AboutWorkEcology

#griconference It's not Business as Usual #ceres10 #unglobalcompact

 

I have been paying attention to live reports from #griconference. Last week a few good people introduced me via Twitter to Kumi Naido, the new International Leader of Greenpeace. These tweets quoted Kumi as pointing out in his presentation, "It's not business as usual anymore." 

Welcome aboard, Kumi.  I hope you can take a few minutes to think about what you said at GRI last week, as a leader of one of the largest global advocacy organizations in the world.  For me, "acting on a recognition that it is not business as usual," needs followup from all sectors so global citizens can see an end to over 3 decades of advocacy, protest and debate that is not empowering a fast enough response for the problems we face today.

The mass media, at a cost of billions of dollars, continues to overwhelm the flow of information that re-enforces people and the institutions they represent to continuously look to see who is to blame and draw lines  between sectors and institutions offering opinion about "who should do what?" 

Many people in scientific circles from industry and government assert that resources to assure quality scientific research have been significantly reduced; scientists and media argue about conflicting findings rather than seize the opportunity to learn and build a research agenda of action to respond to current needs for people, planet and profit. The ongoing debate slows down investing in a consumer/patient centric science that can lead to combining resources for research and impacting a more systemic approach that the harm, as it is identified, is a result of environment and chemical toxins.

Some global citizens believe the only way to create the sustainable change is to author legislation. US citizens and politicians now lead this movement asking for more regulation in response to the Bush-Cheney years of de-regulation. This belief dominates the minds of activists, creating another belief that there will be no change unless we regulate. 

This week, I have extracted from events, meetings and presentations around the world some insights and key fractal points.  These points are potential tipping points of change that may lead to refocusing the #sustainnow agenda.

May 20, 2010 Week in Review

The United Nations Global Compact has convened 7700 companies globally as its learning community. During the #griconference, the UN Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative announced its new partnership. This partnership is all voluntary and through an application process that includes requirements for qualificaiton.  I know we can aniticipate that as learning communities from within the Global Compact form and adopt that the GRI Reporting Framewokr, f this will facilitate a growing adoption of integrated Environment, Society and Governance Reporting (ESG indicators) built on a foundation value for exercising precaution.

This could be the beginning of all sectors moving away from the idea of legisltating laws of fear, banning and compliance.   

The Global GeoStrategy of today is shaping a new  ecological economy that focuses its response on catastrophes. This response began to build momentum with 9/11 and then increased its pace with the natural disasters that occurred with the Tsunami, Katrina and Haitian Earthquake.  This response has resulted in having to think about how to respond and rebuild  entire geographical regions. In Louisiana, the momentum of economic and environmental recovery from Katrina was brought to a halt by the BP Oil Spill now growing into a 45+ day disaster of harm that has shut down an entire eco-system of people, environment and economy.

Like everyone else, I took lots of deep breaths this week and some time out  to find ground, humor and connection with people I respect to keep me motivated in my research and work. Amidst preparation for a trip to Washington DC to examine legislation for Safe Chemicals. The experience of the week reshaped for this trip.

The American Council for Sustainable Busines has convened a meeting, which will have international representation to focus on a Safer Chemicals Agenda. I am hoping that presence and contribution for European Union's ChemSec.org will offer some emotional intelligence to this community drawn from non profits, government and business to share a story of empowerment that moves this group beyond advocacy, lobbying and promotion. It's my hope to learn is a US based group of reputable people can build an agenda of strategy and action that moves the participants in Washington DC beyond business as usual. 

As I prepared for my trip, I followed these reports with as much attention as I could find and give:

• #foxconn - 11 suicides of workers who manufacture for Apple, Dell and Sony;
• #bp & #oilspill - the immersion surrounded me with radio, tv, twitter, work and social conversation

These events to me represented opportunities for the creation of "tipping points.  Reading these reports as they were produced sat in the background of my reflection on #ceres10 and now #griconference. Both these communities focused on conversations that emphasized the need for integrative ESG reporting - GRI then announced its partnership with the  the UN Global Compact, with a goal in mind to make the UN Global Compact 10 Principles concrete and understood. This reponse for me shaped into a question:

• How do we pull the energy of reporting into learning that implies action and social impact for human rights, the global economy, environment and health.

