Conflict, by it’s nature, signals a need for change. But underlying the existance of conflict is a deeper and more distressing issue. The fact that we accept conflict as a tool and allow conflicts to flourish signals a lack of maturity in human creativity and development. If not handled with extreme care, conflicts are destructive, either physically, spiritually, emotionally, financially, socially or environmentally. The larger the dispute, the more destructive.

What’s worse is that conflicts tend to be destructive long after the disputing parties find a way to stop the dispute. They continue to cause challenges as long as bad feelings linger, until learning occurs, mindsets change and reparations are completed. Some disputes unfortunately last centuries.

But there are better and more creative solutions that using conflict to find solutions. Let’s look at a few impacts of conflict and consider alternatives.

The Impact of Conflict on Organizations
Although organizations are emotionless in one sense, the individuals and leaders who make up those organizations are not. They can be directly injured by the events surrounding a conflict and they may sustain those injuries over a very long period. This impacts both internal team work and relations with external community interests. Perspectives may be severely impacted. Leaders who take a stand for their organization may find themselves repeating “the company line” and be grounded in a sense of righteousness even if the justifications for their perspectives have long since been proven false.

The organizational approach often reflects the attitudes and emotions of it’s leaders. Effective leaders communicate their perspective with influence and those who are influenced support and reflect the concepts of their leaders whether they are worthy of such reflection or not. Such is the nature of organizational culture.

The power to influence gives leaders both the capacity to do tremendous good when openess and learning are encouraged, or to inflict tremendous harm and stunted progress as when conflict arises. It is this fact that compels organizational leaders of all types to rethink the concepts surrounding conflict.

Conflict on the World Stage
Another interesting potential for conflict is how we think about national sovereignty.

An interesting case in point is the recent over-flights of Russian planes in Canadian territory. From the perspective of a Canadian, and what I have always personally held as true, according to the history that I’m aware of, the waters and islands north of Canada’s main land mass to the North Pole have always been considered part of Canada. I hold a specific bias. Now that there’s less ice, this perspective is being challenged by Russia and other countries. Until there are more compelling arguments presented, or a contrary decision by the UN (or another universally recognized voice of the international community), I will continue to believe this area to be Canadian and hold a “Canadian” perspective. That is the view that our sovereign leadership would want us to hold as well, so they make bold assertions on their “ability” and “willingness” to “defend” their territory and engage in conflict if necessary.

The reality, however, is more complex. Land and resource claims are rarely simple. Many wars have proven that they are seldom solved by unilateral declarations of one party over another. While Canada may very will have a valid claim, it is highly unlikely that engaging in conflict would actually benefit us as a solution. 

And while it is true that all nations must guard against putting the world in the hands of individuals who would usurp the human rights of others, in the end, it is the world at large that must decide on issues of sovereignty by international mechanisms of justice. If these mechanisms were to decide against Canada’s claim we would ultimately be forced to comply.

A friend of mine who is a foreign diplomat once told me that his country makes firm claims of sovereignty on disputed lands, not necessarily because they are unwilling to share the resources in a fair and equitable way, but that if they fail to make that strong claim, there would be questions at the very start of negotions regarding their right to share anything, even though from their own perspective, the land is historically theirs. While he saw defense of his country as an essential right, he acknowledged that, ultimately, what’s best for the world is also what’s best for his country and his hope was that an international tribunal would be held to facilitate an equitable outcome.

Another case in point is the Spratly Islands, Pratas Islands, Paracel Islands and Macclesfield Bank in the South China / East Vietnam sea which are all claimed by several countries. The Arabian / Persian Gulf and disputed Israeli/Palistinian territory are also hotly contended. As long as there are no strategic advantages, these situations tend to remain somewhat dormant. But as soon as countries become aware of valuable resources (e.g. oil under the northern ice cap) or where these claims represent strategic military positioning, they are hotly disputed and these disputes can be exceedingly distructive.

So we have to ask the question: Has the time for independent claims of sovereignty passed? Are we not at a stage where the world would be better served by creative negotiation around what is best for the world?

New Problems demand New Thinking
In the world of business, claims are eventually settled in courts, but even there, there are many companies that engage in conflict against local interests simply to satisfy their shareholders. Rather than seeking reconciliation and creative solutions, they deepen their rehtoric and strive to influence their own agenda even when it is widely accepted as harmful by those who are directly impacted by their actions.

As we face an ever worsen global situation, engaging in conflict as a means of solving problems is out-dated.

In a world that is struggling under the massive influence of climate change, accelerating population growth, destruction of oceans, potential threats to food, water and energy supplies and which possess almost limitless destructive capacity, the future of leadership demands that we re-think our methods, that we strive to find common solutions and that we avoid conflict at all costs by learning how to systematically build understanding and act based on global wisdom vs. individual or group interests.

If we want to reach a world which has all the attributes we want, clean, carbon neutral, abundant with food and clean water, equitable for all people, peaceful and which provides an opportunity for each individual to reach their ultimate development, we need to start thinking bigger.

Reflective Consultation and Discourse as an Alternative to Conflict
People are fundamentally good at heart but often find themselves trapped in their own mental patterns. We repeat endless retoric to ourselves and create neural pathways which help us decide right from wrong and good from bad. So when it come time to submit to a higher authority, we find it difficult because we like to believe that we know better. But our thoughts are always incomplete and most likely one-sided.

In a world of competing interests, the leader of vision is the one that encourages discourse and consultation to solve claims and document agreements and then abides by and supports the majority decision, not for the good of the country or their business or shareholders, but for the good of the world.

The irony is that, as the world begins to slowly accept fundamental human rights and is slowly forced to address the enormity of the global issues we are all facing, all countries will begin to converge on the same methods, approaches and realities anyway. In the end, our choices will be limited to those that will ensure our survival.

We see this convergence in the global economy, how all nations work together on policy, and how all nations are involved in some form, albeit not enough, in thinking about how to address issues like climate change.

While making threats of  “ability and willingness to defending sovereignty” or defense of business interests may be necessary when we feel threatened in the light of no clear decision mechanism, we also need to recognize that such threats are ulitmately idle until all claimants have been heard and decisions are made in the court of international opinion or, even better, by international tribunals created for the settlement of all important claims. The UN and world court are a start but education is required.

