Helen Locher

#55 Solving Environmental Problems
with Dr. Helen Locher

“Go with what you are most excited and passionate about, and the career aspects of that will fall into place… so just trust that that will happen.” 

Helen and I met at an Australian Company Directors event and I was instantly enthralled by her level of knowledge and experience. Helen’s current main role is delivering targeted international consulting services related to sustainable hydropower.

This podcast is very different. Usually talking with a guest, we keep the conversation at an individual level; who they are, what they do, what they believe. We got to that in the second half of this podcast; but my conversation with Helen today, focuses more on the upstream practices of global partnerships and organisational responsibility for the growing trend of climate change and power necessities of our world. Which I find incredibly fascinating.

“I think organisations need to step up… it makes time and engagement…but we have to shift some of the ways we approach things” 

Dr. Helen Locher is a remarkable lady. She has won multiple awards and most recently, the Women with Hydro Vision Award, at the International HydroVision conference, USA. She has really paved her way into working for over 25 years in the Hydropower Industry and in her words, her main focus is on how she can solve environmental problems in this industry that undoubtably has a stigma of the environmental impact it has.

I took so much away from this conversation today, especially how Helen navigated her way around ever evolving personal and professional lives. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to speak with Helen and share her wisdom with you. I hope you enjoy it too.

“We reached consensus and that was not expected… and it was a real achievement and it was a game changer for the sector as a whole.”

Topics covered in this podcast:
•   The specific work Helen did that was recognised by her ‘Women with Hydro Vision Award’ (2019)
•   What makes a successful partnership and adapting this for consensus building
•   Mentorship
•   How can hydro be used sustainably to meet the growing power needs of our world?
•   Social licensing of businesses
•   How businesses can ‘step-up’
•   The four types of thinking
•   Empowering ourselves and releasing the guilt for playing wilder
•   Personal development leading career progression in multiple disciplines
•   Starting on massive projects and adventures and how to navigate through them
•   What lies ahead for Helen in 2020

“I work with a lot of experts and I feel like I’m not an expert in anything…I don’t want to just do that (one thing). I’m more interested in how you can bring it together and the ‘so what?’… I’m like the integrator.”