change management for sustainable development

Tools for strategic sustainability

Tools for strategic sustainability

When we get caught up in enthusiastic attention being paid to an issue – like single-use plastic or palm oil – it can knock our planned approach off-course. Or we can use it as an entry point for some strategic thinking. If you get the opportunity to strategise with senior leaders, what are the tools to help you?

If you want to do a more rigorous analysis of your sustainability impacts and opportunities, people I interviewed for Change Management for Sustainable Development recommended a range of frameworks and tools. Here they are, so you can use them too.

What's your mandate?

What's your mandate?

If you want to make your organisation better from a sustainability perspective, you need to understand what your organisation wants from you, in relation to sustainability and in relation to change. What is your mandate?

What might change, when an organisation changes?

What might change, when an organisation changes?

When you think about the changes you want to bring about, to make your organisation or sector more sustainable, what do you see changing? Do you have blind spots about where change might happen, and how deep or how obvious it will be?
 
Edgar Schein’s Three Levels of Culture model is a great way of understanding what might change, as an organisation or other entity changes. It’s useful to think very widely about the kinds of things that might change – or need to change – to get us on track for sustainable development.

Managing the change to sustainability

Managing the change to sustainability

Croner-i’s “Environment” magazine asked me to share key insights from Change Management for Sustainable Development. That article is out now, in the spring edition (no. 74).

 You can download it here.

 Tldr:

  • Understand where your organisation is now…

The business case for sustainable development

The business case for sustainable development

If you want sustainability to move from being a nice-to-have, to being a must-have, at some point you will need to show that there’s a business case for it: that your organisation will meet its core mission better, faster, cheaper by paying good attention to sustainability than by ignoring it.  

What does the business case look like in your organisation?

Surf's up!

Surf's up!

Our opportunities to change things can come from unexpected directions.  A new CEO who wants to shake things up.  A sudden upsurge of public enthusiasm for naked shampoo bars or reusable cups.  A cost-cutting drive.   

How can you make the most of these changes from elsewhere, and surf them expertly to get things moving in a sustainable direction?

Doing the work in sustainability that we want to do

Doing the work in sustainability that we want to do

Lots of the women who came along to She is Still Sustainable said that the highlight was a co-coaching exercise we ran, using a solutions focus approach.  People paired up and coached each other, asking positive, future-oriented questions about the sustainability work they wanted to do. The instructions are here.

Personal resilience - three ways to build yours

Personal resilience - three ways to build yours

One of the things that came up again and again when I was talking to people about the new edition of Change Management for Sustainable Development, was supporting ourselves as sustainability professionals and as change-makers.  There are three key pillars which support us: perspective, association, and giving ourselves a break.

Change management for sustainable development - 'a coach in your pocket'

Change management for sustainable development - 'a coach in your pocket'

Are you an environment or sustainability specialist, working to help your organisation step up to its role in bringing about a sustainable future?  Want to make more of an impact? I want you to as well! Which is why I was so pleased when IEMA invited me to write a second edition of Change Management for Sustainable Development.

And when one of our peer readers said "it's like having a coach in your pocket", I was really happy, because that's exactly what I wanted it to be.

Surfing a wave of change - #OurBluePlanet

Surfing a wave of change - #OurBluePlanet

The BBC's brilliant Blue Planet 2 has certainly sparked a great conversation about how delicate and beautiful our planet is, as well as showing us how fragile the ocean ecosystem - on which life depends - is.