Jim Jenkins
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#9 Second essay.
This is my second essay. A lot has changed leading up to and during the start of this course. I’ve been on a path to build my sustainability network and knowledge, get involved in sustainability projects and change the way I show up to be more of a strategic leader on the topic and make it the next chapter of my career. So, principles 1, 4 and 6 are somewhat familiar and the initiative project has helped me strengthen their application.
The Initiative work has proven the value of 2,3,5 and 7 to me. Number 2 and 3 have exposed a bit of a false assumption on my part that all great ideas have to start out great. The danger is if you are convinced, they aren’t great to start, then you won’t bother working on them, give up hope and nothing ever happens. This is why the idea of ‘just start anywhere’ can be powerful. I’ve realized one thing leads to another and if you are open minded to recognizing opportunities that present themselves, they are very likely going to be good. I’ve proven this to myself by taking what seemed like big leaps of faith in the beginning but now look very small when I look back. Fear of the unknown or the unfamiliar can be paralyzing. I’ve been working to get comfortable being uncomfortable recently. What’s a little discomfort if you are making a bigger positive difference, even purposefully putting myself in uncomfortable situations to see if I can get through it. Passion trumps discomfort every time.
The iteration of a concept in my regular work is something I do often and it’s surprising I haven’t thought of it more consciously relative to sustainability problems. I like the idea of asking for advice rather than pitching to build an idea in number 6. Asking for help is something you often don’t do in many corporate environments and it is another blind spot I have to move forward from. I see this will differentiate me from the crowd. It’s become a different kind of superpower.
I am very process minded and bought in to using these 7 principles as a template to improve all of my problem-solution types and leadership presence. It doesn’t matter what the topic is. I recognize the entrepreneurial elements which have opened up a new pathway of thinking for me around my own start up opportunities that I hadn’t considered before. I’ve worked in a large organization for so long, that I’ve been blind to that path.
I like the practice concept. I see myself as a continuous improver so the Initiative work is a good fit.
Sustainability problems are often complex involving many factors in a system. Most people I’ve encountered do not think that way. They see a surface problem, think they understand it based on one factor, their egos get the better of them and jump to a solution that they thought of. We have to use different thinking to solve sustainability problems and in my early experience with this process, the new perspectives coming out of multiple rounds of advice have changed the shape and nature of my problem significantly for the better. It is essentially a new problem from when I started.
My experience in speaking to people who feel the problem and those in the field, is like getting free gifts of knowledge and insight that improve my chances of success. I get excited by the free gifts and they get excited by my enthusiasm and interest in their topic. This has created new energy and invigoration for both of us. In my case I’ve discovered an associated problem I wasn’t really thinking about, why employee sustainability engagement programs fail. This came out of a statement repeated a couple of times, “this program is no longer running”. So why is it no longer running? What are the factors that kill a sustainability engagement program? Is it energy, funding, key person leaves, no sponsor, the company out grows it, it didn’t meet expectations, not aligned with company goals? Anything I do to answer these questions will strengthen any programs I create and that improves the robustness and sustainability of it. I think I have enough information to create a model I could use to explain how to future proof a program or looking at it another way, how to improve the success of a program. In fact I have so much information, I haven’t been able to keep up with sorting, putting it into a structure and tying it all together. A good problem to have, I guess.
The depth of my model is progressing encouragingly well, but I think there is more learning to be had by speaking to others and trying it out in pilot runs. This is a tricky balance point. I have defaulted closer to perfection in the past but less so than in previous years. The rule in product innovation is to fail early and fail often will get you there faster. Nothing like a test run to find out what you need to make better.
My financial component needs work. I think I need to create a couple of scenarios. One for my existing company and one for others. Also a small program and a bigger program. This will help improve adaptability. I need to define what I’m doing and what others are doing more concisely to improve the reality check of costs.
WHERE AM I AT RIGHT NOW?
The further I develop the problem-solution, the more it seems like a real possibility. Right now I see it as something I could be doing as a role in the future that I get paid for. I see a path. I thought Nutrien had an employee sustainability program but by the owner’s admission, they don’t, it is just a pot of money to funding initiatives if anyone asks.It’s (the problem-solution) merging with other ideas and schemes I’m working on. I’ve converted the program owner to the idea of what’s missing and how product stewardship could enable the process. I’ve convinced a second person in the sustainability department to do some work with me and in return she now has a project that enhances her skills beyond her role that she is getting tired of. I plan to give a talk at a stewardship conference in a month about using the product stewardship function (something existing) as a starting point to enable product sustainability initiatives (something new). I’m late developing this talk though, I have to pull it off to start my Known Authority campaign. It’s a start, a crack in the sidewalk, it could lead to something great. It could collapse in an instant. The company is about to start a cost cutting project. This why I’m convinced you have to run with irrepressible optimism. It keeps me trying. Even, if these ideas collapse, it won’t be a failure because I’m learning, next time will be even better. I will be a better leader tomorrow than I am today (stole that from Marshall Goldsmith).
