Sustainability: business, life, environment

Is your company over thinking and under resourcing its business sustainability strategy?  Are your internal resources actively engaged in the company’s business sustainability direction?  The answers to these questions may prove critical to your business sustainability success.

In our sustainability consulting, we find many companies become stuck in the business sustainability implementation process somewhere between concept and implementation.  While armed with great ideas and intentions, the organization often becomes bogged down with the complexities of ‘actionable’ next steps. 

Employees are said to be the pivot point in a company’s ultimate success or failure.  The ability to leverage top talent can therefore be a key differentiator in both short and long-term business sustainability.  

While employee engagement may seem easy, it is often the most difficult yet critical component of successful change management.  As a result, companies often get off on the path of implementation before their employees have an opportunity to engage. 

In a recent post, Tips to Facilitate Sustainable Change, we discussed the difference between selling change and engaging people in the process. Through active engagement in the change management process, companies are aligning business sustainability with the needs of their employees.  Leading organizations are taking specific action to:

•    Incorporate sustainability concepts into employee development.

•    Promote employee discussion of business sustainability opportunities.

•    Encourage feedback from stakeholders about change management processes.

Today’s sustainable organizations understand the value in managing their key business relationships.  They realize that a quality workforce, aligned with the goals of the organization, is essential to business sustainability.