Helene Finidori of The Next Edge group on Facebook asked today:
I’ve been asked to teach a 3 or 4 x2hrs mini module on sustainability to MBA students. I have carte blanche to be ‘as radical’ as I wish to be and use any interactive material I would like… I would really like this to be an opportunity to plant some seeds, open up curiosity and possibilities for these students to start in their jobs with something more than business as usual…
What are the 3 strong ideas / take aways I should focus on?
Here’s how I responded. (There were already dozens of good, practical suggestions, so I gave myself permission, after a juicy, creative day, a good dinner, and a nice Côtes du Rhône to stretch a little bit. 😉
Three? OK:
- The inescapability of the laws of nature (pesky things like the laws of thermodynamics and the principles of evolutionary biology (viz, The Natural Step)) as constraint and guide.
- The power of purpose.(The purpose of business, as Peter Drucker maintained, is to delight customers by creating and delivering value, not necessarily “stuff”; profit is consequence, not purpose.)
- The quite bearable lightness of coordination that results from giving everyone in an organization a clear line of sight that connects their actions, the impacts of those actions, and their contribution to the shared concerns of their organization.
(See also: my book, The Truth About Green Business, and our on-demand eLearning suite Sustainability In Practice.)