To be fair, I started this journey before the Initiative project. But the Initiative project has definitely boosted my drive. It is the next step. I don’t really have the time and I was hesitant to sign up but here I am. I guess we are all exactly where we are supposed to be at this point in time.
POST EXERCISE REFLECTION.
I think I already did that in the above but here goes.
Did I learn from writing this essay? Yes, made some connections to other things I’m doing and together, all of it feels like a much bigger wave of energy propelling me forward.
Do I feel differently having written the essay. Yes, taking the time to connect the pieces, I’m feeling more motivated, like I have an aggregated set of skills and a plan, more than a one trick pony, more being in a right place, much more capable. It’s amazing the effect a simple mindset shift can have. That’s been a big factor for me.
What has been most meaningful, valuable, purposeful about the project? It’s hard to say, I think the project was a spark that brought a lot of things together for me that was brewing for a while. It has surprised me that employee engagement in sustainability is such an obvious action to take on climate change and yet it seems to fail? Is that the right word? I would also say the conversations I have had on this specific topic were much more engaging and full of learning than meeting a new contact and talking about all the things you do. Much more intense and the things I learned were what helped me recognize the problem with the Nutrien program. If I hadn’t had those conversations beforehand, probably would have missed the opportunity.It’s getting late, going to NYC tomorrow, opportunity to meet Josh in person. I’m late with my essay but it was worth it to think things through.
new link to revised spreadsheet
#8 24 month cost/revenue spreadsheet Assumptions and Reflections
This scenario of my problem-solution is tailored to Nutrien to specifically generate internal engagement that supports and builds on adjacent programs. I now realize I should build an engagement program model that can be customized to different organization needs, goals and current state of sophistication.
Assumptions
• Need to start small to make it attractive to company and get the ball rolling without generating large costs.
• YEAR 1 Plan: Bite sized pilot scale focused internal sustainability training, awareness, idea generation and development, enough to get people started.
• Offer regular meeting structure in small groups, 1 per quarter, to generate sustainability ambassadors
• Align with adjacent programs within the company such as community volunteering, and with company Initiatives and targets
• Needs a part time program coordinator and subject matter experts to keep it energized
• Access internal company experts to provide training on sustainability principles, understanding of activities, projects, targets, all geared toward participants generating ideas that could be projects in their own department
• Access internal knowledge expertise (in kind)
• Access external Non profit and consulting to hold 1/month overview sessions (paid or donation to cause)
• Will need an idea review and approval mechanism to access internal grant money (current program provides funding but no guidance or support in sustainability principles)
• Attract people from the Nutrien work pool who already want to take action
• Assume all in person sessions happen at Nutrien office (free space)
• Participants attend training sessions on company time, homework is on their time
• YEAR 1 will be a start up with partial costs, Y2 = full year costs.Reflection
1. Do I understand my project’s operations better?
Yes and no. Better identification of cost and revenue elements but that comes with a realization that much more refinement of estimates is needed.
Better understanding that I need to start smaller and leverage existing programs.
I do have a clearer vision of how far I think I can take this solution if I build a model that includes a master listing of subject matter topics, structures and processes that I can customize to fit the needs of different organizations.2. How much did I revise the project?
Significantly reduced scope to focus on the awareness and personal activation elements to get people started.
Defined the delivery mechanism much more clearly.3. Did you find problems and do something about them?
Thought about scanning externally to engage local expertise rather than relying on internal which there isn’t much of.
Conversations I’ve had identified many problems I wasn’t thinking of so I think I came to this part of the process with a robust understanding of the key elements.
Timing is always a problem in a start up project so I’ve started to sequence the timing of costs and want to build a content structure next to further define what has to happen first and what can happen later.4. How did this exercise change my motivation to talk to others?
