How effective a sustainability leader’s influence on their organisational culture and business practice, is a critical mark of their overall success.
You have finally landed the sustainability job of your dreams or placed that first step on the corporate ladder. Life is good but if sustainability in business is at the heart of your professional beliefs now is the time to bring a new way of working into the heart of the organisation.
In creating an environmental sustainability, ESG or CSR post the business is admitting the need for future change and providing an open door for you to push against – the issue is how stiff are the hinges and what will you find as you delve deeper into the organisational structure. In any well-established business, there will be a deeply engrained view ‘on how we do things here, often established by the business founder but more commonly shaped by how relationships have been shaped between teams and the internal competition for resources between managers. They may not realise it yet, but you should be clear from the start in your approach, that if the business is going to become more sustainable some things will have to change!
Many managers, and worse directors, view the task of internal culture change as strangely above their pay grade, happy to play along and follow the dominant trends established. They have unfortunately fallen into the trap of corporate groupthink. You as a sustainability leader don’t have that luxury, your role is to promote change and be that agent for change. It is difficult to influence or establish new, organisational culture but that is what you are here for and why you are a leader.
How do you influence an existing business culture, often decades old, and instil it with a new sustainability-based business culture?
These are a few very broad suggestions.
Most sustainability professionals are at heart optimists, it’s a career that wants the best from people, business, and the wider environment. Most new post appointees will not want to start their role with a negative, but be reasonable you are looking to alter, change or even turn around the established culture that is holding the business back from future performance, efficiency, and potential growth. If it is a new role, I would suggest that it is naive to assume that everything is alright about the culture, something in terms of sustainability is holding it back – but what?
You need to develop a strategic picture of what you are turning around before you start firing out new policies, changing existing ways of working and challenging embedded views.
The temptation may be to dash in, focusing on obvious gaps. Its the way dynamic leaders are act, and many CSR managers are guilty of this single issue focus they bring to an organisation without resolving its root cause – the existing business culture, but you can end up doing more harm than good in the long run and adding mew ‘sustainability issues’ in an already packed corporate agenda.
When I come into a new client organisation, I want to know just how reality stands within it? Uncover the hidden structural and leadership culture issues. These are not usually the ones executives talk about when we first sit down around the Board table.
So, stand back and start to slowly dig downwards to discover what the real level of sustainability purpose, governance, culture, and business mindset models are.
In the long terms our role is to revitalise a business and to help it become more competitive through sustainability practices within its selected marketplace (and to potentially open new opportunities). Sustainability managers often make the mistake that they immediately understand the business or that its existing systems follow well-established university or business school lectures on ‘how it is done. Few businesses operate so slickly, and most processes have developed through necessity, preference or it is the least complex way to do it. So, the first task is to discover not re-invent.
Focus your attention towards identifying
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With this mental picture formed, you can start to identify corporate issues that need to be addressed – such as risk measures, sustainability goals or external stakeholder relationships. A number of these, I am sure the business will have considered previously, but will now need to be revisited, allowing you and the business some quick and early wins, and a clear objective led business plan for the next year.
You need to start acting as a leader and taking strategic steps that build foundations for the future. So, get out there and go around the organisation talking to all who will have a key role in future sustainability initiatives – leaders, middle managers, teams, and individual staff members at all levels.
Listening is one of the greatest transformative leadership skills out there, listening to their views delve down into what they do, how they do it and what they believe they can do. When colleagues assume that changes will be made without considering their concerns or opinions, they are likely to resist and block your efforts. Listen hard and listen well and consider how their insights and knowledge can be harnessed into future change programmes.
One of the simplest, yet seemingly smallest, changes I have made in organisations that have revitalised environmental sustainability issues, was by allowing key teams and colleagues to plan out how they will achieve desired goals. Handing them the chance to innovate and switch systems along new lines. A feeling of ownership rather than enforced compliance makes a big supportive difference, and the results can be spectacular. They drive the train, but you decide what destination it is heading to!
Vision delivery requires effective change management, so critically identify the most influential decision-makers (at all levels in the business) that you need on your side. Despite the attractions of greater business sustainability, you don’t have to change everyone’s mindset, some colleagues will, unfortunately, remain lost to your efforts, but you do need to get a few influencers on your team.
A great article I read used the powerful line ‘Cast the vision wide and often. It is valuable advice; you must over-communicate. Say it, say it again, and when you think you’ve said it too often, say it again….and again!
It is not the vision statement on the office wall that changes an organisation, it is your words and the influence it has on colleagues throughout the business. So, find case studies, examples, stories and approaches that connect with people’s hearts and minds. Everyone wants to be inspired into following new approaches rather than browbeaten into submission, so explore new formats, ways of presenting and making people part of the team.
Plan your strategy carefully, consider the reason for the change, and how they align with or support existing business strategy. Your actions need to be grounded in a strong business model that is open to challenge and rational examination. Hold multiple meetings – with large and small groups of individuals – to assess the implications of major strategic changes you wish to consider. Do you have their buy-in, how can the strategy be adapted or reworked to include their proposed solutions, doubts, and challenges? Once the need for a more sustainable business model or specific ESG initiatives is explained, colleagues become more supportive and less opposed to change. Why would they want to support actions that harm people and their environments?
Once you have your strategy bench tested by internal influencers and teams, take it to the top table. It shouldn’t be a surprise to them, and they will have already expressed views and have a critical understanding of the why, what, how, and when within your business plans that they have a level of comfort in the journey they are being asked to endorse.
Change management is hard, do not underestimate the amount of time and effort it takes. It always takes longer than most leaders hope for or have the patience to see through. The more ingrained the present business culture has been in specific activities or behaviours, the longer it will take to re-align it with a new pathway. Keep talking, keep checking in with key influencers, mentors, and supporters. You will need their help.
The process of business sustainability isn’t easy otherwise most organisations would be there already, but when the organisation’s culture steps up into sustainability you will feel the improvements around you.
It is easy to get lost within the business as you seek to change an organisation’s sustainability culture and business practices, as the task can be large and demanding. Don’t get subsumed, you still need to track and monitor the many intangible trends and events that develop into new corporate ESG risks and market opportunities for those first to adapt.
Give yourself time to strategize, and even better get a group around you who you have challenged to spot disruptive practices and technologies that will have a future impact on the business, its sustainability and overall market resilience. No organisation can afford to stand still competitively, and no sustainability leader can now afford just to practice environmental management or stewardship, it’s an active leadership role demanding a close working relationship between business now and business fit-for-the-future led leadership activities.
I hope this helps.