Over the last several months, we have had an abundance of blessings – my sweetheart and I have purchased a fixer-upper house, and have been in the throes of ripping out carpet, ripping down wall paper, painting, putting in new flooring, moving, and finally, hosting 17 people for Thanksgiving. Rewarding, and highly stressful (they say moving is amongst the most stressful events in a human beings’ life.) This along with the challenges all of us have faced over the last few months of anxiety over the elections, massive fluctuations in the market, and watching people lose their homes, their jobs, and at times, their communities. (Christopher, my sweetheart, is in the financial sector – you can imagine the stress that creates.)

So how, in all of this, does one maintain one’s own sanity, health, good temper – essentially, one’s personal sustainability?

This has been an important question for me (floating amongst all of the other important questions, like what paint to use, or, how will the market affect our clients?)

It has not been an easy one. In fact, as I sit here, writing for the first time in two months, it is clear to me how fast all of those good habits of meditation, writing, exercise, good food, and time with friends was thrown out the window.

Can we always do everything? No. So, how do we choose what is most important?

I lived on an organic fruit farm for about a year and a half, through two pruning seasons. And during that time, I learned how to prune grapes – they had about 20 varieties of heirloom table groups that were just stunning in their variety and flavor.

Pruning grapes turned out to be one of the most challenging and rewarding tasks I took on, and is a metaphor I refer to a lot when I am having to focus on what’s most important.

Imagine a grape vine, bare of leaves. Every vine has about 25 woody “shoots” or spurs, that are growing from the vine, looking like a crazy bush of muppet rastafarian hair. Your job is to take this vine and these shoots from 30 to around 10. So, how?

Grapes before they are pruned

The first step is to use simple processes of prioritization – is the shoot oriented correctly, is it big and healthy or small and puny, is it diseased, is it spaced well? After clipping those off down to the vine, that leaves you with about 16 big, healthy shoots, just waiting to burst forth with leaves and juicy grapes the next year. But wait – you still need to take 6 off!

And this is the hardest part of the process. Because, at this point it is pure judgment call. You don’t know if one will do better than the other, or will stay healthier longer. For some reason, that first year, it was agonizing for me – what if I chose the wrong one - and marred the plant, or worse, killed the plant by taking off too many? It took me forever to get through a row, and although my farm-mates encouraged me to just “make a decision, already!” I found that my concern slowed me to a snail’s pace.

I have the same habit in the rest of life – I am so in love with opportunities, that “clipping a shoot” literally feels like I am killing an opportunity? And the same line of questions runs through my brain – what if its the wrong one?

Grapes after they are pruned

The second year, though, I went out there, with the benefit of having seen the results of the first year’s pruning. The places where I had pruned more intensely were fine – in fact, they were vigorous and healthy. Guess what – I hadn’t killed the vine! It helped to see the logic of pruning, the results of my efforts, and how I could fine-tune the second time.

I found that not only was I faster at pruning, but that I was able to teach others, and feel confident doing so; I saw the plant in an entirely different way – more about cultivating grapes, than cutting off woody stems. I became (almost) as fast as the good folks who had been doing it for years.

The whole point of pruning is to be able to send more energy to the things that you know are most important. It is, literally, to cultivate the best possible opportunities to grow the best possible grapes, when they are still months and months away from growing.

These last few weeks, I have had to prune, at least temporarily, so that my finite time, energy and resources could go to the things that were truly most urgent AND important. The results? I sit in my warm, new home, relaxing this Thanksgiving weekend. My sweetheart and I are even more in love. And I am learning to be increasingly efficient AND effective with my time. Some of the pieces I have pruned from my life are not doing so well – but surprisingly, some of the other pieces I have pruned are doing much better without my attention; it has allowed other leaders to step up, and for me to recreate my role in those projects.

Pruning does not always result the way we wish it – but by keeping your eye on your job of cultivating what you want to achieve, as opposed to focusing on what throws itself at you, it becomes easier and easier to prune, year by year.

