Chapter ten

Involvement

The Competence (Figure 10.1):

A sustainably competent professional has a personal involvement in sustainable development.

Figure 10.1 Competence I: personal Involvement

Attitude = who you are, I wrote in the last chapter. Then, who are you as a person? At the beginning of the book, I told you that most people fulfill three roles during their lifetime. Together these roles form a kind of triangle: the citizen, the consumer, and the professional. This book is primarily about the third role, the sustainably competent professional. But are you that professional, or do you just play that role? That is the topic of this chapter.

People who, as professionals, have a strong influence on sustainability share a number of characteristics. This is true for all the “heroes” who tell their stories in this book. They have a passion for what they do, and they pursue it wholeheartedly. They don’t just act sustainably. They live and breathe it. It’s what they identify with and what they exist for. As their three roles as citizen, consumer, and professional merge, they coalesce into “real” and “whole” individuals who intensely experience sustainability or selected aspects of it. For these people, their profession is also their hobby and their passion. When I meet people like that, it’s always wonderful to see them. Do you know such individuals? Maybe you are one of them. Maybe you are on your way to becoming a person like that.

In this chapter, I will focus on three achievements delivered by such people:

• Consistently involve sustainable development in his or her own work as a professional (sustainable attitude)
• Passionately work toward dreams and ideals
• Employ his or her conscience as the ultimate yardstick

10.1 Sustainable attitude

For John Jordan, a young social entrepreneur from Maryland, sustainability is more than an idea: “It’s a lifestyle,” he is convinced. A graduate of Morehouse College, where he studied finance, leadership, and economics, John first became involved in social entrepreneurship when he built a student character development curriculum. “That’s when I discovered that people have the ability to change the institutions that they are part of,” he says. An activist was born!

“When I was in seventh grade, my dad lost his third-generation roofing company due to his poor health.” John remembers. “He had high blood pressure and diabetes and suffered two strokes as a result of poor eating habits. Inside of this loss is where we really built our bond. In America, you go to college to gain a skill and a way of thinking, but I also always knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur like my dad because it would give me the freedom that my mom, who worked in Corporate America, never had.”

While John was still in college, a unique opportunity emerged. “I won an Oprah Winfrey South African Fellowship, which led me to understand how the same sustainability issues that existed in black communities in the US were present in communities around historically black universities in South Africa.” Now John applies the lessons he learned about global sustainable development in his work for a non-governmental organization called Fight for Light. “We collaborate with anchor institutions, local organizations, and community members across the US to transform and develop sustainable communities.”

John’s sustainable attitude is tangible. Phrases like “collaborative innovation,” “collective thinking,” and “collective imagination” just roll off his tongue.

“Basically, we bring existing organization together and connect them with other local citizens who care about the same issues such as social justice and environmental protection – breaking down silos or false borders. For example, at the University of Colorado Boulder, you have the sustainability group at the Environmental Center and the Student Outreach and Retention Center for Equity (SORCE). The Environmental Center group never talks to the students of color, and the folks from SORCE don’t engage with sustainability initiatives. So Fight for Light facilitates an engagement between the two and sort of ‘translates’ for them, using a sustainability framework that works for both parties,” explains John.

“When you’re looking at community development,” he adds, “the number one reason communities are often unsustainable is because the ideas and development plans did not originate from the actual people who live in that place and know that place. Developers, for example, lured by special tax credits and incentives, come to these neighborhoods and build developments, products, and services that aren’t needed. The community does not own the economic value that gets created. In Martin Luther King’s old neighborhood, the Old Fourth Ward, a historic neighborhood in Atlanta, for instance, a high percentage of residents had to move out of the city as a result of development. They simply could not afford to live there anymore. Most of the developers who made money were external or from Buckhead, a predominately white district of Atlanta.”

In order to solve this kind of problem, John and his teammates facilitate collaborative innovation workshops that bring together the ideas of sustainability and social equity to create new social innovations. Their training empowers students and participants with knowledge and skills to advance sustainability and social justice efforts.

“To improve these causes of unsustainability,” John goes on to explain, “I help leverage existing capital and infrastructure of anchor institutions – colleges and universities, hospitals, schools, and churches connected to that place – to realize the collective imagination that Fight for Light inspires and orchestrates. We connect the resources of a university, for instance, with local organizations and corporations that work on sustainability issues such as energy conservation, healthcare, education, and transportation. In Colorado, we worked with the director of the Environmental Center at CU Boulder and their student government association’s budget to pay for the Eco-Social Justice Leadership program that SORCE and the Environmental Center students collectively imagined in their innovation workshop. This funding also covers annual community convening and student trainings across Boulder, Longmont, Lafayette, and the Denver metro area to build alliances, fund environmental justice related research and to underwrite new programming. This conference is the center point for collaboration across the area that would never have existed without this eco-social justice lens!”