"If it is not business as usual," as stated by Kumi Nado, could that imply it is only business or does it imply it is not only business, government, education,  non-government organizations and/or industry; does it imply  within every institutions of people, these institutions have to build and participate in a society to exercise precaution and do no harm. I then shaped another question:

• What can we leverage from this slow process of change to build a more rapid response?

AboutWorkEcology - A Constellation of Change

Within the last 6 months, I have shaped this blog into an activity of action research and networked connection. I am now inviting participation into a focused on a conversation called #sustainnow. I have begun annotating and archiving some of the conversations, research reviews, annotations on a group board called AboutWorkEcology and located at Linkedin.com . Membership into this community is by application.

The first qualification for participation in this community implies that you have a sincere passion to empower and lead change that goes beyond information sharing, reflective dialogue and advocacy. The members of this community are people learning  to apply the thought leadership of AboutWorkEcology into a practice of change, one person at a time; cross sector, industry and culture.

The WorkEcology #sustainnow conversation and news is has convened some of the best people globally who do far more than advocate.  We will be joining our network through a shared social media platform, into a  network that builds through inquiry a new interactive format of education focused on learning and application for thought and practice leaders.

• Is it the way we speak; news media continues to cloud the understanding of change #csr, #sustainability, #socent, #justmeans #griconference, #ceres10 with a jargon and voice that is not consumable to most who can not afford the venues of participation beyond their local community.

• Mainstream media  forms its analysis after the fact; it is primarily a live location view of what is not working. The world of social responsibility, sustainability and corporate social responsibility is reporting live change and thinking as it occurs and doing it well even within the limits of 140 characters of twitter speak.

Today one critical question began to gnaw at me: "Why is it taking so long to get the right response to change the pattern of culture and how we live  for the majority of people?"

What does the BP Oil Spill Imply?

From #griconference, I found a report that Marc Gunther had announced the new debt crisis is ecological.  This post is a must read.  Marc points out we all have to learn to live within our means. That statement in my opinion also has to imply that having a means to live is critical for those who have lost jobs or are derailed from the monetary system in some way through illness or family caregiving needs.  Marc goes on to point out something that challenges Darwin's "survival of the fittest."  He says we are all interdependent and accounting matters.  Isn't that a new layer of learning we are being pushed to learn from the BP Oil Spill?

Does the BP Oil Spill imply a collapsed ecology for the good people of Louisiana, as a result of the double whammy - Katrina and Oil Spill.? Is Louisiana the new Haiti? Will this trickle like "dominoes" throughout the United States and other parts of the world?  Embedded in what was once the leading economic power in the world?  Are we finally learning that a global corporation, a government or a geography can get lost trying to find who or what is to blame and that everyone and all institutions and all stakeholders have to engage and rebuild a healthy eco-system of interdependence?

After reading Marc's analysis, I put myself on reflective pause for a day.  I started to think about how to create an international line Up of award winning artists from film. Isn't film a rapid way to influence change? I asked myself if I could lead a production of a film ready for Cannes and Sundance by 2011.  Does it not take a movie ("fictitious scenario) to show the majority of people a new way? After all hasn't the world become "anything Hollywood?"

Can we admit that "international film distribution" is potentially the most influential and entertaining form of education for economic decision makers? Could a film of this kind be a quality mechanism that is more cost effective than the advocacy fo NGO's our most powerful source for influencing change?

The AboutWorkEcology Film Roster of Who's Who

It was Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell and Cher in 1982, who woke me up to the issue of TOXINS. After meeting Danny Sheehan, the Silkwood Family attorney, I got curious about what it would take for women to work in a scientific industry and for all sector interests to shift into a CSR - Sustainable agenda.
Silkwood - the movie was released in 1983 about the time Gro Harlem Brundtland convened the Brundtland Commission .

My adventure with my father's 7 years in palliative taught me that the focus on health care in the US was driven by industry and teaching hospitals and not a patient centric agenda. I kept my sanity in check in the early stage of my "sandwich decades" with anything "Susan Sarandon."

 
Susan Sarandon's portrayal of Mihaela Odone in Lorenzo's Oil taught a new form of health consciousness by teaching us about "imperfect science" and "imperfect research." The movie angered Hugo Moser, the chief researcher at NIH.  Hugo was the actual NIH physician researcher, who fought Michaela Odone with harsh agression. In the movie, Moser was portrayed as a fictious character, Professor Nikolais (Peter Ustinov). After the movie, Moser refocused his energy, pushing to learn what was possible about ALD up to days beforehis death. Lorenzo, now in his late 20's lives with his father in Fairfax, Va. He is without a cure and unable to speak,  Michaela died of exhaustion in 2008.  Gustav Odone, now well into his 80's, created the Myelin Project, which is fostering the new inquiry into science for the practice of medicine that is helping many with a full menu of neuro-related diseases that includes MS, Epilepsy and ALD.

