11.18.2010

Creating a Platform for Change and Confidence in Purpose and Approach

At the Pegasus Conference 2010: Systems Thinking in Action, held last week in Boston, several pioneers—including Daniel Kim, Robert Fritz, and Peter Senge—presented nuggets of wisdom for EHS, Sustainability, and CSR professionals. I’ve shared a few of them below.

Senge presented some of his current research on the characteristics and qualities of people who have initiated and maintained systematic change over a 10- to 15-year period. He outlined a newly formed body of knowledge that encompasses two broad domains: learning what life is, and cognition or consciousness. Through several case studies, Senge demonstrated that systems thinking and actions, based on what he termed the “heart-space,” could have a powerful impact on teams and communities. Read More

Posted By | in Emerging Issues, Innovation, Personal Mastery, Strategic Thinking & Planning | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

11.17.2010

Are You an EHS, Sustainability, or CSR Musician, Conductor, or Composer?

At the Pegasus Conference 2010: Systems Thinking in Action, held last week in Boston, several pioneers—including Daniel Kim, Robert Fritz, and Peter Senge—presented nuggets of wisdom for EHS, Sustainability, and CSR professionals. I’ve shared a few of them below.

Building upon the concepts he introduced in his groundbreaking book, The Path of Least Resistance—in which he presented his landmark model on the structural tension between vision and current reality—Fritz discussed the Structural Dynamics of Leadership.

The role of leaders, he said, is to change or alter the underlying structures that affect culture and behavior. This is important because structure is more causally dominant than individual talent, good intentions, past experiences, creativity, or capacity. The most effective leaders possess strength of character, are able to work with structural forces, and have the ability to create a shared vision and shared structural tension. Read More

Posted By | in Emerging Issues, High Performance Teams, Innovation, Personal Mastery | Tags: , , , , , , | No Comments »

11.16.2010

EHS, Sustainability, and CSR Professionals as Transformative 3rd-Generation Leaders

At the Pegasus Conference 2010: Systems Thinking in Action, held last week in Boston, several pioneers—including Daniel Kim, Robert Fritz, and Peter Senge—presented nuggets of wisdom for EHS, Sustainability, and CSR professionals. I’ve shared a few of them below.

Daniel Kim discussed what he calls “The 3rd-Generation Leadership Challenge.” Speaking generally about two eras—the industrial revolution era and the current “knowledge and learning” era—he characterized the evolution of leadership as having two generations in the industrial revolution (Pioneer- and Manager-Leaders) and four leadership options in the current era (which he refers to as 3rd-Generation Leadership: Parasite-, Operator-, Stagnant-, Learning/Transformative-Leaders). Read More

Posted By | in Emerging Issues, Innovation, Personal Mastery, Strategic Thinking & Planning | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

11.12.2010

Characteristics of Corporate Environmental Sustainability Practices

A robust study[1] of corporate sustainability practices as been conducted by Cowan et al. The authors correctly indicate that there is a void in standardized approaches in this area, with many companies relying on guidance or criteria set forth by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), in ISO standards such as 14001, and in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. They also observe that numerous names and labels are used to describe sustainability in companies such as Sustainability Programs, Corporate and/or Social Responsibility Reports, and Global Citizen Reports.

The authors identified nine components of sustainability programs common to the 130 companies they examined. These were grouped into three areas: Resource Management (Solid Waste, Water Conservation); Energy Management (Energy Conservation, Renewable Energy, GHG Emission Reduction, Energy Efficient Construction, e.g., LEED); and Product Sustainability (Product Transportation, Supply Chain Audit, Product Stewardship, Life-Cycle Program). Read More

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11.12.2010

The New Intelligent Enterprise: What Are Your EHS/Sustainability/CSR Analytics?

Recently, more companies have focused their attention on analytics and the role that they play in reinventing company management practices. Participants at MIT’s CIO Symposium on “Emerging Stronger from the Downturn” reported an increased use of data analysis and analytics applications to “understand customers, parse trends, distribute decision making, and manage risk.”

To help managers capitalize on the ways in which information and analytics are changing the competitive landscape, MIT Sloan School of Management and the IBM Institute for Business Value have initiated a research program entitled “The New Intelligent Enterprise,” which addresses the following: Read More

Posted By | in Auditing & Metrics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Emerging Issues, Sustainability | Tags: , , , , , | No Comments »