How to eat an Elephant
It’s that time of the year again when plans and aspirations are big, time capacity is scarce, budgets already set – and the old routine is just about to take over again. It is also the time of the year where there is that untypical window of opportunity. THE window of opportunity one could argue: introduce a small change. Small enough not to be overly tough to uphold. But big enough that, if repeated times and over again, at the very least 365 times a year, starts to make a difference. The journey starts with the first step. Here a few ideas.
Measurement Data
You can’t manage what you can’t measure. This common sense platitude holds true for a lot of things: Salary, punctuality in trains, inflation. And – of course – sustainability/ESG data. Measuring alone can be complex enough. But there are also incentive systems. And the impact they have on aspirations to deliver results. Where sales targets for instance are as good as always understood as ‘invitation to be exceeded’ (with financial and other bonuses resulting from overachievement) the near opposite holds true for ESG/sustainability related KPIs. And that absolutely must change. For every single person in every single company. KPI priorities must be flipped on their heads.
Team Work
Collaborations toward a common goal, across organisations, can be one of the most gratifying things we ever may get to experience. Funny enough: Neither collaboration nor team work is something outrageously difficult in principle. If the common and mutually beneficial goal is front and centre. But this is exactly where the hitch is. Some thoughts about the hurdles of genuine collaboration and team work.
Virtuous Circle
‘System positive’. The latest term I came a cross in the finance world, and which intends to identify business that are particularly well set up to survive the tribulations to be expected in the decades to come. Immediately the cynic in me asks: Another addition to the sustainability bullshit bingo? And yet: the 5 questions proposed for scrutinising companies are very sharp, very relevant and very insightful. They only fall short of one: Will the company thrive within or even thanks to the Doughnut Boundaries?