university. On your first day at work.

Over time, they become part of who we are.

Like a coat we didn’t choose - but wear anyway, because it fits.

At To Focus, we believe that leadership can regenerate.

We’ve seen it. But it takes time. It takes tools. And it takes courage.

That’s why we work with leaders over nine months.

Because change isn’t a quick fix - it’s a transformation.

Leaders are always telling stories. In what they say. In how they show up.

Our work is to help them tell new ones - ones that lead to real change.

As the old story goes: the sun’s warmth is more powerful than the wind.

We coach with warmth, not force.

Because if the coat is going to come off, it has to be your choice.