Through the years, I found my inspiration from film to keep moving ahead on my life learning path. Last week, I chose to deal with the stress of the world as the news became more chaotic related to the BP Oil Spill. I chose to dream about writing a  movie script to revive my energy and spirit.

As I began to work on character development for my all "star line-up", Cary Krosinsky  
offered something that caught my attention on Facebook. I must confess, I know Cary personally and he has won my respect and generously advised me on my ideas and work.  Cary posted his version of a fictitious script to create a new path for BP's long view.

"BP - you have hereby been declared incapable of operating within the boundaries of acceptable safety as established by executive order on the basis of national security - your US assets are hereby impounded for collateral to be sold to the highest qualified bidder - proceeds to the cleanup and alt energy incentives -... too bad for the top 10 holders of BP who are all based in London.."

I wondered if Helen Miren was available to play Queen Elizabeth representing the BP shareholder majority 10 UK owners.  
I wondered how she or Prince Charles would respond to Cary's script version.

A sudden spark of creative energy made me realize, I would have to get Kate Winslet, Dane Judith Dench, Hugh Bonneville and Jim Broadbent to play consumer advocates and represent families affected by the spill.  Could these stellar actors portray a meaningful message to all the people, who are now visibly losing their health and sometimes life around the world to complications one encounters from chemical exposures, e.g. an oil spill?

 

     

Moving along,  I thought, here we go again. The news this week seemed to be filled with heroic attempts to stop "the spill," and all failed. Maybe Nelson Mandela, Halle Berry, Oprah and others might add powerfully to my script.  Will the response morph into a reality of possibility for people around the world and impact the ecology for an interdependent citizenship?

Like the producers of Primary Colors,  
I may opt to create a fictitious world of characters modeled after royalty, government, corporate and NGO leadership.  I may also alter the personality of real time leaders.  I am carrying around in my imagination right now a question: 

• "What would have happened on Day 1 of the Oil Leak, if President Obama called BP's Tony Hayward, CEO and Peter Sutherland, Chairman and flew to London with Michelle Obama and met in the living room with Queen Elizabeth to brainstorm an aligned response that included a report to shareholders and global citizens?"

Then something exceptional happened at my screen to influence my thinking.  I got a copy of the report from the GRI Reporting Initiative on Embedding Gender.  I skimmed it and realized research task for my character development was to synthesize the message of this report with the AAUW - Why So Few? (women in science).

It then occurred to me that Erin Brokovich could simply play herself. The best way to get a female voice to be heard is to bring on a woman who speaks up even when people don't listen.  I hope that I can develop a script that assures that "women-speak" can be heard in science, politics, law and medicine to impact change, not just talk about it.  GRI has mandated embedding women in sustainable change initiatives. Maybe we can finally have impact on economic decision makers from any sector.

It is all about the way the deal is cut and who you cut the deal with!

Years ago, when I negotiated my first contract for quality cost-effective medical services for women for one  of the top 10 HMO's; I learned very quickly through a six month cycle of negotiation that the picture changes daily. The picture includes facts, data and the independent responses of the players. The daily show effects negotiations and how you cut the deal as much as analysis of the past.  What is also just as important is that you have a handle on the potential future risks from which you can build a worst case scenario response that assures you begin today to take steps to prevent this hazardous scenario.

So I began to study from my Hoote Suite Dashboard for Twitter, what members of #sustainnow were thinking and reading about the week and how I could draw on that value for my movie script and think about the future.

John Friedman offered the first relevant tweet:

@johnfriedman Holy Grail of #CSR? GRI /UN Global Compact align http://bit.ly/dkRloH

Fabian Pattberg was the first to summarize live at the end of each day, a summary of the GRI conference. Fabian's reports help me think about how to start talking about a future that is not yet seen by most.

