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Culture
Culture resources
Overview
Sustainability as an integrated strategy is ultimately about culture change. Transitioning to sustainability often involves fundamentally different, paradigm-breaking approaches and business models.
The first step in any successful sustainability change initiative is to establish a dominant mindset for the organization. Just as with individuals, organizations have worldviews made up of the core beliefs and assumptions that form the basis of their organizational culture. These ways of thinking are deeply embedded and can be very difficult to change.
Organizational culture can either further or thwart sustainability endeavors. In many ways, the adoption of sustainable practices is hindered more by existing unsustainable mindsets and cultural norms than by available technologies. Sustainability change initiatives incapable of altering these unsustainable cultural traits will have little chance of long-term success.
Making progress towards sustainability means more than creating new policies, programs, or goals. Rather it requires the transformation of values and norms to foster an ethic of care for the environment, workers, and communities. A change in culture, although challenging to achieve, can have a profound influence on the behavior and decision making of managers and employees.
Sustainability exemplars have a few things in common when it comes to their organizational culture. Employees understand the company’s sustainability mission and how it impacts their function. Sustainability is not siloed in one department or assigned to one individual – it is everyone’s job. Company leadership actively supports the organization’s sustainability strategy. The CEO and other company leaders regularly speak about sustainability at internal and external events. Employees are encouraged to think creativity, take risks, collaborate, and to bring innovative ideas to the attention of management. The further along a company is in its sustainability journey, the more embedded sustainability will be in their organizational culture as an integral part of how values and norms play out on a day-to-day basis.
Resources
Innovation capacity
A strong organizational innovation capacity is essential to survive and thrive in a globalized economy replete with shifting demographics, ubiquitous communications, and disruptive technologies. Tomorrow’s successful organizations balance freedom to generate new ideas with discipline to vet the ideas and move quickly to develop only the most promising. Continually building and supporting that capacity is critical to creating new value in today’s fast-changing business environment.
Organizational values
A written set of organizational values can help define beliefs and set an organization’s culture and expectations. If the values that a company writes down cannot be supported by real life examples, they may be more aspirational than inherent. A disconnect between expectations and reality is an indicator that work needs to be done to align the organization’s beliefs with those aspirations so that inconsistent or unexpected behavior does not create risk or liability.
Resources
Leadership effectiveness
Effective leadership is shaped by the ability of an organization’s leaders to communicate with and engage stakeholders to actively participate in and nurture a shared vision and culture. Effective leadership continually supports achieving and protecting organizational success and potential. It demonstrates a strong ability to manage risks and is typically rewarded in the capital markets with favorable access to capital.
Resources
Culture basics
Organizational culture is comprised of the values, beliefs, and norms from which an organization operates. It is not written statements, but the way the organization lives and thinks about these things. Culture is the invisible glue that binds communities together. Over time, a business culture provides a sense of identity to employees and becomes “just the way we do things here.”
Creating a successful workplace culture is an important issue for business leaders. A survey of nearly 10,000 employees from around found the word “stress” was the most commonly used word to describe workplace culture. On average, employees only rate their current workplace culture at 65 on a 100-point scale. When it comes to creating a positive workforce culture, there is a lot of work that can and should be done.
Culture plays a large role in an organization’s ability to attract new employees, engage them in meaningful work, and retain top talent. A positive culture inspires creativity and innovation, driving better business results and revenue growth. A negative culture can undermine corporate objectives and give rise to unethical behavior. Cultivating an ethical culture – one that promotes exemplary behavior and shuns behavior that falls below stated expectations – is one of the best ways to prevent unethical conduct.
Executives and managers can lead the way by modeling the values of the organization in daily interactions with employees. Leadership qualities of mentorship, collaboration, trust, and giving credit can go a long way in engaging and empowering employees to do their best work. Open lines of communication and transparency are also crucial. Active and engaging training, including scenario role playing that involves managers and staff alike, helps employees understand expected and unacceptable behaviors so they can make better decisions when confronted with a difficult real-life situation. When employees are given sufficient resources, skills, and knowledge to contribute and make a positive difference, businesses thrive.