Sustainability Champion's Guidebook: How to Transform Your Company

By Bob Willard

"Canadian sustainability expert Bob Willard, whp spent 34 years with IBM, offers a punchy, practical guide to leading change in your company in The Sustainability Champion's Guidebook. He presents a seven-step model of change, seven practices that sustainability champions in companies must follow, seven paradoxes they will face, and seven "derailers" to avoid. If you're interested in becoming a champion for sustainability in your company, this would offer useful guidance." - Harvey Schachter, The Globe and Mail

This practical, easy-to-follow guidebook helps sustainability champions at any level in a company lead a transformation to a smarter, more successful, and more sustainable enterprise. The Sustainability Champion’s Guidebook outlines the transformational steps to take, tips and techniques to use, and derailers to avoid.

Bob Willard’s previous books provide a financially relevant, compelling business case outlining why smart business executives should embrace sustainability. An expert on leadership, culture change, and organizational development, Willard distills lessons learned about cultural transformation and provides guidance on how to embed sustainability into corporate cultures.

This guidebook is exceptionally easy to use, read, and consult. Each tip is self-contained within two facing pages. A change tip is presented on one page with a supporting sidebar or figure on its opposite, facing page. It is organized around four frameworks for easy reference:

• A seven-step sustainability change process
• Seven leadership practices to use during the change process
• Seven paradoxes that compliment the seven leadership practices
• Seven derailers to avoid

This book is an indispensable tool for sustainability champions who are transforming their companies into more sustainable enterprises.

Bob Willard uses his senior management experience from his thirty-four-year career at IBM to create a business case for corporate sustainability strategies. He has delivered hundreds of keynote presentations on the subject to corporations, consultants, academics, and NGOs worldwide. His two highly-acclaimed books, The Sustainability Advantage and The Business Case for Sustainability, are also available through New Society Publishers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Society Publishers
• Release date: Jul 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781550924275

Book preview

001

Table of Contents

Praise

Title Page

Dedication

Foreword

Acknowledgements

CHAPTER 1 - The Sustainability Challenge Is a Leadership Challenge

The Urgent Need for a Practical Guidebook

Leadership Practices for Sustainability Champions

An Unsustainable Company

A Sustainable Company

Transforming from a Stage 3 Company to a Stage 4 Company

The Big Four Sustainability Challenges

Culture Change Framework

CHAPTER 2 - The Seven-Step Change Process

Introduction

Step 1: Wake Up and Decide

Step 2: Inspire Shared Vision(s)

Step 3: Assess Current Realities

Step 4: Develop Strategies

Step 5: Build the Case(s) for Change

Step 6: Mobilize Commitment

Step 7: Embed and Align

CHAPTER 3 - Seven Practices of Sustainability Champions

Introduction

1. Get Credible, Stay Credible

2. Dialogue

3. Collaborate, Educate, Network

4. Meet Them Where They Are

5. Piggyback Existing Initiatives

6. Influence the Influencers

7. Practice Planful Opportunism

CHAPTER 4 - Seven Paradoxes to Use

Introduction

1. You Have to Do It Yourself; You Can’t Do It Alone

2. To Get Hard Results, Work on the Soft Stuff

3. Motivators Inhibit Commitment

4. One Person’s Dream Is Another Person’s Nightmare

5. Go Slow to Go Fast

6. Go Small to Go Big

7. Things Need to Get Worse Before They Can Get Better

CHAPTER 5 - Seven Derailers to Avoid

Introduction

1. Displaying Hubris

2. Mishandling Office Politics

3. Being a Problem Child

4. Failing to Produce Results

5. Succumbing to Stress

6. Changing Everything at Once

7. Getting Off to a Bad Start

CHAPTER 6 - Conclusion

Think Systemically

Push Without Being Pushy

The Governance Question

Lead People, Manage Processes

APPENDIX - Seven Personal and Organizational Change Models

Bibliography

Notes

Index

About the Author

Copyright Page

Advance praise for The Sustainability Champion’s Guidebook

Bob Willard has written a stunning compilation of experience-based wisdom: his and that of other leaders who have done real things to work towards organizational change and sustainability in business. The Sustainability Champion’s Guidebook is spot on for all levels of an organization, from high-level vision right down to individual, personal behavior. Read this book to jump-start or speed your journey to a better future.

