Reply To: Exercise 4: 10 Friends and Family Members
Jim’s problem-solution and feedback from 10
OLD PROBLEM
Problem: People who work in organizations are disappointed and sad when they find there is no means to participate in sustainability initiatives or there is a weak sustainability effort
Solution: Implement a grass roots sustainability engagement function to provide opportunities for people to participate in initiatives and learn to take on their own projects at home, community or work.
FB1
• Explore the belief that sustainability is costly but this doesn’t hold true when you consider other value elements. It is more likely a cost saving for almost any company who gets involved
• How to get past the practice that individual actions are supported with non financial resources up to a point. Breaking through to compete for capital for scaling or integration is a common failure point (my words). My take, running a pilot is a safe bet but are decision makers willing to approve a scale up. Less likely.
• Suggest aggregating individual efforts to see the overall impact which may come in many different forms you are not thinking of. Cost might mean $, time or expertise.
• Think about project initiator outcome value. Value may be different for person to person, group to group. Example, saving wild life may be a primary value for one person but an adjacent community benefit such as lower water treatment cost is important for a different stakeholder. (Michelle’s water example). Talk to all stakeholders to id different value types. This is almost a citizen science approach where each person is doing their own thing but collectively when aggregated across the bigger community, the total value is bigger. Things that don’t cost money that people are doing for their own reason. What are the other value elements.
Anything to add
• Not everyone can contribute in the same way. Some people can only pick up garbage but the whole thing is not about garbage, it is about the broader environment. Community level influencing, leadership example, ok to change. Whatdoes this mean?
Referral
• Lindsey,-grass roots, Ed Pinerrow (value of a water project that solves environmental water problem.
• Kim Sturgess Alta Watersmart NP
FB2
More beneficial to have conversations with the employees first rather then the people stewarding the initiative. I.e. guage the level of interest
Consider using the spodek method for at least part of it, first 2 steps. , in a group , to identify intrinsic interests,
define what a successful project would look like. Look at other companies that have done something similar and have had a successful outcome.
Bring sustainability that……
Referral: Evelyn
Anything to add?
• Define the win-win perspective: avenues at work for employees to get involved, could turn in to new roles.
• Think about what people are feeling. Conduct a poll??
• What would be a company incentive to people to get involved?
Referral: Possible friend, will investigate.
Restate I’m looking for advice from your perspective on how this idea could be improved.
FB3
Don’t be afraid to use your own person experiences. We were talking about my leader and management experience, organizational learning development.
Don’t make it feel like homework to start up a grass roots for work.
Look into the organizations sustainability objectives
Ownership element is important. Don’t forget it.
We talked about behaviour theory. The matching law where effort must match reward.
Anything to add: none
Referral
Possibly Stephanie?
FB4
1. Id current sustainability initiatives on the books and who is involved. Leverage the Interface example. Engage employees for their ideas on sustainable practices. What do they see as problems. Use their suggestions as foundation of the program.
2. Leverage quality improvement, Deming, drive out fear, celebrate progress, share, recognition process for people working in the program.
3. Don’t think it to death
Anything to add
We agreed you can’t underestimate the enthusiasm of motivated people.
Referral
Person? Could be a book, article, model, concept.
FB5
1. Biggest value is in facilitating communication between employees and leaders. Be aware that each organization has it’s own unique opportunities. You have to be on the look out for them.
2. The message that focusing on sustainability make san organization stronger, reduces cost, triple bottom line.
3. How to go about progressing this initiative is crucial. Start small. Move effective if individual brings learning into their own life. Value for organization is profit. Learning and awareness is another value. Opens the door for the spodek method.
Anything to add
My thought: bring in speakers to motivate.
The is a big challenge, will be interested to see how far I get.
How to scale it is a later task to figure out.
Referral
Seek out some grass roots initiative people. How did they need to plan, organize
Joe knows an HCA person: politics, grass roots. possibility
FB6
Consultant role?
1. People like to work on something that is a big solution. It brings more people energy to all aspects of a person’s job. This is a selling point for management. Making an inspiring difference . E
2. Need a sponsor who has access to top leaders and who believes in what you do and has the right motivation to make it happen. (not Blake). Dave’s Encon example in Borger. Motivation trumps access.
3. Reference the conversation in Iceland compared to CRU. The reason CRU went well was about winning at new products. There are two critical pieces, technical innovation and marketing. These 2 need to work hand in hand or it goes off the rails as in Iceland where there has been not enough emphasis on something to sell.
Anything to add
Show management that they cashed the cheque. They made money. Prove to them that when working with me, you’ll cash the check.
We talked about different organizations (one company to the next, commercial VS community). You need to adjust your script to the audience.
Referral
Ray Dowbenko
Greg Yont
Doug Beever
Ron Witherspoon (ag finance)
Rose Lecky (Ag for Life)
Kim Sturgess (Alta water..) same ref as Michelle gave.
FB7
1. Make it clearer for people to understand what you are trying to accomplish and the impact.
2. Use Deming quality improvement approach and Marilyn learning lab approach (Senge) for working with teams, those who can see the sustainability practices and opportunities in the organization.
3. People are overworked in organizations and organizations are running falt out, be very clear on the time element, the value for both of them.
Anything to add:
Referral: Bob Xing, Mark Wolf, Mark Weick, Adam (Webster contact)
FB8
1. Highlight the incentive for the organization to buy in. What is the benefit?
2. Clearly define the starting point in both the organization and people sides. This requires evaluation of the existing state of affairs. Seek out people to to ask them what they think.
3. Start small
Anything to add: tie in a win win perspective to create avenues in the organization for ownership, employee satisfaction, good PR, new roles. Phrase it as an investment in community and environment rather than a cost.
Referral: no one immediate
NEW PROBLEM
Problem: People involved in organizations of all types are frustrated when they find there is little to no opportunity to make a positive difference by participating in sustainability initiatives
Solution: Implement a grass roots sustainability engagement function to provide opportunities for people to participate in initiatives, start their own projects at home, and customized to the valuate needs of the organizations
Enhancements
• Organizations include commercial, non profit, community
• Define incentive for the organization to buy in: Employee/member satisfaction, activates sustainability action to make a difference at employee level, community investment and environment
• Define incentive for employee/member: ownership, opportunity to make a difference,
• Organizational ROI. Stern Sustainable business ROI methodology to break through to compete for capital for scaling or integration is a common failure point. Suggest aggregating individual efforts to see the overall impact which may come in many different forms you are not thinking of. Cost might mean $, time or expertise. Show leadership they cashed the cheque.
• Model the Deming quality improvement approach for working with teams, those who can see the sustainability practices and opportunities in the organization