The MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT, SPRING 2009 Review asked more than 75 global leaders and sustainability thinkers the question, “What will organizations need to be good at in order to thrive in the emerging sustainability economy?” This is the beginning of a wider ranging study that will be published in the fall of 2009.
The answers generated 8 principles, ones that I agree with. My versions of them are below.
- Integrate activities – All parts of an organization must collaborate with sustainability strategy. This will require a “new organizational structure, inclusion in core strategy.”
- Systems thinking – “A systems mental model is required, you need to get people to look at the world as a design problem. What can nature teach us?”
- High-collaboration partnering – Based on trust/interest alignment, you must collaborate innovatively with every kind of stakeholder. “It’s going to require different patterns of interaction — not traditional, formal ones.”
- Learning; knowledge sharing – “Build sustainability into a learning organization — with knowledge and skills distributed.” “Decentralized, collective, open intelligence models will trump conventional hierarchal ones.” “Ability to allow fresh thinking and new ideas to enter the company — people at every level are internally focused to the point of myopia.”
- Communication; understanding information’s new currency – Companies will be required to manage an unprecedented information flow. They must capitalize on the new age of transparency. “Sustainability requires effective communication — with policy makers, stakeholders, consumers, suppliers, investors, etc.” “Corporations will face a major change in the degree of openness and management of stakeholders required.”
- Valuing the long term – “As the CEO, if 98% of your attention is just fire fighting around today’s products and processes, you’re in big trouble.” “There must be incentives for CEO to take a long-term view of the world.” How do you drive the cultural change that focuses organizations on the long-term goals? How to develop a robust trend spotting and scenario planning capability?
- Measurement and reporting – “Quantification and monitoring of sustainability is essential — review performance on new sustainability-based metrics.”
- Experimenting, not planning – “Experiments create ‘optionality,’ to enable a company to be adaptive in future unforeseen conditions.” “Mini innovation projects on sustainability can be implemented to build credibility of concept and confidence.”
Source: The MIT Sloan Management Review, in collaboration with The Boston Consulting Group