The management and reality disconnect

If we have learned anything over the last few years about businesses and their environmental objectives it is this:

• Senior management will tell you they are doing well
• The business will almost certainly have an expensively designed document
• Anyone with 'environment' or 'sustainability' in their job title suffers from frustration brought on by a lack of universal support

In short, there is a disconnect between what management perceive as progress and what is really happening. This is particularly true when it comes to behavioural change within an organisation.

I've lost count of the number of times we have been told that middle management are the problem, when in fact middle management would love to help but they don't know what is expected of them.

All is not lost for environmental and sustainability managers though.

If senior management think the business is doing well with its environmental agenda, imagine how impressed they will be when it really is. If your business or organisation has a policy then you have permission to deliver the objectives.

I should point out that we are very fond of the phrase 'seek forgiveness not permission' - saves a lot of time and tends to lead to things actually getting done.

All you need now is a bit of help and a simple process. This is what we do:

• Policy
• Objectives
• Strategy
• Messages
• Communication

You've got a policy. Get a group of managers, a team or department together and ask them to read the policy. I read one last week which was 140 pages so give people plenty of notice!

Then discuss what everyone thinks the objectives are and why. The 'why' is crucial. Remember this is a discussion, it is non-directive.

Then ask the group to explain what strategy there should be for delivering the objectives.

Next, identify the different audiences and what the high level message for each audience should be.  Messages should be relevant to the audience so what you say to your customers, suppliers, and staff will be slightly different. We did this exercise a few months ago and identified 14 different audiences. For each audience write a one-liner for every objective.

Finally work on the communication skills of those in the room to help them deliver the messages. They might need a presentation, some literature, a video or just confidence.

Then report back to management in six months time with news of just how far you've got with your objectives.

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