Below an interview he did for McKinsey last month:
He also talks about the role of business leaders have in the movement towards an open source culture in a company and about the kaizen/beta approach it takes in oder to get things going. On the question ‘how to measure success’ he only has a limited view it seems from the interview but his analysis of the roles of management, CIOs and CEOs is quite accurate. I’m curious on reading the book.
This is a cross post from Ideaplants.org.
I just read an article on China Daily in which Marcos Fava Neves, professor of strategic planning and food chains at the School of Economics and Business, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, proposes to add another dimension to the model of sustainabiltiy. Normally we consider the economic, social and environmental perspective when assessing sustainability. Marcos Fava Neves proposes to add in the context of organizations that struggle to implement this concept as part of their planning and operations pro-activeness as an additional measure.
When reading the article I started wondering whether pro-activeness is really what we are missing. Companies do most of the time act in different ways. In my eyes the issue is rather a lack of ownership and leadership in the space of sustainability. In a traditional company structure sustainability is not assigned to any specific department and therefore it is unclear who should be taking the lead on this.
It’s not just about what you do but also about how you link individual activites. Ideally an organization has an overall sustainability strategy and links activites to this strategy with the aim to create one real and coherent sustainability story. Transparency and involvement of internal and external stakeholders is key here. This involves HR, marketing, business development, and many other divisions.
Getting everyone on board requires not just pro-activeness but also smart leadership.
When was the last time you made a rational choice in a complex decision?
Thinking about it seriously, I’m not even sure that I’ve ever made one.
How is it possible to consider all possible factors and anticipate what option might be best with our little brain that has a limited amount of knowledge?
The choice for the right study programme, the most promising job, the least polluting car, the relationship that will last forever or simply the greenest energy provider often bring us to the edge of our capabilities of making a rational decision.
James G. March wrote in his book ‘A Primer on Decision Making’ about the limitations of rationality. He identifies four factors that limit us in the way we make decisions while also considering challenges for organizations:
1. Problems of attention: Limitations in the time we can spend on considering all factors
2. Problems of memory: Capabilities to capture and process all the information we gather
3. Problems of comprehension: Capacity to grasp complex issues and interpret them correctly - this is especially difficult in complex situations that cover a wide field of knowledge areas
4. Problems of communication: Problems with sharing and communicating crucial information, factors that are not presented clearly and other limiting issues e.g. due to language and cultural differences.
All these issues make it quiet difficult for someone to make a decision that is solely based on rationality - this is probably not a good excuse for individuals and businesses, but it might explain certain behaviors and put off pressure of people that think they should always make rational and fair decisions.
Especially in organizations that have been around for a while decision making processes are extremely long and complex. In todays fast changing world, this limits and blocks the organization in making the right choices.
In today’s environment the biggest challenge is not anymore to make the right choice, but to adapt to the changing environment.
A lot of flexibility is demanded from individuals and organizations. It’s not a surprise that young organizations with less structure and processes seem to cope with this much better than multinationals that are following a model which is already many years old.
Tomorrow is a big day for us, and we hope for Brussels. We have been working on setting-up TEDxBrussels (http://www.tedxbrussels.eu) for the past few months and it has been an exciting and challenging experience.
We have long been fans of TED (http://www.ted.com) and avid watchers of the videos the organisation shares with the world, so when the opportunity came up to help with the organisation and launch of TEDxBrussels, we jumped in working alongside OLPC (http://www.olpceu.org/) and a number of others to make this idea a reality. It has been a challenging ride and tomorrow we will see if it is up to the vision that the team had in mind.
We very much hope this event marks the beginning of culture shift in Brussels, bringing together passionate individuals who believe in the power of ideas to change their surroundings. One of the first initiatives to come out of this thinking is a project called ‘Imagine The City’, developed by TEDxBrussels, The Bulletin and AddictLab. The idea is to get the community of TEDxsters to share ideas on how to transform their city on a platform called www.brusselslab.com. Addict Lab will selecting ideas emerging from this platform on a regular basis and The Bulletin will feature some of the most intriguing ones. Later we will look at how to turn some of them into a reality.
If you want to get involved in this community and start thinking about the next TEDxBrussels, then join the ning (tedxbxl.ning.com/).
Today SCA Packaging has launched it’s second edition of the Design Challenge. This year the designers are challenged to develop a slick and fat-free packaging design.
Thanks to all the team for their input to make the launch happen!
Kanal Consulting Group a US-based management firm has developed a 12 step guideline to Implement sustainability accross an organization.
As reported on greenbiz.com, they propose the list of steps to implement sustainability in order to improve the “bottom line and the environment”.
The list covers: Be coherent in what you do, have a proper strategy and model, get everyone on board and roll this out across departments.
Employee engagement seems to be one of the key components that are still perceived as challenging when it comes to implementing sustainability.
In a way it makes sense - we are dealing with individuals on whose motivation the success of the project depends. Coming up with a really motivating internal campaign to get everyone on board, opening up the plan so employees can propose their own ideas requires not only a lot of preparation but also a rethinking of the current thinking that is being done around sustainable development. Is it time for an open source approach for global companies?
At our recent event organized with IABC & ING around ‘How web Strategies can transforming your communications’, Globecorp.biz made an interview with one of our panel speakers & clients, Colin Hensley, General Manager of Corporate Affairs and Planning at Toyota Motor Europe (TME) on Toyota’s usage of social media including the Aim Zero Emissions blog, the Green Design Channel and Twitter we set up as part of a campaign we helped to develop.
Colin has developed new ways of engaging with his key audiences and is now actively twittering and blogging about what’s happening on CSR at the heart of Toyota Europe. Here the interview:
The event discussion around how web strategies can transform communications of global corporations is not over yet: You can join the online discussion of the eventin the IABC Ning Community.
I do believe that the shift towards social media is not only important for Corporate Marketers.
The fact that you have to become more transparent also means you have to start reviewing your current business operations: How compliant are we really? And how do our stakeholders perceive our performance?
Some years ago it would have been a great opportunity for a Business to move towards social & environmental responsibility to gain a competitive advantage. Today it becomes more and more a must to not fall behind your competitors and to avoid a potential crisis.
Being truly transparent does not only mean that a corporation needs to implement a CSR report that is compliant with GRI standards we are talking about a process of change management that is not to underestimate. It’s not just about the numbers but also about the motivations & meaning given to these values by each and every employee.
Only in the moment a researcher from the R&D division, your supply chain partners and the external maintenance guy live up to this philosophy and come to work every day because they truly believe they help save the environment and add benefit to the community by working for your organization, you can talk about a successful implementation of this approach. It’s not just a one off exercise. It’s rather a cultural transformation of the whole organization.
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