Carrots, sticks and capes: inspiring employees to step up on sustainability
Carrots, sticks and capes: inspiring employees to step up on sustainability
This is a transcript of a speech Will made at the Edie Sustainable Leaders Forum 2019.
Isn’t it inspiring when people step up, radiate energy and ‘can do’ spirit, and make things happen?
I was working with Barry Callebaut recently, the world’s biggest B2B chocolate company. They had a global employee engagement programme called Water For Life. The level of Water for Life activity in the Zurich Office was huge. Much of it came down to the efforts of a fully-caped superhero called Adrienn, who went to extraordinary lengths to inspire and mobilise Zurich-based employees.
In a world where a lot of people are passive, what triggers people – at work - to be active? Amongst lots of bystanders, what triggers people - at work - to be upstanders? Given the fierce urgency of our sustainability challenges, we need more upstanders... as Jonathan Porritt was saying earlier, people who will push beyond the 'envelope'.
When I was running Collectively, we partnered with more than thirty extraordinary multinational companies. We found again and again that (1) there is huge untapped potential in the workplace. Most people WANT to do good things: they are ready and primed to help their organization do good in the world. But they don’t necessarily do it. (2) Stories of individual employees who do great things are an incredibly powerful motivator to others. They inspire and they give permission.
So here’s the question:
Let’s start with what we know.
Firstly, 85% of global workers are disengaged at work and not fulfilling their potential, according to Gallup. And here’s the challenge: so often in HQs of big businesses the employee brief is for a ‘rollout’ or a ‘cascade’. I’ve done a few rollouts in my time, and as a consultant I’ve been briefed to support rollouts too. We always hit two big barriers: it’s not in my core work goals! there’s no time for this!
Let’s explore this a bit further. What drives individuals to change… to take on something new?
Paul Strebel, a management guru, describes how we all have a PERSONAL COMPACT with our employer. Basically it’s the invisible and visible context for our every day work. If we were fish in a fish tank, it’s the water. Strebel talks about the formal stuff (job description, employment contract, etc). Then there’s the psychological stuff between myself and my boss: how committed I will be and the degree to which I’ll be rewarded and recognized for my effort. Lastly there’s what I observe of the business I’m in. what’s prioritized, what’s valued, what works
Much of this is extrinsic: the organizational carrots and sticks which (especially in big businesses) are built up in layers over time, in an attempt to maximise the productivity of employees. They’re really important – in fact Strebel would say you won’t create change in a business unless you change the personal compact. However, behavioural science suggests that companies should also be focusing on intrinsic motivators.
This is all about the motivation that comes from within. It relates to personal satisfaction & accomplishment. Much has been written: Herzberg (1960s), Deci & Ryan (1970s), lately Daniel Pink and his popular book ‘Drive’. They don’t use 100% the same language, but the overall themes are clear. At work, people are intrinsically driven by:
Purpose: my work has meaning. The outcome fits with my values.
Autonomy & Agency: I can be self-directed. My opinion counts, I can use my creativity.
Play & Learning: this work gives me a sense of flow. I love learning how to do this.
Belonging: this work helps me build relationships with others, gives me a sense of team identity
So… of course it’s critical to shift the 'personal compact'. But HR/People functions around the world are catching on to the need to better tap into the intrinsic motivators of employees: unlocking this internal fire that burns in each of us. I want to bring to life for you some examples of how companies are driving their sustainability agenda by tapping into their employees’ intrinsic motivators.
PURPOSE
First, let’s look at PURPOSE. How can we help people feel they are contributing to something bigger?
When accountancy firm KPMG launched their Purpose, they focused on the role and purpose of each employee. They kicked off with a video asking employees to share how their work makes a difference and frame it on a poster. Employees used an online tool to design their (templated) poster and submit it to the gallery. They were also printed off and featured around their offices. >40,000 employees submitted their stories; there were huge increases in employee engagement as a result of their Purpose campaign.