Learning the skills of frank and respectful consultation coupled with an attitude of detachement are essential in today’s businesses and political environments. Let’s hope that our leaders begin to appreciate the benefits of this approach and strive to educate themselves and their organizations accordingly.

All the best,

Garth Schmalenberg,
Web: http://hbi-leadership.com
Blog: http://sustainabilityculture.com
E-mail: garth@hbi-leadership.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gschmalenberg
Linked-In:
Phone: 1-416-919-6598

Ideas are to be shared. Please feel free to comment or to share these ideas through your favourite bookmarking site or by e-mail.

Benefits of Carpooling

What are the other benefits of carpooling? First, you make friends, get to meet someone new and get to know them well because you see them on a regular basis. Second, you get to share costs of commuting. If you still have a car, at very least you save on gas. If not, you may get to save on repairs, insurance and other costs. Third, if you’re riding with someone else, you may get a little more time to sleep before getting to work. Fourth, in many cities you save time because you get to use designated carpool lanes. Fifth, if your company supports carpooling, you get to leave at a regularly scheduled time(and for reasons I’ll explain later, this is also good for the company). Sixth, you help to save the planet. In the battle against climate change, you get to reduce carbon emissions by sharing a ride directly (more riders is better) and by reducing average commute time for everyone, you help every vehicle on the road because all of them enjoy a slightly shorter commute time. Yes, as even one car comes off the road, there is just a little less congestion and every other car benefits a little and contributes a little less carbon.

Getting your Company Involved

There are many ways to participate in car-pooling and there are many direct and indirect benefits to the company for doing so, not the least of which is your company’s contribution to reducing CO2. But before you roll-out a carpool plan, it is like many other projects, you need think about how to inform staff and management on the benefits to them and to others. Following are a few steps to consider:

1. Have a sustainability speaker come in to do lunch and learns.
   (Most of us who are involved in developing Future Oriented Leadership and Sustainable Cultures would love to speak to your organization)
2. Have a sustainability speaker at a sustainability program roll-out meeting 
3. Find other ways to educate employees on the urgency of reducing their CO2 contribution, and guide and encourage employees to activitely participate.
4. Have a means to measure and report on impact so that you can promote the benefits to others.
5. As with all other organizational changes, this change is behavioural and requires some adjustment. Train managers ahead on the benefits to the organization and to the planet so they will support the plan and deal with any minor inconveniences appropriately (e.g. like having to let employees go home at scheduled times in order to meet their rides). Employees benefit from less stress commuting so are more productive during working hours. Managers benefit from being more organized and respecting their employee’s time rather than randomly overworking them.
6. Speak to other businesses who have successfully implemented Carpooling plans.
7. Post your own carpool sign-up lists and promote car-pooling internally.
8. Promote car-pooling by giving incentives such as prefered parking spots to those individuals who make the effort.
9. Sign your company up on a Carpooling site.

Businesses who are interested in the environment can sign-up on one or more of these software packages including the one offered by the local communities (in Toronto and surrounding area, Smart Commute) and make their offices as destination points, making it easier for willing riders to find each other.

Getting Involved as an Individual

Many Cities including Toronto and surrounding communities make carpooling software available for free to users. You can sign-up and get matched to someone with a similar route and time automatically. If you live in the extended GTA or Hamilton area, you can sign-up for free through http://www.smartcommute.ca. For individuals in other locations, it is well worth your time to do a little searching to find carpooling web-sites.

If you’ve never done it before, give carpooling a try. You may actually enjoy it.

A few other ideas for reducing carbon related to communiting.

For some companies, another easy option for contributing to carbon reduction is by permitting flex hours, which allows employees to drive at non-peak communing hours, thereby reducing congestion, travel times and CO2 emissions.

Tele-commuting is an even better option which gets cars off the road entirely. As with all other changes in employment practices, implementing tele-commuting will require some thought and possibly new equipment and tools but it can work very effectively with side benefits for employees and it can also be a tremendous retention tool for keeping forward thinking employees.

Encourage biking to work. This is not only good for reducing carbon, it can help to promote health of employees. Providing showering and change facilities is helpful but not always required. Definitely providing a safe place to lock bikes is helpful.

Government Involvement

For Governments, besides providing access to carpooling software, they can consider implementing tax breaks for companies that can demonstrate CO2 reduction by either actively working towards helping employees travel at non-peak hours, engage in carpooling, promoting carpooling plans and enabling telecommuting.

Some governments have also paid individuals for traveling at non-peak hours by charging other commuters congestion charges for traveling during peak hours.

Many governments have created special lanes for carpooling and of course for bicycles.

The Car Pooling experience

Not everyone who tries car-pooling has a great experience, but most do. At this momemt, most of my work is done at off-peak hours or from my home, However, every car pooling experience I’ve had has been very positive and well worth the effort. If you haven’t tried it, make the effort. In almost all cases, the benefits easily outweigh the negatives.

All the best,

Garth Schmalenberg
web:  http://www.hbi-leadership.com
e-mail: garth@hbi-leadership.com
Phone: 416-919-6598
twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gschmalenberg

If you find these idesas valuable, please share them through your favorite bookmarking site or by e-mail. Also , please share your comments and any links to carpool web-sites that you’ve found helpful.

A Harvard study Global Warming’s Six Americas looked at Americans to gauge their attitudes toward climate change. The study determined that 18% of the US population are alarmed about Climate Change issue, 33% were Concerned, 19% Cautious, 12% Disengaged, 11% Doubtful and 7% Dismissive, which means that they actively oppose work towards elimination of GHG (Green House Gas), viewing it as wasted money and effort. In the words of Kofi Annan, “Climate change is a silent human crisis, yet it is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time.” Looking at the figures alone, we might feel somewhat discouraged about the possibility of achieving universal sustainability. But, there are also other ways of looking at sustainability which might make us more optimistic.

