Aurosoorya Blog

Corporations today are faced with an apparent triple choice on the sustainability front. This boils down to becoming compliant with existing and increasing regulation (physical), more actively altering existing business processes to integrate sustainability into the way business is conducted (vital), or rethinking the business model altogether (mental) to prepare for a world in which sustainability (in its widest sense – Sustainability – The Missing Piece) is inevitably and irreversibly becoming a core driver of business possibility.

These three apparent choices are in fact a manifestation of the physical-vital-mental seed-fractal and hence indicate a path of progression that any and every corporation that seeks to remain progressive will have to take. The logic of this is clear from a consideration of the fractal systems reality we are a part of. For in this reality, recall, that:

1. Progressive organizations have to display movement along the physical-vital-mental maturity model.
2. Failing this progression from within, circumstance from without will force the progression.
3. Failing this progression even from without, the corporation will face extinction.
4. This is so because physical-vital-mental progression is imperative regardless of organization and regardless of scale. It is exhibited in the contextual earth-system through millennia, it is exhibited in progression of economies as a study of the movement from an agricultural (physical) to an industrial (vital) to a digital (mental) economy displays, and it is exhibited in progressive organizations that contribute to economies.

Given this reality, the question is what is the best way to incorporate this inevitabillity into a corporation. A double design consideration is essential here. First, the real work, as fractal reality makes clear, has to begin with the seed-level – in this case the individual or employee in a corporation. The trajectory of effort, hence, has to occur along the primary events that constitute the employee life-cyle: hire, develop. manage, maximize. The Human Resources (HR) function, hence, will play a key role in making this a reality.

The second design consideration is embedded in the movement from compliance (physical) to integration (vital) to transformation (mental), that is in fact not a choice, but as Fractal Systems Architecture indicates, a logical progression toward creating a sustainable organization. In this progression the corporation has to make a series of choices that are in fact indicated by the movement from a physical to a vital to a mental orientation.

Coupling these design considerations together, what results are suggested trajectories of organizational orientation along key employee life-cycle events. The orientations are captured by the P, V, M (or Compliance (C), Intergation (I), Transformation(T)) nomenclature:

1. Organization’s philosophy towards sustainability-related hiring:
P (or C): Hire to ensure we can meet social compliance goals and environmental regulations
V (or I): Use in-house sustainability-initiatives as a key platform in attracting talent
M (or T): Hire to get ready for the next wave of business process & product breakthrough

2. Organization’s practices / beliefs towards increasing sustainability-related skill-sets of employees:
P (or C): Sustainability-related values and principles must become an integral part of the skill-set for all employees in the quality control and compliance areas only
V (or I): Sustainability-related values and principles must become an integral part of the skill-set for all employees in the organization
M (or T): Leverage of sustainability-related values and principles must be measured at the business unit and individual levels and contribute toward compensation

3. Organization’s use of sustainability-related initiatives to develop leaders in the organization:
P (or C): Sustainability-initiatives are not used to develop leaders
V (or I): Social and environmental initiatives are used as vehicles to develop leaders
M (or T): The next iteration of product and process driven by social and environmental issues is a key platform to develop internal leaders

4. Management’s attitude toward sustainability:
P (or C): Sustainability has no business case and is a part of compliance and philanthropy efforts
V (or I): Sustainability can be strategic if business units link their success to wider societal expectations
M (or T): Business contributes to shifts in economic-environmental-social systems to root out underlying causes of non-sustainability

5. General attitude toward creating an environment for sustainability to succeed:
P (or C): Sustainability efforts are best left to their own design and efforts without any intervention or support from the rest of the organization
V (or I): Sustainability initiatives require creation of appropriate cross-functional management and measurement systems to succeed
M (or T): Functional silos need to be broken-down and a number of cultural and organizational changes need to be made for sustainability initiatives to succeed

6. Organizational approach to incorporating lessons from sustainability initiative:
P (or C): Lessons from sustainability initiatives remains with the part of the organization that drove the initiative
V (or I): Lessons are reviewed and result in changes to system-wide processes, management, and measurement systems
M (or T): Lessons are reviewed, integrated in a system-wide manner, and incorporated into supply chain contracts and codes of conduct

7. Management’s most likely area of focus on the sustainability front during an economic down-turn:
P (or C): Management is not directly involved in any sustainability initiatives and does not have insight into what is happening on this front
P (or C): Management focuses primarily on meeting regulations and established codes of conduct
V (or I): Focus is on cost-cutting driven by sustainability-related innovation
M (or T): Management increases investment in sustainability since this is believed to drive the next wave of product and process improvement

For HR to consciously cause such a shift in organizational orientation at each step of the employee life-cycle, hence, is what its true role in bringing about sustainable oranizations is.