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1 July 2011

Think like a 4 year old. Why? Read on...

My eldest, Harry, is four and a bit years old and like most kids of his age, he's the king of the cheeky killer question, the hardest ever being:

Do the neurons in your head speak in proper language?

How do you answer that without getting metaphysical on his ass? But the classic pre-schooler question is the most powerful - "why?". Other parents will know the score:

Daddy what are you doing?

Pruning the tree.

Why are you pruning the tree?

Because it grew too big.

Why did it grow too big?

And so on...

At this age kids are trying to sort out fundamental principles in their heads so they are never afraid to challenge what they see, hear or feel, whereas we adults make most of our decisions based on experience, habit, social pressures and gut instinct and we rarely sit back and question why we do things.

Given the scale of the sustainability challenge we need to radically rethink why we do things and why we do them in a particular way. Inside organisations sustainability efforts often come up against "That's the way we do it here" - a blind assumption that the status quo is the status quo for good reason. Using the toddler test - asking "why?" until you can't any more - is a powerful weapon in your armoury as a change agent. "Why?" makes people stop and think, and it can get the conversation back to to fundamentals which can lead to greater innovation.

But the power of why? should also be brought to bear on the field of sustainability itself where many myths prevail over common sense. People assume the waste hierarchy is carved in stone, biofuels and offsetting are dismissed offhand as evil and many just follow the well-trodden path without asking what they are trying to achieve.

So, sometimes it pays to think like a child - after all it was a kid who saw through the Emporer's New Clothes.

Tags: change management, culture change, sustainability

Posted by Gareth Kane no responses

27 August 2010

Video: Corporate Sustainability - Making It Happen

Here's the second in my new series of 'how to' presentations on green business/corporate sustainability. You can see the first one and more on the Terra Infirma YouTube channel.

Tags: change management, green business, sustainability maturity model, tqm, video

Posted by Gareth Kane no responses

8 October 2008

Book Review: The Necessary Revolution - Peter Senge et al

The lead author of "The Necessary Revolution" is Peter Senge - the author of "The Fifth Discipline", a famous book about creating learning organisations. Along with two change management colleagues, Bryan Smith and Nina Kruschwitz, and two sustainability bods, Joe Laur and Sara Schley, Senge brings his thinking to bear on the biggest of all challenges, creating a sustainable world.

First impressions were great - a brilliant start setting out the problem and some fantastic case studies demonstrating how some people have managed to find solutions, and in particular "never doubt what one person & a small group of conspirators can do" about how small seeds can grow into powerful networks for change. Examples included the creation of the LEED green building protocol in the US and the setting up of Green Zones in Sweden, based around green fuels.

However I felt that the promised 'how to' and 'toolbox' parts of the book are a bit vague and sparse. The best lesson I drew from these sections was the power of inquiry over advocacy (if your boss thinks sustainability isn't a priority, don't tell him he's wrong, but ask him what if he's wrong), but I didn't feel I was being armed with a tool box of techniques to make change happen. There's also a tendency to illustrate an intellectual argument with a very lengthy anecdote which never quite nails the point down. And, then after all the 'bottom up' arguments (inquiry, small groups, building networks etc), we're suddenly told on p337 "Start from the top down". I didn't get the relevance of most of the points in the last part "The Future" either - the anecdote of Amory Lovins designing a monkey house with the help of the residents (inmates?) was amusing, but left me baffled as to what I was meant to draw from this.

Having started so well - as good as Lovins' superlative Natural Capitalism in places - I was left feeling more than a little shortchanged on the toolbox front - particularly as the authors' intellectual firepower is biased towards change management. A flawed gem - get it for the case studies, anecdotes and inspiration - but don't expect too much in the way of new technique.