Encouraging a cooperative view of Sustainability

After reading the Six Americas report, I wondered what the level of support for “Sustainability” might be if the Harvard study had asked a slightly different question which concerns the level of support for sustainability when viewed it in its’ simplest and most individualistic form. For example, “Do you agree that you are entitled to food, water, shelter, education, jobs, health care and a clean environment, rights which are essentially enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the constitutions of most progressive countries?” My hunch is that there would be almost universal support. But that’s really what Sustainability is about.

The challenge that we face in gaining higher levels of acceptance and participation lies in the fact that most of  us are not directly confronted by the impacts of our behaviors on a day to day basis, even though in many countries, the impacts are becoming more obvious. As we look out from our windows and live our lives, our own world might already seem relatively sustainable, and, from that perspective, there is little urgency to make it any more sustainable.

In much of the world, especially in northern or southern climates, we see sunny days, breath seemingly clean air, have ample supplies of food and water and have no major problems other than finding work, or perhaps stress from working too much. We can’t see the CO2 levels rising, and other than what we see in the media, issues such as poverty, water shortage, starvation are literally a world away.

For those of us who live in cooler climates like Canada, the prospects of global warming seem almost inviting. After all, who wouldn’t want it to be a little warmer? And there are many other countries that face a similar dilemma. It isn’t that we don’t understand climate change as a potential threat to our way of life, it’s that we have precious little energy either during or at the end of our work day to think deeply about the inherent opportunities of taking action, or the potential negative consequences of in-action. As long as we don’t see immediate and severe consequences, we will tend to take the road we are most accustom to.

A Scheme to Encourage Involvement

After speaking with many experts on the subject of sustainability, looking through many organizational schemes which are designed to promote, educate and encourage support of the sustainability movement and contrasting the countless efforts and billions of dollars spent by these organizations with the progress that has been made to date, most proponents of sustainability still conclude that the rate at which we are adopting and acting on a vision of sustainability, through our contribution to environmental, social or economic initiatives, and our movement toward a “net zero” world is painfully slow. Many would agree that it’s too slow.

Among the many global initiatives, the UN Global Compact , the Global Reporting Initiative, S – bar (the sustinability rating group), and the various Green Building Councils are a few that I’ve had time to investigate in some detail. There are also thousands of private initiatives such as Al Gore’s initiative, the Inconvenient Truth, The Clinton Foundation, and others each of which have generously contributed to the world effort. And even the many corporations and government entities who have been forward thinking and dutifully jumped aboard the sustainability band wagon are only really started along the path.

Without devaluing the many efforts, there still appears to be some missing links, at least one of which is a simple shared vision of sustainability and a mechanism that will help us all to measure the steps along the way.

Based on my own assessment, what appears to be missing is this:

1. A mechanism of tying the good heartedness of people to informed, simple and progressive action.

After doing just a little investigation, it’s easy to see how complex of an issue we face. As individuals, we are unable to unravel the complex web of possible solutions with the little available time we have. But it occurred to me that people would be happy to participate and show their support if there was a simple, beneficial, and encouraging means of participation. No one wants to be dragged into a new culture out of fear, threats of disaster, or by being told that they would need to give up their old and comfortable way of living.  But if we can start to show our support by simply stating it, I suspect, most of us would be willing to do that. A statement like “I support working with others to make the world a better place to live.” would be a fairly easy first step and yet would enshrine the most fundamental principles and values of sustainability. It also incorporates an agreement to “work cooperatively” towards that endeavor. Once we know who the supporters are, we can work with them to make their life better as well as our own.

2. A simple mechanism of sharing the message with others.

Generally, when we get involved in something that we feel is helpful to others, we like to share with them.  Social networking is a good example of how we involve others in our personal cause.  Viral marketing is another example of how good ideas spread through an exciting message. While both of these methods may be used to encourage others to participate in good causes, the question then becomes “participating in what and how will that help solve the problems we’re facing?” Simply stating our good intentions is great, but it’s not enough to actually accomplish anything. By slowly engaging those who are willing to support the initiative, it is like starting a flywheel. Once spinning, it’s hard to stop. And we reward the effort of sharing by acknowledging their higher level of contribution. More about this later.

3.  A simple, encouraging, solutions oriented approach

Much of what we see in media focuses on the parts of sustainability education that look at the negative consequences of in-action. Although these are important messages for informing us about what’s happening, but these types of educational programs eventually have a numbing effect and rarely help us to envision more clearly the future that we are moving towards. Not all initiatives are negative though. There are many educational initiaves that are geared toward building theoretical and practical knowledge of sustainable solutions. MBAs, LEEDs building programs, model building initiatives, sustainability tours and courses are just a few. While there are many incredible initiatives for sharing the solutions, there is still a disconnect on the ground level without a centralized and systematic means of sharing and diseminating information about practical steps on a large scale. As we become more educated on the subject of sustainability, we also need to know how to share this information in relatively simple understandable steps.

As we advance, we need to know where we can find effective and reliable solutions. We need to have systematic ways to know who needs help, we need to know what to share and how, and we need to know who can help us as we also strive to get to the next level. By systematizing the approache, we reducing the amount of effort required in gaining the knowledge we need. One of the most powerful ways of multiplying this effect is by helping businesses to gain capacity in both doing and in sharing. And if there are additional rewards and recognitions for taking these steps, we are likely to feel more encouraged to take them.

4. A simple way of introducing rigor to the process which gives the participant a supportive means to ramp up their efforts

Participants first need to know they are part of a community who wants them to succeed.  We are all in this together and, in all other respects, we may choose to compete. But in this one, we need to cooperate.

Much of the challenge in getting companies to participate in reporting initiatives in the past has been the unintended consequence of exposing corporate weaknesses. But until you start seriously thinking about your impact and start measuring it,  you never know how far you have to go. Any successful approach will need to encourage transparency without any initial penalty, either monitarily or in reputation. Exposing weaknesses must be viewed by all participants as a step in the right direction, however ugly the initial exposure. The weakness is essentially a request for guidance and assistance from more capable organizations.

By providing the tools to do self examination first, and educating businesses on the process of becoming more rigorous about measuring sustainabity, and by providing tools and assistance, each participant slowly builds the capacity to know what to do next.

And by participating in a cooperative sustainabilty endeavor a business is rewarded with both the assistance of other participants and the many unforseen benefits of becoming progressively more capable in adding sustainable value through their services and products. But as participants, they also share the responsibilty of helping other organizations to attain that capacity.