Need to talk to a lot more people to fill in the many gaps at this stage.Exercise 7 reflections
1. Do I understand the project’s operations better. YES for 2 reasons. 1) The diagram helped thinking on the main stakeholders and highlighted I need to write a better value equation for each. 2) Recent advice has handed me a serious rethinking about the project AND recently announced changes in the company will have a large impact on the project if I attempt to try it out on the organization I work for.
2. How much have I revised my project? I am going to have to significantly rewrite my project because of the above.
3. Did I find problem areas? Yes, I have found many engagement functions are no longer running in big companies and don’t know why? Do they outgrow the initiatives, does it run out of interest, energy. Have some ideas but haven’t formulated solutions yet.
4. Did the exercise change my motivation to ask for advice? It reinforced how important it is to get as many perspectives as is practical because the situation in each organization will be unique in ways that the solution will have to be modified to fit the organization to increase chances of success.
As of August 31: 4 conversations so far, 2 more booked, an explosion of useful feedback that is transforming my project.
1. FEEDBACK
JC
• Problem is clear on the need for an employee. Build more into it, add structure on how employee could approach the company so it is no hassle to get started.
• Develop a questionnaire or disclosure to help person understand how to get involved., such as go to direct manager, find out if the company has as sustainability strategy, sustainability strategy. Interested people may not know how to get started and it is easy to give up when in this state.
• Develop a guidance document that identifies structure, and background to help them id things people could do in their areas that would create company value or be worthwhile personal objectives
• Other advice: the idea of green housing for example, and what will make it stronger? Trying to make sure innovation is not just with the development team. Think about the goal to embed sustainability in every department.
• Need the dollar value of the goal to be defined. Otherwise it is too easy to cut the out the project in cost saving times.Use innovation infrastructure in company to spark sustainability innovation at all levels. Create a community of sustainability actions inside the company.
• Less focus on recycling, more on integrating into each department
• (example: our product doesn’t include sustainable thinking in the materials used. What can be done about it?
• Consider education program to bring people into sustainability at a higher level than recycling. Define what this could mean and be for the company. Tie back to engagement person who works with them to make connections to their department and key leaders.CC
• Company sponsor and alignment with sustainability objectives
• SEEN CASES LIKE THIS, Need a central driver to keep the program moving, outside organizational support to help facilitate the process, organize events: exclusive or company open tree planting, clean ups. Work with local non profits, opportunity to participate as an individual or an organization
• PPG is providing outside support to coordinate sustainability events. Some events are closed to members like the materials exchange.
• Could be a combination of internal and external resources (PPG membership model in Ontario). Larger organizations could have their own green team, smaller don’t.
• Communication and a blog to keep people informed, create competition between departments
• PPG helping managers work across their organization. Do you need outside support to help facilitate certain events, continuing the process itself?: tree planting, clean ups
• Can the common role keep all the organization work or should some of it be taken on by ppg or local non profits. This helps when money its tight and things have to be suspended
• Training work shops to work with leaders
• Volunteer days in the organizationMN-LV
• Identify aggregate value to the organization in terms of dollars, employee engagement, productivity, environmental improvement, project leadership.
• Don’t make it feel like homework
• Identify investment needed and develop the opportunity as a normal ‘project’. Value proposition has to make the cut.
• Identify by individual project opportunity
• Grass roots? Is one way to go, but may be much of a value for the company.
• Relying on operations to take Initiative in current program, too busy, little incentive, encouragement from sustainability department but no central role to guide, mentor, provide resources and know how. All up to the initiator to figure it out while maintaining their regular job.JS
GENERAL
• Frustration is a broad emotion, need to zero in on more specific emotions that speak to the person when you are stating the problem. Hey! That’s me.
• Solution was hard to understand, too much corporate language. Make it more reachable for employees, Try ‘to do sustainable things ….“create working groups to learn from each other how to live sustainably” this will engage more employees.
• The value to the organization is about increasing people retention. Attracting younger employees.
• First engage the audience, then pitch to the organization as needed. Mine it too much of a pitch.Advice: within the organization, lay out the resources, frame the outcome as a benefit to the organization.
• Pick one audience to speak to start with. “ I’m going to create materials for employees to improve the sustainability of the work place”
• Pilot it, do it yourself with me as the lead role to illustrate an example of how it works, use the experience to create materials for others to follow.2nd advice: lead someone through to pilot for themselves after you’ve run a pilot and learned from it. Then broker subsequent projects. You shouldn’t be trying to help people do good things, you should be trying to help them be effective which means acting on their true values. Find out what their values are and help them activate them.
3rd advice: avoid judgement.