According to John, the key is “to really match the local need with the local resource. That resource often comes from reimagining or retooling that which already exists. When I meet with stakeholders, I emphasize the possibilities of an interactive experience, and I communicate the successes of these sustainable social innovation projects. I use stories that resonate with people and that help them envision new possibilities.” We need more storytellers like John.

The achievement

You involve sustainable development consistently in your work as a professional. You have a sustainable attitude.

This means:

• You know what sustainable development is, and you explain the concept to others.
• In practical situations, you name causes of unsustainability in and around your work.
• You design methods to improve these causes of unsustainability, and you introduce them in a constructive way to your colleagues, executives, and/or employees.
• For you this is obviously “second nature,” and you do it consistently.

10.2 Passions, dreams, and ideals

Every now and then, I get an email or a phone call from Speakers Academy inquiring whether I would be available to give a presentation somewhere. This happened again a few months ago and involved a request by three students who were organizing a symposium for their university. The symposium was called “Sustism,” an abbreviation of “Sustainable Tourism.” “Unfortunately,” Speakers Academy informed me, “they don’t have a budget. Nevertheless, if you are interested in speaking there, feel free to contact them.”

I have a soft spot for students: not much money, lots of idealism, ambition, and potential for growth. So, I decided to do the presentation. I hope you don’t mind if I borrow one of the stories in this book from my own work.

On the day of the “Sustism” symposium, I had 45 minutes for my presentation. About 200 students filed into the auditorium. A bit giggly and noisy, they found their seats, and the host who was about to introduce me had some trouble getting them to settle down. Not a big surprise, as the audience had already sat through three 45-minute lectures – without a break: a beginner’s mistake of the organizers perhaps?

I started with some jokes and BIG WORDS: “Look how magnificent it is,” I exclaimed, drawing large gestures with my arms to underscore the indeed marvelous photograph of our planet Earth as captured by NASA. “I am so proud to be living here! Yes, you are too. I know!” This drew their attention. A bit later, I showed them a picture taken on the island of Java and invited the listeners to tell me what they saw. The answers came from all corners of the lecture hall: “A garbage dump!” “A slum!”

Yes, both answers were correct since the photo depicted a huge collection of slum dwellings built on stakes above a garbage dump. “And the water?” I asked. The audience came to the conclusion that the river on the photograph was at once an open sewer for a city upstream and the bathing, cooking, and drinking water of the slum dwellers. “Imagine,” I said. “This is the place where these people live their lives, where their children are born, and where those same kids, a couple of years later, play with the filth they find in the garbage.” It was absolutely quiet in the lecture hall now, and I continued almost whispering (with a microphone, all right): “These people don’t belong anywhere. They have been cast out from society; nobody wants them.”

I outlined some additional sustainability problems, ranging from climate change to violations of human rights, which are embedded as “weaving faults” in the systems humans build. Then I arranged them in a scheme that showed how all these problems were interconnected. “You simply cannot take these weaving faults one by one and solve them separately,” I explained. “You have to address them together, however complicated it may be.”

On the screen, the following message appeared:

• Complex problems
• demand
• complex solutions.
• Therefore, we need
• massive numbers of people
• who contribute.

I described how people, taken as a group and as individuals, are essentially sources of vigor that can help us eradicate weaving faults. As I described in Chapter 6, other sources of vigor are, for example, inspiring ideas and texts, science and technology, and nature. Yet others include governments, businesses, NGOs, and schools. “In order to tackle the weaving faults, we just need every professional,” I told the audience, “especially those with a proper education, like you.” Then I added, with extra emphasis: “You are essential!” It seemed to take a while before the audience started breathing again.

Every single time, I am thrilled about reaching an audience on an emotional level. Twenty years ago I used my presentations primarily to transmit information. My slide shows contained a lot of text back then. Nowadays, I still convey information, of course, but my focus is on the experience, and this works fabulously.

In my presentation at this particular university, I introduced sustainable development as a sort of competition between the sources of vigor and the weaving faults. “Sources of vigor against weaving faults; if it were a soccer match, what would be the score: 1–0 perhaps, or 0–1? Well, the facts compel me to admit that presently we, the sources of vigor, are behind. The combined global ecological footprint is about 1.4 times higher than the carrying capacity (the biocapacity) of the Earth, which is simply not acceptable. Luckily, it does not have to stay that way! If everyone contributes, we can bend the score in our favor. In that case, we not only make the world a lot more sustainable, but we also create a far more beautiful version of it.” Then I added: “It’s simply a matter of wanting it.”