There comes a time in everyone’s life when one must become very, very clear on priorities, to get through a particularly challenging time. I believe our nation is in the midst of such a time – where we have to remember what is important, what will keep us going in the long term, and we have to choose where we want our finite resources to go. What an opportunity to cultivate clarity!

Winter-time, with its short, cold days is a time that lends itself to introspection. The next few posts I will do will be on managing time, cultivating clarity, and remembering what is truly most important. Much of this is based off of the training that I do in time management. May you find it useful.

The Leader of Influence

Covey's Circle of Focus

In the post, Tactics for Leading Change, I made the argument that a Leader’s most effective long-term tool is that of influence. Influence, while being a less direct route to making change, has a much larger impact.

The tool shown here is modified from Stephen Covey’s “Circle of Focus” first described in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The Circle of Focus contains anything whose behavior you can directly control. This includes you, your dog (possibly), your small child (before they begin walking, maybe), and, for a very short time, anyone who you are able to exercise direct power and authority over. I say a short time, because if you have to exercise direct power and authority for long periods of time, you are likely engaged in a power struggle which can tend towards dysfunctional, passive-aggressive behaviors.

So, lets say that the Circle of Focus contains, essentially and most functionally, you. The Circle of Influence contains anything that you have some degree of, well, influence, that directly affects you and thus warrants you exercising your influence. Typically, you must work with others in this circle – you can’t effectively get the outcome most beneficial to you without the help of others. Thus, we spend much of our time in the Circle of Influence.

Finally, the Circle of Concern contains everything that concerns you, but that you don’t have any control over. There are times, particularly in the short term, when it is important to realize those things – that realization can bring a lot of relief.  IE, your children may do what they do; the polar bears may die; China may soon take over the world in carbon; etc.

However, the trick to this circle, is to be expanding the Circle of Influence into that Circle of Concern. Thus, much of Sustainability change is about helping individuals, companies, governments, non-profits, know that they CAN do something that will positively impact the environment, future generations, and their global community.

Working in your Circle of Influence

There are books and books written on how to “Increase Your Influence NOW!” and “Be a More Influential Person!” They describe mainly tactics – not fundamentals – for increasing your influence, including trading favors, complimenting the right person, putting your best foot forward. And while these tactics may be helpful when used wisely, they are like dust in comparison to a person who is filled with integrity and character, whose results and competence are trusted, and who shows discernment in how they exert and increase their influence.

So, how do you expand your Circle of Influence? Here are a few fundamentals.

1. Know Thyself. The fundamental lives on. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses, seeking feedbackand making appropriate changes, knowing your values and vision for your personal life is where you have to begin. Starting from there, you will attract people and build respect because of your clarity.

2. Be Trustworthy. If you say you are going to do something, do it. Live to your commitments to yourself and to others. By doing that, you build trust which you can draw on when you need it most – making a change for something you believe in.

3. Exhibit Competence & Follow-Through. Trust does not come without Respect. Let me repeat – Trust does not come without Respect. In our intellectually driven, outcomes-oriented culture, respect comes when people show they “can get the job done.” Doing whatever it takes to be really, really good at what you do, whether it is developing skills, exhibiting willpower and perserverence, or being clear about what you can and can’t do, delivering results based on competence and character is the fastest way to build respect.

I am a huge fan of a book written by Stephen Covey’s son, Stephen M. R. Covey, called The Speed of Trust. There, he talks about how business happens much faster – and I would add that change happens much easier – when there is trust. He also discusses how people can build their own “trustworthiness”, through exhibiting character, integrity, competence, and results, and gives some keys to developing trustworthiness yourself. Highly recommended read.

Using Influence to Create Change

Back to change. A leader who wants to make a fundamental change – whether or not this leader has authority – can do so by weaving a wide web of influence. Building trust amongst your community (professional, personal, and everything in between) builds your influence.