• That means removing the words no, but, however as the beginning of a response and take out the words good, bad, right, wrong, great, better, worse, should out entirely. These words signify a judgement on the person(s). You are doing good work is a judgement.
• In their place use agree, disagree, like, don’t like. These words are a statement about me as the speaker and what my preferences are.
• Channeling Marshall Goldsmith perspective. ‘Yes but I’m judging positively’ which means it could be a negative imposition of your values on another. The other person has to act according to their values to be the most motivated.
• My own language to myself, ‘I’m improving’ is more good (ie a judgement) versus ‘I’m achieving goals that are important to me’ or ‘I’m improving on my values’2. IMPROVED PROJECT
Problem: People feel fear and anguish knowing climate change is a problem and want to do something about it. Yet there is little to no opportunity for them to participate in their company sustainability initiatives and they are unsure/afraid of how to start a project of their own.Solution: Implement working groups where employees learn how to live sustainably and work on projects that make a difference to them and the organization they work for.
3. REFERRALS and known authority ideas
• Offers from all to help further
• Kim Burgess
• Mike Nemeth
• Christiana Figueres-Co-Founder, Global Optimism
• Ganesh Shankar – Founder, FluxGen and The Sustainability Mafia
• Sally Uren, CEO of Forum for the Future
• Alan Busby (spelling?) UK contact4. REFLECTION
• 7 principles: The quote that, “the solutions you come up with depend on how you see the problem” is relevant to the initiative workshop and the 7 principles. The emphasis on cycles of problem-solution refinement are critical to understanding more about what problem you are really trying to solve and whether you are working on a symptom or a real problem.
• I appreciate more, the idea of starting and working to hone a problem-solution pair rather than trying to come up with the perfect ‘great idea’ in one shot. Perfection and ‘brilliance’ are the enemy of progress and starting versus not.
• The advice versus pitch perspective is a great one. Opens more doors, is less angst full, and turns the dynamic from challenging and judgement to helpful and encouraging, mostly.
• Not anxious about Task #6, this step is much more significant that the others. Challenged to get through it in the time cycle but recognize this is the most value added step toward a successful problem-solution outcome that matters so will keep at it.
• I got the most useful amount of advice from this step, so much so that it is transforming the way I think about the problem and has led to realization of additional pathways toward achieving the goal. I understand the problem and solution much better. All so far are interested in hearing more about the progress.Exercise 6; 10 people in the field SO FAR
As it stands tonight I have 3 of the 10 people confirmed for calls over the next two weeks. I plan to book 10 but it is going to take a while. For me, that is fine because this is the reality of the sustainability and corporate world I work in. The important part is that I get familiar and comfortable with the process so I can repeat it on my own. Keeping up to the deadlines is secondary but still necessary to get through all the elements in a defined time. These time pressures are in fact a simulation of what a challenging project is really like. Part of the course experience is to build the resolve it takes to see it through when there is no one like Josh to set a deadline.
These are the real learnings at this point. The more useful advice I get, the more refined and successful my problem-solution will be. There has to be a cut-off point and 10 is a reasonable number so I will continue past the deadline and at the same time work to keep up with the next exercise. I say this because I saw Beth’s note last week about her struggling to keep up. It is going to happen to all of us. I know you can get through it.
Reflection on 5 people with the problem:
Felt good about the 5 people exercise as a chance to check the relevance of the problem as others see it.
Felt the frustration of others as they were relaying their experience and felt somewhat vindicated that some companies have recognized the same problem and put programs in place similar to my solution.
The various people felt strongly about participating in an organizational problem. Some had good examples and felt invigorated, others felt despondent because they didn’t see a way forward and one had a program in place and felt it was about to be discontinued.
Yes I feel quite different about my project. It seems to be needed even more but it also seems much more complex to accomplish as I have a new appreciation of the different organizational circumstances that can must be tackled to be successful. Torn that my work organization has a program but it is disconnected from many of the functions and seems destined to be reduced or shut down. My motivation has changed but am not sure how yet. Need to think through this new information and what it means to adjust my approach.
Yes, I understand the problem and a couple of example solutions that others have in place. I’m thinking I need to speak with many others who are running these programs to understand what they faced and the critical elements to be successful.
I think those I spoke to are generally interested to hear how things progress. One was remotivated by our conversation to look into opportunities in their organization. Two I spoke to and who know me already saw me as someone who is already a champion for grass roots initiatives.