That leads to the next question: “Who should we help?”

At earlier levels of the process, it’s enough to measure ourselves and our own corporate contribution to the value chain. Later, we begin to look at our suppliers and expect that they also participate at some level. And finally, as we become truly mature in the process, we are able to choose and assist suppliers who are willing to make the effort to becoming sustainable themselves. The rigor comes in imposing this level upon our own company but the rewards are also great. By introducing truly sustainable approaches, our organizations become well recognized for having acheived the higher levels of capacity.

Just as in school, we want to advance to the next grade level. If we think of sustainability as a cooperative learning effort, we know that progressing to the next level requires us to have more rigor and more capacity. Within each grade, we are scored in different ways. Just as we cannot expect someone in kindergarten or grade one to be as wise to the world as a university student, we cannot expect newly enroled participants in this process to adhere to the same rating schemes as those who already adhering to the Global Reporting guidelines and who may have the financial capacity to devote entire departments to the sustainablity issue. At the same time, as we first join the process, we need to feel that once we have joined the community, the community is there to support us, not to scorn us for being late comers to the process.

And once we have joined this community, there are ample opportunities to think about what it means to be 100% sustainable and to get a better handle on the larger implications. For example, I may be sustainable in my own part of the value chain, and in my businesses contribution to the world, but if I continue indefinitely to buy from suppliers who have no interest in becoming more sustainable, or if I’m not aware of their activities, I inadvertently contribute to an unsustainable situation. Similarly, if my rating only reflects my part of the value chain, my clients don’t really have the whole picture either.

Getting to the next grade means that we self impose a more rigorous rating approach. The approach needs to provide the tools to be able to examine our own suppliers, and our supplier’s suppliers, and be able to assess their impact on the world as well. And at the highest levels, our own rating need to reflect the ratings of all of our suppliers. Only this way will we be able to make informed decisions and know which of our suppliers are most in need of assistance.  As we are more able to find out how suppliers are doing, we are able to choose those with the best track record and we are also able to encourage and support suppliers who are not yet at the levels that we would want.

5. A view of 100% Sustainability as a step in the process

Achieving a net zero impact will be a challenging task for a world that has long been accustomed to exploiting the resources of the earth with little regard for the long term impact.  But we are changing and it is only through having a unified and clear vision of what a sustainable society looks like that we will ultimately achieve this goal. So the highest level of participation and the highest level of rating would be given to a company that adds its value with a net zero impact and which uses only suppliers who also have a net zero impact.  While this may seem like an impossible task, it is through 100% participation that we will begin to see the emergence of companies with this level of achievement.  We can envision that clusters of companies who depend upon each other will become the first to achieve this level.  Others will undoubtedly follow shortly.  As there is an expansion of the number of suppliers who are rated as 100% sustainable, it will become significantly easier to achieve this rating.  The challenge we face now is that what ever supplier we use, we ultimately depend upon organizations that have not achieved this rating.

A Graduated Solution

In devising a scheme to encourage participation in sustainability efforts, I was deeply aware of some of the current reporting and rating initiatives. Rather than introducing yet another rating scheme, it seemed prudent to share these ideas with other rating organizations who might choose to join together and adopt them.

Ultimately, if we can come up with one single connected rating approach for all companies, all nations, and all people, we will have achieved something truly significant. Recognizing that such an approach will require immense amounts of Data Storage, this endeavor requires the assistance of an organization with global reach and one which is already established and funded. While the underlying ratings will increase with the size and complexity of the organization, the approach for sharing this information need not be too complex.

My hope is that a few of the more well known organizations: the Global Reporting Initiative, the S-Bar sustinability rating organization, the World Business Council on Sustainable Development, CIES and others work together to implement a creative system such as the one proposed.

The system I suggested to S-Bar works on the following basis:

To attain level 1- supporter, you must simply sign-up and there may (optionally) be a small fee. For that fee, you get a web-site listing as a supporter. Perhaps your employees get a sustainability pin of a certain color (e.g. a black star with the main dimensions of sustainability as its points and no rating at first)

To attain level 2- sharing, you must document on the ratings web-site, all of your suppliers even if they are not participants. Second, you must share information about the program with them. You must also learn and understand the self-rating system and prepare for a self-assessment and self-rating. At this level, you must agree that your goal is to help supplier companies to participate and to improve. The associated star color might be brown.

To attain level 3 – committed, you must ensure that all of your suppliers are at very least at the 1 – supporting level. You must have completed the self assessment and given yourself a rating. The rating would have different levels for each component of sustainable behaviour. S-Bar already has a system under development for this purpose. The associated star color at this level would be yellow.

To attain level 4 – complying, you must ensure that all of your suppliers have reached the committed level and have self-rated themselves. Your proposed rating becomes a calculation based on the proportion of your revenue spent on each suppliers multiplied by their rating plus any rating that your own company has for itself. The concept of this rating is that you only rate that part of the value chain that you are directly responsible for. These two rating may appear separately at first. The color at this level would be orange.

To attain level 5 – reporting, you must report and begin setting goals for achieving a zero impact. At this level, you are also preparing for an audit by following specific rating guidlines and you must have a schedule in place for achieving sustianabilty goals. The reporting may be done according to the Global Reporting Initiative or other accepted standard. Specifics of the report method may vary by industry, however, the translation of ratings for the global ratings guideline would still need to hold. The color at this level would be red.

To attain 6 – audit level,  you must have an audit to confirm your assessment. All of your suppliers must be at least at the 4 – complying level. There is an encouragement at this level to either help your suppliers to become compliant or to seek other suppliers who are compliant. The star color at this level would be violet.

To attain 7 – optimized level, each of  your suppliers must have been audited and each must have a clear plan for reaching zero impact including changing suppliers, energy sources, and a plan for social contribution, etc. I would like to suggest here that we cannot allow the concept of social injustice to continue on, so at this level, there needs to be methods of bringing developing nations and people to the table and helping them to become participants. I haven’t worked this out exactly yet but there are others who would be able to contribute to this idea. The color for this is a blue. Your rating on each part of sustainability would be available on the ratings web-site.