In a sense, you have built up, over time, the slow way, a sort of “Influence bank account.” Stephen M.R. Covey goes so far as to call it a “Trust Account.” So how do you spend it?

A few tips on Creating Change by Using Your Influence:

1. Choosing your battles. In this world, discerning which battles are worth taking on is an important one. Battling everything and everyone to get your way (or the way of a select few) can pay off if there are results. But if the strain of the risk is too great, and it doesn’t “pan out” (a reference to the might risky business of panning for gold) it can actually break down people’s willingness to follow you when they most need to.

2. You have to spend it to make it. Building “social capital” by making introductions, helping people out, taking risks on changes you and your team believe it actually builds trust not only in your team, but also in the organization at large. Because you are choosing your battles, you develop a reputation for taking thoughtful risks – and when you believe strongly that something needs to change, people will pay attention because of that.

3. Keep your eye on what’s best for the collective, and make sure it stays there. As soon as people know that you are promoting self over the collective, they will begin to question your motives. If your “trust account” is high, that is not a big deal, particularly if you are transparent about it. But the greater the change you are proposing, the greater the need for a large “trust account”, and the more you need to keep an eye on promoting the collective over the self.

Next post, we will talk about how an organization can be designed to innovate and work with change effectively.

Death of a Good Woman

It has been several weeks since I have last posted. For good reason – summer work travel notwithstanding, my grandmother, Donna Brown, passed away suddenly on July 27. She had been showing her age – 78 – for the last few months, but was such a delight to be around, with hearty laughter, irreverent jokes, great stories, and the best hugs, that we only noticed it vaguely. In retrospect, we had had to help her down steps more and more; she couldn’t walk very far; she fell for the first time several weeks before; she was out of breath quite often. I think the first real sign of her age was her pacemaker, implanted a couple of years ago; and at the end, that artificial heart was all that held her together. Until that too couldn’t quite do the job; she slipped away that Sunday around 9:30 pm, her family singing her Amazing Grace.

Change. Whether it is in your family, in your team, in your organization, the psychological ramifications of change are powerful, subtle, and themselves temper a person, as much as the event itself.

We have all been riding, as the days have gone by, the roller coaster of change. When I first received the phone call that she was in the hospital, I had every belief that she would end up fine. I found out later that my cousin Kenny, who had sent Grandma to the hospital via ambulance earlier that day, also thought she would get better.

Then, that Sunday, after hours in the Intensive Care Unit, and for a variety of health reasons, it became obvious that she wasn’t getting any better, and never would, and the decision was made to put her on comfort care. That conversation was challenging – many of us were grieving, some were facing anxiety, a couple of us were in denial, and angry that the family was not doing more to save her.

The Process of Transition

The Process of Transition

This has been a challenging couple of years in my family – Grandma was the third person in our close circle who had passed on in the last 18 months. As a result, I have gotten more and more accustomed to managing change – I have come to expect the wave of emotions sweeping myself and those around me; I have started to look for the joy in the situation, as there always is; I have been able to help others accept what is happening as well. As the graphic above makes obvious, it is very possible to get “derailed” from the natural process of change, into denial or hostility. Even more common is to get “stuck” in a certain feeling – the nervous feeling of guilt that never quite goes away; the fear or anxiety around the future; the depression. The model described above is a take-off from Dr. Kubler-Ross’ work on grief and transition; she wrote her book On Death and Dying in the 1970s, and her thinking was an enormous contribution to understanding transition and change of all types.

What resources do you refer to about sustainability?

What Stephen Gale (Stephen Gale & Associates) said about Getting Started:

Stephen Gale says: I like this site: The Global Footprint Network which began in 2003, and made popular the idea of the “Footprint”, or what they call “Resource Accounting.” The idea is that we all have an impact on the planet based on our own behaviours and choices, as well as on where we live. They help us see that by giving you an individualized “acreage” measurement. While not the endall of measurement tools, it is a great way to find out what your personal footprint is.

Find out YOUR footprint – Take the Footprint Quiz.

