"If you're in a bad situation, don't worry, it'll change. If you're in a good situation, don't worry, it'll change."
-- John A. Simone Jr.
Six Levels of Sustainability: What You Be is What You Get (5)
“Sustainability” is not always sustainable. Simply, doing and describing what you do as sustainable does not make it so. For organizations (and us, personally!) to be sustainable in what we do, we have to be sustainable in who we are and how we see the world. This gives us our best shot at doing something that is actually going to get or generate sustainable results. In the following series of six posts I will introduce the six levels of engaging in sustainability: Compliance, Conformity, Cooperation, Collaboration, Coherence and Constellation. We use these at Interkannections to help our clients clarify their current goals around sustainability and map out their paths for deepening their practice and impact.. We use these at Interkannections to help our clients clarify their current goals around sustainability and map out their paths for deepening their practice and impact.
Coherence is signified by an organization or reorganization around a clear sense of purpose and deeply embedded principles that promote sustainability beyond the scope of simply doing business in the conventional sense. The organization and its people begin to fulfill an intentionally larger role in the communities and ecosystems in which they operate.
Coherence
- Sustainability is generated from clearly articulated and realized principles and purpose.
- Example sustainability activities: Intentional long-term and multi-win relationships with suppliers that connect with developing and implementing community enhancement programs internally and with community stakeholders while creating and enacting related business practices that create zero waste and actually restore land and stream quality that significantly lowers risk and increases revenue and value for the business, suppliers and local communities.
- Being at Coherence is striving to be the change you want to see in the world while being successful.
- What we see at this level is a multitude of business opportunities and potential through engagement with the value web.
- What we are doing is “walking” our sustainable “talk” by leveraging value web relationships to generate multi-win, interconnected value as the example activities cited above demonstrates.
- What we get from Coherence is excellent risk management, long-term stability through a healthier, more robust relationship with the world.
- Remaining at Coherence has little in the way of negative consequences unless the culture becomes stagnant, insular or arrogant.. As the company evolves it is highly likely that opportunities to begin doing Constellation level business will appear. To seize these opportunities the role of proactive leadership throughout the organization, high levels of awareness, communication, innovation and resilience are necessary.
When we think of companies at this level, Burgerville, a Portland, Oregon area quick service restaurant chain comes to mind. Their mission is simple: To serve with love. Their inter-relationship with the communities and market in which they operate is complex. In terms of engagement with the value web they are actively generating positive, clearly visible interconnected returns in nearly all of the nodes. They don’t so much have suppliers as they have deep, mutually enriching, value generating relationships. More on Burgerville coming soon.
Tags: Burgerville, Coherence, collaboration, Compliance, Conformity, Constellation, cooperation, innovation, Interkannections, Oregon, Portland, principles, purpose, resilience, risk management, sustainability, walking the talk, zero waste
Six Levels of Sustainability: What You Be is What You Get (4)
“Sustainability” is not always sustainable. Simply, doing and describing what you do as sustainable does not make it so. For organizations (and us, personally!) to be sustainable in what we do, we have to be sustainable in who we are and how we see the world. This gives us our best shot at doing something that is actually going to get or generate sustainable results. In the following series of six posts I will introduce the six levels of engaging in sustainability: Compliance, Conformity, Cooperation, Collaboration, Coherence and Constellation. We use these at Interkannections to help our clients clarify their current goals around sustainability and map out their paths for deepening their practice and impact.
Collaboration
At the Collaboration level a commonly occurring question is “why we are doing what we’re doing?” This is often driven by a desire to be more involved and inclusive internally and externally. Like Cooperation, external stakeholder engagement is still largely targeted and arbitrary although the quality of engagement is less transactional due to the collaborative nature of involvement.
- Sustainability is internally mandated and guides internal and external partner and project selection and areas of collaboration.
- Example sustainability activities: stewarding NPOs on good business practices, co-development of green technologies, cross-functional and multi-level internal initiatives, including NGO’s, local communities and other external shareholders in the project and product and service development process.
- Being at this level is focused on engaging with others in sustainable work. An organic expansion of Cooperation, we begin to reach out and look for opportunities to work together on targeted and selected projects.
- What we see at this level is the power and value in including and embracing multiple perspectives, multiple win relationships and transparency in our business.
- What we are doing is reaching out to and opening dialogues with suppliers, external stakeholders and, even, adversaries to include them in the scope of our sustainability practices.
- What we get from Collaboration are deeper relationships with external partners that typically involve learning and development on both sides. This tends to generate more impressive PR and better management of risk as multiple-win and longer-term relationships become more common. Internally, potential for organizational learning and greater innovation increases as information flows and is shared across functional and divisional boundaries.
