What are you doing about sustainability in your organisation? And are you involving your team in Sustainable change
At the weekend I met with friends. One of them is a product designer and on the subject of sustainability (while we drank our beers around a fire pit) he shared his frustration of what he sees as overnight, oftentimes short-sighted sustainability strategies in his industry.
The missing piece
He told me that there is a huge push to start designing and manufacturing sustainable products that he sees being more of a check box exercise as opposed to real sustainable change. The company is pressing on with a sustainable strategy without realising that the designers are designing products they don’t believe in. They have fundamental questions about their sustainability strategy and the overall agenda of the decision makers. I have thought about this conversation over the last 24 hours and the question I keep coming back to is this: Did the people leading the sustainability strategy overlook the most obvious resource in their arsenal? Their people.
When I thought about my friend’s frustration I wonder if all the due diligence has happened out of sight. What if the missing piece is that they forgot to bring their people with them?
Involving Your Team in Sustainable Change
If you driving sustainability strategy in your organisation perhaps now is the time to get brave about opening up the internal conversation before you roll out change. Before thinking about what sounds good on the company blog have you asked yourself if your people believe in your strategy?
Bring your people with you
In my career I have seen manufacturing companies bring in new solutions to their business without bringing their people with them. When a team is asked to change without being part of that change it usually leads to resistance and disconnect. The companies I saw thrive were the ones bringing their people with them aligned by a mission or goal.
If you are rolling out change of any kind you have to start with the people creating that change. Give them a forum to ask questions, challenge beliefs, see the evidence and understand the why. And if you are really committed ask your people if they believe in your sustainability strategy and be ready to see what more you need to do to get their buy in. When an organisation is aligned under a mission it is often because everyone is working in the same overall direction. What direction are your people facing?
