An outline:
WILL YOU MEET THE IMPERATIVE?
We know of organisations
that want to become more sustainable but don’t know how to approach the
challenge, and do the right things in the right way. They are confronted by a
veritable maze of approaches, practices, processes and rules. Is this
where you are?
WHY businesses should continue stampeding into the sustainability arena has been answered: the fragile and parlous state of the world’s interconnected economies, ecologies and societies; increasing tensions, disruption, migrations and human trafficking; growing resource shortages, ongoing waste, degradation and pollution, depleting resources, continuing climate change ….
As has WHEN (yesterday!), WHO (all
of us), and WHERE (wherever needed, everywhere).
There is less certainty (although
no lack of opinion!) about WHAT to do – influenced by the array of players in
the game with different interests and viewpoints, a consumerism culture, ignorance
of the facts, imbalances between self-interest and the common good ….
And precious little has still to be shared on
HOW to develop a sustainable organisation. Here is a proven way forward for you to
succeed with your sustainability endeavours:
BE
WISE BEFORE THE EVENT
Learn from what has gone before.
From the Inside Out: the human dynamics of sustainability1 presents
a model designed to show how we can navigate the maze of sustainability. It is based
on solid neuroscience, psychology, sociology, narrative research, behavioural
economics and practical business experience. A basic assumption is that
organisations only change and become sustainable when a critical mass of people
in the organisation change and live and work sustainably. The model challenges some existing (and
interconnected) paradigms. It is really about humanising business.
BEING AND DOING
The model asks you to balance being with doing. In business we are rewarded for getting
things done, managing the urgent, the immediate and the important. As
Christopher Jamison points out, “The busy
culture is a frame of mind”.
Being busy can be hedonistic and feed our self-importance, allow us to
feel good and proud of our contribution, our worth, even our indispensability.2
Doing needs to be balanced by being. They are inextricably linked. Who we are determines
what we do and the manner in which we do things. Thich Nhat Hanh (Nobel Peace prize nominee and pre-eminent
Buddhist scholar and author) reinforces this wisdom: “There are two
things: to be and to do. Don’t think too much about to do—to be is first. To be
peace. To be joy. To be happiness. And then to do joy, to do
happiness—on the basis of being”.3 It’s
more about being the answer than having the answers.
BEING MINDFUL
Too many still operate at the level of mindlessness. A number of organisations have seen the
benefit of mindfulness and introduced training in order to derive benefit from
calmer, less stressed employees (well - being) and from work habits that are
less prone to distraction, enable focus and lead to better performance. That’s
where they’ve stopped.
A handful of pioneering leaders and their organisations
have kept up with research findings and embraced mindfulness because of its
direct impact over time on sustainability, for example:
· COMPASSION. If care and compassion is
absent, people will not seriously act to sustain and improve the lots of
others, nor the environment. Keltner has pointed out that we actually suffer moral
injury, reduced happiness and lowered resilience if we are NOT compassionate.
His extensive research exposes our limiting beliefs about power, and shows
clearly how compassion and selflessness enable influence – both direct and
indirect, and invoke followership.4 Compassion produces positive
power. Famous brain surgeon Henry Marsh exclaims: “What are we if we don’t try to help others? We’re nothing. Nothing at
all”. 5
· ETHICS. Ethics systems
that are primarily rules-based fail. The psychology and sociology of ethics
bear powerfully on maturity and how people behave in ethical situations. The
mindful person is aware and discerning, sees the bigger picture, identifies
issues clearly, and acts courageously irrespective of negative pressures
arising from the organisational context.
· PURPOSE. Amanda Sinclair
states that “Purpose and values are
central to mindfulness. Almost inevitably, practising mindfulness calls leaders
(and each of us) to ask how they are spending their energy and their lives”.6 Defining and activating purpose has
become all the rage for organisations wishing to be seen to be a player in the
sustainability arena. Motive
is key here. Many see it as being good
for the Brand, good for attracting and retaining
talent, boosting profitability.7 Shannon Schuyler, Chief Purpose Officer at PricewaterhouseCoopers
has reported on a survey they conducted which revealed that “most
CEOs define purpose as being about growth and innovation” but “employees said it’s simply about having a north star that will create meaning in
their job”.8 Unresolved, inauthentic motive will lead to
failure. Jamison speaks eloquently and scarily of our consuming culture and of Brands masking
their true intent: “ … they give people a higher purpose’ through their brand. The companies may congratulate themselves that they are serving a higher purpose but this is basically the
commercial exploitation of spirituality”…….