This initiative seems 10x more complex than it did a few days ago. I feel compelled to speak with many more people who feel the problem to gain a stronger understanding of the factors.
#5 Five people who feel the problem
Problem: People in general want to make a positive impact in their lives and be part of something bigger. Where they are involved in organizations of all types. They often find themselves frustrated when there is little to no opportunity to participate in the sustainability initiatives of that organization.
Solution: Implement an grass roots sustainability engagement function to provide opportunities for people to learn and participate in such organizational initiatives which motivate them to start their own projects in their personal and work life.
Climate Strategist
Quote: so many people don’t understand and realize how serious the problem isGeorgetown (school) was lacking in sustainability initiatives which is odd because they recruited those with expertise. frustrated and want changes and to be a part of it. In a company small changes can make a big difference. There are incredible PhD’s creating climate models but there is a communication gap between solutions team and sales team. Internal awareness session between functions would help.
Moody’s has a Team Up initiative: volunteers around the world get involved, company matches donations.ESG reporting
Quote: We should be doing more of these sorts of thingsFeeling stuck and want a more senior role than reporting, wondering if I have any ideas, looking for a side projects to extend their role. Dejected that there are cutbacks in sustainability, no opportunity to grow, spoke to a number of people about opportunities. Willing to do some researching on sustainability topics. Stated many talking about wanting to do something on this topic. We should be working on this.
Product Stewardship
Quote: We have to try so hard to get a few different functional people together in the right place to get something started (sustainability)There is little connection with the formal sustainability department and the day to day operations. People come to product stewardship asking for help because they don’t know where else to go. We only hear about the ESG report. Needs to be more practical for people. There has to be a mechanism for people to act on sustainability in the organization. Have to have guidance/aids in place to enable people.
Sustainability communication manager
Quote: Your problem and solution statement is the same as our water stewardship initiative.Sustainable dept has a sustainability engagement program with 3 elements; Awareness, Education, Action.Includes what is sustainability and where does it matter. Sustainability seed fund for BU initiatives falling short due to $ and relying on the BU’s to take action.
Don’t have communication sharing empowerment. Bill C-59 (green washing) has cut the ambition to make public statements.Other examples:
• Employee innovation fund for grass roots (TC energy innovation challenge example) Tracy Karnes
• K & S change makers program; embed people in the divisions, DB of ideas = 2500 to 3000/yr.
Change makers filter ideas, implement them with people who had the idea. Could be little or big, kick start it, get it off the ground.Fifth person who feels the problem. Couldn’t schedule in time. Will have to catch up next week.
Catch up week Reflections
1. How has this workshop compared with your expectations or other classes, if any, on similar subjects?
Was comfortable with the exercise, fairly matter of fact. No concerns about carrying it out except time required and accessing people. The asking for advice approach was indeed a great means to lower the inhibition to say yes to my request. Will add this to my conversation template. Knowing the material and being able to do it are two different things and the structure of this workshop has really helped improve the doing it factor.
2. How has interacting with each other factored in?
It has been valuable to hear the perceptions of others in the group. It’s made me realize the value of some skills I take for granted and where I need to focus more. We all have a unique mix of experiences and levels of learning and no one is starting from zero. It’s making me take better stock of the skills I do have and how to utilize them more. I’ve participated in learning lab groups previously and this experience is a close example to that.
Interacting with those in the conversations definitely enriched the depth and many nuances of the problem and solution that I wasn’t seeing. It is easy to get blinded by your own thinking. The AHA factor is stronger and more frequent.3. Any suggestions to improve the experience?
People want to talk about new things they learned and experienced, some don’t need as much air time as others so it is a hard task facilitate. One method to help is to set a bit of structure with some standard questions like, what was each person’s biggest AHA, and once everyone has had a turn it can be more open discussion. I don’t think anyone in this group is monopolizing the time over others. There is always something to be learned by listening.
4. What have been your biggest surprises so far?
Taking stock of the skills I have and noticing where I procrastinate on some parts of the homework and thinking about why I am doing that. I think it has to do with overcoming fears.
5. What do you think the rest of the class will be like? Or the leadership part?
The ante is raised each week so I anticipate more discomfort but also faster progress as our confidence builds. Looking forward to leadership work.
Jim’s reflection
Reflections: 4 professional colleagues, 5 course colleagues
Was comfortable with the exercise, fairly matter of fact. No concerns about carrying it out except time required and accessing people. The asking for advice approach was indeed a great means to lower the inhibition to say yes to my request. Will add this to my conversation template.
