Do you have the desire to build caring and purposeful organizations for a better world? If so, this article may interest you.
As a changemaker in my organization, I often wondered: where should we be to activate change? On whom, on what, to focus? Internal? External? The "top" of the organization? The "base"? The middle managers? What will create the pivot effect?
A Systemic approach
I am a fairly holistic and systemic person. I rarely operate in a sequential mode, if at all. Hence my willingness to operate on different levels. Throughout our purpose-driven mission, my team and I target various areas of the business, such as:
Strategy & governance
Employees’ knowledge
Global performance
Impact of operations
New business solutions
Ways to partner with external stakeholders
As a result, we often work on multiple projects at the same time, with several types of internal and external stakeholders.
If this method brings results, it also creates a burden and a requirement that is difficult to manage at times. In Japan, I remember feeling lost and powerless in front of numerous projects and requests. I had to reduce the workload from multiple initiatives. Yet, ‘something’ did not feel right.
An empowering posture
One day, my mind shifted. I was at my acupuncturist for my recurring back problems. Then, I had an epiphany. The power of the acupuncturist is to know which points to activate for specific issues. He does not force his will on these points. On the contrary, he ‘listens’ and trusts the body to act at its own pace and in accordance with its needs.
In wanting to be everywhere, supporting everyone, controlling everything, we were at best exhausting ourselves to reach impossible objectives; at worst creating the contrary outcome of what we wanted: rejection or dependency.
So we changed one subtle yet crucial element: our posture and method to cooperate with our ecosystem. We still act in a holistic way, working at different levels with numerous people. Yet, we activate the power of acupressure in our own way.
We act as catalysts for change. Our role is to engage the precise points of our system in regards to a challenge, so as to allow innovative, sustainable, impactful solutions to emerging.
A sense of humility
As a consequence, rather than being willing to fix an issue in imposing sustainability views:
we choose to remind our intention and vision, nurture relationships, understand weak signals of resistance, and find a third way for making an impact in line with the group's purpose and local realities.
we engage our stakeholders to challenge and enrich projects so as to guarantee long-term success. For instance, to assess the behaviors shaping our Asia business culture, participants represented our five key corporate stakeholders (environment, employees, clients, society, shareholders). Some even tried to understand nature’s perspective by assuming the experience of a tree!
It may sound unusual. Yet, these adjustments in leadership style, impact, and decision-making are the result of much reflection and experimentation. What is certain is that in addition to my back, my anxiety has subsided and our changemaker community has grown bigger and more powerful than ever. And you, what is your approach?
Activate towards your change
Identify the key categories of stakeholders of your department or company.
A stakeholder is an element that is affected by your action and/or has a strong and structuring impact on your action.
Interrogate how you engage them.
Start to discover what they are looking for.
Assess ways to improve stakeholders’ relationships.
Find ways to activate their engagements so as to create systemic change through your common projects.
“The most important thing to know is that the pain or physical problems that occur in one part of the body are the end result of imbalances and are not exclusively related to that part. So you should not focus too much on relieving that one problem”
Hello everyone, I am Nina cambadélis, a coach and facilitator, specializing in sustainability and organizational transformation. I am also a corporate changemaker in charge of deploying my company’s purpose at the heart of the business.
What I like to do through my activities is to inspire professionals to rethink the business and make them proud to contribute, in their own way, to a more sustainable, human, and nature-friendly world.
If you wish to be supported to:
Become the changemaker you want for the world you expect
Find and assert your leadership or promote the emergence of new leadership styles
Integrate sustainability, purpose-driven initiatives at the heart of your organization
Accelerate your ecosystem's engagement to create systemic change
Make an impact while preserving energy and well-being
Here is a link to an exploration call and a form to further elaborate on your ambition and challenges: English