To attain 8 – sustainable level, you and all of your suppliers must reach this together.  The color for this level is, you guessed it, green.

Summary

Although the details of any plan would need to be discussed with participating organizers, the underlying philosophy of contribution, consultation and connection would need to be up-held. After all, we are in this all together and if we take on the responsibility for our own part of the value chain and all encourage all of our suppliers to do their part, eventually, we all reach the goal of sustainability together. I’d love to hear your comments and would be happy to participate in any effort to implement such a plan. Also, if you like this idea, please share it with others.

All the best,

Garth Schmalenberg, B.Eng. CPCC

Corporate Leadership Services: http://HBI-Leadership.com
Sustainability Culture Blog: http://SustainabilityCulture.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gschmalenberg

44 Bambi Trail, Bolton, On, Canada L7E 2G3
Ph: 1-416-919-6598

The speakers before and after Susan told of their life stories, how they came upon some incredible personal hardships, how they overcame their hardships, what they learned, how they had subsequently built successful businesses and how they could help us in doing the same. They were terrific speakers and I truly enjoyed them.

But Susan took a very different approach. She started her presentation with just a sentence or two about her own background, quickly brushed past that part of the presentation, and went on to the story of her work as a PR specialist with her company Babble On Communications.

What struck me was that during her whole presentation, she directed her attention entirely to the causes she was working on and kept saying how fortunate she was to be able to work with these wonderful people. Her focus was entirely outwardly directed and she expressed her excitement and passion about the people or causes she was associated with, whether they were clients or not. Her stories were about their contribution to the world, not hers.

Her story stood out for me because it was so different from the other two talks. Since I hadn’t met a lot of PR specialists I thought perhaps that’s just the way they work. But after recalling the few PR specialists that I had met, her talk still seemed very unusual. Besides having incredibly compelling causes, she got my attention because something in the way she communicated the story told me that she was a much bigger part of the story than she was saying. And I got the very distinct impression from her knowledge of details and activities, that she took these causes very personally, not just professionally.

I was convinced there was more to the story and decided that she would be a good candidate to interview for my series on Business Executives who promote sustainability.

As much as I want to say more about Susan, and I will later in the article, I don’t think she would be very happy unless I first say a little about a few of the causes that she has dedicated her life and work to, and for which she shows so much passion. Besides which, they are stories that help to fill the picture of who Susan is and how she spends her time.

The James fund

The James fund was started by a six year old boy, James Birrell from Peterborough Ontario, who was suffering from Neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is a very rare and painful form of cancer which strikes primarily young children and which destroys their nerve endings. Children with Neuroblastoma, at least when the story began, rarely survived more than a few years and, due to the rare nature of the disease, at least the time James was diagnosed, research on Neuroblastoma was virtually non-existent. There were just too few cases to make research for a treatment commercially viable for drug companies. Susan noted that even the equipment for treating cancer is primarily designed for adults and often difficult to use with children. But little James Birrell, who was destined for a life of extreme suffering, didn’t let that slow him down. With assistance from his father Syd, he decided that he would start a fund to raise money for research. At the time James was diagnosed at the age of 4, Syd was also raising two other children and caring for his wife, Pam, who was herself was just recovering from breast cancer.

Susan described the cancer research situation and the challenges of the medical industry in a fair amount of detail and it seemed from the comments she made, that she had spent quite a lot of time directly involved with the project. I’m not sure about this so I’ll ask next time I speak with her. She told me that research done on adult cancers do not necessarily have a great bearing on treatments of childhood cancers whereas research on childhood cancers apparently has tremendous relevance to adult cancers, the difference apparently as a result of the rapid growth of cells in children. Susan commented on how funding for research is focused on the same corporate criteria of quarterly results that influence most business decisions and like so many decisions in corporate world are designed to win the tiny battles but tend to lose the war.

James was a very active child and his favorite saying was “Ya can’t let cancer ruin your day”, and so he decided to live his life that way. During the course of his fund raising efforts, he gained the attention of many celebrities including Mr. Dress-up and Fred Penner and astronaut Chris Hatfield. He also enlisted the help of an engineer, James Muit, who helped him build a soapbox car to race in soapbox derby. James took a serious spin in the final race but it was all good. You can see the clip of James’ race on W5. And James used to spend time with the cast and crew of the Kratt brothers’ program Zoboombafoo, a children’s program for which Susan is the PR agent.

James also managed to attract the attention of actor Tom Hanks, who later became a patron sponsor of the James fund. James wanted to talk to Tom Hanks because of his role in the movie Apollo 13, a movie which James loved because it was all about space and overcoming the odds, two of his favorite themes. James and his family spoke to and corresponded with Tom Hanks on many occasions and Tom Hanks sent the gift of a toy Astronaut to James.

Susan talked about the many selfless efforts of Tom Hanks in helping James to raise money and how he continues to contributes directly to the fund through dedicated acts of service. He wrote the forward to the book written by Syd Birrell, aptly named “Ya can’t let cancer ruin your day”, and dedicated his time to many events to help the fund raising effort. Among them, Hanks generously gives James Fund signed merchancise from many of his films to help in fundraising efforts, including the da Vinci movies and Cast Away, donating countless signed volleyballs for the cause. And Susan remarked that he did it always on the quiet, never in a very public way.

James died at home 7 years ago just after his 8th birthday. But he remarked prior to his passing that he would always be fighting cancer. No doubt that through the efforts of the many he inspired he always will. James left an enormous legacy of courage and contribution that few of us will match. And he still lives on in the memories of the people he touched and through the James fund which has now raised over 3 million dollars for Neuroblastoma research and through the lab at SickKids named in his memory.

His father’s book “Ya can’t let Cancer Ruin Your Day” is a collection of e-mails that were written during the course of James’ short but powerful life on this planet. The book is available nationwide in Chapters, and copies of the book were purchased by a number of philanthropists and donated to many paediatric oncology hospitals throughout North America including 17 here in Canada.

In addition to raising funds James’ case attracted the attention of leading researcher, Dr. Kaplan to work at sick kids. Dr. Kaplan’s approach was if you have a theory and some science to back you up, try it. Susan commented that Dr. Kaplan enjoyed working in the Canadian system because it fosters greater cooperation between doctors whereas the US system fosters competition.

