MANAGEMENT & SUSTAINABILITY
Leadership for Sustainability
The late Warren Bennis, often referred to as the “father of leadership”, once said that “the process of becoming a leader is similar, if not identical, to becoming a fully integrated human being.” Indeed, sustainability leadership is about creating companies fully integrated with the community and environment.
Bennis’ vision was that “full integration” includes an extension of concern beyond one’s own interests. The best leaders, Bennis and many other leadership experts have pointed out, cast a vision, inspire those around them and most of all help people develop into their full potential. In other words, counter to what many believe, the “boss” exists not to be served but to serve others.
Therefore, leadership for sustainability is a natural extension of great leadership. Successful leaders think beyond themselves, about enhancing the lives and experiences of others. In the same way that successful leaders aim to benefit others, successful sustainability leaders aim to benefit as much of the world as possible–while maintaining and increasing profitability.
Smithfield Foods is a sustainability leader that has effectively faced wicked problems in our food system with environmental and social innovation through its Good Work, Good Food and Good Stewards model.
Facing Wicked Problems: The Tough Work of Sustainability Leadership
In Leadership for Sustainability, Bruce Hull, David Robertson and Michael Mortimer at the Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability, see today’s business leaders in a completely novel market landscape characterized by “wicked problems”: highly complex, uncertain and essentially unsolvable (at least in a permanent sense).
“Wicked problems” were first defined by Hittel and Webber (1973). “[Wicked] social problems are never solved,” the authors explain. “At best they are only re-solved over and over again.” They were drawing a distinction between “wicked” social problems with no clear solution and “tame” problems in the sciences and some areas of engineering that are definable and solvable.
In short, the grand challenges of sustainability are all wicked problems. Climate change, food insecurity, income inequality, and loss of ecosystems span industries, geographies, disciplines and generations.
What does leadership need to look like in such a volatile market environment and key moment in human history?
Three Keys to Leadership for Sustainability
Hull et al in Leadership for Sustainability point to three leadership practices to face the wicked problems of sustainability: connect, collaborate and adapt. These are offered as a jumping off point for how the teaching and practice of leadership contribute to sustainability.
Connect
Creating Connected Teams
What the authors say: “Wicked situations have connections that span space, time, and cultures. Stakeholders, causes, effects, resources, risks, and other key factors are distributed across vast, complicated, global systems, such as watersheds, food systems, supply chains, and, in the case of climate change, the entire biosphere. Factors that must be influenced are so widely dispersed across political, economic, and organizational boundaries that they are hard to connect and influence in any coordinated fashion.”
Why this matters: conventional hierarchical, command-and-control leadership is not agile enough to understand and address such challenges at the necessary speed and scale. Sustainability leaders develop inclusive organizations with cultures and structures that are intentionally connected so that information and action flows in a more decentralized fashion and employees are empowered to effect change via shared leadership models.
Example: Siemens measures social impact through wide ranging connections across the enterprise using a methodology based on the Measuring Impact Framework published by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) which has been adopted in operations in 35 countries. Without a connected workplace, such measurement would not be possible.
Collaborate
Leading Through Partnership
What the authors say: “Wicked situations exceed the capacities of any one organization, and even any one sector (e.g., market, government, or civil society). Solutions require stakeholders to collaborate despite vast differences in their values, assumptions, personalities, disciplines, professions, generations, cultures, and sectors.”
Why this matters: conventional competition-based market behavior is not fit for the purpose of solving the wicked problems of labor rights abuses, pandemics, or plastic pollution. Sustainability leaders must ensure their firms will continue to compete successfully while also collaborating through new kinds of partnerships to effect systems change.
Example: The Elders is a group of independent global leaders working together for peace and human rights originally brought together by Nelson Mandela and convened by Virgin Unite. (Virgin Unite’s CEO is Jean Oelwang, a Smeal alum and author of Partnering: Forge the Deep Connections That Make Great Things Happen, an excellent book full of stories of collaboration for those wanting to go deeper.)
Adapt
Building a Culture of Innovation
What the authors say: “How does [a leader] respond to the confounding uncertainty caused by dynamic, open systems, evolving stakeholders, and unpredictable strategies? If you become paralyzed by it and do nothing, then you continue business as usual…Dealing with failure and uncertainty requires courage and persistence. Too much change and uncertainty can be so overwhelming that people stop trying. People need to be convinced that they can make a difference.”
Why this matters: the grand challenges we face require the reinvention and reimagination of nearly every institution, company, product and service. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) may be the business goals of the 21st century but leaders must create organizational cultures of innovation in order to achieve them. Just doing a little bit better each year won’t be enough. As Peter Diamandis has said: “You either disrupt your own company or someone else will.”
Example: Google X is “a team of inventors, scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs working to make 10X progress against the world’s toughest problems food supply, clean energy, connectivity, mobility, logistics and health.”
Leadership for Sustainability: Creating the Circular Economy at Philips
Deeptha Khanna, Chief Business Leader of Personal Health division and CEO Frans van Houten speak to the leadership challenges and opportunities in facing the wicked problem of a take-make-waste economy and a transition to circularity. Learn more about Philips’ commitment to 25% of revenues from circular products and services by 2025.
Learn about more sustainability concepts within this major.
ADVANCE YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
Learn what sustainable management is all about and its importance
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Learn how sustainability fits into your courses
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