Dear reader, I have a request. Do you have any ideals? For a better world, a better life, your own personal developments, whatever? Hold on to them; don’t relinquish them. If you are concerned about making those ideals come true, you will, of course, have to be ready to compromise. Not every ideal can be fully realized since you cannot completely manipulate reality according to your wishes. So, adjust your goals, or else you will probably achieve next to nothing. However, don’t give up on your actual ideals. Preserve them and cherish them. They belong to the most precious things you possess.

The achievement

You passionately work toward your dreams and ideals.

This means:

• You describe the wishes, dreams, and ideals you cherish regarding the work that you do and the results and effects of it.
• You openly express these dreams and ideals within your direct working environment.
• You state your professional dreams and ideals in your expressed goals and in the implementation of your work.
• Thus you inspire others in your working environment: colleagues, superiors, and/or employees.
• Your dreams and ideas lead to original, innovative ideas and projects related to your professional activities, work environment, discipline, or line of business.

10.3 Conscience

“I drove to the office, handed in my car keys, the keys to the stores, my cell phone, and then I quit.” That is what Jenny Parren wrote to me, and in her lines you can still sense the tension the incident caused.

Jenny was employed in a well-known clothing chain. She had risen from salesclerk to store manager to regional manager. She did very well until the board appointed a new director as a supervisor to the regional managers. “Let me call her Josie,” Jenny writes.

Soon the atmosphere in the company started changing. Josie appeared to be a tough businesswoman, and she dragged the board into her new way of doing things as well. The enterprise became more business-like, increasingly aiming at short-term financial gains. Jenny had to work very hard, up to 60 hours a week, but was paid only for 40 hours. Even worse, Jenny was forced to demand the same from the store employees. On most days, they had to continue working for at least an hour after the stores closed, without being paid overtime.

Jenny tried to improve the situation, but a meeting with the board, comprised of the owners of the company, led to nothing. It appeared as though the board members trusted Josie completely, and that was that.

Shortly before Christmas, the situation escalated. “One of my salesgirls was sick while working in the store,” Parren writes. “She suffered from a bad flu, so I sent her home on Monday as she was seriously ill. When Josie heard this, she demanded the girl be fired when she returned. The girl had been scheduled to get a full-time position right after Christmas, but according to Josie, someone who became ill just before Christmas could not be trusted and wasn’t worth being offered a permanent position.”

For Jenny, this was unacceptable. “It put me in conflict with my own norms and values. If I let her go, I would never be able to look at myself in the mirror.” She refused to fire her staff member. As a reaction, Josie waited until Jenny had a day off and fired the staff member herself.

This was too much for Jenny. She immediately handed in her resignation. Josie attempted to respect her term of notice, but Jenny gave her no real choice: her resignation was to be accepted immediately, or else she would call in sick due to overstrain. Josie made the best of it and accepted Jenny’s immediate resignation.

Two days later, Jenny had a new job. Later, she decided to continue her academic education in cultural and social coaching, which she had given up to work in the clothing business. Jenny graduated and now coaches 17–23 year-olds who want to contribute to the livability of their local communities.

The achievement

You employ your own conscience as the ultimate yardstick.

This means:

• You investigate the goals, methods, tasks, and assignments of your professional activities based on your own values and ethical standards. You define the results of this investigation for yourself.
• You either do not accept or perform goals, assignments, or activities conflicting with your values, or you modify them until they agree with your conscience.
• You remain firm in your decisions, and you formulate them in an assertive yet courteous manner. Although you are open to reasonable arguments of others, you are not susceptible to their pressure.
• In your work, you exhibit exemplary behavior and leadership thanks to your openly conscientious approach.

“If it really matters, conscience comes before the law.” That’s what I said a couple of years ago to someone I was talking to. In my view, this was self-evident, but to my surprise, the woman I spoke with reacted by asking:

This was the start of a fascinating discussion. She asserted:

I don’t think she was convinced, but I was. How about you? In my opinion, your own conscience should be the ultimate yardstick for what is right – not the laws, the regulations at your work, or the orders or desires of your managers or clients. Different people will apply different norms and ethical rules, of course. That’s how it should be. In our society, in which personal freedom is considered highly important, this will only work if it is complemented by personal responsibility of citizens, consumers, and professionals. Hence, my proposition: a sustainably competent professional employs his or her own conscience as the ultimate yardstick.