What is ‘Organizational Change’?
- A broad topic involving changes in processes, structures, and employee mindsets.
- Key focus: Initiating and managing change successfully, especially for sustainability.
What are the three phases of corporate sustainability?
- First phase: Opposition and non-responsiveness.
- Second phase: Compliance and strategic initiatives.
- Third phase: Proactive support of sustainability.
What is the optimal leadership style for moving out of the first phase?
- Transactional leadership: Motivates through self-interest, highlighting rewards of sustainability.
What are examples of activities to move out of the first phase?
- Telling a success story of how sustainability avoided reputational risk.
- Inviting experts to raise awareness.
- Targeting key decision-makers vulnerable to reputational risks.
What is the optimal leadership style for third phase?
- Transformative leaders that inspire others to go beyond their
own interest and that of the company.
What leadership styles are optimal in the second phase?
- Distributed leadership: Shares responsibility across people.
- Enabling leadership: Creates structures for employee initiatives. Incentivize employees to take initiative and to develop ideas for how the company can
become more sustainable
What activities work well in the second phase?
- Searching for inefficiencies.
- Communicating progress on sustainability projects.
- Celebrating adopters.
- Organizing awareness campaigns and innovation contests.
What defines the third phase of corporate sustainability?
- Companies focus on external societal and environmental responsibility. e.g. not only watch within company.
- Companies now begin to feel more broadly responsible for the society and
environment - Key activities:
- Bring in more and more diverse stakeholders
- Explore how critical resources are used in your entire value chain (rare earth
minerals) - Scout your environment for completely new technologies
- Partner up with peers and possibly competitors to tackle specific important
sustainability issues (coopetition, e.g. apple buys from samsung)
What factors help in using resources effectively for sustainability?
- Timing: Align decisions with the company’s phase.
- Urgency: Leverage external events to create urgency.
- Target receptiveness: Find mutual motivations.
- Position: Use your role to influence change.
What are the three critical moments for sustainability transition?
- Moving out of opposition. (1. phase)
- Navigating compliance and strategy (2.).
- Transitioning to proactive sustainability (3.).
Example: Timing
Example: Appointing a Chief Sustainability Officer to the board is a good choice for a
company that has navigated the second phase, not for a company that is just moving out of
the first.
Example: Urgency
Pay attention to external events (e.g. natural
disasters or public scandals).
External events might create a sense of urgency within the company. The sense of urgency will make it easier to promote your own ideas
Example: Target recepetiveness
Find motivations that also serve their interests, not just yours
Example: Your position
Different roles have different decision-making power and drive change in different
ways. Middle managers need to work with peers to build consensus and reach critical mass
to support change towards sustainability