and “ … has a corrosive effect on our understanding of
personal identity and on our sense of
the sacred. Even our souls are now consumerised, and marketing is destroying people’s spiritual imagination
….. great corporations now inhabit our imagination, the place where greed is generated”.2
BEING FUTURE ORIENTATED
More and more our lives seem to be driven by
time pressures and we are preoccupied with short term needs, requirements and
distractions. We battle to determine the impact of our current behaviour on our
future. We need to “live in the present
moment and revere tradition, but create the future”.9 We
need hope, a meaning and a future to hang on to when the going gets tough.
Frankl draws on his Oswieciem (Auschwitz) concentration camp experiences during
the 2nd world war to explain, “Any
attempt to restore a man’s inner strength in the camp had first to succeed in
showing him some future goal”. 10
Leaving a legacy for future generations is another
compelling reason for focusing on the future when thinking about sustainability. “It will take true wisdom to create a new
future for ourselves and for our children’s children”.11
And evidence grows that the farther into the future a
brain can see itself functioning the more competent that brain is at handling current
complexity, juggling multiple responsibilities and integrating tasks.12
Author Neil
Gaiman offers three prompts to help us address what he terms “the world
of not-yet”:
What if?
If only …
If this goes on …13
DECISION-MAKING
“The mind’s purpose in making
a decision is generally to weigh up the value of the choices before it. The
greater the number of choices, the more obscure the outcomes of a choice or the
less rewarding and immediately gratifying a choice is, then the harder the
choice is to make. This becomes evident in thinking about choices that enhance
sustainable behaviours. These choices tend to be complex, and invariably
contain uncertainty in their outcome. Therefore there is a strong need to make
good decisions to enhance sustainable behaviour”.1
Decision making
has always been difficult and influenced by a host of human frailties and
fallibilities. The days of making expedient decisions in isolation to serve one’s own interests only - are
fast disappearing. The new name of the game is decision-making that requires
pause (deeper reflection), enhanced understanding, is inclusive and
collaborative, takes place within a purpose and virtues-based framework, and where
the chosen route is robust in the longer term.
CHANGING BEHAVIOUR
If organisational change occurs when enough
people in the organisation change, then it makes sense for as much of the
change as possible to be steered by these people. With traditional change, transition,
transformation, regeneration initiatives, processes, programmes, activities and
management this does not happen for most of the time. Hence we advocate highly
inclusive, organic processes and methods (using insights from behaviour
economics, narrative research, neuroscience) such as are outlined in From
the Inside Out.
Examples include:
· Eliciting high engagement
and ownership by means of story listening (for example, anecdote research,
carbon conversations, metaphor elicitation, free association connected to
sustainability images …).
· Designing bottom-up
pledges, supported by shared, agreed behaviour indicators and the application
of ‘nudge theory’ (again designed by staff).
· Using a ‘laboratory’
approach to business process redesign along the entire business chain, which is
done by the people who do the actual work.
IN
SUMMARY
This chart captures the desired movement in
approach from current practise (in white) to go beyond and include the
components shown in black:
Clearly these required
shifts address beliefs, values and behaviours. They alter who we are and how we
do things. They result in culture change and personal transformation.
Co-incidentally the
‘father’ of learning organisations and a pioneer in the area of ‘presencing’ in
business, Peter Senge (together with his co-authors) has identified three core
capabilities of ‘system leaders’14.
These capabilities fit closely with the From the Inside Out psychology of
sustainability model:
•
“Deep, shared
reflection is a critical step in enabling groups of organizations and
individuals to actually “hear” a point of view different from their own, and to
appreciate emotionally as well as cognitively each other’s reality”
. BEING MINDFUL
•
“Co-creating the
future …. This shift involves not just building inspiring visions but facing
difficult truths about the present reality and learning how to use the tension
between vision and reality to inspire truly new approaches”. BEING FUTURE ORIENTED
•
Seeing the larger system to
enable “collaborating
organizations to jointly develop solutions not evident to any of them
individually”. NEW PARADIGM DECISION
MAKING
Senge et al say that “… much of this work is still relatively
unknown or known only superficially to those engaged in collaborative, systemic
change efforts”. NEW STYLE BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
A CONCLUDING REFLECTION
In
this story related by the 4th Century BC Chinese sage Chuang-Tzu1:
- who is the antagonist and who is the protagonist?