It was a relatively relaxed situation. Many people were curious what I was up to and wanted to know more background, where it was going to fit into what I’ve been doing.
It definitely enriched the depth and many nuances of the problem and solution and my understanding of the problem broadened. Several key AHA’s that will strengthen my approach.
Some are interested to know how it progressed.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 effortSolution: 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 NPFB2
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: EvelynAnything 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 deathAnything 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. possibilityFB6
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 immediateNEW 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 initiativesSolution: 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 organizationMore from Jim on the conversation reflection
Feelings before start: saw the intent, interested to see how it would turn out and how much I could get out of it.
During the conversations: Surprised what some people focused on, a bit of judgement but paraphrased it into an improvement. The advisers were very willing to give their opinions.
Learning: Definitely learned from the conversation, and that helped me think differently about the problem, see new possibilities and better solutions.
Follow up: The people I spoke with were not surprised and likely wondering what I’m up to next. Curious about what actions the problems turn into.
The conversations were fun.Jim’s 5 problems
Field: Sustainability Leadership
1. Problem: Many of the public are fearful and angry about the impacts of climate change and have given up hope that the problem can be solvedSolution: Create a speaker series where people can learn how leaders are solving those big problems
Field: Sustainability Leadership
2. Problem: Organizational leaders feel fearful that sustainability project proposals will be rejected on the belief that they will create more work and cost that impacts profitability, without creating much value.Solution: Develop a how to forum focused on building sustainability project business cases and ROI calculations get more projects approved
Field: Food Security
3. Problem: Many people in urban communities feel frustrated and helpless when it comes to growing some of their own food because they don’t know how to where to start.Solution: Develop a demonstration urban food ecosystem and information resources that people can participate in and be inspired to take action
4. Problem: people feel anger and disappointment when they find out green branded products they purchased are only slightly better for the environment or not at all.
Solution: Create ‘how to determine product greenness’ videos to drive better decision making
Field: Sustainability culture
5. 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 effortSolution: Implement a grass roots sustainability engagement function to provide opportunities for employees to participate in initiatives and learn to take on their own projects
Advice received:
#3 and 4 were well thought out and clear, no comment to make them better
#1 and 2 could be shorter and less complex, couldn’t visualize the impact
#5 was the best
Recommend starting with a smaller solution for each, might be too broad to start for people to understand and engage on.
#1: define what a sustainability problem is, every day people solving specific problems
#2: good solution, certain % buy in for sure, generalizing is good to be more applicable.
#3: Sounds familiar, probably a lot of information out there on You Tube that could be leveraged. Progress the listener to the living example, lets go together, take action with the person.
#4: probably many videos already exist to reduce the amount of work in this one
#5 How to make it happen in this company? Would have to be secret to make it work. Tie together teaching sustainability and applying it in your own life as well to make it more personal.
#3 is the best.Reflections:
Versions were improved after each feedback conversation and restated in their new form in the next conversation. This made for greater over all improvement.
Each person focused on unique elements to improve. Knowing the people I asked, I saw how they look at life and work in their comments and what they focused on.Reflection on RJ’s talk,
It was a powerful story and I took a number of transferrable learnings from it.
1. It illustrated the importance of the passion needed to work through the tough spots and the unexpected in a project.
2. What you think is the problem that needs to be solved may not be the problem that you can solve and still achieve a meaningful outcome.
2. The problem will likely evolve as you gather feedback. Be open to many iterations and adapting your mindset. That’s not a mistake, it’s practice. Each cycle is an opportunity to learn and improve the outcome.5 problems, Jim Jenkins
General Field: Food security
Problem: People feel frustrated and somewhat helpless when it comes to growing some of their own food and making their property more climate resilient because they don’t have the information, experience, space or example right in front of them to copy from. They suffer from many myths that it consumes significant time that they don’t have, they don’t have enough space and it has to cost a lot of money.
Solution: Develop a demonstration urban food garden and climate resilient yard site on local community property with QRcode identification and explanations of plant species, growing techniques, climate benefit information and awareness events whereby people can take the information and apply some of the same practices and ideas on their own property with a greater change of success. Engage experts to contribute and focus on in person sessions to improve follow through. Engage with Chef’s to develop and demonstrate recipes with ingredients that people are not familiar with.
