Note: The next seven essays are not a view from nowhere. I’ve spent decades working with governance systems as a sustainability consultant, a strategic adviser, a sectoral representative and now as a researcher. I am a long-term participant in the processes I’m now trying to understand. That position is part of the argument: because what
The pitfall for organisations when crafting their sustainability strategy is to assume their organizational system is simple and predictable when in reality it is complex and requires a much more agile and adaptive strategic approach.
In times of crisis we must make decisions based on what is right and not on what is most comfortable or routine. When we are really scared – what have we got to hang on to? The only thing we can hang on to is – what is the right thing to do? Because nothing else can be trusted as real.
But people follow purpose – with much more intensity than they follow job titles or money. The challenge is to allow yourself and your organisation to be purpose-led, principles focused and where performance is measured as purpose translated.
Never have we been so forewarned about a crisis that is unfolding and worsening in front of us. And too many organisations and sectors remain hell-bent on adopting the targets that they can get away with rather than the targets that are needed.
We tend to think of organisations as being more like machines than living systems. We speak of “running the organisation”, “owners of the business” and leaders who “drive change”. The language is appropriate for a car.