RT @FabianPattberg: My summary of Day 2 and 3 of the GRI conference 2010 http://j.mp/9ezqZv #griconference #csr which followed

Day 1 of the Global Reporting (GRI) Conference - Some impressions | FabianPattberg.com http://bit.ly/cBNWOT

On the sidelines from Hamburg, Germany Brigette Goddemeyer told me she was showing "her activism" following #foxconn suicide response.  Foxconn the global manufacturer for Apple, Dell, Nokia, HP, Nintendo and Sony, had a surge of suicides in dehumanizing sweatshop conditions.  Within two days, Brigette provided me links to remarkable news analysis on these conditions that I sent out as RT's from @workecology and @wecarehealth. These tweets linked to the most difficult conversation people don't want to talk about, "human rights and social justice." As I read the links, Brigette provided me, I responded back on twitter from @workecology:

"Brigette this is now in women speak by a man! RT @subrigavar: The China view: Han Han on #FOXCONN Suicides http://bit.ly/9WEL0l #Apple #csr"

"I read it and tweeted my view !RT @subrigavar: FORBES article on #Billionaire Terry Gou's Foxconn: http://bit.ly/cLkk1v".

The article by Han Han portrayed Foxconn CEO Terry Gou with the belief that the remedy for this situation simple. Gou asked every employee to sign an agreement they won't commit suicide at work location with an incentive of 20% pay increase. What great material for my script.  This provides me the opportunity to show how money does not solve everything and authoring an alternative. Actually, I visited the alternative in Mexico in 1998, when I was invited to visit Roberto Vargas Marciel's organic farm research center. 

Forbes Columnist, Gordon Chang reported his analysis of what is believed to be a low suicide rate in China with a quality analysis of the growing impact of the social ecology on the people of China in this rapid economic post communism stage of growth. From Brigette's first tweet, I read Han Han's analysis  from the Carter Center blog on Chinese Governance.

Chang's powerful socio-economic analysis provides an analysis of the past 25 years of change in China that is impacting the health, environment and educational influences on the current generation. To me this editorial tells the story of what occurs in a culture transforming from an agrarian way of life and rapidly adopting technology and increasing economic freedom where their pace of change builds into a form of consumption without exercising precaution.

It is no wonder the health, education and welfare of Chinese citizens is facing so much challenge now. Somehow the harm encountered in the west over the last 100 years has not become a lesson learned for China.

It will be interesting to factor all this into my movie script.

Moving Forward

Elaine Cohen returned home from Amsterdam and promptly summarized her report from GRI and offered her perspective: 

@elainecohen A Perspective from GRI conference: http://bit.ly/c3IlWp"

Here is my  concise Elaine Cohen 101

• 13 years of GRI brought out 1200 attendees - the grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles;
• the #ceres10 theme of integrative reporting continued at #griconference;
  
• it was asserted strongly that sustainability is not simply climate change;
• reporting moves into a new generation of technical analytics;
• CSR has been voluntary and now fans of regulation are asking to be mandated as legislation;
  
• the GRI voice called for report standardization;
• #griconference hashtag produced one of the highest quality social media sources of reporting.

Here is some of data as food for thought on the result and future opportunity for monitoring.

The GRI reporting framework has set a stage and it is not business as usual;

• GRI does not police reports and and only 25% of reports authored are assured; 
• Approximately 1300  or 30% of the CSR reports authored for a total of 4,000 use GRI framework;
• The 5,000 reports that are generated today are a drop in the bucket of 82,000 transnational companies of which 77,000 do not report;

For the past 13 years the community of people building on this framework have attracted growing participation.  Like everything else, this activity will face more challenge as adoption distributes more widely. The growing demand for transparency is going to push the adoption of this framework. beyond Bloomberg analytics on the carbon foot print.

Today, I am left with one final question:

• How can we increase the pace;what is will be the new educational format to increase pace to produce quality data and analytics that result in the building of a story with a dominating value of "do no harm?"

This is Then and This is Now

I  have created my hashtag for my live reports from  #safechem and signed on twitter;

Signing off now for a quiet train ride from Boston to WDC.  Will take advantage of the time to read more of value, before I shift gears in WDC to learn more about chemicals toxins.

"Lavinia reporting a global view from WDC 6/3,4 ChemSec http://bit.ly/c2gOlK Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families http://bit.ly/aks55J #safechem."

Be well,

Lavinia Weissman

Governance, Branding or Culture- For #sustainnow & #ceres10

 

Human beings want to know that their work makes a difference and in a very simple way. Work is equated with what you do to earn and the business associated with that (in any sector). The Swedish word for business is Narings Liv.  Narings Liv defines business as that which nourishes you for life. To me this is the core value for how I have made sense of a community for myself over the past few years.