General Field: Positive sustainability leadership
Problem: Mental health clinicians are seeing a growing number of patients suffering from climate change anxiety—also referred to as eco-anxiety, eco-grief, or climate doom as a result of the size of the climate change problem heralded in the news and civilization’s growing experience with weather disasters. These reports and events need to be taken seriously but they become overwhelming for people such that they feel they have no control, develop a negative belief, give up hope and become paralyzed with inaction. If there is no hope, there is very little ‘trying’ to make change for the better. Society is still making many mistakes yet there is a lot of learning going on and promising examples of progress to balance the negativity..
Solution 1: Develop a podcast for audiences who haven’t been reached, to bring to light examples of the positive advances on climate change and environmental sustainability that have been made along with the work and messaging of inspiring, positive, mindset changing speakers and their examples of how to think differently, to the forefront for audiences who are not aware of their work nor know where to look for it. There are a number of public figures (Christiana Fugueres, Per Espen Stoknes, Joshua Spodek) who have developed approaches such as Positive Optimism, Changing Apocalypse Fatigue into Action and the Spodek method to draw from.
Solution 2: Develop my own brand as a speaker on applied sustainability and with an irrepressible optimistic mindset
General Field: Sustainability Leadership
Problem: Many managers in organizations still believe sustainability is something the sustainability department mostly does and they feel threatened in an already overworked role that they will have pick up a new field. One that takes more work, requires them to redesign products, change manufacturing processes which cost more money and still maintain company profitability. Companies are starting to back away from stated sustainability projects over concerns about the impact to profitability.
Solution: Develop an understanding of current sustainability ROI calculation (Specifically work with Stern Sustainability Business) and propagate this methodology across related sustainability projects proposed, expect to propose and am involved in.
General Field: Hard to grasp sustainability concepts
Problem: A certain majority of the population are searching out and willing to purchase products with green attributes that imply they are less impactful for the environment. It makes them feel good that they are doing their part. They purchase these products with certain green expectations, and some do have a benefit but many people feel cheated when they find out the products are no better or perhaps worse than advertised within the whole picture of their impact (green washing). Often the information provided is incomplete and can be hard to understand to make a quick decision on whether to buy a product or not. Some product manufacturers wilfully mislead the buyer or don’t know what they are doing, thinking a small improvement in one area is sufficient without considering the others
Solution: Using greenwashing and green products as one example of many complex sustainability topics, the solution is to create a series of ‘how to think about _______’ videos or short explanations in an appealing format that are simple, to the point, easy to understand. Have them vetted and post them publicly (You Tube, web site, …) to drive better decision making, influence behaviour change and awareness.
Reflection:
1. How hard to identify the problem? Took a while, many problems are inter-related and narrowing them to become workable is a challenge. I probably have more work to do in this regard once I take another look at them.
2. Was it easy or hard to see the problem from the perspective of the people they affect? I don’t think it was hard but there is probably lots of nuance I could learn more of in some future discussions
3. Did it get easier with practice? Didn’t get any easier, yet, but expect it will with more experience.
4. Do your problems and solutions have much chance to become projects? These problems are items I’ve been observing so I think they are real. Some of them are big and will need some narrowing to make workable.INITIATIVE ESSAY, JIM JENKINS 2024-07
Who am I? Initiative-entrepreneurship-responsibility
A crusader for just causes, a do gooder, someone who is known for smuggling lost dogs into my University dorm on a very cold night to keep them warm and who is willing to ‘do the right thing’ even though it may create professional strife for me.
I’m determined, structured, an analytical thinker and logical in achieving goals, with an eye for innovative ideas that moves a purpose or objective forward to make things work better. These traits and my science background makes me a great problem solver; gather relevant information; engage others, look at the broader system, analyze the situation, develop options, try a few things out, plan and execute.
A considerable amount of my professional work has had to do with identifying problems and influencing change. I prefer to work within the existing system and structure to influence positive change but am also a provoker if I need to be. It is important to me to understand the vision of where we are trying to get to in an initiative. Once I have that, and decide it is a worthy cause, I am usually able to marshal a considerable amount of intrinsic motivation to engage and inspire others to invest time to turn intent into action.
I see taking responsibility as a hallmark of ‘good leadership by example’. The quote on my Linkedin in page comes from Robert Swan, ‘The biggest threat to the planet is thinking that someone else is going to save it’. Sometimes I take on too much responsibility that ends up diluting my effort or overall outcome. This is something I’m working on to be more selective about the responsibilities that fit the priorities that mean the most to me, don’t let people put their monkey’s on your back. Often enough, I take on extra responsibility on purpose to get my foot in the door on an issue of concern to me or to challenge myself in a new area. It’s that motivation thing again.