There’s something important about people identifying their own Purpose and being given the chance to work on it. About 14,000 people in Unilever have now spent a day on leadership training, finding their own Purpose. This is particularly important for people working on brands with a social mission: they must have a deep passion for the issue their brand stands up for. It’s been 15 years since The Dove brand launched its Campaign for Real Beauty in 2004. During that time, there have been just TWO Global Brand Leaders on the Dove brand, Silvia Lagnado and Steve Miles. Both have been 100% passionate about the Dove brand social mission to help women and girls build their self esteem.
AUTONOMY AND AGENCY
We all want our ideas to be heard; we want our views to be listened to. The biggest barriers here is that people in a company (1) often don’t know how to register their view; (2) fear that nothing will happen if they speak up.
Innocent Drinks has a 'Sustainability Ideas Council”. Ideas from all staff are submitted to the council, reviewed and prioritized. Successes include the idea of replacing polystyrene packaging with sheep’s wool when sending parcels. In 2018, Unilever did a huge consultation amongst all its employees, to shape the next phase of their Sustainable Living Plan. It was called ‘Have your Say’ and more than 40,000 employees took part.
For Warby Parker, the Purpose-driven American eyewear company, the challenge was how to really tickle the intrinsic motivation of their digital engineers. They invented a programme called Warbles. How does it work?
Employees suggest/nominate projects they think should be worked on.
A wide selection of Managers, including the CEO, award points to the projects – representing a bigger view of what will drive the company forward.
Engineers then bid to work on the projects they feel attracted to – because they’re excited about them, they fit their skills, and they have lots of points.
Teams of engineers compete to accumulate the most points. Every quarter, there’s a prize ceremony.
In this case, the Warbles participants weren’t just focused on sustainability. But for sure, there’s a lot that we can learn from it in terms of giving employees more freedom to get creative and express themselves.
PLAY & LEARNING
The team at Innocent Drinks know that their employees have different strengths; different roles that they naturally like to play. So to help every employee play a role in their sustainability plan, they invited them to select one of four roles.
PROTECTOR – guarding a sustainability commitment, holding the company accountable
AMBASSADOR – sharing their strategy and ambition with others
ACTIVATOR – delivering an element of the strategy
AGITATOR – on the lookout for how to do things better.
So the question for you is – are you treating your employees like they’re all the same? Or are you giving them the chance to play to their strengths, in the way they engage with your sustainability agenda?
BELONGING
As I mentioned, I’ve been working with chocolate company Barry Callebaut and the fabulous creative team at Nice and Serious. With lots of great input from people around the company, we’ve designed an employee participation campaign called Seeds for Change. The aim is to fund the planting of trees in cocoa countries, in line with agroforestry principles. Barry Callebaut has 11,000 employees around the world, and different sites have a scoreboard to count up Pod Points. By participating in a local Seeds for Change activity, an employee earns a Pod Point for their team. You can imagine the strong competitive instinct and ‘feeling of team’ this will generate.
A lot of companies appoint sustainability champions, or ambassadors. But often these roles have about as much kudos and status as the department health & safety rep. How do we spark people to WANT to join an employee sustainability team? Well – in Danone UK the big trigger has been their bold move to go for certification as a B Corporation. Last week I became a B Leader, and I was at the B Lab social evening hosted by Danone UK. They said that HALF of all UK based employees applied to be in the team of B-Corp champions - wow. What a great way to galvanise action!
So – to summarise.
When you next have a brief or challenge to engage colleagues in sustainability… remember that you’re serving them as much as you are the ‘rollout’ agenda of senior leaders in the business. Think 'MoJo' – what’s employees’ Motivation to Join In? Think through how to unlock the creativity and potential of your colleagues – through Purpose, Play, Autonomy, and Belonging.
If you can do that, you’ll see a lot more colleagues stepping up and doing things that are truly great…and if you then tell THEIR stories, the flywheel will really start spinning.