In her own very humble style, Susan spoke very little about her own contribution, but it was clear that all of these activities were far more than just business for her. She was part of the story even though she never really said much about what she did.

The Kratt Brothers connection

Susan went on to tell of her admiration for the Kratt brothers (her clients), and the amazing work they were doing in the world. The Kratt brothers had pitched their ideas with a number of US television networks and weren’t getting very far. They were told that their program was too complex for kids. But they we persistent and not about to give up. They believed that kids had the capacity to learn more complex ideas about the world and nature than we generally acknowledged. The Kratt brothers hired Susan as their publicist and with her help they were soon spreading their message, educating kids about the environment and nature through their hit TV program Zoboombafoo. They went on to do a series on the National Geographic channel and another on PBS and they started the Kratt Brothers Creature Hero Society at the request of kids who were desperately looking for ways to help the animals they love. The first project under the KBCH Society banner was ”Grizzly Gulch”, a program to purchase a vital piece of land in Montana where the Grizzly mothers learn to take care of their young. They expect to have the necessary funds to complete the transaction by August.

I asked about the Kratt brothers and their connection to James Birrell. Susan said the Kratt brothers just wanted to connect with someone who needed them and helped out of the goodness of their heart.

And finally, a little more about Susan

Susan started out as an actor and was part of actor unions including Actra, UBCP and CAEA. She did on stage and on-screen work, but soon realized that she suffered from stage fright and it wasn’t what she wanted to do. Susan was under contract to Paragon, producers of Lamb Chop’s Play-Along. Paragon also owned HandMade, which is best known for some of its earlier works, including Time Bandits and Life of Ryan. As a reader for Paragon, she wrote the Reader’s Report for the Kratt brothers first show Kratt’s Creatures ultimately ended up as the Brand Manager for the Kratt Brothers at Paragon.  Babble On’s brand was developed while at Paragon, launching a more fully rounded roster when Paragon dissolved.

And here is where we get to the heart of Susan and why she’s so passionate about her work.

Susan made a conscious decision to work only on projects that she truly believes in. She says she’s a realist and knows that she has to pay the bills and workers, but she’s clearly not all about money and she generally finds more than enough work with companies that are serious about preserving the planet and bringing about social justice. She says she has much less interest or patience for companies that are simply trying to promote themselves as doing good without actually backing it up with action.

Susan works with her husband Mike Erskine-Kellie. Her husband Mike does creative work and Susan does the PR.

Babble On Communications has done work for SickKids, The Childhood Cancer Foundation, Make Poverty History, SoChange (a not for profit), TV Ontario and CBC. They’ve promoted documentaries and/or events with luminaries such as Stephen Lewis (about social Justice), David Suzuki and Ralph Nader.

She talked a little about “Vote out poverty”, an event which Stephen Lewis headlined, and when I asked about Stephen Lewis, she commented that “(for him) it’s not just about AIDS or any one disease, it’s about injustice. He gets the bigger picture”.

What is her biggest learning?

She said that it was all about trying to think about everything through the eyes of others, learning to look at the bigger picture, picking your battles and timing and keeping in mind how you think about the universe. She gave me the example of how she looks at others on the other side of the world and asked how can we allow people on the other side of the world to live in utmost poverty and yet not do anything about it? “What if the paradigm shifted and we were living in squalor? What would we want others to do for us?” If we know the answer to that, then we know what we should be doing to help them as well. When she talked about it, I sensed her frustration with the fact that others continue to suffer. But Susan’s a hopeful person and doesn’t dwell on the negatives.

How do we get others involved?

“Attraction, not preaching” It’s about getting others to want to do what’s right. ”If you say this is good for you and you should do it, you’ve lost the battle.” And while it’s about attraction, she also said it wasn’t about sugar coating either.

She talked about an example with the Kratt brothers. The network was telling them “You can’t use big words like predation” but the Kratt brothers insisted “kids are smarter than you think”. She recalled when one child came up at autograph session, and remarked that the brothers hadn’t been fair. They said what do mean? He said “I was having so much fun that I didn’t realize I was learning”. They try to get the right message out.

I asked how to get people to want to come to you. She said people connect to others through their own story. It comes back to thinking through the eyes of other (do they have good reasons for resisting what you’re saying)? Everyone has their own battles, paying the mortgage, food, raising their kids. You won’t know until you look at life through their eyes.

And she advised that we should get outside of our traditional comfort Zone. Spend some time twittering to the world and listening to what others are twittering about.”

Other observations about Susan

What I also noticed was the intensity of her passion for her work. And I realized at that moment that it was really all about capturing that. If you see someone with that kind of passion and love for the world, you automatically get a feeling that working towards the same thing is a source of joy and meaning and you automatically want that in your life too. You want to help out.

And it’s more than just passion. There are a lot of passionate people in the world. Some who are passionate yet self-interested and some who are passionate because their afraid of what’s going to happen if we don’t do something. Susan’s kind of passion is really contagious because she sees the positive in what others are trying, then she gets personally involved, contributing her own skills and then she tells everyone else. As she helps others to make a difference, you know that’s where she gains her own joy and contentment. She doesn’t have to tell you what it does for her, you just feel it.

Keeping out of the Muck

I asked Susan what she does to keep from getting mired in the muck and negativity of the world. She said that she keeps an open mind and recognizes that some companies and corporations throw around the right terms but don’t always show the right actions. When she sees this, she stays clear of it because she wants to make sure that she always learns something from her clients.

And she also acknowledged that once in a while she starts working with someone and gets caught finding out that their not really what they profess to be.

Philanthropy and Work

I asked her how much of her own work is philanthropic. It seemed a little hard to separate the two because it seems everything she does is for a good cause and one seemed to flow into the other. She said sometimes she gets paid for her work, sometimes not. And she said that sometimes even when she starts off doing something philanthropic, some foundation will see what she’s doing and they’ll invite her to do the same for them, and, of course, they’ll pay her for her work. But she’s realistic. She said in times like these, sometimes the money is there, other times not. “You can’t do much for the world if you’re bankrupt.”

