How can you create a Culture Change initiative that focuses on sustainability?

An organization's culture must be aligned with the Corporate Vision as well as Long Term and Short Term goals. The culture must be fully supported by the team that occupies the C-Suite. A sustainable culture change starts at the top and that support must be unwavering. There is also an intersection of culture and corporate values. It is critical to understand that behaviors are values made visible and behaviors determine the success of the culture change. Any culture change impacts one's paradigms and cognitive bias. It is vital to remember that the essence any culture is a group's preferred way to think and act. Regarding sustainability, it must never equate to stagnancy nor mediocrity.

I think a key element is focusing on desire - tying in the employee experience and benefit of sustainability as a practice. Sustainability (and the concept of thriving) is of massive benefit to all employees. Zeroing in to have segments of the workforce understand what that means to them, and not just in name, but the practical application of how sustainability comes to life through conversation, training, and performance (over time) is key.

Sustainability is often seen as just a trendy term and culture change as a remote concept. People overlook their role and impact on sustainability. Understanding personal relevance is lacking. To bridge this gap, making sustainability relatable in daily life is crucial. Personal accountability and illustrating individual contributions to larger sustainability goals can drive a meaningful cultural shift.

Our society faces significant threats to sustainability due to structural problems in our economic, societal, and personal habits. Our consumption-driven culture prioritizes short-term gains over long-term ecological health, leading to overexploitation of resources and environmental degradation. Economic systems that prioritize endless growth perpetuate this unsustainable cycle by disregarding the true cost of environmental damage. Our daily habits, such as energy-intensive transportation and disposable consumerism, contribute to a collective carbon footprint that exacerbates climate change. To address this challenge, we need to make these problems visible through education, awareness campaigns, and policy reforms. No time to waste!

Creating a culture change initiative that focuses on sustainability involves engaging and inspiring individuals within an organization to adopt environmentally conscious practices and values. Whereas there could be several measures, I would point out these top 3 as critical. Assessment and Analysis: Evaluate the current state of your organization's sustainability practices and Identify areas where improvements can be made. Leadership Commitment: Integrate sustainability goals into the organization's strategic planning. Continuous Learning: Provide ongoing training to keep employees informed about the latest sustainable practices.

Any cultural change process in a top down approach. The leadership team must have complete buy in of the goal where they want to see the organisation go. It should be a collaborative action and not just a HR initiative. HR can facilitate the communication process, aligning the reward and recognition process around key performance indicators that facilitate it and implementing a PMS that helps in inculcating the core values that reinforces the desired culture.

Don′t make the mistake to create your desired work culture and on top of that add values for sustainability, and maybe other initiatives. No company can adopt 10+ values at the same time. Think of what work culture you want to have, maybe have one around impact if that applies, and then it can be aligned with your sustainability goals. Make sure your sustainability values and overall values are aligned, not adding.

In our practice we use our 4-step approach and often reverse steps 1 and 2 so that when thinking about the aspired future people are less biased by the current reality. Defining this future state your purpose, values and principles always includes your promise to employees, customers, other stakeholders and society. Based on this you are able to create your strategy which immediately includes the sustainable goals you want to contribute to. To get all people involved from the start and get different perspectives in the room, a great way is to organise these kinds of sessions in parallel and let the different teams demonstrate their results. This way you get to 1 aspired future together.

No. This is too mechanical and ignores the ‘is-ness’ of your current situation. Start with an articulation of what is great now in your culture. Consider where the organisation is headed, culturally, now. Look for the possibilities most readily available, based on these current and likely trends. Only then - maybe add embellishments that fit.

Engage stakeholders from the start. That means, include them in all activities. Let them know what you are working on, ask the stakeholders that are interested to co-create a vision and a strategy. Keep good communication with other stakeholders and regularly communicate what you′re working on. Show the benefits in workshops etc to make sure the potential impact is understood by a broader audience.

This is rubbish. Define a vision, strategy and actions with stakeholders. Bit by bit implement actions together, with a combination of top-down and bottom-up. Measure progress with metrics that impact in your objectives. Ask for feedback and incorporate in your initiative.

Anco you got the first part right but you can’t implement in a multinational with involving everyone but you can run programs that they get to feel like they are shaping the future once the key narrative is agree. The key is workshops and sheep dip programs that they can go back to their workplace and implement. Core principles have to be agreed by the executive group.

Every change initiative needs continuous attention from everyone. It's very easy to fall back on old behaviours. Although we do not have that intention this is what unconsciously happens. It's no excuse but it is how our brain is wired. Too long story for here. So what helps to stay on track is to make our values and principles part of the planning sessions in teams on all levels. Organise retrospectives regularly to understand what we achieved or did not achieve yet. Learn from that and improve your steps. Share these results and lessons throughout the organisation so that it becomes a common practice and not an exception to the rule.

The key to embracing new values for a completely new capability of your company is keeping all your stakeholders happy. Especially executives and managers that could simply block your initiative by ′not having enough time′ or having conflicting priorities are a danger. Therefore, have communication often, and incorporate feedback as soon as you receive it. If you don′t, you might lose buy-in from a part of the company.

To live sustainably, we need a system change. Our current "take, make, dispose" approach must shift to circular and restorative principles. A regenerative society transforms the way we produce, consume, and manage resources. Waste becomes valuable, and we focus on nurturing the Earth's systems instead of endless growth. This shift is essential for a viable future for all.

Sustainability starts with an interdependent relationship with the planet and our fellow humans. If we are to get true sustainability then we need to become part of the ecosystems that are circular and integrated with the systems around us. One way to begin on this path is to go from business ownership separating capital owners from workers, and introducing cooperative ownership where all employees become invested in the future of the company. That also brings democratic practices into the private sphere where it is desperately needed.