I don’t really think of myself as much of an entrepreneur but I do think I need to become better at it and understanding how they think. Why? because entrepreneurs think differently and it likely has a lot to do with where I’m taking my career next and the cross collaboration I think is needed between communities, commercial enterprises, entrepreneurs….
Why am I telling you all this?
Planetary sustainability is about the biggest problem that modern society has ever faced. It is different from most other problems we’ve faced in our current social construct. That means we need to think differently to solve these ‘new’ problems with different solutions. For the most part, so far we’ve been using traditional thinking to solve these new problems. That gets us some incremental improvement, NOT ENOUGH. To borrow a book title from a very famous leadership coach, What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There.
I believe I have a lot of transferrable skills and enthusiasm I can bring to bear to create new thinking and outcomes. But, I realize I have to learn new things and change my own thinking or I’ll just be part of the problem. I started a career pivot toward sustainability about 3 years ago. No one asked me to within my company, it was just the right thing to do. Today I estimate 80% of my role has a direct link to sustainability. Some of that is skunk works but so what, you have to start somewhere. Skunk works can turn into something.
Thoughts on questions:
What motivated you to learn initiative? What do you hope or expect to come from learning initiative? Strengthen my initiative skills, and broaden my perspective. I have a pretty good plan on where I’m intending to go. I recognize the value of this course as a practice field and structure to aid in getting me where I want to go faster.
• What do you think about taking responsibility, taking initiative, solving problems, and creating projects? Familiar territory for me.
• What are your models for how taking initiative and entrepreneurship work? Collaborative model, you can’t do it all yourself, remember to ask for help, define your desired outcome and your vision of the future and make space for others to share in that vision, build in independent feedback mechanisms into your plan to identify blind spots.
• What has worked for you so far in creating projects? Structure: thoughtful reflection, Clear goals, purpose, meaningful outcome, anticipated problems. What hasn’t? ad hoc, make it up as you go.
• Where do you want to take initiative? To business, your social life, family, yourself? Use it to enact my next career chapter to establish myself as a Known Authority in creating positive sustainability thinking and change.
• What is your relevant history of taking initiative, if any? This can be your first memories, other relevant memories, and so on. For example, current active work projects I took the initiative to define and start.
Green Products assessment and improvement approach
Product Chemical Risk Management profiles (sustainability footprints)
Community ecosystem sanctuary development
• What is the value in taking a course like this? After writing your essay, I recommend sleeping on it, rereading it, and editing it before moving on. Ok, I slept on it. See above but I also expect there will be additional value discovered that I can’t see yet.
My field of interest: Positive sustainability mindset change leadership that turns intent into action
The three lists of three people:
1. Name three people closer to your field of interest:
Per Espen Stoknes, psychologist and economist
Eva Gladek, founder of Metabolic, Eva Gladek has a compelling drive to change the way our economy functions. Her passion and determination to shape a sustainable future has led her to work with organizations in nearly every economic sector, from progressive cities and NGOs, to industry leaders.
2. Name three people with high status or value in your field:
Chistiana Fugue
Christiana Figueres – Co-Founder, Global Optimism
Figueres is an internationally recognized leader on climate action. As Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, she steered the global diplomatic effort that culminated in the 2015 Paris Agreement
Sally Uren
Sally Uren, a global expert on sustainable development, has spent the past two decades developing and delivering sustainability strategies. Renowned for her role as the CEO of Forum for the Future, Sally is on a mission to accelerate progress toward a sustainable future – which she aims to do by catalysing transformational change on a global scale.
Ganesh Shankar –
Water security, safety and conservation are all issues that are becoming increasingly pressing, which is why it is a focus for Shankar. He is the Founder of FluxGen Technologies, which has the goal of de-risking industries from water crisis, and The Sustainability Mafia, an organization aiming to multiply the impact of sustainability leaders through goal-oriented collaboration
3. Name three relevant role models: These three can be people who are living or historical. For all three lists, name people, not positions like the CEO of some company. After you make these lists,
Marshall Goldsmith, Leadership Coach, mindset changes.
Simon Sinek, English-American author and inspirational speaker, positive thinking, leadership
Ken Webster (UK) is a leading thinker in the circular economy field. Ken is widely acknowledged as one of the foremost thinkers in the field. From 2010 – 2018, Ken was Head of Innovation for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, shaping current concepts of a ‘circular economy’.. Ken also co-wrote several books including Sense and Susta
