Sustainability

1
Sustainability Why Bother?

• Committing Universities to Sustainable
  Development
• Graz, Austria, April 2005

2
Why Should We bother?

• We are responsible for guiding those lacking an
  appropriate understanding to do the right thing
• Substantial opportunities to increase research
  income appeal to students international
  national reputation for faculty and the
  institution
• An improved collective outcome for all
  stakeholders and to stand up for those without a
  voice or adequate resources

3
Ideas Pieces

• One means of getting the idea going
• Opinion Piece research styled paper
• Enable extensive dissemination of concept and
  encourages discussion

4
Getting Attention

• Deliberately Provocative
• Take a position but do not draw a definitive
  conclusion
• Alert multiple stakeholders and give them a part
  to play
• Stand back and watch what evolves

5
The nub of the problem?

• Teenagers and Academics have one thing in common
  they are both too smart to be told anything!
• How do you engage with people who believe they
  already know enough? How do you get them to
  understand, embrace and support your views and
  intentions?

6
Whose responsibility?

• Sustainability affects everyone yet some believe
  that only certain people have the capability to
  represent opinion
• The masses hold sway talk to them at a level
  that matches their capabilities

7
Who Wins, Who Loses?

• If you cannot answer this question you will have
  a much tougher time
• There is a BIG difference between interested
  and committed

8
Interested or Committed?

• Dear Marcus
• My advice is that it would be inappropriate to
  contact Council members in any way!
• The only contact must be through Executive Group.
• Regards

9
Interested or Committed?

• this is a matter for () to decide given the
  benefits to the university and available budget
• BUT
• This response was from the person who ultimately
  controlled funding availability

10
What does Sustainability mean?

• Not everyone agrees with you
• Therefore not everyone will agree with your
  proposed model
• Therefore people will act according to what they
  believe is most suitable for them
• Therefore you can expect (and anticipate) various
  hurdles along the way

11
Developing Understanding

• The following can be used as a launch point
• Get various stakeholders to discuss what it means
  to them
• Listen carefully to how they answer big clues
  for how to proceed

12
Theory of Sustainable Societies

• Advanced societies seek and encourage ways for
  members of their society to improve the
  conditions for their current and future
  existence. Societies that attempt to maintain
  the status quo ultimately decay

13
Gaining Buy-In

• Suggest to stakeholders that
• If we dont act to advance the overall society
  for its current and future members, we are doomed
  to decay
• Then ask them
• How do you suggest we do that?

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Test their thinking further

• Collect all of the stakeholder suggestions for
  how society can be made to advance
• Now throw them a hot potato

15
Sustainable Societies Paradox

• The degree to which a society can be considered
  truly advanced is in direct INVERSE proportion
  to the size of their ecological footprint

16
The Paradox

• Wasteful societies are not advanced
• Societies with poor living conditions are not
  advanced
• Big footprints less advanced
• Poor living conditions less advanced

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What Does Truly Advanced Mean?

• Dont we, as proponents of sustainability,
  presume that our idea of the world is an
  advance on what currently exists?
• What would a TRULY advanced society look like and
  how would it behave?
• How then, should your university behave in order
  to lead?

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Gaining Buy-In

• So
• Unless we identify what is an acceptable and
  sustainable level of advancement (and then pursue
  it) , we are destined to fail

19
Expanding our Mental Models

• Two models presented here
• Wilbers 4 Quadrant model
• Beck Cowans Spiral Dynamics model

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Wilbers 4 Quadrants
What Independent Internal Thinking is occurring?
What Independent Physical Manifestations of that
thinking exist?
What Collective Internal Thinking is occurring?
What Collective Physical Manifestations exist?
21
Wilbers 4 Quadrants
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Value Systems

• Aka Spiral Dynamics
• Preferences for processes of thinking
• Not a typology
• Adapt and sway to varying external life
  conditions
• Identified by Prof Clare W Graves
• Developed by Dr Don Beck and Chris Cowan

23
Value Systems Theory

• Barriers come in all shapes and sizes!
• Todays solutions will become tomorrows
  problems
• Prof. Clare W Graves
• Therefore, todays problems were yesterdays
  solutions so we need to think and act better
  TODAY!

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Example

• Problem Carbon Dioxide
• Solution Carbon Credits
• But carbon credits only benefit rich nations

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Additional Solution

• Oxygen Credits
• Countries that produce more oxygen than carbon
  dioxide get paid for producing
• How? Formula is CO2/O2 Tax levee

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Tackling Problems

• You will most likely encounter three modes
  consistently modes 4, 5 and 6
• They present uniquely designed challenges
• You will need to match your solution to HOW they
  think about the problem not WHAT they think about
  the problem

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Tackling Problems
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Leveraging for Sustainability
29
Level 4
30
Level 5
31
Level 6
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Why Should We bother?

• We are responsible for guiding those lacking an
  appropriate understanding to do the right thing
• Substantial opportunities to increase student
  appeal research income international national
  reputation for faculty and University
• An improved collective outcome for all
  stakeholders and to stand up for those without a
  voice or adequate resources

33
Sell the benefits

• Leading by example will enable us to ensure that
  appropriate knowledge and proper action is taken
  by the community
• The income opportunities will place us ahead of
  the pack giving us a substantial competitive
  advantage a significantly enhanced reputation
  as we advance society
• We are in a position to improve social outcomes
  across the board in a consultative and inclusive
  process

34
Why we should bother

• We are the ones supposedly with the intellectual
  capacity to know the importance
• Sheer physical size and reach students,
  staff, resources consumed massive social
  networks with huge environmental footprints
• Community acceptance generally yet to face the
  scandals impacting corporations and political
  representatives means we have a leadership role

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So the message is

• Identify the different meanings of advanced
  societies and of sustainability
• Engage discussion (ideas pieces etc)
• Identify the potential barriers ask and answer
  who wins, who loses?
• Use Value Systems model to tap inherent
  capabilities across the organisation
• Sell the benefits of sustainability that most
  appeal to each Value System

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Final Quote

• There is nothing more difficult to carry out,
  more doubtful of success, or more dangerous to
  handle, than to initiate a new order of
  things.For, those who would institute change
  have enemies in all those who profit by the old
  order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those
  whowould profit by the new order.Nicolo
  MachiavelliThe Prince, 1532

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Special thanks

• Frontier Media marketing specialists for
  sustainable products and services
  (www.frontiermedia.com.au )
• August Strategic business services
  (www.auguststrategic.com.au)
• Strategic Futures Concepts
• (jmcbride_at_iinet.net.au)
• Who made it possible for me to attend this
  conference

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Questions?
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References Suggested Reading

• Spiral Dynamics mastering leadership, values
  and change Beck Cowan (Blackwood)
• www.spiraldynamics.net www.spiraldynamics.org
  www.clarewgraves.com
• The paper accompanying this presentation and
  others available upon request to the author at
  desiredfutures_at_netscape.net
• A drop in the ocean for foresight practitioners
• An hypothesis of Value Systems as foresight
  frameworks
• 21st Century Outlooks Sustainability -
  implications for organisations