- is it fair to juxta-position exploitive machine-age thinking and sustainability thinking?
- how much of ourselves is deeply invested in our work (physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual)?
- how could the opposing views in the story be bridged by employing mindfulness, future orientation, collaborative decision making and readiness to change?
- are we brought face to face with what Richard Rohr terms the two halves of life, the first being about the performance principle and the second about wisdom?15 (“In the second half of life, you start to understand that life is not only about doing; it's about being”).16
- is there any scope to go beyond ‘maintain’ and ‘sustain’, and thrive, ‘attain’ new heights?
Traveller Tzu-gung encounters
an old man struggling ineffectively to irrigate his vegetable garden.
Tzu-gung said, “There is a way
whereby you can irrigate a hundred ditches in one day, and whereby you can do
much with little effort. You take a wooden lever, weighted at the back and
light in front. In this way you can bring up water so quickly that it just
gushes out. This is called a draw-well”.
Anger showed in the old man’s
face, and he said, “I have heard my teacher say that whoever uses machines does
all his work like a machine. He who does his work like a machine grows a heart
like a machine, and he who carries the heart of a machine in his breast loses
his simplicity. He who has lost his simplicity becomes unsure in the striving
of his soul, which does not agree with honest sense. It is not that I do not
know of such things; I am ashamed to use them”.
The booklet
is available from http://www.haloandnoose.com
References
1.
Williams, Graham with Rosenstein, David From The Inside Out: the human dynamics of
sustainability 2016 http://www.haloandnoose.com/content.asp?PageID=136
2. Jamison, Abbot
Christopher Finding Happiness: monastic steps for a fulfilling life Phoenix
2009
3. Miller, Andrea Thich Nhat Hanh : Be Beautiful, Be Yourself
Lion’s Roar June 2016 http://www.lionsroar.com
4. Keltner, Dacher Dr. The Power Paradox:
how we gain and lose influence Penguin Press 2016
5. Marsh, Henry Do No Harm: stories of life, death & brain surgery Thomas Dunne Books 2014
5. Marsh, Henry Do No Harm: stories of life, death & brain surgery Thomas Dunne Books 2014
6. Sinclair, Amanda Possibilities,
Purpose and Pitfalls: Insights from introducing mindfulness to leaders Journal
of Spirituality, Leadership and Management, 2015, vol.
8, no. 1, pp. 3-11.
7. Williams, E.
Freya Green Giants: how smart companies turn sustainability into
billion-dollar businesses
AMACOM 2015
8.
Hower, Mike Lessons from Spirituality, Nature and Business on
the Meaning of Purpose and How to Activate It Highlights From Sustainable Brands San Diego
2016 (June) http://www.sustainablebrands.com
9. Lowney, Chris Pope Francis : Why He Leads the Way He Leads
: Lessons from the first Jesuit Pope
Loyola Press a Jesuit Ministry, Chicago
2013
10. Frankl,
Viktor E. Man’s
Search for Meaning Basic Books NY 1985
11. Miller, William C and Miller,
Debra R Designing
Professional Development for the Knowledge Era Wisdom Leadership: Exploring its
Relation to Spirituality A Think
Piece prepared by for the TAFE NSW International Centre for Vocational
Education and Training Teaching and Learning April, 2006
12. Lynch,
Dudley and Kordis, Paul L. Strategy of the Dolphin: scoring a win in a chaotic
world Fawcett
Columbine, 1990
13. Gaiman, Neil Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, and What Science Fiction Is
and Does, in The View from the Cheap Seats: selected nonfiction Harper Collins Publishers 2016
14. Senge,
Peter; Hamilton, Hal & Kania, John The Dawn of System
Leadership Stanford
Social Innovation Review Winter 2015 http://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_dawn_of_system_leadership
15. Rohr, Richard In Need of
Guidance Weekly Meditation (Two Halves
of Life, Week 1) June 16, 2016 cac.org/2016-daily-meditations-overview/
16. Rohr,
Richard Summary Weekly Meditation (Two Halves of Life, Week
1) June 18, 2016 cac.org/2016-daily-meditations-overview/
