Sustainability initiatives can’t be driven through an organization the way other changes can. They have three distinct stages, and each requires different organizational capabilities and leadership competencies.
Many companies are well aware of the need to make their businesses more sustainable but stumble
badly in making that transition. Often they mistakenly assume that the sustainability initiative will
require a single, sustained effort over years when, in fact, it will entail three distinct phases, each needing different leadership skills on the part of the executive heading the effort.
In phase 1, the sustainability leader must be able to communicate a compelling vision and gain buy-in
from key opinion formers in the organization. In addition, the leader must help identify, define and
develop a specific set of business processes that are geared to manage previously unquantified risks and capture new opportunities.
When a company emerges from phase 1, commercial orientation becomes the key competence. Now
the task is to translate high-level commitments into a comprehensive change program with clearly
defined initiatives and hard commercial targets. To make this happen, sustainability leaders in phase 2
must excel at delivering results, and they must have a strong commercial awareness. At the end of this
phase, sustainability becomes an organization-wide imperative that is tracked through economic, environmental and social metrics over the business planning cycle.
In phase 3, the need for commercial orientation continues unabated but is matched by a strong strategic
orientation. The sustainability leader must be adept at anticipating and evaluating long-term sustainability trends, spotting new opportunities and developing strategies to reposition the organization to benefit from them. The goal is to have sustainability become embedded in the organization’s DNA, such that it is a core value and the organization is unconsciously proactive about it.
12 Comments On: The Change Leadership Sustainability Demands
I loved your article, congratulations! It would be great if you gave permission to write about it on my blog It is in portuguese — many people don’t speak English in Brazil yet…
I appreciate your help.
Best regards, Sueli
Sueli- Glad you liked the article. You can feel free to quote brief portions of this article and include them in a piece of your own writing. Please be reasonable about the amount of quoted material you include and provide a link back to this page.
Sean M. Brown
Manager, Online
MIT Sloan Management Review
Great piece with some real meat as to how this topic is advancing. But what about climate change and regulations? Are we really relying on the consumer and free markets to steer us in the right direction?
Thanks for this,
Robbie
This is a great article and a call for pro-activity. I thank the authors for making a convincing business case out of sustainability – a necessary pre-requisite for mainstreaming the concept. Sustainability means in its broadest sense long term value creation which is surely a goal good companies should subscribe to.
How refreshing to view sustainability through a practical lens of human capital instead of the ubiquitous talk of “management paradigms” and new technologies. Well done and actionable!
Thanks for sending the link, I just checked out goodguide and found out that my son’s ninja turtles contain PVC and tin!!! and all this from an iPad, sitting in my kitchen – I *really* get what this article is about!
Sir/Ma’am,
I would like to raise my arguments concerning the example that the two respectful authors used in the first two paragraphs.
Especially I refer to the teenage girl who is using her iPhone in order to receive data regarding the item she is about to purchase…
As it is very well known, iPad and IPhones are made by Apple. And with no doubt, these facts: (http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100526/wl_time/08599199162000), proved that Apple failed to compromise with sustainability values.
Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) working conditions is a core element of the Social Sustainability and every corporation shall pay much attention to it.
The case of workers suicides in Apple’s subcontracting factory reminds me the case of Nike in 1998. Mr. Goleman utilized this example in his book “Ecological Intelligence”.
Of course, I’m not blaming the two respectful authors for Apple’s subcontractor behavior.
After all, who would ever possible think about that?
I’m just trying to be the devil’s advocate and raise the red flag…
V/R
Sotiris N. Kamenopoulos
Industrial Engineer (P.E., M.Eng.)
ASSE’s Professional Member
GREECE
What an intresting article!I quite agree with you on the change leadership demands on sustainability. What about climate change mitigation and adaptation scenarios, as well as Life Cycle Management and Product stewardship of products and services? These are all needed for a robust sustainability discourse (at executive, senior, supervisory management and all other levels)to be complete.
9. Gentlemen,
Thank you for such excelent article on sustainability. Your article provide easy to follow road map on this very important and pressing issue related to the future of mankind.
Daud Irshaid
Corporate Director
Kharafi National
Kuwait
Liked your case study. I am working on change factors in the context of ERP implementation and have come up with similar change aspects such as visioning, change leadership, training,communication, incentivization and monitoring of change projects. If you are keen I could share some of my publications with you. cheers ! Sapna Poti, Researcher IIT Madras
As a business owner I find that the products I sell are primarily synthetic. I also sell natural products made from cotton. With the public able to view the base materials as an app I think it will be a boom to our business if we switch to promoting natural products only. This does limit choice and a big driver for business is to satisfy all requests. I fear that some of my customers don’t care. Sad!
Empowering consumers to make positive choices for both themselves and the environment can only be viewed as a positive step forward to a sustainable future for all.