Dear members of the Compass Education community,
Recently, I was a no-show at Compass Education’s global retreat. How embarrassing! As you may know if you read my blog or saw my LinkedIn essay, I have been recovering from stress-related exhaustion that first hit me at the end of 2024 (Chronicle of a CEO Burnout, 15 April 2025). I am much better, but on the day of the retreat, I apparently had a minor relapse. I was tired and just never looked at my phone or computer, and so missed logging in.
But that was certainly no reflection on my love for Compass Education. I wish I could have been there in person to tell the participants how much the organisation means to me, how happy I am to see it moving forward, to see you all moving forward. How much I admire what you are all doing, and have done.
It is remarkable to watch this enterprise, which grew out of my former consulting firm getting stronger and stronger and affecting so many many schools, teachers, students, lives. I closed the firm when I went into government service, but Compass Education lives on! It is truly powered by love — love for students, love for the work, love for our planetary home. I so deeply appreciate that.
In my talk at the global retreat, I would have told everyone a bit about the origins of the Sustainability Compass, and a little about what I see as current challenges to doing sustainability work. But you can actually read the whole story of the Compass’s origins at my blog — https://alanatkisson.com/2021/12/03/compass-pyramid-amoeba/ — and the current challenges to sustainability are unfortunately quite plain to all of us right now. This is a “two steps forward, one step back” moment in some parts of the world.
But I note, or at least I hope, that in education, the value of sustainability, and a systems approach to it, is (mostly) still understood for what it is. A great way, indeed an indispensable way, to help young people prepare for the future they are inheriting.
What I especially wanted to say at the global retreat is that you are all leaders in this. I am the son of two high-school teachers, and a long-time professional trainer (among other things), so I have some feeling for the work you do, as teachers, administrators, educational coaches and consultants of various kinds. What you do is true leadership: being there, giving consistent, thoughtful, person-centered guidance, supporting organisational change and personal growth in the mostly-incremental, daily-steps way that change usually happens.
We are going to keep needing that kind of leadership in sustainability work. For a long time to come.
I am working on some new writing that I hope will be of use to you in the future. You can catch a glimpse of it at my blog, as part of a keynote speech I gave at a recent academic conference. If Nicole and the Compass Education team will have me, I promise to show up for this group at a later time — but this time, with multiple alarms set and failsafe systems in place to assure my participation.
My warmest regards to everyone in the far-flung Compass Education community, and my profound hopes for your continued success – individually, organisationally, and globally.
— Alan AtKisson
Inventor of the Sustainability Compass and Developer of the Compass Tools
Author
Alan AtKisson
Alan AtKisson has worked at the forefront of sustainability, sustainable development, and systemic change since 1988, helping to create initiatives, design tools and methods, and lead organisations aiming to make transformation happen. He has held multiple leadership positions, including as Assistant Director-General (equivalent to Executive Vice-President) at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency - Sida, where he directed global
programs in research, innovation, strengthening civil society, and mobilising private investment. At Sida, he formally represented the Government of Sweden in many international development contexts. Alan has also served as a strategic advisor to many other governments, cities, companies, and the United Nations. He has keynoted, presented, or lectured for hundreds of audiences around the world, and several of his books have been
translated into multiple languages. Alan believes in using scientific analysis as well as creativity in all its forms to advance sustainability. He is the inventor or lead developer of several widely-used learning models and training methods, including the Sustainability Compass and the Amoeba Game; and he is also a songwriter whose music has been highlighted at official UN and EU events. A dual citizen of Sweden and the United States, he lives in Stockholm.
