Mavens of Sustainable Business & the Climate March

“Mavens have the knowledge and the social skils to start work-of-mouth epidemics..

..no one else matters.”   

-       Malcolm Gladell, The Tipping Point

Two days after a climate march in New York City organized by environmental, labor and social justice groups, are we any closer to an epidemic spread of sustainable business thinking and practice?  (The Wall Street Journal reported the march on page 10, and included a skeptical editorial on “The People’s Climate Demarch”.)

Or, as a trigger for an epidemic of actions to mediate climate change in the businesses community, do those 311,000 marchers (number reported in the New York Times) just not matter?

If some 300K environmental, labor and social justice marchers are not the connectors, mavens and salesmen that can start an epidemic of sustainable business thinking, where are the Mavens who do matter and do have the standing to activate the business community? I nominate the following two business leaders for Maven status because they demonstrate “the knowledge and social skills to start word-of-mouth epidemics” of sustainable business thinking and practice:

#1. Ray Anderson, founder and past CEO of Interface Carpet was an early actor and voice in the business community for sustainability. He reinvented his company to use resources more efficiently and to eliminate waste. His innovations were not so much based on rocket science or technological breakthroughs, as they were grounded in sustainability mindsets.

Ray emphasized the importance of engaging the creativity of all employees in the sustainability journey. He successfully created a corporate culture of learning and education, and galvanized employees around his vision of a sustainable enterprise.

He was a popular speaker until his death in 2011, and he connected with audiences on an emotional level. At a conference when Ray was too ill to travel and near death, he spoke to conference attendees via internet and video screen. There was not a dry eye in the room. So many other businesses heard about and wanted to imitate his successful sustainability practices that Interface developed a consulting business to share what they had learned.

#2. Elon Musk, the outspoken founder of Tesla Motors is not shy about stating his views of climate change and business in public. In the words of his cousin and business associate, Lyndon Rive, “We have a big problem to solve” --that is climate change. Musk sees synergy, rather than conflict, between contributing a solution to the climate change problem and creating a prosperous business.  

Musk is a media magnet with rock star status. His recent election to Vanity Fair’s #1 spot on their “Disruptor” list guarantees his voice will be heard. He provokes people to grapple with the dissonance between his status as a successful billionaire entrepreneur and his convictions about the reality of climate change and the opportunity for businesses that address the climate crisis.

Who else would you nominate for Maven status? Who else is leading the spread of sustainability thinking in the business community? Tom Steyer? Hank Paulson? Someone else? 

Begin with Forgetting

-“…Begin[s] not with inventing, but with forgetting. You must let go

     of what you’ve learned....

                           - Govindarajan & Trimble in Reverse Innovation, 2012

 "We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking we used

    when we created them."

                                   -Albert Einstein

The words of these wise men suggest that creating a sustainable future will be possible only if we update and reset our mental maps. But why is it so important for business leaders to have an accurate mental map of their terrain?

Futurist Peter Schwartz illustrates the importance of an accurate mental map with a story about explorers who believed that California was an island. They arrived with disassembled boats that they loaded onto the backs of donkeys before trekking inland. While adding greatly to the baggage and difficulty of their mountainous journey, the boats were considered essential because the explorers expected to reach water on the other side of the "island" of California.

So it is today. Managers arrive with mental maps that mislead and handicap them in facing the challenges of the 21^st century green economy. Outdated assumptions no longer map on to the current business landscape. The mismatch between mental map and the terrain it purports to represent is apparent in familiar complaints: "I was never interested in sustainability, and didn't see the connection to business. “Environmental stewardship costs too much" (money, jobs, and competitiveness). "Regulations will put us out of business."  

Once a mental map is established, changing it is neither straightforward nor easy. "Confirming perception" allows us to see only evidence that supports already established beliefs. Traditional viewpoints are thus "over learned". Well-worn perspectives become assumptions about the world that are taken for granted, and we no longer realize how they are influencing our decisions.

Updating a mental map requires us, first, to raise awareness of the assumptions we use to filter information. When we start from "where we are", we create capacity to absorb new perspectives. New ideas can first be tethered to the old, then the old can be forgotten.  

Participants may enter sustainable business training with a "mindset gap:" thinking green and competitive a radical idea. The examples, exercises and discussion of the training serve to hold up a mirror so that thoughtful people can see the assumptions they harbor unaware and quickly recognize where the mindset does not map onto the current business landscape.

Participants' learning diaries contain bold illustrations of their conversion from traditional to modern, 21^st century perspectives. The most frequent comment of participants who go through this training is "You opened my eyes to new business opportunities."