She said she enjoys working with promising young people and that she loved to mentor them believing that they will remember her when they hit their stride. She gave an example of Brandon Schupp who was 13 and on Canada AM and in Globe and Mail from the top of the mountain that he had climbed. He was Readers Digest hero of the year. Susan remarked that she never saw someone with so much humility. And she felt so good about the fact that Brandon still comes by each year and takes her for lunch as a thank you for her help. She said that when Brandon applied for a camp counselor position, he gave her name as a reference. When the camp called her, she realized that Brandon had neglected to mention all his major accomplishments and interview with the media, focusing rather on other skills he had learned about counseling, typical of his humility.

She gave other examples of young people she worked with including Cancer survivors who went across Canada on a bike and one of whom had lost a leg to cancer and more recent work with Cloe Whittaker and Tyson Jerry of Driven to Sustain (http://driventosustain.ca) who are attempting to raise funds by setting a record for the longest journey in a vehicle driven 100% on waste vegetable oil.

She talked briefly about a Disney celebration where Disney had distributed 75 life size Mickey Mouse dolls to celebrities to dress up anyway they wanted. Tom Hanks decorated his in space uniform and held a fund raising event in honor of the James fund. She mentioned that she had gone there to support the initiative and it slipped out that she had travelled at her own expense. After telling me the story, she seemed a little embarrassed for even mentioning it and she said she didn’t like to toot her horn. That was already obvious, but I assured her it was OK for me to toot it for her.

She also said she loved to work with people who created a story out of their life and people who wouldn’t take no for an answer. And she was thankful that her organization was small enough to be able to choose who it works for.

Sustainability and Social Justice

I asked Susan about her view of Sustainability. She remarked that she’s been working in the area of sustainability for more than 12 years, long before the term became popular. Pretty much all of the causes taken on by Babble On Communications are about making a difference in the world. And Susan said she plans to continue on that way as long as she can afford to.

What’s Next for Susan?

She said the Kratt Brothers will be at Dollywood, she would be doing more fun work with sochange (www.sochange.ca) and helping the James’ fund go to an international level. Her Husband is writing a fun classic Arabian internet series to foster cultural understanding, she’s working on Spellz (PBS), and continues blogging on babbleoncom.com (they both have blogs, her husband’s is called “Sick days”), and her husband also has a web site about the character Avery Ant which is themed on Social Justice and has been selected for inclusion in Library of Congress. Avery the Ant runs for different positions including the Pope and Prime Minister of Canada. She mentioned that she had handled PR for a “quasi-spoof” site http://canadianalternative.com which was a web-site for Americans who wanted to leave US to move to Canada when President Bush got elected for the second term. She said that there were actually a lot of Americans who left the US during that period. “We forget that Canada is a country of immigrants.” She also continues to promote foundations such as the Good Neighbors Club.

At that point in the interview she was called away for a trip to New York and I still never got to learn about her direct involvement on many of these causes. What I do know for certain is that she’s incredibly well connected and she uses those connections to make a difference in the world.

I feel pretty certain I’ll be keeping in touch with Susan periodically and I’ll do an update next time I talk to her.

I thank Susan for her time, her passion and her dedication for promoting good and seeing the best in people. She’s an inspiring person.

Till next time,

Garth Schmalenberg

Web:http://www.hbi-leadership.com
Twitter: @gschmalenberg

Shai Agassi, CEO of Better place, rather than trying to convince us that it’s  the right thing to do from an environmental perspective, wants to convince us that it’s a much better thing to do from a commercial perspective.

Going to Electric cars and electric infrastructure, using his plan, will revolutionize the way we think about travel, cost of cars and the price we pay to get where we need to go. And at the same time, we will use clean sustainable energy, clean quite electric cars, and we don’t have to wait 20 years.

Aggasi has been invited by a number of Governments to start working on his infrastructure immediately.

Supporters of his approach include the Government of Israel, the Government of Australia and a number of other nations. In Canada, Premier Dalton McGuinty has also endorsed the BetterPlace approach for Ontario, which hopefully means that we will start to begin seeing electric Vehicles roaming our streets within the next few years.

Shai Agassi, has also gained agreement from major Automotive manufacturers to build electric vehicles, presumably with a common swappable battery pack that can be quickly swapped from the car. His claim is  that the swap can be done even more quickly than filling the car with Gas. While I’m not sure of his design proposal, it seems feasible if the car is built with that objective in mind. After all, just think how fast pit crews work on formula 1 cars. Presumably some type of battery hanger, a release clamp, slip one one, and slip a recharged pack right back in. Not sure how well self-serve would work.

Agassi claims that by 2020 we could have the price of energy down to 2 cents per km and immediately at about 6 cents per km. Not bad considering that even at hybrid rates 5L/100km which is about 20km/$.80, at current prices, we are still at about 4 cents per km. And this, as he points out, is during a serious economic downturn. When the economy starts revving again, you can bet our fuel prices will start skyrocketing.

And rather than paying for the expensive battery pack, we just pay for the car and the pack belongs to Better Place. That way we never have to worry about when the pack wears out. It’s built into the cost/km.

If we can get some innovative thinking around other types of fossil fuel consuming industries, we may be able to make even more significant gains.

Automobiles consume approximately 25% of the worlds fossil fuels and contribute accordingly to the CO2 levels and climate change.

Related Links

• Shai Agassi’s workable plan for electic cars now on TED.com

• Who killed the electric car series (part 1) on youtube.com (you can find all 10 parts)
  

Each locality in Canada has its’ own charms and characteristics along with its’ benefits and challenges. I am extremely fortunate to live in Caledon, Ontario, a town of relatively small population on a large north west corner of Toronto. Caledon is a beautiful area. As I look out my office window, I look upon a forested green belt between my home and the sub-division up the hill from me. The air in Caledon is as clean as one can expect for any location in North America close to a major city except perhaps in our very small downtown core along the main highway which suffers from some traffic congestion during rush hour. It’s also quiet in my office except for the odd passing transport truck, aircraft or train. And there are farms, horse ranches, rivers and parks nearby, all within a few miles from my home. Living near a forested area is something I’ve become accustom to, but I always try not to take it for granted.

