December 2, 2024
Creating a Sustainable Culture: What is the “Right” Culture?
Most employees likely understand the basic idea of sustainability: reducing emissions and waste, being fair and socially responsible, using less energy, recycling, and following practices that preserve the environment for future generations. What they might not understand is how it relates to their day-to-day work, fits into their employer’s priorities, and creates value for customers, shareholders and other stakeholders – including themselves.
Organizations that are on the path toward greater sustainability need their top leaders to show their commitment by communicating the importance of sustainability and sustainability initiatives, laying out sustainability goals and how they relate to their organization's mission and values, and explaining to employees how it will impact their jobs and how they can contribute. Implementing sustainable practices, focusing on continuous improvement and innovation, and measuring and communicating progress against sustainability goals also play a part, as does training for managers and other employees in new ways of working.
All of these are important, but they do not directly speak to the kind of culture and work environment that supports sustainability.
As noted in the previous post, part of the answer is having a culture of inclusion, innovation and employee empowerment. However, organizations are unlikely to make progress despite their best intentions unless their leaders engage employees at every level personally and differently. This means that they should meet with employees where they work, be prepared to ask questions and respond openly to their ideas and suggestions, and follow up with visible actions that send the message that the voice of the employee counts.
This is one example of what Jack Welch called “boundarylessness”– a term he coined in the 1980s to describe breaking down barriers between departments and organizational levels to foster better communication and cooperation so everyone can think and act like an owner of the business.
This philosophy, adopted by many organizations seeking to improve performance by promoting a more open and collaborative culture, is easier to advocate than to achieve. There are two main reasons for this: managers’ resistance to their direct reports’ skipping levels to get their opinions heard, and senior leaders’ unwillingness to consider ideas different from their opinions about what is right.
The second point is critical. What we are discussing is the missing ingredient in a sustainability culture: the importance of learning for the individual and the organization.
At Spencer Stuart, we view learning as a key cultural value that involves the ability of people to adapt and embrace change, be inquisitive, open-minded and creative, explore alternatives and spark new ideas. A learning culture underpins progress through continuous improvement, and enables resilience and adaptability to disruption and market forces. It also supports innovation, experimentation and calculated risk-taking – all of which are hallmarks of a sustainable organization.
Senior leaders play the most important role in reinforcing a learning culture. In our point of view on the CEO of the future, the notion of “strong opinions, lightly held” is intrinsic to their approach to learning. They model this for others by visibly self-critiquing, seeking feedback, incorporating others’ views and adapting their approaches. They invite information, learn from it and adjust — without needing to appear to have all the answers or be the smartest person in the room. In fact, our research confirms that embracing learning as a cultural style distinguishes best-in-class CEOs from others.
Of course, none of this can happen without a CEO who actively champions sustainability and encourages everyone to participate. In our next installments, we will explore different types of leaders who are more or less likely to lead a culture favorable to sustainability and what any CEO or other senior leader can do to support a sustainable culture.