Stephen Gale also recommends an article by Business Week on the Sustainable Business Awards. He notes that the Awards slideshow segments nicely the issues that a business has to address in their sustainability process.

What Paul Hepperla(Energy & Emissions Expert) said about Getting Started:

There are a few important papers I provide when thinking about Sustainability, especially emissions:

The Business of Climate Change I & II - Lehman Brothers
Emissions: At What Cost – McKinsey

Both studies are a great reflection of the impact of climate change and emissions on business. What they show is that common sense when applied to a business creates sustainability, cost savings and a positive impact on the environment.

Sustainability and conservation are all about applied common sense. In the business world, many fail to make the connection between common sense and sustainability. Being too theoretical will cause folks to look at sustainability as a political issue rather than a critical business issue.

Movies To Watch:

David Hodgson says: I often suggest videos for people to watch, it can often be a quicker way to understand the roots.

Bill McDonaugh, leading designer, author of Cradle to Cradle, vanguard of the Eco-Industrial Movement, talks at Bioneers (an annual Conference in San Rafael, CA) in 2000 about how to design for sustainability. His presentation is hilarious and a great introduction to what we can all do to think about our business differently. (45 minutes)

The movie Baraka – photographs of the world set to music. Stunning. Gives a great sense of the beauty of the world, and what Bill Mcdonaugh calls the “Strategic Tragedy” that we are now in. (1 hour 36 min)

Manufactured Landscapes, a 2006 film by Edward Burtynsky that depicts the impact of industry on the environment. He says, “It is not a simple right or wrong. It requires a new way of thinking.” See the trailer at the website above.

Links that Don Carli Recommended for Getting Started :
World Business Council on Sustainable Development – A great site based out Europe and DC for information on Sustainable Development around the world.
Global Environment Management Initiative – They just produced a webtool to help businesses measure their climate impact.
UN Global Compact - The UN’s Foundation for helping businesses make committments to reduce their environmental impact. Has information on many different businesses around the world who are working on sustainability initiatives.

Books to Read:

Must Reads (Most Recommended by LinkedIn Community)

• Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins
• The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken
• Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by Bill McDonaugh and Michael Braungart
• Green to Gold by Daniel C. Esty and Andrew S. Winston
• The Sustainability Advantage by Bob Willard

Books by Business Leaders:

• Mid-Course Correction by Ray Anderson, CEO, Interface
• Stirring it Up: How to Make Money and Save the World with Coupons by Gary Hishberg, “CE-Yo” of Stonyfield Farm Yogurt
• True to Our Roots: Fermenting a Business Revolution by Paul Dolan, former CEO of Fetzer, Current CEO of Parducci Winery, the first carbon-neutral winery in the United States.

Books about Sustainability, Leadership & Business:

• Leadership and the New Science, by Meg Wheatley (inter-disciplinary scientist)
• Worldchanging by Alex Steffen

Books about Making the Case for Sustainable Business:

• World Inc. : When it Comes to Solutions – Both Local and Global – Businesses are More Powerful than Government by Brice Piasecki
• Deep Economy by Bill McKibben
• Biomimicry – Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine M. Benyus
• Small is Beautiful by E.F. Schumaker

Books about “How-To” Go Sustainable:

• Business Guide to Sustainability by Darcy Hitchcock & Marsha Willard
• The Sustainability Handbook – The Complete Management Guide to Achieving Social, Economic, and Environmental Sustainability by William R. Blackburn
• Plan B. 3.0 – Mobilizing to Save Civilization by Lester Brown
• Making Sustainability Work: Best Practices in Managing & Measuring Corporate Social & Environmental Impacts by Marc Epstein
• The Triple Bottom Line: How Today’s Best-run companies are Achieving Economic, Social, and Environmental Success by Andrew Savitz
• The Sustainable Company by Chris Laszlo
• Capitalism at the Crossroads: Aligning Business, Earth, and Humanity by Start Har
• The Economics of Happiness: Building Genuine Wealth by Mark Anielski