This strong community that surrounds me all are able to contribute to making the vision for a WorkEcology Portal real. This community includes the good people I have mentioned in this blog here over the past six months. 

My blog posts are a living history that tells the story of what I have learned with these people.  Our conversations have shaped into an equation of what brings a sustainable strategy to life through stakeholder engagement and supports collaboration among people who work wisely to live well in their local communities.

Last night, at my screen, my former neighbor and friend, Dave Wann  
reached out to me and asked me to scan his new book,
The New Normal. Dave's life and his work are about documenting how people are creating their lives in the era of Sustainability. What is unusual about that is that Dave in fact is doing it personally from his home and garden in Harmony Village, in Golden Co.

Dave sent me his manuscript to skim and read and asked me to think about how WorkEcology fits in the frame of this book. This manuscript now sits on my desk with another new transformational report from,  The President's Panel for Cancer at NIH. Alison Rose Levy summarizes her consumer view of the report in her editorial, Making the World Safe for Cancer at Citizen's for Health. I am now preparing my own analysis son the implications of this to sustainability, health and environment.

I have been talking with Dave for quite some time about his forthcoming book because it comes out of our shared interest and dialogue that focused on the question, "How do you live your life to sustain your health, work and economic stability?"  The Presidents Panel on Cancer is resource for examining this question from a view of, "How do you today's citizens work and live their lives in away that protects health?"  And how do we create a sustainable system of health that permits every citizen to live in a world that "exercises precaution?"

Can stakeholders in a system of health whether commercial business (insurance and products), health service and advocacy groups influence a change in systems of health care delivery where the consumer can regain financial control and eliminate the stress so many now experience that is bankrupting people and families every day who face a life with a chronic or life threatening illness?"

So the tension of all this thinking has been simmering in me to do some interesting writing as I review the #ceres10 meeting results. I feel a bit this week like a simmering stock pot pot on the stove that is ready to overflow as I pull together all the new ingredients I have found for my writing, analysis and thought leadership.

This week, I noticed that within my advice network, numerous people I learn with have been asking some really tough questions as they think about matters representing their own inquiry into some really tough questions:

• Aman Singh, @vaultcsr,  has continued her series of article in her blog column In Good Company, Vault's CSR Blog.  Aman's focus in recent weeks has been to look at the implications of CSR to a company from a view of governance, brand, professional development and ultimately the key question to why people read @vaultcsr;  if people take the time in any career stage and money to obtain CSR or Sustainable Management education, who will employ me and why in a recession economy?  Aman is an early post this month struck upon an analysis that aligns with my thinking and work; Corporate CEO's prefer governance to sustainability.

• Elaine Cohen, @elainecohen, began the week thinking about CSR and the Rat Race.  Elaine's wit is valuable and entertaining. She points out in this edition of her blog that we think of the "rat race" as something negative;when in fact rats are naturally community minded. Rats live in colonies of collaboration have been of meaningful are to space exploration and sustainable agriculture.  Rats are somewhat like CSR reporting. Some people look on CSR reports as a negative, reporting on what is wrong, while people who are collaborative and continuously learning look at the advantage of what CSR reporting implies.  This fits with my view that the role of CSR reporting advantage in a culture of learning is to monitor corporate governance for continuous improvement, measuring performance and progress. In a negative  fear based culture CSR reporting focus is on monitoring for mistakes and compliance to regulation.

• John Friedman, @johnfriedman brings to the surface in his editorial on How CSR is Changing the Way We Communicate an important leadership solution in line with my view of the role of Chief Sustainability Officer as reported by Aman Singh. John maps out in this landmark editorial the method of internal communication and how it needs to be approached for the CSO in any company to effectively integrate organization culture and development with branding, sustainability strategy, risk management, corporate governance and employee relations. This editorial is a must read.

This detailed read of the people I look to most closely is supportive method and practice key to building a grass roots driven Sustainable Strategy from which economic decision makers can learn from.  3BLMedia Interviews with Leadership from Ford and Ebay provide solid case examples:

• Bill Baue's interview of John Viera, Director, Sustainability & Environmental Policy, Ford Motor Company points out a grass root method of preparedness based on stakeholder engagement. When Ford joined GM and Chrysler in Washington DC to seek bail out money; they were the only car manufacturer that arrived with a strategy; a Sustainable CSR Strategy no less, which was achieved without bail out funds. Ford met the goals of this plan within one year and is now authoring a new phase.