- Remaining centered in collaboration is marked by multiple and fruitful initiatives and relationships that, though multi-faceted and value generating are not fully integrated and coordinated into our business, work and lives.
We believe that Collaboration is the first level of sustainability that may actually be sustainable. Companies that rate their sustainability or philanthropy efforts as very effective are those that engage and collaborate with other businesses and stakeholders. At this level we begin working in interconnected and mutually dependable and mutually influencing ways. Communities of interest and practice develop and become self-organizing and self-managing. We discover opportunities for new value streams and create the potential to dissolve adversarial relationships. Our style of work, interaction and value generation begin to leverage the value of systems thinking and self-organizing systems by mirroring the non-linear workings of open systems.
Tags: Coherence, collaboration, Compliance, Conformity, Constellation, cooperation, NGO's, organizational learning, philanthropy, self-organizing systems, stakeholder engagement, supply chain, sustainability, systems thinking, value stream
Six Levels of Sustainability: What You Be is What You Get (3)
“Sustainability” is not always sustainable. Simply, doing and describing what you do as sustainable does not make it so. For organizations (and us, personally!) to be sustainable in what we do, we have to be sustainable in who we are and how we see the world. This gives us our best shot at doing something that is actually going to get or generate sustainable results. In the following series of six posts I will introduce the six levels of engaging in sustainability: Compliance, Conformity, Cooperation, Collaboration, Coherence and Constellation. We use these at Interkannections to help our clients clarify their current goals around sustainability and map out their paths for deepening their practice and impact.
Cooperation
When we act at the Cooperation level our focus shifts to giving back and helping out. We engage in philanthropy and charitable giving/support of select causes because we’ve decided or believe it is the ”right” thing to do.
- Sustainability at this level focuses on a mix of internal and external drivers calling for “giving” and “helping out.”
- Example sustainability activities: Charitable giving, service days, volunteerism, targeted but disconnected internal and external CSR campaigns, employee-specific giving schemes, standards for suppliers, stated socially responsible principles and purpose.
- Being at Cooperation is about philanthropy. We feel a sense of responsibility to help and support causes of personal interest and meaning.
- What we see at this level is our capacity to do good, to help out and support social and environmental responsibility.
- What we are doing tends toward transactional giving and improvement. We help you. We help ourselves. We tend toward doing for vs. doing with.
- What we get from Cooperation is improved operational sustainability in targeted areas and the very real sense we are making a difference in the lives of the people and conservation efforts we choose to help.
- Remaining at Cooperation limits the effectiveness of the time, energy, financial and human resources we apply to socially responsible action and sustainable business. Activity gets confused with accomplishment.
From our research it is pretty clear that most organizations are currently operating around the Conformity and Cooperation levels. Further research by a partner in the US found that over 60% of the companies they surveyed were operating between Compliance and Cooperation. In terms of sustainability, we believe our greatest challenge and opportunity is moving beyond these levels because it is our thinking and behavior at these levels that has brought us to where we are today. Simply, Compliance, Conformity and Cooperation are showing themselves to be unsustainable.
Tags: charity, Coherence, collaboration, Compliance, Conformity, Constellation, cooperation, corporate social responsibility, csr, philanthropy, sustainability
Six Levels of Sustainability: What you Be is What you Get (2)
“Sustainability” is not always sustainable. Simply, doing and describing what you do as sustainable does not make it so. For organizations (and us, personally!) to be sustainable in what we do, we have to be sustainable in who we are and how we see the world. This gives us our best shot at doing something that is actually going to get or generate sustainable results.In the following series of six posts I will introduce the six levels of engaging in sustainability: Compliance, Conformity, Cooperation, Collaboration, Coherence and Constellation. We use these at Interkannections to help our clients clarify their current goals around sustainability and map out their paths for deepening their practice and impact.
Each level includes and transcends the one before it, adding additional functionality and value.
Conformity:
- At Conformity we realize the importance of our reputation and brand and the need to protect and maintain them.
- Sustainability is externally mandated and harvested for public relations
- Example sustainability issue: Creating a sustainability report and publicizing recent gains in workplace safety.
- Being at Conformity is about appearing sustainable to appeal to shareholders, immediate stakeholders, NGO’s and the media.
- What we see at this level is the power and influence of others over our business.
- What we are doing is using sustainability as a means of improving shareholder and key internal and external stakeholder relations
- What we get from Conformity is good PR, enhanced brand reputation, and good relationships with key stakeholders in our work.
- Failure to go beyond Conformity frequently results in an overwhelming focus on green washing and “spinning” activities to appear sustainable to avoid trouble and enhance image in the eyes of key stakeholders.