(Thank you to Pablo Päster, VP, GHG Management Innovations at ClimateCHECK , Gil Friend Founder of Natural Logic , Paul Hepperla Energy & Emissions Expert, Joseph McIntyre, Executive Director at Ag Innovations Network, Executive Director at Don Carli Senior Research Fellow at Institute for Sustainable Communication, Terry Taylor, President of Global Genesis, John Stayton, Director of The Green MBA at Dominican University, and David Hodgson VP of Engineering + Sustainability at OmDirect for contributing to this list).

Thanks, LinkedIn community, for your contributions to a robust resource list; they will be posted as part of a continuously updated page of resources on this blog.

For the rest of you –

What are your resources? What resources do you wish you had more of?

Vision… a tricky subject. Why? Because of its proximity to the mystic. After all, a vision is created in the mind’s eye. And what is the mind? Millions and millions of processes about millions of processes that coalesce into strands of thought. But I digress.

What is a vision? Put simply - it is an articulation of a direction. More complexly, it is the full description of a place and actions in time and space that is not yet created. The seeds of a vision may be in one person; it may be in the conversation between several.

A friend of mine, another facilitator, said that he was posed with an interesting challenge when he had to help a group with a blind person “Create a Vision.” Even the word “vision” was out of access to this person. He worked through it by asking questions about how it would feel, taste, smell; what action would stand out; how people would treat each other. This actually turned into an advantage – they had to become much more descriptive with how they described their direction.

The most successful visions are ones that are visceral – we can feel them in our bones. As facilitators, we help groups create visions by placing them as much as possible in the shoes of the future organization or person they want to be, with questions like, What are you seeing, hearing, doing, thinking, feeling, in the year 2018? The seeds of vision are typically deeply personal; they come from the hopes and belief systems of the individuals. Typically, circling to the vision is the best way to begin; understanding personal values and motivations creates common ground upon which building a vision can become much easier.

As Charles M. Schwab once said, “A man to carry on a successful business must have imagination. He must see things as in a vision, a dream of the whole thing.“

The job of a good facilitator is to draw out personal visions, to help the group see the common ground between those visions, and then to build that vision on that ground. To help them see – and build – “the whole thing.”

A few components of a great sustainability vision:

- Uses vivid, active language Bill Gates’ famous vision of the 80s sustained their company for many years – A PC on Every Desk.

- Includes triple bottom line elements – its vision for the company’s impact on the planet, on the people (both internal and external) and on the company’s long-term sustainability.

- Is attainable – but is a stretch. What makes a vision worthwhile? It is an appropriate stretch for that group. Americans, in particular, love a challenge.

- Is compelling. To be compelling, the vision must be based on the values of that person, group, or organization. It must be something “worth sacrificing for.”

- Paints a bright future. Long-time practitioners in Appreciative Inqury have said that people are like plants – they turn to the light. Painting a bright future turns our minds to the light.

- Stems from personal visions. Visions carry their most power when they ignite the power of the imagination. How do you ignite imagination? Very often, by taking a moment, and letting your mind create possibility. Back to that mind’s eye – the best way to ignite your imagination is to give it enough breathing room, enough oxygen, enough space to let your vision of the future unfold. We have to let go of “doing” for just a moment, let our active minds sit, and let the deeper layers unfold. I like to take groups to the beach and give them a bit of reflection time.

Do you have a sustainability vision for your organization? Let me know!

Warm regards,

Genevieve

Great question!

Part of this question is answered by the qualities that the leader actually possesses. Talking about sustainability or any other change won’t be effective unless the change agent is trusted by the people she is trying to influence.

Influence, by the way, whether you have authority in an organization or not, is the only capital that really works to create long-term, behavioral change. Letting go of any ideas you may have about being able to enforce a change is helpful in this process – after all, as a colleague of mine, John Springer says -

You can lead by Inspiration, or Desperation. Which do you choose?