• Chris Jarvis captured Senior Manager, Sustainability Communications for eBay, Annie Lescroat's  story of a grassroots community driven team of "RATS" who formed a Green Initiative at Ebay from a voluntary view and launched a "green initiative," that did not require economic decision maker view. This activity a year later came to the attention of the economic decision makers.  From my perspective this case study providesview provided a solid example of how "natural leaders within a social network, can innovate change and educate economic decision makers on the "value of green," and begin to exercise the application of "triple bottom line."

Sustainable Strategy is not an either or in action. Bringing sustainability to life through people by actively engaging all stakeholders does not change a CEO's job responsibility job responsibility of governance and monitoring by managing the bottom line.  However, a CEO who leads from a point of view of learning and possibilistic risk management will not turn focus monitoring as a compliance activity to engender fear.

A CEO who leads monitoring as a continuous improvement program of learning will do his job and lead a company that guides all stakeholders to contribute through learning and experience from that type of culture an experience of accomplishment and a work environment that invites discipline, rigor and creative contribution. and creating an obstacle to the activity. CEO's who lead to promote learning to put sustainable strategy in action, will guide a company or organization culture that values integration of  branding, risk management, corporate governance employee relations as a means to carry out a sustainable strategy in any sector (commercial, non profit, government or academic). 

Whether a company chooses to include a CSO in their organization chart or not, there is no "how to manual," to carry out a sustainable strategy in any structure of business or institutional sector today.  A company cannot come to life and be sustainable as Mindy Lubber described in her strong message about integration.  No matter what way, you cut it - Sustainable Strategy is about integrating a workforce and assuring a revenue model where the income, expense and profit are designed out of conversation that brings a sustainable strategy to life from the hard work of people who work to wisely to live well and learn "a new normal."

Cheers,

Lavinia Weissman

"Dedicated to all who are ready and able to open their hearts and minds to a new era."

"Dedicated to all who are ready and able to open their hearts and minds to a new era."

"Dedicated to all who are ready and able to open their hearts and minds to a new era."

Mindy Lubber's Strong Message from #ceres10 on #sustainnow

  At the end of Ceres 2010, Mindy Lubber, President of Ceres, held a conference debrief session with Bill Baue.

Here is   Mindy's statement in brief,  

"Sustainability has to be integrated to what we do.. our earnestness and starting on solutions is more rapid than before...the goal of our conference is about taking it up a new notch and setting up a series of new best practices...working with companies to integrate sustainability into everything they do... products, facilities, holding supply chain accountability and tying that to CEO compensation and all they do."

Mindy went on to quantify what she means by a new and higher standard,"Setting new standards, higher standards and acting more quickly and comprehensively.  It is no longer about one off deals, e.g. carbon footprint or energy efficiency, ....every part of a strategic plan ,--- climate change, water shortages, human rights, worker safety...hence results at every level of the firm."

Finally, Mindy pointed to the greatest challenge America faces now of societal scale. "Paralysis in our nation's capital has to stop relative to climate, water and more.  Are we continuing to build a society around fossil fuels and have more oil spills or build an economy around Clean Tech so that the US does not become a player left behind in the dust?"

You can view the full interview of Mindy Lubber by Bill Baue here on 3BLMedia TV .

Along with reviewing all of #Ceres10 media, in recent weeks I have been investigating other strong messages. 

A "Why so Few?" released by The American Association of University Women, provides a very powerful "strong" hidden message. The report is a summary of research conducted by AAUW to examine why so few women work in STEM careers.   This report provides a complete summary of the obstacles that stand in the way of women succeeding in careers as scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians.

In reading this report, I discovered  a hidden jewel  that in my opinion is stronger than the research outcome. It is the implications of the research on what this implies to the US culture of education and its preparation of people for professions based on STEM studies.  These implications  go beyond the study of diversity and gender.  They leadership issues faced by institutional leaders and economic decisions makers that are obstructing US Society to accelerate in the direction of need described by Mindy Lubber. 

This report underscores the realities that our economy is faced with today as follows:

1.  The future of our world relies on science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  We have structured our research and commercial centers that generate products and services based on these disciplines with a push for rapid forms of production that derail the quality of learning for the people who carry out this work and therefore has production cycle of knowledge and product generation that is not productive for society today.

