The Stakeholders that are not here yet.

One way to think about moving towards more sustainable ways of managing is to widen your perspective on stakeholders. This means two things: 1) see more of what is important to stakeholders and of how you affect stakeholders, and 2) see new stakeholders.

We have seen that in the past decades we have progressed more and more beyond the idea that the stakeholders of business were only shareholders, clients, suppliers and employees. We have even seen certain scandals, where companies apparently were not able yet to take other stakeholders than those just mentioned into account, with serious consequences. In taking more stakeholders into account, companies have also more and more realized that the ties with those stakeholders were more detailed than they were once thought to be; e.g. a consumer does not always just buy a product, but also an image, life style and perhaps even an ideal, and an employee is not only part of the company to make a living, but also to learn, to connect with other people, to make sense.

Not all stakeholders are vocal. For instance, in many decisions and processes the environment is a stakeholders, but does not as such sit at the conference table; still, we can only ignore that stakeholders at heavy costs. And perhaps the stakeholders who are not vocal themselves are worthy of special attention.

When you talk about sustainability, you bring in stakeholders that are not just not vocal, but also not even there yet: future generations. They require even more care. But also they provide us with a worthwhile thought-exercise: "how would this decision turn out for my grandchildren?". Do we today equip managers to deal with that exercise?

Rethinking business and organization

It seems many people have forgotten what business is all about and why you would build organizations to do business with. What are the assumptions that are behind how we now build organizations, transport, conduct trade, and are those assumptions still valid? Even if those assumptions are still valid, which is not likely the case, we would all benefit from at least being aware of them. This enables us to be accountable and more ready for change.

Sensitizing for responsibilities and expectations

Sustainability requires a whole new sense of reality for managers who have been trained before the last ten years (or during, even). Do you sense new responsibilities developing? Are you intrigued by those new responsibilities, annoyed or perhaps both at the same time (each of these reactions would be perfectly understandable)?

Being able to deal with systems and complex wholes

In the old style organization, much efficiency could be achieved through specialization. Much of that principle is still relevant. Still, increasingly the members of organizations have to be able to deal with the complex wholes around their specializations. We can already see this happening. We see marketers who no longer think in terms of how a certain product would be of interest to certain clients, but who think in terms of lifestyles and subcultures. We see r&d researchers who think in terms of the skills and behaviors of people who would be using their future products. We see managers who see opportunities (and fun) in communicating with stakeholders from a variety of cultures and backgrounds.

The organization itself is a complex whole. Increasingly, the members of organizations can and are challenged to relate to the complex whole of which they are a part.

The ability to deal with paradoxes

Planning and managing are increasingly complex, paradoxical even. From a paradigm in which there are clear cause – effect lines, a paradox would appear problematic. In the new situation, however, we have to get used to diverse things occurring at the same time. Being able to deal with such situations, perhaps by looking for a perspective, from which there is less of a paradox, may offer opportunities .

Dealing with the aspects

The aspects of sustainability are interconnected. At the same time, one can not be expected to manage everything at the same time. But one can be expected, from a sustainability point of view, not to deal with one aspect in such a way that it damages another aspect. It is perhaps all too human to work on the part of the issue that you have a hold of and look away from other parts.

Setting parameters

When complex issues have to be dealt with in a time horizon of decades (at least), it may be wise to determine parameters, both in time and in scope. They will create some order in the complexities and allow for sufficient transparency. Parameters help sometimes to make complex tasks manageable. Part of that is that the task at hand is probably easier to communicatie and make decisions about.

Corporate social responsibility as a part of the sustainability approach

The social dimension is part of the sustainability approach.. it can only be meaningfully dealt with, for the longer term at least (and is that not what sustainability is about?) by understanding its connections to the economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. After all, what good is justice if your are suffocating or starving:? And vice versa?

Scenarios

Scenarios can be valuable in realizing the situation your and your colleagues, are in, as well as being clear about ambitions and goals, while they prepare for the eventualities of the future. They easily lead to joint actions and allow better communication about complex issues and transitions.

The value of scenarios for sustainable management.