This BLOG attemts to answer the
question: "Sustainability
- How is The Leadership Alliance Involved?"
Definitions of sustainability have included
various combinations of profit, viability,
energy, ecology, natural resources,
organization, and society; however, none
have addressed all aspects of the subject.
At The Leadership Alliance (TLA) we
take the position that since a comprehensive
definition is not currently feasible, a
pragmatic approach based on relevant current
research and practical concerns is
justified. Consequently we focus only on the
sustainability of commercial organizations,
especially organizations functioning in
complex environments such as those that face
firms locally and globally today and for the
foreseeable future. In particular, we are
exploring how innovation may be targeted
strategically to build and refresh
sustainability capabilities, and we are
focusing on both “Learning to Innovate for
Sustainability” and “Innovating to Learn
about Sustainability”.
Our approach treats sustainability in a “triple
bottom line” manner i.e. as the capability
of organizations to be viable commercially
over extended periods of time whilst being
exemplars in leading the way in avoiding
potential or real negative ecological and
social impacts related to their activities.
In our opinion assessing an organization’s
performance in this way is the most critical
challenge facing organizations today: most
organizations currently pay only lip-service
to triple-bottom-line sustainability even
though there is a cultural change taking
place in the marketplace where consumers are
becoming increasingly sensitive to
ecological and social impacts and “more of
the same” will no longer be an option.
In other words, TLA believes that
a sustainable organization is one that holds
the "creative tension" between short-term
objectives and long-term viability for the
growth and health of all of its employees,
customers, stakeholders, and community. To
have this kind of perspective, organizations
need leaders who understand not only markets
and innovation, but also TLA’s
Sustainability Score Card™ (SSC), its
related cultural and organizational
imperatives, the systemic nature of
sustainability, and transitional learning
that moves an organization to higher-scoring
sustainability levels.
TLA recommends to clients that sustainability be
treated as a journey toward
self-actualization in sustainability terms,
where organizational behaviors and stages of
sustainability development may be
identified. For organizations to
meaningfully develop in and through these
sustainability stages, their activities need
to be monitored against identified goals.
Stages of innovation-sophistication parallel
the sustainability stages, and TLA will
recommend means to match
learning-to-innovate to the stages of
sustainability development, and will clarify
innovating-to-learn about sustainability so
that practical progress from stage to stage
will ensue. To facilitate this progression,
TLA recommends amending the typical
profit/economic survival balance sheet to
include bottom lines for environmental and
social accountability i.e. a triple bottom
line, plus appropriate objectives and
deadlines. Then application of TLA’s SSC and
related systemic archetypes facilitate the
reporting of relevant measurements, the
tracking of progress against the stages and
objectives describe above, and the
development of appropriate behaviors.
On-line execution in a client community of
TLA’s Sustainability Score Card™ is simple,
fast and effective returning a detailed
picture of the organization’s
“sustainability health” even where
triple-bottom line reporting is not adopted.
Administering the SSC to an organization
results in evaluation of, but is not limited
to:
· The
impact of Gen X and Millennial generations
in the workforce
· Leadership
and management characteristics related to
building a sustainable organization
· Systemic
approaches necessary for an organization to
attain higher-scoring sustainability levels
· How
successfully complex adaptive systems
aligned with the traditional management
hierarchy are being cultivated for long term
stability
· The
linking of the SSC to policies and practices
in the organization
Individuals who demonstrate informal
“sustainability leadership and/or
innovation” may also be readily identified
via TLA’s Network Visualization and Analysis
procedures.
To explore sustainability and TLA’s capabilities
in more detail
please contact us – and NO we won’t
follow up with you afterwards unless agreed
with you!