But back to strategies for change. We will talk more about leadership later.

The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook by Peter Senge et al., (a classic work on systems thinking in organizational development) makes the point that leaders want to create the commitment and focus that a shared vision can bring to an organization. Building a Shared Vision can do just that.

Bryan Smith’s article in The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook discusses 5 starting points for building shared vision. He notes that different organizations should start at different places, given the practical realities of where different companies are. (The following is a direct excerpt from his article, on p.314.)

1. Telling: The “boss” knows what the vision should be, and the organization is going to have to follow it;

2. Selling: The “boss” knows what the vision should be, but needs the organization to “buy in” before proceeding;

3. Testing: The “boss” has an idea about what the vision should be, or several ideas, and wants to know the organization’s reactions, before proceeding;

4. Consuliting: The “boss” is putting together a vision, and wants creative input from the organization before proceeding;

5. Co-creating: The “boss” and “members” of the organization, through a collaborative process, build a shared vision together.

He makes the point that before proceeding, you should objectively assess where your company is, and then make a plan for how to move to the next stage.

Figuring out Where You Should Start – A Case Study

I have a client who is transitioning from one leader to another leader. The old leader had a fairly traditionalist model; he asked people to do what they should do, and expected that they follow through with what he asked them to.

The new leader had a very different idea; while he wasn’t entirely sure how, he knew that he wanted his staff to work as a team; to be self-motivated to improve the company. We started with an executive team teambuilding, and from there, discussed how to help his whole company work differently.

He had a vision of teamwork – but had to go about it differently depending on who in the company he was working with. With his executive team, we had spent three days together building trust and respect, co-creating a vision for the company, agreeing on strategy. We then spent many months working together as a team over time. With them, he used a combination of testing, consulting, and co-creating. The Executive Team wanted strong leadership from him, as they had received in the past, but still usually wanted to consult – a significant change from how it had been in the past. But as the Executive Team itself became stronger, they also became stronger, more creative leaders with their own staff, and likewise more attached to co-creating together as an Executive Team. Now, they negotiate about when they will co-create, when they will consult with the leader, and when the leader will test with them, but reserve the right to make the decision.

But the company leader also wanted to change how the rest of his staff would work together. And the rest of the company was more accustomed to a strong authority figure who governed mostly through telling, as opposed to a leader who was willing to share some of his authority in exchange for increased creativity and commitment on their part. For his staff, this leader spends some time telling, a lot of time selling, and has been making inroads to testing and consulting, with specific individuals or committees, at specific times. Quite a bit of his tactic has been to negotiate the boundaries of collaboration over time, so that both he and the company get what they need to keep the company running. Some initiatives have worked well; some are still a work-in-progress.

So, how does this translate to creating a successful change initiative?

As a change agent, depending on the authority you have, you will have to assess for yourself who is ready for co-creating, and who is not. There are many factors that influence how someone is ready – the level of trust, the expectations and history between the parties, how willing the different parties are to negotiate their needs. It is a risky thing for a leader to allow his authority to be handed over to the decision of the group. In fact, in this case, there was a point when the Executive Team and Company Leader handed its authority over too quickly, without thorougly laying out the boundaries of what they needed to make sure the company stayed on track as a whole. Everyone ended up unsatisfied with the results, and the leaders had to back-track to telling. Fortunately, enough trust and respect had been built up at that point that the loss wasn’t nearly as significant as it would have been the year before.

Both the leader and the group have to be ready for co-creating. Both have to be practiced at asking for what they need, as well as giving in return.

However, there are ways to fast-track to co-creating a vision. Next posting – how do you create a vision? And how can you fast-track it to achieve long-term commitment and focus?

How you lead is important. In our classes, we define leadership as “The ability to get results while inspiring trust.” Here are two strategies for making your change process yield results while inspiring trust.