Tags: brand reputation, Coherence, collaboration, Compliance, Conformity, Constellation, cooperation, green washing, NGO's, shareholder relations, strategy, sustainability, sustainability report, workplace safety
Six levels of Sustainability: What You Be is What You Get (1)
“Sustainability” is not always sustainable. Simply, doing and describing what you do as sustainable does not make it so. For organizations (and us, personally!) to be sustainable in what we do, we have to be sustainable in who we are and how we see the world. This gives us our best shot at doing something that is actually going to get or generate sustainable results. In the following series of six posts I will introduce the six levels of engaging in sustainability: Compliance, Conformity, Cooperation, Collaboration, Coherence and Constellation. We use these at Interkannections to help our clients clarify their current goals around sustainability and map out their paths for deepening their practice and impact.
Each level includes and transcends the one before it, adding additional functionality and value.
Compliance:
- Compliance can be seen as baseline best business practice. Without a strong foundation in compliance we tend to be constantly firefighting and fighting for survival.
- Sustainability is externally mandated and internally enforced.
- Example sustainability issue: meeting workplace safety regulations
- Being at this level is basically about staying out of trouble and reducing risk. We focus on compliance with rules, regulations and requirements in order to avoid penalties and stay in business.
- What we tend to see at this level are the need to meet short-term goals and maintain immediate profitability.
- What we are doing is trying to establish stability as we establish ourselves, move into new markets or new areas of business.
- From Compliance the positive value we get is ongoing permission to operate and stability.
- Failure to evolve capacity to include and move beyond Compliance mires us in largely transactional and frequently win-lose relationships with the world around us as we seek to fulfill self-centered short-term needs.
You probably know people and organizations that struggle in this area. The best way to move out of a compliance focus is to develop strong operational standards and protocols that are part of a larger sustainability initiative. That initiative must be closely tied to financial bottom line improvements and positive visible change.
Tags: bottom line, Coherence, collaboration, Compliance, Conformity, Constellation, cooperation, Interkannections, operational standards, profit, reducing risk, regulations, rules, sustainability, workplace safety
Sustainability Defined
It is a process. It is a call and response.
Ripples on the surface of a pond and the slowly sinking stone.
It is the steady rising crescendo of housing markets and the sudden cymbal crash. Wild commodity price fluctuations are freak globally-warmed wind storms.
These things happen. They and we are cause and effect. Sustainability is what it is. What it needs to be simultaneously now and 100 years from now.
Shifting paradigms, new model of ancient learning & practice it asks us to integrate: what was, what is, what will be.
Way of life, way of living, sacred wedding of economy and ecology. Each really the other, both really patterns of growth, subsidence and exchange.
Baseline of abundance, sustainability is an art demanding deep awareness, constant creativity, control, discipline and compassion.
It is the how of who we are and what we do.
A process. A call and response. It is the opportunity
of a lifetime.
Tags: abundance, compassion, housing markets, paradigm shift, sustainability
11 Things You Can Do To Be Sustainable
Sustainability is not recycling. It is a process. A way of life.
- Practice a discipline that gives you real insight into your Self. Deal with what emerges.
- Draw a value web and ask yourself, “How can I strengthen ALL of these relationships?”
- No waste. Just do it.
- Develop a meaningful personal sustainability practice that you can commit to.
- Stop “fighting” global warming, poverty, (insert cause of choice).
- Begin working for systemic solutions to global warming, poverty, (insert cause of choice).
- Commit yourself and enroll others to realizing renewable, clean energy in your community NOW.
- Break old habits.
- Seek out and support sustainable businesses and business models.
- Do whatever works for you from all of those other lists.
- Stop reading lists.
Tags: capacity evolution, clean energy, global warming, no waste, personal sustainability practice, poverty, renewable energy, sustainability, sustainable business, value web
Sustaining Sustainability
Here at the headwaters of 2009 and the backwaters of the first decade of the 21st century I’ve got the crashing power chords of Rush in my head singing: “Changes aren’t permanent but change is.” Da da Da dum. Da da da dum…
The Obama era is ushering itself in and with it a lot of hope and opportunity. However, what are we hoping for? Where is that opportunity going to take us? Is that even, really, an appropriate question anymore? Think about this. Meditate on this. Please.
I don’t think we’re “going” anywhere. “Going” is linear. “Going” is an illusion.
My sense of things is that we are “happening”. We and everything else is “emerging” just as we, along with everything else is “subsiding”. Change is the name of the game. Change is changing change.
My sense of things is we have to become better at working and playing well with others. By “others” I mean both the people we work and play with on a daily basis as well as the myriad host of sentient beings blessing this planet and universe with their presence. All of God’s creatures. Not just the ones we want on our team, on our plate and in our garden but the ghosts of the Baiji still swimming in the murky hell of the Yangtze River as well.