Tags: books, change management, peter senge, the necessary revolution

Posted by Gareth Kane no responses

11 July 2008

Take a fresh look at what you do

I live in a delightful river valley, 20 minutes walk from the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne. A couple of times a week, I pull on my trainers and run 2.5 miles up the river through the famous Jesmond Dene and 2.5 miles back again in a big long loop. The paths undulate up and down the sides of the river gorge and over the years I've learnt the pattern of the climbs and downhills and adjust my running to suit well before each change.

Once in a blue moon, I run my route the other way - same path, different direction. It never fails to surprise me, even shock me, how different the valley looks. Small features become huge rocky outcrops and vice versa, and whole new routes and vista open up. These were invisible when plodding the same routine week after week. The other shock is how much more uncomfortable the run is - the climbs come in a different rhythm and the downhills often steeper, putting pressure on the old quad muscles.

Its the same in most businesses - waste occurs but it is the norm, people either don't see it or don't want to to rock the boat, but would rather get on with their routine (the 'day job'). Change is uncomfortable, but essential to survive, and you have to get out of your comfort zone to see it. So once in a while, get out of the routine, be disruptive, ask people what they think and, most importantly, try to look at your business with fresh eyes.

Tags: change management

Posted by Gareth Kane no responses

29 May 2008

Carbon Trust 'could do better', but can they?

The UK's Committee of Public Accounts has criticised the Carbon Trust's ability to cut emissions as 'pretty small beer'. The committee has listed a number of reasons why the Trust can't be more effective (reluctance of senior executives, EU rules), but, in my opinion, they miss the big one.

The Carbon Trust, along with Envirowise and other similar business support organisations, works on the model of an 'expert' walking into a business, spotting a number of potential improvements, writing them up with some signposting to other help and sending the business the results. This is bound to fail for the following reasons:

1. The 'expert' spends most of the visit trying to understand the operations and has limited time to get under the skin of the business. As a result, savings opportunities tend to be drawn from a generic list.

2. The 'expert' is given no opportunity for trial and error, pilot projects or doing anything particularly innovative.

3. The business has little or no ownership of the solutions and is unlikely to implement them.

This doesn't just go for Government backed schemes, but much traditional consultancy. So what can be done differently?

OK, how about:

1. The 'expert' carries out a baseline assessment of the business's operations.

2. The 'expert' and the client put together an team drawn from the client's staff.

3. The 'expert' briefs the team on the baseline and trains them on what a low carbon business would look like (check out this month's Low Carbon Agenda for a generic model).

4. The team meets over an extended period of time to develop solutions, piloting them and monitoring their implementation.

5. The 'expert' gradually hands over the process to the team so it becomes self sustaining.

Trust me, that would beat the old model hands down. If you want to try it, give me a shout on 0191 265 9850.

Tags: carbon trust, change management, envirowise, low carbon agenda

Posted by Gareth Kane no responses

23 April 2008

Facilitation is not for wimps...

One of the services Terra Infirma offers is facilitation. I'm just about to change the entry on this site for it as it sounds a bit flowery and, well, wimpy. Most people have a picture of do-we-have-to away days and token public consultation. Well it can be used for these, but it is a powerful weapon with applications way beyond that.

Facilitation really means group working using an outside agent to guide the process from problem definition to solution. We're starting to integrate it into our projects where we can as it gives the client ownership of the solution, rather than the traditional consultant's report/dust trap/shelf filler. I've used facilitation in the past to help large rooms of industrialists come up with solutions that have diverted many thousands of tonnes of 'waste' into useful and lucrative uses.

But like many people facilitating, I was winging it, frankly, using common sense, trial and error, and no little charm . So, last week I went on an excellent course run by Resource. The course has confirmed my approach was broadly good, and it has given me a whole new armoury of tools, techniques and skills. These will be available either for stand alone sessions, or as an enhancement to our 'Lean, Mean & Green' and 'Low Carbon Business' programmes. So if you want to create sustainable change (in both senses of the word sustainable) in your organisation, get in touch.

Tags: change management, facilitation

Posted by Gareth Kane no responses

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