1. Be a strong leader. Strength. A word of many interpretations. When I think of strength, I think of the ancient Chinese proverb – the best general is the one who never goes to war. In this change initiative, you must find the way to be insistent, inspiring, passionate, and enthusiastic, and at the same time, keep a balance with listening to others’ perceptions, even if you don’t agree with them.

Sustainability is only achievable with the help of many, and ultimately, with the individual behavior change of every one of your stake holders. You must keep your focus on integrating true sustainability – which means, get ready for the unpredictable impact of letting other people “in” on the process. You must be so good, that like the good general, you need never fight for what you believe, and instead, find ways to attract others to your cause.

Which brings me to my next point.

2. Let yourself – and the process – be influenced. Sustainability is a topic that people can be quite passionate about – whether you are for or against it. It has the aura of “righteousness” about it, and with that comes an almost super-glue strength attachment to one’s position.

I remember the time I got into a discussion with my highly conservative uncle at a family reunion about whether or not global warming existed. 45 minutes later, after the discussion had turned heated (there was a point in which our family were all standing by, ready to leap in to break us apart) we finally found common ground – he thought that straw bale buildings were “pretty cool;” and I conceded that yes, natural cycles of the earth were indeed contributing to global warming. (I couldn’t concede on his other points… but that’s another story.)

Its surprising what you can find if you allow yourself to be open to what the other is saying – even if it is someone who you, on the surface, so fully disagree with.

Next posting, we will continue with strategies for Leading your Change Process.

They used to go out on moonless nights with their classes, and had everyone wear a special hat that had a long tube hanging down, right between their noses. At the end of the long, skinny tube was a dap of phosphorus. The task of the class participants was to stare right at the phosphorus, and then to go on a night hike using their peripheral vision only.

“Why?” I asked him.

“Because,” he said enthusiastically, “they had to learn to see differently!”

And so it is with sustainability. We have to learn to see differently to be able to create sustainable organizations that move beyond “conserving resources,” or even, beyond simply looking for market opportunity! An organizational sustainability initiative is a vast opportunity – an opportunity to reconsider how we work together; how we think; how we feel the world around us.

It is an opportunity to be a designer, an investigator, a collaborator, a life-changer. The best solutions for making our organizations sustainable are going to be found by people who feel like their ideas are heard, who feel they can make a contribution to a cause that matters, who feel that they trust that their organizations can walk their walk.

It is an opportunity to leave a legacy that is even farther reaching than “saving the planet.” It is an opportunity for personal growth, for building an organization that matters.

In this journey, we have to leave behind the safe categories we have relied on in the past – she is the Greenie, he is the business-man, they are the bad guy, I am the good guy. As Al Gore has been famously saying, we don’t have time for that nonsense anymore.

Instead, we have to look for the pieces to the puzzle – the most interesting solutions could be with a competitor, in India or Mexico, with the janitor or secretary, or even (dare I say it?) with the boss.

If you really want to help your organization be sustainable – you have to move beyond environmentalism.

But, how, you say, with quizzical eye? Stay tuned!

Lets go back to our “people, planet, profit” definition. The “triple bottom-line” is where we maximize our human capital (people), natural capital (planet), and financial capital (profit.)

As an organizational change agent, it is easy for me to give the double Yes!” Yes! I can see the natural capital in my organization – I use resources (energy, paper, water, etc.). And Yes! I am very clear about what the financial capital is; my bottom-line, my cash flow, my profit, my access to more funding.

But to give a triple yes – well, we are more likely to get a single “Huh?”.  Likely with the “huh” will come a blank stare… how do we get people to be more sustainable?

It gets very, very fuzzy when we start to think about the “people” part of the triple bottom line.

When you start considering “People”, you start having to examine how behavior impacts a company; how leadership affects the way that change initiatives are received; how old dysfunctions impact a company’s ability to work.

Few companies actually build all three “legs of the stool” – because it is hard. But, maybe, you ask, eco-efficiency is enough!  Maybe we don’t really NEED the triple bottom line!

A great question – we will look into that question next time.