5 Take-Aways from World Unity Week & What It Means for The Road Ahead
The week of June 21st - 26th marked the 4th annual World Unity Week, a global convening of change-makers across society - including diplomats, business executives, religious leaders, NGO directors and youth advocates from around the world. From mobilizing collective action on climate change to advancing human rights across corporate supply chains, new models for engaging long-standing societal challenges was the key theme across the 100+ panels and presentations throughout the week.
Calibrate Partners Co-Founder, Noah Miller, was invited to participate in several panel discussions regarding the role of corporate ESG performance in addressing our world challenges and the business risks and opportunities they present. Noah also reflected on and connected the dots between his past experiences as a corporate consultant, international social entrepreneur, and former military commander.
After an inspiring and uplifting week, here are the top 5 take-aways from World Unity Week and what it means for the road ahead in building a more sustainable, inclusive, and equitable global society.
#1 Systemic Challenges Require Systemic Solutions
From reducing emissions to reducing inequalities, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) present the greatest systemic challenges facing our global society. With lofty goal commitments outweighing tangible progress on addressing these challenges, both at the corporate and governmental levels, part of the problem is that these intervention methods address single elements of a broader program, or the symptom of the issue rather than the root cause. For example, reducing corporate carbon emissions cannot simply be about procuring rooftop solar energy and buying carbon offsets. As can seen by the EPA’s focus on environmental justice, future efforts to address environmental, social, and economic challenges must engage the full system - the interconnected and interdependent parts that combine to produce an outcome greater than the sum of its parts. Efforts must address the underlying causes of these issues, rather than throwing money at the symptoms.
#2 A Focus on WHO is a focus on HOW
The UN SDG’s represent the WHAT - the world challenges that must be addressed, yet questions remain on the HOW. How does an organization or country respond to competing environmental, social, and economic challenges, with limited resources and with a multitude of stakeholder perspectives and unmet needs? As the technology solutions, finance mechanisms, reporting frameworks and oversight measures increasingly formalize, the HOW is slowly but surely coming into view. However, the climate isn’t waiting for us to figure it out. To accelerate action and progress on the world’s greatest threats, focusing on the WHO will help us figure out the HOW. Given the complexity of these challenges, every company, organization, government, community, and even individual has their own unique knowledge bases, skills, networks, resources, and infrastructure. By engaging, aligning with, and actively collaborating alongside your stakeholders, the combined impacts of your collective efforts can move the needle and sustain the momentum needed for meaningful change.
#3 Problems Present Business Models
From natural resource conservation to climate resilient infrastructure, the greatest risks to our global society also present the greatest opportunities to commercialize solutions to these complex and interconnected challenges. From generating water from air in drought-impacted areas to using microfinance to enable upward mobility in vulnerable communities, there are business models lying dormant in all these seemingly intractable challenges. Corporations specifically have a unique opportunity to leverage their resources, capabilities, networks, and infrastructure to discover unmet customer needs, underserved customer segments, and new markets to enter. In today’s global economy, creating value from shifting economic, environmental, and social conditions, and co-creating new solutions alongside your stakeholders, is THE competitive advantage in today’s marketplace.
#4 ESG Needs Organizational Development
Whether it’s a corporation, an NGO, or government, addressing environmental, social, governance, and economic challenges are (or should be) the top priorities of today’s organizational leaders. Yet lofty commitments have outweighed tangible progress, and the vast majority of efforts lack a focus on ESG integration - a systematic approach to embedding the ESG strategy into the daily operations of the company. Why is this? Organizational Development (OD) practitioners haven’t been invited to the party yet. Put simply, OD is about improving the effectiveness of the organization to achieve its goals. Another way to think about OD is ensuring alignment between your people, processes, and corporate strategy. When thinking about the notion of ESG integration - or the daily integration of environmental, social, and governance practices into your day-to-day operations - what we are really doing is managing change, both internally and externally. By introducing OD interventions and methodologies into the effort, ESG aspirations can be translated into action at every level of the organization.
#5 A New Type of Leadership is Required
Leadership Development is a $366 billion industry, yet studies confirm the results are fleeting at best. From a lack of contextual relevance to a lack of performance measurement, efforts to improve the personal effectiveness of leaders (and the organizational effectiveness of their companies) are at the detriment of all stakeholders, including society at large. Now leaders across society are expected to not only ensure an inclusive and equitable workplace inside their four-walls but also actively engage the broader, societal challenge at large. Leaders need to brush up on three critical skills:
Their Company’s Material Issues - The range of ESG issues can be intimidating. In fact, there are 77 industry-specific disclosure standards from the Sustainable Accounting Standards Boards (SASB). A leader must have baseline knowledge on the material issues posing the greatest risks and opportunities for the business. The greater the issue knowledge, the greater the management capabilities for translating risk into opportunity.
Stakeholder Management - Given the range of competing stakeholder priorities, needs, and preferences - from investors, customers, suppliers, employees, government, NGO’s, and local communities - stakeholder management is a must for leaders. From mediating points of contention, to building consensus, to mobilizing collective action, a leader in the new normal must be a mediator, bridge-builder, and dot-connector.
Systems Thinking - As discussed, systemic challenges require systemic solutions. And understanding both the underlying dynamics of the challenge and the areas of greatest leverage to address them requires systems thinking. Leaders must be able to recognize how their company’s material issues converge to create novel risks and opportunities, and how these issues impact the welfare of its critical stakeholder groups. As leaders improve their ‘systems intelligence,’ or ability to use systems thinking to solve complex problems, the organization’s ESG strategy shifts from reactive compliance to proactive value creation.
About Calibrate Partners
A company’s leadership and culture is ultimately what dictates its profitability, longevity, and success. With ESG becoming table-stakes for companies in 2021, Calibrate Partners helps executive teams translate their ESG pressures into opportunities for industry leadership and world-changing ideas to come to life. Contact us to learn more about how we help reduce risk, capture opportunities, and become the company of choice to your Millennial and Gen Z stakeholders.
For more information or a free consultation, please visit Calibratepartners.io or contact us at: Noah@calibratepartners.io.