— Ray Anderson, Founder and Chairman, Interface Inc.,

and author of Mid-Course Correction

Sustainability is what needs to be changed but then there is the matter of how to go about implementing such a dramatic shift so that its benefits are fully realized. This book goes beyond explaining the basics of sustainability; it outlines key issues that surface when navigating the human landscape of such an endeavor.

— Daryl Conner, Chairman, Conner Partners, and author of

Managing at the Speed of Change and Leading at the Edge of Chaos

Like all good writers, Bob Willard has put into words what we know but haven’t been able to articulate: Sustainability has moved beyond changing the mindset of management to become a mainstream driver of innovation and competitive advantage if you have the know-how to act on it. By applying the wisdom of this book, readers will find new ways to create sustainable value. A must-read during times of economic crisis.

— Chris Laszlo, Managing Partner, Sustainable Value Partners,

and author of The Sustainable Company and Sustainable Value

If you are working to implement sustainability in your organization then you simply must read this book. It provides clear guidance and simple, yet powerful, advice for getting the job done. Bob writes with wisdom based on experience.

— Andrew W. Savitz, author of The Triple Bottom Line

To step up to leadership requires primarily competence rather than a change of values. Bob Willard doesn’t turn to those who still haven’t got it but to those who need to know just how — from envisioning to structuring, through elegant transition processes. It’s the best out there.

— Karl-Henrik Robèrt, Founder of The Natural Step

and author of The Natural Step Story

A compelling read for those who are just starting their sustainability journey up Mount Sustainability, graphically pointing out the likely encounters that you will experience along the way. And for those like myself who started their journey with just the bare essentials of The Natural Step Framework, this book brings to life all those subliminal thoughts that make you think that Bob was right behind you the whole time.

— Dr Jason Leadbitter, Sustainability Manager, Ineos ChlorVinyls

Bob Willard provides a roadmap for effective leadership that is both authoritative and accessible. Corporate sustainability evolution just clicked into overdrive.

— Joel Makower, Executive Editor, GreenBiz.com,

and author of Strategies for the Green Economy

Happily, mainstream business education schools are finally embracing sustainable development. Bob Willard’s new book is the perfect companion text of leadership tips and techniques for business leaders aspiring to lead the next industrial revolution. It should be a compulsory text in all business schools.

— Hunter Lovins, Founder and President, Natural Capitalism, Inc.,

and co-author of Natural Capitalism and Factor Four

After inspiring us with his first two books on the why of corporate sustainability, Bob Willard has completed the trilogy with an excellent book on the how. Full of practical and proven advice for leading the transformation from within organizations, this book can transform you too — into a successful champion. Read it; absorb it; do it!

— Brian Kelly, Director, Sustainable Enterprise Academy,

Schulich School of Business, York University

All over the world, Boards of Directors are starting to take account of sustainability issues as never before. The question now is how? not why? Hence the need for this guidebook — from one of the most experienced sustainability practitioners on the block.

— Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director, Forum for the Future,

and Chairman, UK Sustainable Development Commission

Concise, comprehensive, and compelling, this book distills a tremendous amount of theoretical and practical information into a wellchiseled guide that is exceedingly useful — and wise.

— Alan AtKisson, author of Believing Cassandra

and The ISIS Agreement

Bob Willard is a champion guide. Learn how to keep your organization on today’s rails, but also help lay new ones — exploring future pathways to real value and wealth.

— John Elkington, Co-Founder of ENDS, SustainAbility, and Volans,

and author of The Power of Unreasonable People

and The Phoenix Economy

Creating sustainable organizations