2. The culture of these institutions is critical, negative and competitive and does not create healthy environments in which people can learn through hard work to succeed.

3. The culture of pedagogical learning is out of date. US Education needs to embrace a form of learning that recognizes difficulty and the frustration of learning that does not come easy.

This is the most useful learning for today.  Risk does not include encouraging and building learning environments where the heightened potential for  risk is equated with is a potential for failure that is truly part of any path of success to discover complex answers and applications of knowledge.

The implications of this report to Mindy Lubber's strong message is basic to encouraging new formats of learning and building new economic models for government, research, academic institutions and commercial interests. I coach my clients on the necessity of strong messages and why.

The why is simple: organization culture has to embrace the creation of value for  encouragement and accomplishment as critical keys to her success. I advise all my clients to ignore personal reactions to negativity, criticism and competitive aspects of the culture and build a matrix of activity that can define  a new format of success by monitoring and measuring accomplishment as a focus which in turn will result in sales.

When designing a culture of change I can develop a program that catalyzes  sustainable sales and income to this company because the emerging sustainable culture looks to this as part of any company brand.What Mindy Lubber delivered in her strong message can only be built by leading a culture that embraces this format of learning and education.  It implies a culture of change, ethic and consciousness of practice that is what I know many men and women now include in their work. 

Mindy Lubber's powerful message catalyzes for any leader today their role in leading a strategy of action and operations agenda that gets down to business as needed and not business as usual for health, environment and people. This is the mandate now for all CSR and sustainability leaders to learn in good company of others through the frustration of learning that embraces the "failure of learning" as part of the reward of success.

Watch for my next post  on "governance" versus leaning to form brand."  drawn from conversation between Jeffrey Hollender, Chairman of Seventh Generation and Aman Singh, CSR Editor for Vault.com.

Best,

Lavinia Weissman

From #ceres10 to #sustain now - Road Map to Sustainability - A New Stage of Sustainable Journalism

 

A few activities in recent weeks have me focused on the idea of appreciating a new standard in social media and journalism for #sustainnow. #SUSTAINNOW is a new hashtag list I have created at @workecology.There are few people in my advice network that really got me thinking on this, that include Chris Laszlo, Aman Singh, Elaine Cohen, Christine Arena, Mario Velandi, Chris Jarvis and Bill Baue.  #sustainnow follows most of these folks live as they write and think.

This set me thinking about my experience in health care early in my career where I was a participated as a team member in the deployment of the first automated medical record system.   From this experience and how my career has formed to date, I have been able to shape my thought leadership to a degree of strategy that I am now implementing with my partner, Bernie Kelly in Australia.  Over the past year, I have discovered a formation of inquiry that I have shaped to translate into practice with Bernie and his community in Australia.  

A recent announcement from Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia plan to refocus the Australian Health Care System from a point of view of coaching, learning and education is aligned with the value proposition for the program we have shaped. 

The WeCare Design Plan for Health that I have designed for Bernie's network program implies a thought leadership and form of engagement that is a Road Map to Sustainable Health very aligned with the thinking and practice reported out of the recent CERES 2010 Conference that took place in Boston this week.   Through out the week, many of the colleagues, I feature at  #sustainnow have provided coverage of this conference that has been recorded and archived at 3blmedia through a partnership with Ceres (pronounced "series).

Late Friday afternoon, I spoke briefly with Greg Schneider,  
co-founder and CEO of 3BLMedia.  I informed Greg that I was shaping a series of posts I would describe as #sustainnow based in part on the CERES archive at 3BLMedia.com . These posts will integrate with some of my other recent research, conversations and recent articles authored by In Good Company with @VaultCSR's, Aman Singh.I indicated to Greg, I had been tracking and formulating a view and perspective drawn from many of the people, thoughts, ideas and quality analysis on #sustainnow for the past six months.  I now feel that this community has set a new standard for journalism on the subject of sustainability that many claim is hard to define.

This community, I believe is defining sustainability well beyond the vision articulated by many of the heroes at the frontier, who have influenced my work e.g. Hazel Henderson, John Elkington,  Art Kleiner and Muhammad Yunus. Please watch this blog for more thoughts as I am able to write on this new standard of thought in journalism that inspires learning to know and act.Follow the development of this thinking as I shape it on Twitter @workecology and subscribe  to announcements of my posts or learn more from the community I have formed at  #sustainnow

Cheers,

Lavinia Weissman