In 2003 Caledon was awarded for being the “Greenest Town in Ontario“. 

Relatively early in the era of conservation and “Greening” of communities, Caledon took a number of positive steps towards become a greener place to live. It began by taking actions that would see our community progressively move toward sustainability such as banning the use of insecticides and herbicides for the treatment of lawns. The Town also worked cooperatively with the provincial government and concerned itself with plans to save our green belt and it instituted its’ own corporate recycling and energy reduction programs. Through our regional government (Peel), we have had composting and re-cycling for many years. And I’m happy to say that Caledon has moved forward ever since with a serious focus on sustainability. In 2004, the Town hired an Environmental Progress Officer. Her name is Sara Peckford.

I recently spoke with Sara to learn more about the town’s initiatives. When Sara came to the Town 4 years ago, she realized that her job would be challenging because progressive individuals in the town had already been working on picking the “low hanging” environmental fruit. But she’s an extremely active individual and hasn’t slowed down since coming on-board.

Since 2004, Caledon has taken many steps towards becoming more sustainable. Besides establishing the Office for Environmental Progress, they’ve developed an Environmental Progress Action Plan which contains recommendations for building on the Town’s environmental commitment while leveraging existing corporate and community  capacity to assist Caledon in a journey towards a more sustainable future.  The Plan contains 7 priority areas: 2 of which are related to increasing environmental awareness and promoting and supporting a green economy. Specifically, the Town has leased 2 Prius hybrids for the town fleet to reduce carbon emissions, they have moved to Green electrical power (micro-hydro, solar and wind power), for four Town facilities in the Caledon East civic campus (Town Hall, Caledon Community Complex and Arena, Fire Hall and OPP Station),  they have begun using bio-fuel for lawn care and other equipment, they’ve worked on a smog reduction plan, they’ve introduced a salt management plan and they provide assistance to builders through development charge discounts for developing environmentally friendly buildings through the Green Development Program.  In addition, they are actively participating in many studies with other organizations on subjects such as woodlands and wildlife stewardship, and providing environmental education for Town employees and the public. They continue to deliver the ever-popular tree seedling program which has resulted in the planting of 95,000 native tree and shrub seedlings and shrubs as well as exploring solar and other renewable energy initiatives for the Town’s own facilities and they actively work in collaboration with other Environmental groups to develop programs for awareness and action.

What’s missing?

As I was thinking about how we could make our Town truly 100% sustainable, I realized that there was a tremendous amount of work to be done with local businesses and citizens. I asked Sara about the plan to work with the business community to encourage sustainability and she informed me about the Green Development Program and indicated that she had done some work with the Town’s Chamber of Commerce and Husky Injection Molding regarding the Impact Award but that for the most part her mandate was confined to the Corporation of the Town of Caledon. In asking her about the culture of the Town employees, she indicated that she is seeing a shift in environmental behavior.  More and more, people are coming to her regularly with new ideas and initiatives which make it a challenge to keep up with new internal ideas and external opportunities from various levels of government.  It’s interesting how a cultural shift naturally follows awareness building and leadership action. 

Sara encouraged me to continue my efforts to connect with local businesses because she indicated that although there are many initiatives at various levels of government they tend to be somewhat disconnected, without a central point of information, and that our businesses might benefit from have an established center for seeking assistance. Although there are government initiatives to streamline the greening process, Sara agreed to share her notes in order to assist my efforts and, in turn, I look forward to providing assistance to the Town as well as other local businesses. Along with providing a central point of information, my hope is to share learning between businesses interested in creating a more sustainable culture. As an expert in developing leadership skills, I look forward to working with business and community leaders to create better businesses and while doing so create a better world.

Will the Town’s plan get us to 100% sustainability?

Having an environmentally friendly Town goes a long way to setting an example for the rest of the community and our Town has taken a big step in this regard. With cooperation from other businesses and the entire population of the community, we have an opportunity to set a very high standard for other communities to follow.

I asked Sara if Caledon was still Ontario’s greenest town. She told me that it is now much harder to tell because, as it should be, there are many townships and cities all working together, sharing their plans, their information, their programs to collectively make Ontario and Canada a greener place to live.  

For towns and organizations interested in reviewing Caledon’s sustainability plan and accomplishments to date, they can find it in the Town’s Environmental Action Report 2007 and its new 2009 Environmental Action Report which will be publicly available during Earth Week (April 20-24). Additional Detail is available through the Town’s Web-site and information on programs for Sustainable Building Development can be found at the Town’s Green Development Program site.

After speaking with Sara, I felt very positive that the Town of Caledon is moving in the right direction. Let’s hope that she continues to be supported and that many other municipalities learn from her work and the work of others at the Town.

Garth Schmalenberg

My goal is to use this blog (http://SustainabilityCulture.com) and my leadership development practice to share information with business, organizational and municipal leaders who are concerned with the creating a more sustainable world and more sustainable organizations but who don’t know how to start, or those who are already walking the path but need some guidance and encouragment, (i.e. someone to ”walk with them”) as they begin to make changes and apply innovative new ideas.

Sustainability is about more than just being friendly to our planet. We can be more friendly to our environment just by not driving our cars but we cannot keep our stomachs full and our economy rolling by not driving cars. Sustainability is about taking a pragmatic approach to creating a world that is productive and ever-advancing. In involves creating a world which provides for the needs of all earthly inhabitants now while ensuring that the future is also secure.

My hope is to attract business leaders who are looking for better ways to work which will lead to greater stability and better use of human and material resources while improving their ROI. By working together and sharing ideas, we can improve our businesses, improve our leadership practices, think more creatively about solving challenges, and create progressive business environments which effectively utilize and respect the world’s people and resources.

As I conduct the the interviews with leaders who have developed sustainability strategies my goal is to share both their challenges and successes. After interviews are completed, I will write articles to share this learning and experience with readers and I will invite positive feedback and helpful comments and suggestions.

If you are an Executives, business owner or municipal leader who has taken noteworthy initiatives or if you know someone who has taken actions to benefit the community or the world, please contact us. I hope to speak with as many of you as possible.

For more information on this initiative, please contact me (Garth Schmalenberg) at 416-919-6598.