The Yangtze springs from snowmelt in Tibet, by the way, and may also become a haunting memory one day if the capricious dynamics of global warming have their way…
We need leaders who are more than achievers (although, now more than ever, we need them too.) We need leaders who can ride the wild flux wave creating wakes of opportunity. We need alchemists who can change the leaden, oppresive beat of the industrial, fossil-fueled dirge into glimmering gold sun-shining circles of slam dancing electrons.
We need to re-discover hope. Bask in the warm winter glow of what could be instead of the November drizzle of what can’t. Re-imagine our Selves as the inter-related jewels holding each other in the shimmering embrace of Indra’s net.
Love. Man do we need love. I’m talking about Big Love here (although ain’t nothing wrong with the little one either). The kind of love Morihei Ueshiba was talking about when he said “Aikido is love“. It is the realization of our capacity to open up to and embrace each other, becoming something bigger, transcendent, simultaneously many and one.
This quote is a good one as well “A good stance and posture reflect a proper state of mind.”
And, finally, for now, let’s forget about “sustaining” our selves. Let’s set our eyes on the prize of flourishing. Sustainability is sustainable when we are looking out for more than just me. Sustainability is sustainable when we are engaged and interwoven, breaking bread and doing good work with one another. The more we can do to benefit those around us, the more potential for us as well.
Forget green. Let’s go full spectrum.
Tags: aikido, baiji, flourishing, global warming, Indra's net, Morihei Ueshiba, obama, Rush, sustainability, Yangtze river
Why Sustainable is not Enough
Think about it. Sustainable is getting by-enough to continue to living. It means defining, targeting and ensuring a minimum. Drop below that minimum and we die–either slowly or in spectacularly apocalyptic fashion. 
Then there’s the oxymoronic issue of sustainable development. Development, as currently practiced, is a linear process based on targets for growth. The paradigm shaping this practice is competitive, linear and sees growth as something that can continue indefinitely. “Development”, in the sense defined above, is unsustainable. Nothing lives forever. That includes Redwoods, the American automobile industry and George Burns.
Sustainable development also implies doing the minimum in the development process to maintain conditions favorable to development. If you’re mining minerals in a third world country you don’t need to make your workers wealthy, you need to keep them minimally healthy and maintaining community and ecological health is well off the radar. You just need to keep them working or find more workers needy enough to take their places. Doing so sustains the development process. Donating profits to UNICEF or some other NPO/NGO to be “socially responsible” makes little difference.
So, sustainability, asks us to do the minimum. Certainly many of us could get by with much less. We really could lower the bar on “enough” without engendering any suffering for our selves and our families. And, from what I see, I think we should. However, can we not also do more, much more, to generate value, create an abundant wellness, a world (inner and outer) in which we can all flourish?
Wouldn’t it be more interesting, engaging and exciting to focus on creating value for all constituents in the value web?
What would that look like? What would you be doing? Where should you start, NOW?
Tags: csr, sustainability, sustainable development
Sustainable Performance Reviews
On the thread of performance reviews, it occurred to me that one key area in which sustainability is often not embedded in the organization is in the performance review.
Think about it, if your performance review is the demotivating debacle described in my previous post, in terms of valuing and respecting resources it is a barrier to building a sustainable organization. The workforce and even the executives are trapped in a Dilbert like world of double entendre, undiscussable issues and tragicomedy. This is the waste generating opposite of generating value, developing capacity for innovation & implementation and building resilience & responsiveness-let alone holding a space for people to be whole and develop presence.
So…what would sustainable performance reviews look like? In my thinking they would:
- Inquire into the health of the employee. How are you doing in this organization? How is your manager / the organization doing for you? What do you do to take care of your self? How could your manager / the organization take better care of you?
- Have a clearly designed, defined and operable approach to sustainability. This should be done in a way that engages “the whole system” of internal and external stakeholders to help the organization and leaders see what needs to be done, who needs to do it and what competencies and capacities are necessary to make it happen at all levels of the organization.
- Make the employee a partner in sustaining the organization. What are you doing to sustain and grow this organization? How well is this organization helping you sustain your self and your family? What would it take for you and us to flourish?
- Set targets and goals that blend the following:
- The corporate bottom line and the necessary efficiency and effectiveness to support it.
- The employees needs and the necessary work/support, achievement, recognition & development to achieve it.
- The values and principles that will allow both bottom lines to co-exist and grow.
- The needs of other internal and external stakeholders that either affect the above or are affected by the above.
- Make goal/target setting and performance reviews something to look forward to. What would an engaging, appreciative, empowering and uplifting review look and feel like? Ask your self. Ask your friends. Ask your team. Ask your subordinates. Ask your mentors and leaders.
- Be the change you all want to see.
Tags: be the change, capacity, Dilbert, generate value, goal setting, implementation, innovation, performance review, presence, resilience, responsiveness, sustainability, sustainable leadership